“The
sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before
the great and terrible day of the Lord come.”
(Joel
2:31)
The Moon Into Blood
Dear Friends,
Greetings! Our introduction this week is presented by our friend and colleague, Luke, who has contributed to “People of the Keys” in the past. His material involves the upcoming Tetrad, or 'four blood moons' occurring in 2014 and 2015. With all that is happening in the world right now: the supposed last pope according to Saint Malachy, Ariel Sharon's death and Yitzah Kaduri's prophecy, the Harbinger, UFO sightings, strange weather, Fukushima, etc. etc. not to mention the prophecies in the Bible, we felt this upcoming Tetrad, could be another warning sign.
As Luke points out, and we agree, this in no way changes our belief in the timing of Jesus' return, as some are predicting. We still believe it occurs after the tribulation.
Have a great week ahead!
Luke:
Is it possible the coming Tetrad of 'Four Blood Moons and Two Solar Eclipses' are literally Signs from Heaven, forerunners of prophetic events heralding the soon coming end of the age before the second coming of Christ?
There are numerous prophetic scriptures referencing what appears to be both solar and lunar eclipses just prior to the Lord's return, such as Joel 2:31. "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come."
A blood moon is a lunar eclipse, and the sun turned into darkness is a solar eclipse, while other scriptures make reference to "signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars". Some of these scriptures are found in Luke 21:25, Acts 2:20, Revelation 6:12 and others.
The Middle East peace talks are scheduled to end in April of this year, with the possibility that the current peace negotiations will extend yet another year into 2015. And if so, during that time these "Four blood moons and two solar eclipses" could very well be foreshadowing, literally proclaiming from the heavens that the second coming of Christ and the end of the age are drawing near. How near, no one really knows for sure, this is not date setting. But the answer may become more apparent as these astronomical signs unfold and the worlds reaction to events in the Middle East peace process.
A major impasse to the current peace negotiations is the division of Jerusalem. East Jerusalem, is where the Old City lay and the temple mount, captured by Israel in the six day war of 1967. Which the Palestinians want as their future capital, with the backing of the Arab League, along with a majority of the UN member states.
The prophecy of Daniel chapter 9 highlights the City of Jerusalem as the touchstone, that signals the end of the age with the consummation of the 70 weeks prophecy. Revelation chapter 11, verse 2 reveals the holy city, (Jerusalem) will be given unto the gentiles during the last three and half years of Daniel's 70th week, just prior to the Lord's return. Whether or not that event comes about through negotiations or war, or both, remains to be seen. As well as – the when of it all.
The coming four blood moons and two solar eclipses during 2014 and 2015 each fall on a Jewish feast day. Two of the Blood moons fall on Passover and two others fall on the Feast of Tabernacles, with one solar eclipse falling on the Jewish New Year - and another solar eclipse that traditionally foreshadows the end-times resurrection of the dead.
These are truly interesting times, for sure. But if these blood moons and solar eclipses are truly signs from heaven, to herald the end of the age, the world as we know it, is about to change - big time......and that's a very sobering thought.
Feast-day Eclipses in 2014-15: What do they Mean?
"The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come." (Joel 2:31)
Will a unique pattern of solar and lunar eclipses in 2014-15 fulfill this prophecy? A compelling look at God's apparent use of eclipses as "signs" of the Second Coming, with some additional insights lent by the symbolic meanings ascribed to the Sun and the Moon in Scripture...A thought provoking presentation! (video length 12:55 seconds)
Mark Biltz; Blood Moons And Solar Eclipses Part 1
What’s more, the next four blood moon tetrad, falling on the same Hebrew holy days, is set to occur starting April 2014 – only the fourth time in the last 500 years. The dates are:
April 15, 2014 – Passover
October 8, 2014 – Feast of Tabernacles
April 4, 2015 – Passover
September 28, 2015 – Feast of Tabernacles
After the first two blood moons in this sequence, and before the final two blood moons, will be a solar eclipse on March 20, 2015 – Rosh Hashanah.
“Not only are there four blood moons on 4/15/14, 10/8/14, 4/4/15, and 9/28/15, but the added significance is that the total solar eclipse on 3/20/15 is on the biblical calendar of Nisan 1. Nisan 1 begins the religious New Year according to the scriptures,” Biltz explained. “This date was the grand opening of Moses tabernacle in the wilderness. This is the day a great sign came and fire fell to light the burnt offering.
“So here we have a total solar eclipse beginning the religious year followed two weeks later by a total lunar eclipse/blood moon on Passover followed by the next solar eclipse (partial) on Sept 13th which just so happens to be Rosh Hashanah!” Biltz continued.
One total solar eclipse on the Jewish New Year - and another partial solar eclipse that traditionally foreshadows the end-times resurrection of the dead.
The pastor of El-Shaddai Ministries went into great detail about the significant events that have occurred on these dates in history and scripture.
“According to Judaism this is the day Adam was created and crowned God as King. This is also begins a shemittah year 7th for the land to rest. The last two shemittah years on Rosh Hashanah.
There was global economic catastrophe. In 2001, the Dow fell 7 percent. In 2008, the Dow fell 7 percent. In 2015, could this be our third strike and a major collapse of the global economy?” Biltz pondered.
“The eclipse of the sun signals danger to the nations and of the moon danger to Israel, this is then followed by the total lunar eclipse/blood moon on the Feast of Tabernacles. Not only that, according to NASA, this total blood moon on 9/28/15 will be at perigee meaning it will be a super moon and seen in Jerusalem during the feast of Sukkot while the Jewish people will be dwelling outside in their Sukkoths looking up toward the heavens.”
“The odds of this string of events are truly astronomical!” he concluded.
