Podcasts about Galba

In this Podcast, Craig, Gaurav and their guest Victor discuss the Year or War of the four Emperors.   In a time of chaos, after the death of Emperor Nero, the Roman Empire found itself engulfed in a brutal power struggle known as the Year of the Four Emperors. It began with Galba, the governor of Hispania, leading a rebellion against Nero, catalyzed by discontent among the provinces. As Nero fled, declared an enemy of the state, he took his own life, paving the way for Galba's ascension. Galba, however, struggled to maintain power. His failure to pay the Praetorian Guard alienated key supporters, leading to his assassination. Otho, one of Galba's trusted allies, soon seized the throne, but his reign was short-lived as he faced opposition from Vitellius, who rallied the legions and successfully marched on Rome. The battle for control culminated in fierce confrontations, with legions loyally switching sides. Ultimately, Vitellius claimed victory and adorned the Imperial purple, yet his decadent reign could not sustain. He was overthrown by Vespasian, a seasoned general who had garnered support from the eastern provinces. Vespasian's rise marked the end of the chaos. He established stability, founding the Flavian dynasty that would last for decades. This tumultuous period not only reshaped leadership in Rome but also highlighted the fragility of power, etched forever into the annals of history as a superb reflection of ambition, betrayal, and courage in the heart of the Roman Empire.

Two great questions here for Murray on the topic of usurpers. 'It seems Legio VII Gemina raised by Galba in AD 68 in Hispania is quite unique. In terms of being a creation by a usurper. Are there any other similar units raised usurpers and retained by victors? Also, what province Ancient Warfare crew consider the best in terms of starting usurpation/rise of the new Emperor?'   Join us on Patron patreon.com/ancientwarfarepodcast  

Agradece a este podcast tantas horas de entretenimiento y disfruta de episodios exclusivos como éste. ¡Apóyale en iVoox! En este episodio de Antena Historia exploramos uno de los años más turbulentos en la historia del Imperio Romano: el año 69 d.C., conocido como "el año de los cuatro emperadores". Tras la muerte de Nerón, Roma se sumergió en un periodo de caos y luchas internas, en el que cuatro hombres se disputaron el trono imperial en menos de un año: Galba, Otón, Vitelio y Vespasiano. En este capítulo, analizaremos el ascenso y caída de cada uno de estos emperadores y cómo sus breves reinados reflejan las tensiones y los desafíos del sistema de sucesión romana. Desde Hispania hasta Germania y Judea, la inestabilidad en Roma sacudió al Imperio, exponiendo las vulnerabilidades de un sistema político dependiente de la fuerza militar y el respaldo de las legiones. Finalmente, veremos cómo Vespasiano consiguió restaurar el orden, estableciendo la dinastía Flavia y marcando el inicio de una nueva era de estabilidad. Únete a nosotros en este recorrido por la política, las batallas y las intrigas de un año que definió el destino de Roma y su Imperio. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Antena Historia te regala 30 días PREMIUM para que lo disfrutes https://www.ivoox.com/premium?affiliate-code=b4688a50868967db9ca413741a54cea5 Produce Antonio Cruz Edita ANTENA HISTORIA Antena Historia (podcast) forma parte del sello iVoox Originals web………https://antenahistoria.com/ YOUTUBE………Podcast Antena Historia - YouTube correo………info@antenahistoria.com Facebook………Antena Historia Podcast | Facebook Twitter………https://twitter.com/AntenaHistoria Telegram………https://t.me/foroantenahistoria DONACIONES PAYPAL………https://paypal.me/ancrume ¿QUIERES ANUNCIARTE en ANTENA HISTORIA? menciones, cuñas publicitarias, programas personalizados, etc. Dirígete a Antena Historia - AdVoices https://advoices.com/antena-historia Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

Agradece a este podcast tantas horas de entretenimiento y disfruta de episodios exclusivos como éste. ¡Apóyale en iVoox! En este episodio de Antena Historia exploramos uno de los años más turbulentos en la historia del Imperio Romano: el año 69 d.C., conocido como "el año de los cuatro emperadores". Tras la muerte de Nerón, Roma se sumergió en un periodo de caos y luchas internas, en el que cuatro hombres se disputaron el trono imperial en menos de un año: Galba, Otón, Vitelio y Vespasiano. En este capítulo, analizaremos el ascenso y caída de cada uno de estos emperadores y cómo sus breves reinados reflejan las tensiones y los desafíos del sistema de sucesión romana. Desde Hispania hasta Germania y Judea, la inestabilidad en Roma sacudió al Imperio, exponiendo las vulnerabilidades de un sistema político dependiente de la fuerza militar y el respaldo de las legiones. Finalmente, veremos cómo Vespasiano consiguió restaurar el orden, estableciendo la dinastía Flavia y marcando el inicio de una nueva era de estabilidad. Únete a nosotros en este recorrido por la política, las batallas y las intrigas de un año que definió el destino de Roma y su Imperio. