Man dies after a domestic violence incident lead to a shooting in Caldwell

by CBS2 news Sat, March 15th 2025 at 2:16 PM

Caldwell, ID (CBS2) — Caldwell Police are investigating a domestic violence incident that lead to a shooting on Thursday night.

On March 13, just after 10 p.m., Caldwell Police officers responded to a report of shots fired at an address on Parkmont Way. Responding officers determined that the ex-husband of the victim had shot at her following an argument.

Officers found the suspect, identified as 48-year-old Jeramie Kuhlman, lying near a tree with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Witnesses reported that after Kuhlman shot at the victim, and then he turned the gun on himself.

Canyon County medics transported Kuhlman to a hospital in Boise, where he later died. A preliminary investigation revealed that Kuhlman was on parole for rape at the time of the incident.

Caldwell Police Chief Rex Ingram commented on the situation, saying, "Domestic violence has no place in our society, and we must continue bringing awareness to this epidemic. My heart is heavy for the victims and the children associated with this cowardly man. With the grace of God, no one else was injured and we will never tolerate blatant acts of violence in our community."

https://idahonews.com/news/local/man-dies-after-a-domestic-violence-incident-lead-to-a-shooting-in-caldwell

Jack Chick’s Anti-catholic Alberto Comic Book Is Exposed as a Fraud

Gary Metz

Christianity Today

March 13, 1981 issue

A comic book produced by a fundamentalist publisher named Jack Chick is causing an uproar among Roman Catholics. It purports to be the true story of a Jesuit priest named Alberto Rivera, who was raised and trained in a Spanish Jesuit seminary, and whose job was to infiltrate and destroy Protestant churches. The comic book, titled Alberto, says the reason Protestant churches don’t speak out against Catholism the way they should is that they are infiltrated by Jesuits.

The comic book has been so popular that Chick has published a sequel, Double Cross, which claims to be the true story of how the priest rescued his sister from a convent in England, where she was a nun, and where she was bleeding to death from flagellation and other mistreatment. The sequel also alleges that Kathryn Kuhlman was a secret agent of Rome and claims that Jim Jones, the leader of the Jonestown cult, was secretly a Jesuit.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/1981/03/jack-chicks-anti-catholic-alberto-comic-book-is-exposed-as/

CHAPTER THE NINEEENTH. MYSTIC CHRISTIAN FIGURES AND TALISMANS.

OUR engraving borrows from the West Front of Laon Cathedral, France, a Catherine-Wheel (or “Rose”) Window. The twelve pillars, or radii, are the signs of the Zodiac, and are issuant out of the glorified centre, or opening “rose,”—the sun or “beginning of all things.” “King Arthur’s Round Table” displays the “crucified” Rose in its centre. In the “tables,”* alternating with tying-knots, of the Order of the Garter,—which “Most Noble Order” was originally dedicated, be it remembered, to the Blessed Lady, or to the Virgin Mary,—the microcosmical, miniture “King Arthur’s Round Table” becomes the individual female discus, or organ, waxing and waning, negative or in flower, positive or natural, alternately red and white, as in the Rose of the World: Rosamond, Rosa mundi. And where we will adduce, as our justification for this new reading of the origin of the Order of the Garter, the very motto of the princely order itself:

“Honi soit qui mal y pense!”

or,

“ ‘YONI’ soit qui mal y pense!”

* Tablier, Fr. = Apron. o Fig. 34.

What this “Yoni” is, and the changes meant and apotheosised through it, the discreet reader will see on a little reflection. All the world knows the chivalric origin of this Most Noble Order of the Garter.* It arose in a princely act,— rightly considered princely, when the real, delicate, inexpressibly high-bred motive and its circumstances are understood, which motive is systematically and properly concealed. Our great King Edward the Third picked-up, with the famous words of the motto of the Order of the Garter, the “garter”—or, as we interpret it, by adding a new construction with hidden meanings, the “Garder” (or special cestus, shall we call it?)—of the beautiful and celebrated Countess of Salisbury, with whom, it is supposed, King Edward was in love.

The following is from Elias Ashmole: “The Order of the Garter by its motto seems to challenge inquiry and defy reproach. Everybody must know the story that refers the origin of the name to a piece of gallantry: either the Queen or the Countess of Salisbury having been supposed to have dropped one of those very useful pieces of female attire at a dance; upon which old Camden says, with a great deal of propriety, and a most just compliment to the ladies, ‘Hæc vulgus perhibit, nec vilis sane hæc videatur origo, cum NOBILITAS sub AMORE jacet.’ The ensign of the order, in jewelry or enamel, was worn originally on the left arm. Being in the form of a bracelet to the arm, it might possibly divert the attention of the men from the reputed original; it might be dropped and resumed without confusion; and the only objection I can see to the use of such an ornament is the hazard of mistake from the double meaning of the term periscelis, cells, which signifies not only a garter, but breeches, which our English ladies never wear: ‘Quæ Graeci periscelÁ vocant, nostri Braccas’ (braces or breeches) ‘dicunt,’ says an ancient Father of the Church.” The Garter, to judge thus from Camden, was not a garter at all for the leg, but an occasional very important item of feminine under-attire; and King Edward’s knightly feeling, and the religious devo-tion of the object, will be perceived upon close and delicately respectful consideration.

There is great obscurity as to the character of Abraxas, the divinity of the Gnostics. The Eons, or Degrees of Advance in the Zodiacal Circle, are thirty in number to each of the Twelve Signs, and consequently there are 360 to the entire Astronomical Circle, or 365, counting for each day of the solar year. The inscription upon the Gnostic gems, CEOU, is probably intended for QEOU; “for the Arabs yet substitute the s for the th in their pronunciation” (Gnostics, p. 233; Matter, Histoire Critique du Gnostidsme). In this “s” and the “th” standing for it, lie all the mysteries of Masonry.

+, Christos, was designed for the guide of all that proceeds from God. Sophia-Achamoth is the guide, according to the Gnostics, for all proceeding out of “matter.” St. Irenseus, whose period is the end of the second century, draws all these startling inferences from the Book of Enoch, and names “Sophia” as signifying the Divine Wisdom. The Ophite scheme seems evidently the Bhuddistic Bythos, answering to the first Buddha. Sige, Sophia, Christos, Achamoth, Ildabaoth, answer to the successive five others (Gnostics, p. 27; Bellermann’s Drei Programmer über die Abraxas-gemmen, Berlin, 1820; Basilides; Tertullian, De Prescript.: “Serpentem magnificant in tantum, ut ilium etiam Christo præferant.” See Tertullian, Epiphanius, and Theodoret: St. John iii. 14, also). We now refer the reader to some significant figures towards the end of our volume, which will be found according to their numbers.

Figure 289 : The Abraxas-god, invested with all the attributes of Phoebus. Green jasper ; a unique type. The Egyptians call the moon the mother of the world, and say it is of both sexes (Plutarch; Spartian, Life of Caracalla). The moon, in a mystic sense, is called by the Egyptians male and female. The above is a gem in the Bosanquet Collection. In the exerque is the address, CABAW—“Glory unto Thee!” On the reverse, in a cartouche formed by a coiled asp,—precisely as the Hindoos write the ineffable name “Aum,”—are the titles IAW, ABRACAX (The Gnostics, p. 86).

The Rosicrucians Their Rites and Mysteries

by Hargrave Jennings

https://dn790005.ca.archive.org/0/items/rosicruciansthei00jenn/rosicruciansthei00jenn.pdf

Katherine Kiernan Maria Mulgrew (born April 29, 1955)[1] is an American actress and author. She is best known for her roles as Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager and Red in Orange Is the New Black. She first came to attention in the role of Mary Ryan in the daytime soap opera Ryan's Hope.

Mulgrew is the recipient of a Critics' Choice Award, a Saturn Award, and an Obie Award, and has also received Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award nominations. She is a member of the Alzheimer's Association National Advisory Council and the voice of Cleveland's MetroHealth System. Beginning in 2021, Mulgrew reprised her role as Janeway in the animated series Star Trek: Prodigy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Mulgrew

The President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site is located in HOPE, Arkansas.[2] Built in 1917 by Dr. H. S. Garrett, in this house the 42nd president of the United States, Bill Clinton, spent the first four years of his life, having been born on August 19, 1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in HOPE, Arkansas.[3][4] The house was owned by Clinton's maternal grandparents, Edith Grisham and James Eldridge Cassidy, and they cared for him when his mother, Virginia, was away working as an anesthetist in New Orleans.[5]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_William_Jefferson_Clinton_Birthplace_Home_National_Historic_Site

Tragedy and HOPE: A History of the World in Our Time is a work of history written by former Georgetown University professor and historian Carroll Quigley. The book covers the period of roughly 1880 to 1963 and is multidisciplinary in nature though perhaps focusing on the economic problems brought about by the First World War and the impact these had on subsequent events. While global in scope, the book focuses on Western civilization."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_and_Hope

In his first year (1965) in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, Bill Clinton took Quigley's course, receiving a 'B' as his final grade in both semesters (an excellent grade in a course where nearly half the students received D or lower).[1]: 94, 96 In 1991, Clinton named Quigley as an important influence on his aspirations and political philosophy, when Clinton launched his presidential campaign in a speech at Georgetown.[1]: 96 He said he learned from Quigley that “The future can be better than the past, and that each of us has a personal, moral responsibility to make it so.” Bill Clinton told his audiences, “that is what the new choice is all about....We are not here to save the Democratic party. We are here to save the United States of America.” It was Clinton's most effective speech, and he repeated variations time and time again as the blueprint for his campaign message in winning the Democratic nomination and the general election for President of the United States in 1992.[21][22]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Quigley

Theorists also cite the inclusion of Bill Clinton at the meetings in 1991 before he was president and Tony Blair’s presence in 1993 before he became the British prime minister as examples of the group’s power. Past attendees have included former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (who will also be attending this year), former Chase Manhattan chief executive David Rockefeller, and British Prime Minister David Cameron."

Bilderberg Group: What To Know About the Secretive Meetings

https://time.com/4362872/bilderberg-group-meetings-2016-conspiracy-theories/

Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner October 20, 2016 Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Henry Kissinger Gayle King Cardinal Dolan Katie Couric Chuck Schumer Mayor Bill de Blasio

https://www.facebook.com/MariaBartiromo/posts/alfred-e-smith-memorial-foundation-dinner-october-20-2016-donald-trump-hillary-c/1353937201283479/

HOPE: all hope is to be placed in God, and with what degree of perfection [67]; eternal life alone is to be hoped for as a reward [82]; the extent to which this hope should be of assistance [288]; how hope should be shown by the dying | 595]; hope in the preservation and growth of the Society [812]. See also Faithfulness"

The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms pg. 464

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Kate Winslet and Kate Middleton's ancestries revealed in online 1911 census

The complete population census of 1911 has been posted online, disclosing that Kate Winslet's ancestors were publicans and Kate Middleton's were members of the Abermarle Club where Oscar Wilde was accused of being a homosexual.

By Aislinn Simpson

17 June 2009 • 6:19pm

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/5560110/Kate-Winslet-and-Kate-Middletons-ancestries-revealed-in-online-1911-census.html

Winslet was keen on playing Rose DeWitt Bukater, a socialite aboard the ill-fated RMS Titanic, in James Cameron's epic romance Titanic (1997). Cameron was initially reluctant to cast her, preferring the likes of Claire Danes and Gwyneth Paltrow, but she pleaded with him, "You don't understand! I am Rose! I don't know why you're even seeing anyone else!"[46] Her persistence led him to give her the part.[46] Leonardo DiCaprio featured as her love interest, Jack. Titanic had a production budget of $200 million, and its arduous principal photography was held at Baja Studios where a replica of the ship was created.[25] Filming proved taxing for Winslet; she almost drowned, caught influenza, experienced hypothermia, and had bruises on her arms and knees. The workload allowed her only four hours of sleep per day and she felt drained by the experience.[47][48] Writing for Newsweek, David Ansen commended Winslet for capturing her character's zeal with delicacy,[49] and Mike Clark of USA Today considered her to be the film's prime asset.[50] Against expectations, Titanic went on to become the highest-grossing film to that point, earning over $2 billion in box office receipts worldwide,[46][51] and established Winslet as a global star.[52] The film won eleven Academy Awards—tied for most for a single film—including Best Picture, and earned the 22-year-old Winslet a nomination for Best Actress.[53] She also received Golden Globe and SAG nominations for Best Actress.[54][55]

Winslet did not view Titanic as a platform for larger salaries. She avoided parts in blockbuster films in favour of independent productions that were not widely seen, believing that she "still had a lot to learn" and was unprepared to be a star.[9][19][44] She later said her decision ensured career longevity.[56] Hideous Kinky, a low-budget drama shot before the release of Titanic, was Winslet's sole film release of 1998.[57] She turned down offers to star in Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Anna and the King (1999) to do the film.[58] Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Esther Freud, Hideous Kinky tells the story of a single British mother yearning for a new life in 1970s Morocco.[52][57] Janet Maslin of The New York Times credited Winslet for her decision to follow-up Titanic with such an offbeat project and highlighted how well she captured her character's "obliviousness and optimism".[57]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Winslet

Titanic is a 1997 American epic romantic disaster film directed, written, co-produced and co-edited by James Cameron. Incorporating both historical and fictionalized aspects, it is based on accounts of the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as members of different social classes who fall in love during the ship's maiden voyage. The film also features an ensemble cast of Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Danny Nucci, David Warner, and Bill Paxton.

Cameron's inspiration for the film came from his fascination with shipwrecks. He felt a love story interspersed with human loss would be essential to convey the emotional impact of the disaster. Production began on September 1, 1995,[8] when Cameron shot footage of the Titanic wreck. The modern scenes on the research vessel were shot on board the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, which Cameron had used as a base when filming the wreck. Scale models, computer-generated imagery, and a reconstruction of the Titanic built at Baja Studios were used to recreate the sinking. The film was initially in development at 20th Century Fox, but a mounting budget and being behind schedule resulted in Fox asking Paramount Pictures for financial help; Paramount handled distribution in the United States and Canada, while Fox released the film in other territories. Titanic was the most expensive film ever made at the time, with a production budget of $200 million. Filming took place from July 1996 to March 1997.

Titanic premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival on November 1, 1997, and was released in the United States on December 19. It was praised for its visual effects, performances (particularly those of DiCaprio, Winslet, and Gloria Stuart), production values, direction, score, cinematography, story, and emotional depth. Among other awards, it was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won a record-tying 11, including Best Picture and Best Director, tying Ben-Hur (1959) for the most Academy Awards won by a film. With an initial worldwide gross of over $1.84 billion, Titanic was the first film to reach the billion-dollar mark. It was the highest-grossing film of all time until Cameron's next film, Avatar (2009), surpassed it in 2010. Income from the initial theatrical release, retail video, and soundtrack sales and US broadcast rights exceeded $3.2 billion.[9] A number of re-releases have pushed the film's worldwide theatrical total to $2.264 billion, making it the second film to gross more than $2 billion worldwide after Avatar. In 2017, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

In 1996, aboard the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team explore the wreck of RMS Titanic, hoping to find a necklace known as the Heart of the Ocean. Instead, they recover a safe containing a drawing of a young woman wearing the necklace. The sketch is dated April 14, 1912, the day the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, resulting in about 1,500 deaths.[Note 1] After seeing a television report about the discovery, centenarian Rose Dawson Calvert contacts Lovett, revealing herself as the woman in the drawing. Hoping she can help locate the necklace, Lovett brings Rose and her granddaughter aboard the Keldysh, where Rose recounts her experience as a Titanic passenger.

In 1912, 17-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater boards the Titanic in Southampton with her wealthy fiancé, Cal Hockley, and her mother, Ruth. Ruth stresses that Rose's marriage to Cal will resolve their financial problems, but Rose is unhappy in the loveless engagement. Feeling trapped, Rose contemplates suicide by jumping from the ship's stern, but is stopped by Jack Dawson, a poor nomadic artist. Jack and Rose form a friendship, and Jack confesses his growing feelings for her. Though initially resistant, Rose realizes she has fallen in love with Jack, despite Cal's and Ruth's disapproval.

