The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God.

Chapter 12. Thanks for the Meme-ories!

If you are sitting in a state of blissful ignorance about a Meme-infestation, what are the tell tale signs to look for? Imagine how a medical symposium might describe the symptoms.

1. The patient finds him/herself impelled by some deep inner conviction that something feels true, right, or the way it should be; a conviction that does not have any evidence or reason, but which, nevertheless, they feel is totally compelling or convincing!

Doctors refer to such a belief as “faith.”

The typical patient will make it a positive virtue to have his/her “faith” strong and unshakeable.

This feeling of superiority or righteousness will persist in spite of a lack of evidence. In fact most people will believe that the less evidence there is ----the more virtuous the belief!

This lack of evidence is a positive virtue where faith is concerned because if is a self-sustaining program. This means that once a proposition is believed, it automatically undermines opposition to itself.

The “lack of evidence is a virtue” idea is admirable since it teams up with “faith” itself to form a mutually supportive viral program!

2. Along with the two already mentioned symptoms of a Memics infection, we have a related symptom that may also be present in a faith-sufferer.

This is the conviction that “mystery” (i.e. the mystery of faith) is not something to be solved. It is not a virtue to solve mysteries, but rather we should enjoy them and revel in their insolubility.

Roman Catholics, for example, have a belief in infallible authority, which compels them to accept that wine becomes physically transformed into blood.

By the same token, they have the exact same trick performed in the “mystery” of the Trinity!

3. If you have a faith bug, it is statistically overwhelming that it is the same faith as your parents and grandparents had.

Moving stories and parables, along with stirring music and magnificent houses of worship have had some influence, but by and large, the most important variable in determining your religion is an accident of birth!

The convictions that you so passionately believe would have been a completely different set of beliefs if you had been born somewhere, or by someone else!

4. The infected persons may find themselves behaving intolerantly towards rival faiths, in extreme cases even killing them or advocating their deaths. They may be similarly inclined towards apostates or heretics!

This feeling of animosity can even be translated into hostility towards other modes of thought that are potentially inimical to their faith, such as the scientific method (evolution, etc.) which may be an anti-viral agent to him/her.

The road that leads to denunciation of another person’s faith is a long and perilous journey at best.

Because these viruses implant themselves so deeply into our psyche, often from a very early age on, to challenge them or attempt to “bring down the house of cards” can have serious consequences for the individual.

The threat to kill the distinguished novelist Salmon Rushdie or the Danish cartoonist who made fun of Muhammad is only one in a long list of sad examples.

Murder is an extreme example of course, but we have examples of even more extreme behavior in the suicide of the militant observers of a faith.

Like a soldier ant in a colony of Arab, or Japanese, or Sikh extremists, (ants) they are programmed to sacrifice their life.

To die in a holy war is the quickest way to heaven.

'On the surface, this may seems outright preposterous, but remember, the true test of a faith is the ability to believe without question!

Memes are not only immaterial thoughts, but can also manifest themselves as concrete objects when they are employed as the bases for objects such as a book.

A book is a successful way of transmitting a Meme and we are going to look at one of the most successful Memes of all time. The Bible!

In terms of the number of copies in existence, the Bible represents one of the most prolific books ever produced. Where other great texts of the ancient world have either been lost or else exist only in a relatively small number of copies, the Bible is everywhere!

The Bible has existed generally in its present form for the last two millennia.

If “survival of the fittest” has any validity as an evolutionary slogan, then the Bible seems a fair candidate for the accolade of the fittest of all books.

It exists today in over two thousand different languages and is distributed worldwide making it one of the best examples of a self-propagating “Meme.”

The Bible has exerted more influence on Western and even World culture than any other book. In art, literature, politics and religion, the biblical narratives and quotations are all-pervasive.

As Western culture became globalized, so to did the Bible. For example, fully one quarter to one third of all Japanese households today possess a bible. This in a country where only one or two percent of the population has any Christian adherence whatsoever.

The Bible has propagated itself so well in Japan because it is regarded as essential background for a proper understanding of Western culture.

This means that one effect of the spread of Western culture through trade, conquest and missionary activity has been the spread of an ancient Hebrew and Greek text to every corner of the globe.

Where Western culture goes, so goes the Bible.

“What a Meme!” And remember, a Meme has exactly the same psychological motivation for us as a chain letter; “If you propagate me then something nice will happen. If not, then something horrible will happen!” (Hell?)

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Chuch of Allan - The Plain Truth About God

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God.

Chapter 10. - Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up!

To quote James Breech once more: “Your concept of the kingdom of God, whether it belongs to the future mythological conceived, in either eschatological or apocalyptic terms, misses the reality of the kingdom.

The symbolism really refers to a power that is a basic factor in human experience!”

In the teachings attributed to Jesus, it is abundantly clear that he was an apocalyptic teacher who believed that the world would end within the lifetime of the people to which he was speaking.

The foundation of these teachings was that human beings could be saved by both believing his word and by modeling their lives on the higher moral law of God.
That higher moral law was the foundation of Jewish law.

To this end, he believed that Pharisaical teaching were an appropriate guide to following this higher moral law.

His criticism of the Pharisees was that they did not live by what they taught.

In line with this higher moral law, Jesus of Nazareth preached an ethics of selfless concern for the welfare of others, rejection of material wealth, and non-retribution, all of which were standard in Jewish ethics.

The religion that he taught was an intensely individual religion. Righteousness, which means the performance of right actions, was not a quality of actions but rather a quality of the interior state of the individual.

There is also abundant evidence in the Gospels that Jesus considered his teachings to be for Jews only.

This is a curious tradition to maintain in the face of the massive spread of Christianity into the Gentile world.

However, nowhere does Jesus of Nazareth construe his teachings or the religion he is espousing as anything other than for Jews and in one place explicitly says that his mission is only to the Jews.

Ultimately, the Jesus who emerges from the gospels is concerned with preparing the Jews for the last event in history.

The Christian religion was at first, obviously, a Jewish religion. It was a movement amongst the population in the immediate area of the land Jesus lived in.

Its message aimed directly at a Jewish audience by Jews.

However, with the advent of the Prophet Paul the message changed and was geared towards a Gentile population that was eager for the “word” as well.

Onto this template, Paul of Tarsus would add a new emphasis Jesus as a dead and risen God co-extensive with God.

This developed into two branches, which we could call a Jewish Christian and a Pauline (Gentile) Christian.

They not only lived side by side, but also competed for the same converts.

It was not until the Romans suppressed an uprising by the Jews in c A.D. 66-74 and again A.D. 132-135 that led to the destruction of Massada that the Pauline Christians gradually won out.

They became the defenders of the faith while the Jewish Christians were left by the wayside.

(Actually in the ashes of Massada!)

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God.

Chapter 8. Let My People Go!

Of all the civilizations archaeologists have studied there seems to be a special interest in the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians.

This is probably because Babylon and Assyria had a close connection with the world that was depicted in the Old Testament of the Bible.

A great part of archaeology revolves around attempts by people to find records of this culture that lend support to their faith in the Bible.

So much so, that with the beginning of a critical study of the Bible, questions were posed as to the accuracy of many of the passages that had been considered historical fact instead of the metaphorical stories they were intended to be. (See forward: by Dr. Burton L. Mack)

It was this desire to find corroboration of the Biblical narrative that first started scholars on their search throughout the Babylonian and Assyrian area of the Middle East.

It was known from the Old Testament that there was a close relationship between the civilizations of the Hebrew and the Babylonian-Assyrian people.

Abraham himself had become a migrant to the west when he left the Babylonian city of Ur after the Assyrians and Babylonians became a political threat to the independence of the Hebrew people.

The ten northern tribes of the Hebrews were eventually dispersed by the Assyrians, while a small group continued in Babylonian captivity.

With the superior force of their enemies, the Hebrews were to begin their Exile, much as they had endured the Exodus about 600 years before.

The Babylonians, much like the Assyrians and the Egyptians had many writings that were in the nature of scripture but they never set aside a specific book that was described as having Divine origin.

It is without doubt that there was much borrowing between the Hebrews and Babylonians though, and from this “borrowing,” we have a remarkable similarity between Babylonian and Egyptian stories.