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Antena Historia te regala 30 días PREMIUM para que lo disfrutes https://www.ivoox.com/premium?affiliate-code=b4688a50868967db9ca413741a54cea5 Produce Antonio Cruz Edita ANTENA HISTORIA Antena Historia (podcast) forma parte del sello iVoox Originals web………https://antenahistoria.com/ YOUTUBE………Podcast Antena Historia - YouTube correo………info@antenahistoria.com Facebook………Antena Historia Podcast | Facebook Twitter………https://twitter.com/AntenaHistoria Telegram………https://t.me/foroantenahistoria DONACIONES PAYPAL………https://paypal.me/ancrume ¿QUIERES ANUNCIARTE en ANTENA HISTORIA? menciones, cuñas publicitarias, programas personalizados, etc. Dirígete a Antena Historia - AdVoices https://advoices.com/antena-historia Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

Welcome to the latest episode of the Spun Today podcast, where we dive into the entrepreneurial journey of Steven, a driven and passionate restaurateur. Join host Tony as he delves into Steven's inspiring story of hard work, resilience, and dedication to pursuing his dreams in the restaurant industry. From discussing the challenges of starting new ventures to the importance of family and financial preparedness, this episode is a testament to the power of chasing your passions and embracing entrepreneurship. Get ready to be motivated and inspired by Steven's journey of overcoming obstacles and building a successful business from the ground up.   *Original Release Date: December 26th, 2019*     The Spun Today Podcast is a Podcast that is anchored in Writing, but unlimited in scope.  Give it a whirl.    Twitter: https://twitter.com/spuntoday Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spuntoday/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@spuntoday   Website: http://www.spuntoday.com/home Newsletter: http://www.spuntoday.com/subscribe   Links referenced in this episode: Episode page: https://www.spuntoday.com/podcast/261   Follow Aura on Social: AuraCocina   Caoba is now Room 100! Follow on Social: Room100BK   DOMINICAN PIZZA! How it's made! | DEVOUR POWER: https://youtu.be/-rdRPX9q0nY   Bushwick Daily article on Aura: https://bushwickdaily.com/bushwick/categories/food-and-drink/6368-aura-cocina-plans-to-bring-cuban-asian-fusion-to-the-breeze   Get your Podcast Started Today! https://signup.libsyn.com/?promo_code=SPUN (Use Promo code SPUN and get up to 2-months of free service!)   Check out all the Spun Today Merch, and other ways to help support this show! https://www.spuntoday.com/support   Check out my Books Make Way for You – Tips for getting out of your own way FRACTAL – A Time Travel Tale Melted Cold – A Collection of Short Stories http://www.spuntoday.com/books/ (e-Book, Paperback & Hardcover are now available).   Fill out my Spun Today Questionnaire if you're passionate about your craft.  I'll share your insight and motivation on the Podcast: http://www.spuntoday.com/questionnaire/    Shop on Amazon using this link, to support the Podcast: http://www.amazon.com//ref=as_sl_pc_tf_lc?&tag=sputod0c-20&camp=216797&creative=446321&linkCode=ur1&adid=104DDN7SG8A2HXW52TFB&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spuntoday.com%2Fcontact%2F   Shop on iTunes using this link, to support the Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTop?genreId=38&id=27820&popId=42&uo=10   Shop at the Spun Today store for Mugs, T-Shirts and more: https://viralstyle.com/store/spuntoday/tonyortiz   Background Music: Autumn 2011 - Loxbeats & Melody - Roa   Outro Background Music: https://www.bensound.com   Spun Today Logo by: https://www.naveendhanalak.com/   Sound effects are credited to: http://www.freesfx.co.uk   Listen on: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | Google Podcasts | YouTube | Website   Episode Transcript [00:00:00] All right, so we are recording the second ever in a car, in a vehicle, in route podcast, Spontane podcast, with another, a second Amante family member. Elaine was the first one, now Steven, you are the second. Amante, yeah, thank you for having me. Always, always bro. So obviously like, usually like with these podcasts I always do like my own intro and stuff like that, so. Introduce everything, but what I wanted to jump into as we are on our way to Aura. Which is located where? In East Williamsburg. What's the address? 