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Explosion damages ‘American Stonehenge’

The mysterious and controversial granite monument in rural Georgia was a tourist attraction

© YouTube / WYFF News 4

A mystery-shrouded monument in the US state of Georgia was severely damaged in an explosion early on Wednesday. It was later demolished entirely, for safety reasons.

State and local authorities are investigating the incident as a bombing. The granite Georgia Guidestones were built in 1980 and featured messages for humanity in eight languages with a dedication to the “Age of Reason.”

“The preliminary information indicates that unknown individuals detonated an explosive device at around 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday, July 6th,” the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement, adding that authorities in Elbert County asked for its assistance with the investigation. The site is currently cordoned off until bomb disposal technicians can examine it.

One of the wings of the monument has been “completely destroyed” and the capstone damaged, according to Christopher Kubas, executive vice president of the Elberton Granite Association.

Helicopter footage taken by the Greenville, South Carolina-based WYFF-TV shows one of the four vertical pillars in pieces on the ground, with two major chunks missing from the horizontal slab on top of the monument.

“I am sad for the US and for the world,” said Kubas, pointing out that the monument was a major tourist attraction, with up to 20,000 people coming to visit every year.

While the messages inscribed on the monument were considered controversial by some, Kubas said they may have been meant for some future generations, “after maybe a cataclysmic event,” to avoid making the same mistakes as their ancestors.

Video released by the GBI on Wednesday evening show a silver sedan approaching the monument, and the moment of the explosion. No suspects have been identified yet.

"For safety reasons, the structure has been completely demolished," the GBI said on Wednesday evening.

Envisioned as the US version of the famous Stonehenge megalith in England, the Georgia Guidestones were carved out of local granite in 1979 and unveiled in 1980. The mystery man who commissioned the monument, who used the pseudonym Robert C. Christian, said he represented “a small group of loyal Americans,” and paid top dollar for the makers to follow his very specific plans.

The structure is located about 90 miles (140 km) east of the city of Atlanta, at an elevation of 750 feet (230m) above sea level. It was exactly 19 feet 3 inches (5.87m) tall and incorporated 107 metric tons of granite.

“Let these be guidestones to an Age of Reason,” said a smaller plaque erected off to the side. On the pillars themselves, ten messages were carved in eight languages – English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. It was not clear which languages were on the pillar that was destroyed.

The messages themselves have attracted controversy over the years. The pillars posited that the human population should not exceed 500 million for “perpetual balance with nature” and urged reproduction to be guided “wisely — improving fitness and diversity.” One new living language should unite all humanity, while all things should be ruled “with tempered reason” and personal rights should be balanced with “social duties,” among other exhortations. 

Critics have accused the monument of promoting “satanism” and anti-Christian values. One of the Republican candidates in the Georgia gubernatorial primaries in May advocated for its demolition as part of her platform. She ended up with less than 4% of the vote. 

The Guidestones have been defaced with graffiti and paint twice before, in 2008 and 2014. After the 2014 incident, the Granite Association put up surveillance cameras around the site.

A message consisting of a set of ten guidelines or principles was engraved on the Georgia Guidestones^[20] in eight different languages, one language on each face of the four large upright stones. Moving clockwise around the structure from due north, these languages were: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Traditional Chinese, and Russian.

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the Earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.

Pure Energy fine tuned

 

 

The universal/universe is constantly expanding, always renewing,incredibility awesome, fear inspiring, as for the Holy spirit, the life source is never stagnant, if a tiny faith can move mountains, image what it can accomplish at it's best ? You devout seeker's praise Him in his majestic and grandeur, exploit out his intimacy, make it personal, in all revelations. From a stand still and deep freeze, all these commotions, mind bending schemes, invokes inspiration at the core, center nerve of acute feelings.

"The black hole and the womb, are certainly identical." The gravitational pulls massive amount of stars and space matter. The womb in the same identical function pulls life giving energy, in turn a continuous renewal of life. These physical feats of phenomenal intrigues can only excite greater emotion to the poet, and enhance the wisdom to the philosopher. I pen these words, not yet spoken and if so I have not come against them in any academic literature. "The miracle of life in the womb, The miracle of light (infinite energy) in the celestial cosmos"."The black hole and the womb, are certainly identical."

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                                      JOB

38 Then God/YHWH answered Job out of the windstorm:
2 “Who is this who is obscuring my counsel
And speaking without knowledge?
3 Brace yourself, please, like a man;
I will question you, and you inform me.
4 Where were you when I founded the earth?
Tell me, if you think you understand.
5 Who set its measurements, in case you know,
Or who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 Into what were its pedestals sunk,
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7 When the morning stars joyfully cried out together,
And all the sons of God* began shouting in applause?
8 And who barricaded the sea behind doors
When it burst out from the womb,
9 When I clothed it with clouds
And wrapped* it in thick gloom,
10 When I established my limit for it
And put its bars and doors in place,
11 And I said, ‘You may come this far, and no farther;
Here is where your proud waves will stop’?
12 Have you ever* commanded the morning
Or made the dawn know its place,
13 To take hold of the ends of the earth
And to shake the wicked out of it?
14 It is transformed like clay under a seal,
And its features stand out like those of a garment.
15 But the light of the wicked is held back from them,
And their uplifted arm is broken.
16 Have you gone down to the sources of the sea
Or explored the deep waters?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
Or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?*
18 Have you understood the vast expanse of the earth?

