"we might work the works of God?" - Hitler as an Ex-Spy

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Hitler as an Ex-Spy

Adolf Hitler was recruited by the police or the military as a spy on communists after WWI.

Would you believe Hitler was a spy? The truth is, initally he was a police spy sent in to Infitrate the German Workers Party (DAP) and keep tabs on them. This actually proved a huge mistake on the Reichswehr's part as Hitler was introduced to Anton Drexler and Dietrich Eckart, two of the founders of the DAP and the spy joined the DAP as a practiceing member of the party. He fully agreed with what Drexler and Eckart preached. After Hitler joined the DAP it changed it's name to the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP).  

Hitler was encourgaed by his former commanders after resigning from the army to pursue his participation in the party full time. As such he began organizing meetings in public where he was proving a very charasmatic leader. He'd bring in truck loads of NSDAP supporters who threw out party leaflets while flying the swastika. In his speeces he rallied against Marxist, Jews, rival politicians, the Treaty of Versailles, anything and everything. He knew what the people wanted to hear and he used it to his advantage. And the Army and German Nationalist used him to their advantage to put down the Marxist movement in the Weimar Republic. Which meant a tempory absence from where the NSDAP was headquarted, Munich.  

In his absence a bit of a revolt broke out within the leadership of the NSDAP which lead to the formation of an executive comittie which didn't care for Hitler (perhaps they were smart enough to realize where things were going if he remained in a leadership position). When they formed an alliance with another socialist party Hitler tendered his resignation. The result was that they realized how much loosing Hitler would cost them so they were willing to back down a bit. This lead to Hitler demanding he replace Drexler as NSDAP chairman. Drexler and several other committe members refused to give in until some annonymous individual (probably someone working for Hitler) ran a pamphlet that claimed Hitler was violent and lusted for power. Hitler very publicly filed a lawsuit, which he won. The results of this very public affair was that the executive committe gave in and Hitler was voted in as chairman of the National Socialist German Workers party by 543 to 1 in 1921.  

And when did he become the leader of the Nazis? 1921. The NSDAP was the Nazi party.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AwrTHQbW465TpwYA0LpXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE0cmMxOG9vBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDNTEEY29sbwNncTEEdnRpZANWSVA0NzBfMQ--?qid=20110309221707AAiQExD

So, I don't think Hitler personally hated Judaists and descendants of ancient Israelites.  He was not a crazy or fanatic Christian who wanted to take revenge on Judaists for their killing Christ Jesus 1900 years ago.  It is not religion that drove Hitler and his followers to carrying out the atrocity of killing millions of Judaists.

There must be somebody behind the scene that told Hitler to expel Jredaists from the German society.

Like in the case of Osama bin Laden, there must have been mentors of hatred.  However such masterminds behind the scene must have been killed in the war in each case of Hitler's and Osama's.

Maybe Hitler died as an ex-spy and Osama died as a son of a Saudi billionaire without deep understanding of what they had done.      




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Joh 6:27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
Joh 6:28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Joh 6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

"Love your enemies" - King and His Palace against Christ Jesus

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King and His Palace against Christ Jesus

It is interesting to know that Bethlehem where Christ Jesus was born was 5 km or 3 miles away from Herodium.

Herodium or Herodion is a truncated cone-shaped hill, located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) south of Jerusalem and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) southeast of Bethlehem, in the Judean desert (the West Bank). Herod the Great built a fortress, a palace, and a small town in Herodium, between 23 and 15 BCE, and is believed to have been buried there.[2] Herodium is 758 meters (2,487 ft) above sea level,[3] the highest peak in the Judean desert.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodium#Construction

When Herod the Great died, his son Herod Antipas took over. Herod Antipas ruled the region from 4 B.C. to 39 A.D. But it was in Jerusalem that Herod Antipas saw Christ Jesus in a trial as Christ was sent to him by Pilate.

Luke alone among the Gospels states that a group of Pharisees warned Jesus that Antipas was plotting his death, whereupon Jesus denounced the tetrarch as a "fox" and declared that he, Jesus, would not fall victim to such a plot because "it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem".[30] Luke also credits the tetrarch with a role in Jesus' trial. According to Luke, Pilate, on learning that Jesus was a Galilean and therefore under Herod's jurisdiction, sent him to Antipas, who was also in Jerusalem at the time. Initially, Antipas was pleased to see Jesus, hoping to see him perform a miracle, but when Jesus remained silent in the face of questioning Antipas mocked him and sent him back to Pilate. Luke says that these events improved relations between Pilate and Herod despite their earlier enmity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_Antipas#John_the_Baptist_and_Jesus

But the fate of Herod Antipas was very pitiful in a sense.

Antipas' fall from power was due to Caligula and to his own nephew Agrippa, brother of Herodias. When Agrippa fell into debt during the reign of Tiberius despite his connections with the imperial family, Herodias persuaded Antipas to provide for him, but the two men quarrelled and Agrippa departed. After Agrippa was heard expressing to his friend Caligula his eagerness for Tiberius to die and leave room for Caligula to succeed him, he was imprisoned. When Caligula finally became emperor in 37 AD, he not only released his friend but granted him rule of Philip's former tetrarchy (slightly extended), with the title of king.[45]

Josephus relates that Herodias, jealous at Agrippa's success, persuaded Antipas to ask Caligula for the title of king for himself. However, Agrippa simultaneously presented the emperor with a list of charges against the tetrarch: allegedly, he had conspired against Tiberius with Sejanus (executed in 31 AD) and was now plotting against Caligula with Artabanus. As evidence, Agrippa noted that Antipas had a stockpile of weaponry sufficient for 70,000 men. Hearing Antipas' admission to this last charge, Caligula decided to credit the allegations of conspiracy. In the summer of 39 AD, Antipas' money and territory were turned over to Agrippa, while he himself was exiled.[46] The place of his exile is given by Josephus' Antiquities as "Lugdunum" in Gaul.[47] (This may mean the city of Lugdunum now known as Lyon,[48] or the less important Lugdunum Convenarum, modern Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges.[49]) Caligula offered to allow Herodias, as Agrippa's sister, to retain her property. However, she chose instead to join her husband in exile.[50]

Antipas died in exile.[51] The 3rd-century historian Cassius Dio seems to imply that Caligula had him killed, but this is usually treated with skepticism by modern historians.[52]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_Antipas#John_the_Baptist_and_Jesus

The great palace Herodium was also destroyed amid the revolt by Israelites against Romans in 71 CE.

While Christ Jesus was born and lived, King Herod Antipas was mighty and his palace Herodium was also mighty.  But they were all gone with early Christians going out of Jerusalem and eventually Palestine while ｔhe First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE) was being fought.

So, nothing was truly great and none was great in the period of time when Christ Jesus was alive though the king and his palace looked so magnificent.

Compared with great success of Christianity, the glory of the king of Israelites and nominally even of Christ Jesus at the time is just dust today.

Herodium Today
http://pazzapazza2.blogspot.jp/2010/12/herodion.html

Maybe in the future the Vatican or the White House might follow the fate of Herodium in the worst case.



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Luk 6:27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,

"your heavenly Father feedeth them" - Full Faith in God vs. Power of Money

Mt. Fuji around Tokyo

Full Faith in God vs. Power of Money

Some people think that there is neither Heaven nor the hell.

A life is only once, they think, so that it is absurd not to enjoy it fully while a man is alive.  And thus, they conclude, a man has to ignore other poor and unhappy people to secure his own happiness.

But there is a big flaw in this thinking.  Why and how a man is born is not taken into consideration.  They may think that a man is born by chance as the human species was created by chance.  There is no God and there are any spirits and ghosts.  Or if they existed, they have nothing to do with them.  Everything is a product of chance, they consider.

It is true that many innocent people are killed in war, accidents, and other tragedies.  God does not save them.  Poor people die in poverty and terrible conditions; but God doesn't save them.  Then, how can we or should we trust and believe God?  If an innocent man believes in God, he might be killed in a traffic accident.  If a poor man trusts in God, he might die due to a lack of foods, medicines, and means to protect him.  Where is merit in believing God?