315 Mesereau, Brooklyn, New York, 11206. And that, for the folks listening, is a new restaurant, a second establishment that Stephen is in the process of opening up. And I wanted to have him on. To speak generally about like entrepreneurship and his whole experience [00:01:00] and how it's been with, with this specifically, you know, literally buying a second location and having to like build it up and construct it off from like the visions that he has in the set for it. And, you know, everything that he has gone through from like interior design and having to, you know, just like everything A to Z, like having to get bartenders and chefs and managers and like, how, how does that, all that should work? You know what I mean? Like, plan it out or break it down. Well, I love the restaurant business. I've always since a young kid, that was my first job. I love hospitality. As you know, I always like to host in my house and, you know, make people feel good. And I have a personality for that. I always started from the bottom. As a busboy, then moving on to a waiter, to a head server, to bartending, to managing. So I went through all the routes, you know, on the floor. And you did that in Bruce's on the Bay, right? I remember. I think that was like your first restaurant job in, in high, back in high school when we were in high [00:02:00] school. Yeah. I did that in, Bruce was on the bay in Howard Beach. I also did it in Lenny Clam Bar and Oh, you serious? Yeah, I did it cla Yeah. And I also did it in Santa Fe State House and Austin Street. Oh yeah. Yeah. I forgot about that. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I was always like the head server everywhere I went with the highest sales. And that's why I always got promoted quick and I always said I wanted one. So thankfully I was able to land a good job when in the local 46 union. I ain't working. I was able to be in different sites. One of the big biggest ones was the world trade center and I'm happy about that. Every time I pass by and I was there five, six floors before the building doing the foundation of the building. So, you know, that was great to be part of it. And I definitely want to get into all that. You, you've had, like, I always consider you like a, like a renaissance man, like somebody that's had like a thousand different jobs and I'm sure all of them, like you, you gain knowledge and experience from each and every one of them that are, you probably still carry with you to this day [00:03:00] and like, like everybody's lives, like shit that you go through, like informs like who you are, who you become and stuff like that. And I want to get into all that, but real quick before we get off from Bruce's on the bank didn't you see like Robin De Niro or Al Pacino there? Yeah, I served there, yeah. It was an Italian function. Yeah. And I was able to serve him. I was like Robert, can I take your place? I said, sure. That was our long conversation, but it was pretty cool. I served the Gaudi's as well. Gaudi's wife and the other kids. It was good. Joe Pesci. That's dope. Yeah. And that comes full circle with the, the latest movie that we were talking about the other day, which we're going to finish, finish speaking about Irishman. Yeah. I saw it twice actually. Yeah. Yeah. I want to watch it again. Wait, so you went from working in the world trade? Like that was another connection you had to like hospitality and stuff? No, I just In terms of like working for the iron workers? No, like you stated before, I've had like a thousand jobs. I've done literally everything. But to sum it all up, I just do it [00:04:00] for the money. I just chase the money because I just I always wanted to become an entrepreneur ever since a kid. And, you know, I'd rather get If I get paid 800, I'd rather 600. You know, I'll do that job. Even if I've never had no knowledge of it and I've never done it. But I'm always, I was always chasing the paper. You know, I well, you know that, you know me my whole life growing up. It's like the hustler's mentality right there. Yeah, I just I always went where the money was more. Construction, I don't even have a screwdriver in my house right now. Like, I don't know anything about construction, but, you know, they offered me. 40 an hour starting and I was like, fuck it. I dropped my job at a Santa Fe steakhouse and also she, and I went over there. And, and the reason why at least I think like specific to this, to this episode and like your purpose behind like chasing the money and stuff like that was because you had, or what I'm asking, was it because you had like this, um, like end goal of like opening up your own spot? Yeah. I had my vision and I knew I had to save money. I know my parents weren't going to give it to me. You know, we, we faced a lot of hard hardship through our high school years when my father had a [00:05:00] bodega in in uptown and it did really bad. He lost everything. And I just, you know, we were just coming from the bottom and I knew I wasn't going to get help from my parents. So I was just like always like saving money, saving money because I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. My dad's side of the family, everybody's an entrepreneur. Everybody works for themselves and that's exactly what I wanted. And do you know, do you know why? Like the, the bodega When he had hard times, he had like some, like a partner or some shit that screwed him? No, no, he had a partner. The partner actually saw what was happening