Thursday, May 30, 2013

The Origin Of The Word 'Testimony'

   I found this info in a little book called, 'Stupid Ancient History'. We use this word a lot and have a good understanding of it's meaning. Do you know what the origin of this word is? Where did it come from to begin with, not that it really seems to matter much to people.
  It had to do with Ancient Rome, when a Roman was taking an oath. He was to swear to tell nothing but the truth, the whole truth. He would place his right hand (turn your head. Close your eyes now) on his testicles. I can't imagine what this actually looked like and don't know if I would want to!
   I'm glad that we don't practice that in America today. It may have been practiced even before this, in the Old Testament. Here is a web page containing some info on this: Yahoo Answers UK

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Today in History - May 6, 1937 - The Hindenburg Disaster

Today in History - May 6, 1937 - The Hindenburg Disaster

   On May 3rd, of 1937, the Hindenburg, a large airship, started its journey from Frankfurt, Germany on its way to Lakehurst's Navy Airbase inAmerica. It was the largest airship that was ever built and it was the pride of Nazi Germany.
   The airship was lifted into the air by being blown up with hydrogen and was able to fly at a speed of 6 miles per hour. It would take about two and a half days for the airship to reach its destination at Lakehurst. It carried 61 people and as it was nearing its landing place, something caused the airship to burst into flames. The airship and all aboard fell quickly at about 200 feet above the ground. Thirty-five people died and many had serious injuries due to the accident. This happened today in History in the year 1937.
                                         
                                                         

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Today in History- April 30, 1945 - Hitler Commits Suicide

   For those of you who are not familiar with the name 'Adolph Hitler' allow me to inform you of who he was and why he did what he did, that made its mark on History.
   Adolph Hitler was born to Alois and Klara Hitler in 1889 in Austria. There is somewhat of a mystery of his father's ancestry, as he was an illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schickelgruber. It is not known exactly who Alois Hitler's father was, but it may have been Johann Georg Hiedler, who married Maria Anna after Alois Hitler was born. So Johann and Maria were married and now Alois took on the last name of Hiedler, which is where Hitler comes from.
   Adolph Hitler must have liked art, but his art work was not accepted by his teachers. He became a German citizen in 1932. He seemed to have a hatred for Jewish people, and there are speculations as to this, but no one knows for sure the reason. He obviously did not see the human race as one group, but rather a divided group with those who were not looked at with dignity. He believed his race (caucasian, white) was the superior race compared to other so called races, especially the Jewish 'race'. As time went on, it became obvious that he had plans to eliminate those other 'races' so that the superior race, the white people, would be able to be the only race that existed. What Hitler failed to understand is that all 'races' are part of one race called the human 'race'. Hitler appeared to embrace what Darwin taught in his evolutionary views, that there are some people groups that are not as developed as others (such as the black people). Of course, Darwin also believed that humans came from apes, and his belief system was based upon that idea. So Hitler wanted to eradicate the Jewish people and also those who were handicapped as well.
   Those who were alive during that time remember well the horror of this event. Many documents were written and many people died (at least six million Jews were killed). Older people who are still alive to tell about it are doing so.
  Hitler made his mark, and his name is not spoken of with honor. Two things that are amazing that I see today; One is that some people actually deny that the Holocaust ever happened. The reason could be that these people are embarrassed at how evil human beings can be, and don't want to accept the fact that we are really that evil. The other thing that is amazing is that on our college campuses, when a student is asked his opinion on Adolph Hitler, many have never even heard of him! What in the world have these students been taught (or not taught)? It's easy to assume that everyone knows about the Holocaust, but not everyone does. I personally believe that it is intentionally not taught, because if our students understand how horrible a Socialistic government (Fascism) is, they would rise up and do whatever they could to prevent it from happening. But there are those in our government today that do not want us to look at History in order to learn from our mistakes because they want to begin to implement a powerful government and in turn give less freedom to the people.
   Things were not going well for Hitler in 1945, and on this day, shortly after he was married to his mistress, both committed suicide in his bunker by taking cyanide pills. The day before this, Mussolini also died. Hitler was sensing that this was the end of the 'Third Reich' and took his own life.
   Adolph Hitler sadly believed many lies during his lifetime. He rose to power with these lies as part of his being. One thing that was ironic was that on the belt buckles of those in the German army were the words 'Gott mit uns' which means 'God with us'. Many mistake this to think that Hitler had some kind of trust in the true and living God, but that was not so. Everyone has something or someone they trust in, whether it be an idea, a living being, or something else. Hitler trusted in something, but it wasn't in the God of the Bible, for if he really did trust in what the Bible said, he would never have done what he did to hurt so many people. There are two specific commands in the Bible. One of them is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. The other is to love your neighbor as yourself. Our love for God is evidenced by how we love our neighbor. If we hate our neighbor, then realistically speaking, we hate God. The Bible says that if we hate our brother, than we don't know God. It continues and says that we are a murderer, and no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. This shows us that we can have all the Christianese talk and lingo, we can have the bumper stickers and T-shirts describing our love for God, but if we don't love our neighbor, we really don't know him, no matter how many T-shirts we have. By their fruits we will know them, the Bible says.


http://history1900s.about.com/od/1940s/a/Hitler-Suicide.htm