People of the Keys!

“Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
(1 Peter 1:8)

Joy Unspeakable

Dear Friends,

Here is something we found interesting and thought you may find it interesting as well.

II. Early Christianity A Cheerful Religion.

Darkness at the Advent.

When our Lord announced his religion this world was in a condition of unutterable corruption, wretchedness and gloom. Slavery, poverty, vice that the pen is unwilling to name, almost universally prevailed, and even religion partook of the general degradation. Decadence, depopulation, insecurity of property, person and life, according to Taine, were everywhere. Philosophy taught that it would be better for man never to have been created. In the first century Rome held supreme sway. Nations had been destroyed by scores, and the civilized world had lost half of its population by the sword. In the first century forty out of seventy years were years of famine, accompanied by plague and pestilence. There were universal depression and deepest melancholy. When men were thus overborne with the gloom and horror of error and sin, into their night of darkness came the religion of Christ. Its announcements were all of hope and cheer. Its language was, "Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice." "We rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Men were invited to accept the tidings of great joy. John, the herald of Jesus, was a recluse, mortifying body and spirit, but Jesus said, "John come neither eating nor drinking, but the Son of Man came eating and drinking." He forbade all anxiety and care among his followers, and exhorted all to be as trustful as are the lilies of the field and the fowls of the air. Says Matthew Arnold, "Christ professed to bring in happiness. All the words that belong to his mission, Gospel, kingdom of God, Savior, grace, peace, living water, bread of life, are brimful of promise and joy." And his cheerful, joyful religion at once won its way by its messages of peace and tranquillity, and for a while its converts were everywhere characterized by their joyfulness and cheerfulness. Haweis writes: "The three first centuries of the Christian church are almost idyllic in their simplicity, sincerity and purity. There is less admixture of evil, less intrusion of the world, the flesh, and the devil, more simple-hearted goodness, earnestness and reality to be found in the space between Nero and Constantine that in any other three centuries from A.D. 100 to A.D. 1800." De Pressense calls the early era of the church its "blessed childhood, all calmness and simplicity."

Wonderful Progress of Christianity at First.

Origen: "Against Celsus" says: "At the present day (A.D. 240) not only rich men, but persons of rank, and delicate and high-born ladies, receive the teachers of Christianity; and the religion of Christ is better known than the teachings of the best philosophers." And Arnobius testifies that Christians included orators, grammarians, rhetoricians, lawyers, physicians, and philosophers. And it was precisely their bright and cheerful views of life and death, of God's universal fatherhood and man's universal brotherhood--the divinity of its ethical principles and the purity of its professors, that account for the wonderful progress of Christianity during the three centuries that followed our Lord's death. The pessimism of the oriental religions; the corruption and folly of the Greek and Roman mythology; the unutterable wickedness of the mass of mankind, and the universal depression of society invited its advance, and gave way before it. Justin Martyr wrote that in his time prayers and thanksgivings were offered in "the name of the Crucified, among every race of men, Greek or barbarian." Tertullian states that all races and tribes, even to farthest Britain, had heard the news of salvation. He declared: "We are but of yesterday, and lo we fill the whole empire--your cities, your islands, your fortresses, your municipalities, your councils, nay even the camp, the tribune, the decory, the palace, the senate, the forum." Chrysostom testifies that "the isles of Britain in the heard of the ocean had been converted."

Extracted from: Universalism The Prevailing Doctrine Of The Christian Church During Its First Five Hundred Years (and showing the influence of Greek Mythology and pagan philisophy on Christian Doctrine) With Authorities and Extracts By J.W. HANSON, D. D. --I Corinthians xv. 28 Boston and Chicago Universalist Publishing House 1899

Have a happy week ahead.

Ukrainian Navy flagship takes Russia’s side – report

Published time: March 01, 2014 21:11

Edited time: March 01, 2014 23:17

Ukraine’s Navy flagship, the Hetman Sahaidachny frigate, has reportedly refused to follow orders from Kiev, and come over to Russia’s side and is returning home after taking part in NATO operation in the Gulf of Aden flying the Russian naval flag.

There has been conflicting information on where exactly the vessel is, but a Russian senator has confirmed to Izvestia daily that the frigate defected to the Russian side.

“Ukraine’s Navy flagship the Hetman Sahaidachny has come over to our side today. It has hung out the St Andrew’s flag,” Senator Igor Morozov, a member of the committee on the international affairs, told Izvestia daily.

He said the flagship is on its way back to the Black Sea after drills in the Mediterranean. “The crew has fulfilled the order by the chief commander of Ukraine’s armed forces Viktor Yanukovich,” he added.

The move comes after the Navy command resigned Friday. Self-appointed President Aleksandr Turchinov made Rear Admiral Denis Berezovsky the new Navy Chief, a statement published on the President’s website Saturday said.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the Prime Minister of Ukraine had earlier asked his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to let the frigate through the Bosporus strait, according to the Kiev Times. The ship captain and the head of Ukraine’s contingent in the operation, Rear Admiral Andrey Tarasov disobeyed orders from Kiev.

The Hetman Sahaidachny returns to Sevastopol, Crimea after taking part in a joint counter-piracy operation with NATO and the EU off the Horn of Africa, reported UNN on Friday, citing Ukraine’s Defense Ministry. On February 26, after crossing the Suez Canal, the ship entered the Mediterranean Sea and was expected to be in Sevastopol in early March.

Russian upper house approves use of military force in Ukraine

By Laura Smith-Spark. Diana Magnay and Ingrid Formanek, CNN

March 1, 2014 -- Updated 1647 GMT (0047 HKT)

***

The Guardian,

Conflict fears rise after pro-Russian gunmen seize Crimean parliament

Gunmen storm Crimea's regional administrative complex in Simferopol and hoist Russian flag above parliament building

Thursday 27 February 2014

A Russian flag outside city hall in Sevastopol. Photograph: Reuters

Fears of a major regional conflict in Crimea pitting Russia against the west intensified on Thursday after pro-Russian gunmen seized the regional government and parliament building in a well co-ordinated military operation, while similar groups were on Friday morning controlling access to the airports of Simferopol and Sevastopol.

Early on Friday morning about 50 armed gunman reportedly marched into Simferopol's airport after arriving in Kamaz trucks. They first cordoned off the domestic terminal and then moving on to other areas. Russia Today described them as similarly dressed and equipped to the "local ethnic Russian 'self-defence squads'" that seized the parliament and government buildings.