Rose brings Jack to her stateroom and asks him to draw her nude wearing only the necklace. Afterward, they evade Cal's valet, Spicer Lovejoy, and have sex in a car in the cargo hold. On the forward deck, they witness the ship's collision with an iceberg and overhear officers discussing the severity of the situation. When Cal discovers Jack's sketch of Rose and a mocking note she left, he arranges to frame Jack for theft by having Lovejoy plant the necklace on him. Jack is arrested and locked in the master-at-arms' office, while Cal places the necklace in his coat pocket.

As the ship begins sinking, women and children are prioritized for the lifeboats. Rose finds and frees Jack, and they return to the deck, where Cal urges Rose to board a lifeboat, claiming he and Jack will board another. He unwittingly wraps his coat, containing the necklace, around her. However, as her lifeboat is lowered, Rose jumps back onto the sinking ship, unwilling to leave Jack behind. Enraged, Cal grabs a pistol and chases them through the flooding ship but gives up when they escape. Cal manages to secure a place on a lifeboat by pretending to be a child's father.

As the ship's flooded bow sinks, the stern rises into the air, and Jack and Rose cling to the railing. The ship splits in two, and the stern sinks into the freezing water with the remaining passengers. Jack helps Rose onto a small floating piece of debris and makes her promise to survive and live a full life. Jack dies from hypothermia, but Rose is saved by a returning lifeboat, and later rescued by the RMS Carpathia. Rose remains hidden from Cal and her mother, and gives her name as Rose Dawson on her arrival in New York City.

In the present, Rose reveals that Cal committed suicide after losing his fortune in the 1929 stock market crash. She tells the Keldysh crew that Jack saved her in every possible way, and laments that her memories are all that she has left of him. Touched by her account of the Titanic, Lovett abandons his search for the necklace. Alone at night on the stern of the Keldysh, Rose, who has kept the necklace in her possession all along, drops it into the sea above the wreck. Later, as she lies in her bed, photographs on her dresser depict a life of freedom and adventure inspired by Jack.[10] Aboard the pristine and undamaged Titanic, a young Rose reunites with Jack at the Grand Staircase, applauded by the passengers and crew who died in the sinking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_(1997_film)

Jack Chick’s Anti-catholic Alberto Comic Book Is Exposed as a Fraud

Gary Metz

Christianity Today

March 13, 1981 issue

https://www.christianitytoday.com/1981/03/jack-chicks-anti-catholic-alberto-comic-book-is-exposed-as/

Pope Francis[b] (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio;[c] 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He is the first pope from the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order), the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bergoglio was inspired to join the Jesuits in 1958 after recovering from severe illness. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969; from 1973 to 1979, he was the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina. He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. He led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina; the administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him to be a political rival.

Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March. He chose Francis as his papal name in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi. Throughout his public life, Francis has been noted for his humility, emphasis on God's mercy, international visibility as pope, concern for the poor and commitment to interreligious dialogue. He is known for having a less formal approach to the papacy than his predecessors by, for instance, choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guest house rather than in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace used by previous popes.[2]

Francis has made women full members of dicasteries in the Roman Curia.[3][4] He maintains that the Catholic Church should be more sympathetic toward members of the LGBTQ community, and has stated that while blessings of same-sex unions are not permitted, the individuals can be blessed as long as blessings are not given in a liturgical context.[5] Francis is a critic of unbridled capitalism, consumerism, and overdevelopment;[6] he has made action on climate change a leading focus of his papacy.[7] He is widely interpreted as denouncing the death penalty as intrinsically evil,[8] stating that the Catholic Church is committed to its abolition.[9] In international diplomacy, Francis has criticized the rise of right-wing populism, called for the decriminalization of homosexuality,[10] helped to restore full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, negotiated a deal with China to define how much influence the Communist Party has in appointing Chinese bishops, and has supported the cause of refugees. He has called on the Western world to increase immigration levels significantly.[11][12] In 2022, he apologized for the Church's role in the "cultural genocide" of the Canadian Indigenous peoples.[13] Francis convened the Synod on Synodality which was described as the culmination of his papacy and the most important event in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council.[4][14][15]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis

The Coleman Company, Inc. is an American brand of outdoor recreation products, especially camping gear, now owned by Newell Brands. The company's new headquarters are in Chicago, and it has facilities in Wichita, Kansas, and in Texas. There are approximately 4,000 employees.[1] Some of the products manufactured are portable stoves, lanterns, coolers, sleeping bags, camp chairs, and shelters.

History

The company was founded by William Coffin Coleman, who began selling gasoline pressure lamps in 1901 in Wichita. In 1905, the company provided a demonstration for the 1905 Cooper vs. Fairmount football game (now Sterling College and Wichita State University). Coleman gas lamps were provided to play the first night football game west of the Mississippi River.[2] In 1996, the company acquired the French Campingaz.

In September 2004, Jarden acquired American Household, which was the privately-held parent company of Coleman as well as other brands like Sunbeam Products, for $745.6 million in cash.[3][4]

In December 2015, Newell Brands acquired the Coleman brand through the acquisition of Jarden for $13.2 billion.[5][6]

Products

Coleman gas camp stove

Throughout its history, Coleman has produced a wide variety of equipment primarily aimed at the camping and recreational markets. A prominent product is the Coleman Lantern, a series of pressure lamps that were originally made to burn gasoline. Current models use Coleman fuel (white gas) or propane and use one or two gas mantles to produce an intense white light.

In the past, the company also produced a range of cooking stoves and domestic irons. Today, Coleman manufactures camp stoves (Coleman produced the original "G.I. Pocket Stove"), sleeping bags, coolers, hot tubs, generators, watches, sandals, tents, dog toys, and backpacks, among other things. They also make a line of small boats, including canoes, pontoon boats, and johnboats. In the past they sold pop-up travel trailers, Skiroule snowmobiles and the Hobie Cat brand of sailboats. The company produces backyard barbecue grills, sold at Canadian Tire.[7]

A separate company, Coleman Heating and Air Conditioning, sells home heating and air conditioning units. Coleman Heating and Air Conditioning is owned by Johnson Controls, and uses the Coleman name and logo under license.[8]

Coleman also produces ATVs and minibikes under the Coleman Powersports[9] brand.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleman_(brand)

Origin, popularity and meaning of the last name KUHLMANN

Etymology. Kuhlmann : German (also Kühlmann): variant of Kuhl 1 and 3. Coleman : 1: Irish and English: from the Middle English personal name Col(e)man Old Irish Colmán earlier Columbán adopted as Old Norse Kalman.

https://en.geneanet.org/surnames/KUHLMANN

Kathryn Kuhlman (May 9, 1907 – February 20, 1976) was an American Christian evangelist, preacher and minister who was referred to by her contemporaries and the press as a 'faith healer'.

Early life

Kathryn Johanna Kuhlman was born in 1907 near Concordia, Missouri, where her father was mayor.[1] She was one of four children of German-American parents Joseph Adolph Kuhlman and Emma Walkenhorst.[2] Kuhlman received Bible instruction at home from her parents, who were both Methodist.[3][better source needed]

Kuhlman had a spiritual experience at age 14, and several years later she began itinerant preaching with her elder sister and brother-in-law in Idaho. Later, she was ordained by the Evangelical Church Alliance.[4]

Amanda H. Williams of Brooklyn, New York helped birth Kuhlman's healing ministry.

Ministry

Kuhlman traveled extensively around the United States and abroad holding healing meetings between the 1940s and 1970s.[citation needed] In 1955, despite being told by doctors about a heart condition in her late 40s, Kuhlman kept a very busy schedule, often traveling across the US and abroad, holding two to six-hour long meetings which could last late into the evenings.[5]

Kuhlman had a weekly TV program in the 1960s and 1970s called I Believe In Miracles, which aired nationally. She also had a 30-minute nationwide radio program, which featured sermons and frequent excerpts from her healing services in music and message. Her foundation was established in 1954, and its Canadian branch in 1970. Late in her life she was supportive of the nascent Jesus movement.[6]

By 1970 she had moved to Los Angeles, conducting healing services for thousands of people, and was often compared to Aimee Semple McPherson.[7] She became well known for her "gift of healing" despite, as she often noted, having no theological training.[7][dead link] She was friendly with Christian television evangelist Pat Robertson and made guest appearances at his Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) and on the network's flagship program The 700 Club.

In 1975, Kuhlman was sued by Paul Bartholomew, her personal administrator, who claimed that she kept $1 million in jewelry and $1 million in fine art hidden away and sued her for $430,500 for breach of contract.[8][9] Two former associates accused her in the lawsuit of diverting funds and of illegally removing records, which she denied and said the records were not private.[10] According to Kuhlman, the lawsuit was settled prior to trial.[11]

Kuhlman's devotion to her ministry was summed up in the 1976 biography Daughter of Destiny, written by Jamie Buckingham:

"The television ministry itself required more than $30,000 a week. To stop, to even cut back, would mean she was beginning to fail. The same was true with the miracle services. As the pain in her chest grew almost unbearable, instead of holding fewer services, she increased the number."

Healing

An estimated two million people reported that they were healed in her meetings over the years.[12]

Following a 1967 fellowship in Philadelphia, Dr. William A. Nolen conducted a case study of 23 people who said they had been cured during one of her services.[13][14][15][16] Nolen's long term follow-ups concluded that there were no cures in those cases. One woman who was said to have been cured of spinal cancer threw away her brace and ran across the stage at Kuhlman's command; her spine collapsed the next day and she died four months later.[11][17]

Nolen's analysis of Kulhman came in for criticism from believers. Lawrence Althouse, a physician, said that Nolen had attended only one of Kuhlman's services and did not follow up with all of those who said they had been healed there.[18] Dr. Richard Casdorph produced a book of evidence in support of miraculous healings by Kuhlman.[19] Hendrik van der Breggen, a Christian philosophy professor, argued in favor of the claims.[20] Author Craig Keener concluded, "No one claims that everyone was healed, but it is also difficult to dispute that significant recoveries occurred, apparently in conjunction with prayer. One may associate these with Kathryn Kuhlman's faith or that of the supplicants, or, as in some of Kuhlman's teaching, to no one's faith at all; but the evidence suggests that some people were healed, even in extraordinary ways.".[21] Dr. Richard Owellen, a member of the cancer‐research department of the Johns Hopkins Hospital who appeared frequently at Kuhlman's services, testified to various healings that he said he had investigated.[22]

Personal life

Kuhlman met Texas evangelist Burroughs Waltrip in 1935, when he was a guest speaker at Kuhlman's Denver Revival Tabernacle, and the two preachers soon found themselves in a romantic relationship with each other.[23] Eventually, Waltrip divorced his first wife, left his family, moved to Mason City, Iowa, and started a revival center called Radio Chapel, Kuhlman and her pianist friend, Helen Gulliford, helped him raise funds for this new venture.[6]

After a romance between Waltrip and Kuhlman began, she told her friends that she could not "find the will of God in the matter", seemingly feeling guilt-ridden. Kuhlman's friends tried to encourage her to not marry Waltrip. However, she reasoned that Waltrip's wife had left him, not the other way around. (The details of their separation are not clear.)[23] On October 18, 1938, she secretly married "Mister," as she called him, in Mason City, but the wedding supposedly brought her no peace.[24] The couple had no children and eventually separated in 1944, divorcing in 1948.

Regarding her marriage, in a 1952 interview with the Denver Post, Kuhlman stated, "He charged—correctly—that I refused to live with him. And I haven't seen him in eight years."[25] On many occasions, Kuhlman expressed remorse for her part in the pain caused by the breakup of Waltrip's previous marriage, citing his children's heartbreak as particularly troubling to her. She claimed it was the single greatest regret of her life, second only to the betrayal of her loving relationship with Jesus.[25]

Death

In July 1975, a doctor diagnosed Kuhlman with a minor heart flare-up; in November, she had a relapse.[26] As a result, Kuhlman underwent open-heart surgery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during which she died on February 20, 1976.[4] It was reported in her biography that at the time of her passing in the hospital, a bright light was witnessed hovering over her corpse.[25]

Kathryn Kuhlman was buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. A plaque in her honor is in the main city park in Concordia, Missouri, a town in central Missouri on Interstate Highway 70.[citation needed]

After she died, her will led to controversy.[27] She left $267,500, the bulk of her estate, to three members of her family and twenty of her employees. Smaller bequests were given to 19 other employees. According to the Independent Press-Telegram, her employees were disappointed when they learned that "she did not leave most of her estate to the foundation as she had done under a previous 1974 will."

The Kathryn Kuhlman Foundation continued, but due to lack of funding, it terminated its nationwide radio broadcast in 1982. Ultimately, the foundation closed its doors in April 2016.[28]

Legacy

Many believers uphold Kuhlman as an important forerunner to the present-day charismatic movement.[29] She influenced faith healers Benny Hinn and Billy Burke. Hinn has adopted some of her techniques and he also wrote a book about Kuhlman, as he frequently attended her preaching services.[30] Burke did meet her and was counseled by her, having claimed a miracle healing in her service as a young boy.[31]

In 1981, David Byrne and Brian Eno sampled one of Kuhlman's sermons for a track which they created during sessions for their collaborative album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. After failing to clear the license to Kuhlman's voice from her estate, the track was reworked to use audio from an unidentified exorcism, with this modified version being released as "The Jezebel Spirit".[32] The Kuhlman version was later included on the 1992 bootleg recording Ghosts, titled "Into the Spirit Womb".[citation needed]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Kuhlman

Thomas Trace Beatie (born 1974[1]) is an American public speaker, author, and advocate of transgender rights and sexuality issues, with a focus on transgender fertility and reproductive rights.[2]

Beatie came out as a trans man in early 1997. Beatie had gender-affirming surgery in March 2002 and became known as "the pregnant man" after he became pregnant through artificial insemination in 2007.[3] Beatie chose to be pregnant, with donated sperm,[4][5] because his wife Nancy was sterile.

The couple filed for divorce in 2012. The Beatie case is the first of its kind on record, where a documented legal male gave birth within a marriage to a woman, and for the first time, a court challenged a marriage where the husband gave birth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Beatie

Tracing boards are painted or printed illustrations depicting the various emblems and symbols of Freemasonry. They can be used as teaching aids during the lectures that follow each of the Masonic Degrees, when an experienced member explains the various concepts of Freemasonry to new members. They can also be used by experienced members as reminders of the concepts they learned as they went through the ceremonies of the different masonic degrees.[1]

History and development

Floor and table designs

In the eighteenth century Masonic lodges met chiefly in private rooms above taverns, and the symbolic designs used in catechesis were chalked on the table or floor in the centre of the hired room, usually by the Tyler or the Worshipful Master.[2] Evidence suggests that a simple boundary was drawn (usually a square or rectangle, or sometimes a cross) within which various Masonic symbols were added, often of a geometric type (such as a circle or pentagram). In many lodges the boundary shape may have been drawn by the Tyler, with the Master adding the symbolic detail. Later various symbolic objects were incorporated, examples including a ladder, a beehive, and an hourglass, and sometimes drawings were interchangeable with physical objects.[3] At the end of the work a new member was often required to erase the drawing with a mop, as a practical demonstration of his obligation of secrecy.

Though the various Grand Lodges were then generally hostile to the creation of any physical representations of the ritual and symbols of the Craft, the time-consuming business of redrawing the symbols at every meeting was gradually replaced by keeping a removable "floor cloth" on which the various symbols were painted. Different portions might be exposed according to the work being executed.[4] By the second half of the eighteenth century the Masonic symbols were being painted on a variety of removable materials ranging from small marble slabs to canvas, to give a more decorative and elaborate symbolic display.