Tell me, if you know all of this

 

Love of wisdom

Philosophy : Love of wisdom
If I embrace wisdom and stupidity, at the end both will merge/greet, but I prefer the highest wisdom, that which man have little access, and few are called. Through love and conscience I summons the highest authority in heavens, that which is personal.
I pity the lesser for their devotional absences, lacking desire, countless excuses and detachment from a spirit of sacrifice. 

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expressing the self freely is not an easy task, but being free is !

when there are options there are ways, when there are ways one defeats both, the excuses and the attachments to the cause.

 

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Poetry is the science of feelings, without the feelings there is no science.

 

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Never make a lady jealous even by error,

her zeal will burn,

some are pure fire,

some are purely devotional,

some benevolent as mothers,

some painful as thorns,

others possessive as caretakers.

 

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 I believe more in a resurrection, more then I belief I'm still alive (material)...a martyr's wish...a martyr's call. This energy is yours, there is nothing called self, that resides here in this contraption of flesh and bones, I yearn for your presence. Design a scheme for us, and I will blindly follow.

 

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Apostolic Succession

Apostolic Succession

Many links have been removed and information suppressed.

Apostolic Succession
Definition: The doctrine that the 12 apostles have successors to whom authority has been passed by divine appointment. In the Roman Catholic Church, the bishops as a group are said to be successors of the apostles, and the pope is claimed to be the successor of Peter. It is maintained that the Roman pontiffs come immediately after, occupy the position and perform the functions of Peter, to whom Christ is said to have given primacy of authority over the whole Church. Not a Bible teaching.

Was Peter the “rock” on which the church was built?
Matt. 16:18, JB: “I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it.” (Notice in the context [vss. 13, 20] that the discussion centers on the identity of Jesus.)
Whom did the apostles Peter and Paul understand to be the “rock,” the “cornerstone”?
Acts 4:8-11, JB: “Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, addressed them, ‘Rulers of the people, and elders! . . . it was by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the one you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this name and by no other that this man is able to stand up perfectly healthy, here in your presence, today. This is the stone rejected by you the builders, but which has proved to be the keystone [“cornerstone,” NAB].’”
1 Pet. 2:4-8, JB: “Set yourselves close to him [the Lord Jesus Christ] so that you too . . . may be living stones making a spiritual house. As scripture says: See how I lay in Zion a precious cornerstone that I have chosen and the man who rests his trust on it will not be disappointed. That means that for you who are believers, it is precious; but for unbelievers, the stone rejected by the builders has proved to be the keystone, a stone to stumble over, a rock to bring men down.”
Eph. 2:20, JB: “You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone.”