soon, so he was able to bail out and cash all his money in. But But was it like just business going down? Yeah, it was just that like when they were buying the business, they were supposedly selling, you know, whatever it was a week, 20, whatever it was. But basically the guy that was selling it was having his family go, you know, for three weeks straight when my father was, you know, testing the register, see how the sales were. And, you know, the sales were great. Obviously when he's when they sold those, those customers weren't coming back. And it's just like so the sales weren't there. It's a lot of competition. I'm talking about like, there's like four bodegas on each block in uptown. It's like little Dominican, little Dominican Republic up there, as everybody knows in the Heights. And it's [00:06:00] just like, if one bodega has it for platanos for eight per dollar, the other one throws it for nine per dollar. And it gets ridiculous at a point where it's like a platinum. How do you make money off of that? So it was just a competition thing. People would literally walk 3 or 4 blocks just to get something 50 cents cheaper. That's insane. And yo, not for nothing, that's a really good and important point, I think, for folks to take in as far as When you want to get into purchasing a business, cause I know just from like doing real estate and mortgages and stuff like that, and, and I, I've worked for small businesses in the past as well, like restaurants and you know, real estate offices, mortgage offices. And one thing that's different with purchasing a business versus that I, that I, the little that I know of it just from that side of it then purchasing a house is that you, like one of the prerequisites is that that you get to like shadow the owner of the establishment. You get like two to three years is like rule of rule of thumb of their business income tax and their, and their personal income [00:07:00] taxes as well to like, see how the business has done, you know, cause they could say, Oh yeah, this does a million a week. And you, you know, obviously not just going to take somebody's word for it. Cause they're selling you something. They're going to paint the picture as pretty as possible. You definitely have to go by the court of sales by that. You can't, you can't lie about that. Okay. Yeah. So once you get that report and you see what you're paying a sales tax. The cash you could always play around with here and there, and there's like a rule of thumb for it. But quarterly taxes is, you know, it's money that you're paying to the IRS, which is like, nobody gives money to the IRS for no reason. True. And but the point that, that I definitely want to get at is how, how that dude, like, to show your pops, Oh, look how good the registers are doing. And he had, you know, he, he like orchestrated fucking three weeks worth of people just coming through, buying shit, and he was probably just giving them back like the money at the end of the day. And, you know, so your pops even, Diligence of, you know, shadowing the guy for three weeks and checking the registers and shit like that. You know what I mean, like people It's always scams, it's New York City. As soon as you land in the [00:08:00] airport, you get scammed. You know, I currently, I'm a Port Authority police officer at JFK and you gotta see these people that come to, you know, to the, to the, To New York from like different countries never been here before and they'll jump on a cab and literally go from one terminal to the next terminal and get robbed for 200 and they pay it because they have no idea. They're like, Oh, they always hear it. Oh, New York, very expensive. It's the highest, the biggest city of the world. It's probably 200 to go from terminal one to terminal eight. And it's not, you know, these guys also charge 300 to go to Times Square where a regular yellow cab will charge you 68 bucks, but they pay it because they don't know. But then the next, when they do find out they come the next day, they give the complaint to the police department and that's when we have to enforce. So we're constantly, you know, shooing away the hustlers at the arrivals area. But it's just like, it's just New York, it's just shady, you know. Yeah, it's like the nature of the beast, you know. So yeah, so you had that vision from a young age and you knew that if you were gonna establish something Yeah. And eventually bring your vision into fruition, you had to grind and do it yourself. You had to work [00:09:00] hard, save money. Exactly. To, to like, reach that point. Exactly. That's exactly it. And you know, it's a lot that goes into it, to try to like, save this money. Like, I've always told you like, I bought my first house in 2008. Just because I knew, if I would, I was calculating how much money I was making a week, how much I was making a month, and then yearly. I was like, and then I calculated the money that I was paying in rent, yearly. So I was