Painted boards

During the nineteenth century there was a rapid expansion of the use of permanent painted tracing boards, usually painted on canvas and framed in wood. Many artists produced competing designs, and most lodges commissioned sets of bespoke boards which were therefore of a unique design, despite following common themes. Some designs became particularly popular, leading to some repetition of favoured design features. Boards by John Cole and Josiah Bowring were examples of popularly recurring designs.[5]

The English artist John Harris was initiated in 1818 and produced many different series of tracing boards, including a miniature set of 1823 which became popular after Harris dedicated the design to Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE).[6] Eventually the Emulation Lodge of Improvement sought to bring a measure of standardisation in tracing board design, and organised a competition in 1845, to which many different designs were submitted. Harris himself submitted at least two different sets to the competition, but one of his designs was the winner. Harris revised the designs in 1849, and these "Emulation" tracing boards are today considered a definitive design within British and Commonwealth Freemasonry.[7]

Contemporary use

In lodges under the UGLE, and many jurisdictions derived from English Freemasonry, tracing boards are an essential part of lodge furniture, sometimes displayed flat on the floor, and sometimes vertically against a pedestal or on the wall. Sets of three boards, usually of older designs, may often be found in special cases for storage and display within lodge rooms. There are sometimes tracing boards in other degrees.[8] The Royal Arch tracing board has fallen into disuse in most places, and examples are now rare. In the Mark Master Mason and Royal Ark Mariner degrees as administered from London, the tracing boards have experienced a great revival in popularity from the end of the twentieth century, and official rituals for the explanations of these tracing boards are again in regular use in English lodges.

As different Masonic jurisdictions established official, or standard, degree rituals the creation of new tracing boards by artists waned, and has since largely disappeared in favour of standard designs. Nonetheless, some masonic artists have experimented with very modern designs for the twenty-first century.[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracing_board

Witchboard is a 1986 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Kevin Tenney in his directorial debut, and starring Tawny Kitaen, Stephen Nichols, and Todd Allen. The plot centers on a college student who becomes entranced into using her friend's Ouija board alone after it was accidentally left behind at her party, resulting in her becoming terrorized by a malevolent spirit.

Tenney wrote the screenplay while a student at the University of Southern California, inspired after attending a party in which a friend brought a Ouija board for partygoers to use. The film focuses on the notion of "progressive entrapment," the process by which a malevolent entity or demon takes control of a human being, a theme that was also touched on in The Exorcist (1973) after a character dabbles with a Ouija board. Filming took place in 1985 in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Francisco.

Cinema Group gave Witchboard a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 31, 1986. Following favorable box-office returns, the release was expanded in the spring of 1987, and the film went on to gross $7.4 million. Although the critical response to the film was largely unfavorable, it has obtained a cult following since its release,[5] and was subject to significant critical analysis by academic Carol J. Clover in her 1992 non-fiction book, Men, Women, and Chainsaws. Two unrelated sequels, Witchboard 2: The Devil's Doorway and Witchboard III: The Possession, were released in 1993 and 1995, respectively.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchboard

WITCHBOARD 1986 Horror Movie

Retro Jethro

When his girlfriend becomes dangerously obsessed with a ghost she contacted using a Ouija board, Jim reluctantly joins forces with her ex-his own estranged childhood best friend-to identify and exorcise the evil spirit.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x95brqg

The Body is The Temple of The Soul

Writer's picture: Alex Chen

Alex Chen

Jun 29, 2022

3 min read

Updated: Jun 30, 2022

Over the past year, I've become ever more fascinated with Chinese medicine. I'm pretty healthy, but my mother has accumulated pain and discomfort throughout her body over the years. Through acupoint massage and diet, I've managed to reduce my mom's pain and discomfort and also improve her emotions (I wrote about all this in my TCM Series). However, I'm not a trained professional, so my abilities are limited.

A couple months ago, I had the great fortune of meeting a TCM doctor named Kun Liu (Angel), and she is at the top of her field. She comes from a family of TCM doctors, so she's been surrounded by TCM since childhood. She also got her doctorate degree in TCM and has over 15 years of clinical experience. She is a busy and highly sought after doctor, but I managed to get an online consultation with her for my mother and I.

Before our first meeting, she told me to send her pictures of our meals for 4 days. Usually, my mother does the cooking in our household because she has the most free time, but she's never enjoyed cooking. She is also a devoted Buddhist, and she learned to not be so attached to the body and worldly pleasures like food.

https://www.weeklywisdomblog.com/post/the-body-is-the-temple-of-the-soul

Genesis 2:24

1599 Geneva Bible

24 Therefore shall man leave [a]his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Genesis 2:24 So that marriage requireth a greater duty of us toward our wives, than otherwise we are bound to show to our parents.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%202%3A24&version=GNV

1 John 5:7-9

1599 Geneva Bible

7 For there are three, which bear record in heaven, the Father, the [a]Word, and the holy Ghost: and these three are [b]one.

8 And there are three, which bear record in the earth, the Spirit, and the Water and the Blood: and these three agree in one.

9 [c]If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for [d]this is the witness of God, which he testified of his Son.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

1 John 5:7 See John 8:13, 14.

1 John 5:7 Agree in one.

1 John 5:9 He showeth by an Argument of comparison, of what great weight the heavenly testimony is, that the Father hath given of the Son, unto whom agreeth both the Son himself and the holy Ghost.

1 John 5:9 I conclude this aright: for that testimony which I said is given in heaven, cometh from God, who so setteth forth his Son.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John%205%3A7-9&version=GNV

With regard to self-immolation, it should be pointed out that, unlike Jainism, Buddhism is generally against religious suicide350 and self-mutilation (Sheth, 2012: 73-74), but there are exceptions both in Theravada as well as in Mahāyāna. The Theravāda Jātaka tales relate several instances of religious suicide in some of the previous lives of Gautama Buddha. The Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra, the most important and well-known Mahāyāna Scriptural text and often referred to briefly as the Lotus Sutra, extols the case of the Bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja, who previously, as the Bodhisattva Sarvasattvapriyadarśana, burnt his own body as an act of honor (pūjā) accorded to the Buddha Candrasūryavimalaprabhāsaśri and to the Lotus Sutra. It also mentions that youth who burn some part of their body at the relic chambers of the Buddhas gain immense merit (Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra, ch. 22, pp. 237, 240). Such examples are adduced in order to justify exceptional cases of heroic, altruistic and sublime self-sacrifice of one’s life. For Thich Nhat Hahn self-immolation is neither good nor bad. It transcends the question whether self-immolation is good strategy in peace activism. But we must make an effort to put ourselves in the shoes of the immolators and try to see things with their eyes. They intend to enkindle the awareness of people and awaken them (Nhat Hahn 1975: 62). We had begun our social justice trip in India. Even though we now move on to Tibet, yet, in consonance with the cyclic worldview of Buddhism, we actually return to India: the reason is that the Dalai Lama has established a Tibetan Government in Exile in India.

The Buddha & Jesus

An Anthology of Articles by Jesuits engaged in

Buddhist Studies and Inter-religious Dialogue

Edited by

Cyril Veliath, SJ

Faculty of Global Studies

Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan

https://web.archive.org/web/20220929093250/https://jcapsj.org/the-buddha-jesus/

On 11 June 1963, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc self-immolated outside the Cambodian embassy in the city of Saigon in Vietnam. Journalists were notified in advance to show up, but had not been told what would happen. The US journalist Malcolm Browne photographed the scene. His photograph became an enduring worldwide image of Buddhist protest.

Many in the US assume that the self-immolation was a protest against the war in Vietnam, paralleling anti-war protestors at home. This idea fits nicely into the popular association of Buddhism with peace. It is, however, wrong. Quang Duc’s self-immolation and the others that followed were a protest against the South Vietnamese Ngo Dinh Diem administration and its allies in the West. Vietnamese Buddhists felt persecuted by the Vietnamese administration’s pro-Catholic stance. Their self-immolations were acts to defend Buddhism.

Buddhists have always been involved in civil disobedience movements and peace-making agendas, such as the Sarvodaya movement in Sri Lanka. Further, Buddhist meditations have proven incredibly helpful in the rehabilitation of criminals. In short, Buddhism, to its practitioners, is not an ‘accoutrement’ to life or ‘just’ a philosophy – it is a full-bodied religion whose adherents are eager to protect. The myth of Buddhism as a wholly peaceful religion ignores Buddhists’ agency and diversity – and the fact that they will go to great lengths to defend their religion, whether by way of pistol-bearing monks or self-immolating protesters.

Recently, Buddhists in Myanmar and Sri Lanka have also called for violence. In 2013, Time magazine placed the Burmese Buddhist monk U Wirathu on their cover with the headline ‘The Face of Buddhist Terror’. U Wirathu has been a fiery critic of Burmese Muslims, particularly those who identify as Rohingya. The 2014 Myanmar census found that Buddhists make up 89 per cent of the population, compared with Muslims at 4.3 per cent. Nevertheless, U Wirathu and his counterparts argue that both Burmese Buddhism and Myanmar itself are threatened by the ‘Islamification of Asia’. In well-attended sermons, U Wirathu has repeatedly derided Muslims and Islam, accusing them of seeking to destroy Burmese culture and the future of Buddhism. In one sermon, he likened Muslims to the African carp, explaining that they are inherently violent, prone to breed quickly, and want to eat their own kind.

U Wirathu is a member of the 969 movement. This movement and the Ma Ba Tha (the Patriotic Association of Myanmar) retain significant influence over the Buddhists of Myanmar. They distribute pamphlets and taped sermons that warn about the threat of Islam. Their work to foment fear of Muslims helps to propel Burmese Buddhists toward violence, as in the murderous anti-Muslim riots in the central city of Meiktila in 2013, where at least 40 people died. Before these, there were powerful precursors from the western Rakhine state. Since 2012, nearly 140,000 Rohingya have been displaced from their homes in Rakhine. Most of these Rohingya have been deported from homes into special internment camps. Due to the terrible conditions in these camps, journalists such as Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times argue that the Buddhist treatment of the Rohingya constitutes genocide.

In 2015, the two Burmese Buddhist organisations successfully lobbied for the passage of pro-Buddhist legislation. Many international human-rights groups argue that these new laws are discriminatory against minority groups, particularly Muslims. U Wirathu continues to develop connections not only with Thailand’s Buddhist monks, but also with Sri Lankan Buddhist monks.

The Buddhist organisation ran an incendiary campaign, calling for a boycott on stores selling halal-certified meat

From 1983, Sri Lanka was engaged in a civil war. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fought to separate and form their own independent state of Tamil Eelam. The Sri Lankan government opposed this, both through secular language and Buddhist rhetoric. Buddhist monks fiercely argued against negotiations, and for fighting to keep Sri Lanka ‘whole’. For these monks, Sri Lanka is the true land of Buddhism and it was under attack. Monks were straightforward political players, delivering incendiary speeches, joining political parties (such as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna), and taking part in violent clashes.

The civil war ended in 2009, but Sri Lankan Buddhist monks have continued to push their political agendas. Since 2011, there have been further escalations in violent rhetoric by Sri Lankan Buddhist nationalist organisations such as the Sinhala Ravaya (The Roar of the Sinhalese), the Ravana Balaya (Ravana’s Force) and the Bodu Bala Sena (The Army of Buddhist Power). Often, the rhetoric is directed at businesses, for example against halal provision for Muslims. In early 2013, the Bodu Bala Sena ran an incendiary campaign, calling for a boycott against stores that provided halal-certified meat. The Buddhist organisation falsely alleged that Muslims were slaughtering young calves (an illegal practice), and accused the governing body for halal-certification, the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama, of taking steps to bring about Sharia law in Sri Lanka.

Similar to their counterparts in Myanmar, these Sri Lankan Buddhist groups have incited anti-Muslim riots, as in Aluthgama in 2014. Buddhist groups have been implicated in the assassination of politicians and peace activists. The growing influence of these hyper-nationalist Buddhist organisations, together with the Sri Lankan government’s tacit support (through a lack of response) has spurred NGOs and local communities to protest. In November 2016, 367 Sri Lankan citizens submitted a collective complaint about the inaction of the police to protect minorities from the persistence of Buddhist monk-led attacks.

No religion has a monopoly on ‘violent people’, nor does any one religion have a greater propensity for violence. Rather, social conditions such as poverty and societal upheavals generate violent behaviour, regardless of religion. It is no coincidence that poorer regions and neighbourhoods suffer higher crime rates. When people find the world changing around them, they turn to their religion to make sense of things. Some look to religion as a means to preserve what they have, and religion provides a way of understanding one’s place in the world and, more importantly, one’s duty.

In order to comprehend such people’s justifications for violence, it is important to explore their worldview, namely, the way in which Buddhists understand and protect what is sacred to them. Although Buddhism is incredibly diverse, all Buddhists venerate the Triple Jewels: Buddha, Dharma (doctrine) and Sangha (monastic community). As long as these jewels remain in the world, humanity still has a way of escaping the vicious cycle of rebirth. Buddhists, along with Hindus, Jains and Sikhs, believe that time is cyclical, and that there is a decline before the end of each great cycle.

According to Buddhists, their doctrine provides rulers with justice, societies with equilibrium, and individuals with a path to salvation. Its attenuation, therefore, is one sign of the decline. Another is the absence, or dwindling numbers, of the sangha. When there are no more monks, Buddhist End Times will begin.

Buddhist scriptures measure internal time by how many breaths you take, and external (cosmic) time through the rotation of four kalpas, or aeons. Unlike in Abrahamic religions, time in Buddhism has no beginning. It is a constant cycle. There is no definitive amount of time given for each kalpa, but Buddhist scriptures provide suggestive analogies. In the Prajnaparamita Sutra, one kalpa lasts longer than the time required to wear away an 18,000-square-metre rock by brushing it with a piece of cloth once every 100 years.

The first kalpa is a formative and chaotic period. In the second kalpa, the chaos continues to unfold. It is only in the third kalpa in which the chaos declines, and the world enters into a rapid stage of evolution. The fourth and final kalpa is called the Age of Destruction. It ends with an apocalyptic rainfall that destroys all life and sparks the beginning of the first kalpa. Buddhists believe that we are living in the fourth and final section of the last kalpa. The end of the kalpa will inevitably come and, when it does, a new Buddha will emerge: Maitreya, the Buddha-to-be. But Buddhists can forestall the end. The longer the Buddhist monks and their doctrine remain strong, then the slower the pace toward the end of the kalpa.

Buddhist traditions have different ways of identifying the signs of deterioration. According to legend, on the eve of the Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) becoming awakened, he was tempted by Mara, the embodiment of desire, death and rebirth. Although he conquered his desires and vanquished Mara, many Buddhists have believed that the re-appearance of Mara is a sign that the End Times have arrived. Others think that the erosion of their sacred Three Jewels signals the beginning of the end. In order to forestall the quickening of the End Times, Buddhists have fought against the manifestations of Mara and to preserve the integrity of their practices and doctrine.

For instance, in sixth-century China, the Buddhist monk Faqing led a revolt and declared the arrival of a new Buddha. He marshalled 50,000 men to fight, promising them that, with each kill, they would reach a higher stage in the bodhisattva path. In ninth-century Tibet, Emperor Langdarma was assassinated by a Tibetan lama. According to Tibetan sources, Langdarma had become possessed by demonic forces (gdon). He destroyed monasteries and began to attack the Buddhist establishment. Things were changing and not in the right direction. The murder of Langdarma ‘saved’ Buddhism in Tibet. It has become such an important event that the Tibetans commemorate the murder in their Cham dance, which offers moral instructions through performance.

Japanese fighter planes carried images of the Buddhist embodiment of compassion, Avalokiteshvara

During the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese emperor strengthened support for Shintoism, and began to dismantle Buddhist institutions that were not favourable to the state. Buddhist monks had a choice of either complying with the state, or leaving the monkhood. Many remained and supported the onset of Japanese imperialism. During the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05, Rinzai Buddhist monks spoke out in favour of the military campaign. For them, the war was a fight for the preservation of civilisation and the Buddhist doctrine – a fight for the world.

The Buddhist call-to-arms reoccurred throughout the Second World War. Japanese fighter planes carried images of the Buddhist embodiment of compassion, Avalokiteshvara. Zen and Pure Land Buddhist monks argued that the Second World War was justified in order to preserve ‘true’ Buddhism. The Buddhist traditions in places such as China, Korea and Singapore had become corrupt and faulty. It was a sign of decay.