The story actually began in 2008 when Biltz made an astounding discovery – a story broken first by WND.
Biltz had been studying prophecies that focus on the sun and moon, even going back to the book of Genesis where it states the lights in the sky would “be for signs, and for seasons.”
“It means a signal, kind of like ‘one if by land, two if by sea.’ It’s like God wants to signal us,” he said. “The Hebrew word implies … not only is it a signal, but it’s a signal for coming or His appearing.”
Biltz noted the 6,000 years, about, since the creation of Adam.
“So we are at the end of the six days ready to enter the seventh day, or the beginning of the 1,000 year millennium rest spoken of in Hebrews and Revelation.”
He confirmed that future events cannot be predicted exactly, but he believes there is a clear link between important historical events and these lunar eclipses.
The message, Biltz believes, is that the messianic prophecies that Jesus fulfilled 2,000 years ago, when He came the first time, happened to the very day.
Biltz explains he believes the events surrounding the second coming also will happen to the very day of the Fall Feasts.
Adendum: My purpose for sending out the information concerning the "coming Blood Moons" was with regard to Israel, the Middle East peace process, and the possibility of a Middle East War - occurring during this same 2014-2015 timeframe, leading to the long anticipated "confirmation of the Covenant" that begins the seven year countdown to the Lord's return. Something I see as very possible from following world events, surrounding the Middle East peace process.
There are a few You-tube videos "debunking" the whole Blood Moon Tetrad Theory of 2014-2015 which postulates either the rapture or the second coming of Christ will occur in 2015. Something most of you know I'm sure, is not possible.
***
WND (Edited from longer article.)
BEYOND NASA PHOTO, 'HAND OF GOD' SEEN EVERYWHERE
Stunning X-ray telescopic image suggests more than some scientists intended
Published: January 12, 2014
Although the newest galactic image captured by a NASA telescope is being reported widely, there’s a major irony in the name given to the remarkable photograph – the “Hand of God.”
Today’s scientific establishment is largely secular, even atheistic, so naming the image of an exploding star – captured by NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR – the “Hand of God” seems just a rare and whimsical acknowledgement of God, since the image does bear an unmistakable resemblance to a giant, cosmic “hand.”
However, renowned scientist Arthur Robinson, commenting on the photo’s name, tells WND that until the current historical era, everything in nature was considered by scientists to be evidence of the “hand of God.”
“Scientists during most of history have recognized that the vast natural beauty they are privileged to see and study could only have been the product of an awesome Creator,” Robinson said.
The new NASA photo resulted when the NuSTAR telescope X-rayed the explosion of a star and subsequent ejection of a huge cloud of matter that shows up as blue in the image.
In a press release, NuSTAR telescope principal investigator Fiona Harrison, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said, “NuSTAR’s unique viewpoint, in seeing the highest-energy X-rays, is showing us well-studied objects and regions in a whole new light.”
Robinson, a former CalTech professor and co-founder with Nobel laureate Linus Pauling of the Linus Pauling Institute, and later of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, assured WND that while science has become increasingly atheistic, “many scientists today still recognize the hand of God in the natural world.”
In “The Marketing of Evil,” author and WND Managing Editor David Kupelian points out a few other scientists who see the “Hand of God” everywhere:
“This ubiquitous natural wonderland caused man to acknowledge and honor the Creator of creation, as Copernicus did when he wrote, ‘[The world] has been built for us by the Best and Most Orderly Workman of all.’ Or as Galileo wrote, ‘God is known … by Nature in His works and by doctrine in His revealed word.’ Or as Pasteur confessed, ‘The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.’ Or Isaac Newton: ‘When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance.’”
Newton, interestingly, is universally regarded as one of the most important scientists in history, and his 1687 book, “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy,” is considered perhaps the most influential science book of all time, laying out the basis for classical mechanics.
But Newton also wrote another book many people have never heard about: “Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John.” In fact, a devout Christian, Newton spent a significant amount of his time researching and studying the Bible.
With views like that, which by today’s academic standards might be regarded as “unscientific,” it is questionable whether Sir Isaac Newton, history’s most famous scientist, could have landed a professorship at a modern secular university.
In his book, “God and the Astronomers,” world-renowned astrophysicist Robert Jastrow, founding director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, explains the “fear of faith” many of today’s scientists experience.
There is a kind of religion in science, it is the religion of a person who believes there is order and harmony in the universe, and every effect must have its cause; [but] there is no First Cause. …
“No First Cause,” however, means there is no Creator, no God. As Jastrow continues:
This religious faith of the scientist is violated by the discovery that the world had a beginning under conditions in which the known laws of physics are not valid, and as a product of forces or circumstances we cannot discover. When that happens, the scientist has lost control. If he really examined the implications, he would be traumatized. As usual when faced with trauma, the mind reacts by ignoring the implications – in science this is known as “refusing to speculate” – or trivializing the origin of the world by calling it the Big Bang, as if the Universe were a firecracker.
Consider the enormity of the problem. Science has proven that the universe exploded into being at a certain moment. It asks, What cause produced this effect? Who or what put the matter and energy into the Universe? Was the Universe created out of nothing, or was it gathered together out of pre-existing materials? And science cannot answer these questions …
“Now,” Jastrow continues, “we would like to pursue that inquiry farther back in time, but the barrier to further progress seems insurmountable. It is not a matter of another year, another decade of work, another measurement, or another theory; at this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation.”
The famed scientist’s ultimate conclusion is astonishingly candid, particularly in light of his own professed agnosticism: “For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”
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MailOnline
Well... he is Jesus! Lightening bolt looks like it's being thrown from the hand of Brazil's famous Christ the Redeemer statue during spectacular storm
By JAMES NYE
PUBLISHED: 00:47 EST, 17 January 2014 | UPDATED: 02:35 EST, 17 January 2014
This is the staggering moment that the 100-foot tall statue of Jesus that towers over Rio de Janeiro was hit by lightning.