Witnesses said the men at the airport were bearing Russian navy flags. The AFP news agency said the airport was operating as Friday dawned, with passengers checking in for flights. The Associated Press said dozens of the armed men continued to patrol the airport and they refused to speak to media. AFP said representatives from the new leadership in Kiev had been due to arrive at the airport on Friday.

In Sevastopol armed men were reported to have set up a perimeter around the city's combined military-civilian airport, known as Belbek, on Friday morning. The Interfax news agency described them as Russian servicemen who said they had gone to Belbek to stop "fighters" flying in.

A gunman outside Simferopol airport in Crimea. Photograph: David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters

On Thursday morning in Simferopol men dressed in fatigues stormed Crimea's administration, hoisting a Russian flag above the parliament building. About 120 men were holed up inside armed with heavy weapons including rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles, witnesses said.

With gunmen controlling the building, Crimea's parliament voted to hold a referendum on the region's status on 25 May, the same day Ukraine goes to the polls in presidential elections. It also voted to sack the region's cabinet. The move puts the predominantly ethnic-Russian region on a collision course with Kiev's interim government and will fuel concern Ukraine is sliding inexorably towards break-up.

It was unclear whether the gunmen were undercover Russian soldiers or members of a pro-Russian self-defence militia formed in response to Ukraine's revolution, which has included radical nationalist groups. The former head of the Crimean parliament, Serhiy Kunitsyn, described the men as professionally trained and armed with enough weaponry to defend the complex for a month.

Late on Thursday the US vice-president, Joe Biden, spoke with Ukraine's interim prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Biden promised Ukraine's new leadership the full support of the US, a White House statement said.

Russia's ousted ally Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukraine president, who fled Kiev last week after his troops shot dead more than 80 people, resurfaced on Thursday to insist he was still the country's legitimate leader – excoriating Ukraine's new leadership as he did so.

That government confirmed 39-year-old former opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk as acting prime minister, and gave two of the former regime's most prominent victims places in the new administration. Tetiana Chornovol, an investigative journalist beaten up by thugs, heads a new anti-corruption office. Activist Dmytro Bulatov, who was kidnapped and had part of his ear cut off, becomes Ukraine's youth minister.

Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, who has been in the job since Yanukovych fled the country, warned Russia not to intervene in the crisis by moving troops. The Kremlin's Black Sea fleet is based near Simferopol in the port of Sevastopol. Turchynov said: "I am appealing to the military leadership of the Russian Black Sea fleet. Any military movements, the more so if they are with weapons, beyond the boundaries of this territory [the base] will be seen by us as military aggression." Ukraine's foreign ministry also summoned Russia's acting envoy in Kiev for consultations.

The White House said it was closely watching Russian's military manoeuvres, ordered by Vladimir Putin next to Ukraine's border. Putin also put fighter jets on a state of high alert.

The US defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, called on the Kremlin to show restraint and reaffirmed Washington's commitment to Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty.

After meeting Angela Merkel, David Cameron said he and the German chancellor were particularly concerned. Nato's secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, urged Russia not to do anything that would escalate tension or create misunderstanding.

Poland's foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, described the seizure of government buildings in the Crimea a "very dangerous game". He told a news conference: "This is a drastic step, and I'm warning those who did this and those who allowed them to do this, because this is how regional conflicts begin."

Hours after the parliament building was seized, Yanukovych revealed he was in Russia and had sought protection from Putin. He said he would hold a press conference on Friday in Rostov-on-Don, close to Ukraine's border and his home city of Donetsk.

His unusual choice of a provincial press conference venue suggests he still nurtures hopes of a return to power, possibly as the leader of a breakaway Russian-backed enclave encompassing Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

Yanukovych appeared to give approval to secessionist pro-Russian forces in Crimea, and said an "orgy of extremism" had swept the country. "Now it is becoming clear that the people in south-eastern Ukraine and in Crimea do not accept the power vacuum and complete lawlessness in the country," he said.

In Kiev, members of Ukraine's new government hinted that the country would sign an association agreement with the EU next month. It was Yanukovych's decision in December to dump the agreement – and instead accept a bailout from Russia – that prompted the street demonstrations that eventually led to his overthrow. Ukrainian officials branded the referendum decision by Crimea's parliament as unconstitutional.

Earlier in Simferopol, the gunmen barricaded doors into the parliament building with wooden crates. Police sealed off the area on Thursday, as a crowd supportive of the seizure gathered outside. Two people died and 35 were injured during clashes outside the building on Wednesday between pro-Russian demonstrators and Muslim Tatars. About half of Crimea's 2 million population are ethnic Russians. The Tatars – the peninsula's original Turkic-speaking Muslim inhabitants – are 300,000 strong and support the authorities in Kiev.

Witnesses described the moment when the armed men turned up. "We were building barricades in the night to protect parliament. Then this young Russian guy came up with a pistol … we all lay down, some more ran up, there was some shooting and around 50 went in through the window," Leonid Khazanov, an ethnic Russian, told Reuters.

Khazanov added: "They're still there … Then the police came, they seemed scared. I asked them [the armed men] what they wanted, and they said: 'To make our own decisions, not to have Kiev telling us what to do'."

The former head of the central executive body of Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Jemilev, said the situation was extremely worrying. He suggested the gunmen had arrived from Sevastopol, where the Russian fleet is based. "The people in camouflage and without any distinctive signs came by buses from the Sevastopol side. There are reports of movement of armed vehicles of the Russian fleet in different directions. We also got signs that in many hotels there are Russian soldiers wearing civilian clothes. The Russian general consul office says they have nothing to do with these events. But they would hardly tell the truth."

Jemilev speculated that the gunmen could be Russian soldiers or members of Berkut, the now-disbanded riot police unit deployed against opposition protesters in Kiev. Lifenews.ru, a pro-Kremlin Russian website with links to Russia's spy agencies, however, said they were veterans from the army and police. According to US diplomatic cables leaked in 2010 by Wikileaks, Russia's military intelligence wing – the GRU – is highly active in Crimea.

About 100 police had gathered in front of the parliament building on Thursday. A similar number of people carrying Russian flags later marched up to the building chanting "Russia, Russia" and holding a sign calling for a Crimean referendum.

Many wore orange-and-black striped ribbons that symbolise support for Russia. One of them, Alexei, 30, said: "We have our own constitution, Crimea is autonomous. The government in Kiev are fascists, and what they're doing is illegal … We need to show our support for the guys inside [parliament]. Power should be ours."