like, wow, if I'm spending 12, 000 to 15, 000 in rent every year, that's taken away from 75, 000 to 58, 000. I'm sorry 52, 000. I had this up Four years, that's 60 grand. You know what I'm saying? So there's a lot of hidden money that if you think about it, if you, if you, if you take it away, you, you're actually making more money in the future. So I was able to get an investment in East New York, which I, I was, I'm not from Brooklyn, I'm from Queens, Richmond Hill. But I was able to get it, 'cause it was a new construction house of four apartments and I knew with two apartments I was gonna pay the mortgage. So not only was, was I not. Paying rent, but I was also making money off my house. So there, there alone, I [00:10:00] was making basically double equity. You know what I'm saying? I was making money and not having to pay rent. And I was making money off, you know, what was left over of the cash rent. Yeah, the savings plus like the assets of the money actually coming in. Correct. Correct. And also building equity after 10 years. You know what I'm saying? It's like a long term game. You know, the value is always going to go up, historically speaking. So that's actually a tremendous game. That's honestly how I was able to, you know, I was always able to do it. I was always and then I have a restaurant, so I wasn't spending money in food. So the way people see my stuff, they see me with, with two houses, two restaurants at 35 years old, but it's not, I've never sold any drugs in my life. I've always, you know, I'm a military to a iron worker to a police officer. If nobody's ever given me anything, blue collar jobs, exactly. Everybody, I've paid my taxes every single year. Everybody knows it. It's just that I have these, you know, these knickknacks where I could. And I, and I, and I just see, and I, and I see what, what, what, where I could produce more. And You could add like optimizing. Correct. And that's how, that's how I was able to save money. Once I had my house [00:11:00] in Brooklyn, I didn't want to get into another house. I hate being the handyman of the house. So I had some extra money and I was able to buy a house with the restaurant with your cousin Elvis in in East New York. We started off great and then, you know, so I found out a couple of things and then just the relationship wasn't there anymore. Everything happens for a reason. He was, he, he faces the hard, he faced the hardship that he just needed to get out. He needed money quick and I took the opportunity and paid off his half and I, I stood him with, with my business. After that, the business just boomed. You know, I had a vision of, You know, what the restaurant is, you know, in this age and the future, the guy Elvis was just, you know, he was used to restaurants in the 70s and 80s and he thought it still worked that way. So Yeah, because I was going to ask you about that specifically because I know there was a Mm look when the, the restaurant wa was ade before and you took it over and it's now known as Gawa, located at a hundred Jamaica, Jamaica, Jamaica Avenue. Jamaica Avenue in Brooklyn. And it's a popping spot people can follow on Instagram at gawa nyc n yc. And also the food [00:12:00] page is Guba underscore Bistro Bistro. The head chef is Chef bfi, correct? Right. There's I noticed from the outside looking in and from obviously knowing you personally, but like a complete like one, what is it? 180. What's happened? 360. A complete one. Yeah. From, I need more coffee from when it was my Cody took, oh, it was like, like you know, it was a, it was a nice restaurant. It was cool. But like, like you said, it like definitely like blew up. Like after, after switching it to go and you kind of switch like the business model a little bit. a little bit, like it wasn't just restaurant, like you have, yeah, I added a variety, you know, we open up at three o'clock, we start off with the happy hour and we open up the kitchen and I just basically run two businesses. I run the restaurant three to 12, and then I do the lounge part 12 to four. I mean, I'm paying rent, you know, for the 30 days, whatever time it doesn't matter, you know, so I was basically producing four hours more a day where, you know, where my ex partner at Makuri didn't want to do it. So that's when I started seeing profit. And then I just started renovating the place, making it more hip. Okay. [00:13:00] And that's interesting. You see it that way. Like two businesses like running it as two businesses, like two separate businesses. One is a club, one is a restaurant that's dope, and it's literally like location and one rent. One rent. And you, you just like, you like, you're splitting it up in your mind that I'm, I'm guessing just from hearing that, like, just that hour wise, like from this time to this time it's a restaurant and then from this time to this time, it's a, a club. Correct. That's pretty dope. So I was able to optimize in that and and it draws. Sorry to cut you off, it