The Christ the Redeemer statue was struck in the early hours of Wednesday morning as a spectacular electrical storm lit up the sky.
The iconic statue is the largest stone-work of Jesus ever built and stands more than 2,000 feet above Rio on top of the Corcovado Hill.
It was hit by lightning in February 2008 and had to undergo a serious restoration because the bolt damaged its head and fingers.
Named one of the seven new wonders of the world in 2007, the statue is made of 700 tonnes of reinforced concrete.
Divine: A lightning flashes over the statue of Christ the Redeemer on top of the Corcovado hill in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on January 16, 2014
View of lightning that strikes next to the statue Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 16 January 2014. The city has suffered a strong storm that left neighborhoods without power and flooded streets
Awesome: Lightning flashes over the Christ the Redeemer statue on top of Corcovado Hill in Rio de Janeiro on January 14, 2014
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Livescience
Fate of Ark of the Covenant Revealed in Hebrew Text
By Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor | January 07, 2014 09:07pm ET
A newly translated Hebrew text claims to reveal where treasures from King Solomon's temple were hidden and discusses the fate of the Ark of the Covenant itself.
But unlike the Indiana Jones movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the text leaves the exact location of the Ark unclear and states that it, and the other treasures, "shall not be revealed until the day of the coming of the Messiah son of David …" putting it out of reach of any would-be treasure seeker.
(“It was also contained in the same writing, that the prophet, being warned of God, commanded the tabernacle and the ark to go with him, as he went forth into the mountain, where Moses climbed up, and saw the heritage of God.
And when Jeremy came thither, he found an hollow cave, wherein he laid the tabernacle, and the ark, and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door.
And some of those that followed him came to mark the way, but they could not find it.
Which when Jeremy perceived, he blamed them, saying, As for that place, it shall be unknown until the time that God gather his people again together, and receive them unto mercy.
Then shall the Lord shew them these things, and the glory of the Lord shall appear, and the cloud also, as it was shewed under Moses, and as when Solomon desired that the place might be honourably sanctified.” 2 Maccabees 2:4-8 Inserted by Ed.)
King Solomon's Temple, also called the First Temple, was plundered and torched by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II in the sixth century B.C., according to the Hebrew Bible. The Ark of the Covenant is a chest that, when originally built, was said to have held tablets containing the 10 commandments. It was housed in Solomon's Temple, a place that contained many different treasures.
The newly translated text, called "Treatise of the Vessels" (Massekhet Kelim in Hebrew), says the "treasures were concealed by a number of Levites and prophets," writes James Davila, a professor at the University of St. Andrews, in an article in the book "Old Testament Pseudepigrapha More Noncanonical Scriptures Volume 1" (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2013).
"Some of these (treasures) were hidden in various locations in the Land of Israel and in Babylonia, while others were delivered into the hands of the angels Shamshiel, Michael, Gabriel and perhaps Sariel …" writes Davila in his article.
The treatise is similar in some ways to the metallic "Copper Scroll," one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found near the site of Qumran in the West Bank. The Copper Scroll also discusses the location of hidden treasure, although not from Solomon's Temple.
The treatise describes the treasures in an imaginative way. One part refers to "seventy-seven tables of gold, and their gold was from the walls of the Garden of Eden that was revealed to Solomon, and they radiated like the radiance of the sun and moon, which radiate at the height of the world."
The oldest confirmed example of the treatise, which survives to present day, is from a book published in Amsterdam in 1648 called "Emek Halachah." In 1876, a scholar named Adolph Jellinek published another copy of the text, which was virtually identical to the 1648 version. Davila is the first to translate the text fully into English.
A story of legends
The writer of the text likely was not trying to convey factual locations of the hidden treasures of Solomon's Temple, but rather was writing a work of fiction, based on different legends, Davila told LiveScience. [In Photos: Amazing Ruins of the Ancient World]
"The writer draws on traditional methods of scriptural exegesis [interpretation] to deduce where the treasures might have been hidden, but I think the writer was approaching the story as a piece of entertaining fiction, not any kind of real guide for finding the lost Temple treasures," he wrote in the email.
The structure of the story is confusing. In the prologue it states that Shimmur the Levite (he doesn't appear to be a biblical figure) and his companions hid the treasures, "but later on the text mentions the treasures being in the keeping of or hidden by Shamshiel and other angels," Davila said. "I suspect the author collected various legends without too much concern about making them consistent."
Similarities to the Copper Scroll
The Copper Scroll, which dates back around 1,900 years, and is made of copper, shows several "striking parallels" with the newly translated treatise, Davila said.
The treatise says that the treasures from Solomon's Temple were recorded "on a tablet of bronze," a metal like the Copper Scroll. Additionally, among other similarities, the Treatise of the Vessels and Copper Scroll both refer to "vessels" or "implements," including examples made of gold and silver.
These similarities could be a coincidence or part of a tradition of recording important information on metal.
"My guess is that whoever wrote the Treatise of Vessels came up with the same idea [of writing a treasure list on metal] coincidentally on their own, although it is not unthinkable that the writer knew of some ancient tradition or custom about inscribing important information on metal," wrote Davila in the email, noting that metal is a more durable material than parchment or papyrus.
An ongoing story
The study of the treatise is ongoing, and discoveries continue to be made. For instance, in the mid-20th century a copy of it (with some variations) was discovered and recorded in Beirut, Lebanon, at the end of a series of inscribed plates that record the Book of Ezekiel.