As humanity moves closer to the Buddhist End Times, the Buddhist doctrine explains that it will become harder for a person to become enlightened. In recent years, many Buddhists have turned to Pure Land Buddhism. These Buddhists believe that our world is now fraught with a multitude of obstacles to becoming fully awakened. To avoid this, a follower practices uttering Amitabh’s name (nianfo) and visualizing him. In this way, the follower ensures a rebirth in Pure Land, where he can receive the teachings from the Bodhisattva Amitabha to reach enlightenment. Pure Land Buddhism is one of the largest populated traditions in East Asia, and is quickly expanding its numbers globally. While some Buddhists turn to traditions such as Pure Land Buddhism, others fight to preserve what they believe is true Buddhism, such as in southern Thailand, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

Over the centuries, there have been tremendous changes to Buddhism. Indeed, change is one of the foundational principles in Buddhism: all is impermanent. Some changes are in concert with modernity, others are in reaction. Each Buddhist tradition has transformed with the times – and the times are always changing. But there are persistent patterns that keep pace with these changes. Buddhist monks in the early sixth-century China led revolts to defend Buddhism. Today, monks in Thailand, Burma and Sri Lanka continue to fight – violently – for their religion and to call their followers to action. The cycle of violence continues in this final stage of the cycle of time: the Kali Yuga, the Age of Destruction.

Monks with guns

Westerners think that Buddhism is about peace and non-violence. So how come Buddhist monks are in arms against Islam?

https://aeon.co/essays/buddhism-can-be-as-violent-as-any-other-religion

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The alumbrados of Castile were a movement that caused much trouble during the first three decades of the sixteenth century. Their ideas were represented by the “Big Three” beatas who, under noble patronage, for at least a decade previous to the arrest in 1524 of the “mother” of the movement (Isabel de la Cruz) had successfully proselytized and spread their ideas throughout Old and New Castile.1

The alumbrados certainly were a charismatic bunch; they enjoyed success with the elites of Castilian society, comuneros, but above all with women and conversos. As a religious movement led by women the alumbrados were part of a growing trend of individual, charismatic female piety. By the time of Cardinal Cisneros’s death in 1517, however, the era of the alumbrados and their grassroots converso spirituality was nearing its end. While the actual heyday of their movement was short-lived the alumbrados made a huge impact upon the minds Prospering in the environment of Catholic spiritual exploration fostered by the personal theological interests of the Archbishop of Toledo Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros the alumbrados presented an interiorized approach to Christianity. Equipped with the meditational practice of dejamiento the alumbrados stressed the importance of an individual, pseudo-mystical “abandonment” to God and His will. They also emphasized the insignificance of external rituals and works, calling them ataduras or “shackles” to the material world, ties that only served to hinder one’s abandonment to God.

of the Inquisitors who prosecuted them and upon the Spanish religious imagination, an impact that would last across seas and time."

EL SABOR DE HEREJIA: THE EDICT OF 1525, THE ALUMBRADOS

AND THE INQUISITORS’ USAGE OF LOCURA

JAVIER A. MONTOYA

http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0041385/montoya_j.pdf

Alumbrado, (Spanish: “Enlightened”, ) Italian Illuminato, plural Illuminati, a follower of a mystical movement in Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries. Its adherents claimed that the human soul, having attained a certain degree of perfection, was permitted a vision of the divine and entered into direct communication with the Holy Spirit. From this state the soul could neither advance nor retrogress. Consequently, participation in the liturgy, good works, and observance of the exterior forms of religious life were unnecessary for those who had received the “light.” The Alumbrados came primarily from among the reformed Franciscans and the Jesuits, but their doctrines seem to have influenced all classes of people. The extravagant claims made for their visions and revelations caused them to be relentlessly persecuted. The Inquisition issued edicts against them on three occasions (1568, 1574, and 1623)."

https://www.britannica.com/event/Alumbrado

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Pali Buddha (“the Awakened One, the Enlightened One”), from buddha (“awakened, enlightened”), from Sanskrit बुद्ध (buddha, “awakened, enlightened”), past participle of बोधति (bodhati, “to wake, to awaken”). Distantly related to English bid and bede. Also cognate with Russian будить (buditʹ, “to wake up”)."

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Buddha

Gautama

surname of the Buddha, from Sanskrit Gotamah, properly a patronymic, literally "descendant of the greatest ox," from superlative of gauh "ox, bull, cow."

https://www.etymonline.com/word/buddha

Unam Sanctam

One God, One Faith, One Spiritual Authority

Pope Boniface VIII - 1302

Bull of Pope Boniface VIII promulgated November 18, 1302

For, according to the Blessed Dionysius, it is a law of the divinity that the lowest things reach the highest place by intermediaries. Then, according to the order of the universe, all things are not led back to order equally and immediately, but the lowest by the intermediary, and the inferior by the superior. Hence we must recognize the more clearly that spiritual power surpasses in dignity and in nobility any temporal power whatever, as spiritual things surpass the temporal. This we see very clearly also by the payment, benediction, and consecration of the tithes, but the acceptance of power itself and by the government even of things. For with truth as our witness, it belongs to spiritual power to establish the terrestrial power and to pass judgement if it has not been good. Thus is accomplished the prophecy of Jeremias concerning the Church and the ecclesiastical power: ‘Behold to-day I have placed you over nations, and over kingdoms‘ and the rest. Therefore, if the terrestrial power err, it will be judged by the spiritual power; but if a minor spiritual power err, it will be judged by a superior spiritual power; but if the highest power of all err, it can be judged only by God, and not by man, according to the testimony of the Apostle: ‘The spiritual man judgeth of all things and he himself is judged by no man‘ [1 Cor 2:15]. This authority, however, (though it has been given to man and is exercised by man), is not human but rather divine, granted to Peter by a divine word and reaffirmed to him (Peter) and his successors by the One Whom Peter confessed, the Lord saying to Peter himself, ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound also in Heaven‘ etc., [Mt 16:19]. Therefore whoever resists this power thus ordained by God, resists the ordinance of God [Rom 13:2], unless he invent like Manicheus two beginnings, which is false and judged by us heretical, since according to the testimony of Moses, it is not in the beginnings but in the beginning that God created heaven and earth [Gen 1:1]. Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.

https://www.papalencyclicals.net/bon08/b8unam.htm

THE CONFLICT: PRIORY OF SION VERSUS KNIGHTS TEMPLAR

Secret societies by virtue of their very secrecy have often kept historians at bay, and the historians, reluctant to confess their ignorance, prefer to diminish the consequence of their subject. Freemasonry.. is of vital importance to any social, psychological, cultural or political history of eighteenth-century Europe, and even to the founding of the United States; but most history books don't even mention it. It is almost as if an implicit policy obtained: If something cannot be exhaustively documented, it must be irrelevant and thereby not worth discussing I at all. Investigators of the Holy Grail' Freemasonry, French and English, as we know it today, finds its loots in two organizations of the Middle Ages - the Priory of Sion and the Order of the Knights Templar. What follows is the fascinating, if sometimes complicated and obscure history, of how these two modern, anti-Christian secular secret societies - English and French Freemasonry - developed from two groups that themselves had roots in the occult. We will see how the Priory of Sion desired to rule the world from the throne of David in Jerusalem through its counterfeit Jewish Merovingian bloodline, and how its own creation, the Knights Templar, moved beyond its role as police and protector of Sion to financial masters of medieval Europe. We will trace the alliance of Sion and the Templars, their dispute over the discovery of Solomon's treasures, and the terrible intrigues which followed that led to the undoing of the Templars in their struggle over wealth, power, and politics. We will reveal the beliefs of these two groups: that Jesus fathered children by Mary Magdalene; that a spiritual god of good (Satan) battles a material god of evil; that Lucifer, not Jesus, deserves worship; that a "Spear of Destiny" (later sought and possessed by Hitler) allows the holder to rule the world. We will also present data about the whereabouts of King Solomon's wealth, the plan to one day return it to Jerusalem, and reveal that the ultimate goal of these two groups is world government, and that their descendants, English and French Freemasonry, desire the same. The Historical Trail: The Priory of Sion and the Holy Grail In 1982 and 1986 three secular revisionist authors, Michael Baigent~ Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln published Holy Blood, Holy Grail followed by The Messianic Legacy. These two books dramatically reveal a secret order structured in the manner of Freemasonry, and founded in Europe twelve centuries before the Grand Lodge was officially formed in 1717. This order protects both the Holy Grail and the Merovingian bloodline, which bloodline carried Mystery Babylon into the Catholic Church in 496 A.D. 56 The Holy Grail, of course, is the so-called cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper. The Merovingians, owners of the Holy Grail, teach that Jesus fathered children by Mary Magdalene. The Merovingians claim to be the offspring of that "holy" union, and as such, assert they are Jews of the Davidic line.

In Revelation 17:3-5 the apostle John describes a vision, which Rev. J. R. Church in Guardians of the Grail believes is fulfilled in the Grail legend. The Whore of Babylon is holding in her hand a golden cup full of blasphemy. Church believes the cup is the blasphemous Holy Grail Another element of the Grail legend is the spear supposed to have pierced the side of Jesus, also known as the Spear of Longinus or the Spear of Destiny. Whoever possesses this spear, so the legend goes, will rule the world. The Merovingians, whose descendants are the Habsburg pretenders to the Austrian throne today, are in possession of the spear. It is on display in the Habsburg museum in Vienna, Austria~ No one, however, knows the location of the Holy Grail. At least no one is telling. Although heretical, this secret society should not be discounted, for it is alive and well today. In fact, in 1956, an Order calling itself the Prieure de Sion, or Priory of Sion, registered itself publicly for the first time with the French government. (Sion is French for Zion.) It is from this Order that the legend of the Holy Grail originated five centuries after Christ's death. Rev. Church remarks of this organization: This mysterious group is presently made up of over 9,000 men, including Protestants, Roman Catholics, Jews, and Moslems. The members of this secret sect should be considered unfaithful to their respective beliefs, for in reality they are neither Christian nor Catholic, they are neither Jew nor Moslem. Their doctrine sidesteps the basic tenets of those beliefs and replaces them with the teachings of their greatest prophet - whom they believe to be Buddha.2 From this secret order J. R. Church believes will come the Anti-Christ, for he writes, "Their ultimate goal is world government!'"

Scarlet and the Beast

by John Daniel

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zCd0nFuvnM4OYWuVW5QUBCpsTfBv5bYx/view?usp=sharing

https://www.facebook.com/billy.dunn.50767/posts/pfbid0AhR4Bb6zVtXw1RW7bL38s9G5aPmjdrTjDwhvZem3moxBZpc4KK25wss9Hj23h72rl

Pope works on signature reform from hospital as pneumonia recovery continues

March 15, 2025 / 9:05 AM EDT / AP

World

Pope works on signature reform from hospital as pneumonia recovery continues

March 15, 2025 / 9:05 AM EDT / AP

Pope Francis entered the fifth week of hospital treatment for double pneumonia on Saturday very much looking ahead as he continued work on a signature priority of his papacy and signs of his recovery remained on a positive trajectory.

Working from the Gemelli hospital, Francis has approved a three-year implementation and evaluation process for his reform project that aims to make the church a more welcoming and responsive place. The Vatican office for the synod, or gathering of bishops, released a timetable through 2028 to implement the reforms and said Francis had approved the calendar last week.

The Vatican announced Friday that it would provide medical updates on the pope less frequently, in what it called a positive development. It also has ceased issuing brief morning advisories that the pope had slept well and was starting his day.

Doctors this week said the 88-year-old pontiff was no longer in critical, life-threatening condition, but have continued to emphasize that his condition remained complex due to his age, lack of mobility and the loss of part of a lung as a young man.

A mass was held in St. Peter's Basilica Friday in honor of Pope Francis as the 88-year-old marked two milestones this week: His 12-year anniversary as pontiff and the one-month mark since he was hospitalized.

Francis was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 14 after a bout of bronchitis that made it difficult for him to speak. Doctors soon added a diagnosis of double pneumonia and a polymicrobial (bacterial, viral and fungal) infection.

The first three weeks of his hospitalization were marked by a rollercoaster of setbacks, including respiratory crises, mild kidney failure and a severe coughing fit.

But medical updates this week have focused on his continued physical and respiratory therapy, as well as the rotation from high-flow oxygen through nostril tubes during the day and a non-invasive ventilation mask at night to help ensure his rest. An X-ray this week confirmed that the infection was clearing.

With little more to report, doctors on Friday canceled a planned medical update. The next is likely to be issued later Saturday. Doctors have not indicated how much longer Francis will be hospitalized.

The pope this week participated in Lenten spiritual exercises from the hospital, which Vatican officials have said implied a lighter workload.

The only public sign of life from the pope since his hospitalization was a recorded audio message thanking people for their prayers for his recovery in a weak and labored voice. It was played in St. Peter's Square for the faithful gathered for a nightly recitation of the rosary prayer.

For the last four Sundays, the traditional blessing that the pope delivers from a window overlooking St. Peter's Square has been released as a text.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-works-on-signature-reform-from-hospital-recovery-continues/

Revelation 18:4-6

1599 Geneva Bible

4 [a]And I heard another voice from heaven say, [b]Go out of her, my people, that ye be not [c]partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues:

5 For her sins are [d]come up into heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

6 [e]Reward her, even as she hath rewarded you, and give her double according to her works: and in the cup that she hath filled to you, fill her the double.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Revelation 18:4 The second prediction, which is of the circumstances of the ruin of Babylon: of these there are two kinds: one going before it: as that beforehand the godly are delivered unto the ninth verse: the other following upon her ruin, namely the lamentation of the wicked and rejoicing of the godly, unto the twentieth verse.

Revelation 18:4 Two circumstances going before the ruin, are commanded in this place: one is, that the godly depart out of Babylon: as I mentioned, chapter 12, to have been done in time past, before the destruction of Jerusalem: this charge is given here, and in the next verse. The other is, that every one of them occupy themselves in their own place, in executing the judgment of God, as it was commanded the Levites of old, Exod. 32:27, and that they sanctify their hands unto the Lord, verses 6, 7, 8.

Revelation 18:4 Of his commandment there are two causes to avoid the contagion of sin, and to shun the participation of those punishments that belong thereunto.

Revelation 18:5 He useth a word which signifieth the following of sins one after another, and rising one another in such sort, that they grew at length to such an heap that they came up even to heaven.

Revelation 18:6 The provocation of the godly, and the commandment of executing the judgments of God, stand upon three causes which are here expressed: the unjust wickedness of the whore of Babylon, in this verse her cursed pride opposing itself against God, which is the fountain of all evil actions, verse 7, and her most just damnation by the sentence of God, verse 8.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2018%3A4-6&version=GNV

Lungs is the debut studio album by English indie rock band Florence and the Machine, released on 3 July 2009 by Island Records. After working on various projects, Florence Welch formed a band which included Robert Ackroyd, Chris Hayden, Mark Saunders, Tom Monger, and former collaborator Isabella Summers. The album features production from James Ford, Paul Epworth, Stephen Mackey, Eg White and Charlie Hugall, with additional production by band member Isabella Summers. The album has been reissued several times: an expanded version titled Between Two Lungs (2010), a digital EP subtitled The B-Sides (2011), and a Tenth Anniversary Edition (2019).

Lungs received generally positive reviews from music critics, with Welch drawing comparisons to the likes of Kate Bush and Fiona Apple. It appeared on several year-end critics' lists in late 2009. The album won the award for British Album of the Year at the Brit Awards. Commercially, Lungs reached number one in Poland and the United Kingdom, and number 14 in the US Billboard 200, selling over 3 million copies worldwide.

The album was supported by six singles, all of which were supplemented by accompanying music videos. "Kiss with a Fist" peaked at 51 in the United Kingdom while "Dog Days Are Over" and "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" also charted in Australia and Belgium. Three further singles followed the release of the album, "Drumming Song", a cover of the song "You've Got the Love", and "Cosmic Love". Their cover of the Source and Candi Staton song became the group's first top-10 entry. To promote the album, Florence and the Machine embarked on the Lungs Tour between 2008 and 2011. A live album from this concert was released in 2010, titled Live at the Wiltern.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lungs_(album)

The history of the Giglio of Florence

August 16, 2013 9:25 am 27018

Giglio of Florence: The story behind the lily that turned out not be a lily at all.