draws like different crowds like for that reason like me personally like I'm not into Like the clubbing scene DJs and and whatever But I'm more into like the you know Fine dining experience that you do get from like the early times when you know nice music in the background It's crazy The transition is crazy, like you could be literally eating, formal dinner, nice music in the background. I was there, I was there for that. Literally, I literally envisioned it. You go to the bathroom or go outside to smoke a cigarette, you come back inside and you be like, what the fuck just happened? Everyone's like, mm, mm, mm. I'm talking about the sofas are away, you got stand up tables, the hookah's [00:14:00] going, the DJ's going, you got the moving heads going with the lights, and it's just like, what the hell just happened? It's like it's like a twilight. It's insane, and that transition happens in, in, with like, it's like, yeah, like military style precision. I got another staff that comes in at 11 o'clock and they're the ones who set up the floor and they just transition everything. That's dope, that's awesome. And then we transition again at 4 in the morning to get ready for dinner service the next day. And then, that's a pretty good segue in that, that you seizing that opportunity with the restaurant and you seeing a vision for it that wasn't being implemented when it was Macquarie. And you're saying, you know, I had this opportunity now to buy out my partner, you took it, and it, and I'm sure you had, including myself, like at that time you know, focused on you, and maybe it's not a good idea, maybe you should just focus on the cop thing, cause I'm not sure if you were like already a cop at that point. Or not. I was no, I had the restaurant first and then a year into it was when I got called from the Port [00:15:00] Authority and it's a job that you can't refuse. And I'm sure you had like a mix of like support from people and, you know, people like being like cautiously optimistic, which is like the camp I would put like myself in. Like, but you followed through with the vision that you had implemented it. And now that business flourished based on the vision that you had. And to the point that you are now able to invest in a second restaurant like your, your dream restaurant, which is out of the location that we're headed to now. Then, you know, it's like mid construction right now being built up and I'm going to see it for the first time. So I'm definitely going to like take some pictures and stuff like that. And we're going to speak about it more when we're actually at the location. So if folks want to put some visuals together with, with this audio. Okay. Check it out at Sponsoreday. com forward slash podcast forward slash 142, which I think this will be episode 142 and check it out. Actually, it's one of my waitresses right here. Hey Desiree. And we're just, we're literally [00:16:00] driving by right now on, what is this? On Cypress Avenue. Cypress Avenue in Hancock. And one of Steven's waitresses from, from Galoa just walked by. You gotta respect the hustle. So we left there at 515 this morning. Like, in this business, it's good. You know, you flourish a lot, you know, if you do it the right way. But it is a lot of sacrifice, a lot of you know, sleeping, a lot of time away from the family. And it's just like, I respect this girl's hustle. She has a kid, you know, she was out there till five in the morning, and I just see her coming out of bodega, you know, with food, with a bag full of food, you know what I'm saying? So she's gonna go cook now for her family. Meanwhile, she has to come back to work late in a couple of hours. That, that's, that's insane. And not just, not just Lazo from the employees, But I just want to highlight the fact that, like, Steve is running this business, opening up the second business. And he's a full time Port Authority police officer. Yes. At the same time. And a two year old baby. And has a two year old. Which is awesome. My godson. Dude, it's just like, I'm driven, man, and I, I'm sure like, you walk into McDonald's right now, you're not gonna see the owner, and he probably has like five of them, and these things [00:17:00] make millions of dollars a year. So that's my mentality. One of, one of the things that, that most pushes me, dude, is my mom. With my last restaurant, you know, it was a lot of time away from the family. I was, it was, I was a first time entrepreneur. You know, I let things go to my head. I was dedicating more time to, to, to the restaurant and to my actual family at home, you know, and I did things I shouldn't have and it cost me my first marriage. You know, that's a failure. I gotta, I gotta suck it up and take it. But one of the thing that biggest pushes me is my mom. When I first, when I got divorced, my mom was like, Steven, you know, get the fuck out that bed. You know what I'm saying? Don't be depressed. Don't do this or whatever. I know you