The answer is that God is almighty and omnipotent.  He can compensate any innocent men and poor men for their tragedies after their death.  God can take them all into Heaven where those unlucky people  are rewarded for their tragedies they have experienced during their lives in this material world.

Put simply, if you believe that God exists and He is almighty, giving life and spirits to you, you would put more value in Heaven than in life in this material universe.  Hence, you will love God more than money.  Yes, you will love God who makes you satisfied in Heaven more than money that give you satisfaction only while you live in this world.    

Jewish views of poverty, wealth and charity
From Wikipedia 

Over the course of Jewish history, different attitudes have been held towards poverty and wealth. Unlike Christianity, in which some strands have viewed poverty as virtuous and desirable, Jews have generally viewed poverty negatively. Jacobs and Greer assert that "[i]n general, Jewish texts have portrayed poverty as an unjustifiable burden."[1] In contrast to the consistently negative view of poverty, Kravitz and Olitzky describe a rapidly changing attitude towards acceptance of wealth as desirable as the Hebrews transitioned from being nomadic shepherds to farmers and ultimately to city dwellers.

 

Islam And Wealth 

In Islam, all wealth is the possession of Allah with which humans are entrusted. It is a responsibility; it must be earned through permissible means and spent in permissible ways, such as spending on one's self and those for whom he is responsible for, without extravagance or waste. The Messenger of Islam, Muhammad said: 

"A slave will not be able to take a step further on the Day of Requital until he is taken to account for [the following things]: his time and how he spent it, his knowledge and how he used it, his money and how he earned and spent it, and his youth and how he passed it. (Tirmidhi)
http://www.thekeytoislam.com/en/islam-and-wealth.aspx

Put extremely, a religion that does not deny wealth cannot be a true religion, since it puts wealth higher than God even partially.  In this context, Judaism and Islam are incomplete as a religion.

If you love God fully, you don't need money or rather you hate money that is challenging God due to its inherent power and function to neglect faith in God of those who possess money.




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Mat 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

"the head of John the Baptist" - Don Quixote and Christ Jesus

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Don Quixote and Christ Jesus

Don Quixote is a popular foreign novel in Japan.  Even a big chain store company in Japan has adopts "Don Quixote" for its company name.

But few in Japan regard Don Quixote as a unique type of followers of Christ Jesus.

Don Quixote and Jesus Christ: The suffering “Idealists” of Modern Religion 

Rebekah Marzhan
(Hamline University, Minnesota USA)

The figure of Don Quixote has always been seen as a character symbolizing the absurdity of idealistic pursuits. As such, countless generations have been able to temporally appropriate this medieval knight as representative of their own historical situation. Through a lineage of poetry, essays, novels, and scholarship, great thinkers have lifted the spirit of Quixote from Cervantes’ pages and revived the heralded knight of folly as a symbol of the incongruous place of not only faith in ideals but faith of a religious or spiritual nature in the modern, rational world. While this progression of thought has been well developed and explored through literary movements, modern illustrations of Don Quixote have been largely neglected in scholarship. Thus, to see how Don Quixote’s spirit has been revived visually in the twentieth century, scholars may turn to the work of Salvador Dalí. Through a series of illustrations for a 1945 edition of Quixote, Dalí utilizes the iconography of Jesus Christ to express Don Quixote as an irrational figure who suffers for his idealistic pursuits.

...
Through a series of illustrations for a 1945 edition of Quixote, Dalí utilizes the iconography of Jesus Christ to express Don Quixote as an irrational figure who suffers for his idealistic pursuits.
...
Thus, one of the most important parallels between Don Quixote and Christ lies in this idea of suffering for ones faith, for “he [Don Quixote] became the Spanish Christ because he, like Jesus, suffered the ‘passion’ of mockery.”[20] The conclusion of this piece affirms Unamuno’s pologetic of Don Quixote as the “symbolic catalyst to Christian renewal within the spiritually modern world.”[21]Since the time of Unamuno, many other writers and scholars have continued to affirm the Christ-like connections of Don Quixote.
...

http://oceanide.netne.net/articulos/art4-15.pdf

El Quixote , Salvador Dalihttp://www.chezchiara.com/2010/05/literature-and-culture-10-literary.html

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547 – 1616) must have been influenced by Muslims who were leaving Spain at the time.   Saavedra also experienced a state of slavery for five years in Algeria.  He also died in the same year as William Shakespeare died.  Cervantes also joined Infantería de Marina and experienced the power shift from Spain to England through Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604).

With Shakespeare England later became the global power, but with Cervantes Spain later gave up its hegemony in the seas of the world.  History is really difficult for any readers.






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Mar 6:25 And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist.

"came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus" - Critical History of Christianity in Japan

Around Tokyo

Critical History of Christianity in Japan

Christianity in Japan can be a major theme in study of global history, culture, and religions.　

Since Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552) came to Japan in the Period of Warring States of Japan or around 1550 to preach gospels, Christianity played a key role behind the mainstream history of Japan.

Ken Joseph argues that Nestorian Christianity, more accurately identified as East Syriac Christianity or the Church of the East, existed in Japan before the arrival of Xavier.

The first known appearance of organized Christianity in Japan was the arrival of the Portuguese Catholics in 1549. Francis Xavier arrived in Japan with three Japanese Catholic converts intending to start a church in the Nagasaki area. The local Japanese people initially assumed that the foreigners were from India and that Christianity was a new "Indian faith". These mistaken impressions were due to already existing ties between the Portuguese and India; the Indian city of Goa was a central base for the Portuguese East India Company at the time, and a significant portion of the crew on board their ships were Indian Christians. 

Under Hideyoshi and then under the succeeding Tokugawa shogunate, Catholic Christianity was repressed and adherents were persecuted. During these times, many Christians were killed in Japan, some by crucifixion; most famously, the twenty-six martyrs of Japan were tortured and crucified on crosses outside Nagasaki to discourage Christianity in 1597. Following a brief respite that occurred as Tokugawa Ieyasu rose to power and pursued trade with the Portuguese powers, there were further persecutions and martyrdoms in 1613, 1630, and 1632. By this point, after the Shimabara Rebellion, the remaining Christians had been forced to publicly renounce their faith. Many continued practicing Christianity in secret, in modern times becoming known as the "hidden Christians" (kakure kirishitan).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Japan

So, while the Tokugawa clan governed Japan between 1600s and 1868, Japan closed the door to shut out Christian missionaries, though the samurai regime kept trade ties with China and the Netherlands only thorough the port city Nagasaki.  

However, when the Tokugawa shogun surrendered to the anti-Tokugawa and pro-imperial samurai camp, the new government of Japan promoted modernization and Westernization of Japan, allowing Western missionaries to be engaged in mission activities.  With the end of the samurai era or the start of the Meiji Restoration of the imperial authority, Christianity started to be publicly taught in Japan, especially, through newly founded mission schools.

However along with  the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and the Second World War, the Japanese military leaders who seized political power of the Empire of Japan came to suppress Christianity, calling it a religion of enemies.

It is after WWII that complete freedom of religion was fully observed in the Japanese society.  Americans who occupied Japan after WWII had a great influence on Japan in this context.  General MacArthur, who presided over occupied Japan from August 1945 to April 1951, and his staff intentionally tried to introduce Christianity or Christian cultures into various fields of the Japanese society.  Even an idea of the Constitution of Japan was drafted by General MacArthur himself.  Many articles of the new Constitution reflected influences of a special team formed under MacArthur to help Japanese formulate the fully democratic Constitution.  And most of the members of the team expressed strongly their Christian conviction to present model provisions to Japanese officials in charge of drafting the new peace-oriented Constitution.

So, it is after 1945 or the end of WWII that the whole Japanese public have come under indirect but effective influences of Christianity in its 2000-year long history.

The Second World War has such a meaning featured by Christianity for Japan.

  





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Joh 6:24 When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.