What was the belief of Augustine (who was viewed as a saint by the Catholic Church)?
“In this same period of my priesthood, I also wrote a book against a letter of Donatus . . . In a passage in this book, I said about the Apostle Peter: ‘On him as on a rock the Church was built.’ . . . But I know that very frequently at a later time, I so explained what the Lord said: ‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,’ that it be understood as built upon Him whom Peter confessed saying: ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,’ and so Peter, called after this rock, represented the person of the Church which is built upon this rock, and has received ‘the keys of the kingdom of heaven.’ For, ‘Thou art Peter’ and not ‘Thou art the rock’ was said to him. But ‘the rock was Christ,’ in confessing whom as also the whole Church confesses, Simon was called Peter.”—The Fathers of the Church—Saint Augustine, the Retractations (Washington, D.C.; 1968), translated by Mary I. Bogan, Book I, p. 90.
Did the other apostles view Peter as having primacy among them?
Luke 22:24-26, JB: “A dispute arose also between them [the apostles] about which should be reckoned the greatest, but he said to them, ‘Among pagans it is the kings who lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are given the title Benefactor. This must not happen with you.’” (If Peter were the “rock,” would there have been any question as to which one of them “should be reckoned the greatest”?)
Since Jesus Christ, the head of the congregation, is alive, does he need successors?
Heb. 7:23-25, JB: “Then there used to be a great number of those other priests [in Israel], because death put an end to each one of them; but this one [Jesus Christ], because he remains for ever, can never lose his priesthood. It follows, then, that his power to save is utterly certain, since he is living for ever to intercede for all who come to God through him.”
Rom. 6:9, JB: “Christ, as we know, having been raised from the dead will never die again.”
Eph. 5:23, JB: “Christ is head of the Church.”
What were “the keys” entrusted to Peter?
Matt. 16:19, JB: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.”
In Revelation, Jesus referred to a symbolic key used by himself to open up privileges and opportunities to humans
Rev. 3:7, 8, JB: “Here is the message of the holy and faithful one who has the key of David, so that when he opens, nobody can close, and when he closes, nobody can open: . . . I have opened in front of you a door that nobody will be able to close.”
Peter used “keys” entrusted to him to open up (to Jews, Samaritans, Gentiles) the opportunity to receive God’s spirit with a view to their entering the heavenly Kingdom
Acts 2:14-39, JB: “Peter stood up with the Eleven and addressed them in a loud voice: ‘Men of Judaea, and all you who live in Jerusalem . . . God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.’ Hearing this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the apostles, ‘What must we do, brothers?’ ‘You must repent,’ Peter answered ‘and every one of you must be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise that was made is for you and your children, and for all those who are far away, for all those whom the Lord our God will call to himself.’”
Acts 8:14-17, JB: “When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, and they went down there, and prayed for the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet he had not come down on any of them: they had only been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.” (Verse 20 indicates that Peter was the one taking the lead on this occasion.)
Acts 10:24-48, JB: “They reached Caesarea the following day, and Cornelius [an uncircumcised Gentile] was waiting for them. . . . Peter addressed them . . . While Peter was still speaking the Holy Spirit came down on all the listeners.”
Did heaven wait on Peter to make decisions and then follow his lead?
Acts 2:4, 14, JB: “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech. . . . Then [after Christ, the head of the congregation, had stirred them up by means of the holy spirit] Peter stood up with the Eleven and addressed them.” (See verse 33.)
Acts 10:19, 20, JB: “The Spirit had to tell him [Peter], ‘Some men have come to see you. Hurry down, and do not hesitate about going back with them [to the home of the Gentile Cornelius]; it was I who told them to come.’”
Compare Matthew 18:18, 19.
Is Peter the judge as to who is worthy to enter the Kingdom?
2 Tim. 4:1, JB: “Christ Jesus . . . is to be judge of the living and the dead.”
2 Tim. 4:8, JB: “All there is to come now is the crown of righteousness reserved for me, which the Lord [Jesus Christ], the righteous judge, will give to me on that Day; and not only to me but to all those who have longed for his Appearing.”
Was Peter in Rome?
Rome is referred to in nine verses of the Holy Scriptures; none of these say that Peter was there. First Peter 5:13 shows that he was in Babylon. Was this a cryptic reference to Rome? His being in Babylon was consistent with his assignment to preach to the Jews (as indicated at Galatians 2:9), since there was a large Jewish population in Babylon. The Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem, 1971, Vol. 15, col. 755), when discussing production of the Babylonian Talmud, refers to Judaism’s “great academies of Babylon” during the Common Era.
Has an unbroken line of successors been traced from Peter to modern-day popes?
Jesuit John McKenzie, when professor of theology at Notre Dame, wrote: “Historical evidence does not exist for the entire chain of succession of church authority.”—The Roman Catholic Church (New York, 1969), p. 4.
The New Catholic Encyclopedia admits: “ . . . the scarcity of documents leaves much that is obscure about the early development of the episcopate . . . ”—(1967), Vol. I, p. 696.
Claims of divine appointment mean nothing if those who make them are not obedient to God and Christ
Matt. 7:21-23, JB: “It is not those who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. When the day comes many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?’ Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, you evil men!”
See also Jeremiah 7:9-15.
Have the claimed successors to the apostles adhered to the teachings and practices of Jesus Christ and his apostles?
A Catholic Dictionary states: “The Roman Church is Apostolic, because her doctrine is the faith once revealed to the Apostles, which faith she guards and explains, without adding to it or taking from it.” (London, 1957, W. E. Addis and T. Arnold, p. 176) Do the facts agree?
Identity of God
“The Trinity is the term employed to signify the central doctrine of the Christian religion.”—The Catholic Encyclopedia (1912), Vol. XV, p. 47.
“Neither the word Trinity, nor the explicit doctrine as such, appears in the New Testament . . . The doctrine developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies.”—The New Encyclopædia Britannica (1976), Micropædia, Vol. X, p. 126.
“There is the recognition on the part of exegetes and Biblical theologians, including a constantly growing number of Roman Catholics, that one should not speak of Trinitarianism in the New Testament without serious qualification. There is also the closely parallel recognition on the part of historians of dogma and systematic theologians that when one does speak of an unqualified Trinitarianism, one has moved from the period of Christian origins to, say, the last quadrant of the 4th century.”—New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967), Vol. XIV, p. 295.
Celibacy of the clergy
Pope Paul VI, in his encyclical Sacerdotalis Caelibatus (Priestly Celibacy, 1967), endorsed celibacy as a requirement for the clergy, but he admitted that “the New Testament which preserves the teaching of Christ and the Apostles . . . does not openly demand celibacy of sacred ministers . . . Jesus Himself did not make it a prerequisite in His choice of the Twelve, nor did the Apostles for those who presided over the first Christian communities.”—The Papal Encyclicals 1958-1981 (Falls Church, Va.; 1981), p. 204.
1 Cor. 9:5, NAB: “Do we not have the right to marry a believing woman like the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?” (“Cephas” is an Aramaic name given to Peter; see John 1:42. See also Mark 1:29-31, where reference is made to the mother-in-law of Simon, or Peter.)
1 Tim. 3:2, Dy: “It behoveth, therefore, a bishop to be . . . the husband of one wife [“married only once,” NAB].”
Before the Christian era, Buddhism required its priests and monks to be celibate. (History of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church, London, 1932, fourth ed., revised, Henry C. Lea, p. 6) Even earlier, the higher orders of the Babylonian priesthood were required to practice celibacy, according to The Two Babylons by A. Hislop.—(New York, 1943), p. 219.
1 Tim. 4:1-3, JB: “The Spirit has explicitly said that during the last times there will be some who will desert the faith and choose to listen to deceitful spirits and doctrines that come from the devils; . . . they will say marriage is forbidden.”
Separateness from the world
Pope Paul VI, when addressing the United Nations in 1965, said: “The peoples of the earth turn to the United Nations as the last hope of concord and peace; We presume to present here, together with Our own, their tribute of honor and of hope.”—The Pope’s Visit (New York, 1965), Time-Life Special Report, p. 26.
John 15:19, JB: “[Jesus Christ said:] If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you do not belong to the world, because my choice withdrew you from the world, therefore the world hates you.”
Jas. 4:4, JB: “Don’t you realise that making the world your friend is making God your enemy?”
Resorting to weapons of war
Catholic historian E. I. Watkin writes: “Painful as the admission must be, we cannot in the interest of a false edification or dishonest loyalty deny or ignore the historical fact that Bishops have consistently supported all wars waged by the government of their country. I do not know in fact of a single instance in which a national hierarchy has condemned as unjust any war . . . Whatever the official theory, in practice ‘my country always right’ has been the maxim followed in wartime by Catholic Bishops.”—Morals and Missiles (London, 1959), edited by Charles S. Thompson, pp. 57, 58.
Matt. 26:52, JB: “Jesus then said, ‘Put your sword back, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.’”
1 John 3:10-12, JB: “In this way we distinguish the children of God from the children of the devil: anybody . . . not loving his brother is no child of God’s. . . . We are to love one another; not to be like Cain, who belonged to the Evil One and cut his brother’s throat.”
In the light of the foregoing, have those who claim to be successors to the apostles really taught and practiced what Christ and his apostles did?