1. The creation and flood story
2. Hymns and prayers
3. Ritual texts
4. Their legal code and -
5. Omens, all of which find some correspondence in the Bible.

** Moses came down from the mountain carrying two stone tablets. Today he would have gotten the information over the Internet and on a CD disc! -A.W. J.

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Chaldeans and the Babylonian empire, started to deport most of the prominent citizens of Judah about 597 B.C.E., and by 586, B.C.E. Judah ceased to be an independent kingdom.

Although most of the professionals, priests, artisans and the wealthy were deported, the “people of the land” were allowed to stay and then gathered in a single place by Nebuchadnezzar.

These people called themselves the “Gola.” (Exiles) They forged a new national identity and a new religion that was a reworking of the cult of Yahweh.

These “exiles” lived in a time of despair and loneliness that was brought about by the realization that the ‘Exile’ itself was unexplainable.

Hebrew history had been built on the promise of Yahweh (God) protecting them and using them for his purposes throughout human history.

This defeat and the loss of land promised to them by Yahweh implied that their faith in him was somehow misplaced.

This crisis, when their view of reality and the fact of reality did not match, resulted in a most profound despair.

It eventually led to a reworking of the Hebrew “world-view” that had existed until then.

Biblical texts such as Lamentations, Job, and many of the Psalms were written at this time.

Job in particular, an upright deserving man, is made to suffer the worst series of calamities possible.

When he finally despairs and states that there is no cosmic justice, the only answer he receives is that humans should not question God’s will!

Out of shear necessity, the Jews of Babylon had to re-make themselves.

They grew to blame the disaster of the Exile on their own impurity and lack of direction in following the word of Yahweh.

They had betrayed God and allowed their laws and practices to become corrupt.
Their exile was the final proof of God’s displeasure.

It was during this period that the direction and emphasis of the Jewish faith changed from a religion of judgment to a theology of salvation.

In texts such as Isaiah and Ezekiel there was talk of a purified and renewed faith where the Israelites would be gathered together in a purified religion and just society.

They talked about the re-establishment of a Davidic kingdom.

It was also during this period of resurgence in Jewish tradition that the Torah started to take its final shape and became the central text of the Jewish faith, helped along by “Cyrus the Persian.”

When “Cyrus the Great” conquered Mesopotamia around 535 BCE, he set in motion a series of events that was to shape the Jewish people and faith for all time!

The Persian people before that time (1000-800 B.C.E.) were a rag-tag group of tribes living north of Mesopotamia and part of the widespread group of Indo-European families.

The Mesopotamians had considered them no better than animals and they were largely ignored.

All this changed about 750 BCE when the followers of the “prophet” Zarathustra, already well entrenched in other areas of the Middle East, came to the fore in this area as well.

They spread their religion of Zoroastrianism which stated that Cosmic history was simply the epic battle between the two Divine forces of good and evil.

At the end time, a climactic battle would decide, once and for all, which of the two forces would dominate the universe.

Human beings were part of this struggle, as well as all the gods and religions.

Cyrus the Great was a follower of Zarathustra and set out to conquer not only the Middle East, but also the entire world.

He did this out of a wish to guarantee his territorial safety by conquering potential enemies, but he also wanted the whole world united for religious reasons.

Cyrus believed that the final battle between good and evil (The End Time) was fast approaching and the legions of humanity had to be brought to the side of the good forces.

He sought to conquer the entire known world, much like Alexander the Great did some few hundred years later.

Cyrus was the greatest conqueror the world had ever seen up to that point and his empire reached a sized never before imagined by anyone.

He was wondering about the circumstances for the Armageddon to come and believed that the Hebrew God “Yahweh” was aligned on the side of good and visited him one night in a vision.

In this vision he was commanded to re-establish Yahweh worship in Jerusalem and rebuild the temple there.

After the temple was rebuilt, Cyrus ordered the Jews in Babylon to return to Jerusalem and worship Yahweh for the forgiveness of their sins.

At the same time during this Exile, the Jews had set about “purifying” their religion and were attempting to return to the laws and cultic practices of their Mosaic origins.

This newfound concern with cultic purity and the Mosaic laws, combined with the re-establishment of Judah as a theological state, produced a totally different society from what had gone on before.

The Jews had adapted many things from the Persians and included these elements into their religion as well. This attempt to purify their faith resulted in a belief in a dualistic universe.

In early history everything happened from two forces, Yahweh and human will.

Now, in an effort to make sense of the Exile, the Hebrews adapted the Persian idea that the universe is composed of two opposite forces, one good, and the other evil!

This development closely followed the Zoroastrian concept of duality, which was now the foundation of their faith. Therefore, after the Babylonian exile, the Hebrews talk of an evil force opposed to God, which became the “Devil” in Christianity.

Before the Exile, the Hebrews believed that the soul of a person lived on for a short time before fading completely from existence, thus making it a this-world religion.

The Persians, meanwhile, believed the souls of good people would re-unite with the forces of good in eternal bliss and the souls of evil people would reunite with the forces of darkness until the final defeat of Evil.

This view of the afterlife that was adapted by the Hebrews explained all the suffering of this life, such as the Exile, and made it apparent that cosmic justice was apparent only after one’s death rather than during their lifetime.

This laid the foundation of the Judaism we have today!

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God.

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God (Chapter 5 - Timelines)

Chapter 5 – TIMELINE
You cannot tell who, or where you are, unless you know how you got there!

1534 A.D. - Henry V111 marries Anne Boleyn. Excommunicated by Clement V11.
- Henry V111 breaks away from the Catholic Church and makes himself the head of the Episcopal Church, or, Church of England.
1534 A.D. - John Calvin publishes his first edition of the “Institute of the Christian Religion.” This work is destined to become one of the most influential works of Protestantism. The book details his theology of Humanities depravity, the necessity of grace for salvation and predestination.
1535 A.D. - House of Hapsburg drives Turks out of Hungary.
1536 A.D. – Portugal has its own version of the “Inquisition.”
1543 A.D. - Spanish Catholics begin burning Protestants at the Stake while Sweden made Lutheranism the official state religion and banned Catholicism.
And, oh yes. Did not burn anyone!
1540 A.D. - Copernicus refuses to publish “De Revolutionibus Purbitum Coelestium” out of fear of Church censure.
** Is it so bad to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.-Ralph Waldo Emerson
1542 A.D. - Pope Paul 1V decides that Rome needs its own Inquisition, vows that Rome will not be outdone by Spain. New twist to an old tale, he boiled them rather than burnt them!
1545-1563 A.D. - Council of Trent Catholic Reformation, or Counter Reformation, met Protestant challenge by clearly defining an official theology.
1553-1558 A.D. - Catholic Queen Mary reigned in England, persecuting Protestants and restoring Catholicism as the official religion.
1558 A.D. - Elizabeth 1 succeeded Mary as Queen of England and restored Protestantism as the official religion. - The Puritan movement develops among those dissatisfied with her reforms of the church.
1560 A.D. - Phillip 1 inherits Spain for House of Hapsburg.
1550-1580 A.D. - John Knox publishes “The First blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women.” Deploring the authority of women. “Misogynists to the left of us, Misogynists to the right!” Scotch Presbyterian Church founded by John Knox. Knox was a follower of Calvin because of his disagreement with Lutherans over sacraments and church government.
1604 A.D. - John Smith establishes Baptist Church. - King James bible.
1616 A.D. - The Church prohibits Galileo from further scientific work
**“I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.” -Galileo
1620A.D. - English Puritans, known as Pilgrims, established a colony in America at Plymouth Rock to escape religious pluralism in England. **By the way, they only stopped at Plymouth Rock because they “ran out of beer” and had to stop for more supplies!
1633 A.D. - Galileo forced by the Inquisition to renounce theories of Copernicus.
- Descartes stops publishing in France in response to the Churches attacks on Galileo.
1647 A.D. - George Fox founded the Society of Friends. (Quakers)
1648 A.D. - Peace of Westphalia ends thirty years war - Guarantees greater religious freedoms and........... The Beginning of the Modern Era;