"how great is that darkness!" - Robinson Crusoe and Japanese

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Robinson Crusoe and Japanese

At the end of the samurai era of Japan, namely in the early 1860s, some young samurais tried to secretly get out of Japan and see the world.  However, the samurai regime still forbade Japanese to freely travel the world, though they abandoned a policy to close the nation, which had been observed since early 1600s, in 1854 as the US, sending Commodore Perry and his fleet to Edo (Tokyo) Bay, strongly requested the shogun government to establish a diplomatic tie between Japan and the US.

One of such adventurous samurais was Joh Niijima or Joseph Hardy Neesima (1843 – 1890).

At the age of 21, he entreated Captain William T. Savory, of Salem, Massachusetts, commander of the brig Berlin, for safe passage to the United States, in order to further study Western science and Christianity. Captain Savory agreed to help him, so long as Neesima came on board at night, without assistance from the ship's crew. Knowing Neesima could be executed if apprehended, Savory hid Neesima from customs officials in his stateroom. He then secured Neesima's passage from China to the United States on the Wild Rover, commanded by Captain Horace Taylor of Chatham, Massachusetts. The Wild Rover was owned by Alpheus Hardy. 

When he arrived in Andover, Massachusetts, he was sponsored by Alpheus and Susan Hardy, members of Old South Church, who also saw to his education. He attended Phillips Academy from 1865 to 1867 and then Amherst College from 1867 to 1870. Upon graduating from Amherst, Neesima became the first Japanese person to receive a bachelor's degree. 

He was baptized in 1866 and went on to study at Andover Theological Seminary from 1870 to 1874. In 1874, he became the first Japanese to be ordained as a Protestant minister. 

When the Iwakura Mission visited the United States on its around-the-world expedition, he assisted as an interpreter. 

Neesima attended the 65th annual meeting of the Congregational church in Rutland, Vermont in 1874, and made an appeal for funds to start a Christian school in Japan. With the support and funding received, he returned to Japan, and in 1875 founded a school in Kyoto, which grew rapidly and became Doshisha University. He was assisted by his wife Niijima Yae and brother-in-law Yamamoto Kakuma, who were also active with the local Christian community in Kyoto.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hardy_Neesima

While samurai boy Iijima was still in Edo (presently Tokyo) or in his home town An-naka (Gunma Prefecture), he read various Western books translated into Japanese, such as Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and the Bible.  These books inspired young Iijima so much as to make Iijima dream of going abroad despite the official travel ban.

After arriving at the US before the Hardys extended aid to him, Iijima was alone in a harbor of Boston.  He could not find a supporter for his study in America.  American sailors around him said that there could not be such a kind man that would help a Japanese in Boston.  But Iijima read repeatedly Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe to conquer fear and anxieties.  And then, finally, Alpheus and Susan Hardy came to Iijima to offer help.

So, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (1660 - 1731) is a great book.  It has Christian contents in its second part, though the first part depicts mainly adventure of  Robinson Crusoe.

And interestingly, Robinson Crusoe seems to have some connection with Japanese.

TOKYO (Sept. 15, 2005) -- On a remote, wooded island 470 miles off the coast of Chile, Japanese explorer Daisuke Takahashi believes he has found the location of the hut where Scottish privateer Alexander Selkirk, who likely inspired the Daniel Defoe classic "Robinson Crusoe," lived during the four years and four months he was marooned on the island 300 years ago.

Intrigued by the question of how a lone man could adapt to survive in such an unfamiliar environment, Takahashi wanted to find where and how Selkirk lived while stranded on the South Pacific island now known as Robinson Crusoe from 1704 to 1709. Aided by an islander's recollection of a dwelling high up on an abandoned trail, Takahashi and his international team, funded by the National Geographic Society's Expeditions Council, began excavations. The most telling evidence that Takahashi found to link Selkirk to the site was a small blue tip from copper navigational dividers, a tool commonly used by sailors of the period and almost certainly belonging to Selkirk.

The story of Takahashi's discovery is chronicled in the October 2005 issue of National Geographic magazine, which is published in 27 local-language editions, including Spanish and Japanese.

Takahashi, 38, graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science from Tokyo's Meiji University in 1990 and worked in advertising for over a decade while also pursuing his love for exploration. A professional author and explorer since 2003, he has taken part in numerous expeditions around the world, including to the Sahara Desert, Amazon rain forest, Galápagos Islands, Antarctica, Yemen, Oman, Israel, Russia's Sakhalin Island, Australia, Micronesia and Tahiti.

Takahashi is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London and The Explorers Club in New York. He is the author of the book "In Search of Robinson Crusoe."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/09/050920075542.htm 

Japanese Translation Version of Robinson Crusoe

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%AD%E3%83%93%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BD%E3%83%BC-%E9%9B%86%E8%8B%B1%E7%A4%BE%E6%96%87%E5%BA%AB-%E3%83%80%E3%83%8B%E3%82%A8%E3%83%AB-%E3%83%87%E3%83%95%E3%82%A9%E3%83%BC/dp/4087520463



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Mat 6:23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
Mat 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

"The light of the body is the eye" - Miracles at a Roadside Hamburger Shop

Tokyo

Miracles at a Roadside Hamburger Shop 

Cars are stopped by a traffic signal there for 80 seconds.  And then they are allowed to pass the crossing for 80 seconds.

Every second two cars have passed by my side while I was standing before or sitting in a hamburger shop.  In one interval of the stop and go, almost 160 cars must be running on the three-track road in each direction.  In 15 minutes or 900 seconds, about 900 vehicles, including Toyota Priuses, taxis, trucks, etc.

A licence number of a Japanese car consists of a few elements.  The main element has four digits of numerals, such as 12-34, 2-34, 34, or 4.  So, a probability to meet a car with the license number of 11-11 is 1/9 x 1/9 x 1/9 x 1/9 = 1/6,561 = 0.00015, since there is no 00-00.

However, among numbers from 1 to 9,999, there are only nine cases that a number has the four identical numbers in each digit: 11-11, 22-22, 33-33, 44-44, 55-55, 66-66, 77-77, 88-88, and 99-99.  The ratio is 9 in 9,999, meaning 1/1,111.

But while I was watching the flow of cars around the hamburger shop for 15 minutes, I could check about 900 cars.  But as above explained, I could see one in 1,111 cars having a license number with an identical number in each of the four digits.  Since 900 is roughly close to 1,111, there is surely a chance that I can spot such a car with a license number, such as 55-55.

In 15 minutes I usually spend in the hamburger shop watching cars passing on a road by the shop, I would probably see one car with four identical numbers in the main element of its license number plate.
    
One day I saw four such cars.  And in another day, I saw three such cars.  And in the latter day, I saw a car with a number 1, meaning 00-01, twice.   This probability is of course one in 9,999 like any number such as 45-67.  But I saw such a car twice.

Can it be a miracle?

The Second Coming of the Christ is near or has been realized with some miracles around believers.

An Example of a License Plate of a Car Used in Japan
http://company.homemate-navi.com/useful/number_plate/



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Mat 6:22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

"For Herod feared John" - Repent Even If You Are Not Homeless

Tokyo

Repent Even If You Are Not Homeless

A decade before the 2008 Financial Crisis, John Grisham wrote a novel where an eite lawyer in Washington DC turned to be a legal adviser for homeless people and other helpless people.