 

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Impotent world police (UN) charter

The Impotent World police(UN) Charter

The bronze sculpture is a reduced version of Vuchetich’s most famous work which was given by Krushchev to the United Nations in 1959 as a gesture of peace.  It remains there today in the North Garden at the UN headquarters in New York overlooking the East River.  Along the statue reads, this prophetic scripture from the book of Isaiah 2:4 ---"He will settle disputes among the nations and provide arbitration for many peoples. They will turn their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Nations will not take up the sword against other nations, and they will never again train for war." (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

 
 "Why it (NATO) still exists in modern times, is just not clear. It is to a significant extent a throwback to the times of the Cold War," Putin said. 

"I have always believed that NATO is a Cold War atavism. It was set up at a time, when there was a bipolar system in international relations. Today, that situation has changed therefore, it is hard to understand or justify why an organization such as NATO should be existing today,” the president added.

UN Relic Symbol

World Government—Is the United Nations the Answer?

IN RECENT years the United Nations has won renewed confidence and admiration in the world. To millions the abbreviation “UN” evokes heroic images: troops in blue berets bravely rushing to the world’s trouble spots to establish peace, relief workers bringing food to the starving refugees of Africa, and dedicated men and women working unselfishly to establish a new world order.

According to a nine-month investigation undertaken by The Washington Post, as reported in the International Herald Tribune, the reality behind the image is “an enormous, largely uncontrolled bureaucracy, subject to abuses and deficiencies that impair its effectiveness.” The study, based on thousands of pages of documents and interviews with current and former UN officials, revealed the following picture.

Aid to Africa: The UN has poured billions of dollars of badly needed aid into Africa, a continent wracked by war, famine, poverty, and disease. Countless lives have been saved.

Yet, thousands of lives and millions of dollars have also been lost because of mismanagement, negligence, and, at times, corruption. The UN has pumped relief aid into famine-stricken Somalia, where many people have been dying each day. But Aryeh Neier, executive director of the Human Rights Watch, is quoted in the Tribune as saying: “The United Nations and its various organizations have been so monstrously negligent and incompetent that they have played almost no role at all in alleviating Somalia’s misery.”

The report also charged that some UN officials have been implicated in diversions of food aid, embezzlement of humanitarian assistance, fraudulent procurement, black-marketing, and currency-exchange manipulation. UN investigators found evidence of such fraud in no fewer than seven African countries.

#Worldpeace
The chief in peace leads the procession claiming 2018...the year of peace. It's not the Pope this time making such bold statement, it's the Chief of the UN. As you can see both heads are confused of who is the symbolic deity of globe peace. The symbolic gesture is an ongoing symbiotic psychosis, in which neither one can separate from the events.

