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| Pastor Mathias | | Ms. Brunell - Executive Director | | Mr. Gaffney - Managing Director | | Ms. Helmers - Managing Director | | | |
| Mr. Flynn - Senior Director | | Mr. Bolton - Director | | Ms. Irwin - Director | | Mr. James - Director | | Mr. Levine - Director | | Ms. Radewicz - Director | | Mr. Rodgers - Director | | Mr. Shea - Director | | Mr. Widmyer - Director | | | |
| Ms. Avery | | Ms. Baird | | Ms. Baker | | Ms. Bray | | Ms. Burns | | Ms. Coffey | | Ms. Crane | | Mr. David | | Ms. Drew | | | |
| Mr. Dunlap | | Mr. Ewing | | Mr. Farley | | Ms. Finley | | Mr. Friedman | | Ms. Gay | | Ms. Hahn | | Ms. Hobbs | | Ms. Holder | | | |
| Mr. Horton | | Ms. Lee | | Mr. Maddox | | Ms. Perez | | Ms. Rollins | | Ms. Smith | | Ms. Smith | | Ms. Weslin | | Mr. Wilkerson | | | | | | M.R. Mathias - Ambassador |
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| |  | | | Marseille, France | Mary Magdalen and Lazarus | 1st Century | | Christianity first appeared in Marseille, as evidenced by catacombs above the harbour and records of Roman martyrs.[23] According to Provençal tradition, Mary Magdalen evangelised Marseille with her brother Lazarus. The diocese of Marseille was set up in the 1st century (it became the Archdiocese of Marseille in 1948). | |  |
| |  | | | Montpellier, France | Coastal Trading Town | Jewish Community | In the Early Middle Ages, the nearby episcopal town of Maguelone was the major settlement in the area, but raids by pirates encouraged settlement a little further inland. Montpellier, first mentioned in a document of 985, was founded under a local feudal dynasty, the Guilhem, who combined two hamlets and built a castle and walls around the united settlement. The two surviving towers of the city walls, the Tour des Pins and the Tour de la Babotte, were built later, around the year 1200. Montpellier came to prominence in the 12th century—as a trading centre, with trading links across the Mediterranean world, and a rich Jewish cultural life that flourished within traditions of tolerance of Muslims, Jews and Cathars—and later of its Protestants. William VIII of Montpellier gave freedom for all to teach medicine in Montpellier in 1180. The city's faculties of law and medicine were established in 1220 by Cardinal Conrad of Urach, legate of Pope Honorius III; the medicine faculty has, over the centuries, been one of the major centres for the teaching of medicine in Europe. This era marked the high point of Montpellier's prominence. The city became a possession of the Kings of Aragon in 1204 by the marriage of Peter II of Aragon with Marie of Montpellier, who was given the city and its dependencies as part of her dowry. Montpellier gained a charter in 1204 when Peter and Marie confirmed the city's traditional freedoms and granted the city the right to choose twelve governing consuls annually. Under the Kings of Aragon, Montpellier became a very important city, a major economic centre and the primary centre for the spice trade in the Kingdom of France. It was the second or third most important city of France at that time, with some 40,000 inhabitants before the Black Death. Montpellier remained a possession of the crown of Aragon until it passed to James III of Majorca, who sold the city to the French king Philip VI in 1349, to raise funds for his ongoing struggle with Peter IV of Aragon. In the 14th century, Pope Urban VIII gave Montpellier a new monastery dedicated to Saint Peter, noteworthy for the very unusual porch of its chapel, supported by two high, somewhat rocket-like towers. With its importance steadily increasing, the city finally gained a bishop, who moved from Maguelone in 1536, and the huge monastery chapel became a cathedral. In 1432, Jacques Cœur established himself in the city and it became an important economic centre, until 1481 when Marseille overshadowed it in this role.
After the Reformation
At the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, many of the inhabitants of Montpellier became Protestants (or Huguenots [More] | | |
| |  | | | Albi, France | Gaul 51 BC | The first human settlement in Albi was in the Bronze Age (3000-600 BC). After the Roman conquest of Gaul in 51 BC, the town became Civitas Albigensium, the territory of the Albigeois, Albiga. Archaeological digs have not revealed any traces of Roman buildings, which seems to indicate that Albi was a modest Roman settlement.