The city of Florence has proudly carried the Giglio of Florence on her coat of arms for almost a thousand years. The origin of the lily symbol however is even more ancient and can be traced back to the ruling class of the Roman Empire. It is possible that the Florentine version was derived from that symbol, but there are also other legends surrounding the origin.

One of the stories tells that Florence was founded in 59 BC by the Romans in the period of the flower celebrations in honor of the goddess Flora and another that the city was named after its founder Florinus da Cellino: Florentia (Latin for flowering).

The simplest explanation for the symbol of Florence is that it was derived from the flower that traditionally grows in the area around the city: Iris Fiorentina.

One thing is certain: the Giglio of Florence (Florentine lily) is not a lily, but a stylized iris.

This beautiful white flower was first applied to the city’s coat of arms in the 11th century; it was white on a red background. After the bloody battle between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, which ended in 1250 with a victory for the Guelphs, they switched the colors as a sign of their power, thus creating the famous symbol of the red giglio on a white background.

In the Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri describes the eve of this event as follows: ‘The lily of the flagpole was not yet reversed and not colored red by division…’

The new arm was so important to Florence that in 1252 it graced the first Florin that was ever created.

In 1811, Napoleon tried to banish the giglio from Florence, but this led to such violent protests that he soon decided to give the Florentines their beloved symbol back.

Il Giglio Fiorentino can be found on countless places in the city. On old coats of arms on historic buildings, but also on the numerous (company) logos like that of the municipality of Florence, the Fiorentina football club and the ice cream parlor around the corner from my home.

Florence and her giglio have been inseparable for 10 centuries and that is not going to change any time soon.

https://www.intoflorence.com/history-giglio-florence/

The oldest written evidence of rose cultivation comes from a tablet discussing the Akkadian king Sargon I’s military campaign to the west. Sargon brought rosebush saplings with him on the campaign so rose cultivation could begin in these newly acquired territories soon after his conquest. It was an act of supreme confidence and evidence of roses’ importance to Akkadian culture.

https://deathscent.com/2022/02/18/rosalia/

King Charles has revealed his favourite songs. Here’s the full playlist

His most-loved songs include ‘Crazy in Love’ and ‘The Loco-Motion’

Tony Jones

Monday 10 March 2025 10:50 EDT

King Charles has released his personal playlist to mark Commonwealth Day – and there are some unexpected bops among the tracks.

The playlist was released as part of The King’s Music Room, a one-off show on Apple Music 1.

It was recorded at the King’s offices at Buckingham Palace.

The playlist is eclectic and spans from disco to reggae to opera. It features artists from throughout the Commonwealth.

‘Crazy in Love’ by Beyonce and ‘The Loco-Motion’ by Kylie Minogue are among the hits.

The show sees the King share stories about meeting some of the featured artists and speak about how the songs have brought him joy.

“Throughout my life, music has meant a great deal to me. I know that is also the case for so many others,” Charles previously said.

“It has that remarkable ability to bring happy memories flooding back from the deepest recesses of our memory, to comfort us in times of sadness, and to take us to distant places.

“But perhaps, above all, it can lift our spirits to such a degree, and all the more so when it brings us together in celebration. In other words, it brings us joy.”

Charles meets Beyonce during the Fashion Rocks For The Prince’s Trust event at the Royal Albert Hall in 2003, where she performed Crazy in Love

Charles meets Beyonce during the Fashion Rocks For The Prince’s Trust event at the Royal Albert Hall in 2003, where she performed Crazy in Love (PA Archive)

Here is the full playlist:

1. Bob Marley & The Wailers – Could You Be Loved

2. Millie Small – My Boy Lollipop

3. Kylie Minogue – The Loco-Motion

4. Al Bowlly – The Very Thought of You

5. Grace Jones – La Vie En Rose

6. Raye – Love Me Again

7. Daddy Lumba – Mpempem Do Me

8. Davido – Kante (feat Fave)

9. Miriam Makeba – The Click Song

10. Jools Holland & Ruby Turner – My Country Man

11. Anoushka Shankar – Indian Summer

12. Siti Nurhaliza – Anta Permana

13. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa – E Te Iwi E (Call to the People)

14. Michael Buble – Haven’t Met You Yet

15. Arrow – Hot Hot Hot

16. Beyonce – Crazy in Love (feat Jay-Z)

17. Diana Ross – Upside Down

The King’s Music Room aired at 6am on Monday March 10 and is available on demand with an Apple Music subscription.

https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home-news/king-charles-playlist-favourite-songs-music-room-b2712009.html

"Dog Days Are Over" is a song by English indie rock band Florence and the Machine from their debut album Lungs (2009). It was originally scheduled for release on 24 November 2008 through Moshi Moshi Records in the UK as the album's second single, but was later pushed back for release on 1 December 2008. A day later on 2 December 2008 the single was released in download and seven-inch vinyl format through IAMSOUND Records in the US. The B-side to the single is a cover of "You Got the Love" by The Source featuring Candi Staton which later was confirmed as a track on their debut album and the band's fifth single. The single reached the top 30 in Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

A demo version of "Dog Days Are Over" is featured on disc two of the deluxe edition of Lungs. A six-minute, forty-second-long Optimo remix of "Dog Days Are Over" has also been made available.[4] An acoustic version of the song was performed live on BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend. The track has been performed at a great number of high-profile festivals through 2008 and 2009, including the Reading and Leeds festivals. The band also performed the song on the Mercury Prize 2009 awards show and BBC Introducing. In 2023, the song appeared in the finale of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and re-entered some charts almost 15 years after its release.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_Days_Are_Over

‘The drone corgi has made my year’: Viewers react to light show at Party at the Palace

An image of the Queen’s favourite dog breed lit up Buckingham Palace

Saman Javed

Sunday 05 June 2022 06:47 EDT

Audiences have praised the “phenomenal” drone display during BBC’s Party at the Palace on Saturday evening, which saw the sky light up with images of the Queen’s corgis, horses and a teapot.

As night fell around Buckingham Palace on Saturday 4 June and the live performances came to an end, crowds enjoyed a light show which paid tribute to some of the Queen’s hobbies and interests.

Organised by light show company SkyMagic, drones took the shape of the 96-year-old monarch’s favourite dog breed, the corgi.

The pup was pictured with its tongue out, and a bone next to one of its paws.

Other images created by the drones included the Queen’s signature Launer handbag, the number “70” with a crown in the centre of the “0”, and a union jack flag.

The show also delivered a subtle nod to the Queen’s love of horse riding and her daily afternoon tea.

The number 70 lit up over the palace

open image in gallery

The number 70 lit up over the palace (PA)

Social media users praised the display, with some declaring it the highlight of the show.

“The production values on the #PlatinumPartyatthePalace have been brilliant but the drone corgi absolutely topped it off,” one person wrote.

The Queen’s signature handbag

open image in gallery

The Queen’s signature handbag (AP)

Another said: “The drones, lighting and graphics were absolutely phenomenal during the #PlatinumPartyatthePalace. A monumental effort from all involved! What a show!”

Others expressed their delight at seeing the huge corgi.

“Shut up, it’s a giant corgi made of drones. This is absurd,” one Twitter user said.

Another wrote: “The drone corgi above Buckingham Palace has made my year.”

“There is a giant drone corgi over Buckingham Palace and this is the best country on earth,” a third person said.

The Queen’s love of corgis has been well-documented, and the dog breed has played a key role in celebrations during the 96-year-old’s platinum jubilee.

The monarch’s love affair with the corgi began in 1933. Their father – then the Duke of York – gifted the then-Princess Elizabeth and her sister, Princess Maragret, a corgi named Dookie.

Earlier this month, the Royal Family’s official Twitter account unveiled a new emoji of a crown-wearing corgi called PJ.

With his tongue sticking out, PJ wears a purple and platinum coloured-crown, and automatically appears when Twitter users use celebratory Jubilee hashtags.

https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/royal-family/drone-corgi-light-show-party-at-the-palace-b2094253.html

One of the many names for Sirius is the 'Dog Star'. Of course Sirius is the primary star of the constellation Canis Major, the large dog, but this is far from the entire story. Sirius seems to have a very ancient and a very wide spread association with dogs and wolves. The most familiar of these traditions come from ancient Rome and Greece. For example, the familiar term 'Dog Days of Summer' has a Roman origin that refers to the long hot days of late summer which the Romans associated with the arrival of Sirius in the morning sky at that time of year. The Greeks also had numerous beliefs and legends which linked dogs and Sirius. For example, on the Greek island of Ceos coins were imprinted with the image of a dog surrounded by radiant spikes, again commemorating the late summer arrival of Sirius in the morning sky.

A 3rd Century BC coin from Ceos showing a canine Sirius (Sear 3079, Michael Molnar Collection)

There are other much older traditions of Sirius and dogs which originate in places seeming unrelated to Greece and Rome. For example, the ancient Chinese called Sirius Tsien Lang, the 'Heavenly Wolf'. It was associated with an old constellation called the Bow and Arrow, with the arrow pointed at Sirius, the wolf. This same constellation, with virtually the same stars, was also known in ancient Mesopotamia, where Sirius had names associated with dogs. Perhaps most intriguing of all such traditions is found among many of the native peoples of North America. Here there exist a remarkable number of occurrences of names for Sirius and legends about the star having to do with dogs and wolves. A few examples include: 'Moon Dog' (Alaskan Inuit); 'dog-face' (Blackfoot); 'Wolf Star' (Pawnee); and 'Wolf that hangs by the side of Heaven' (Northern Osage). Such appellations are not universal, many counter examples exist from other Native American groups. Nevertheless, it is intriguing to wonder if perhaps many of these canine-related names and stories involving Sirius could have a common origin from some long forgotten source on the Eurasian Continent, perhaps as long ago as the last Ice Age. Then again it could all be coincidence, we will probably never know.

Further Reading:

Chapter 2 Dog Star in Sirius: The Brightest Diamond in the Night Sky

Miller, Dorcus, S. 1997, Stars of the First People; Native American star myths and constellations, Pruett

Allen, Richard Hinckley, 1963, Star Names Their Lore and Meaning, Dover Publications, 117-129

http://vega.lpl.arizona.edu/sirius/A1.html

EX-MAID: DIANA IS BURIED IN FORMER DOG CEMETERY

PUBLISHED: July 7, 1998 at 4:00 a.m. | UPDATED: July 29, 2021 at 9:16 p.m.

LONDON – Princess Diana is buried on land used for years as a pet cemetery and known to the staff at her childhood home as “Dog Island,” a former housekeeper for her family said in an article published on Monday. The leafy Oval Island at Althorp, the Spencer family’s rural estate, was used as a place to bury hunting dogs that belonged to Diana’s grandfather Jack, Maudie P ...

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1998/07/07/ex-maid-diana-is-buried-in-former-dog-cemetery/

Anubis (/əˈnjuːbɪs/;[3] Ancient Greek: Ἄνουβις), also known as Inpu, Inpw, Jnpw, or Anpu in Ancient Egyptian (Coptic: ⲁⲛⲟⲩⲡ, romanized: Anoup), is the god of funerary rites, protector of graves, and guide to the underworld, in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head.[4]

Like many ancient Egyptian deities, Anubis assumed different roles in various contexts. Depicted as a protector of graves as early as the First Dynasty (c. 3100 – c. 2890 BC), Anubis was also an embalmer. By the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BC) he was replaced by Osiris in his role as lord of the underworld. One of his prominent roles was as a god who ushered souls into the afterlife. He attended the weighing scale during the "Weighing of the Heart", in which it was determined whether a soul would be allowed to enter the realm of the dead. Anubis is one of the most frequently depicted and mentioned gods in the Egyptian pantheon; however, few major myths involved him.[5]

Anubis was depicted in black, a color that symbolized regeneration, life, the soil of the Nile River, and the discoloration of the corpse after embalming. Anubis is associated with Wepwawet, another Egyptian god portrayed with a dog's head or in canine form, but with grey or white fur. Historians assume that the two figures were eventually combined.[6] Anubis' female counterpart is Anput. His daughter is the serpent goddess Kebechet.

Name

"Anubis" is a Greek rendering of this god's Egyptian name.[7][8] Before the Greeks arrived in Egypt, around the 7th century BC, the god was known as Anpu or Inpu. The root of the name in ancient Egyptian language means "a royal child." Inpu has a root to "inp", which means "to decay." The god was also known as "First of the Westerners," "Lord of the Sacred Land," "He Who is Upon his Sacred Mountain," "Ruler of the Nine Bows," "The Dog who Swallows Millions," "Master of Secrets," "He Who is in the Place of Embalming," and "Foremost of the Divine Booth."[9] The positions that he had were also reflected in the titles he held such as "He Who Is upon His Mountain," "Lord of the Sacred Land," "Foremost of the Westerners," and "He Who Is in the Place of Embalming."[10]

In the Old Kingdom (c. 2686 BC – c. 2181 BC), the standard way of writing his name in hieroglyphs was composed of the sound signs inpw followed by a jackal[a] over a ḥtp sign:[14]

i n

p w C6

A new form with the jackal on a tall stand appeared in the late Old Kingdom and became common thereafter:[14]

i n

p w E16

Anubis' name jnpw was possibly pronounced [aˈna.pʰa(w)], based on Coptic Anoup and the Akkadian transcription ⟨a-na-pa⟩ (𒀀𒈾𒉺) in the name <ri-a-na-pa> "Reanapa" that appears in Amarna letter EA 315.[15][16] However, this transcription may also be interpreted as rˁ-nfr, a name similar to that of Prince Ranefer of the Fourth Dynasty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubis

2030: The Year of the Metal Dog

In addition to being associated with a zodiac animal, each new lunar year also aligns with one of the five traditional Chinese elements. These elements are known in Chinese as the 五行 (wǔxíng).

While we won’t delve into the details of this aspect of zodiac philosophy due to its complexity, keep in mind that each lunar year consists of a combination of 10 heavenly stems (干 gàn) and 12 earthly branches (支 zhī). These unite to form a system of 60 stem-branch combinations. Each combination is symbolized by one of the five elements (fire, water, wood, metal and earth).

According to this system, 2030 is the Year of the Metal Dog.

For anyone interested in diving deeper into doctrines of Chinese astrology, the internet provides a great database of resources for continued study.

https://studycli.org/chinese-zodiac/year-of-the-dog/

The Wandering Jew (occasionally referred to as the Eternal Jew, an antisemitic calque from German "der Ewige Jude") is a mythical immortal man whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century.[a] In the original legend, a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion was then cursed to walk the Earth until the Second Coming. The exact nature of the wanderer's indiscretion varies in different versions of the tale, as do aspects of his character; sometimes he is said to be a shoemaker or other tradesman, while sometimes he is the doorman at the estate of Pontius Pilate.