Peacekeeping: Keeping the peace is a primary goal of the UN, though in the years since its founding in 1945, there have been over a hundred major conflicts, and 20 million people have been killed in war. Since 1987, however, the UN has embarked upon 13 peacekeeping operations, as many as in its entire history before then.

Prominent former head of State gives frightening details of possible act III scenerio.

While some might argue that the cost of these operations is preferable to the terrible price of war, many complain that things have gone too far. For example, peacekeeping operations drag on for decades, eating up hundreds of millions of dollars while negotiations remain deadlocked. The UN peacekeeping mission in Cambodia allocates more than $1 million for TV sets and VCRs for the troops and another $600,000 for magazine and newspaper subscriptions.

Reform: There are widespread cries for reform within the UN, but opinions vary as to what needs to be reformed. Developing countries are calling for a greater voice in the decision-making process and would like to expand economic and social programs. Industrialized nations want to cut back on these programs and end corruption, mismanagement, and waste.

Said a senior UN official: “To really reform, you have to do something that is absolutely undo-able in a bureaucracy: You have to clean the place out. To do something meaningful, you have to scrape away 45 years of barnacles, and that’s a lot of barnacles.”

 

Stauro/Crux simplex/cross

Let's together investigate the real history of this occult symbol...and why is still being used.

DID JESUS REALLY DIE ON A CROSS?

+Kimberly Shoemaker

“THE cross,” says one encyclopedia, “is the most familiar symbol of Christianity.” Many religious paintings and works of art depict Jesus nailed to a cross. Why is this symbol so widespread in Christendom? Did Jesus really die on a cross?
Many would point to the Bible for the answer. For example, according to the King James Version, at the time of Jesus’ execution, onlookers made fun of Jesus and challenged him to “come down from the cross.” (Matthew 27:40, 42) Many other Bible translations read similarly. Today’s English Version says of Simon from Cyrene: “The soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross.” (Mark 15:21) In these verses, the word “cross” is translated from the Greek word stauros′. Is there a solid basis for such a translation? What is the meaning of that original word? Was It a Cross?
 

According to Greek scholar W. E. Vine, stauros′ “denotes, primarily, an upright pale or stake. On such malefactors were nailed for execution. Both the noun and the verb stauroō, to fasten to a stake or pale, are originally to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two beamed cross.”
+Gunnar Samuelsson 

The Imperial Bible-Dictionary says that the word stauros′ “properly signified a stake, an upright pole, or piece of paling, on which anything might be hung, or which might be used in impaling a piece of ground.” The dictionary continues: “Even amongst the Romans the crux (Latin, from which our cross is derived) appears to have been originally an upright pole.” Thus, it is not surprising that The Catholic Encyclopedia states: “Certain it is, at any rate, that the cross originally consisted of a simple vertical pole, sharpened at its upper end.”
There is another Greek word, xy′lon, that Bible writers used to describe the instrument of Jesus’ execution. A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament defines xy′lon as “a piece of timber, a wooden stake.” It goes on to say that like stauros′, xy′lon “was simply an upright pale or stake to which the Romans nailed those who were thus said to be crucified.”

In line with this, we note that the King James Version reads at Acts 5:30: “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree [xy′lon].” Other versions, though rendering stauros′ as “cross,” also translate xy′lon as “tree.” At Acts 13:29, The Jerusalem Bible says of Jesus: “When they had carried out everything that scripture foretells about him they took him down from the tree [xy′lon] and buried him.”
In view of the basic meaning of the Greek words stauros′ and xy′lon, the Critical Lexicon and Concordance, quoted above, observes: “Both words disagree with the modern idea of a cross, with which we have become familiarised by pictures.” In other words, what the Gospel writers described using the word stauros′ was nothing like what people today call a cross. Appropriately, therefore, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures uses the expression “torture stake” at Matthew 27:40-42 and in other places where the word stauros′ appears. Similarly, the Complete Jewish Bible uses the expression “execution stake.”

Origin of the Cross 
If the Bible does not really say that Jesus was executed on a cross, then why do all the churches that claim to teach and follow the Bible—Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox—adorn their buildings with the cross and use it as a symbol of their faith? How did the cross come to be such a popular symbol?

The answer is that the cross is venerated not only by churchgoers who claim to follow the Bible but also by people far removed from the Bible and whose worship far pre-dates that of “Christian” churches. Numerous religious reference works acknowledge that the use of crosses in various shapes and forms goes back to remote periods of human civilization. For example, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and depictions of their gods and goddesses often show a cross in the shape of a T with a circle at the top. It is called the ansate, or handle-shaped, cross and is thought to be a symbol of life. In time, this form of the cross was adopted and used extensively by the Coptic Church and others.

According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, “the primitive form of the cross seems to have been that of the so-called ‘gamma’ cross (crux gammata), better known to Orientalists and students of prehistoric archæology by its Sanskrit name, swastika.” This sign was widely used among Hindus in India and Buddhists throughout Asia and is still seen in decorations and ornaments in those areas.