Those plates are now at the Yad Ben Zvi Institute in Israel, although the plates containing the treatise itself are now missing. Recent research has revealed, however, these plates were created in Syria at the turn of the 20th century, about 100 years ago, suggesting the treatise was being told in an elaborate way up until relatively modern times.
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MailOnline
King Solomon's treasures revealed: Newly translated Hebrew text lists legendary riches - including the Ark of the Covenant
'Treatise of the Vessels’ suggests artefacts were hidden in the Middle East
Text was meant for entertainment rather than a guide to treasure's location
Treasures mentioned include musical instruments made of gold, ornaments from the Garden of Eden and various precious religious stones
By ELLIE ZOLFAGHARIFARD
PUBLISHED: 11:41 EST, 9 January 2014 | UPDATED: 07:42 EST, 10 January 2014
A real life Indiana Jones has uncovered details about King Solomon's riches in a newly translated Hebrew text.
But treasure hunters may have to wait a bit longer as, unlike the film ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ details about the exact location of these treasures are unclear.
Rather than a guide to lost treasure, the newly translated ‘Treatise of the Vessels’ was a legendary story written in Biblical times that was meant to entertain.
The text, translated by Professor James Davila from St Andrews University, suggests the artefacts from King Solomon's temple were tucked away in various places throughout the Middle East.
It lists a number of treasures including the Ark of the Covenant, the Tabernacle, musical instruments made of gold, ornaments from the Garden of Eden and various precious religious stones.
It describes: '77 tables of gold, and their gold was from the walls of the Garden of Eden that was revealed to Solomon, and they radiate like the radiance of the sun and moon, which radiate the height of the world.'
'The number of stones was forty-six thousands and the number of pearls was the same...seven curtains of fold in which was collected twelve thousands talents of gold and the vestments of the Levites and their belts.'
The Hebrew text claiming to reveal the location of King Solomans hidden treasure and the fate of the Ark of the Covenant. The oldest confirmed example of the treatise, which survives to present day, is from a book published in Amsterdam in 1648 called 'Emek Halachah'
A modern-day Indiana Jones has uncovered details about the fate of the Ark of Covenant (pictured in this stone carving) in a newly translated Hebrew text
‘The text tells us no more about where the Ark and other treasures might be than if you watched the film,’ Professor Davila told MailOnline.
‘But it does provide some interesting insights into Jewish legends in the Middle Ages….Mostly it tells us ways in which people understood the Bible that are not part of official interpretation.’
The Ark of the Covenant is a legendary gilded case believed to have been constructed nearly 3,000 years ago.
According to biblical text, the Ark holds the Ten Commandments handed down to Moses by God. It was housed in King Solomon's Temple, which contained a variety of different treasures.
But when King Solomon’s Temple was captured and destroyed by the Babylonians in 597 and 586 B.C., the coveted artefact disappeared forever.
Archaeologists are still unsure whether Ark was captured, destroyed or hidden, and many have searched for it throughout the centuries.
The text, which dates back at least as far back as the 15th century, says the ‘treasures were concealed by a number of Levites and prophets.’
‘Some of these (treasures) were hidden in various locations in the Land of Israel and in Babylonia, while others were delivered into the hands of the angels Shamshiel, Michael, Gabriel and perhaps Sariel,’ he writes.
The writer of the text draws on traditional methods of scriptural explanation to explain where the treasures might have been hidden.
But there are a number of inconsistencies in the text. For example, in the prologue it states that Shimmur the Levite and his companions hid the treasures.
Later on the text mentions the treasures being in the keeping of, or hidden by, Shamshiel and other angels.
‘I believe the author looked at various legends without much concern about making them consistent,’ said Professor Davila.
He added that the treatise is similar in some ways to the metallic ‘Copper Scroll,’ one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found near the site of Qumran in the West Bank.
According to biblical text, the Ark holds the Ten Commandments handed down to Moses by God. This image (ca. 1725-1727) shows the Ark of the Covenant and is by Giovanni Battista Pittoni
The Copper Scroll, which dates back around 1,900 years, shows several ‘striking parallels’ with the newly translated treatise, Professor Davila said.
The treatise says that the treasures from Solomon's Temple were recorded ‘on a tablet of bronze,’ a metal like the Copper Scroll.
The Copper scroll also discusses the location of hidden treasure, although not from Solomon's Temple. Professor Davila said this might reveal a tradition of inscribing lists of treasures on metal.
The oldest confirmed example of the treatise, which survives to present day, is from a book published in Amsterdam in 1648 called ‘Emek Halachah.’
However, Professor Davila is the first to translate the text into English.
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Arutz Sheva
Secret Location of 'King David's Castle' to be Revealed
A major archaeological find points to a Davidic royal castle in Nahal Refaim. Location was secret, until now.
By Gil Ronen
First Publish: 1/7/2014, 1:01 PM
The location of a major archaeological find that was kept secret until now will be revealed to the public on Friday, next week. The find is being touted as a royal castle that could have belonged to Israel's most celebrated king – the Bible's King David.
The find is a decorated carved stone known as "a proto-aeolic capital" that is connected to a column. Only 30 such capitals have been found in Israel so far, and only five of them were found in areas in which Biblical-era kings lived.
Unlike all of the other proto-aeolic capitals found in Israel – this one is not separate from the column but connected to it. The weight of the column and capital are estimated to be about five tons.
"For reasons that are not completely clear," wrote newspaper Makor Rishon when the find was first announced, "several authorities in Israel have decided to silence the find, which may mark a breakthrough in the perception of the period of King David and his son, Shlomo [Solomon], and of the entire Judean kingdom."