"Yesterday Russian people were attacked and murdered by Tatar extremists. We will not allow this fascism from Kiev to happen here," said 43-year-old construction worker, Spartak. "Crimea wants independence and we want parliament to hold a referendum on this. We have been hijacked."

Policemen informed passersby that Karl Marx Street was closed due to the presence of snipers in the areas. Nearby shops and businesses have closed and pulled down their shutters.

The acting interior minister, Arsen Avakov, who said the attackers had automatic weapons and machine guns, urged calm. He said on Facebook: "Provocateurs are on the march. It is the time for cool heads."

Turchynov, speaking to the parliament in Kiev, described the attackers as "criminals in military fatigues with automatic weapons".

He also called on Moscow not to violate the terms of an agreement that gives the Russian Black Sea fleet basing rights at Sevastopol until 2042.

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The Independent

Mounting tension: Israel’s Knesset debates proposal to enforce its sovereignty at Al-Aqsa Mosque - a move seen as ‘an extreme provocation to Muslims worldwide’

The plan to allow Jewish prayer at Islam’s third holiest site is threatening to plunge the entire region into great conflict

BEN LYNFIELD

JERUSALEM

Wednesday 26 February 2014

The Arab-Israeli conflict took on an increasingly religious hue when the Jordanian parliament voted unanimously to expel Israel’s ambassador in Amman after Israeli legislators held an unprecedented debate on Tuesday evening over a proposal to enforce Israeli sovereignty at one of Jerusalem’s holiest sites, currently administered by Jordan, and to allow Jewish prayer there.

The vote in Jordan’s 150-seat parliament is not binding on the cabinet, which is keen to maintain diplomatic ties with Israel. Still, the step was a measure of the degree to which the perception of an Israeli threat to Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, is ratcheting up tensions in the wider Arab and Muslim worlds, not just among Palestinians.

Al-Aqsa is situated in an area revered as Judaism’s holiest site for housing the temples destroyed in 586BC and AD70 and is in the locale where religious Jews pray a third temple will be built. The Mount, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, has been an exclusively Muslim prayer site for the last 1,300 years, with the exception of the crusader incursions to the Holy Land.

The debate held in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, was on “the loss of Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount” and was initiated by Moshe Feiglin, a Jewish fundamentalist member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, who, along with other far-right members of the Knesset, is dismayed that the government continues to acquiesce in granting a type of autonomy to the Jordanian-backed Palestinian officials who run the shrine and also that police intervene to stop Jews who visit the Mount from praying there and prevent the unfurling of Israeli flags.

Mr Netanyahu received rare praise from some dovish Israelis after he intervened to prevent Mr Feiglin’s motion from coming to a vote. “This is the first time Netanyahu is taking on the pyromaniacs in his own party and he deserves credit,” said Daniel Seidemann, who heads the dovish NGO Terrestrial Jerusalem and is often critical of Mr Netanyahu. According to Israel’s 1994 peace treaty with Jordan, Amman has a “special“ role in Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem.

On Tuesday morning, violence erupted at the Mount in advance of the debate. The police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that about 100 Palestinians, most of them masked, began throwing stones and fireworks at police, lightly wounding two officers. Police then entered the mount to ”disperse the rioters“, he said.

Ziyad Surour, who works at a local clinic, told al-Quds daily newspaper that 22 Palestinians were injured by rubber-coated bullets and sound grenades.

But Mr Rosenfeld denied that rubber-coated bullets had been fired. Three Palestinians were arrested, he said.

Hanan Ashrawi, the PLO spokeswoman, termed the holding of the Knesset debate an “extreme provocation to Muslims worldwide. Using religion as a pretext to impose sovereignty on historical places of worship threatens to plunge the entire region into great conflict and instability. It is reminiscent of the same regressive ideology that brought the crusades to Palestine in the Middle Ages’.’

Responding to the Jordanian parliament’s move, an Israeli official, who requested anonymity, said: ”There is no change in long-standing Israeli policy. The status quo at the Temple Mount will remain one that ensures free access to people of all faiths to the holy site.“ The official said Israel continues to stand by the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan and its provision of a special Jordanian role in Jerusalem holy sites.

Mr Feiglin told the Knesset during the debate that “every terror organisation can wave its flag on the Temple Mount, but the flag of Israel? Forget about it. [Reciting] a chapter of Psalms is reason for arrest. Even wearing a skullcap on the head is something the policemen recommend taking off. I call on the government of Israel to stop the discrimination and humiliation of Jews at the entrance to the Mount”.

Miri Regev, another far-right Likud legislator, said during the Knesset debate that Israel should establish separate prayer times for Jews and Muslims on the Mount as it did at the Cave of the Patriarchs site in Hebron, revered by Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque. ”We will reach a situation where the Temple Mount will be like the Cave of the Patriarchs, days for Jews and days for Muslims,“ she said.

Zahava Galon, head of the dovish Meretz party, said: ”No one disputes that Jews have the right to go up to the Temple Mount. At this time, there is a discussion of the diplomatic wisdom of this.

“He who stands here and calls for going up to the Temple Mount is making a provocation whose goal is to detonate Israel’s relations with the Muslim world, establish facts on the ground and hamper the diplomatic process.“

Tensions over the holy site have in the past led to sustained violence. In 2000, the then opposition leader Ariel Sharon’s provocative visit to the site triggered the outbreak of the second intifada uprising.

Mr Seidemann says he fears the strong emotions over the site could be used by those who want to disrupt the current peace diplomacy of US Secretary of State John Kerry. ”I’m very worried because the motivation of crazies – Jewish, Christian and Muslim – is always on the increase when there’s a political process going on,“ he said.

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The Jerusalem Post

Amnesty International to US, EU: Suspend all arms transfers to Israel

By TOVAH LAZAROFF

02/27/2014 03:36

Foreign Ministry slams as "racist" report by NGO on IDF’s actions against Palestinians.

IDF soldiers arrest Palestinian suspect in West Bank Photo: REUTERS

Amnesty International called on the international community to suspend transferring arms to Israel to protest IDF treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank.

“Suspend transfers to Israel of munitions, weapons, and related equipment including crowd control weapons and devices, training and techniques,” Amnesty said in a 74-page report titled “Trigger- Happy: Israel’s use of excessive force in the West Bank” that it issued on Thursday.