In 1040, Albi expanded and constructed the Pont Vieux (Old Bridge). New quarters were built, indicative of considerable urban growth. The city grew rich at this time, thanks to trade and commercial exchanges, and also to the tolls charged to travelers for using the Pont Vieux.
In 1208, the Pope and the French king joined forces to combat the Cathars, who had developed their own version of Christianity (a heresy considered dangerous by the dominant Catholic Church). Repression was severe, and many Cathars were burnt at the stake throughout the region. The area, until then virtually independent, was reduced to such a condition that it was subsequently annexed by the French Crown.
After the upheaval of the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars, the bishop Bernard de Castanet, in the late 13th century, completed work on the Palais de la Berbie, a Bishops' Palace with the look of a fortress. He ordered the building of the cathedral of Sainte-Cécile starting in 1282. The town enjoyed a period of commercial prosperity largely due to the cultivation of Isatis Tinctoria, commonly known as woad. The fine houses built during the Renaissance bear witness to the vast fortunes amassed by the pastel merchants.
Albi had a small Jewish community during medieval times, until it was annihilated in the 1320s shepherds' Crusade.[3] Ever since, Jews were only allowed to transit the town by payment, without living in it. In 1967, approximately 70 Jews lived in Albi, most of them of North-African origin.[4]
Albi has conserved its rich architectural heritage which encapsulates the various brilliant periods of its history. Considerable improvement and restoration work has been done, to embellish the old quarters and to give them a new look, in which brick reigns supreme. [More] | | |
| |  | | | Visigothic King Theodoric II | Carcassonne, France | 453 AD | The first signs of settlement in this region have been dated to about 3500 BC, but the hill site of Carsac – a Celtic place-name that has been retained at other sites in the south – became an important trading place in the 6th century BC. The Volcae Tectosages fortified the oppidum.[citation needed]
The folk etymology – involving a châtelaine named Carcas, a ruse ending a siege and the joyous ringing of bells ("Carcas sona") – though memorialized in a neo-Gothic sculpture of Mme. Carcas on a column near the Narbonne Gate, is of modern invention. The name can be derived as an augmentative of the name Carcas.
Carcassonne became strategically identified when Romans fortified the hilltop around 100 BC and eventually made the colonia of Julia Carsaco, later Carcasum (by the process of swapping consonants known as metathesis). The main part of the lower courses of the northern ramparts dates from Gallo-Roman times. In 462 the Romans officially ceded Septimania to the Visigothic king Theodoric II who had held Carcassonne since 453; he built more fortifications at Carcassonne, which was a frontier post on the northern marches: traces of them still stand. Theodoric is thought to have begun the predecessor of the basilica that is now dedicated to Saint Nazaire. In 508 the Visigoths successfully foiled attacks by the Frankish king Clovis. Saracens from Barcelona took Carcassonne in 725, but King Pepin the Short (Pépin le Bref) drove them away in 759-60; though he took most of the south of France, he was unable to penetrate the impregnable fortress of Carcassonne.[citation needed]
Main article: County of Carcassonne
A medieval fiefdom, the county of Carcassonne, controlled the city and its environs. It was often united with the County of Razès. The origins of Carcassonne as a county probably lie in local representatives of the Visigoths, but the first count known by name is Bello of the time of Charlemagne. Bello founded a dynasty, the Bellonids, which would rule many honores in Septimania and Catalonia for three centuries.
Cathars being expelled from Carcassonne in 1209
In 1067, Carcassonne became the property of Raimond-Bernard Trencavel, viscount of Albi and Nîmes, through his marriage with Ermengard, sister of the last count of Carcassonne. In the following centuries, the Trencavel family allied in succession either with the counts of Barcelona or of Toulouse. They built the Château Comtal and the Basilica of St. Nazaire and St. Celse. In 1096, Pope Urban II blessed the foundation stones of the new cathedral.