A homeless man calling himself "Mister" enters the offices of the Washington DC law firm Drake & Sweeney and takes many of the lawyers hostage. Although he is eventually shot by a police sniper and the hostages freed, one of the hostages, an antitrust lawyer named Michael Brock, is concerned by what he has learned and feels compelled to investigate further. He finds his way to the 14th Street Legal Clinic, where he meets Mordecai Green, an advocate for the homeless, who asks him to help one night at a homeless shelter. As Brock's investigation deepens, he finds that his own employer was complicit in an illegal eviction, which eventually resulted in the death of a young homeless family. He takes a confidential file, intending to copy it, but is quickly suspected of its theft. Shocked by what he has found, Brock leaves his firm to take a poorly paid position with the 14th Street Legal Clinic, which works to protect the rights of the homeless. This leads to his wife divorcing him. He admits one of his clients, Ruby, to a therapy class for drug-addicted women, and in the process meets Megan. As Drake & Sweeney comes after Brock with theft and malpractice allegations, the Clinic launches a lawsuit against the law firm and its business partners. Terrified of the certain bad publicity, the matter is settled by mediation and the clinic receives a large payout to be shared with the victims of the eviction. Drake & Sweeney's head partner, deeply troubled by the events, offers to make pro bono staff available to assist the work of the Clinic in fighting for the rights of homeless people. The book ends with Brock taking a short vacation with Megan and Ruby, and them reflecting on their lives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Street_Lawyer 

Nobody thinks that this kind of a drastic change in one's career is possible, especially if he is a highly-paid lawyer working in a renowned law firm.  However there seem to many lawyers involved in cases related to poor relief in the US.

Homeless Persons Have Rights, Too.
POSTED IN HUMAN RIGHTS BY LAWYERS.COMSM  

Homeless ManHomelessness is a serious problem in some areas of the United States. Many state and municipal laws put restrictions on the conduct of the homeless. In many cities, they can't panhandle, loiter, or sleep wherever they want. However, the U.S. government passed legislation in 1987 to provide some specific rights to the homeless as well, under certain circumstances.
...

The law surrounding the rights of the homeless people is complicated. Plus, the facts of each case are unique. This article provides a brief, general introduction to the topic. For more detailed, specific information, please contact a civil rights lawyer.
http://civil-rights.lawyers.com/human-rights/homeless-persons-have-rights-too.html

Some such organizations, including Southern Legal Counsel, seem to be spurred on to their efforts to saving homeless Americans in the wake of the 2008 Financial Crisis.

SLC's Homeless Advocacy Project is a statewide project to protect and defend the civil and human rights of homeless individuals and their advocates.  The Project has two main objectives: 1) combat the criminalization of homelessness and 2) identify and address systemic issues faced by homeless individuals and their advocates that violate their civil and human rights.  The Project seeks to address these objectives through the provision of community education and outreach to inform homeless individuals and advocates about their rights, and through legal and policy advocacy including impact litigation.  It also provides training and technical assistance for advocates and attorneys.
...
National Forum on the Human Right to Housing.  On November 8th and 9th, 2009, more than 150 advocates from 20 states gathered in Washington, DC for the 2009 National Forum on the Human Right to Housing.  The event was hosted by Georgetown University Law Center, and co-sponsored by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, the US Human Rights Network, National Fair Housing Alliance, and the National Alliance of HUD Tenants.   The highlight of the conference was the National Town Hall on the Right to Housing where advocates presented testimony to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Raquel Rolnik, who made the Forum the final stop on her two week fact-finding mission to the United States.

SLC presented written and oral testimony to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights violations that are caused by the criminalization of homelessness in Florida.  SLC called for local and state governments to develop constructive alternatives to criminalizing homelessness and to repeal or cease enforcement of such laws and policies.  The Special Rapporteur presented her final report about her country visit to the United Nations Human Rights Council in March 2010.  Her final report included findings about human rights violations caused by homelessness and a recommendation that the US develop constructive alternatives to the criminalization of homelessness.
http://www.southernlegal.org/index.php/areas-of-service/homelessness/ 

So then, John Grisham's The Street Lawyer can be regarded as a kind of prophecy for the 2008 Lehman Shock and subsequent global financial crisis, since it was written in 1998.

And also, the Gulf War that started in January 1991 with the Congress of the United States passing a resolution authorizing the use of military force against Saddam's Iraq to liberate Kuwait can be regarded as a kind of prophecy for the 9/11 Terror on the US in 2001.

Of course the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. in a crash of a plane he was piloting off the coast of Martha's Vineyard can be regraded as a kind of prophecy for the assumption of the presidency by Mr. Barack Obama in 2009.

Indeed 10 years ago, a terrible natural disaster occurred as a kind of prophecy for something terrible that should happen in 2014.

December 26 – One of the worst natural disasters in recorded history hits Southeast Asia, when the strongest earthquake in 40 years, measuring 9.3 on the Richter scale, hits the entire Indian Ocean region, which generates an enormous tsunami that crashes into the coastal areas of a number of nations including Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. The official death toll in the affected countries stands at 186,983 while more than 40,000 people are still missing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004

So, repent even if you are not homeless persons!




*** *** *** ***




Mar 6:20 For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.

"and healed them all" - The First African in Japan

Tokyo

The First African in Japan

Who was the first African that came to Japan in the history?

It seems to have been a young African man from Island of Mozambique who was recruited or forced by Europeans to serve missionaries sent by the Vatican or its subordinate organizations.  Some of these Catholic missionaries came to Japan in the late 16th century to preach the gospel.  Japan was at the time in the Age of Civil Wars.  The shogun or the head of the samurai class lost power through armed conflicts among different samurai clans, while the imperial court had had no political power for centuries.

Nonetheless, there emerged one very strong and unique warlord.  Oda Nobunaga was an open-minded samurai leader; he loved Western goods Western missionaries brought with them into Japan.  Especially he found merit in matchlock guns Portuguese merchants brought into Japan in 1543.  Nobunaga had craftsmen produce thousands or more harquebuses to equip his samurai soldiers with them.  With this new tactics based on guns, Nobunaga conquered one third of Japan so quickly.  It looked like a matter of time that rising warlord Nobunaga, born around presently Nagoya in 1534, would soon put all the samurai warlords in Japan under his rule, since he had already controlled Kyoto and the imperial court in this old capital of imperial Japan.

And during this unquiet time of Japan, a young African man, who was later named Yasuke by Oda Nobunaga, arrived at Japan.  　

Yasuke arrived in Japan in 1579 as the servant of the Italian Jesuit Alessandro Valignano, who had been appointed the Visitor (inspector) of the Jesuit missions in the Indies, i.e. S. and E. Asia, an extremely high position, so Yasuke must have been quite trustworthy. He accompanied Valignano when the latter came to the capital area in March 1581 and caused something of a sensation. In one event, several people were crushed to death while clamouring to get a look at him. Nobunaga heard about him and expressed a desire to see him. Suspecting the black color of his skin to be paint, Nobunaga had him strip from the waist up and made him scrub his skin.[2]

Nobunaga's nephew gave him money. In May, Yasuke accompanied a group of Jesuits on a short trip to the province of Echizen. Yasuke could speak some Japanese, so Nobunaga enjoyed talking with him and was also impressed by his strength. At Nobunaga's request, Valignano left Yasuke with Nobunaga before Valignano left central Japan later that year. Nobunaga treated Yasuke with such great favor that people in Azuchi even said he would probably be made a 'tono' (lord). This did not happen, but he was given the position of samurai (shikan).

In June 1582, Nobunaga was attacked and killed in Honnō-ji in Kyoto by the army of Akechi Mitsuhide. Yasuke was also there at the time. Immediately after Nobunaga's death, Yasuke went to the lodging of Nobunaga's heir Oda Nobutada and withdrew with him to Nijō Castle. When that too was attacked by Akechi, Yasuke fought alongside the Nobutada forces for a long time. Finally he surrendered his sword to Akechi's men. They asked Akechi himself what to do with him. Akechi said that the black man was a beast and did not know anything, and furthermore, he was not Japanese, so they should not kill him but take him to the church [in Kyoto] of the Visitor from India, so they did, much to the relief of the Jesuits there who had worried about him. There is no information about him after that.

The "Lord Nobunaga Chronicle" (Shinchōkōki) has a description of Yasuke's first meeting with Nobunaga. "On the 23rd of the 2nd month [March 23, 1581], a black page ("kuro-bōzu") came from the Christian countries. He looked about 26 [24 or 25 by Western count] or 27 years old; his entire body was black like that of an ox. The man was healthy and good-looking. Moreover, his strength was greater than that of 10 men." 