Let us take a quick refresher course in European history. Civilization in the West evolved following the disintegration of the Roman Empire in the late 5th century.
The adoption of Christianity as a major state religion in Rome and the absence of Imperial authority saw the eventual birth of the medieval world.
The major emphasis of this culture was humankind’s relationship with God. Popes, Bishop’s, Priests and Monks were extremely influential and exercised an enormous amount of power.
There was only one Church, and it was referred to as “universal,” or in Latin, the Catholic church. Judaism was more or less tolerated, but its followers often became the focus of persecution during times of distress.
Because of this “Catholic” viewpoint, Western Europe eventually followed a path that led in a completely different direction than that of the Eastern World. This included the Near East and the territories, which would become Eastern Europe and Russia.
The most deciding factor had been the split during the Early Middle Ages between East and West over the issue of the supremacy of the Pope.
Elsewhere, the Near East and Africa (including what is now Spain) remained more or less unified by Islam and it retained supremacy unrivaled in either Western or Eastern Europe until the coming of the Renaissance.
It was during the Renaissance period when Humanist philosophers began to question their contemporary culture that the medieval framework began to breakdown.
As these scholars began to look at the classical past, the ideology of man’s place in the world started to rival the ideology of man’s place in heaven. Eventually Renaissance humanism caused some to question the Church’s monopoly on thought and we slowly emerged from the dark ages that started when Otto the First turned out the lights in 962 A.D.
Of the people that questioned the Churches theology, most were burned at the stake. One of them, however, a monk by the name of Martin Luther, was able to avoid the flames, at the same time causing some flames of his own.
Luther’s ideas were not new. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
The political situation in Germany was greatly divided. For centuries, the disorganized principalities had been paying tribute to Rome in an attempt to court Papal favor.
The princes saw Luther’s ideology of religious reform as a means to circumvent the Papacy and so he gained the backing and protection of a majority of influential German princes.
Luther’s “Reformation” eventually fragmented into groups that adopted some of his beliefs and rejected others.
The result was that Europe became divided into two camps, the Protestants (including Lutherans and other offshoots of Lutheranism), and the Catholics.
The Catholic Church then launched a Counter-Reformation in an attempt to restore the “universitality” of Christian belief.
Despite its attempts at eternal reform, most notably the Council of Trent and the creation of the Jesuits, the Catholic effort to restore Catholicism to all of Western Europe eventually failed. However, not before a great deal of blood was shed on both sides.
The bloodiest struggle, and one of the most terrible wars in all of history, began in 1618. The fighting, which raged off and on all over Europe came to be known as “The Thirty Years War.” A conflict that at its heart was due to the manipulations of the Church and the Hapsburgs.
The war was a last attempt by Catholic forces to restore Religious unity in Europe.
It was a dismal failure and the Catholic Church finally surrendered to the fact that their religion was no longer “universal.” This failure led to a new European worldview. One that included the possibility of alternative thought.
The exploration of new ways of thinking began with religion, but did not end there.

**This is the turning point historians mark as the beginning of the Modern Era.

1653 A.D. - Oliver Cromwell becomes “Lord Protector” of England.
1664 A.D. - First women were condemned as witches in the new world, leading up to the Salem witch panic in Salem, Massachusetts.
1720-1760 A.D. - American Colonies experienced the “Great Awakening,” involving the widespread conversions to Charismatic Protestant Churches emphasizing personal piety and individual interpretations of the Bible. (Influenced the “Founding Fathers”)
1727 A.D. - Death of Sir Isaac Newton. - Voltaire preaches ideas of political freedom. - Methodist Church founded by John Wesley.
1776 A.D. – The American Revolution
1788 A.D. - The French Revolution
1827 A.D. - Mormon Church established by Joseph Smith because of visions of the Angel Moroni. - Degradation of women still practiced by allowing men to have multiple wives. (Not quite as good as seventy two virgins upon arrival in Paradise, but what the hell!)
1832 A.D. - Spanish Inquisition was finally abolished.
1858 A.D. - “Mary” in a one-night engagement at Lourdes. - Florence Nightingale held over during the Crimean War.
1859 A.D. - Charles Darwin publishes “Origin of Species.”
1863 A.D. -House OF Hapsburg - King Maximilian of Austria made Emperor of Mexico. – (Hapsburg’s attempt to get into North America.) - Maximilian shot dead in 1867. -So much for that!
1870 A.D. - First Vatican Council affirmed the doctrine of Papal infallibility.
1896 A.D. - Billy Sunday, American Presbyterian evangelist, began his preaching with road shows. Attracted huge crowds and foreshadowed the modern-day evangelists and televangelists.
1901 A.D. - Beginning of Pentecostal Church.
1914 A.D. - Archduke Ferdinand of the “House of Hapsburg” is assassinated by a Serbian Nationalist leading to the start of the “war to end all wars.” -World War 1.
1917 A.D. - “Mary” comes back for an encore after Lourdes and appears at Fatima, Portugal. Reportedly witnessed by 100,000 people.
1918 A.D. - With the end of the First World War in 1918, most of the House of Hapsburg’s possessions and titles were either taken away or abolished. This ended a thousand years of significant control over most of Europe. Many claims by various members of the House of Hapsburg to have titles or land reinstated are still going through the courts in Europe here in the 21st century!
1925 A.D. - “Scopes Monkey Trial” John T. Scopes convicted of teaching evolution in public school.
1947 A.D. - Discovery of the “Qumran” or “Essene” scrolls. (Dead Sea Scrolls.)
- Discovery of the “Gospel of Thomas” sayings of Jesus written down shortly after his death.
1957 A.D. - Founding of Church (?) of Scientology.
1962-65 A.D. - Second Vatican Council.
1979 C.E. - The Iranian Revolution results in the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the first Islamic state in the modern era.
2000 C.E. - Pope John Paul 11 offers apology and asks for forgiveness for Catholicism’s history of “Violence in the service of truth.”
Now that’s one small step for a man and a giant leap for humanity!


**”And so it goes!” - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.


Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God.

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God (Chapter 5 - Timelines)

Chapter 5 – TIMELINE
You cannot tell who, or where you are, unless you know how you got there!

