Friday, February 05, 2016

"there were dwelling at Jerusalem" - Christianity Effected the Collapse of the Roman Empire

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Christianity Effected the Collapse of 
the Roman Empire

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Christianity survived.  But why?

Christianity had been adopted as state religion by Rome about a century before the collapse of the Roman Empire in the late 5th century.  But, it did not save the Empire from the fatal collapse.  It looked strange that Christ Jesus, from the spiritual world, would not rather save the Empire.

On the contrary, we have to think that Christianity accelerated the collapse of the  Western Roman Empire.  To further promote Christianity among people, the Empire must have collapsed at the time.  Indeed, as a fact, after the collapse of the Empire, the Middle Ages began in Western Europe where Christianity or the Vatican came to have strong influence and social power comparable to Rome in the era of the Empire.

In this context, we have to conclude that the decisive factor of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire is Christianity.

Probably, learning the Bible and the words of Christ Jesus, Romans came to less cruel and bellicose.  Such an influence must have been crucial for the Roman military that had bolstered the Empire.  Under an influence of Christianity, the Roman military must have come to opt peaceful means when dealing with outside tribes.  The occupation by Romans of the vast territory of the empire must have become more conciliatory.  It is thought that Romans came to accept other tribes more in the territory of the Empire and respect independent movements of them.  The more they learnt Christianity, the softer they became to their enemies.

In a series of invasion by other tribes and groups of non-Roman people in the 5th century, the Empire lost control over its vast territory.    

However, the Empire was an administrative system centered around Rome, which was supported by the military.  If the Empire collapsed, only such a system vanished.  People's living must not have been so severely damaged.  Even people around Rome could survive without the social system centered around Rome.  Indeed, in the Middle Ages and after, Italy was prosperous.  Italian people might have become more prosperous than in the era of the Roman Empire.

In other words, Roman soldiers had been more cruel before Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire.  But they became a little peace-loving due to the influence of Christianity after Christianity was officially recognized by Rome.  But that change, no matter how subtle it might be, had a huge influence on its state of occupation of the vast territory.  Peace-loving Romans could not sustain their Empire in a cruel manner which was necessity for securing safety and dominance of Romans.  Inevitably, the Empire was fatally invaded and its military could not win wars against invading forces.

Now, today, does Christ Jesus want the Western countries, consisting mostly of Christian nations, to be more peace-loving to collapse, so that His words should spread more?  In this case, He would allow for establishment of another Christianity.

When Christ Jesus comes to the world again, He might abolish old Christianity and set up another religion, very naturally.  





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Act 2:3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Act 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Act 2:5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

Thursday, February 04, 2016

"mine hour is not yet come" - What a Circle Teaches

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What a Circle Teaches


According to an old Japanese philosopher, there was a strange teacher and a strange 1st-grade primary school boy before WWII.

In the first lesson to boys and girls who first came to learn in an elementary school of Japan, the teacher drew a circle on the blackboard, saying, "Now draw this for your self, and raise your hands when you finish it,"

Every pupil drew a circle on a sheet of paper with a pencil.  Then one after another they raised the hands.  But there was one strange boy who was still working on his paper.  The teacher wondered what the boy was doing.  He stood by the desk of the boy with a little surprise.  Finally when the boy finished his drawing, the teacher stood before the blackboard, saying, "He drew a circle this way," and he picked up a chalk and drew one circle on the blackboard.

It was a black circle surrounded by an area filled in white with the white chalk, though it was a white circle surrounded by an area filled in black on the sheet of paper with a pencil by the boy.

The teacher started to think about what the white circle surrounded by the black area the boy drew meant.  He continued to think it for 60 years.  Then the ex-teacher realized something.

The old Japanese philosopher explained that a black circle drawn on a sheet of paper with a pencil is a shape of abstraction.  But a white circle surrounded by a black area marked out with a pencil is a shape of pure reality.

So, the Japanese philosopher concluded that though Japan made a crazy war against the US in WWII, there were always excellent persons in Japan, including the strange teacher and the school boy.





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Joh 2:4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.
Joh 2:5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.

Wednesday, February 03, 2016

"Herod the king had heard these things" - The Internet and Humanity

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The Internet and Humanity

The most important change in human society over the past 2000 years is the speed and expansion of information spreading across the general public.

In these 2000 years, especially after the Industrial Revolution, evolution of technology has drastically changed many aspects of living.  Human beings have conquered many diseases and inconvenience of environment by producing various products and services.  However, with focus on direct influences on the human minds, the most significant development is on information collection, exchange, and distribution.

So, if a prophet appears today, the news about his appearance should reach to the end of the world in hours, days, or weeks without taking a period of decades and centuries.  If Christ Jesus visits the human world again as advent, the news about His coming should spread all over the world in seconds, minutes, or hours without taking days.

In this respect, the Internet has a potential to be a holy tool, since it can transmit useful, sacred, or holy information and news generated at one location on the earth to all the users located everywhere on the earth in a matter of seconds.

From a secular point of view, if the Internet had existed before WWII, the rise of Hitler and the massacre of Judaists should have been prevented, since information about atrocity Nazis was conducting must have been widely and globally known so quickly.  They could not conceal their evil acts.  Even today, some autocratic states such as China control access to the Internet by their people.  As they have many secrets they want to hide from their people, they restrict use of the Internet.

However, criminals also find a great potential in the Internet.  The internet can be not only a convenient and efficient tool for committing a crime but also a place and a target of criminal acts.  Somewhere in the Internet, a huge amount of wealth is accumulated.  And, there is no universal police in charge of protecting the Internet from criminals including spies like Chinese ones stealing military secrets from US Government sites.