After Matsudaira Ietada had met Yasuke in May 1582, Ietada journalized his looks. " His name was Yasuke. His height was 6 shaku 2 sun (6 ft. 2 in., or 188 cm.). He was black, and his skin was like charcoal." If so, his tall stature would have been very imposing to the Japanese of the day. 

Yasuke was also mentioned in the prototype of Shinchōkōki owned by Sonkeikaku Bunko. According to this, Yasuke was given his own house and a short katana by Nobunaga. Nobunaga also assigned him the duty of "Dōgumochi," the porter of his Yari[3][4] 

A 2013 investigation by Discovery of the World's Mysteries concluded that Yasuke was a Makua named Yasufe.[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuke

Even the US Marine Corps website picked up this episode in the Japanese history:

Anartist's illustration of Yasuke, an African slave who traveled with Italian Jesuit missionaries when they arrived in Japan in 1579. Legend has it Yasuke caused such a commotion upon his arrival people came in droves and clamored over one another to see him. He was rumored to have stood between 6'3" and 6'5" tall, towering over the Japanese and even many of the Italians. Tales also stated he was either 26 or 27 years old, and stronger than 10 men. After traveling with the missionaries for a time, Oda Nobunaga, the famous Japanese warlord, asked the missionaries that Yasuke be left with him for a time as he was intrigued about the African's homeland. Legend has it he was made a samurai in title only but was also said to have traveled with Nobunaga in full regalia and armaments.(Photo by Paul R. Bondoc)
http://www.mcasiwakuni.marines.mil/News/NewsStories/NewsArticleDisplay/tabid/6911/Article/142685/the-legend-of-yasuke.aspx

From other sources, Yasuke seems to have served a warlord in Kyusyu after the assassination of Oda Nobunaga, since Akechi Mitsuhide, a samurai general who killed Nobunaga, released Yasuke after having captured this African samurai, since Yasuke was not Japanese and thus could be pardoned.   At the time there were many Christians in Kyusyu, the most southwestern island of the four major islands of Japan.  And trade with South East Asia was freely conducted by Japanese merchants at the time.  So, Yasuke must have left Japan with Japanese merchants and samurais who wanted to develop their careers, riding movement of economic expansion or colonization in Asia by Spaniards, Portuguese, the Dutch, etc.

Months before Oda Nobunaga was assassinated in Kyoto in 1582, the first official Japanese mission to Europe started to sail out of Japan as a result of diplomatic and religious efforts by those European missionaries.  This Tenshō embassy (named after the Tenshō Era in which the embassy took place) was specifically formed and sent by the Japanese Christian Lord Ōtomo Sōrin to the Pope and the kings of Europe in 1582, and they took a route to Europe via  Island of Mozambique.  So, the sea route from Japan to  Island of Mozambique must have been often used by Portuguese, etc.  Yasuke must have had a chance to sail back to his home island after leaving Japan with Japanese merchants to colonies of Portugal, etc. in South East Asia.

If we explore Island of Mozambique more carefully, we might trace of Yasuke featured by something Japanese.

A group of Portuguese Nanbanforeigners, 17th century, Japan. Yasuke was the servant of Jesuits similar to the black depicted in this picture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuke



*** *** *** ***



Luk 6:19 And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.
Luk 6:20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.

"An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations" - A Japanese who Met Abraham Lincoln

Tokyo

A Japanese who Met Abraham Lincoln

In 1851 Hikozo, a 13-year old Japanese mariner, encountered a tempest while a ship where he served was sailing along the Pacific coast lines of Japan to Edo (presently Tokyo) from west Japan.

However, after two months of drifting in the Ocean, he and other mariners were rescued by an American commercial ship.  They got to San Francisco, but the US Government decided to return them to Japan as the then Japanese samurai government closed the nation.  Hikozo and his company were sent to Hong Kong.  They were expected to be taken on board a ship of an American naval fleet led by Commodore Perry who planned to visit Edo and request the Tokugawa shogun to establish a diplomatic tie with the US.  At the Time, as Herman Melville wrote, whaling by American ships in the Pacific Ocean was very thriving.  They needed help from Japan to secure water, foods, and other services needed by American ships whaling around Japanese seas.

Perry's fleet arrival was delayed.  Except one Japanese marine, other Japanese decided not to be involved in the difficult diplomatic movement, thus running away from the American control.  Most of the Japanese mariners left for a Japanese who happened to live in Hong Kong, though he was aslo an ex-mariner of a Japanese ship that had been wrecked.  But Hikozo and another Japanese got on a ship heading for San Francisco.

So, Hikozo did not become part of the historic incident of Commodore Perry's arrival at Edo Bay (Tokyo Bay) in 1853.  However he received a favor from an American custom chief in San Francisco, named Saunders.  With Saunders, Hikozo moved to New York and then attended a mission school in Baltimore. On September 15, 1853, Hikozo met US President Franklin Pierce.
 

In 1858, the Treaty of Amity and Commerce was concluded between the shogun government at Edo and the US.  As the samurai regime forbade Christianity at the time, Hikozo who became a Chrstian in America abandoned Japanese nationality to become a naturalized citizen of the US.  Then he was employed by Townsend Harris, the first United States Consul General to Japan, as an interpreter.  Hikozo came back to Japan in 1859 for the first time in nine years.

Japan was then toward a civil war because the anti-shogun camp was gaining strength. Samurais who opposed diplomatic policies of the Tokugawa shogun were trying to topple the Tougawa regime and expell Americans and other Westerners from Japan.  Some radical samurais were really attacking foreigners around Yokohama, a port city near Edo opened for foreigners.  So, Hikozo felt that his life was at stake.  He returned to the US in 1861.  And, he met Abraham Lincoln on March 31, 1862.  Hikozo became the only Japanese who saw Abraham Lincoln.  Or Abraham Lincoln met at least one Japanese in his life time.

In December 1862, Hikozo returned to Japan again.  Since then, Hikozo worked in Japan, handling business in various fields.  He died in Tokyo in 1897 as an American citizen.

While Hikozo was running a commerce firm in Yokohama in 1862, he read an article about Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in The New York Times he subscribed to.  It gave him a hint for publishing a newspaper in Japan.  In 1864, Hikozo started issuance of a newspaper in Japan, though commercial information papers had been occasionally delivered in Tokyo and other Japanese cities under rule of samurais.  Hikozo's newspaper is today regraded as the first trial of publishing modern newspapers in Japan.  Though Hikozo's newspaper business was terminated in two yeras, subsequent newspapers issued by other parties followed the style of Hikozo's modern newspaper.

So, we might say that there is a linkage between Abraham Lincoln and start of modern newspaper business in Japan.




*** *** *** ***



Pro 6:17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
Pro 6:18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
Pro 6:19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Pro 6:20 My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

"the great day of his wrath" - Land Mine Clearance Work in Cambodia

Around Tokyo

Land Mine Clearance Work in Cambodia

The number of land mines laid in each country (as of 1998):

1. Egypt        23 million

2. Iran         16 million

3. Angola       14 million

4. Afghanistan  10 million

5. China        10 million

6. North Iraq   10 million

7. Cambodia      6 million

8. Vietnam      3.5 million

There is one particular Japanese who is engaged in mine removal work in Cambodia.

Mr. Ryoji Takayama, born in Ehime Prefecture of west Japan in 1947, first went to Cambodia as a member of a special battalion of Japanese Self-Defense Forces that was formed for a PKO operation in Cambodia between 1992 and 1993.

In 2002 Takayama retired from office to join Japan Mine Action Service (JMAS), a specified nonprofit corporation specializing in mine clearance work in Cambodia, Laos, Angola, etc.  Then he moved to Cambodia to launch an organization to remove land mines. Takayama left JMAS in 2010 while he became an adviser to Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) run by the Cambodian Government.   In 2011 Takayama was appointed to an adviser for recovery and reconstruction by the Batdambang government of Cambodia.

Now he is head director of International Mine Clearance and Community Development, an NPO Takayama established for his activities in Cambodia (http://www.imccd.org/aboutus.html).

