No, I haven't lost my calendar and I do know what day this is on the Roman calendar that we follow. Many, if not most do not know it, but today is the beginning of the new year in God's calendar. The year starts in the spring and is comprised up of 12 30 day months. Almost no one understands this fact. The Jewish calendar for example follows a lunar/solar year of only 354 days per year. Every three years they add a 13th month. Sounds nice, but it is not Biblical. They also start their day in the evening. They got this idea of evening days while in Babylon during their captivity, just like our day starts at midnight. We get this day from the pagan Romans. God's day starts in the morning dawn. The easy proof to that is in the first chapter of Genesis. The first day came, then evening, then morning which is called the end of the first day, the second was starting.
'Atheism is inconsistent with the scientific method'
Brazilian theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser has been given the Templeton Prize for demonstrating that science and religion are not enemies. The award, one of the world's richest annual awards at $1.4 million (£1mn) recognises outstanding contributions to 'affirming life's spiritual dimension'.
The physics and astronomy professor, who specialises in cosmology, is the first Latin American to win the award, the John Templeton Foundation said in a statement.
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The annual Templeton Prize, which recognizes outstanding contributions to 'affirming life's spiritual dimension,' was awarded to Brazilian Marcelo Gleiser -a theoretical physicist dedicated to demonstrating science and religion are not enemies
Gleiser, 60, does not believe in God, but refuses to write off the possibility of God's existence completely. MORE
Muslim Fulani militants killed nine more Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt over the weekend, the latest strike in a string of lethal, religiously motivated attacks.
The governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai, confirmed that the assault in the Sanga local government area had claimed at least nine lives, adding to the death toll of 120 Christians massacred in central Nigeria since February.
“The security agencies have so far recovered nine corpses, including children,” El-Rufai said. “The attackers also burnt several houses in the village. The government condemns this attack on the lives and security of citizens and appeals to our communities to resist those who do not want peace.”
It can happen at almost any age, from 6 to 17, callers use social media to get details, then call you to say they have your kid! BEWARE! It's a scam
Police in Southern California are warning parents to be extra cautious after two “virtual kidnapping” cases in which suspects demanded large ransoms to get their children safely back home.
No one was abducted in either case, but that didn’t stop one man from forking over a $5,000 ransom on March 7 after getting a random call on his cellphone, Laguna Beach police told the Orange County Register.
“The suspect ordered the victim to stay on the phone with him throughout this incident,” Sgt. Jima Cota told the newspaper. “The victim became fearful for his daughter and after briefly hearing a female scream into the phone stating she had been kidnapped, the victim went to his bank and withdrew $5,000.”
The unknown caller then directed the man to go to various wire transfer locations outside Laguna Beach, where he then transferred the funds to an account in Mexico. Roughly four hours later, as the victim finished up the transactions, Cota said, the man then got a call from his daughter, who was unharmed and in Laguna Beach.
The girl told her father that she wasn’t kidnapped, but he was unable to stop the transaction in time, Cota said.
Laguna Beach police received a second call a day later. This time, an unidentified caller told a victim that her daughter had been kidnapped while attending college in Chicago. The parents were instructed to withdraw money and to wire the funds to an account in Mexico, using the same location in Costa Mesa to send the cash, Cota said.
“Once the mother pulled out the money, she called the police department,” Cota told the newspaper. “Police officers stopped her on her way out of town and were able to stop the transfer of money.”
The woman’s daughter was later confirmed to be safe in Chicago. Both cases have since been referred to the FBI, which investigates similar schemes that impact hundreds of people annually, according to the newspaper.
“Two incidents in 24 hours is unacceptable,” Cota said. “We can’t afford to have people lose their hard-earned money.”
Laguna Beach police alerted residents to the scam on March 8 in a detailed Facebook post that suggested that the “best course of action” in most cases is to simply hang up.
“This type of activity is called ‘virtual kidnapping’ and we believe the suspect was able to learn personal information of the victim through unsecured social media sites,” the post read. “Review the settings of all your social media sites to make sure they are secured to protect yourself against being a victim.”
To avoid becoming victimized, police urged people to look for possible indicators like someone trying desperately to keep you on the phone and calls that don’t come from the supposed victim’s phone.
“If you engage the caller, don’t call out your loved one’s name,” the post continued. “Try to slow the situation down. Request to speak to your family member directly. Ask, ‘How do I know my loved one is okay?’”
To buy extra time in such a situation, police also suggested that people repeat the caller’s ransom demand and request extra time to meet those conditions.
“Don’t agree to pay a ransom, by wire or in person,” the post concluded. “Delivering money in person can be dangerous. If you suspect a real kidnapping is taking place or you believe a ransom demand is a scheme, contact your local law enforcement immediately.”