Name

An early extant manuscript containing the legend is the Flores Historiarum by Roger of Wendover, where it appears in the part for the year 1228, under the title Of the Jew Joseph who is still alive awaiting the last coming of Christ.[3][4][5] The central figure is named Cartaphilus before being baptized later by Ananias as Joseph.[6] The root of the name Cartaphilus can be divided into kartos and philos, which can be translated roughly as "dearly" and "loved", connecting the legend of the Wandering Jew to "the disciple whom Jesus loved".[7]

At least from the 17th century, the name Ahasver has been given to the Wandering Jew, apparently adapted from Ahasuerus (Xerxes), the Persian king in the Book of Esther, who was not a Jew, and whose very name among medieval Jews was an exemplum of a fool.[8] This name may have been chosen because the Book of Esther describes the Jews as a persecuted people, scattered across every province of Ahasuerus' vast empire, similar to the later Jewish diaspora in countries whose state and/or majority religions were forms of Christianity.[9]

A variety of names have since been given to the Wandering Jew, including Matathias, Buttadeus and Isaac Laquedem, which is a name for him in France and the Low Countries in popular legend as well as in a novel by Dumas. The name Paul Marrane (an anglicized version of Giovanni Paolo Marana, the alleged author of Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy) was incorrectly attributed to the Wandering Jew by a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article, yet the mistake influenced popular culture.[10] The name given to the Wandering Jew in the spy's Letters is Michob Ader.[11]

The name Buttadeus (Botadeo in Italian; Boutedieu in French) most likely has its origin in a combination of the Vulgar Latin version of batuere ("to beat or strike") with the word for God, deus. Sometimes this name is misinterpreted as Votadeo, meaning "devoted to God", drawing similarities to the etymology of the name Cartaphilus.[7]

Where German or Russian is spoken, the emphasis has been on the perpetual character of his punishment, and thus he is known there as Ewiger Jude and vechny zhid (вечный жид), the "Eternal Jew". In French and other Romance languages, the usage has been to refer to the wanderings, as in le Juif errant (French), judío errante (Spanish) or l'ebreo errante (Italian), and this has been followed in English from the Middle Ages as the Wandering Jew.[5] In Finnish, he is known as Jerusalemin suutari ("Shoemaker of Jerusalem"), implying he was a cobbler by his trade. In Hungarian, he is known as the bolyongó zsidó ("Wandering Jew" but with a connotation of aimlessness).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_Jew

A famous Jesuit General Michael Angelo Tambourini once boasted, in 1720, to the Duke of Brissac: " See, My Grace [my Lord], from this room, I govern not only Paris, but China; not only China, but the whole world, without anyone knowing how it is managed."

"Andrew Steinmetz, History of the Jesuits, Vol. 1 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Lea and Blanchard Publ.,/New York: Richard Bentley, 1848), pp.107, 168-169; see also, Constitution of the Jesuits, edited by Paris Paulin (1843); Eugene Sue (Marie Joseph), The Wandering Jew, (London: Chapman and Hall, 1844/ New York; Harper & Brothers,, 1845), Bk I, Chap. XV, P. 183; see also, p. 618, and Bk. II, p. 21; Abrige de I'Hist. Eccles. de Racine, Chap. xii. P. 77." page 129 Chapter XII "Unhesitating Obedience: The General And The Holy Office" Codeword Barbelon book One by P.D. Stuart

"Steinmetz was fourteen years a Jesuit; see also, Constitutions of the Jesuits, ed. by P. Paulin (1843); Morale Pratique Des Jesuites: Histoire De La Persecution De deux Saints, Vol. I (Cologne, 1669), pp. 50 and 51." "Epilogue-For Such A Time As This"

Pope Francis Lord of the World by P.D. Stuart

Dracula 2000 (also known as Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000 and internationally as Dracula 2001)[3] is a 2000 American vampire film co-written and directed by Patrick Lussier and produced by Joel Soisson. Starring Gerard Butler in the title role along with Christopher Plummer, Jonny Lee Miller, Justine Waddell, Omar Epps, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Jeri Ryan and Jennifer Esposito, the plot follows Dracula, who arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana in the 21st century and seeks out Mary Heller, the daughter of Abraham Van Helsing.

Dracula 2000, under its promotional title Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000, builds upon Bram Stoker's original 1897 novel Dracula, with Count Dracula resurrected in contemporary America. The film was a critical and commercial failure, though two direct-to-video sequels, both written and directed by Lussier, were produced.

Plot

In 2000 London, Matthew Van Helsing, a descendant of 19th-century physician Abraham Van Helsing, owns an antique shop built over the site of Carfax Abbey. One night, Van Helsing's secretary, Solina, her boyfriend Marcus, and their companions Trick, Nightshade, Dax, and Eddie break into the shop's underground vault, believing it must contain valuables. Instead, they discover a sealed silver coffin. While attempting to open the coffin, Eddie and Dax are impaled by spikes, spraying the coffin with blood and alerting Van Helsing to their presence. Assuming the coffin must contain his valuables, the group escapes with it aboard a plane to New Orleans, and Van Helsing arranges a flight to pursue them, unwittingly accompanied by his apprentice, Simon Sheppard.

Aboard their plane, Nightshade unlocks the coffin, revealing the withered body of Dracula. Having been awakened by the blood on his coffin, Dracula attacks and vampirizes Solina and her group. Rejuvenated, Dracula has a vision of a young woman, Mary Heller, who simultaneously sees him. After the plane crashes in a Louisiana swamp, the seemingly deceased passengers are taken to a makeshift morgue, while Dracula vampirizes Valerie Sharpe, a presenter reporting on the crash. He then travels to New Orleans to find Mary. Estranged from her family, Mary has recently been experiencing vivid dreams about Dracula, unaware of who he is.

Van Helsing and Simon arrive in New Orleans and destroy most of Dracula's newborn vampires. Afterward, Van Helsing confesses to Simon that he is the Abraham Van Helsing, who defeated Dracula in 1897, and has extended his own life by regularly injecting Dracula's blood. In the century since, Van Helsing has failed to find a method of permanently killing Dracula. All that is known, is that Dracula is enraged by God and Christian iconography, and has a vulnerability to silver. Van Helsing also reveals that Mary is his daughter. She was conceived after Van Helsing began his injections and thus shares a connection to Dracula. Van Helsing's wife left with Mary after learning of what he had done.

Dracula is led to Mary's home by her friend Lucy, whom he seduces and vampirizes. There, he later confronts and kills Van Helsing. On her return, Mary finds her father's bloodied corpse and is ambushed by Dracula and his brides: Solina, Valerie, and Lucy. Simon arrives just in time to save her from Dracula's beast form. The pair briefly escape into a church cemetery, but Dracula soon catches and abducts Mary. Dracula explains that he has spent centuries searching for someone like him, but born rather than vampirized like his thralls.

On a rooftop, Dracula transforms Mary and reveals that he is Judas Iscariot, the Apostle who betrayed Jesus to the Romans for a bribe of thirty pieces of silver. After Jesus was crucified, Judas hanged himself in atonement at sunset, but was revived and turned into the first vampire. Dracula reveals his intent to spite Jesus by spreading his vampiric immortality to humanity and corrupting them with forbidden pleasures. Mary suggests that Dracula cannot die because he has not sought God's forgiveness, but Dracula refuses to ever submit to Jesus or God again. After Simon kills Valerie, he is subdued by Solina and Lucy and brought to Dracula, who offers his blood to Mary. She feigns the bite before she and Simon kill the remaining brides, and stab Dracula to avenge her father.

An enraged Dracula attacks Mary, who wraps some retaining cable from a large crucifix around his neck and drags him over the roofedge. As dawn breaks, and Dracula looks up at the image of Jesus on the crucifix, the sunlight immolates him. He releases Mary from her vampirism before perishing. Sometime later, Mary has taken her father's role guarding Dracula's remains, to ensure that he remains dead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_2000

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (or simply New Moon) is a 2009 American romantic fantasy film directed by Chris Weitz from a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the 2006 novel New Moon by Stephenie Meyer.[2] The sequel to Twilight (2008), it is the second installment in The Twilight Saga film series. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black, respectively.[3]

Summit Entertainment announced it had greenlit the film on November 22, 2008, following the early success of Twilight.[4] Principal photography began on March 23, 2009, in Vancouver, Canada,[5][6][7] and ended in Montepulciano, Italy on May 29.[8][9]

The Twilight Saga: New Moon premiered in Los Angeles on November 16, 2009, and was theatrically released in the United States on November 20, by Summit Entertainment. The film received mixed to unfavorable reviews from critics, who criticized its story, pacing, Weitz' direction, its darker tone, and Lautner's performance, but praised its visual effects, Pattinson and Stewart's performances, and Desplat's musical score.[10][11] Despite the reviews, it grossed $711 million worldwide, becoming the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2009. It set domestic box office records as the biggest midnight opening in the United States and Canada, grossing $26.3 million, which was superseded by its sequel, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. This led to the highest single-day domestic gross on an opening day, with $72.7 million,[12] until it was beaten by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011).[13] The film also became the widest independent release, playing in 4,024 theaters, until it was surpassed by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.[14] New Moon was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on March 20, 2010.[15] As of July 2012, the film has grossed $184.9 million in North American DVD sales, selling more than 8.8 million units,[16] four million of which were sold within its first weekend, beating Twilight's 3.8 million units sold in its first two days.[17]

The film received three sequels, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, in 2010, 2011, and 2012, respectively.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twilight_Saga:_New_Moon

April 2030 - Moon Phase Calendar

This is a calendar of future Moon Phases that will occure in 5 years and 1 month . The month will begin on Monday, April 1st with a Waning Crescent phase that will be 1.0% illuminated. Explore this April Moon Phase Calendar by clicking on each day to see detailed information on that days phase. Also see more information about the Full Moon and New Moon in April 2030 including local viewing times.

https://www.moongiant.com/calendar/april/2030/

The Arab Spring (Arabic: الربيع العربي, romanized: ar-rabīʻ al-ʻarabī) or the First Arab Spring (to distinguish from the Second Arab Spring) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation.[1][2] From Tunisia, the protests then spread to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Rulers were deposed (Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia in 2011, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya in 2011, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in 2011, and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen in 2012) or major uprisings and social violence occurred including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests took place in Djibouti, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.[3] A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām! (Arabic: الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام, lit. 'the people want to bring down the regime').[4]

The wave of initial revolutions and protests faded by mid-2012, as many Arab Spring demonstrations were met with violent responses from authorities,[5][6][7] pro-government militias, counterdemonstrators, and militaries. These attacks were answered with violence from protesters in some cases.[8][9][10] Multiple large-scale conflicts followed: the Syrian civil war;[11][12] the rise of ISIL,[13] insurgency in Iraq and the following civil war;[14] the Egyptian Crisis, election and removal from office of Mohamed Morsi, and subsequent unrest and insurgency;[15] the Libyan Crisis; and the Yemeni crisis and subsequent civil war.[16] Regimes that lacked major oil wealth and hereditary succession arrangements were more likely to undergo regime change.[17]

A power struggle continued after the immediate response to the Arab Spring. While leadership changed and regimes were held accountable, power vacuums opened across the Arab world. Ultimately, it resulted in a contentious battle between a consolidation of power by religious elites and the growing support for democracy in many Muslim-majority states.[18] The early hopes that these popular movements would end corruption, increase political participation, and bring about greater economic equity quickly collapsed in the wake of the counter-revolutionary moves by foreign state actors in Yemen,[19] the regional and international military interventions in Bahrain and Yemen, and the destructive civil wars in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen.[20]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations members in 2015, created 17 world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They were created with the aim of "peace and prosperity for people and the planet..."[1][2][3] – while tackling climate change and working to preserve oceans and forests. The SDGs highlight the connections between the environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainable development. Sustainability is at the center of the SDGs.[4][5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goals

Elon Musk: “We’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction.”

Eric Berger – Jan 3, 2025 9:28 AM | 1.1k

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/01/elon-musk-were-going-straight-to-mars-the-moon-is-a-distraction/

Spring 2030 in United States

Spring Starts: Wednesday, Mar 20 6:51 am PDT

https://www.calendardate.com/spring_2030.htm

Easter in 2030

Date: April 21, 2030

Day: Sunday

Historical Basis for Believing Jesus was Crucified in AD 30

by Avatar photoJim Liles

6 years ago

[Editor’s note: I asked Jim for clarification on his belief about this since I’ve encountered people equally sure of the years 29, 30, and 33 AD for the death and resurrection of Christ. This article is his response.

Although such a topic may seem far afield from our usual creation vs. evolution discussions, it is still at the intersection of the Bible and science. It may not change anything about how you interact with others, but it can strengthen your confidence that we have not believed cleverly devised fables, but historically verifiable reality!]

Is 30 AD the Year of the Crucifixion?

To answer this question, I will combine information from Scripture as well as extra-biblical material on which there is much, but not total, agreement. Let’s begin with the year of Jesus birth:

Year of Birth: We know from Scripture that Jesus is born at the time of the first Roman census (Luke 2:1-2Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)) when Quirinius was Governor of Syria. A review of Roman documents describe this time frame as late October or November of 5 BC. We know that the second census, 10 years later, was in 6 AD at the same time of year when Caesar Augustus ruled.

Year of Baptism: This birth date above would mean that Jesus was 12 years old at Passover in 9 AD as described in Luke 2:41-52Open in Logos Bible Software (if available). From these two dated events we can determine that Jesus is about 33.5 years old twenty-one years later at Passover in 30 AD. This is consistent with the Baptism of Jesus in August or September of 26 AD, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius (Luke 3:1-23Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)) whose reign began in July of 11 AD. This is followed by a public ministry lasting a little over three-and-a-half years ending on Passover in 30 AD.

Date of Crucifixion: The year of the Crucifixion is confirmed by several historians due to the darkness that occurred from noon until 3:00 PM on Nisan 14-Passover in 30 AD. It is important to note that the term ‘Passover’ can refer to Nisan 14, the Preparation for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or Nisan 15-the first day of seven for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The historians Phlegon, Thallus, Africanus and Tertullian all mention this three hour period of darkness that does not have a scientific explanation. It was neither a lunar or solar eclipse for many reasons. Eclipses do not last three hours and cannot happen during the full moon of Passover.

Julius Africanus, writing about the historian Thallus states:

Upon the whole world there came a most fearful darkness. Many rocks were split in two by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down.

It seems very unreasonable to me that Thallus, in the third book of his histories, would try to explain away this darkness as an eclipse of the sun. For the Jews celebrate their Passover on the 14th day according to the moon, and the death of our Saviour falls on the day before the Passover. But an eclipse of the sun can only take place when the moon comes under the sun, how then could an eclipse have occurred when the moon is directly opposite the sun? (Scientifically it is impossible to have a full moon on the same day that there is an eclipse of the sun.)

The Roman historian Phlegon is mentioned by Origen who describes a darkening of the sun in the eighteenth year of Tiberius on Nisan 14-Passover which would be 30 AD. A few people have used this Roman history report stating the year of the Crucifixion is 33 AD. They mistakenly start Tiberius’ reign in 14 AD after the death of Augustus instead of the start of his joint reign in 11 AD.

On the Gregorian-Hebrew solar calendar found in ESC, the date of the Crucifixion is Friday April 5-Nisan 14, 30 AD. On this Hebrew solar calendar Nisan 14-Passover always falls on April 5 in a non-leap year and April 3 in a leap or special year on the Gregorian calendar we use today. This is clearly new information about the accuracy and inerrancy of the specific dates in Scripture.

This type of assessment of the Bible’s accuracy was only possible in recent years with computers, Excel spreadsheets, Bible software, and calendar converters like www.rosettacalendar.com.

Resources:

ESC = Earth’s Sacred Calendar: The Dated Events of the Old Testament by Jim Liles; Pub 2014.

CARM: Is there non-biblical evidence of a day of darkness at Christ’s death?

Bible History.net The Crucifixion Darkness

https://thecreationclub.com/historical-basis-for-believing-jesus-was-crucified-in-ad-30/

14We ought to act on the principle that everyone who lives under obedience should let himself be carried and directed by Divine Providence through the agency of the superior 15as if he were a lifeless body, which allows itself to be carried to any place and treated in any way; or an old man s staff, which serves at any place and for any purpose in which the one holding it in his hand wishes to employ it. 16For in this way the obedient man ought joyfully to employ himself in any task in which the superior desires to employ him in aid of the whole body of the religious order; 17and he ought to hold it certain that by so doing he conforms himself with the divine will more than by anything else he could do while following his own will and different judgment.[3]"

page 221

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Fourteenth Rule. Although there is much truth in the assertion that no one can save himself without being predestined and without having faith and grace; we must be very cautious in the manner of speaking and communicating with others about all these things.

The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YC_luOfFWl0Bm0BWkbANKZGC1kkmdHQf/view?usp=sharing

AI Overview

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When someone says "2000 years of age," it means a period of time spanning 2,000 years, often used in historical or astrological contexts to refer to a specific era or "age" like the "Age of Pisces" which is considered to have lasted for 2,000 years in some interpretations.