Cambodia is a country in located South East Asia that has a major problem with landmines, especially in rural areas. This is the legacy of three decades of war which has taken a severe toll on the Cambodians; it has some 40,000 amputees, which is one of the highest rates in the world.[1] The Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) estimates that there may be as many as four to six million mines and other pieces of unexploded ordnance in Cambodia. 

Finding the location of the mines with no witness or map record is a very difficult task that needs very specific tools, and demands a lot of time, and trained staff, and therefore also a lot of investment. 

 "In Cambodia, 87% of surviving landmine victims are males over 15 years old, with a mean age of 28 years. In Afghanistan, 73% are males between ages 16 to 50, and 20% of the victims are male children." 

The National Level One Survey in Cambodia conducted in 2002 found that 20% (2776 out of 13908) of all villages in Cambodia are still contaminated by minefields and/or cluster bomb areas with reported adverse socio-economic impacts on the community. 

The Cambodian Mine Action Authority (CMAA) was established in late 2000. The CMAA regulates and coordinates all mine action activities, and establishes policies and procedures. Currently, there are four (main) demining organizations working in Cambodia - The Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC), the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF), The HALO Trust, and the Mines Advisory Group (MAG).[11] CMAA estimates that the combined cost for demining operations, including technical assistance and in kind contributions for Cambodia are approximately $30 million per year.[12] Experts also estimate that Cambodia will need another 10 to 20 years to clear the mines if the current level of funding is maintained.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_mines_in_Cambodia

Ryoji Takayama also supports Children learning Japanese in villages in Cambodia.  And he and his NPO help one Cambodian young woman learn in a university in Japan.  More young people might learn Japanese and come to Japan for further study.  

In 2010 the number of Japanese businesses that register with the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia was about 50, but now it is over 100 while it is estimated that about 130 Japanese businesses operate in Cambodia.  In deed, more and more companies might move their plants from China to Cambodia.



*** *** *** ***



Rev 6:17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

"he is risen from the dead" - The Battle of Saipan of 1944

Imperial Palace Plaza Park, Tokyo

The Battle of Saipan of 1944

Summer is the season for Japan to remember the war against the US over the Pacific Ocean that had been conducted between 1941 and 1945.

One of the most remembered battle fields is Saipan Island.  At the time, namely in June 1944, the Imperial Government in Tokyo led by Prime Minister/Army General Hideki Tojyo asserted that the island could well stand American assaults, since it was well fortified and a few divisions were stationed with support of hundreds of Zero fighters and other military planes.  However the US sent twice larger number of soldiers and used ten times larger ammunition with cover by more than 1,000 fighters and bombers and  20 battle ships and cruisers.

The defeat in Saipan led to Tojo's resignation from premiership one month after the battle.  Most of Japanese elites understood that they lost this Pacific War, though it took one more year for the Empire of Japan to surrender.

The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June–9 July 1944. The Allied invasion fleet embarking the expeditionary forces left Pearl Harbor on 5 June 1944, the day before Operation Overlord in Europe was launched.

In the campaigns of 1943 and the first half of 1944, the Allies had captured the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands and the Papuan Peninsula of New Guinea. This left the Japanese holding the Philippines, the Caroline Islands, Palau Islands and Mariana Islands.

It had always been the intention of the American planners to bypass the Carolines and Palaus and to seize the Marianas and Taiwan. From these latter bases communications between the Japanese homeland and Japanese forces to the south and west could be cut. In addition, from the Marianas Japan would be well within the range of an air offensive relying on the new Boeing B-29 Superfortress long-range bomber with its operational radius of 1,500 mi (2,400 km).

United States         　　　　Imperial Japan
Strength
71,000               　　　　31,000
Casualties and losses
3,426 killed          　　　　　24,000 killed
10,364 wounded        5,000 suicides
                      　　　　　　　921 prisoners
                      　　　　　　　10,000 civilians dead (mostly suicides)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saipan

In the night of June 16, 1944, the Imperial Army command center of Saipan luanched the all-out offensive with 8,000 soldiers and 44 tanks.  To encounter them, American troops concentrated overwhelming fire power, delivering 800 rounds per hour from cannons and 10,000 bullets per hour from machine guns. Accordingly most of Japanese sodiers were killed.  The Japanese tank regiment consisting of 800 sodiers lost about 770.  One suvivor later said that he fired more than 2,000 bullets from a machine gun of his tank, but Americans fired ten times more.

The worst incident in the Battle of Saipan was that many Japanese citizens, like Japanese soldiers, were afraid of being captured alive by US forces. They opted to commit suicide. It is reported that one day more than 70 citizens killed themselves so as not to live as captives to be subjected to humiliating treatment.

After occupation of Saipan, the US military captured and protected 14,949 noncombatants, including 10,424 Japanese, 1,300 Koreans, and other Pacific islanders.  It is estimated that about 10,000 Japanese citizens were killed in this battle.

After the Battle of Saipan, the Imperial military continued to lose its strongholds and occupied areas from other parts of Mariana Islands, Iwo-Jima Island, the Philippines, and Okinawa.

The hot summer of 1945 is still partly alive in Japan or in Japanese mind sets of today, since battles were so furious and victims were so huge in the number.

Remnant of the Battle of Saipan: Abandoned Japanese Tank
http://zapanet.info/blog/item/1670



*** *** *** ***



Mar 6:14 And king Herod heard of him; (for his name was spread abroad:) and he said, That John the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.
Mar 6:15 Others said, That it is Elias. And others said, That it is a prophet, or as one of the prophets.
Mar 6:16 But when Herod heard thereof, he said, It is John, whom I beheaded: he is risen from the dead.

"Simon, (whom he also named Peter,)" - Christianity and Colonization Complex Influences

Mt. Fuji and Sunset around Tokyo in the Rainy Season

Christianity and Colonization Complex Influences

In Japan African authors are not popular.

For example, it seems that only one novel among some works of Chinua Achebe (1930 – 2013), a Nigerian novelist, was translated into Japanese: Things Fall Apart (1958).

In 1948, in preparation for independence, Nigeria's first university opened.[24] Known as University College (now the University of Ibadan), it was an associate college of the University of London. Achebe obtained such high marks in the entrance examination that he was admitted as a Major Scholar in the university's first intake and given a bursary to study medicine.[24] After a year, he changed to English, history, and theology.[
...

While he meditated on his possible career paths, Achebe was visited by a friend from the university, who convinced him to apply for an English teaching position at the Merchants of Light school at Oba. It was a ramshackle institution with a crumbling infrastructure and a meagre library; the school was built on what the residents called "bad bush" – a section of land thought to be tainted by unfriendly spirits.[36] Later, in Things Fall Apart, Achebe describes a similar area called the "evil forest", where the Christian missionaries are given a place to build their church.
...

 He taught in Oba for four months, but when an opportunity arose in 1954 to work for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS), he left the school and moved to Lagos.
...

Also in 1956 he was selected at the Staff School run by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). His first trip outside Nigeria was an opportunity to advance his technical production skills, and to solicit feedback on his novel (which was later split into two books). In London, he met a novelist named Gilbert Phelps, to whom he offered the manuscript. Phelps responded with great enthusiasm, asking Achebe if he could show it to his editor and publishers. Achebe declined, insisting that it needed more work.

Back in Nigeria, Achebe set to work revising and editing his novel (now titled Things Fall Apart, after a line in the poem "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats). He cut away the second and third sections of the book, leaving only the story of a yam farmer named Okonkwo who lives during the colonization of Nigeria.
...
In the book Okonkwo struggles with the legacy of his father – a shiftless debtor fond of playing the flute – as well as the complications and contradictions that arise when white missionaries arrive in his village of Umuofia.[52] Exploring the terrain of cultural conflict, particularly the encounter between Igbo tradition and Christian doctrine, Achebe returns to the themes of his earlier stories, which grew from his own background. 

Things Fall Apart went on to become one of the most important books in African literature.[53] Selling over 8 million copies around the world, it was translated into 50 languages, making Achebe the most translated African writer of all time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe#Things_Fall_Apart

The most impressive part of Things Fall Apart is that there were a kind of segregated people in a community of the leading character Okonkwo.  They were discriminated from other residents for the reason that they were unclean spiritually in light of their religious traditions.