The site was identified by Binyamin Tropper, of the Kfar Etzion Field School, as he descended into a cave in the area of southern Jerusalem. The capital "apparently indicates that an entire temple or castle is buried beneath it," the newspaper added.
Mysteriously, when Kfar Etzion Field School Director Yaron Rosental contacted the Israel Antiquities Authority to inform them of the find, the person he spoke to reportedly simply said – "Yaron, good for you. You found it, but we already are aware of it. Now forget about the whole thing and keep your mouth shut."
Rosental said that he later found out that the IAA had known about the site for 18 months.
According to Rosental, excavation of the site has potential for uncovering a complete castle and possibly an entire neighborhood from the Judean kings' period, for the first time ever. "We appear to have a complete castle here," he said. "Those who lived here after it did not know of its existence and thus, instead of using its stones to build a new building as was the usual practice, left it intact." The details found inside could be "amazing."
The IAA confirmed to Makor Rishon that the find is an important one that appears to date to the period of Judean kings. However, the IAA added, the subject is "sensitive" and "requires serious and responsible handling."
The Kfar Etzion Field School has announced that it will disclose the location of the find next Friday, January 17, right after a joint Jewish-Arab event for planting trees along the proposed route of the section of the security barrier that is to be constructed nearby. The field school vehemently opposes the construction and says that it will cause irreparable damage to nature, harm the livelihood of local residents and create tensions between Jews and Arabs.
In addition, the planned route of the fence would leave the site of the archaeological find outside of Israeli-controlled territory, in the hands of the Palestinian Authority.
The IDF points out that the barrier is the last section of the security fence that remains to be built for protecting Jerusalem. It has also offered to assist the IAA in moving the proto-aeolic column into Israel.
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Pope Francis fires all but one cardinals who run Vatican bank just 11 months into their five-year term
The cardinals were appointed by Benedict XVI shortly before he resigned
The Vatican bank was caught in a money-laundering row in 2010
By TED THORNHILL
PUBLISHED: 05:05 EST, 16 January 2014 | UPDATED: 06:18 EST, 16 January 2014
All but one of a five-member panel that oversees the controversial Vatican bank has been fired by Pope Francis.
Four cardinals were given their marching orders by Francis on Wednesday.
Those sacked were former Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone SDB, Cardinals Odilo Scherer from Brazil, Telesphore Toppo from India and Domenico Calcagno, from within the Vatican.
Clear out: Pope Francis has sacked four of his Vatican bank cardinals, according to a newspaper
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, kept his job, according to The Tablet.
The Catholic paper explained that with the exception of Calcagno, the cardinals were all just eleven months into a second, five-year team, having been appointed by Benedict XVI.
The Vatican bank was caught in a money-laundering row in 2010 after Italian prosecutors uncovered allegedly suspicious financial activity within the organisation.
Bank chairman Ettore Gotti Tedeschi and his deputy Paolo Cipriani were investigated after financial police seized 23million euros from a Vatican bank account.
It was claimed that even as the bank was claiming to tackle money-laundering, it broke the law by trying to transfer money without identifying the sender or recipient, or what the money was being used for.
It was an accusation furiously denied by the Vatican.
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Independent.ie
Nuns and friars unite in name of Jesus
The Poor Clare Sisters, from Galway, and Irish Franciscan friars at the launch of holyname.ie
SARAH MACDONALD – 13 JANUARY 2014
A COMMUNITY of enclosed nuns has joined forces with a group of friars to try to lessen the use of the name 'Jesus' to express frustration or surprise.
Many visitors to Ireland are stunned that in a traditionally Catholic country, the name of 'Jesus' is used irreverently.
However, the Poor Clare Sisters in Galway and the Franciscan friars have earmarked 2014 as the year in which they hope to increase respect among Irish people for the "Holy Name of Jesus" and they have secured Pope Francis's approval for their efforts.
They will promote a series of prayers, religious hymns and reflections aimed at fostering a renewed reverence for the name of Jesus, including when it is used colloquially as 'Jaysus'.
Speaking about the Holy Name devotion, Fr Hugh McKenna, Minister Provincial of the Franciscan Order, said it was an opportunity for Christians to rekindle a love for the name.
'VENERATED'
"We invoke the name of Jesus so easily and very often so carelessly without realising the significance and power of this name that has been venerated down through the centuries," he said.
According to Fr McKenna, from the earliest days of Christianity people considered the name to have "an intrinsic divine power".
"Wherever the name of Jesus is spoken or displayed, the power of Jesus can be called upon to obtain peace, holiness and as a protection from evil," he said.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis has granted a plenary indulgence to the Irish faithful who participate in these devotions honouring the Holy Name of Jesus over the course of 2014.
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“And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.” Daniel 11:36-37 2 Thessalonians 2:4 Revelation 13:6
A description of the coming antichrist.
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mail.com
AK-47 designer Kalashnikov wrote penitent letter
January 13, 2014
Photo: AP
MOSCOW (AP) — In a regretful letter penned a few months before his death, Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the AK-47 assault rifle, asked the head of the Russian Orthodox Church if he was to blame for the deaths of those killed by his weapon.
The Russian daily Izvestia on Monday published the letter, in which Kalashnikov, who died last month at 94, told Patriarch Kirill that he kept asking himself if he was responsible. The AK-47 is the world's most popular firearm, with an estimated 100 million spread around the world.
"The pain in my soul is unbearable. I keep asking myself the same unsolvable question: If my assault rifle took people's lives, it means that I, Mikhail Kalashnikov, ... son of a farmer and Orthodox Christian am responsible for people's deaths," he said in the letter.
Kalashnikov also shared his bitter thoughts about humankind. "The longer I live, the more often that question gets into my brain, the deeper I go in my thoughts and guesses about why the Almighty allowed humans to have devilish desires of envy, greed and aggression," Kalashnikov continued. "Everything changes, only a man and his thinking remain unchanged: he's just as greedy, evil, heartless and restless as before!"