While Europe was caught up in the conflict between Pope and Emperor, a storm was brewing in Asia. Genghis Khan united the Mongols in a military confederation and achieved such a series of conquests that has no parallel in history.
1220 A.D. - The earlier Mongols conquests drove a tribe of Turks out of Turkistan into Asia Minor. There they established the Ottoman Empire, which advanced until it controlled the entire eastern Mediterranean.
Heavy custom tolls levied by the Ottomans, who controlled the Black Sea trade, stimulated the European search for alternative routes to the Orient.
1225-1274 A.D. - Life of theologian Thomas Aquinas, who codified Catholic theology, marking the high point of the medieval scholastic movement.
1228 A.D. - Sixth Crusade launched. - The (Papal) Inquisition prohibited the reading of the bible by laypersons.
1233 A.D. - After proclaiming the Excommunicqamus two years before, Pope Gregory 1X established the HOLY INQUISITION to abolish heresy wherever it could be found. This provided the church with literally hundreds of years of entertainment.
1252 A.D. - The papacy approves the use of torture for religious disobedience.
1258 A.D. Pope Alexander 1V issues decree Ut Negotium, which allowed inquisitors to absolve one another of any “irregularities” while at work! …………“It’s a rough job but somebody has to do it!”
1270 A.D. - The crusades come to an end. - Marco Polo begins his journey to China to see Kublai Khan. (Grandson of Genghis Khan)
1273 A.D. - Rudolph 1 becomes first House of Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor after extinction of the House of Lenzberg.
1302 A.D. - Pope Boniface VIII issued the papal bull Unum Sanctum, declaring that the pope had supreme and final authority in all matters, both civic and spiritual.
1327 A.D. - German Dominican Master Eckhart defined the individual soul as a “spark” of the Divine at its most basic element.
1336 A.D. 100 Years War – Here’s a good lesson in history why wars and most human endeavors are so foolish. English nobility began to imitate French aristocrats in the thirteenth and fourteen centuries and changed from being beer drinkers to wine connoisseurs.
There was only one problem, and that was ---- all the vineyards were in France!
To gain access to the grapes, England fostered civil war in the area of Flanders in the hope a gaining control of them for wine production. This brought England and France into direct conflict and resulted in a war that was actually on and off for 229 years. (1336-1565)
C-1350 A.D. - “Black Death” Bubonic plague sweeps across Europe.
1350 A.D. - Renaissance begins in Italy.
1368 A.D. - Ming Dynasty established in China by a monk who led a 13-year long rebellion against corrupt and ineffectual Mongol rulers.
1378A.D. - The “Great Schism” when the election of Pope Urban V1 was challenged by French Cardinals who elected Clement V11 instead.
Rome and France had rival Popes for 40 years.
1429-1430 A.D. - Joan OF Arc. Led French rebellion during 100 Years War and drove out most of the English troops
1438 A.D. - Johan Gutenberg invents the printing press and movable type. Created the Gutenberg bible and was responsible for the Reformation to be so wide spread instead of a local insurrection. He made it possible for Martin Luther’s 95 Theses to be mass printed for distribution across most of central Europe.
1439 A.D. Albert 11 - House of Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor. From here on in, Hapsburg, Holy Roman Emperor, and German King were all the same.
This zenith of the Hapsburg rule was achieved through many wide and varied marriages, as we will see in the list of Hapsburgs that stretches from the tenth to the twentieth centuries.
Their overriding motto seemed to be; “Let others wage war, we get married!”
Habsburg (in English sometimes written "Hapsburg") and the successor family, Habsburg-Lorraine, were important ruling houses of Europe and are best known as the ruling Houses of Austria (and the Austrian Empire) for over six centuries.
Their principal roles were as:
• Kings of Germany (several centuries to 1806), mostly also as
• Holy Roman Emperors, and
• Rulers of Austria (as Dukes 1282–1453, Archdukes 1453–1804, and
• Emperors of Austria 1804–1918),
• Kings of Bohemia (1306, 1437–1457 1526–1918),
• Kings of Hungary (1437–1439, 1445–1457, 1526–1918),
• Kings of Croatia (1437–1439, 1445–1457, 1527–1918),
• Kings of Spain (1516–1700),
• Kings of Portugal (1580–1640),
• Kings of Galizia and Lodomeria (1772–1918), and
• Grand Princes of Transylvania (1690–1867).
• Grand Dukes of Tuscany (1737–1801; 1814-1860).
• Archdukes of Austria-Este {1771}. (One of Hapsburg’s Castles!)
Other crowns held briefly by the House:
• King-consort of England (1554-1558)
• Dukes of Parma (1814–1847)
• Dukes of Modena (1814–1859)
• Emperor of Mexico (1864–1867)

The family first started to gain prominence around 950 c.e. and continues to this day. Although known primarily for their role in the Austria-Hungarian Empire, they had a major influence in every country in Europe for the last thousand years!
One of the greatest influences the family had on history was in 1914 when Archduke Ferdinand of Austria (A Hapsburg) was assasinated by a Serbian nationalist. This led to the start of WW 1 and the eventual dissolution of the Hapsburg Dynasty and most of the royal Houses of Europe. (Many of the legal ramifications of the dissolution of the Hapsburg Empire are still before the courts of Europe to this day! A further history of the Hapsburgs is presented in the index pages)
1478 - Spanish Inquisition - Ferdinand and Isabella end Muslim rule in Spain.
1483 A.D. - Martin Luther born. (The Reformation)
1492 A.D. - Ferdinand and Isabella send Christopher on a mission - Columbus sails the ocean blue. (Five hundred years after the Vikings!)
1496 A.D. - Spanish Crown marries into Austrian House of Hapsburg
1502 A.D. - Reign of Aztec Ruler Montezuma.
- Persian Shah executes any Sunnis who refuse to accept Shiite version of Islam.
(Not that you think that it was just the Christians that got carried away.)
1505 A..D. - John Knox, Protestant reformer, born in Scotland.
1509 A.D. - Birth of John Calvin. (Started Calvinism, which preached predetermination and good conduct.)
1514 A.D. - “Albrecht” Archbishop of Mainz - sold indulgences in return for contributions to building the new St. Peters Basilica in Rome.
1516 A.D. -House of Hapsburg Charles V now King over Germany, Netherlands, and Spain.
1517 A.D. - October 31, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on indulgences to a church door in Wittenberg. He protested the selling of indulgences and other corrupt church practices.
Some people got a hold of this piece of paper and printed thousands of copies. (Thanks to the recently discovered printing press!) They were then distributed across most of Europe to start the Protestant Reformation.
- Luther had intended this to be a local protest and had no idea it would spread the way it did due to mass dissatisfaction with the church.
1520 A.D. - Papal bull “Exsurge Domine” gave Martin Luther 60 days to recant or be excommunicated. Luther burns the papal bull. - The next year he was condemned as a heretic and outlaw at the “Diet of Worms.”
- Charles V divides Hapsburg Empire between Austria and Spain.
1525 A.D. - Northern Italy re-taken from France by House of Hapsburg.
- Hungarian and Bohemian crowns unite with Austrian Hapsburgs.
1530 A.D. - Luther publishes his Large Catechism and Small Catechism.
- A south German peasant uprising, inspired by Luther’s reform work began 150 years of religious wars. - Jesuit order is founded. -The term “Protestant” was first used at the Diet of Speyer.
1532 A.D. - In Denmark a royal decree made Lutheranism the sole religion. Martin Luther, as an outlaw, could not attend the Diet of Augsburg. He was held in an attempt to end religious division of the Holy Roman Empire.
Phillip Melanchthon, Luther’s co-worker, presented the “Augsburg Confession,” a statement of Lutheran beliefs. - Starts the Lutheran Church.

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God.

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God (Chapter 5 - Timelines)

Chapter 5 – TIMELINE
You cannot tell who, or where you are, unless you know how you got there!