better than this. And listen, your ex and her family, they just want to see you fail, they want to see you lose your business, they want to see you lose your house, they want to see the worst in you. Fuckin I'm sick, I have diabetes, but you know, if I ever leave this earth, I want you to have, if you can, buy three more houses, if you can, buy five more restaurants, buy five more. But, like, don't let those people shut you down. And I've taken that like a grain of salt. That shit motivates me the fuck out of me every single day. And, you know, that's why I do what I do. So I [00:18:00] go to sleep a couple of hours. But I have people that I put in play to work for me, that manage for me. Like, I have my brother in one place. I got my sister, Elaine, which helps me out tremendously. I got my compadre radi that also runs on my hookah and my liquor, you know, so I put, if you put people in play in all the businesses, you don't have to be there because honestly, if you're, if you're in a business that you have, you actually have to work, why the hell are you paying a manager? Why the hell are you paying a head bartender, head server? Why do you have a team? There's no team there. Yeah, you're, you're, you're doing it wrong. If you have to like be, be at a, at a spot 24 seven. Exactly. I mean, you know, I'm always, I'm not constantly looking at the cameras. I'm not going to live a life where I'm But then, you know, the numbers are good. It's exactly what I expect. So obviously my team is doing what they gotta do. And I know, you know, by that operation, all you gotta do is set a good team, a good operation, and you could open up 3, more. I'm actually looking at another location right now. We're negotiating a lease. Over here also in Bushwick, in Broadway. I think I'm going to sign that and start that project in June. No, that was a surprise for you. Damn! Yeah. That would be like another restaurant? Yeah, the reason is that Kyle, I have two more years [00:19:00] left in my lease and the landlord, I haven't seen the landlord in three years. I don't know if he's dead or what the hell happened. You serious? Yeah, but his wife actually has a property. She runs it, so I pay her the rent, but she has no say in, you know, on the lease or if they're renewing the lease or whatever. So God was a very good business, I don't know what's gonna happen, but I can't just like wait till the day before my lease to hand in the keys and not have no business. So that's why I'm setting this up now, because I want to keep it out as a very formal dining, you know, sophisticated Destination place, but I also want to have the same like out a crowd. I mean cow a crowd where it's just you know Good food, and then it's in the transition into the the nightlife, and you know with the whole hook and the music Yeah, so yeah, I definitely I'm not winning. I don't want to lose that right now, and I'm not these guarantees So that's why I'm gonna start this new project in June God willing that's open that actually leads me to something I wanted to ask you about Like you have that vision. That's already something that you're thinking about. That's two years out. And I always remember something that stayed with me from you that I learned from you growing up is something even from, I think it came about like with your time in the [00:20:00] army. But maybe even before then, I think before then, the first time you ever told me about it was that you always like break things down into five year chunks. Like you have five year plans, five year vision. So I'm guessing something like this that you're already planning out two years ahead. You know, I gotta prepare for it. I'm a soldier. You know, you always gotta go to the war with all your weapons or your gadgets or your, you know what I'm saying, everything ready. And this is actually what I'm doing. You know, it takes time to open up a business. I've been here for eight months now on this construction site. And, you know, I come here every day. If I wouldn't have come here every day, I would have took like a year. You know, cause guys, you know, doodly dally and fuck around and I'm paying these guys by day. So they actually want the job to be longer cause, you know, they're getting paid regardless. So I'm here guiding the orchestra, you know, all day. And is that something that you learned also from doing construction? Correct. Yeah. But it's true, that's like, that's like the work contractors and construction workers are known for, like, they'll tell you a job takes 10 days, but the, you know, just sign it, sign the dotted line, start getting paid, and then when you get out of the way, it's like 15, 20, 25 days that it takes. Exactly. But I got a good team here. I got [00:21:00] two teams here. One is excellent, the other one I gotta keep watching. But I'm actually on my way here now to drop off some furniture. We're getting ready to hopefully open up to 26 right after Christmas. And so time is money right