It is not known exactly when the cross was adopted as a “Christian” symbol. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words states: “By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols,” including the cross.

Some writers point to the claim by the sun-god worshipper Constantine that in 312 C.E., while on one of his military campaigns, he had a vision of a cross superimposed on the sun along with the motto in Latin “in hoc vince” (by this conquer). Some time later, a “Christian” sign was emblazoned on the standards, shields, and armor of his army. (Pictured at left.) Constantine purportedly converted to Christianity, though he was not baptized until 25 years later on his deathbed. His motive was questioned by some. “He acted rather as if he were converting Christianity into what he thought most likely to be accepted by his subjects as a catholic [universal] religion, than as if he had been converted to the teachings of Jesus the Nazarene,” says the book The

Non-Christian Cross.
Since then, crosses of many forms and shapes have come into use. For example, The Illustrated Bible Dictionary tells us that what is called St. Anthony’s cross “was shaped like a capital T, thought by some to be derived from the symbol of the [Babylonian] god Tammuz, the letter tau.” There was also the St. Andrew’s cross, which is in the shape of the letter X, and the familiar two-beamed cross with the crossbar lowered. This latter type, called the Latin cross, is erroneously “held by tradition to be the shape of the cross on which our Lord died.”
What First-Century Christians Believed

The Bible shows that in the first century, many who heard Jesus became believers and accepted the redeeming value of his sacrificial death. After the apostle Paul preached to the Jews in Corinth, proving that Jesus is the Christ, says the Bible, “Crispus the presiding officer of the synagogue became a believer in the Lord, and so did all his household. And many of the Corinthians that heard began to believe and be baptized.” (Acts 18:5-8) Instead of introducing some religious symbol or image into their worship, Paul instructed his fellow Christians to “flee from idolatry” and from any other practice drawn from pagan worship.—1 Corinthians 10:14.
Historians and researchers have found no evidence to validate the use of the cross among the early Christians. Interestingly, the book History of the Cross quotes one late 17th-century writer who asked: “Can it be pleasing to the blessed Jesus to behold His disciples glorying in the image of that instrument of capital punishment on which He [supposedly] patiently and innocently suffered, despising the shame?” How would you answer?

Worship acceptable to God does not require objects or images. “What agreement does God’s temple have with idols?” Paul asked. (2 Corinthians 6:14-16) Nowhere do the Scriptures suggest that a Christian’s worship should include the use of a likeness of the instrument used to impale Jesus.—Compare Matthew 15:3; Mark 7:13.
What, then, is the identifying mark of true Christians? Not the cross or any other symbol, but love. Jesus told his followers: “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.”—John 13:34, 35.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Posted by Raphael G at 10:25 PM

 

Clipped wings

 

The bird's wings have been clipped and made to walk grass, from the North to the East two binary creatures have taken center stage...it won't be long before a great tribulation ensues the whole humanity, this much I know. I'm under great expectation, that this maybe what the global family needs a new world coming into view and its not man-made.

 

If the Almighty God see's it fit, let your millennial reign usher forth it's glad tidings's. Let your Divine will restore the lost paradise, and the King Jesus Christ, the battle of Armageddon. We gladly pray your Kingdom come, today...tomorrow...or when it's proper in times corridor.

 

The bird's nest has been molested and comfort zone (exceptionalism) challenged...

The flightless bird dilemma are felt in multiples fronts at home and abroad, it has become greater and more pronounced, the shifting of the axis-the others (creatures of prey) swiftly rebounded and is now worth more than it was even prior to the self-impose conflict. It can no longer shelter it's offspring under its wings, and space, time, the portals corridor closing in on that high privileged. It's offspring's in dire need of scraps, while it's reserves disappears in the black hole of change and challenges.

 

From this day forth, one may infer that a great world conflict has started, how far it will prolong, I have the slightest clue. I only hope and wish humanity, the global family can wake and join the chorus of one world Government (Kingdom) through Jesus Christ.

keep your eyes on prize and stay on mission...

For the first time in modern history the East can be on equal terms with the West, as the global dominance of the US and its allies comes to an end, "former British prime minister Tony Blair" has said.

What he is really saying is that the "New World Order" headed by the Anglo-system and it's sister nations is no longer achievable. He is not the only former head of state to make this statement...back in 1979 another head of state at the UN head quarters. spoke about a New World Order, speculation, making jokes about its concepts.

Now as the wheel in the sky turns brace yourself, (Nations) of the World and its people, for greater moments are about to unleash and it never looked promising.

"Keep your eyes on the prize and stay on mission!

 

Guided Energies

Whether one realize it or not, being pick out of the masses, from the vast numbers of the global population is an exceptional wake-up call. The Almighty Divine is pure energy...we in turn are also energy. From a finger nail to a single strand of hair follicle. With that said, the selection is not by chance, the higher power to which we were created seeks out what belongs to it. Is like frequencies in the stock pile missing within itself, in order to remain fine-tuned what it attracts is in harmony with superlative Divine guidance.