Historical population
Year Pop. ±%
1793 10,400 —
1800 15,219 +46.3%
1806 14,985 -1.5%
1821 15,752 +5.1%
1831 20,997 +33.3%
1836 22,623 +7.7%
1841 21,333 -5.7%
1846 21,607 +1.3%
1851 20,005 -7.4%
1856 19,915 -0.4%
1861 20,644 +3.7%
1866 22,173 +7.4%
1872 24,407 +10.1%
1876 25,971 +6.4%
1881 27,512 +5.9%
1886 29,330 +6.6%
1891 28,235 -3.7%
1896 29,298 +3.8%
1901 30,720 +4.9%
1906 30,976 +0.8%
1911 30,689 -0.9%
1921 29,314 -4.5%
1926 33,974 +15.9%
1931 34,921 +2.8%
1936 33,441 -4.2%
1946 38,139 +14.0%
1954 37,035 -2.9%
1962 40,897 +10.4%
1968 43,616 +6.6%
1975 42,154 -3.4%
1982 41,153 -2.4%
1990 43,470 +5.6%
1999 43,950 +1.1%
2008 47,634 +8.4%
Carcassonne became famous in its role in the Albigensian Crusades, when the city was a stronghold of Occitan Cathars. In August 1209 the crusading army of the Papal Legate, Abbot Arnaud Amalric, forced its citizens to surrender. Raymond-Roger de Trencavel was imprisoned whilst negotiating his city's surrender, and died in mysterious circumstances three months later in his own dungeon. Simon De Montfort was appointed the new viscount. He added to the fortifications.
In 1240, Trencavel's son tried to reconquer his old domain but in vain. The city submitted to the rule of the kingdom of France in 1247. Carcassonne became a border fortress between France and the Crown of Aragon under the Treaty of Corbeil (1258). King Louis IX founded the new part of the town across the river. He and his successor Philip III built the outer ramparts. Contemporary opinion still considered the fortress impregnable. During the Hundred Years' War, Edward the Black Prince failed to take the city in 1355, although his troops destroyed the Lower Town [More] | | |
| |  | | | Aude (river) | | The Aude (French: [od]; Occitan: ['awðe]; Latin Atax) is a river of southern France that is 224 kilometres (139 mi) long.[2] Its source is in the Pyrenees mountains then runs to Carcassonne and finally reaches the Mediterranean Sea near Narbonne. The river is navigable by raft or canoe for nearly all of its length. It is registered as essential to the Languedoc-Roussillon region. | | |
| |  | | | Narbonne | Gual | 118 BC | Narbonne was established in Gaul by the Romans in 118 BC, as Colonia Narbo Martius, colloquially Narbo. It was located on the Via Domitia, the first Roman road in Gaul, built at the time of the foundation of the colony, and connecting Italy to Spain. Geographically, Narbonne was therefore located at a very important crossroads because it was situated where the Via Domitia connected to the Via Aquitania, which led toward the Atlantic through Tolosa and Burdigala. In addition, it was crossed by the Aude River. Surviving members of Julius Caesar's Legio X Equestris were given lands in the area that today is called Narbonne.[citation needed]
Politically, Narbonne gained importance as a competitor to Massalia (Marseille). Julius Caesar settled veterans from his 10th Legion there and attempted to develop its port while Marseille was supporting Pompey. Among the amenities of Narbonne, its rosemary-flower honey was famous among Romans.[2]
Later, the province of Transalpine Gaul was renamed Gallia Narbonensis after the city, which became its capital. Seat of a powerful administration, the city enjoyed economic and architectural expansion. At that point, the city is thought to have had 30,000–50,000 inhabitants, and may have had as many as 100,000. [More] | | |
| | | | | DivineCoders | Bible Code Search | DivineCoders.com was established in late 2010 to become the world's first true and only online Bible Code software. Unlike other sites that serve up only the contents of their database, your search on DivineCoders.com is actually performed online within the book you choose.