Key points about "2000 years of age":

Astrological usage:

In astrology, different "ages" are associated with different zodiac signs, and each age is often calculated as lasting around 2,000 years based on the Earth's axial precession.

Example:

Currently, many astrologers consider the "Age of Aquarius" to be starting around the year 2000, signifying a new era.

Not perfectly accurate:

While 2,000 years is often used for simplicity, the actual length of an astrological age based on precession is closer to 2,160 years.

https://www.google.com/search?q=age+meaning+2000+years&sca_esv=813837a4ab300c6b&sxsrf=ADLYWIIlFsM6w2q46pw2FDIKPtl6eHh4KA%3A1735980154611&ei=evR4Z4uCJdejkPIP2Oay2A4&ved=0ahUKEwiLp8-D1tuKAxXXEUQIHVizDOsQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=age+meaning+2000+years&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiFmFnZSBtZWFuaW5nIDIwMDAgeWVhcnMyCBAAGIAEGKIEMggQABiABBiiBDIIEAAYgAQYogQyCBAAGIAEGKIEMggQABiABBiiBEjKEVCTCVjSDXACeAGQAQCYAW6gAf8CqgEDMy4xuAEDyAEA-AEBmAIGoAKRA8ICChAAGLADGNYEGEfCAggQABgHGAgYHsICCBAAGAgYDRgewgILEAAYgAQYhgMYigXCAgoQIRigARjDBBgKmAMAiAYBkAYIkgcDNS4xoAfoFA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

2030-2031 APPARITION CHARACTERISTICS

Another general rule for predicting oppositions of Mars is from the following: the planet has an approximate 15.8-year periodic opposition cycle, which consists of three or four Aphelic oppositions and three consecutive Perihelic oppositions. Perihelic oppositions are also called "favorable" because the Earth and Mars come closest to each other on those occasions. We sometimes refer to this as the seven Martian synodic periods. This cycle is repeated every 79 years (± 4 to 5 days) and, if one were to live long enough, one would see this cycle nearly replicated in approximately 284 years. The 2031 Mars apparition is considered Transitional (between Aphelic and Perihelic) because the orbital longitude at opposition will be 68.4° from the aphelion longitude of 70° Ls and 111.6° Ls from perihelion (250° Ls).

NOTE: Ls is the planetocentric longitude of the Sun along the ecliptic of Mars’ sky. 0° Ls is defined as that point where the Sun crosses the Martian celestial equator from south to north, that is the planet’s northern hemisphere vernal equinox. The other Ls values that define the beginnings of Martian northern hemisphere seasons are: summer, 90° Ls; autumn, 180° Ls; and winter, 270° Ls. For Mars’ southern hemisphere these values represent the opposite seasons. Distance (A.U.) - Distance from Earth to Mars in astronomical units, where one (1) A.U. equals 92,955,807.267 miles or 149,597,870.691 km.

Opposition occurs 11 months after conjunction when Mars is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. At that time, the two planets will lie nearly in a straight line with respect to the Sun, or five weeks after retrogression begins. Opposition will occur at 1157 UT on May 04, 2031 (138.4° Ls) with an apparent planetary disk diameter of 16.7 arcsec. Mars will remain visible for more than twelve months after opposition and then become lost in the glare of the Sun around May 31, 2032 as it approaches the next conjunction (July 11, 2032). The cycle is complete in 780 Earth days.

Closest approach occurs at 0350 UT on May 12, 2031 (142.1° Ls) with an apparent planetary disk diameter of 16.9 at a distance of 0.5533578 astronomical units (AU) or 51,437,823 miles (82,781,152 km). During closest approach in 2031 the apparent diameter of Mars will be 2.4 arcsec larger than it was at the same period in 2029; however, it will be 17.1 degrees lower in the sky - not quite as good for observing the Red Planet for observers in the northern hemisphere. It should also be noted that closest approach between Earth and Mars is not necessarily coincident with the time of opposition but varies by as much as two weeks.

https://www.alpo-astronomy.org/jbeish/2031_MARS.htm

King Charles III's coronation to feature shards of "True Cross" gifted by Pope Francis

By Haley Ott

April 21, 2023 / 4:24 AM EDT / CBS News

Pope Francis has given King Charles III two shards of wood that the Vatican says are from the "True Cross" on which Jesus Christ was crucified, to be included in the British monarch's upcoming coronation ceremony. The shards will be incorporated into a new cross that will lead the coronation procession on May 6.

The new cross, which was a gift from then-Prince Charles to the Church in Wales, a branch of the Anglican Church, to mark its centenary in 2020, has been made from reclaimed wood, recycled silver and Welsh slate, the Reuters news agency reported. The two small shards donated by Pope Francis have been shaped into a cross and incorporated behind a gemstone.

King Charles III's coronation: What to know for the centuries-old ceremony

"I can confirm that the fragments of the relic of the True Cross were donated by the Holy See in early April, through the Apostolic Nunciature, to His Majesty King Charles III, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, as an ecumenical gesture on the occasion of the centenary of the Anglican Church in Wales," the Holy See press office said Thursday.

After the coronation, the cross will return to Wales, where it will be shared between the Anglican and Catholic churches there, Reuters reported.

"Its design speaks to our Christian faith, our heritage, our resources and our commitment to sustainability," Andrew John, the Anglican Archbishop of Wales, said, according to Reuters. "We are delighted too that its first use will be to guide their majesties into Westminster Abbey at the Coronation Service."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/king-charles-coronation-pope-francis-true-cross/

Elon Musk: “We’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction.”

What to make of Musk's comments that are critical of NASA's lunar plans?

Eric Berger – Jan 3, 2025 9:28 AM

Although SpaceX founder Elon Musk is known for outspokenness and controversial comments on his social media site X, he has been relatively restrained when it comes to US space policy in recent years.

For example, he has rarely criticized NASA or its overall goal to return humans to the Moon through the Artemis Program. Rather, Musk, who has long preferred Mars as a destination for humans, has more or less been a team player when it comes to the space agency's lunar-focused plans.

This is understandable from a financial perspective, as SpaceX has contracts worth billions of dollars to not only build a Human Landing System as part of NASA's Artemis Program but also to supply food, cargo, and other logistics services to a planned Lunar Gateway in orbit around the Moon.

But privately, Musk has been critical of NASA's plans, suggesting that the Artemis Program has been moving too slowly and is too reliant on contractors who seek cost-plus government contracts and are less interested in delivering results.

Silent on policy no longer

During the last 10 days, Musk has begun airing some of these private thoughts publicly. On Christmas Day, for example, Musk wrote on X, "The Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient, as it is a jobs-maximizing program, not a results-maximizing program. Something entirely new is needed."

Then, on Thursday evening, he added this: "No, we’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction."

These are definitive statements that directly contradict NASA's plans to send a series of human missions to the lunar south pole later this decade and establish a sustainable base of operations there with the Artemis Program.

It would be one thing if Musk was just expressing his opinion as a private citizen. But since playing a significant part in the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States last year, Musk has assumed an important advisory role for the incoming administration. He was also partly responsible for the expected nomination of private astronaut Jared Isaacman to become the next administrator of NASA. Although Musk is not directing US space policy, he certainly has a meaningful say in what happens.

So what does this mean for Artemis?

The fate of Artemis is an important question not just for NASA but for the US commercial space industry, the European Space Agency, and other international partners who have aligned with the return of humans to the Moon. With Artemis, the United States is in competition with China to establish a meaningful presence on the surface of the Moon.

Based upon conversations with people involved in developing space policy for the Trump administration, I can make some educated guesses about how to interpret Musk's comments. None of these people, for example, would disagree with Musk's assertion that "the Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient" and that some changes are warranted.

With that said, the Artemis Program is probably not going away. After all, it was the first Trump administration that created the program about five years ago. However, it may be less well-remembered that the first Trump White House pushed for more significant changes, including a "major course correction" at NASA.

"I call on NASA to adopt new policies and embrace a new mindset," then-Vice President Mike Pence said in May 2019. "If our current contractors can't meet this objective, then we'll find ones that will." (Speaking of the vice president, it's unlikely that the National Space Council will be reconstituted under JD Vance).

To a large extent, NASA resisted this change during the remainder of the Trump administration, keeping its core group of major contractors, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, in place. It had help from key US Senators, including Richard Shelby, the now-retired Republican from Alabama. But this time, the push for change is likely to be more concerted, especially with key elements of NASA's architecture, including the Space Launch System rocket, being bypassed by privately developed rockets such as SpaceX's Starship vehicle and Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket.

Not one, but both

In all likelihood, NASA will adopt a new "Artemis" plan that involves initiatives to both the Moon and Mars. When Musk said "we're going straight to Mars," he may have meant that this will be the thrust of SpaceX, with support from NASA. That does not preclude a separate initiative, possibly led by Blue Origin with help from NASA, to develop lunar return plans.

Isaacman, who is keeping a fairly low profile ahead of his nomination, has not weighed in on Musk's comments. However, when his nomination was announced one month ago, he did make a germane comment on X.

"I was born after the Moon landings; my children were born after the final space shuttle launch," he wrote. "With the support of President Trump, I can promise you this: We will never again lose our ability to journey to the stars and never settle for second place. We will inspire children, yours and mine, to look up and dream of what is possible. Americans will walk on the Moon and Mars and in doing so, we will make life better here on Earth."

In short, NASA is likely to adopt a two-lane strategy of reaching for both the Moon and Mars. Whether the space agency is successful with either one will be a major question asked of the new administration.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/01/elon-musk-were-going-straight-to-mars-the-moon-is-a-distraction/

In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Mars (Latin: Mārs, pronounced [maːrs])[4] is the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome.[5] He is the son of Jupiter and Juno, and was pre-eminent among the Roman army's military gods. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him (Latin Martius), and in October, the months which traditionally began and ended the season for both military campaigning and farming.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_(mythology)

Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.”

That is the law of God as laid down in the beginning; that if a man shall shed blood, by man shall his blood be shed. Why? Because the blood is the life of the flesh, and is the only atonement a man can make for killing another. A murderer, by the shedding of his blood, may make some atonement for his sin; but he cannot come forth and inherit an exaltation in eternal life, he must be content with a less degree of glory. Still, as Brother Brigham taught, there is a chance for some men who have committed this great transgression if their blood be shed, and there are others who, even if they were willing to have their blood shed, could not obtain forgiveness for their transgressions. You can read about this in the revelation on celestial marriage. (Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. cxxxii,par. 26-7.) They are those who have not only been baptized into the Church of Christ, received the power of the Holy Spirit and been enlightened from on high, but have been in the most sacred places on the earth, ordained of God by His holy law, and have made special covenants in relation to that and other sins; they have been specially enlightened ; they have gone from step to step, from grace to grace, from knowledge to knowledge, and have had keys of power placed in their hands whereby, if they are faithful, they may climb to the highest pinnacle of honor and glory in the presence of our Heavenly Father, and then they turn round and commit this great transgression, the shedding of innocent blood. For them there is no forgiveness. They will be banished from the presence of God; they cannot inherit the glory which was sealed upon them, however repentant they may be; they cannot come up in the first resurrection and enter into their exaltation; but they must be cast out from the presence of God and have the everlasting penalty pronounced,

“Depart from me ye workers of iniquity.”

They will be banished from the presence of God,, which is spiritual destruction, that spiritual death which is called the “second death.”

But, there are other persons who by making thisitonement may obtain redemption—persons that have not advanced to this degree of knowledge in understanding, and whose sins are not of so* heinous a nature. Because sin is guaged by the light of the individual. The depth of man’s infamy is guaged by the degree of his light and is opportunity. He that knows much is expected to do much. Of him that knows but little, only little is expected. If a man has great light and he sins he is the greater sinner. I have heard people argue that all sin is the result of ignorance. Well, it is just the other way. Sin is rather the result of knowledge ; because a man cannot sin without some light. An idiot cannot sin, because he is responsible. It takes a responsible being to do responsible wrong. The more responsible a man is, the greater wrong he does if he commits transgression.

The greater a man’s light is, the greater is sin. The greater the light, the greater the condemnation for doing wrong. That is based upon the eternal principle of justice. From this, then, it would seem that if a man commits a sin unto death there is no redemption : if not unto death, and he pays the penalty, there is for him a chance of salvation.

This divine law for shedding the blood of a murderer has never been repealed. It is a law given by the Almighty and not abrogated in the Christian faith. It stands on record for all time that a murderer shall have his blood shed. He that commits murder must be slain. “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” I know there are some benevolent and I philanthropic people in these times who think that capital punishment ought to be abolished.

Yet I think the Lord knows better than they. Their law He has ordained will have the best results to mankind in general.

Well, is there any other sin that a man may commit which is worthy of death? I think there is. I will refer you to one in the Book of Leviticus, 20th chapter and 10th verse:

“And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and; the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”

That was the law of God in the days of Moses. It was the law of God previous to the days of Moses, as you will find by reference to the Book of 1 Genesis. It has been a law of God from the beginning. Some people have an idea that Jesus.

Christ did away with that law, and they bring up the case of the woman that had been taken in transgression. The object of the Pharisees in bringing the woman to the Savior was that they might catch Him in some way. You will find by a reading the history of Jesus Christ’s ministry on the earth that it was then as it is to-day—snares are all the time being laid to catch the servants of God. They tried to entrap Him in many ways but He was able to meet them with the wisdom of the Great God ; for the Spirit of God was given to Him without measure. The woman they brought to Him was taken in this great transgression. The Pharisees knew the law -of Moses was that she should be put to death. They inquired what Jesus had to say. He stooped down and thought a little while, then wrote with His finger on the ground and exclaimed, “Let him that is without sin cast the first stone !

”The Pharisees looked at each other and finally they slipped away. Why ? Because that was “an evil and adulterous generation.’’

Those self-righteous hypocrites were guilty of the transgression themselves, and the person to inflict the penalty justly, had to be one who was not guilty; for how could one such sinner rightly inflict the penalty upon another? Jesus Christ’s words smote them to the heart, and they slunk off and left the woman standing there. Did the sinner go free? Did Jesus say the law ought not to be inflicted? No. He asked: “Woman, where are thine accusers ?” They were gone. “Neither do I accuse thee.” It must be remembered that there must be accusers as well as judges. Jesus set a pattern which judges in these times would do well to follow. He did not act as an attorney for the prosecution or as a witness against the accused as well as a judge to pronounce the sentence. “Woman, where are those thine accusers ? * * *

Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” pages 26-27

Blood atonement, as taught by leading elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints : an address delivered in the Twelfth Ward assembly hall, Salt Lake City, October 12, 1884 (archive.org)

https://ia800408.us.archive.org/11/items/bloodatonementas00penr/bloodatonementas00penr.pdf

Should a Christian get insurance?

Answer

Christians sometimes struggle with the question of whether or not to get insurance—does a Christian with insurance demonstrate a lack of faith? This is a healthy struggle, and believers need to examine the Scriptures and come up with an answer they can defend biblically.

First, let us agree that insurance for Christians is not specifically mentioned in the Bible. If something is not specifically mentioned in the Word of God, then we must draw principles from the teaching of the whole of Scripture. Different believers may come to different personal convictions, and that’s okay. Romans 14 says that such situations call for respect of others’ convictions. Believers have a responsibility to make up their own minds (Romans 14:5). Verse 23 states that whatever we decide must be based on faith. A Christian’s getting insurance is a matter of conviction; a Christian with insurance should be personally convinced that God wants him to have insurance, and a Christian without insurance should be personally convinced otherwise.

Here are some of the biblical principles to guide us: we are to obey the authorities over us. Thus, when we are required by law to have insurance, such as auto liability, we must comply. Also, we are to take care of our families. Thus, Christians should plan ahead for the future benefit of their families, and having insurance can be a part of that. Planning ahead could also include preparing for the unforeseeable early demise of a family member. Life insurance can be seen as a lack of faith or a love of money by some, or as prudent planning and a wise stewardship of funds by others. Each person’s conditions and convictions may differ in these areas. God certainly advocates planning ahead. The story of Joseph and his wise planning not only saved the nation of Egypt but also the people of Israel and the lineage of Christ (Genesis 41).