 

In other words you are the missing link, I'm speaking about a heavenly father, an eternal spiritual being, an ancient King...with attributes similar to the potter's vessel. The attributes are very well defined in form of expression...LOVE, COMPASSION,KINDNESS,PATIENCE,JOY,PEACE,JUSTICE and a host of others which I fall short.

 

Yet your frequencies, vibrations and fine tuning create bridges, channel's to which their consistency correlate with those calls. Now through a selection, their is an invitation...I won't go into scriptures, my audience are above average, if not they would have abandon me long ago.

His hand is stretched open, his desire well manifested, this power is yearning to reunited with those outer bands of his own energy (Core) power plant. The King shall not be denied, the Holy spirit shall not be made contrite, and if some or many stumble crossing the bridge, remember your call !

 

Let your fight not be in vain, be self evident that together you will overcome, the greatest battles yet to come, at the end the outer bands shall be draft back to their original place and we shall join those superlative energies.

RGB

 

Concept

 

How I loved the girl of my concept,

How she vanishes in thin air,

The countless bridges, inroad, markers, I misplaced,

The concept all suitor’s hold so dear,

The concept foments ideals in a alienated chase of never ending want,

Alienated and far from truth,

The ideals that burn the foreign chase,

The suitor’s last wish,

She weaves and mends a host of broken dreams,

If dreaming means counterfeiting reality I, have done so to perfection,

My guest a stalking shadow, tossed in four directions,

If there is such thing, I shall find it.

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God's Slave girl

Sister : Ann Butler, original writing please...click on the link here, to view at my drive. A very special poetic note, by one of God's finest (servant) slave girl. 

In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”

My gratitude

• At times, our own light goes out and it is rekindled by a spark from another person...
• Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. ...
• Gratitude turns what we have into enough. ...
• Gratitude is a powerful catalyst for happiness.
  
  
  There are times expressing my deepest affections consumes me, thanks to all who have visited and share this blog. It has received a charitable amount of attention, but I just wish those inquisitive minds would exchange a few words and comments. The social web has some very great talents, and thou my writings share a common trend, I shrink not in expressing freely...and it should not be taken on a personal basis. It is me to you and vise verse, if I could only engage that audience.
  
  My gratitude to all the nations/countries who made this blog a place to reflect,reason and carrying on.
  
  USA: Much love to you !
  Israel: Much love to you !
  Ukraine: Much love to you !
  Russia: Certainly much love to you !
  Brazil: Much love to you !
  United Kingdom: Much love to you !
  France: Much love to you !
  China: Much love to you ! 
  Canada: Much love to you !
  Germany : Much love to you !
  Indonesia : Much love to you ! You have been very Generous ! Thank you, the people are to kind for the better.
  Sweden: Much love to you !
  Japan: Much love to you !
  Norway: Much love to you !
  Ireland: Much love to you !
  Philippines: Much love to you !
  Netherlands: Much love to you !
  Puerto Rico: Much love to you !
  
  Just to mention a few, but the list is very charitable, I encourage all to continue sharing and dialogue and if for any reason one hits the right notes, do message me...we can work something out. I read them at public gatherings, looking forward to do some more gigs in New York, the poets cafe, and here in Memphis, Nashville, TN.
  
  Rafael G Gonzalez
  
  
  

Jeff Foster

 Very powerful thoughts, few can reach such grandeur and invite, to superlative events only the heart can weave.

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I GIVE MYSELF TO THE SILENCE

I sink so deeply into my own Being.

I luxuriate in it.

I bathe in my own Vastness.

 

I taste my own taste. I look through my own eyes, am amazed at what I see and cannot see. I inhale through my nostrils the living day, its sweet and surprising scents and new aromas.

 

I watch in astonishment as feelings move through my body, filling my sweet and vulnerable nervous system. Joy, sorrow, clarity and confusion, they are all beloved to me. Waves of the most profound doubt, and such certainties too! Anger and fear, shame and pride, I watch them all and bless them all and laugh and cry as they move through.

As I walk through the city I rest here in myself, I rest in my own heart, I fall ever more deeply into my own Being. I am profoundly alone and profoundly connected to all of life.

 

I sense death all around me, sense the rotting and disintegration of things, sense the constant falling-away of form and the passing of dreams. The loss, the disappointments, the shattered hopes and the smashed futures! I celebrate the darkness and soften into it. I let the night touch me at my very core. I take the night as my lover.

 

I weep with the broken hearted ones, I cry to the heavens with those who have been violated, shamed, neglected, battered by the world. I celebrate the successes of men and women, and I am here by their side when they fall.

 

I am alone and I cannot separate myself from humanity.

I am nothing and I penetrate all things with love and curiosity.

I breathe in the paradox of my existence, I exhale contradiction and dissonance, my entire Being vibrates with infinite mystery, and I am happy in myself.

 

Yes, my own Being is the source of my very deepest happiness.