Arms transfers by the United States, the European Union and other countries should only be resumed once Israel can ensure that they will not be used to violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law, Amnesty said.

“Without pressure from the international community, the situation is unlikely to change any time soon,” said Philip Luther, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Amnesty International.

“Too much civilian blood has been spilled. This long-standing pattern of abuse must be broken. If the Israeli authorities wish to prove to the world they are committed to democratic principles and international human rights standards, unlawful killings and unnecessary use of force must stop now,” Luther said.

The report provided case studies of 22 Palestinian civilians killed by the IDF since January 2011, of which most were under the age of 25 and four were children.

According to Amnesty, at least 14 of the deaths occurred during protests against Israel. It noted that according to the UN, the IDF killed 45 Palestinians in the past three years.

According to Amnesty, the Palestinians who were killed did not appear to pose a direct and immediate threat to Israeli soldiers in the 22 cases listed.

It added that “in some, there is evidence that they were victims of willful killings, which would amount to war crimes.”

The report further stated that in that same three-year period, Israeli forces in the West Bank seriously injured 261 Palestinians, including 67 children, by firing live ammunition at them. It said soldiers wounded another 8,000 Palestinians, including 1,500 children, by other means, including rubber- coated metal bullets and teargas.

“The staggering numbers of wounded provide a sobering reminder of the relentless daily danger faced by Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank,” Luther said.

“The frequency and persistence of arbitrary and abusive force against peaceful protesters in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers and police officers – and the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators – suggests that it is carried out as a matter of policy,” Luther added.

The report called on the IDF to stop using live ammunition and rubber-coated bullets except when necessary to protect lives. It also asked the IDF to stop using teargas against Palestinians, explaining that the chemicals contained within it were dangerous.

It called on Israel to provide reparations to Palestinians the IDF had unlawfully harmed. It also urged the IDF to protect Palestinians from attacks by West Bank settlers.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the report “smacks of bias, discrimination and racism.”

He accused Amnesty of wanting to deprive Israel of the right to self-defense.

“Amnesty takes to making up its own laws. In their frenzied public relations stunt to grab a quick headline, they innovate in the legal realm: no right of self-defense under fire [for Israelis],” he said.

“Amnesty lies by omission, and otherwise.”

The IDF said that Amnesty was ignoring the substantial increase in Palestinian violence against Israel in the last year. In 2013, Palestinians injured 132 Israelis, almost double the number of those harmed in 2012, the IDF said.

It noted that this was “no surprise, considering that over 5,000 incidents of rock-hurling took place, half of which were toward main roads.”

It added that “there were 66 further terror attacks, which included shootings, the planting of [improvised explosive devices], blunt weapon attacks and the abduction and murder of a soldier.”

The report, it said, also showed “a complete lack of understanding as to operational challenges the IDF is posed with in the West Bank.

“Where feasible, the IDF contains this life-threatening violence using riot dispersal means, including loud sirens, water cannons, sound grenades and teargas.

Only once these tools have been exhausted, and human life and safety remains under threat, is the use of precision munition authorized,” it said.

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Heritage.com

GUEST COLUMN: Why don’t humans have identity chips?

Published: Friday, February 21, 2014

By Elaine Owsley

Elaine Owsley's new dog has an identity chip, making her wonder why humans aren't equipped with a similar feature.

Watching our new dog have his identity chip implanted recently made me wonder why we humans don’t have the same process available.

A tiny little needle is used to insert the “chip” and the dog barely noticed. I’ve seen bigger needles used for human injections. So the actual implanting wouldn’t be a problem.

Human chips could be constructed to contain different kinds of information, which could only be “read” by those entities with a need to know.

One would obviously contain your identity — name, address, phone number and perhaps next of kin with a contact number for general identification, especially if you were unable to provide that information yourself. You would use it when you voted, or any other occasion that required identification.

You might have one, or a separate portion of one that contained any vital medical information. You know, the kind they repeatedly want you to fill out on the forms you get at the doctor’s office. Only your medical facility or an emergency service could access that information. When your medication changes, your doctor could phone in the change to the responsible chip provider and it would be electronically added.

Another chip, or portion of one, would contain your bank identification. You could just wave it at the drive up window instead of having to fish out a card; lean way out the window and poke buttons to say you wanted English or Spanish. It would access your account the way your pin number does now.

You and your children would be identifiable without having to carry cards and whatnot of various kinds, necessitating hauling your wallet out in awkward places like your rear pocket — the one you are sitting on in the car.

For those in the military in combat, it might ease identification.

If you are a traveler and need identification, your chip would have whatever immigration needed and you could just run your arm under a “reader” and continue on your way.

If the implanted “seed” carried a GPS capability, it would be useful for keeping track of children, the elderly or the mentally challenged who might wander away, or worse, be taken.

This chip could be altered when the “child” reached the age of 18 or 21, unless the holder agreed to leave it in.

Not sure an adult child would feel a need for the police to know their every move, or their parents.

Later, as in the incidence of the elderly or demented, the chip could be turned on again.

Think of the savings in time, paper and hassle. Not to mention the unlikely event of having this information stolen.

The only way that might happen is too grisly to think about.

A thief could hardly expect to be served by carrying a severed arm around, or a chip without the arm it belonged to.

The wave of a wand tells the vet or humane society that our dog is Teddy and where he belongs and how to contact us — simple, painless, technology that works.

How come a dog’s life is easier than ours?

(“He causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.” Revelation 13:16)

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Memphis

“Back in 1965 we received the "WARNING PROPHECY" in which the Lord said: "Turn your eyes toward Memphis (the great political/commercial capital of the ancient Egyptian empire), for out of it shall come the Great Confusion!" He said that the Author of Confusion was already operating then and gathering nations around him in order to come, with the help of a great nation and nations of the East, to take over the World.

This "Author of Confusion" definitely sounds like the antichrist, and if so, then either he is to come from Egypt, or the beginning of this Endtime period will occur in Egypt or come out of Egypt in some way.

So the antichrist is apparently either going to rise out of Egypt or have something strongly to do with Egypt.--It must be that, just as the Lord considers Jerusalem so important to His World government of the future, so the Devil considers Egypt extremely important to his coming World government of the future.