But when a European missionary came to the community in Nigeria, those people being looked down by mainstream residents first accepted the teaching of Christianity.  Then young men, including a son of Okonkwo, who had troubles with their parents, especially fathers, concerning life philosophy, left their homes and joined a newly built church and Christian community led by a European mission.

Indeed unhappy people in a local community of Africa were saved by European missions.  But there were always colonial rule behind such missionaries.  And this colonial rule penetrated deep into African local communities even leveraging diffusion of Christianity among minorities and the handicapped in those communities.  Consequently, African local communities lost a potential to solve their internal problems and correct social biases and evils that had produced those segregated or neglected members among them.

In other word, Christianity that was introduced into Africa through European missionaries helped some victims in African communities, but as a whole European missions deprived local communities of their chances to grow and establish their own social frameworks for modern justice and democracy.

Africa did not have strong and deep traditions of civilization.  They could not resists evils being introduced into Africa by Europeans, including European missionaries, merchants, colonial masters, and military.

Without Islam, Arabs and some Asians must have been also subject to spiritual colonization by European churches.    

In this context, India, China, and Japan have not been easy targets for the Christian Church and European Colonialists Complex.

Nonetheless, more tragic were indigenous people of America after the era of Columbus.  Their unique civilizations were almost nothing before invasion by Spaniards, Portuguese, and other European nations.

So, the World Cup Soccer Games are now going in Brazil, a country showing one example of this historical movement of global expansion of European/American material and religious influences.  Indeed we cannot almost see or discern any indigenous Brazilians even in stadiums, good or bad.  

http://catbird2.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/books-continue-each-other-part-2/




*** *** *** ***



Luk 6:13 And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;
Luk 6:14 Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew,
Luk 6:15 Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes,
Luk 6:16 And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor.

"blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law" - Eusebius, Edessa and the Holy Shroud

In Tokyo

Eusebius, Edessa and the Holy Shroud

The most authentic document about the early Christianity was written by Eusebius in the fourth century.

Eusebius (260/265 – 339/340; also called Eusebius of Caesarea and Eusebius Pamphili) was a Roman historian, of Greek descent, exegete and Christian polemicist. He became the Bishop of Early centers of Caesarea about the year 314 A.D. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon and is regarded as an extremely well learned Christian of his time.[1] He wrote Demonstrations of the Gospel, Preparations for the Gospel, and On Discrepancies between the Gospels, studies of the Biblical text. As "Father of Church History" he produced the Ecclesiastical History, On the Life of Pamphilus, the Chronicle and On the Martyrs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusebius 

He played a major role when the Roman Empire accepted Christianity.

Eusebius succeeded Agapius, as Bishop of Caesarea soon after 313 and played a prominent role at the Council of Nicaea in 325. Eusebius, a learned man and famous author, enjoyed the favour of the Emperor Constantine. Because of this he was called upon to present the creed of his own church to the 318 attendees."[32] However, the anti-Arian creed from Palestine prevailed becoming the basis for the Nicene Creed. 

Eusebius remained in the Emperor's favour throughout this time and more than once was exonerated with the explicit approval of the Emperor Constantine. After the Emperor's death (c.337), Eusebius wrote the Life of Constantine, an important historical work because of eye witness accounts and the use of primary sources. Eusebius died c.339.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusebius

But, more important are his works.  He is the first author that comprehensively reviewed the whole process of emergence and deployment of Christianity.

In his Church History or Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius wrote the first surviving history of the Christian Church as a chronologically-ordered account, based on earlier sources complete from the period of the Apostles to his own epoch.[44] The time scheme correlated the history with the reigns of the Roman Emperors, and the scope was broad. Included were the bishops and other teachers of the Church, Christian relations with the Jews and those deemed heretical, and the Christian martyrs through 324 C.E. [45] Although its accuracy and biases have been questioned, it remains an important source on the early church due to Eusebius's access to materials now lost.

Let's see how his Church History is composed.

Church History (Book I) 

Chapter 1. The Plan of the Work.
1. It is my purpose to write an account of the successions of the holy apostles, as well as of the times which have elapsed from the days of our Saviour to our own; and to relate the many important events which are said to have occurred in the history of the Church; and to mention those who have governed and presided over the Church in the most prominent parishes, and those who in each generation have proclaimed the divine word either orally or in writing.
...

Chapter 2. Summary View of the Pre-existence and Divinity of Our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ.
...

Chapter 3. The Name Jesus and also the Name Christ were known from the Beginning, and were honored by the Inspired Prophets.
...

Chapter 4. The Religion Proclaimed by Him to All Nations Was Neither New Nor Strange.
...

Chapter 5. The Time of his Appearance among Men.
1. And now, after this necessary introduction to our proposed history of the Church, we can enter, so to speak, upon our journey, beginning with the appearance of our Saviour in the flesh. And we invoke God, the Father of the Word, and him, of whom we have been speaking, Jesus Christ himself our Saviour and Lord, the heavenly Word of God, as our aid and fellow-laborer in the narration of the truth.
...

Chapter 6. About the Time of Christ, in accordance with Prophecy, the Rulers who had governed the Jewish Nation in Regular Succession from the Days of Antiquity came to an End, and Herod, the First Foreigner, Became King.
...

Chapter 7. The Alleged Discrepancy in the Gospels in regard to the Genealogy of Christ.
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Chapter 8. The Cruelty of Herod toward the Infants, and the Manner of his Death.
1. When Christ was born, according to the prophecies, in Bethlehem of Judea, at the time indicated, Herod was not a little disturbed by the enquiry of the magi who came from the east, asking where he who was born King of the Jews was to be found—for they had seen his star, and this was their reason for taking so long a journey; for they earnestly desired to worship the infant as God, — for he imagined that his kingdom might be endangered; and he enquired therefore of the doctors of the law, who belonged to the Jewish nation, where they expected Christ to be born. When he learned that the prophecy of Micah Micah 5:2 announced that Bethlehem was to be his birthplace he commanded, in a single edict, all the male infants in Bethlehem, and all its borders, that were two years of age or less, according to the time which he had accurately ascertained from the magi, to be slain, supposing that Jesus, as was indeed likely, would share the same fate as the others of his own age.
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Chapter 9. The Times of Pilate.

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Chapter 10. The High Priests of the Jews under whom Christ taught.
1. It was in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, according to the evangelist, and in the fourth year of the governorship of Pontius Pilate, while Herod and Lysanias and Philip were ruling the rest of Judea, that our Saviour and Lord, Jesus the Christ of God, being about thirty years of age, came to John for baptism and began the promulgation of the Gospel.
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Chapter 11. Testimonies in Regard to John the Baptist and Christ.
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Chapter 12. The Disciples of our Saviour.
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Chapter 13. Narrative concerning the Prince of the Edessenes.

1. The divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ being noised abroad among all men on account of his wonder-working power, he attracted countless numbers from foreign countries lying far away from Judea, who had the hope of being cured of their diseases and of all kinds of sufferings.

2. For instance the King Abgarus, who ruled with great glory the nations beyond the Euphrates, being afflicted with a terrible disease which it was beyond the power of human skill to cure, when he heard of the name of Jesus, and of his miracles, which were attested by all with one accord sent a message to him by a courier and begged him to heal his disease.

3. But he did not at that time comply with his request; yet he deemed him worthy of a personal letter in which he said that he would send one of his disciples to cure his disease, and at the same time promised salvation to himself and all his house.

4. Not long afterward his promise was fulfilled. For after his resurrection from the dead and his ascent into heaven, Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, under divine impulse sent Thaddeus, who was also numbered among the seventy disciples of Christ, to Edessa, as a preacher and evangelist of the teaching of Christ.