Stem cells derived from aborted fetuses are used in the U.S. for food and cosmetic research, with one San Francisco-based beauty company notoriously incorporating cell lines in many of its products, including anti-aging face and eye creams.
Some of those creams received awards in recent months from popular U.S. entertainment magazines Elle and InStyle.
Earlier this week, an anti-abortion activist group released an online video that it claims evidences methods in which Planned Parenthood not only sells fetal organs for a profit – a felony in the U.S. – but even alters standard abortion practices in order to preserve fetal organs.
Planned Parenthood denied the accusations, saying it does not sell the human tissue but instead donates the tissue to scientific research while only being reimbursed for expenses, which the group maintains is legal.
The abortion group’s spokesman, Eric Ferrero, told reporters Planned Parenthood harvested the tissue “with full, appropriate consent from patients and under the highest ethical and legal standards.”
The California anti-abortion group, Center for Medical Progress, which released a nearly 3-hour long undercover video, charged “Planned Parenthood’s criminal conspiracy to make money off of aborted baby parts reaches to the very highest levels of their organization.”
The issue clearly has reinvigorated the debate about abortion and stem cell research using tissue harvested from aborted fetuses.
Where are the crying media stories about this tragedy? Politicians, Press and most only care about Muslims being killed - not the other way around - something that happens 100-1!
Nigerian Muslim Militants Kill 120 Christians in Three Weeks
The recent death toll of Christians in Nigeria has reached 120 with this week’s slaughter of more than 50 by Fulani Muslim militants in the Kaduna state of Nigeria, the Christian Postreported.
The Fulani jihadists, who have become a greater threat to Nigerian Christians than the Islamist terror group Boko Haram, stormed the villages of Inkirimi, Dogonnoma, and Ungwan Gora in the Kajuru Local Government Area last Monday, destroying 143 homes, killing 52 people, and wounding dozens more.
The assailants reportedly split into three groups, the first of which fired upon the people, the second set fire to buildings, and the third chased down people fleeing from the scene. Victims of the assault included women and children. MORE
Remember after 9/11, when Billy Graham's people decided the word "crusade" was too inflammatory? I don't remember the more benign term used for a time after that, but the thinking was, "crusade" might be offensive to Muslims.
That kind of thinking emboldens radical Islam. The imagery of the Crusades – in which large numbers of people in the Middle East swam in their own blood during the gruesome confrontations over Jerusalem – is often used by Muslims, who excel in propaganda. By the way – and this isn't meant as an afterthought – the Jews might have some unpleasant memories of the Crusades, as well.
Rodney Stark, though, in "God's Battalions," makes an argument he should be applauded for: The Crusaders were not expansionist and bullying; rather they were a reaction to Muslim hostilities. The idea that the Crusades were launched in reaction to Muslim aggressiveness is a story too long suppressed, and finally, we have a concise record of what really happened.
This is an engaging book, well-researched and expertly written. Stark represents the best of what happens when a gifted historian combines superb writing skill. One wonders if this book could be the basis of a documentary.
It is perhaps a surprise that what some would consider a conservative view is being published by HarperOne, but then again, all publishers realize today that with the economy the way it is, cash is a powerful lure; a strong book – which "God's Battalions" I is – can be comforting and profitable.
Politically correct history courses tell us that almost a thousand years ago, the Muslim world was a tolerant, advanced civilization in the Arabian desert. Think David Lean and Peter O'Toole as history professors.
Stark, though, paints a different picture, and the social scientist from Baylor makes a compelling case that is was the age-old aggressiveness of the Ishmaelites that brought Christian warriors to Jerusalem.
Stark begins by quite vividly painting a picture of Pope Urban II's speech in 1095, in a French meadow, in which he read from a desperate letter sent by the emperor of Byzantium, who was rightly concerned about the war-like Seljuk Turks – an army within 100 miles of Constantinople. Among other things, the torturing of Christians was becoming a battle tactic of the Muslims. I think this would sound familiar, right now, to Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem.
From there, Stark presents an engrossing tale of the myths and facts of the Crusades. For example, he says clearly that despite what some other historians have said, the Crusader armies were not made up of "the dregs of society" due to terrible economic conditions. Actually, says Stark, there was a period of economic growth in Europe during this time, and not only nobility funded the military excursions, but so did commoners.
Stark also addresses, in skillful fashion, the nuance of this sweeping story. Describing the brutality of a small contingent of Crusaders – "German knights" – who were bent on murdering Jews they found along the way, the bishop of Speyer sheltered that town's Jews (all but 12, who failed to heed warnings and were butchered), illustrating that down through history, while Christendom has a stained record with the Jews, many Christians have come to the aid of the Jews.