Apparently Egypt is very dear to the Devil, because thousands of years ago, during the time of the great pharaohs, it was his world capital, and at that time it was full of his demonic religion and his demon-possessed idols and demon-possessed people and witchcraft and magicians and all the rest! It was virtually a sample of the coming Antichrist World government. So perhaps the Devil, in a sense, is going to try to revive the grandeur and glory of ancient Egypt and his first great glorious Empire in the soon-coming government of the Antichrist! The famous prophetess, Jeanne Dixon, had a vision of the Antichrist as a descendent of the Pharaohs--and he's certainly a descendent of the Pharaohs in spirit, because he's anti-God, anti-Christ, anti the prophets of God, etc.” David Berg 1983

WARNING PROPHECY

Virginia Berg

1965!

"Turn your eyes toward Memphis (Egypt), for out of it shall come the great confusion!

The author of Confusion is even now marshalling his forces for this Great Confusion!

He is gathering his forces from a great nation and Eastern nations, friends that will join with him.

So sudden will be the Great Confusion, that it will cause a mighty widening of the eyes of those who have not discerned the signs of the times. But be ye not deceived! Be prepared! And be not deceived by the Great Society, for it will come to travail and then bring forth the Great Confusion!

Be prepared! Even now, the skies are red, red with warning, and black, black with clouds gathering for the Great Confusion which is almost upon you!"

+++

They are not holding much back anymore!

"Belief that these gods—or more accurately the single entity represented by these many names—would return to rule the earth one day, is not limited to Masonic mystics or the divine manifestation from the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 2:3). The return of these gods “to an active and outward position as rulers of mankind is predicted in the Asclepius,” notes Peter Goodgame, “which is predicted to come after the long period of spiritual decline in Egypt.”

The prophecy Goodgame refers to from the ancient Asclepius says: “Those gods who rule the earth will be restored, and they will be installed in a city at the furthest threshold of Egypt, which will be founded towards the setting sun and to which all human kind will hasten by land and by sea.”

Goodgame notes the physical whereabouts of the “city” in this prophecy is the Giza Plateau, as located by Garth Fowden in his book, The Egyptian Hermes.

“… in answer to Asclepius enquiry where these gods are at the moment, Trismegistus replies (at Ascl. 27): ‘In a very great city, in the mountains of Libya (in monte Libyco)’, by which is meant the edge of the desert plateau to the west of the Nile valley. A subsequent reference (Ascl. 37) to the temple and tomb of Asclepius (Imhotep) in monte Libyae establishes that the allusion at Ascl. 27 is to the ancient and holy Memphite necropolis, which lay on the desert jabal to the west of Memphis itself.”

“The ‘mountains of Libya,’” Goodgame concludes, “is simply a reference to the plateau that rises above the desert on the west bank of the Nile, west of the ancient city of Memphis. In other words, according to this Hermetic prediction, when the Kosmokrators are ‘restored’ they will be ‘installed in a city’ on or near the Giza Plateau.”

Will the ancient super-man Apollo-Osiris rise from a hidden tomb at the Giza Plateau, as Goodgame believes may be the case? If so, the Asclepius could have been more than a pagan prophecy. It may have been a record pointing to where the body of the ‘god’ was stored in times past. Do the occult masters already know this, and is this why an unfinished pyramid adorns the Great Seal of the United States, over which the portentous eye of Apollo-Osiris glares from the ancient past? Has DNA been recovered from Giza that is needed for the return of this god? Will a forbidden ‘science’ that once allowed incarnation and ‘deity’ status to powerful fallen beings be restored in this modern age? Prophecy may suggest exactly this, and for the immediate future." Taken from: Apollyon Rising part 18 2009 by Tom Horn

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The Truth (Although we do not necessarily agree with the tone of this article it nevertheless does contain relevant information pertinent to the world today.)

Pope Francis And The Emerging One World Religion

Michael Snyder The Truth February 24, 2014

Is Pope Francis taking steps that are laying the groundwork for the emergence of a one world religion? If that question sounds quite bizarre to you, I urge you to read the rest of this article. We live at a time when globalization is advancing rapidly.

Image: Pope Francis (Wikimedia Commons).

The global economy is more integrated than it has ever been before, and with each passing year new economic treaties tie us even more closely together. And “global governance” (as the elite like to call it) is also steadily gaining ground. Through a whole host of global institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF and the Bank for International Settlements, global governments are working together to a degree that is unprecedented. Well, what about religion? Is there evidence that we are also witnessing the globalization of religion? Well, yes there is. In fact, it appears that Pope Francis intends to lead the way.

Since he has been Pope, Francis has expressed a desire for unity with the Eastern Orthodox, the Anglicans, and many other major Protestant denominations. But more than a few eyebrows were raised when he recently sent a video message to Kenneth Copeland and his congregation. At the time that the video message was played to the congregation, one speaker declared that “Luther’s protest is over”…

“The Catholic and Charismatic Renewal is the hope of the Church,” exclaims Anglican Episcopal Bishop Tony Palmer, before a group of cheering followers at the Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Palmer said those words are from the Vatican. Before playing the video message from Pope Francis to Kenneth Copeland, Palmer told the crowd, “When my wife saw that she could be Catholic, and Charismatic, and Evangelical, and Pentecostal, and it was absolutely accepted in the Catholic Church, she said that she would like to reconnect her roots with the Catholic culture. So she did.”

The crowd cheered, as he continued, “Brothers and sisters,Luther’s protest is over. Is yours?”

Even Kenneth Copeland finds this development incredible: Said Copeland, “Heaven is thrilled over this…You know what is so thrilling to me? When we went into the ministry 47 years ago,this was impossible.”

So is Luther’s protest really over?

During the Council of Trent, the Catholics condemned to hell anyone that believes in salvation through faith in Jesus alone. This is a direct quote from the Council of Trent…

“If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema“

The Catholics have never renounced that stand. Instead, it has been reaffirmed many times over the years.

If Pope Francis really did want to reach out to Protestants, he should start by reversing the Council of Trent on this. As it stands, it is official Catholic doctrine that all Protestants are anathema.

But apparently that is not going to stop many Protestants from reuniting with Rome and declaring Francis to be “their Pope”.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis has also been aggressively courting Muslims. The following quote from Pope Francis comes from remarks that he made during his very first ecumenical meeting…

I then greet and cordially thank you all, dear friends belonging to other religious traditions; first of all the Muslims, who worship the one God, living and merciful, and call upon Him in prayer, and all of you. I really appreciate your presence: in it I see a tangible sign of the will to grow in mutual esteem and cooperation for the common good of humanity.