The bottom line is we must study the Word of God and call out to Him, asking what He would have us do in this and all areas of life. God desires to provide us with wisdom (James 1:5). Hebrews 11:6 states that without faith it is impossible to please Him. This is the real question: “Will this please my Father in heaven?” Another verse to consider is James 4:17, which says that, if we have a chance to do good, we must do it, or else we sin. Another verse that addresses this issue is 1 Timothy 5:8, which states that, if we want to minister to others, we should start with our own families. A Christian can view insurance as a tool to assist him in achieving these goals.

https://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-insurance.html

SpaceX Insurance

Beyond the Horizon: HSC Insurance and the Final Frontier

Bank Street

Service Description

In an age where the realms of science fiction increasingly become science fact, HSC Insurance Limited once again demonstrates its pioneering spirit by venturing into one of the most awe-inspiring domains of human achievement: space. Embracing the challenges of the final frontier, HSC has expanded its comprehensive suite of insurance solutions to include special risks associated with goods carried by SpaceX rockets and spaceships, marking a significant milestone in the annals of general insurance.

This bold initiative by HSC Insurance is not merely an expansion of coverage; it is a testament to the company's visionary approach and its commitment to supporting the vanguard of human exploration and commerce beyond the Earth's atmosphere. With the commercial space industry experiencing unprecedented growth, fueled by the endeavors of companies like SpaceX, the need for specialized insurance solutions has never been more critical.

HSC Insurance stands at the forefront of this new era, offering bespoke insurance products designed to mitigate the unique risks associated with space travel and cargo transport. From the launch pad to the vastness of space and back, HSC provides a safety net that encompasses a wide array of potential perils, including but not limited to, launch failures, in-orbit collisions, and re-entry risks. This comprehensive coverage ensures that the pioneering spirit of space exploration and commerce can continue to soar, backed by the confidence and security that only HSC can provide.

Moreover, HSC's foray into space insurance underscores its understanding of the evolving nature of global trade and the increasing role that space travel will play in the future of human endeavors. By covering goods transported by SpaceX rockets and spaceships, HSC is not just insuring physical items; it is safeguarding the aspirations of humanity as we reach for the stars, ensuring that the monumental risks of space exploration are matched by equally robust protection.

In partnering with entities engaged in the cutting-edge field of space transport, HSC Insurance Limited is not only expanding its portfolio but also contributing to the infrastructure of a new frontier in commerce. This initiative reflects a profound belief in the potential of space to open up new pathways for trade, innovation, and cooperation across the globe and beyond.

Contact Details

level 18, 40 Bank Street, London, UK

https://www.hscinsurance.com/service-page/spacex-insurance

Solomon and 666 (revelation 13.18)

Abstract

The present article argues that 666 in Rev 13.18 is best related to the notice of Solomon receiving 666 talents of gold (1 Kgs 10.14//2 Chr 9.13), which is, in turn, an important notice of this king's wayward and unjust practices: His inordinate wealth, exploitation of his own people and eschewing of God's law.

Type

Journal article

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/23577

Published Version (Please cite this version)

10.1017/S0028688519000523

Publication Info

Bodner, K, and BA Strawn (2020). Solomon and 666 (revelation 13.18). New Testament Studies, 66(2). pp. 299–312. 10.1017/S0028688519000523 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/23577.

https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/items/e8febe87-db7c-4566-b657-0c8f5f1624e9

Who Called David’s Census—God or Satan?

Iain Duguid

3 Min Read

At first sight, David’s census, which is recorded for us in 2 Samuel 24 and in 1 Chronicles 21, provides one of the more obvious “contradictions” in the Bible. According to 2 Samuel 24:1, “Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’ ” However, 1 Chronicles 21:1 says, “Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.” So was it the Lord or Satan who was responsible for inciting David into this sin?

The first point to notice is that the Chronicler uses Samuel-Kings as his basic source material for Israel’s history, and in many places quotes it verbatim. In other places, he adds material from other sources that is not found in Samuel-Kings, while in yet others he reshapes the material in Samuel-Kings to bring out points he was particularly keen to emphasize for the sake of his particular audience.

In Samuel-Kings, the focus of the story is on the exile as the culminating judgment to the sin of multiple generations of Israelites, answering the question of the exiles, “Was the Lord not powerful enough to protect us against the Babylonian gods?” But that answer created a new concern among the exiles—that the Lord was unfairly judging one generation for the sins of previous generations: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (Jer. 31:29; Ezek. 18:2). To the contrary, the Chronicler was keen to highlight how on many occasions the Lord consistently judged sin and blessed faithfulness at the time it occurred. These two perspectives are complementary: the Lord in His patience waits long to judge His people, but His judgment never falls upon an innocent generation, because each generation is weighed down by their own sins (see Ezek. 18). Any generation can humble themselves, repent, turn to the Lord, and receive favor from Him (2 Chron. 7:14).

In one sense, David himself was responsible for numbering the people. That was not merely unwise but sinful, since the primary reason in ancient times to undertake a census was to establish the size of army a ruler could depend on in a conflict. However, David was supposed to be trusting in the Lord, not in the size of his army. If David had been trusting in God, he would have had no need for a census. As Jonathan put it so eloquently in 1 Samuel 14:6, “Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.”

Together, these passages make an important theological point: the Lord is ultimately in control of all temptations that come to us—and of those to which we give in.

The writer of 2 Samuel wanted to bring out a deeper truth, however. Even in our sinful decisions, we can do nothing other than what the Lord has determined. The Lord didn’t make David sin—He didn’t have to, since David’s sinful nature naturally led him in that direction. He simply had to remove the restraints and allow David to pursue the desires of his sinful heart. In David’s case, this sin was the result of a downward spiral into the darkness, which began with his adultery with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11. That one sin opened the door for other sins to follow, culminating in this sin, which cost the lives of seventy thousand people (2 Sam. 24:15). Yet the Lord had redemptive purposes even in allowing David to sin like this, since it was through David’s repentance over this sin that the site of the temple was identified (2 Sam. 24:18–25). Where sin abounded, grace was multiplied even more (Rom. 5:20).

The Chronicler wanted to clarify one aspect of the story, which is the role of Satan as the intermediary in this process. After all, God does not tempt people Himself (James 1:13); He is not the author of evil. Sometimes, the source is in our sinful nature, while at other times it comes from the allure of the world around us (1 John 2:16). Yet there are times, as the Chronicler notes in this case, when temptation comes from the evil one. This is not a contradiction of what 2 Samuel said, since (as Martin Luther put it) the devil is “God’s devil.” He can only color within the lines drawn for him by the Almighty, as the book of Job makes clear. Satan has no more power than the Lord allows him, and ultimately, he can do nothing other than what the Lord has purposed from the beginning (Gen. 50:20).

Together, these passages make an important theological point: the Lord is ultimately in control of all temptations that come to us—and of those to which we give in. In Luke 22:31–32, Jesus told Peter that Satan desired to sift him like wheat—that is, to subject Peter to severe temptation. However, Jesus prayed for Peter—not that he wouldn’t be tempted or wouldn’t sin, but that his temptation and failure would not destroy his faith. Satan comes against us like a roaring lion who seems ready to swallow us alive (1 Peter 5:8). But he has no more power over us than he has been given, and God’s grace is sufficient for us in the midst of our failure, just as it was for David. God is able to enhance His own glory and our good even through our greatest sins, which He uses to humble us and make us more grateful for the gospel. That is good news for great sinners like us.

This article is part of the Responding to Apparent Contradictions collection.

https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/davids-census

Romans 5

1599 Geneva Bible

5 1 He amplifieth 2 Christ’s righteousness, which is laid hold on by faith, 5 who was given for the weak, 8 and sinful. 14 He compareth Christ with Adam. 17 Death with Life, 20 and the Law with Grace.

1 Then being [a]justified by faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 [b]By whom also through faith we have [c]had this access into this grace [d]wherein we [e]stand, [f]and [g]rejoice under the hope of the glory of God.

3 [h]Neither that only, but also we rejoice in tribulations, [i]knowing that tribulation bringeth forth patience.

4 And patience experience, and experience hope.

5 [j]And hope maketh not ashamed, because the [k]love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost, which is given unto us.

6 [l]For Christ, when we were yet of no strength, at his [m]time died for the ungodly.

7 [n]Doubtless one will scarce die [o]for a righteous man: but yet for a good man it may be that one dare die.

8 But God [p]setteth out his love towards us, seeing that while we were yet [q]sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from [r]wrath through him.

10 For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life,

11 [s]And not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

12 [t]Wherefore, as by [u]one man [v]sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death went over all men: [w]in whom all men have sinned.

13 [x]For unto the [y]time of the Law was sin in the world, but sin is not [z]imputed, while there is no law.

14 [aa]But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over [ab]them also that sinned not after the like [ac]manner of the transgression of Adam, [ad]which was the figure of him that was to come.

15 [ae]But yet the gift is not so as is the offense: for if through the offense of [af]that one, many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

16 [ag]Neither is the gift so, as that which entered in by one that sinned: for the fault came of one offense unto condemnation: but the gift is of many offenses to [ah]justification.

17 [ai]For if by the offense of one, death reigned through one, much more shall they which receive that abundance of grace, and of that gift of that righteousness, [aj]reign in life through one, that is, Jesus Christ.

18 [ak]Likewise then, as by the offense of one, the fault came on all men to condemnation, so by the justifying of one, the benefit abounded toward all men to the [al]justification of life.

19 [am]For as by one man’s [an]disobedience [ao]many were made sinners, so by that obedience of that one, shall many also be made righteous.

20 [ap]Moreover, the Law [aq]entered thereupon, that the offense should abound: nevertheless, where sin abounded, there grace [ar]abounded much more:

21 That as sin had reigned unto death, so might grace also reign by righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Footnotes

Romans 5:1 Another argument taken of the effects: we are justified with that, which truly appeaseth our conscience before God but faith in Christ doth appease our conscience, and not the Law, as it was before said, therefore by faith we are justified, and not by the Law.

Romans 5:2 Whereas quietness of conscience is attributed to faith, it is to be referred to Christ, who is the giver of faith itself, and in whom faith itself is effectual.

Romans 5:2 We must here know, that we have yet still this same effect of faith.

Romans 5:2 By which grace, that is, by which gracious love and good will, or that state whereunto we are graciously taken.

Romans 5:2 We stand steadfast.

Romans 5:2 A preventing of an objection against them which beholding the daily miseries and calamities of the Church, think that the Christians dream, when they brag of their felicity: to whom the Apostle answereth, that their felicity is laid up under hope of another place: which hope is so certain and sure, that they do not less rejoice for that happiness, than if they did presently enjoy it.

Romans 5:2 Our minds are not only quiet and settled, but also we are marvelously glad and conceive great joy for that heavenly inheritance which waiteth for us.

Romans 5:3 Tribulation itself giveth us divers and sundry ways occasion to rejoice, much less doth it make us miserable.

Romans 5:3 Afflictions accustom us to patience, and patience assureth us of the goodness of God, and this experience confirmeth, and fostereth our hope, which never deceiveth us.

Romans 5:5 The ground of hope is an assured testimony of the conscience, by the gift of the holy Ghost, that we are beloved of God, and this is nothing else but that which we call faith: whereof it followeth, that through faith our consciences are quieted.

Romans 5:5 Wherewith he loveth us.

Romans 5:6 A sure comfort in adversity, that our peace and quietness of conscience be not troubled: for he that so loved them that were of no strength, and while they were yet sinners, that he died for them, how can he neglect them being now sanctified and living in him?

Romans 5:6 In time fit and convenient, which the father hath appointed.

Romans 5:7 An amplifying of the love of God towards us, so that we cannot doubt of it, who delivereth Christ to death for the unjust, and for them of whom he could receive no commodity, and (that more is) for his very enemies. How can it be then that Christ being now alive, should not save them from destruction, whom by his death he justifieth and reconcileth?

Romans 5:7 In the stead of some just man.

Romans 5:8 He setteth out his love unto us, that in the midst of our afflictions we may know assuredly, he will be present with us.

Romans 5:8 While sin reigned in us.

Romans 5:9 From affliction and destruction.

Romans 5:11 He now passeth over to the other part of justification, which consisteth in the free imputation of the obedience of Christ: so that to the remission of sins there is added moreover and besides, the gift of Christ’s righteousness imputed or put upon us by faith, which swalloweth up that unrighteousness which flowed from Adam into us, and all the fruits thereof: so that in Christ we do not only cease to be unjust, but we begin also to be just.

Romans 5:12 From Adam, in whom all have sinned, both guiltiness and death (which is the punishment of the guiltiness) came upon all.

Romans 5:12 By Adam, who is compared with Christ, like to him in this, that both of them make those who are theirs, partakers of that they have into: but they are unlike in this, that Adam deriveth sin into them that are his, even of nature, and that to death: but Christ maketh them that are his, partakers of his righteousness by grace, and that unto life.

Romans 5:12 By sin is meant that disease which is ours by inheritance, and men commonly call it original sin: for so he useth to call that sin in the singular number, whereas, if he speaks of the fruits of it, he useth the plural number, calling them sins.

Romans 5:12 That is, in Adam.

Romans 5:13 That this is so, that both guiltiness and death began not after the giving and transgressing of Moses’ Law, it appeareth manifestly by that, that men died before that Law was given: for in that they died, sin, which is the cause of death, was then: and in such sort, that it was also imputeth: whereupon it followeth that there was then some Law, the breach whereof was the cause of death.

Romans 5:13 Even from Adam to Moses.

Romans 5:13 Where there is no Law made, no man is punished as faulty and guilty.

Romans 5:14 But that this Law was not that universal Law, and that death did not proceed from any actual sin of everyone particularly, it appeareth hereby, that the very infants which neither could ever know nor transgress that natural Law, are notwithstanding dead as well as Adam.

Romans 5:14 Our infants.

Romans 5:14 Not after that sort as they sin that are of more years, following their lusts: but yet the whole posterity was corrupt in Adam, when as he wittingly and willingly sinned.

Romans 5:14 Now the first Adam answereth the latter, who is Christ, as it is afterward declared.

Romans 5:15 Adam and Christ are compared together in this respect, that both of them do give and yield to theirs, that which is their own: but herein first they differ, that Adam by nature hath spread his fault to the destruction of many, but Christ’s obedience hath by grace overflowed many.

Romans 5:15 That is, Adam.

Romans 5:16 Another inequality consisteth in this, that by Adam’s one offense men are made guilty, but the righteousness of Christ imputed unto us freely, doth not only absolve us from that one fault, but from all others.

Romans 5:16 To the sentence of absolution, whereby we are quit, and pronounced righteous.

Romans 5:17 The third difference is, that the righteousness of Christ being imputed unto us by grace, is of greater power to bring life, than the offense of Adam is to addict his posterity to death.

Romans 5:17 Be partakers of true and everlasting life.

Romans 5:18 Therefore to be short, as by one man’s offense, the guiltiness came on all men, to make them subject to death: so on the contrary side, the righteousness of Christ, which by God’s mercy is imputed to all believers, justifieth them, that they may become partakers of everlasting life.

Romans 5:18 Not only because our sins are forgiven us, but also because the righteousness of Christ is imputed unto us.

Romans 5:19 The ground of this whole comparison is this, that these two men are set as two stocks or roots, so that out of the one, sin by nature, out of the other, righteousness by grace doth spring forth upon others.

Romans 5:19 So then, sin entered not into us only by following the steps of our forefather, but we take corruption of him by inheritance.

Romans 5:19 This word, Many, is set against this word, A few.

Romans 5:20 A preventing of an objection: why then did the Law of Moses enter thereupon? that men might be so much the more guilty, and the benefit of God in Christ Jesus be so much the more glorious.

Romans 5:20 Beside that disease which all men were infected withall by being defiled with one man’s sin, the Law entered.

Romans 5:20 Grace was poured so plentifully from heaven, that it did not only countervail sin, but above measure passed it.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%205&version=GNV

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