Since the conception of DivineCoders.com our team has offered many improvements to the Bible Code industry, such as the creation of strict software and research standards, lightspeed algorithms that help to make online Bible Code possible, the introduction of alternative means of search, and our promise that this list will continue to grow exponentially over time.
Our primary focus is to discover only the most mathematically significant encodings possible, as opposed to most researchers whose primary focus is on content. We promise to continue to explore the limits of what is possible in terms of enhancing both speed and accuracy in Bible Code software and to continue to offer this technology for free to the entire world.
Our primary interest is in the future of mankind, especially in the events leading up to the end of civilization. The challenge is going to be tough, because there are still a lot of unknown variables to define and a large amount of possibilities to deduce, but we believe that with your help we can access this information and make it freely available to everyone.
Our mission is to become the world's number one trusted source for Bible Code software and research by means of innovation, standardization, and professional integrity.
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;" Matthew 7:7 [More] | | |
| | | | | Freedom Baptist Church | Amarillo, TX | Alvin Walker has been senior pastor of Freedom Baptist Church since May 1, 2004. He is a second generation Baptist pastor. He married Brenda Burnett while they were students at Wayland Baptist University and they have three grown children and 7 grand children. Alvin and Brenda have served churches in Texas and were appointed As Foreign Missionaries to Brazil in 1981 where they served until 1990. Our desire is to fulfill the great commission in this place. This church body is a family, “Loving God and Loving People”. Our goal is to build a church that encourages long-term relationships and to be a congregation where each of us is a part of something much bigger than ourselves. A place where everyone can be a part of something that is meaningful, lasting and ETERNAL! Pray that we will be sensitive to God’s Spirit. We believe that the time for Christ’s return is drawing near. Love one another. Be true followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. Love God and Love People! In My Lord’s Service.
Our Purpose
…Loving God, Loving People [More] | | |
| | | | | | Holy Impact Ministries | At Holy Impact Ministries we're helping Gods people find their way back to the original Hebraic truth of Yahovah's Word, and away from today's modern day version of Christianity.
The Pharisees and scribes that our Messiah rebuked in his time are still alive and well today... preaching and teaching their own man made doctrines, theologies, and myths from behind the pulpits of today's compromising churches. making void the word of God in order to hold onto their own man made traditions.
Mat 15:8 "'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; Mat 15:9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'"
Our own Messiah Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ) told us very clearly that he did not come to destroy, nullify, or do away with the Law: [More] | | |
| | | | | Gospel of the Holy Twelve, Foreword | In theology or scientific religion, it is all important that terms should ever be used in one and the same sense, else confusion and error are and must be (as it has been) the result. Thus the word PERSON is used (in this work) in its primary signification (persona) appearance, or manifestation; while personality is that which belongs to person.
INDIVIDUAL (indivisable or undivided duality) is the One pure Spirit, the Eternal Esse, the LIFE and SUBSTANCE, the innermost, the all-pervading Spirit which resides in every person or manifestation.
Thus GOD being pure Spirit, the Innermost, the All- pervading, God's Body is the Universe in its totality, the ALL- PERSON or Manifestation of the hidden Deity. And each and every part thereof is a manifestation, and visible expression of Deity, according to its nature and degree. In this sense there is and can be but one All-person, All in all, and through all and around all.
HEAVEN is used for the Pleroma, Fullness of God.
HADES - The invisible - the place of departed souls, Purgatory.
GEHENNA denotes extinction, everlasting death (not eternal life in death).
AGE an existence or cycle of indefinite period.
AGES of ages or Greater Cycles consisting of such lesser cycles.