The Catholic Church is aware of the importance of promoting friendship and respect between men and women of different religious traditions – I wish to repeat this: promoting friendship and respect between men and women of different religious traditions – it also attests the valuable work that the Pontifical Council for interreligious dialogue performs.

Did you catch that?

Apparently Pope Francis believes that Catholics and Muslims worship the same God.

More recently, Francis made the following statement about Muslims…

“We must never forget that they ‘profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, who will judge humanity on the last day.’”

Wow.

By making this statement, Pope Francis is rejecting another of the most fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith.

You see, Christians believe that Jesus Christ is God.

Muslims hate this doctrine and say that there is no god but Allah.

So how in the world can Christians and Muslims worship the same God?

The only way that you could say this is if you deny the deity of Jesus Christ.

For much more on why “Allah” and the God of Christianity are not the same, please see this article.

Of course when it comes to other religions, Francis is not just reaching out to the Muslims. During the same ecumenical meeting that I referenced above, he made it a point to say that he feels “close” to those that belong “to any religious tradition”…

In this, we feel close even to all those men and women who, whilst not recognizing themselves belonging to any religious tradition, feel themselves nevertheless to be in search of truth, goodness and beauty, this truth, goodness and beauty of God, and who are our precious allies in efforts to defend the dignity of man, in building a peaceful coexistence among peoples and in guarding Creation carefully.

And Francis really raised some eyebrows when he made the following statement about atheists…

“The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can… The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!.. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”

There was a lot of debate about what Francis meant by that, and the Vatican issued a statement declaring that Catholic doctrine on these matters had not changed, but without a doubt a lot of people were troubled by this.

In addition, a lot of people were really troubled when the Vatican offered “indulgences” to those that would follow Pope Francis on Twitter. The following is an excerpt from an article that appeared in the Telegraph…

Salvation – or at least a shorter stay in Purgatory – might now be only a tweet away with news that Pope Francis is to offer “indulgences” – remissions for temporary punishment – to the faithful who follow him on the social media site.

Around 1.5 million are expected to flock to Rio de Janeiro to celebrate World Youth Day with the Argentine pontiff later this month. But for those who can’t make it to Brazil, forgiveness may be available to contrite sinners who follow Francis’s progress via their TV screen or social networks.

The Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican court that rules on the forgiveness of sins, has said that indulgences may be given to those who follow the “rites and pious exercises” of the event on television, radio and through social media.

So what does Pope Francis actually believe?

That is a very good question.

His beliefs do not appear to be very consistent at all. He just seems to have an overwhelming desire to “unite” with everyone out there that has any kind of religious faith.

But we do know one kind of people that he does not like. He does not like “ideological Christians” that take their faith very seriously…

“In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid. And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements. The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of the people. But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new, eh?”

So what is going to come of all this?

It will be very interesting to watch.

It is also interesting to note that there is a 900-year-old prophecy that seems to indicate that Pope Francis could be the last Pope. If that prophecy is accurate, then we could very well be living at a time when we will see the emergence of a one world religion.

Just a few short decades ago, a one world religion would have been absolutely unthinkable.

But now the pieces are starting to come together, and it will be very interesting to see what happens next.

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MailOnline

Syria's starving hordes: In a biblical picture of suffering, crowd stretching for as far as the eye can see gathers amid the rubble of Damascus for UN food hand-outs

Hour of need: Residents of Syria's besieged Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp, south of Damascus, crowding a destroyed street during a food distribution led by the UN agency

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Telegraph

Turkey PM says incriminating tapes are fake amid growing phone-tapping scandal

In the recordings two people alleged to be Mr Erdogan and his son are heard discussing means of getting rid of large amounts of cash

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters at the parliament in Ankara, Turkey Photo: AP

12:50AM GMT 25 Feb 2014

The office of Turkey's prime minister has said that recordings of allegedly wiretapped conversations between the Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his son - leaked onto the internet and suggesting corruption - were fabricated.

In recent weeks, several voice recordings of conversations allegedly involving MrErdogan, his children, aides or businessmen have been circulating on the internet.

In the latest recordings leaked on Monday, two people alleged to be Mr Erdogan and his son are heard discussing means of getting rid of large amounts of cash from their home. The conversations allegedly took place Dec. 17, the day that sons of three Cabinet ministers were detained as part of a vast corruption investigation.

Media reports said Mr Erdogan met with Turkey's intelligence chief soon after that tape began to circulate on the internet and that his office later issued a statement saying that the recordings were "immorally" fabricated and "totally unreal." It said the prime minister would take legal action against the recordings.

Turkey's main opposition party held an emergency meeting to discuss the latest leaked recording and called on Mr Erdogan to resign, insisting that his government had lost its legitimacy.

Mr Erdogan insists that the corruption probe which forced him in December to dismiss four Cabinet ministers is a conspiracy to discredit his government before local elections in March and a presidential election in August. He says the investigations were orchestrated by followers of a moderate Islamic movement led by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who have allegedly infiltrated Turkey's police and judiciary.

Last month, the leader's 33 year-old son, Bilal Erdogan, was questioned by prosecutors investigating the allegations.

Edited by Bonnie Malkin

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ENENEWS

Expert: Gov’t officials ‘very possibly’ know Fukushima is a worldwide disaster and just not revealing it — Columnist: “They can’t neglect the truth because they fear a panic outbreak… I’m panicking because there isn’t a panic”

LSU Reveille, Columnist Annette Sommers, Feb. 25, 2014: In a few months, the devastating effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster will officially taint America’s reputation. [...] Of course, all this information is just now circulating through the media because it’s finally a time-sensitive threat. Our government can’t ignore it anymore. Since 2011, they have turned a blind eye to the situation, as if hiding under a blanket of stupidity will make the nuclear monster go away. I hate to break it to everyone, but this unwanted monster is here to stay. The public should be demanding answers from Japan and the U.S. government so we can halt the obliviousness before it ruins lives. [...] We rely on journalists to distribute unbiased information, but other than the few sources that have shown some concern for the Fukushima plant, media outlets have failed us. Now, it may be too late. [...] They can’t neglect the truth because they fear a panic outbreak. There should be a sense of panic among the people. I’m panicking because there isn’t a panic. So now the news-sponsored countdown to our own radiation disaster begins, although it has been in action for the past three years. [...]

Coast to Coast AM, Feb. 6, 2014 (at 26:00 in):

Host: Do you think, Steve, some people in government probably know that this is a worldwide disaster and they just say nothing because they figure, “You know what? It could be 10, 15, 20 years, people will die of cancer, they’ll never attribute it to this — and we’re not going to shake up the seafood industry, we’re not going to create panic, we’re just going to keep our mouths shut.” Is that possible?