Kalashnikov's daughter, Elena, was quoted by Izvestia as saying that a local priest could have helped her father write the two-page letter, which was typed and carried his signature. The rifle's simplicity and reliability made it a weapon of choice for the Third World insurgents backed by the Soviet Union. Moscow not only distributed the AK-47 widely but also licensed its production in some 30 other countries. The gun's cult status among revolutionaries and national-liberation fighters is enshrined on the flag of Mozambique.
The letter, which was sent in April, contrasted sharply with past statements by Kalashnikov, who had repeatedly said in interviews and public speeches that he created the weapon to protect his country and couldn't be blamed for other people's action.
"I sleep well. It's the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence," the designer told The Associated Press in 2007. The church sought to comfort him with exactly same argument. Izvestia quoted Kirill's spokesman Alexander Volkov as saying the Patriarch responded to Kalashnikov and praised him as a true patriot.
"If the weapon is used to defend the Motherland, the Church supports both its creators and the servicemen using it," the newspaper quoted Volkov as saying. In 2007, President Vladimir Putin praised Kalashnikov's weapon as a "symbol of the creative genius of our people." Putin attended Kalashnikov's burial at a memorial military cemetery just outside Moscow.
While it's not especially accurate, Kalashnikov's rifle can perform in sandy or wet conditions that jam more sophisticated weapons such as the U.S. M-16. "During the Vietnam war, American soldiers would throw away their M-16s to grab AK-47s and bullets for it from dead Vietnamese soldiers," Kalashnikov said at a 2007 ceremony marking the rifle's 60th anniversary.
Kalashnikov, born into a peasant family in Siberia, first showed his designer skills when he invented some modifications for Soviet tanks while serving as a Red Army conscript. He was badly wounded in a 1941 battle with the Nazis and first started designing of a new automatic rifle while he was recovering in the hospital.
Kalashnikov received numerous honors, including the Hero of Socialist Labor and Order of Lenin and Stalin Prize, but never got rich because his invention was never patented. Kalashnikov continued working into his late 80s as chief designer of the Izmash company that first built the AK-47. He started travelling the world in the waning days of the Soviet Union, serving as a living symbol of Russian prowess in making weapons and helping negotiate new arms deals.
In his letter to the Patriarch, Kalashnikov said that at 91 he began visiting a church in the city of Izhevsk where he worked and died, adding words of praise for the Russian Orthodox Church.
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Waking Times
Pyramid Power
January 8, 2014
By Julian Websdale, Contributor
The most celebrated pyramids are those at Giza, built during the fourth dynasty, of which the largest is the one that housed the pharaoh Khufu, better known as Cheops. This is now called the Great Pyramid.
Some years ago it was visited by a French hardware store owner and author named Antoine Bovis. It is said that Bovis took refuge from the midday sun in the pharaoh’s chamber, which is situated in the centre of the pyramid, exactly one third of the way up the base. He found it unusually humid there, but what really surprised him were the garbage cans that contained, among the usual tourist litter, the bodies of a cat and some small desert animals that had wandered into the pyramid and died there. Despite the humidity, none of them had decayed but just dried out like mummies. He began to wonder whether the pharaohs had really been so carefully embalmed by their subjects after all, or whether there was something about the pyramids themselves that preserved bodies in a mummified condition.
Bovis made an accurate scale model of the Cheops pyramid and placed it, like the original, with the base lines facing precisely north-south and east-west. Inside the model, one third of the way up, he put a dead cat. It became mummified, and he concluded that the pyramid promoted rapid dehydration. Reports of this discovery attracted the attention of Karel Drbal, a radio engineer in Prague, who repeated the experiment with several dead animals and concluded, “There is a relation between the shape of the space inside the pyramid and the physical, chemical, and biological processes going on inside the space. By using suitable forms and shapes, we should be able to make processes occur faster or delay them.”
Drbal remembered an old superstition which claimed that a razor left in the light of the moon became blunted. He tried putting one under his model pyramid, but nothing happened, so he went on shaving with until it was blunt, and then put it back in the pyramid. It became sharp again. Getting a good razor blade was difficult in many Eastern European countries at the time, so Drbal tried to patent and market his discovery. The patent office in Prague refused to consider it until their chief scientist had tried building a model himself and found that it worked. So the Cheops Pyramid Razor Blade Sharpener was registered in 1959 under the Czechoslovakian Republic Patent No. 91304, and a factory soon began to turn out miniature cardboard pyramids. During the 1970s they made them in Styrofoam.
The edge of a razor blade has a crystal structure. Crystals are almost alive, in that they grow by reproducing themselves. When a blade becomes blunted, some of the crystals on the edge, where they are only one layer thick, are rubbed off. Theoretically, there is no reason why they should not replace themselves in time. Sunlight has a field that points in all directions, but sunlight reflected from an object such as the moon is partly polarised, vibrating mostly in one direction. This could conceivably destroy the edge of a blade left in moonlight, but it does not explain the reverse action of the pyramid. It can be surmised that the Great Pyramid and its little imitations act as lenses that focus energy or as resonators that collect energy, which encourages crystal growth. The pyramid shape itself is very much like that of a crystal of magnetite, so it may build up a magnetic field. Author Lyall Watson kept a Wilkinson Sword blade sharp, for 4 months of continuous daily use, using a miniature pyramid.