570 A.D. - Muhammad born in Mecca.
610A.D. - According to Muslim belief, at the age of 40, Muhammad is visited by the angel Gabriel while on retreat in a cave near Mecca.
The angel recites to him the first revelations of the Koran and informs him that he is God’s prophet.
Later, Muhammad is told to call his people to the worship of the “One God,” but they react with hostility and begin to persecute him and his followers.
622 A.D. - After enduring persecution in Mecca, Muhammad and his followers migrate to the nearby town of Yathrib (later to be known as Medina), the people there accepted Islam. This marks the “hijrah” or “emigration,” and the beginning of the Islamic calendar.
In Medina, Muhammad establishes an Islamic state based on the laws revealed in the Koran and the inspired guidance coming to him from God. Eventually he begins to invite other tribes and nations to Islam.
625A.D. - MUHAMMAD BEGINS DICTATING THE KORAN.
- Muhammad begins either dictating or writing the Holy Koran. (There is a lot of debate as to whether he could read and write, although the popular consensus is that he was a trader and therefore probably literate!)
]630 A.D. - Muhammad returns to Mecca with a large number of his followers. He enters the city peacefully, and eventually all its citizens accept Islam. The prophet clears the idols and images out of the Kaaba and rededicates it to the worship of God alone.
633 A.D. - Muhammad dies after a prolonged illness. The Muslim community elects his father-in-law and close associate, Abu Bakr, as caliph, - This leads to the schism between the Sunni and Shiite sects.
635-638 A.D... - Muslims begin conquest of Persia and Syria. - Muslims enter the area north of Arabia, known as “Sham,” including Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq.
641 A.D. - Muslims enter Egypt and rout the Byzantine army. Muslims consider their conquest as the liberation of subjugated people, since in most instances they were under oppressive rule. - Islam begins to spread throughout North Africa.
661 A.D. - Imam Ali is killed, bringing to an end the rule of the four “righteous caliphs:” Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali. This also marks the beginning of the Umayyad rule and the dispute between Shiite and Sunni Sects.
695 A.D. - Spain begins persecution of Jews in mistaken belief that they, and not the Romans, were responsible for the death of “Christ.”
711 A.D... - Muslims (Moors) enter Spain in the west and India in the east. Eventually almost the entire Iberian Peninsula is under Islamic control.
712 A.D. - Less than one hundred years after the founding of Islam, Christian and Muslim armies are already at war when Pelayo, a Visigoth King, defeats the Muslim Army in Covadonga, thus beginning the Christian Re-conquest of Spain.
732 A.D. - Muslim forces defeated at Tours by the Christian Armies under the command of Charles Martel.
750 A.D. - First great British epic poem, Beowulf, written in Old English. It exemplifies early medieval society and shows roots in Old Testament Law!
768-814A.D. - Charlemagne is crowned emperor by Pope Leo 111 at St. Peters Basilica in Rome. This Coronation marks the beginning of a new relationship between the church and state, with the emperor’s temporal authority depending upon the blessing of the pope.
871 A.D. -Alfred the Great of England constructs a system of government and education that allows for the unification of smaller Anglo-Saxon states in the ninth and tenth centuries. This was the start of the codification of English law, public interest in local government, and the reorganization of the army. He founds schools, promotes literacy, and a national culture.
900-1000 A.D. - House of Hapsburg starts accumulation of land and power with Otto 1st. -Forget about the British Royal Family or any of the other monarchies; this is who really pulled most of the strings in Europe for over a THOUSAND years!
-Vikings settle Iceland; establish Althing, the oldest body of representative government in Europe.
962 A.D.-Leif Ericsson explores North American coast. Calls it “Vineland!”
- Mayans immigrate to Yucatan Peninsula. - Otto 1 expands German Empire to Poland and Austria. Under Otto 1, the Holy Roman Empire (German) [House of Hapsburg] is officially revived making Catholicism the prevalent and dominant religion throughout Europe. - Europe immediately descends into the dark ages. (Coincidence?) - Exact start of Dark Ages unknown - too dark!
980 A.D. - As Europe descends into the ‘Dark Ages’ menaced by Vikings and Magyars alike, the Byzantine Empire struggles endlessly with Persia where the Arabs suddenly flare out in splendor under the banner of Islam.
1050-1200 A.D. - First agricultural revolution of Medieval Europe begins in 1050 A.D. with a shift to the northern lands for cultivation, along with a period of improved climate from 700 to 1200 A.D. in Western Europe.
This was combined with the widespread use and perfection of new farming techniques including the use of the heavy plow, the three field system of crop rotation, the use of mills for processing cloth, crushing pulp for paper manufacture, and the widespread use of iron and horses, and last, but not least, the brewing of beer!
With an increase in agricultural advancements, western towns and trade grow exponentially to the point where Western Europe runs on a money economy, in no small part started by the House of Hapsburg.
1054 A.D. - Schism between the Western Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches finalizes a long standing split between them when Pope Leo 1X and Patriarch Cerlarius excommunicate each other!
1066 A.D. - William the Conqueror invades England and claims the throne at the Battle of Hastings. England is, for the next few centuries, heavily influenced by French language and culture to the point where French becomes the language of the political realm. - William goes on to establish the feudal system.
1073 A.D. - Pope Gregory V11 begins widespread reforms of church practice, liturgies, and administration. - One of his first acts is to excommunicate all married priests.
1085 -1099 A.D. - At the Council of Claremont, Pope Urban 11 called the First Crusade (out of a total of eight) against Muslims in the Holy Lands. This crusade was carried out in an effort to aid Byzantine Christians against Muslim invaders. They sacked Jerusalem and killed 40,000 people!
1120 A.D. - Founding of the “Knights Templar” in Jerusalem.
1122 A.D. - Diet of Worms finally ends the long-standing investiture fight with a compromise, which retains church authority over Europe. -Death of Omar Khayyam, Persian poet.
1147-1149 A.D. - Second Crusade.
1184 A.D. - Spanish Theologian Dominic founded the Dominican Order of Monks. The group was authorized by Pope Innocent 111 the convert Muslims and Jews and put an end to Heresy. (This Medieval Inquisition was actually a practice run for three later Inquisitions)
1189-1192 A.D. - Third Crusade, lead by Frederick of Germany, Philip of France and Richard the Lion Heart of England. (The time of Robin Hood!)
1198-1216 A.D. - Power of the medieval papacy reaches its height with the reign of Innocent 111 who manages to excommunicate both Holy Roman emperor Otto1V and King John of England at the same time in 1209
1202 A.D. - Fourth crusade launched. – El Cid.
1204 A.D. - St. Francis of Assisi launched a monastic revolution in the Latin Church. Started the “Franciscans” in 1210 C.E.
1206 A.D. - Venetians convince soldiers to attack Constantinople before moving to the holy land. The residents of the city suffer the worst devastation on the city’s history. As a result, Latin domination of the Eastern Church began!
1208 A.D. - “Now we find a new game to play.” First witchcraft trial in England took place. Gideon, alleged to be a sorcerer, was acquitted!
1215 A.D. - Pope Innocent III organized the Fourth Lateran Council in Rome in order to discuss and define central dogmas of Christianity. It was one of the most important councils ever held, and its canons sum up Innocent’s ideas for the church. It recognizes the necessity of the Eucharist and penance as sacraments for salvation.
1215 A.D. - Magna Carta was signed by King John when English Barons forced him to agree to a statement of their rights. - The Children’s Crusade was launched. More than 50,000 children sold into slavery. (Pied Piper legend.)
While Europe was caught up in the conflict between Pope and Emperor, a storm was brewing in Asia. Genghis Khan united the Mongols in a military confederation and achieved such a series of conquests that has no parallel in history.

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site http://www.god-101.com/

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God.

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God (Chapter 5 - Timelines)

Chapter 5 – TIMELINE
You cannot tell who, or where you are, unless you know how you got there!