If this is my last day, if this is my final walk through these streets, let me pass with only gratitude on my lips, and only love in my heart, and only child-like wonder saturating my vulnerable self.

I give myself to the silence.

- Jeff Foster

IQ Test

Just wanted to tell the audience a little about myself...besides my little bio...Special thanks to all whom have frequent this blog...Indonesia much love, you are exceptional.

In a separate post I tell it like it is..Called "gratitude" thou the silence stimulates me :}

What is an exceptionally high IQ?

A Breakdown of IQ Scores...

The average score on an IQ test is 100

115 to 129: Above average or bright.

130 to 144: Moderately gifted.

145 to 159: Highly gifted.

160 to 179: Exceptionally gifted or bright

And then those who are Genius....

I have taken three IQ test in three different states, In Jersey : Above Average...that was after being discharged from the armed forces.

In Florida For Job screening, The same.

And lastly in Tennessee: That score was exceptional gifted or bright...that score is the highest.

 

Countries with highest IQ, levels 

 

Thou I have bumped my head more then the average :} Physically

I don't like boasting, as most gifted child...but the score tells how one master's information and process it. Not how one uses it...if that means nothing to you !

Hong Kong – Average IQ of 107...Is that why my blog gets so many hits ? :}

China has the spirit of innovation, none have ever contribute so much and thou Indonesia is not in the above category, they have shown lot of love in our blog and Germany.

I was under the impress that the USA would place highest...but when a population is being genetically modified through tinted foods, I was wrong.

Puerto Rico with a very small population and not the list above...look how many work for NASA....https://en.wikipedia.org/.../List_of_Puerto_Ricans_in_the...

WOW :}>}

Hello, Loneliness

 Loneliness :is an unpleasant emotional response to perceived isolation.


It's a complete misfit to utter the words I'm alone or I feel lonely,

Not a split second or heart beat goes unnoticed in that (so called) void,

There is an Omnipresence for those who invoke it,

 There is a silence that echoes like thunders,

There is an energy that fills the gaps of our immaterial soul,

We are nourished every passing seconds of those thoughts,

Insightful in hearing,

Insightful in listening,

insightful in feelings,

How can we ever be empty,

Observable creation, doesn't speak or agree with our laments, yet it fills us with images, sounds, vibrations, frequencies beyond compare.

Hello, loneliness...I have missed you from long ago,

You have vacated my invitations,

Have you not found a suitable subject,

Next time of seconds...don't feel so misplaced.

RGB

03/30/22

Rich N fame

Some of the riches and influential people in life became so through a novelty, they never plan in becoming rich or power players. They also are the happiest with that fulfillment.

 

Through hard work and foresight they reached satisfaction without burning any bridges. Others inherit great wealth and have little "experience the power it wheels,in turn becoming consumed, rather being the consumer". Money pays for all their short-comings, health, vacation(distractions) legal matters, their vanities and so forth. How about if through a process of renewing the tables were turned...this was the case of Job, a faithful servant...the contention; he is faithful because of these gains.

 

So a malediction was placed upon him, and his comfort zone completely molested. The lost was total, did he thought about ever bouncing back from such afflictions ? He had little time from such suffering latched to on him.

Through the process of renewal he praised the one having authority over all things whether spiritual or physical...little did he know about the front accusing him, envying his solid-state against ambition and wanting to usurp the authority in question.

 

Some time back when in Facebook I associated with celebrities, entrepreneurs, radio host, and others with great ambitions. Someone with celebrity status made an indirect comment that I sat on a treasure box. What he saw as a shiny gem stone, I saw as a gem for decoration. And what he saw as a gem for personal gains I saw as a gem for others, exchanging the spirit of renewal.

 

Another celebrity made a direct offer...because of my looks and physical built I would make a body guard for a movie scene as a driver.. The only problem was location...another issue, I didn’t want distractions from my personal issues. Also at the Nuyorican Poets Café, one night I met several celebrities...yes, I could have taken the turn, but only if it was novel.

 

I give you another exchange what will be the outcome of countless millionaires multi-millionaires and billionaires, who hoard the worlds wealth? The front’ will be center stage contesting the fabric of those vanities, surely there is no way out !

From riches and fame, to a complete turn around.

 

https://www.rt.com/news/566411-ftx-cryptocurrency-assets-vanish/ 

 

 https://www.rt.com/business/565503-zuckerberg-fortune-down-meta/

 

 Another Billionaire scheme bites the dust (update)

Warner brothers...just about to bite the dust. 

 
Billionaire Jeff Bezos lost $20.5 billion in 24 hours

Investors dump Apple for Campbell Soup

Bitcoin Plunges Below $25K, Lowest Level Since December 2020 

 These are just a few, the world super rich are just awaiting the prophetical up stream-run...to the point of exhaustion. If not the riches, how about life, can't buy eternity or immortality ? Besides what are the memories and transitions from physical to immaterial ? Can't count on the sciences to extend process of premature aging ? All this goes back to being in like mined to the servant Job. Many are in the same frame of mind, after all there is no law against being wealthy and looking out for others.

 

 

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