A model pyramid can be made using the following method:
Cut four pieces of heavy cardboard into isosceles triangles with the proportion base to sides of 15.7 to 14.94. Tape these together so that the pyramid stands exactly 10.0 of the same units high. Orient it precisely so that the base lines face magnetic north-south and east-west. Make a stand 3.33 units high and place it directly under the apex of the pyramid to hold your objects. The sharp edges of the blade should face east and west. Keep the whole thing away from electrical devices.
In 1968 a team of scientists from the United States and from Ein Shams University in Cairo began a million-dollar project to X-ray the pyramid of Chephren, successor to Cheops. They hoped to find new vaults hidden in the six million tons of stone by placing detectors in a chamber at its base and measuring the amount of cosmic ray penetration, the theory being that more rays would come through hollow areas. The recorders ran twenty-four hours a day for more than a year until, in early 1969, the latest (at the time), IBM 1130, computer was delivered to the university for analysis of the tapes. Six months later the scientists had to admit defeat: the pyramid made no sense at all. Tapes recorded with the same equipment from the same point on successive days showed totally different cosmic-ray patterns. The leader of the project, Amr Gohed, in an interview afterward said, “This is scientifically impossible. Call it what you will – occultism, the curse of the pharaohs, sorcery, or magic, there is some force that defies the laws of science at work in the pyramid.”
Jules Green of the Psychical Research Society experimented with flowers. Taking four roses, he placed two under pyramids, one under a cube, and one in the open air. He did the same with four tulips. After a week, the flowers exposed to the air had withered, while the others were still fresh. The roses and tulips in the pyramids, however, had actually grown.
Not surprisingly, people experience enhanced effects when meditating beneath pyramids. Changes in the meditator’s aura (electromagnetic field) have been noted with Kirlian photography – auras become brighter and larger. Meditators report deeper relaxation, an enhanced sense of well-being, and increased levels of awareness. The positive energy flow in the pyramid facilitates deeper focus. A pyramid aids meditation because it focuses harmonious energy while deflecting distracting energies. People meditating in a pyramid regularly have received strong spiritual and psychic impressions, as well as enhanced dreams and visions, vivid visual imagery, and increased memory recall.
Experiments have shown copper to be the best metal for an open-frame meditation pyramid, due to its natural electronic and bio-enhancing properties. However, pyramid structures of cardboard, wood or bamboo are also effective, if built to the same proportional dimensions as the Great Pyramid.
Pyramids have also been found to:
Restore the lustre to tarnished jewellery and coins
Purify water
Mummify and dehydrate meat, eggs and other food stuffs
Help keep milk fresh and prevent souring without refrigeration
Dehydrate flowers without losing their form or colour
Increase the growth rate of plants
Help attain increased relaxation
Improves the taste of coffee, wine and certain fruit juices
Promotes healing of cuts, bruises and burns, as well as reduces pain from toothaches and headaches.
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ENENEWS
Jan. 12, 2014 interview with Professor Busby, Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk and member of UK Department of Health Committee Examining Radiation Risk for Internal Emitters (CERRIE), VoR (at 2:30 in): “I don’t think there’s much more [Tepco] can do, to be honest. I think the thing is out of control. I can’t see what they can do. Basically, what we have here — in my opinion, and others too — is that the core material from the reactors is outside of the containment and in the ground. So the groundwater is picking up this radioactivity and bringing it onto the surface [...] until they actually address the basic problem of this stuff being outside the containment, then there’s not much they can do [...] for the stuff that is outside the tanks in the ground, I’m not sure I see any way in which they can do it.”
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Think Tank: “Extraordinary Crisis” Needed to Preserve “New World Order”
Author of ‘shock and awe’ doctrine says elite threatened by non-state actors like Edward Snowden
Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com January 17, 2014
Writing for the Atlantic Council, a prominent think tank based in Washington DC, Harlan K. Ullman warns that an “extraordinary crisis” is needed to preserve the “new world order,” which is under threat of being derailed by non-state actors like Edward Snowden.
The Atlantic Council is considered to be a highly influential organization with close ties to major policy makers across the world. It’s headed up by Gen. Brent Scowcroft, former United States National Security Advisor under U.S. Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush. Snowcroft has also advised President Barack Obama.
Harlan K. Ullman was the principal author of the “shock and awe” doctrine and is now Chairman of the Killowen Group which advises government leaders.
In an article entitled War on Terror Is not the Only Threat, Ullman asserts that, “tectonic changes are reshaping the international geostrategic system,” arguing that it’s not military superpowers like China but “non-state actors” like Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning and anonymous hackers who pose the biggest threat to the “365 year-old Westphalian system” because they are encouraging individuals to become self-empowered, eviscerating state control.
“Very few have taken note and fewer have acted on this realization,” notes Ullman, lamenting that “information revolution and instantaneous global communications” are thwarting the “new world order” announced by U.S. President George H.W. Bush more than two decades ago.
“Without an extraordinary crisis, little is likely to be done to reverse or limit the damage imposed by failed or failing governance,” writes Ullman, implying that only another 9/11-style cataclysm will enable the state to re-assert its dominance while “containing, reducing and eliminating the dangers posed by newly empowered non-state actors.”
Ullman concludes that the elimination of non-state actors and empowered individuals “must be done” in order to preserve the new world order. A summary of their material suggests that the Atlantic Council’s definition of a “new world order” is a global technocracy run by a fusion of big government and big business under which individuality is replaced by transhumanist singularity.
Ullman’s rhetoric sounds somewhat similar to that espoused by Trilateral Commission co-founder and regular Bilderberg attendee Zbigniew Brzezinski, who in 2010 told a Council on Foreign Relations meeting that a “global political awakening,” in combination with infighting amongst the elite, was threatening to derail the move towards a one world government.