** Life of Jesus of Nazareth
Just for old times sake we are going to use A.D. instead of the current C.E.
(Common Era)

36-65 A.D. - Oral period of Christianity between Jesus and Gospel of Mark. - Only about 120 initial believers, then quickly to 3000 and 5000. - Paul converts to “Apostle of the Gentiles” - Main activity of Christianity shifts from “Jewish-Christians” of Judea and Galilee to “Gentile - Christians” led by Paul and his Patroness Phoebe. - The stoning death of St. Stephen, who became the first Christian martyr.
31-37 A.D. - Saul of Tarsus, formerly a rabbi and enemy of early Christianity, converts and becomes St. Paul.
37-41 A.D. - Caligula rules Rome. - Early Gnostics.
58 A.D. - Ming-Ti, Chinese Emperor, introduces Buddhism to China.
60 A.D. - Paul was imprisoned in Rome for sedition, and martyred for treason in…
62 A.D... It was also during this time that nearly everyone connected with Jesus was executed by Rome. (In one way or another) - A hard way to start a faith!
62 A.D. - James, brother of Jesus, and some others, were brought before a group of judges and accused of transgressing the law. They were then stoned to death. - “Q” documents circulated and Dead Sea Scrolls hidden in various caves. - Gospel of Thomas, based on Q?
64 A.D. - Great fire of Rome. Nero fiddled and then accused the Christians of setting the fire. He suppressed them for a while, but like the fire, they were too far advanced to be put out.
66-73 A.D. - Roman-Jewish war, final destruction of Herod’s Temple.
70 A.D. - Gospel of Mark, ends at Mk 16:8; (New ending added in c400 CE.) - Signs Gospel, hypothetical Greek text later used in Gospel of John to prove Jesus is Messiah. - Center of Christianity shifts from Jerusalem to Antioch, Alexandria and Rome.
73 A.D. - Massada, stronghold of Jewish zealots’ falls to Roman assault.
79 A.D. - August 24th, Mount Vesuvius destroys Pompeii.
79-91 A.D. - Pope Anacletus. (Titus the Blameless?)
80- 90 A.D. - Gospel of Mathew, second Gospel and most popular of the early church, comprised of Mark and Q. - Gospel of Luke / Acts, based on Mark and Q.
91-101 A.D. - Pope Clement 1 - In two or three instances, he speaks of remembering “the words” of Christ, so it seems he had a written record in mind, but does not call it “gospel.” He knows several of Paul’s epistles, and values them highly for their content; the same can be said of the Epistle of the Hebrews, with which he is well acquainted.
Although these writings obviously possess for Clement 1 considerable significance, he never refers to them as authoritative “Scripture.” What he does is write a letter arguing that church leaders possess a Divine authority inherited from Christ and his Apostles. So here, less than a hundred years after Jesus, we already have the Church trying to supplant God!
91-150 A.D. - Secret Book of James. - Gospel of Mary Magdalene, - Early Gospels of Thomas and James. - Secret gospel of Mark.
105 A.D. - Ts’ai Lun of China invents paper.
110 A.D. - Ignatius, 3rd Bishop of Antioch, martyred in Rome, letters subjected to heavy Christian forgery.
100-125 A.D. - Justin Martyr, first apologist to offer a defense of Christianity. - Gospel of John composed!
c150 A.D. - “Western Reviser” Probably one of St. Paul’s companions, transcribed Luke’s book (Acts) after the authors death and inserted details of which had personal knowledge. He made other alterations in accordance with his own taste, on which he regarded himself as having authority equal to that of Luke!
c160 A.D. -Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, complained Christians were changing and faking his own letters just as they had changed the Gospels.
-School of Alexandria founded in Egypt. Becomes a major centre for both Christian theology and Greek philosophy.
c190 A.D. - Pope Victor 1: First Latin Pope. Called council in 190 to determine “official” new date of Easter but failed. - Excommunicated Eastern Churches that continued to observe Easter on old Biblical time. - New Testament cannon are fixed in currently known form.
235-284 A.D. - Germans, Goths, and Persians attack Rome. Ruin Athens, Sparta and Corinth. - While Rome and China slowly disintegrated under Barbarian invasions, India, secured from Nomadic attacks behind a revived Persian civilization, enters classical age under the Gupta kings.
286 A.D. - Emperor Diocletian divides Roman Empire in two, forming Modern Greece. (The Byzantine Empire) - Christians banned from Roman army. - Constantine defeats Maxentius to become the absolute ruler of Rome. - Converts to Christianity after a vision of a cross in the sky and the words: “In Hoc Signo Vinces” {“With this sign, (the cross) you shall conquer.”}
315 A.D. - Roman Empire split into Eastern (Byzantine) and West (Rome)
325 A.D. - First Ecumenical Council of Nicea convened by Emperor Constantine; establishes Nicene Creed as the fundamental statement of Christian doctrine.
Constantine offered to make the sect the official state religion if they would settle their differences.
By compiling a book of sacred writings that they could all agree on Constantine thought this would give authority to the new church.
Composed of about 300 religious leaders, this council was given the task of separating the divinely inspired writings from those of questionable origin.
The actual compilation of the Bible was an incredibly complicated project since it came three hundred years after the death of Jesus and involved churchmen of varying beliefs, in an atmosphere of dissension, jealousy, intolerance, and bigotry.
To add to the dissention, they were split into two groups that questioned the divinity of Jesus.
The purpose was to settle the dispute over the teachings of Arius, that Christ was not equal in divinity to God.
The council (in their wisdom) declared that Jesus WAS equal in divinity to God by a majority vote and declares Arianism a heresy.
(Dateline-Middle East Times - “Jesus declared equal by majority vote!” “Jesus relieved, would like to thank all his supporters.)”(Byzantine Empress Irene convened the second council of 787 CE the 7th ecumenical council. - It was called to refute “iconoclasm” and the council declared that images ought to be venerated - but not worshiped, and ordered them restored in the churches. It is the last council accepted by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Eastern Church as ecumenical.)
380 A.D. - Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire under the reign of Theodosius 1.
381 A.D. - First Council of Constantinople decides that the “Holy Spirit” has the same divinity as “The Son.” (Decided by the Council of Nicea 56 years earlier)
(GOD at first objected strenuously to having to share Divinity three ways, but eventually consented to a “Trinity!” ;-)
C.400 A.D. - Great library at Alexandria burned by Christian Zealots, destroying 750,000 works including most of the world’s historical pagan literature on religion!
405 A.D. - St. Jerome completes the Vulgate - a Latin translation of both the Old and New Testaments. This remains the Latin Bible of the Roman Catholic Church.
433-453 A.D. - Attila the Hun, known-world tour!
476 A.D. - The Western Roman Empire falls to barbarian armies, leaving the church as the primary authority in the West. - In the East, the Byzantine Empire, based in Constantinople, continues for the next 977 years.
500 A.D.-600 A.D. - The Talmud, a compilation of Jewish oral laws and traditions is put in its final form in Babylonia. - It consists of two parts: an oral law (Mishna) in Hebrew, and commentaries (Gemara) in Aramaic.
520-550 A.D. - Zen Buddhism evolves in China.
570 A.D. - Muhammad born in Mecca.


Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site http://www.god-101.com/

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God.

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God (Chapter 5 - Timelines)

Chapter 5 – TIMELINE
You cannot tell who, or where you are, unless you know how you got there!