5. And all that our Saviour had promised received through him its fulfillment. You have written evidence of these things taken from the archives of Edessa, which was at that time a royal city. For in the public registers there, which contain accounts of ancient times and the acts of Abgarus, these things have been found preserved down to the present time. But there is no better way than to hear the epistles themselves which we have taken from the archives and have literally translated from the Syriac language in the following manner.

Copy of an epistle written by Abgarus the ruler to Jesus, and sent to him at Jerusalem by Ananias the swift courier.

6. Abgarus, ruler of Edessa, to Jesus the excellent Saviour who has appeared in the country of Jerusalem, greeting. I have heard the reports of you and of your cures as performed by you without medicines or herbs. For it is said that you make the blind to see and the lame to walk, that you cleanse lepers and cast out impure spirits and demons, and that you heal those afflicted with lingering disease, and raise the dead.

7. And having heard all these things concerning you, I have concluded that one of two things must be true: either you are God, and having come down from heaven you do these things, or else you, who does these things, are the Son of God.

8. I have therefore written to you to ask you if you would take the trouble to come to me and heal the disease which I have. For I have heard that the Jews are murmuring against you and are plotting to injure you. But I have a very small yet noble city which is great enough for us both.
The answer of Jesus to the ruler Abgarus by the courier Ananias.

9. Blessed are you who hast believed in me without having seen me. For it is written concerning me, that they who have seen me will not believe in me, and that they who have not seen me will believe and be saved. But in regard to what you have written me, that I should come to you, it is necessary for me to fulfill all things here for which I have been sent, and after I have fulfilled them thus to be taken up again to him that sent me. But after I have been taken up I will send to you one of my disciples, that he may heal your disease and give life to you and yours.

Further accounts

10. To these epistles there was added the following account in the Syriac language. After the ascension of Jesus, Judas, who was also called Thomas, sent to him Thaddeus, an apostle, one of the Seventy. When he had come he lodged with Tobias, the son of Tobias. When the report of him got abroad, it was told Abgarus that an apostle of Jesus had come, as he had written him.

11. Thaddeus began then in the power of God to heal every disease and infirmity, insomuch that all wondered. And when Abgarus heard of the great and wonderful things which he did and of the cures which he performed, he began to suspect that he was the one of whom Jesus had written him, saying, 'After I have been taken up I will send to you one of my disciples who will heal you.'

12. Therefore, summoning Tobias, with whom Thaddeus lodged, he said, I have heard that a certain man of power has come and is lodging in your house. Bring him to me. And Tobias coming to Thaddeus said to him, The ruler Abgarus summoned me and told me to bring you to him that you might heal him. And Thaddeus said, I will go, for I have been sent to him with power.

13. Tobias therefore arose early on the following day, and taking Thaddeus came to Abgarus. And when he came, the nobles were present and stood about Abgarus. And immediately upon his entrance a great vision appeared to Abgarus in the countenance of the apostle Thaddeus. When Abgarus saw it he prostrated himself before Thaddeus, while all those who stood about were astonished; for they did not see the vision, which appeared to Abgarus alone.

14. He then asked Thaddeus if he were in truth a disciple of Jesus the Son of God, who had said to him, 'I will send you one of my disciples, who shall heal you and give you life.' And Thaddeus said, Because you have mightily believed in him that sent me, therefore have I been sent unto you. And still further, if you believe in him, the petitions of your heart shall be granted you as you believe.

15. And Abgarus said to him, So much have I believed in him that I wished to take an army and destroy those Jews who crucified him, had I not been deterred from it by reason of the dominion of the Romans. And Thaddeus said, Our Lord has fulfilled the will of his Father, and having fulfilled it has been taken up to his Father. And Abgarus said to him, I too have believed in him and in his Father.

16. And Thaddeus said to him, Therefore I place my hand upon you in his name. And when he had done it, immediately Abgarus was cured of the disease and of the suffering which he had.

17. And Abgarus marvelled, that as he had heard concerning Jesus, so he had received in very deed through his disciple Thaddeus, who healed him without medicines and herbs, and not only him, but also Abdus the son of Abdus, who was afflicted with the gout; for he too came to him and fell at his feet, and having received a benediction by the imposition of his hands, he was healed. The same Thaddeus cured also many other inhabitants of the city, and did wonders and marvelous works, and preached the word of God.

18. And afterward Abgarus said, You, O Thaddeus, do these things with the power of God, and we marvel. But, in addition to these things, I pray you to inform me in regard to the coming of Jesus, how he was born; and in regard to his power, by what power he performed those deeds of which I have heard.

19. And Thaddeus said, Now indeed will I keep silence, since I have been sent to proclaim the word publicly. But tomorrow assemble for me all your citizens, and I will preach in their presence and sow among them the word of God, concerning the coming of Jesus, how he was born; and concerning his mission, for what purpose he was sent by the Father; and concerning the power of his works, and the mysteries which he proclaimed in the world, and by what power he did these things; and concerning his new preaching, and his abasement and humiliation, and how he humbled himself, and died and debased his divinity and was crucified, and descended into Hades, and burst the bars which from eternity had not been broken, and raised the dead; for he descended alone, but rose with many, and thus ascended to his Father.

20. Abgarus therefore commanded the citizens to assemble early in the morning to hear the preaching of Thaddeus, and afterward he ordered gold and silver to be given him. But he refused to take it, saying, If we have forsaken that which was our own, how shall we take that which is another's? These things were done in the three hundred and fortieth year.
I have inserted them here in their proper place, translated from the Syriac literally, and I hope to good purpose.

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250101.htm

Edessa is a place where the Holy Shroud (of Turin) was brought from Jerusalem after the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ Jesus, according to many works on this subject.

Indeed it is very impressive and it looks very extraordinary that Eusebius detailed the relationship between King of Edessa Abgarus and Christ Jesus.  There must have been something very extraordinary.  And that something must have been transfer of the Holy Shroud from Jerusalem to Edessa.

The Shroud of Turin or Turin Shroud (Italian: Sindone di Torino) is a length of linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have suffered physical trauma in a manner consistent with crucifixion. There is no consensus yet on exactly how the image was created, and it is believed by some to be the burial shroud of Jesus of Nazareth, despite radiocarbon dating placing its origins in the Medieval period.
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The historical records for the shroud can be separated into two time periods: before 1390 and from 1390 to the present. The period until 1390 is subject to debate among historians.[7] Author Ian Wilson has proposed that the Shroud was the Image of Edessa, but scholars such as Averil Cameron have stated that the history of the Image of Edessa represents "very murky territory"; it cannot be traced back as a miraculous image, and it may not have even been a cloth.
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The religious concept of the miraculous acheiropoieton has a long history in Christianity, going back to at least the 6th century. Among the most prominent portable early acheiropoieta are the Image of Camuliana and the Mandylion or Image of Edessa, both painted icons of Christ held in the Byzantine Empire and now generally regarded as lost or destroyed, as is the Hodegetria image of the Virgin.
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In 1997 Avinoam Danin, a botanist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reported that he had identified the type of Chrysanthemum coronarium, Cistus creticus and Zygophyllum whose pressed image on the shroud was first noticed by Alan Whanger in 1985 on the photographs of the shroud taken in 1931. 

Max Frei, a Swiss police criminologist who initially obtained pollen from the shroud during the STURP investigation stated that of the 58 different types of pollens found, 45 were from the Jerusalem area, while 6 were from the eastern Middle East, with one pollen species growing exclusively in İstanbul, and two found in Edessa, Turkey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shroud_of_Turin

So, Eusebius, a legend about Edessa and Christ Jesus, and the holy shroud must have some crucial linkage even if Eusebius had not realized that the holy shroud was carried into Edessa.

Anyway, Caesarea in ancient Palestine, Edessa, Nicaea, and Constantinople are not so far from one another.

Caesarea
http://www.visualbiblealive.com/stock_image.php?id=29615

Nicaea and Edessa
http://www.allcrusades.com/MAPS/MAPS_INDEX/MAPS-C/CRUSADE_1/Asia_Minor_Route_1097-98.html




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Act 6:12 And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,
Act 6:13 And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
Act 6:14 For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
Act 6:15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.