Ullman’s implied call for an “extraordinary crisis” to reinvigorate support for state power and big government has eerie shades of the Project For a New American Century’s 1997 lament that “absent some catastrophic catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor,” an expansion of U.S. militarism would have been impossible.
In 2012, Patrick Clawson, member of the influential pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) think tank, also suggested that the United States should launch a staged provocation to start a war with Iran.
Ullman’s concern over failing state institutions having their influence eroded by empowered individuals, primarily via the Internet, is yet another sign that the elite is panicking over the “global political awakening” that has most recently expressed itself via the actions of people like Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and their growing legion of supporters.
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Washington’s Blog
Weapons Inspectors: Syrian Chemical Weapons Fired from REBEL-HELD Territory
January 17, 2014
The head of the UN weapons inspectors said that the American case for Syrian government firing chemical weapons was weak, because the rockets can only go 2 miles … but government-held territory ismuch further away.
Similarly, McClatchy reported yesterday:
A team of security and arms experts, meeting this week in Washington to discuss the matter, has concluded that the range of the rocket that delivered sarin in the largest attack that night was too short for the device to have been fired from the Syrian government positions where the Obama administration insists they originated.
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The authors of a report released Wednesday said that their study of the rocket’s design, its likely payload and its possible trajectories show that it would have been impossible for the rocket to have been fired from inside areas controlled by the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
In the report, titled “Possible Implications of Faulty U.S. Technical Intelligence,” Richard Lloyd, a former United Nations weapons inspector, and Theodore Postol, a professor of science, technology and national security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, argue that the question about the rocket’s range indicates a major weakness in the case for military action initially pressed by Obama administration officials.
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London 1927 color
Song 1: Parasol by Jonquil Song 2: Comptine D'un Autre été L'après-midi by Yann Tiersen From the British Film Institute http://www.bfi.org.uk/ Incredible colour footage of 1920s London shot by an early British pioneer of film named Claude Frisse-Greene, who made a series of travelogues using the colour process his father William - a noted cinematographer - was experimenting with. It's like a beautifully dusty old postcard you'd find in a junk store, but moving.
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Forbes
Massive Hole Discovered Under Antarctica, Bigger Than The Grand Canyon
William Pentland, Contributor
1/15/2014
A giant valley deeper than the Grand Canyon is
buried beneath several miles of glacial ice in West Antarctica,
according to a new study by British scientists.
The sub-glacial canyon is nearly two miles deep, 200 miles long and 15 miles wide.
“The discovery of this huge trough, and the characterization of the surrounding mountainous landscape, was incredibly serendipitous,” said Dr. Neil Ross, a professor of geology at Newcastle University and the study’s lead author.
The study appears in the latest edition of the Geological Society of America Bulletin.
Ross and a team of other scientists from the University of Bristol’s Glaciology Centre, the British Antarctic Survey and the universities of Edinburgh, Exeter, and York spent three seasons mapping an ancient sub-glacial mountain range known as the Ellsworth Sub-glacial Highlands.
The mapping combined data collected by ice-penetrating radars towed behind snowmobiles and on-board small aircraft with satellite data.
“We had acquired ice penetrating radar data from both ends of this huge hidden valley, but we had no information to tell us what was in between,” said Ross. “Satellite data was used to fill the gap, because despite being covered beneath several kilometers of ice, the valley is so vast that it can be seen from space.”
The valley was formed millions of years ago by a small ice field similar to those of the present-day Antarctic Peninsula.
Ross eloquently summarized the implications of this research, stating: “To me, this just goes to demonstrate how little we still know about the surface of our own planet.”
You can say that again.
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Natural Blaze
Green Spaces Deliver Lasting Mental Health Benefits
Tuesday, January 07, 2014 | 0 comments
Green space in towns and cities could lead to significant and sustained improvements in mental health, finds a new study published in the journal of Environmental Science & Technology.
Analysing data that followed people over a five year period, the research has found that moving to a greener area not only improves people's mental health, but that the effect continues long after they have moved.
The findings add to evidence that suggests increasing green spaces in cities - such as parks and gardens - could deliver substantial benefits to public health.
The research is one of the first studies to consider the effects of green space over time and has used data from the British Household Panel Survey, a repository of information gathered from questionnaires filled in by households across Great Britain.
Using data from over 1,000 participants, the research team at the University of Exeter Medical School focused on two groups of people: those who moved to greener urban areas, and those who relocated to less green urban areas.
They found that, on average, movers to greener areas experienced an immediate improvement in mental health that was sustained for at least 3 years after they moved. The study also showed that people relocating to a more built up area suffered a drop in mental health. Interestingly this fall occurred before they moved; returning to normal once the move was complete.
The authors adjusted their data to remove effects from other factors likely to affect mental health over time – such as income, employment and education – as well as factors related to personality. Lead researcher, Dr Ian Alcock, believes the study's results could have important implications:
"We've shown that individuals who move to greener areas have significant and long-lasting improvements in mental health. These findings are important for urban planners thinking about introducing new green spaces to our towns and cities, suggesting they could provide long term and sustained benefits for local communities."
In 2012 the World Health Organisation cited depression as the leading cause of disability worldwide, and this study builds on research that has found natural environments could act as vital resources to improve health and wellbeing.
Yet up until now, scientists have been unsure how these effects vary over time. Co-author of the paper, Dr Mathew White, says this research has provided an important insight into the mechanism:
"We needed to answer important questions about how the effects of green space vary over time. Do people experience a novelty effect, enjoying the new green area after the move, but with the novelty then wearing off? Or do they take time to realise the benefits of their new surroundings as they gradually get to know local parks? What we've found suggests that the mental health benefits of green space are not only immediate, but sustainable over long periods of time."
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Until next week...keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions
“The Lord maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.”
(Psalm 23:2)