PERSONIFICATION, is the giving to An inanimate object the attributes of a living rational being; or again, the making of one Individual the representative or type of a whole race, or of a Messenger as a Manifestation of the Supreme. Thus Ioseph and Mary represented a Regenerate Humanity, and Iesu Maria, the Offspring thereof, first of the Sons and Daughters of God as a Unity. [More] | | |
| | | | | Thanksgiving Myths | The Pilgrims Held the First Thanksgiving
To see what the first Thanksgiving was like you have to go to: Texas. Texans claim the first Thanksgiving in America actually took place in little San Elizario, a community near El Paso, in 1598 -- twenty-three years before the Pilgrims' festival. For several years they have staged a reenactment of the event that culminated in the Thanksgiving celebration: the arrival of Spanish explorer Juan de Onate on the banks of the Rio Grande. De Onate is said to have held a big Thanksgiving festival after leading hundreds of settlers on a grueling 350-mile long trek across the Mexican desert. [More] | | |
| |  | | | Woman Thou Art God: Goddess Symbolism Within Freemasonry by William Bond | A few years ago I came across a illustrated Freemasonry book in my local library and glanced through it, out of idle curiosity, I was surprised to find I was able to pick out Goddess symbolism within Mason images. Which was a surprise, because Freemasonry is suppose to be a male dominated secret society. So why would a organization that has steadfastly refused to allow female members within its ranks for hundreds of years, use Goddess symbolism? It didn't make sense. I began to read more about Freemasonry and found enough information about the connection between Freemasonry and Goddess worship to fill a book. This article is a taste of what I have discovered so far.
I am myself am not a Freemason so any knowledge and understanding from this article, only comes only from my interpretation of Mason symbols. I have had a deep interest in Goddess religions for nearly 30 years, so I am looking at Freemasonry from this point of view. Yet if my interpretation of the symbols are correct, they tell a very different story about Freemasonry, than what the general public is led to believe. They even had the audacity to erect a giant statue of a Sun Goddess in New York harbour. Which they called the Statue of Liberty. [More] | | |
| | | | | Serapis | Origin of Christmas Traditions | The Origin of Christmas Traditions
THE MYTH
There is perhaps no myth in the western world which is more widely accepted - and yet so totally false - as that according to which Jesus the Christ was born on December 25. There is as a matter of fact not the slightest iota of information, even in the form of a legend, which places his birth on that or any other exact date. According to the equally mythical history of Luke, shepherds were watching their flocks on that fateful night and angels appeared to them and sang a wonderful song. The same story had been told concerning Gautama five hundred years before the birth of Jesus, and it had been repeated about others who long preceded the advent of Christianity. [More] | | |
| | | | | Desposyni; The Direct Descendants of Christ | Ebionite belief, the desposyni included his mother Mary, his father Joseph, his unnamed sisters, and his brothers James the Just, Joses, Simon and Jude; in modern mainstream Christian belief, Mary is counted as a blood relative, Joseph only as a foster father and the rest as half brothers or cousins.
If Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, a controversial belief which was held by the Gnostic sects, and which is indirectly corroborated by the apocryphal Gospel of Philip, their child or children would have been the most revered among the desposyni.
According to author Malachi Martin, every early community of Judean followers of Jesus, whether it was Nazarene or Ebionite, was governed by a desposynos as a patriarch, and each of them carried one of the names traditional in Jesus' family but no one was ever named after him.
As some asserted their descent from both king David and the high priest Aaron, all male desposyni could have laid claim to both the throne and the office of high priest of Jerusalem.
However, the Roman occupation of Palestine, with the collaboration of the Judean establishment, made any attempt by a desposynos to rise to or seize political and religious power impossible or limited in scope. [More] | | |
| | | | | The Prophecies of St. Malachy | The "Prophecies" of Saint Malachy
? (This article is presented as a matter of record and interest only, and NOT as fact) ?
The most famous and best known prophecies about the popes are those attributed to St. Malachy, a medieval Irish priest and Kabbalist. In 1139 he went to Rome to give an account of the affairs of his diocese to the pope, Innocent II, who promised him two palliums for the metropolitan Sees of Armagh and Cashel. While at Rome, he received (according to the Abbot Cucherat) the strange vision of the future wherein was unfolded before his mind the long list of illustrious pontiffs who were to rule the Church until the end of time. The same author tells us that St. Malachy gave his manuscript to Innocent II to console him in the midst of his tribulations, and that the document remained unknown in the Roman Archives until its discovery in 1590 (Cucherat, "Proph. de la succession des papes", ch. xv). They were first published by Arnold de Wyon, and ever since there has been much discussion as to whether they are genuine predictions of St. Malachy or forgeries. The silence of 400 years on the part of so many learned authors who had written about the popes, and the silence of St. Bernard especially, who wrote the "Life of St. Malachy," is a strong argument against their authenticity, but it is not conclusive if we adopt Cucherat's theory that they were hidden in the Archives during those 400 years.