It is the encounters that the Crusaders had with Muslims hordes, however, that are most epic (a side-note for the immature reader: Several of the leaders of the Crusades had names that sounded like something straight out of Saturday Night Live: Walter the Penniless, Emicho of Leisingen and so forth).
Recounting an engagement near Tiberias between Crusader forces and the infamous Saladin, Stark adds rich texture to "God's Battalions":
"Then, as the sun rose and with the wind at their backs, Saladin's forces set fire to large collections of brush, and the smoke made it difficult for the Christians to keep track of their units," Stark writes. Carnage then ensued, and, "All of the Templars and Hospitallers taken captive were beheaded; the other captives were enslaved."
Stark does such a good job of fleshing out historical detail, it's difficult to name a favorite portion of the book. However, he shows us that truly, history repeats itself endlessly. In Chapter 10 ("Crusaders Against Egypt"), he shows the reader how critical this ancient land was to stability in the Middle East – just as we are learning in painful ways today.
"God's Battalions" is a wonderful historical record, and readers and historians alike should read it with the gusto it deserves, for the lessons contained in it are instructive for our time. Congratulations to Rodney Stark for harnessing history in such spectacular fashion.
Jim Fletcher has worked in the book publishing industry for 15 years, and is now director of the apologetics group Prophecy Matters. His new book, "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" has just been released by Strang’s Christian Life imprint.
And we wonder why some whites hate immigrants and start slaughtering innocents.... Maybe cause nobody cares that much more Muslim violence against Christians is happening world wide.
Dutch Christian relief organizations report that Muslim immigrants who convert to Christianity are regularly threatened or bullied, with some saying they get death threats “every single day.”
In an article published this week by Crux, a U.S.-based online Catholic news outlet, three former Muslims living in the Netherlands relate the hostility they suffer for their decision to convert to Christianity.
One man, an Iraqi national named Faradoun Fouad, said he converted in 1999 and soon after began receiving death threats.
“Directly after my conversion to Christianity I received the first threats. People who I thought were my friends, became my enemies,” he said.
“Even Muslims who are not very conservative told my wife that they would kill me,” Fouad said. “I’m still getting threats every single day.”
He said the threats take different forms, through phone calls or text messages, and even though he has reported them to the police several times, the threats continue.
In Islamic law, apostasy — conversion from Islam to another religion — is punishable by death.
Buzz Aldrin shown standing beside the US flag(Image: SSPL via Getty Images)
This is definitely worth the read!
Neil Armstrong climbed out of the lunar module simulator at NASA HQ after a particularly harrowing practice session for the upcoming Apollo 11 moon landing, promptly lit up a cigarette and announced, "Well, that's my one cigarette for the year."
"It was the only time anyone saw him smoke anything but the occasional cigar," says author Jim Donovan, whose new book Shoot For The Moon contains the definitive account of that momentous mission.
"When the primitive Apollo Guidance Computer - with just 72kB of memory and a processing speed millions of times slower than today's average smartphone - began to blare alarms at 40,000 feet it took incredible skill on the part of the controllers not to abort the entire mission."
Does Your Body Have the Capability of regeneration of loss limbs like lower forms of life?
Does your body have the ability to heal itself? Is this the power of God within us that Jesus unleashed in His healing? Everything science learns proves God and intelligent design.
Humans may one day have the ability to regrow limbs after scientists at Harvard University uncovered the DNA switch that controls genes for whole-body regeneration.
Some animals can achieve extraordinary feats of repair, such as salamanders which grow back legs, or geckos which can shed their tails to escape predators and then form new ones in just two months.
Planarian worms, jellyfish, and sea anemones go even further, actually regenerating their entire bodies after being cut in half.
Now scientists have discovered that that in worms, a section of non-coding or ‘junk’ DNA controls the activation of a ‘master control gene’ called early growth response (EGR) which acts like a power switch, turning regeneration on or off.
“We were able to decrease the activity of this gene and we found that if you don't have EGR, nothing happens," said Dr Mansi Srivastava, Assistant Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.
“The animals just can't regenerate. All those downstream genes won't turn on, so the other switches don't work, and the whole house goes dark, basically.”
The studies were done in three-banded panther worms. Scientists found that during regeneration the tightly-packed DNA in their cells, starts to unfold, allowing new areas to activate.
But crucially humans also carry EGR, and produce it when cells are stressed and in need of repair, yet it does not seem to trigger large scale regeneration.
Scientists now think that it master gene is wired differently in humans to animals and are now trying to find a way to tweak its circuitry to reap its regenerative benefits.
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