So, God might use the Internet to effectively send His prophets to the human world.  Or Satan might abuse the Internet to accelerate demolition of the world.

In this context, we have to keep in mind this unique feature of the Internet.  A piece of information transmitted through the Internet might trigger or prevent a war between nations.  The Internet is changing the world, good or bad.  And mankind may not be able to follow the speed of the change.  Then, it will be out of control.  No matter how much technology advances, this danger of the Internet cannot be essentially conquered.

The point at issue is, finally: Has mankind become so good enough to use the Internet in a very responsible manner.




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Mat 2:2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
Mat 2:3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

"again he entered into Capernaum" - How Serious Water Issues Are

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How Serious Water Issues Are


Water is very important for life of living things, including human beings.

Indeed, the Bible proves this importance as Christ Jesus is depicted with water so impressively.
Matthew 3:16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
Matthew 14:29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
John 2:7 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.
John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
John 4:7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
John 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
John 4:13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
John 4:46 So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum.
As the modern material civilization is evolving and spreading, more and more water is consumed by more and more people in the world.

3. What is the total world annual consumption of potable water and seawater?People already use over half the world's accessible freshwater now, and may use nearly three-quarters by 2025. Over the twentieth century, the world annual water use has grown from about 300 km3 to about 2,100 km3 (see chart).

In this chart the annual water consumption is shown, as withdrawal and use. These two concepts are separated, because much of the withdrawn water is later returned to the water cycle, after application. An example is cooling water; it is used for power generation and is immediately released for further use downstream. 
Each country has a different equivalent use per person.
The annual per capita water use for each part of the world:- North Americans use 1,280 cubic meters- Europeans and Australians use 694 cubic meters- Asians use 535 cubic meters- South Americans use 311 cubic meters- Africans use 186 cubic meters 
Water is used for three main purposes; agricultural uses, industrial uses and domestic uses. Each country uses a different amount of its available water for these three main purposes. In percentages, the global use for the three main purposes is divided up as follows:
- Agriculture (mostly irrigation) = 69 %- Industry = 23 %- Domestic use (household water = drinking water, sanitation) = 8 % 
Current global water withdrawals for irrigation are estimated at about 2,000 to 2,555 cubic kilometres per year. The annual water volume used by industry is estimated 975 km3.
The water that humans use for drinking water preparation is mainly freshwater. But freshwater availability has become a problem over the years, as only 0.014% of the water on earth is readily available freshwater for drinking purposes. In some countries they are trying to solve this problem by withdrawal and desalination of seawater. Right now, 0.1% of the water that is used by humans is desalinated seawater.
 http://www.lenntech.com/specific-questions-water-quantities.htm#ixzz3yvgvB92U

As for daily water consumption per person in each country, the US and Australia are the two leading countries, probably because of their uniqueness as big nations in the new world.


http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=757


This data suggets that the US and Australia should accept more immigrants from water short areas to share their abundant water resources.

The keys to solving the water crisis must be development of water-related technology and responsible involvement of the US and Australia whose densities of population are 32.47 and 3.05 persons per square kilometers, respectively, while Japan's is 336.22 as of 2014.



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Mar 2:1 And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house.


Sunday, January 31, 2016

"shalt call his name JESUS" - Historical Role of Islam


33 km from the center of Tokyo


Historical Role of Islam


This universe is built or designed so marvelously.  It cannot be created by chance.  There must be a creator, and he must be God.

This is what the modern science teaches to mankind.

But without learning the modern science, for example, ancient people felt great power that controlled the nature.  However, in most cases, human beings did not feel sole god but a multitude of spirits.  Polytheism was more common than monotheistic religion.

For example, Africa, India, and tropical regions are full of living things, animals, and plants.  Human beings must have felt something supernatural in those abundant elements of the nature.  Human beings must have been overwhelmed by so many spirits behind scenes in environments they were living.  Even in temperate areas including Europe, China, Japan, etc., people had to first face various natural phenomena and spirits behind them.  Those spirits were given deity, since ancient people could not see physical laws and integrated structure of the nature so that they could not see hierarchical order in the nature and the spiritual world.

But, in desert areas, products of the nature are scarce.  People see just the desert, the blue sky, the sun, the moon, and stars.  For ancient people living in the desert could easily feel a great spirit governing the earth, since they could see bare structure of the universe and the earth so easily in the desert.

Therefore, the concept of the only one creator of the universe could be easily accepted by people in desert areas.  And, Islam really fit their mentality.

Historically, Islam made it decisive for human beings to accept monotheism.  The aspect of Christianity being a monotheistic religion was supported and strengthened by Islam.  Even Judaism must have been reminded of its aspect of being monotheism.

The greatest role Islam played in the human history is that it contributed to the notion that God is one rather than that God exists.

Today, even those who deny existence of God deny only and one God.

Under God, there is a spiritual world where many spirits live and work.  Hindus and Buddhists regard them as gods or kinds of gods.  But, they do not necessarily deny the super-existence of sole god above them.

Anyway, mankind needed Islam to establish its concept that God is one.  And Islam strengthened an idea of Judaism and Christianity that every man has to essentially alone stand before God.

Modern Christians and Juadists owe this common idea of today to Islam.  Without Islam, this idea must have been vaguer among Christians and Judaists as well as other members of mankind.

But as most of human beings have come to share this idea of God being one and alone and each man being destined to alone face God, we may think that the historical role of Islam has been completed.    

So, the new era has probably come to Muslims like Christians are facing the second coming of Christ.




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Luk 1:31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.