1180 B.C.E. - Troy sacked again, this time they get it right! - Camel domesticated.
1150? B.C.E. - Start of Greek dark ages. - Phoenician Alphabet.
1122 B.C.E. - Chou dynasty of China. - Chauvin Culture of Central America.
1006 B.C.E. - Saul, first King of Israel.
1004 B.C. - David, King of United Israel. Between 1000 and 600 B.C. ** - The beginning of the second millennium coincides with the emergence of new styles of civilizations as the result of the interaction between nomadic invaders from the north and the ancient agricultural people further south. - A distinctive European style of civilization emerged in Greece. - In the Middle East, three civilized empires (Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt) struggled for supremacy.
1000 B.C.E. - Classical period of Hebrew literature.
950 B.C.E. – Bible - Composition of “Yahwistic” (J) document, one of the four major sources believed to have been the basis of the Pentateuch, (Books of Moses): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. - Queen of Sheba
945 B.C.E. (?) - Solomon, King of Israel. After Solomon’s death, the 10 northernmost Hebrew tribes revolted and broke away from the southern tribes. These 10 tribes created a separate kingdom with its centre at Samaria and used the name Israel.
In the southern kingdom, the line of David continued and they took the name Judah.
870 B.C.E. - King of Israel married Jezebel, lived unhappily ever after.
741 B.C.E. - Modern calendar perfected in China.
753 B.C.E. - Rome founded. (Romulus and Remus?)
750 B.C.E. - Beginning of Astrology by Nabu-Nasir, Babylonian King. (Naturally, he was a Capricorn! **If you believe astrology works, that’s fine. You’re not bright enough to make your own decisions anyway. - Scott Adams )
750 B.C.E. - Assyria becomes a world power, while Egypt declines. The Greek people, inspired by the Homeric epics, form a common culture around their cultural centers of Olympia and Delphi. The Phoenicians and the Greeks begin to set up trading colonies around the Mediterranean.
750? B.C.E. -This is the other date for the Historical Zarathustra, (1800 B.C.E.?) founder of Zoroastrianism. He finally had his teachings gain wide acceptance, and then written down in a comprehensive manuscript of which only 70% survives! He had the single greatest effect on Judaism, and then by default Christianity and Islam.
In Israel, the Prophets reshape the religion of Yahweh, elevating him to a universal God, keeping in line with Persia where a world religion emerges under the influence of Zoroaster’s followers. -Babylon sacked.
700? B.C.E. - Bible-First Isaiah written. - Height of Assyrian Empire,
700 B.C.E. - 476 C.E. - The rise and fall of the western half of the Roman Empire, until the fall of Rome to the Ostrogoths in 476 C.E...
621 B.C.E. - Bible-Deuteronomy and Book of Kings written in Babylon. - Draco of Athens wrote “Draconian Laws.” Death for most offenses.
600? B.C.E. - First circumnavigation of Africa by Phoenicians, took 3 years!
600 B.C.E. - Nebuchadnezzar, best remembered for his relationship with the Jews and as the builder of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The Jewish Kingdom of JUDAH was positioned between two great powers - Egypt and Babylonia. It was unable to remain independent or neutral. If it joined one side, it would be attacked by the other. In 597 and again in 586 when the kingdom was under Egyptian domination, Jerusalem was besieged and captured by Nebuchadnezzar.
The second time he destroyed the city and carried off the Jews into their BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY. In Babylonia, but most conspicuously in Babylon itself, Nebuchadnezzar engaged in numerous building projects. Babylon was fortified, many temples were constructed, and a great step-pyramid, or ZIGGURAT the so-called Hanging Gardens, was erected. The last was later numbered among the SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD.
600 B.C.E. - Mayan civilization in Mexico. - Aesop’s fables. -Sappho of Lesbos. Greek poetess, first feminine love cult.
600?B.C.E. - Indian priest come to believe that repeating a prayer makes it more powerful so they begin using knotted strings as rosaries in order to keep track of the number of times a prayer is said. Monks of the Eastern Christian Church adopt this practice in the third century C.E.
575? B.C.E. - The Exile - Bible, Genesis, and Numbers written in Babylon.
559 B.C.E. - Cyrus the Great founded the Persian Empire when he defeated the Median kingdom in Iran and King Croesus of Lydia. He conquered Mesopotamia and the rest of the Middle East.’ Cyrus’ biggest conquest was Babylonia, a wildly rich and powerful kingdom in the Fertile Crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Babylonian king Nabu-Naid was unpopular with many segments of his population. He had alienated the high priests, captured, and enslaved ten of thousands of Jews and generally behaved as the despot he was! So, Cyrus took Babylon, the greatest city of the ancient world, in 539 B.C. He did so to the cheers of its citizens, who welcomed him as ruler because of the word of his just treatment.
He lived up to that reputation, freeing more than 40,000 enslaved Jews and allowing them to return to Palestine. This assured the continuation of the Jewish people.
He is mentioned 22 times in the Bible for these and similar deeds and was considered a liberator rather than a conqueror. He was also the role model for Alexander the Great!
539-330 B.C.E. Achaemendid Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great and his successors, then Greek Classical Age! Until c. 250 B.C.E.
529 B.C.E. - Under King Cyrus’s son, Darius I the Persian Empire became the greatest empire the world had ever seen. The empire ended in 334 B.C.E. when Alexander the Great invaded the Middle East.
507 B.C.E. - Pythagoras, Greek Mathematician, Pythagorean Theory.
500? B.C.E. - Persian War, Athenians defeat Persia at battle of Marathon.
450 B.C.E. - “Torah” compiled from E, J, P, D sources in Babylon. - Start of 200-year “Warring States” period in China. - Celts invade British Isles.
- Time of Socrates (Philosopher) and Hippocrates “Father of Medicine.”
430 B.C.E. – Bible - Book of Ruth written. - Temple of Apollo in Rome.
400 B.C.E. -World population 150 million. - Socrates condemned to death. - Nehemiah comes from Babylon to aid Jerusalem temple rebuilding and “Ezra the Scribe” brings the Torah from Babylon to Jerusalem.
356 B.C.E. - China builds “Great Wall” as protection against the Huns.
350 B.C.E. – Bible - Chronicles, Nehemiah and Jonah. - Mahabharata: Indian Epic, including the Bhagavad-Gita. - Plato, pupil of Socrates “Academy” (School of Philosophy) in Athens
340 B.C.E. - Buddhism splits into “Greater and Lesser Vehicle” *”Reality is merely an illusion, a very persistent one.” - Albert Einstein
332 B.C.E. - Alexander the Great begins his conquest of the known world with the defeat of Egypt and founding of Alexandria, then Babylon, Persepolis, and then India right to the Indus Valley.
330 B.C. - 1453 C.E. - Eastern Roman / Byzantine Empire. Began with the founding of Constantinople by Emperor Constantine”1” in 330 B.C. and ended when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 A.D.
323 B.C.E. - Start of Hellenistic Age - Cosmopolitan civilizations. - “Diogenes the Cynic” lived in a barrel in Athens. (Start of the tradition of “town fool” or maybe even “village idiot.”)
300 B.C.E. - Euclid, Greek Mathematician. - Aristotle, disciple of Plato founded Lyceum Philosophy School in Athens.
275 B.C.E. - Colossus of Rhodes built, destroyed by earthquake in 244.
250 B.C.E. - Ecclesiastes written in Hebrew.
233 B.C.E. - Sun-Tzu, Chinese philosopher writes “The Art of War.”
212 B.C.E. - Archimedes, Greek Mathematician.
200 B.C.E. - Han Dynasty in China - Shih Huang Ti, first Emperor of united China.
On the western and eastern flanks of Eurasia, the Roman Empire and Han China reach their greatest power and are able to repel the attacks of northern nomadic Barbarians. The nomads, instead, attack Parthia, and invade India. - The Silk Road links Rome and China and brings East and West into regular contact for the first time.
182 B.C.E. - Hannibal and his elephant’s world tour.
165 B.C.E. – Bible - Daniel written in Jerusalem. - Bible - Book of Esther written in Persia.
149 B.C.E. - Third Punic war, Romans kill 500,000 in sack of Carthage.
146 B.C.E. - Greece under Roman rule.
134 B.C.E. - “Supernova” recorded by Chinese.
125 B.C.E. - Qumran, Dead Sea Scrolls hidden, - 10 Hebrew manuscripts at Qumran Cave #4, - Ethiopic Bible found at Qumran cave #7.
120 B.C.E. -Death of Spartacus .
63 B.C.E. - Julius Caesar elected Pontifex Maximus (highest Priest) by Roman Senate. (Originated Julian calendar)
60 B.C.E. - 1st Roman Triumvirate, Caesar-Pompey-Crassus.
44 B.C.E. - March 15th, - After being made “Dictator for Life” by Roman Senate was assassinated by Cassius, Casca, Brutus, etc. – “Et tu Brute?” - Octavian Augustus, 1st Roman Emperor, defeats Anthony and Cleopatra who commit suicide.
Death of the Republic - Birth of the Empire
37 B.C.E. - King Herod the Great of Judea assumes power.

** Life of Jesus of Nazareth

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site http://www.god-101.com/

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan, or, The Plain Truth About God

Chapter 4 - Stairway to Heaven:

Society imposes limits on human desires and constitutes a regulative force that plays the same role for moral needs as the small group provides for physical needs.

Without social controls, any society, whether primitive or modern, is bound to degenerate and decay! The natural insatiability of the human animal can only be held in check by external controls.

Religion plays this role perfectly by providing a disciplinary, cohesive, vitalizing, and euphoric social force. Rituals prepare people for social life by imposing self-discipline and parameters on our everyday interactions.

Religious ceremonies bring people together and so serve to re-affirm their common bonds and re-enforce social solidarity! Observance maintains and revitalizes the social heritage of the group and helps transmit its enduring values to future generations.

It also has a euphoric function in that it serves to counteract feelings of frustration and loss of faith by re-establishing the believer’s sense of well being.

In general, religion is a social institution that serves to give meaning to man’s predicaments by tying the individual to a set of values which is ultimately rooted in society.

Emile Durkheim

In the Old Testament of the bible, it is interesting to note that there are some similarities between religion and science at an early stage of the game.

Adam and Eve were described as proto-human, that is, not fully human with no moral sense, and no knowledge of good and evil as we now define it.

According to the bible, God wanted the couple to stay in this stage of innocent, un-aware, partly developed existence that afforded them a life free from worry and strife.

In Genesis, 2:17 God said; “Do not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

When they did this anyway, they became fully human and aware of the difference between right and wrong, developed an ethical sense, and became cognizant of their own mortality.

Self-consciousness was a truly momentous human development that was lacking in all other creatures.

The animals of the land lived, met their needs to survive, and eventually died with no anticipatory anxiety or a real awareness of whom or what they were.

We humans on the other hand, became quite different.

We were blessed, (If I may use that word) with advanced reasoning abilities and relied less on instinct.

We became pro-active instead of re-active. Each generation building on the knowledge of its forbearers and developing new ways of coping, planning, and co-operation.

** “The gulf between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom is so great because of our unique outlook and appreciation of existence! We might see flashes of pseudo-cognizance in fido’s eyes every now and then, but I can tell you for sure that fido and his buddies do not sit around and discuss the merits of art or literature!”

We became aware that people are largely helpless, insignificant, and insecure.

Human beings do not like chronic anxiety and some coping mechanism had to be developed.

Many theologians and anthropologists felt that our ancestors had to develop a primitive human concept of God to lesson their anxiety about what life was going to deal them next.

The hunter-gatherer societies began the first religion of Animism by assuming that since they were aware and self-conscious themselves, then the same could be said of their surroundings.