Steve Elwart, Professional Engineer, Ph.D., executive research analyst with the Koinonia Institute and a subject matter expert for the Department of Homeland Security: I think that’s very possible. I think that the government is not going to want to upset a short-term economic sector on the possibility of long-term problem.

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WashingtonsBlog

Reddit Censors Big Story About Government Manipulation and Disruption of the Internet

Posted on February 25, 2014

Reddit Moderators Go to Extreme Lengths to Censor the Most Important Story of the Year

The moderators at the giant r/news reddit (with over 2 million subscribed readers) repeatedly killed the Greenwald/Snowden story on government manipulation and disruption of the Internet … widely acknowledged to be one of the most important stories ever leaked by Snowden.

Similarly, the moderators at the even bigger r/worldnews reddit (over 5 million subscribers) repeatedly deleted the story, so that each new post had to start over at zero.

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The Economic Collapse

29 Percent Of All U.S. Adults Under The Age Of 35 Are Living With Their Parents

By Michael Snyder, on February 19th, 2014

Why are so many young adults in America living with their parents? According to a stunning Gallup survey that was recently released, nearly three out of every ten adults in the United States under the age of 35 are still living at home with Mom and Dad. This closely lines up with a Pew Research Center analysis of Census data that looked at a younger sample of Americans which found that 36 percent of Americans 18 to 31 years old were still living with their parents. That was the highest level that had ever been recorded. Overall, approximately 25 million U.S. adults are currently living at home with their parents according to Time Magazine. So what is causing all of this? Well, there are certainly a lot of factors. Overwhelming student loan debt, a depressing lack of jobs and the high cost of living are all definitely playing a role. But many would argue that what we are witnessing goes far beyond temporary economic conditions. There are many that believe that we have fundamentally failed our young people and have neglected to equip them with the skills and values that they need to be successful in the real world.

More Americans than ever before seem to be living in a state of "perpetual adolescence". As Gallup noted, one of the keys to adulthood is to be able to establish independence from your parents...

An important milestone in adulthood is establishing independence from one's parents, including finding a job, a place to live and, for most, a spouse or partner, and starting one's own family. However, there are potential roadblocks on the path to independence that may force young adults to live with their parents longer, including a weak job market, the high cost of living, significant college debt, and helping care for an elderly or disabled parent.

Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult for young people to become financially independent. While they are in high school, we endlessly pound into their heads the need to go to college. Then we urge them to take out whatever loans that they will need to pay for it, ensuring them that they will be able to get "good jobs" which will enable them to pay off those loans when they graduate.

Of course a very large percentage of them find that there aren't any "good jobs" waiting for them when they graduate. But because of the crippling loans that they have accumulated, they quickly realize that they have decades of debt slavery ahead of them.

Just consider the following numbers about the growth of student loan debt in the United States...

-The total amount of student loan debt in the United States has risen to a brand new all-time record of 1.08 trillion dollars.

-Student loan debt accounted for 3.1 percent of all consumer debt in 2003. Today, it accounts for 9.4 percent of all consumer debt.

-In the third quarter of 2007, the student loan delinquency rate was 7.6 percent. Today, it is up to 11.5 percent.

This is a student loan debt bubble unlike anything that we have ever seen before, and it seems to get worse with each passing year.

So when is the bubble going to finally burst?

Meanwhile, our young adults are still really struggling to find jobs.

For those in the 18 to 29-year-old age bracket, it is getting even harder to find full-time employment. In June 2012, 47 percent of those in that entire age group had a full-time job. One year later, in June 2013, only 43.6 percent of that entire age group had a full-time job.

And in many ways, things are far tougher for those that didn't finish college than for those that did. In fact, the unemployment rate for 27-year-old college dropouts is nearly three times as high as the unemployment rate for those that finished college.

In addition, since Barack Obama has been president close to 40 percent of all 27-year-olds have spent at least some time unemployed.

So it should be no surprise that 27-year-olds are really struggling financially. Only about one out of every five 27-year-olds owns a home at this point, and an astounding 80 percent of all 27-year-olds are in debt.

Even if a young adult is able to find a job, that does not mean that it will be enough to survive on. The quality of jobs in America continues to go downhill and so do wages.

The ratio of what men in the 18 to 29-year-old age bracket are earning compared to what the general population is earning is at an all-time low, and American families that have a head of household that is under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.

No wonder so many young people are living at home. Trying to survive in the real world is not easy.

Many of those that are trying to make it on their own are really struggling to do so. Just consider the case of Kevin Burgos. He earns $10.50 an hour working as an assistant manager at a Dunkin Donuts location in Hartford, Connecticut. According to CNN, he can't seem to make enough to support his family no matter how hard he works...

He works 35 hours each week to support his family of three young children. All told, Burgos makes about $1,800 each month.

But his bills for basic necessities, including rent for his two-bedroom apartment, gas for his car, diapers and visits to the doctor, add up to $2,400. To cover these expenses without falling short, Burgos would need to make at least $17 per hour.

"I am always worried about what I'm going to do for tomorrow," Burgos said.

There are millions of young people out there that are pounding their heads against the wall month after month trying to work hard and do the right thing. Sometimes they get so frustrated that they snap. Just consider the following example...

Health officials have temporarily shut down a southern West Virginia pizza restaurant after a district manager was caught on surveillance video urinating into a sink.

Local media reported that the Mingo County health department ordered the Pizza Hut in Kermit, about 85 miles southwest of Charleston, to shut down.

But as I mentioned earlier, instead of blaming young people for their failures, perhaps we need to take a good, long look at how we have raised them.

The truth is that our public schools are a joke, SAT scores are at an all-time low, and we have pushed nearly all discussion of morality, values and faith out of the public square.

No wonder most of our young people are dumb as a rock and seem to have no moral compass.

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CNN

(CNN) -- A third of the houses on Britain's second most expensive street are lying vacant, many abandoned for decades and left to rot.

Behind the padlocked gates and long driveways, up to 20 mansions stand empty on London's The Bishops Avenue, despite a reported combined value of around £350 million ($582 million).

Dubbed "Billionaires' Row," the road's average house costs over £6 million ($9.98 million), but many have been deserted by their wealthy owners.