These short prophetical announcements, in number 112, indicate some noticeable trait of all future popes from Celestine II, who was elected in the year 1130, until the end of the world. They are enunciated under mystical titles. Those who have undertaken to interpret and explain these symbolical prophecies have succeeded in discovering some trait, allusion, point, or similitude in their application to the individual popes, either as to their country, their name, their coat of arms or insignia, their birth-place, their talent or learning, the title of their cardinalate, the dignities which they held etc. For example, the prophecy concerning Urban VIII is Lilium et Rosa (the lily and the rose); he was a native of Florence and on the arms of Florence figured a fleur-de-lis; he had three bees emblazoned on his escutcheon, and the bees gather honey from the lilies and roses. Again, the name accords often with some remarkable and rare circumstance in the pope's career; thus Peregrinus apostolicus (pilgrim pope), which designates Pius VI, appears to be verified by his journey when pope into Germany, by his long career as pope, and by his expatriation from Rome at the end of his pontificate. Those who have lived and followed the course of events in an intelligent manner during the pontificates of Pius IX, Leo XIII, and Pius X cannot fail to be impressed with the titles given to each by the prophecies of St. Malachy and their wonderful appropriateness: Crux de Cruce (Cross from a Cross) Pius IX; Lumen in caelo (Light in the Sky) Leo XIII; Ignis ardens (Burning Fire) Pius X. There is something more than coincidence in the designations given to these three popes so many hundred years before their time. We need not have recourse either to the family names, armorial bearings or cardinalatial titles, to see the fitness of their designations as given in the prophecies. The afflictions and crosses of Pius IX were more than fell to the lot of his predecessors; and the more aggravating of these crosses were brought on by the House of Savoy whose emblem was a cross. Leo XIII was a veritable luminary of the papacy. The present pope is truly a burning fire of zeal for the restoration of all things to Christ. [More] | | |
| |  | | | Twilight Language: New World Order Francis: The Ultimate Black Pope | They are sometimes referred to as "God's Marines" or the church's "storm troopers" - a band of priests and missionaries who live sparse lives and are willing to accept religious orders anywhere in the world, sometimes living in extreme conditions....The order elects its own leader, known colloquially as the Black Pope because of the black vestments worn by the Jesuits, at a conclave in Rome, where members from around the world gather to make their choice. The current leader is Father Adolfo Nicolás, of Spain. Source.
...Society of Jesus is much more than an administrator of prestigious American universities. Also known as “God’s Marines” or “The Company,” the order of priests and brothers was founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1534 with six other students at the University of Paris. St. Ignatius had a military background, and early adherents referred to themselves as the “Company of Jesus,” hence both of the nicknames that live to this day. Probably happy that the Jesuits were not forming their own church, like Martin Luther a few decades earlier, Pope Paul III granted them commendation in 1537 to become priests. Three years later, he gave them the right to become their own order of priests. As the head of the new order, Ignatius sent his priests throughout Catholic Europe to start schools, colleges and seminaries. By Ignatius’s death in 1556, the Jesuits had already founded 74 colleges on three continents. With missionary work as a core value, the Jesuits have been known for spreading Catholicism throughout the world. Pope Francis’s namesake, St. Francis Xavier, is in particular credited with the Church’s expansion in Asia. Source. [More] | | |
| |  | | | Mattathias son of Absalom and brother of the Maccabean Jonathan | | The son of Absalom and brother of the Maccabean Jonathan, the high- priest (1 Maccabees 11:70; 13:11). In the battle fought by the latter with the forces of Demetrius on the plain of Nasor (the old Hazor), his two generals Mattathias and Judas alone stood by him when his army was seized with a panic and fled, and with their assistance the fortunes of the day were restored. | | |
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M.R. Mathias 