This would apply to the forests, sky, sun and heavens, moon, land animals, birds, fishes and all manner of things they were in contact with in their daily lives.

With the belief that all these things were animated by a spirit or contained vital powers, the village shamans, native healers and wise men played leadership roles in this religion because dread of the unknown dissipated somewhat when our ancestors felt more in control of their lives and future.

This early explanation of religion was solely a product of human creation to ease an otherwise intolerable situation brought about by day-to-day living.

Animist’s ancestors created their god’s and myths because they couldn’t comprehend the real Supreme Being! Gods did not reveal themselves to the tribes. The tribes had to invent the gods.

*”In Essentials, all religions are the same.
They differ only in non-essentials.
The wise appreciate the essentials.
The base dispute over the non-essentials.”
-Unknown

The religion of early Australian Aboriginal Cultures was, essentially, identical to the first religions practiced by hunter-gatherer societies worldwide.

Australian Aboriginal Cultures have a chain of practices virtually unbroken. It extends back over 50,000 years to a time when their ancestors first settled the continent. It is also a society has remained almost unchanged since the advent of self-awareness.

Totemism and Animism were one of the elementary and first forms of religion. The Australian Aboriginal Religion therefore, is the perfect model for religion in its original form.

Ritual is formal ceremonial behavior used to approach or deal with the supernatural. Rituals act out or dramatize scenes from the religious and social origins of society - its methodology depicts how its members believe they came to be a distinct people.

A society’s collective consciousness therefore is re-enforced in group experiences.

These experiences acted out as rituals in a religious context create and sustain a sense of identity within their own group. As opposed to other groups who have different beliefs and rituals.

Rituals seem to evoke high levels of emotion, and with the worship of a God, they re-create the story of how they came to be a group.

The Australian Aborigines found their meaning for life in the stories and songs of their particular tribe. The answers to questions such as “who am I?” and “where do I belong?” and “what happens after I die?” all were found in their local legends and beliefs.

Their stories and songs related accounts of ancestral beings taking the form of animals, birds, and other creatures during the creation period known as the……….

“Dream-Time.”

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Plain Truth About God

Serialized version!

Chapter 3 - Onward and Upward

**”Humanity has, in the course of time, had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages upon it’s naive self-love.

The first was when it realized that our earth was not the center of the universe, but only a speck in a world-system of a magnitude hardly conceivable.

The second was when biological research robbed man of his particular privilege of having been specially created, and relegated him to a descent from the animal world.” - - Sigmund Freud

Between fifty to sixty thousand years ago, a combination of ice ages and population explosions had forced us ever outward until we were centered on the fertile valleys south of the Black Sea, in the area between the Tigress and Euphrates Rivers and stretched in all directions from there.

The region of Europe encompassing what is today Southern Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Greece and the Baltic’s was an offshoot of the main collection of people through Turkey and the rest of the Middle East.

There were other branches of our ancestors down the Nile Valley, and through Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. We were also in Uganda and over towards Nigeria and the Ivory Coast.

We also traveled north and west over the Caspian and Black Sea, following the ice sheets during one of their retreats.

We then traveled into Northern Europe and Scandinavia to finally become the Druids of Britain and the Vikings of the North.

Our search for new lands had also lead us eastward, first through the fertile valleys of northern India, north to Russia and south down to Cambodia, Thailand, and Sumatra. We then went over the lush plains between modern day Shanghai and Beijing.

We also made our pilgrimage across a chain of islands into the great Pacific.

The southern route through the pacific was still formidable, but there did not seem to be much that deterred our early ancestors in their search for new lands and horizons.

The lower ocean levels during the last ice age also gave us access to North and South America by way of a land bridge across the Bering Straight.

So there we have it, by fifty thousand years ago, we had reached Australia, and by fifteen thousand years ago, humanity had spread to all parts of the globe.

By less than ten thousand years ago, we formed what is now known as the “Four River Valley Cultures” along the banks of the Nile, the Tigris/Euphrates, the Indus/Ganges, and China’s Yellow/Yangtze.

The four “Cradles of Civilization!”

By the time, we had migrated to all these areas the human population had increased in size to perhaps 5-10 million.

Humanity had also gone from the discovery of how to tame fire, about half a million years before, to the making of fire throughout most of the settled world.

This important advance in the manipulation of the environment was still not as great a milestone in the early formation of human culture as the appearance of our greatest act of awareness and consciousness - the formal burial!

Learning to tame our surroundings was one thing, but when we changed the basic way we looked at our situation and our place in the world, we began to exhibit the first signs of free will and independence.

These ancient burial sites contain the first evidence of ritualistic or ceremonial human culture.

This suggestion that ritualized burial implies a view of an after-life gives evidence to the huge power of abstract thought that was being developed among our forbearers. The beliefs in a continuation of self-after-death lead to a view that things are not always as they seemed.

It lead to a belief that ritual could, if not dominate, then at least to some extent control our surroundings.

The beginnings of religion and warfare are lost in the mists of time but we do know that our ancestors had to go through a number of changes in their transition from pre-human to being a fully aware and cognizant humans.

From the methods of communication and co-operation that were developing, we saw an increase in the size of the brain, and a different internal structure or wiring of the brain.

All of this, taken together, brought about the advent of abstract thinking.
An awareness that things in the world were sometimes bigger than we were!

The changes that separated our distant ancestors from all the other species on the planet involved the attainment of full self-awareness, a moral sense of right and wrong, and a sense of community!

According to most paleontologists and anthropologists, fully developed human beings with all the attributes of modern man emerged somewhere around a hundred thousand years ago.

During this time of humanities awakening, we lost our ignorance, and by default, lost our innocence.

** “It is that human capacity to be fully self-conscious that makes Homo sapiens different from any other form of life in the natural world. That separating difference is what fills human beings with a sense of dread and anxiety.,” says Paul Tillich. “It is born in the human recognition of finitude and is therefore as omnipresent as humanity itself.”

With awareness, we became cognizant that people were largely helpless, insignificant and insecure!

** “To be human is to experience self-consciousness, to know separation, to be made aware of limits and to contemplate ends. One cannot be human, therefore, without being filled with chronic anxiety. It sounds depressing, but surely it is true.” -Bishop John Spring.

We, as a race, do not like chronic anxiety, and some coping mechanism had to be developed.

Many theologians and even anthropologists felt that our ancestors developed an intuitive concept of God but then had to described God in human terms out of sheer necessity to lesson their anxiety about what life was going to deal them next.

The early hunter-gatherer societies began the first religion of Animism by assuming that since they were themselves aware and self-conscious, then the same could be said of their surroundings.

This would apply to the forests, sky, sun and heavens, moon, land animals, birds, fishes and all manner of things they were in contact with in their daily lives.

With the belief that all these things were animated by a spirit, or contained vital powers, the native healers and wise men played defining roles in this new religion!

Dread of the unknown dissipated somewhat when our ancestors felt more in control of their lives and future.

**But, since early humans couldn’t describe this Higher Power or Supreme Being, (Since God is by definition indescribable) the tribes would have to invent their own Gods!

THIS IS THE MISTAKE WE HAVE BEEN MAKING TO THIS VERY DAY!

PUTTING SOMETHING INDESCRIBABLE INTO HUMAN TERMS TO TRY AND UNDERSTAND IT!

The first awakenings of thoughts about spirits and even a great spirit called God gave people assurance, confidence, and peace of mind. This early explanation of religion was a product of human creation to ease an otherwise intolerable situation brought about by day-to-day living.

A set of behavioral expectations was developed for members of the tribe that gave rise to a set of moral truths to govern human behavior. These “Moral truths” in turn formed an oral tradition that was passed down from one generation to the next.

Where we get into trouble is with the beginning of writing. This resulted in a major loss of flexibility. Oral traditions can evolve over time. Written documents tend to be much more permanent!

Because belief systems are based on hunches and conjecture, various local religions developed, and their teachings were in conflict with one another.

This was because most adherents thought their beliefs were derived directly from God, and as a result, inter-religious compromise, combined with the inflexibility of written cannon, made agreement almost impossible………………!

A situation still in effect today!

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com