Despite their dilapidated condition, the houses remain a safe place for wealthy foreigners to park their money because of London's rocketing property prices, which rose 11% last year, and because of the road's reputation as a magnate for the rich and famous.

Anil Varma, a property developer appointed by a hedge fund owner to manage six of the vacant homes, calls it one of "the most expensive wastelands in Europe."

He's hoping to get permission to convert decaying mansion The Towers into luxury apartments. Bought 25 years ago by a prominent Middle Eastern family but never lived in because of planning permission complications, the once-magnificent mansion was abandoned and has fallen into disrepair.

Varma showed CNN through the property, revealing animal skeletons lying on moss-covered floors, paint ripped off the damp-soaked ceilings and stairs which have partially collapsed.

Jersey House, 200 meters up the road, is on sale for £40 million ($67 million) and estate agent Trevor Abrahmsohn says investors aren't put off by the numerous abandoned homes on the road because The Bishops Avenue "is an iconic road, like Rodeo Drive or Wall Street."

Buying a house here "is a statement of wealth... a statement that you've arrived," he told CNN. The street has long been a landing pad for wealthy investors in developing countries undergoing geopolitical chaos: Iranians after the 1979 revolution, eastern Europeans after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and most recently, Chinese oligarchs, he said.

But, as Britain faces a housing shortage and soaring property prices, The Bishops Avenue's empty mansions are likely to add to debate over taxes payable by overseas property buyers -- particularly if they remain empty.

However, Richard Cornelius, who heads the local government branch of Barnet Council, told CNN he "would rather spend public money bringing family houses back into use than getting involved in battles with the lawyers of billionaires."

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MailOnline

Has the Voynich manuscript been decoded? First words of mysterious 15th century text revealed

The Voynich manuscript was discovered in an Italian monastery in 1912

Due to its location, historians think the manuscript was written in Europe

It is full of illustrations, diagrams and a mysterious text written left to right

Cryptographers have been trying to decipher this text for decades

First nine words have now been decoded

By MARK PRIGG

PUBLISHED: 18:00 EST, 20 February 2014 | UPDATED: 19:06 EST, 20 February 2014

For decades, researchers have been trying in vain to decipher ancient texts written on the Voynich manuscript - and a British researcher claims he has cracked it.

The world-renowned 600 year old manuscript is full of illustrations of exotic plants, stars, and mysterious human figures, as well as many pages written in an unknown text.

Now Stephen Bax, Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Bedfordshire, say he has decoded words in it for the first time.

Professor Bax is using linguistic analysis to work on the script letter by letter

'I hit on the idea of identifying proper names in the text, following historic approaches which successfully deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs and other mystery scripts, and I then used those names to work out part of the script,' he said.

'The manuscript has a lot of illustrations of stars and plants. I was able to identify some of these, with their names, by looking at medieval herbal manuscripts in Arabic and other languages, and I then made a start on a decoding, with some exciting results.'

Among the words he has identified is the term for Taurus, alongside a picture of seven stars which seem to be the Pleiades, and also the word KANTAIRON alongside a picture of the plant Centaury, a known mediaeval herb, as well as a number of other plants.

Altogether Bax says he has worked out: Juniper, Taurus, Coriander, Centaurea, Chiron, Hellebore Nigella Sativa, Kesar and Cotton.

Although Professor Bax admits his decoding is still only partial, it has generated a lot of excitement in the world of codebreaking and linguistics because it could prove a crucial breakthrough for an eventual full decipherment.

'My aim in reporting on my findings at this stage is to encourage other linguists to work with me to decode the whole script using the same approach, though it still won’t be easy.

'That way we can finally understand what the mysterious authors were trying to tell us,' he added.

'But already my research shows conclusively that the manuscript is not a hoax, as some have claimed, and is probably a treatise on nature, perhaps in a Near Eastern or Asian language.'

Recently a U.S. botanist studied illustrations of the plants throughout the 15th century book and pinpointed a number of them to the Central American region now known as Mexico.

Dr. Arthur Tucker claims at least 37 of the 303 plants would have grown in the region during the 15th and 16th century and believes the text is, therefore, written in the Aztec language of Nahuatl.

Due to its mysterious nature, the text has been studied by cryptographers around the world, yet no-one has succeeded in deciphering the reams of written passages.

Dr. Arthur Tucker from Delaware University took a different approach, and instead, studied the plants depicted throughout the book.

He discovered similarities between specific plants in the manuscript and illustrations of plants he had spotted in his collection of 16th century Mexican records.

The Voynich manuscript was discovered in an Italian monastery in 1912 by book dealer Wilfred Voynich.

Carbon dating suggests the manuscript was created in the early 15th century, between approximately 1404 and 1438, during the Italian Renaissance.

The 240 pages of the book are made from a type of parchment produced using calf skin, known as vellum.

Each page is decorated with illustrations, diagrams and a mysterious text written from left to right.

Due to its mysterious nature, the text has been studied by cryptographers around the world, yet no-one has succeeded in deciphering the reams of written passages.

This has led to many people claim the book is hoax, or that the writing is nonsense.

Due to the manuscript’s discovery in Italy, many researchers believe the book to have originated in Europe, however, the latest research from Dr. Tucker suggests it may have been written by the Aztecs in what is now modern-day Mexico.

For example, Dr. Tucker and fellow researcher Rexford Talbert said one plant in the book bears a resemblance to the picture of a soap plant (xiuhamolli) seen in a Mexican codex from 1552.

While another example includes the illustration of the Ipomoea murucoides, taken from the Mexican Codex Cruz-Badianus, which has an identical style to the Ipomoea arborescens in the manuscript.

In total, the researchers linked 37 of the 303 plants in the manuscript to illustrations in ancient Mexican books covering botany across Texas, California and Nicaragua.

If the text is written in the language of Nahuatl, the botanists claim they can find the name of the plants in the manuscript and may be able to use these to form a basic code from which to crack the rest of the text.

For example, a Voynich illustration of a cactus pad or fruit is shown near the name ‘nashtli’, which Tucker and Talbert claim is a variant of the word ‘nochtil’ - the Nahuatl name for the fruit of the prickly pear.

Nahuatl originated in Central Mexico during the 7th century. It was the spoken predominantly by the Aztecs.

Following the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the 16th century, the alphabet was replaced with Latin.

Nahuatl became a literary language, used in poetry and passages, similar to the Voynich manuscript. Varieties of Nahuatl are still spoken by approximately 1.5 million Nahua people in Central Mexico.

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