now. It's every day is just long hours now for these next eight days of construction. Cause we're missing on Christmas Eve and Christmas day next week. And I just got to make this happen. And I think that, that's one that large amounts for, so I think that's what that large amount I think is for some, I think I've seen no What was I about to ask you? The, so you've been, so you signed the lease for this place 8 months ago. So you've had the place for 8 months, you're paying like, right? No, I signed the lease in January, February. But I didn't have TCO until May 1st. So May 1st is when I started the What is that TCO? Temporary CBO certificate? Yeah, correct, yeah. That's what it is. It took me like 30 days to get a good contractor. You know, with all his licensing. And I was able to get it. So you had to like try out different contractors? No, no. I had one, I had one contractor that I was definitely working with, but he doesn't have all [00:22:00] his licensing. And this is a DOB job where the plumbing has to be signed off, electric and all that stuff. So you have to get one of those. Yeah, so I had to get one of those. That took some time. It took like 30 days and it actually cost me now a whole month of rent. But, you know, it is what it is. You learn from it. And where was I? Oh yeah, so we started in June, so since June here, it's been like 7 months already. Damn. Wait, you started paying rent when? A month ago? The first of this month. Okay. Yeah, so I got this month and I gotta pay January 1st now. Definitely. So, so what like ups and downs have you experienced, like, because this is a little different from when you opened up Gawa. 'cause Gawa was already did Elvis have it, have it already or No? No, no. Boom. But, but it was an operating restaurant. You guys took it over it? No, it was already closed down. It, that corner's been there for, since like the seventies. But when we got it, it was already closed down. The guy had, the guy before us had to close it down. I don't know what he did. I think he, he started putting domino tables in the restaurant and just made it like a shit show. And so the landlord took it. And when we got it, we got it with the gates down and you know, we put the gates up and it was [00:23:00] starting from the beginning exactly what I'm doing here in outer. I feel kind of confident because I did it once already over there. I feel I could do it again here. I hired an excellent PR person. We're actually going to be in good day America on the fifth, right before three Kings. We have a session for Telemundo. At the end of January, and we have NBC, I believe, on the 8th of January. Wow, that's dope. How does that work? Oh, no, you got a PR, public relations, and he has connections with all these networks, you know, you pay him a fee. Each time I want you to promote my business type of thing? Yeah, you pay him, obviously not for free. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You pay him a fee, and he does his thing. And you get recognition, we were featured in the Bushwick Daily already. We plan on the grand opening to have the hold a press conference with the Times and the Post. So we're doing everything the right way. And a sponsored podcast, of course. Of course. We got a, we got a great manager. She just came off a, a one star Michelin restaurant. She's great great resume, great personality I feel we're gonna do really good by her. Basically, I have all my puppets in play, like, how are you supposed to do it? I'm not [00:24:00] just like going to cheap bra, like, Oh, I'm letting me make a beautiful place and just hope that people come here. You know, something could be beautiful on fifth Avenue, but if, you know, the service is not there, the charisma is not there, you know, you don't have anything. So, yeah. And by that, I don't want people to misconstrue that either. Like, like, are you just like puppets in a play? It's not like you're like like like with a negative connotation, it's like with the connotation of, like you mentioned before, being the conductor of an orchestra, like, You guys go, you guys do this, now you're on, your turn, you know? Yeah. Like the perfect pieces in place that you know that you have the confidence in certain people to like execute at the jobs that you put them in. I also believe a lot in team building. You know, you see how I run my restaurant in Cowabunga. Like I'm very like, everybody says I'm the best boss because I basically, I believe in a team. Everybody knows what they got to do. And I don't, you know, I don't, I don't press them, I don't, you know. You don't like micromanage. Yeah, I don't like to micromanage. I don't like to talk behind anybody's back. Or, or scold somebody in front of another coworker. Like, I'm very professional with that because it, I think about it this way. I'm hardly ever there. If, if they hate me, they're gonna like fucking rob me when I'm not [00:25:00] there. So I'd rather, I build like this friendship, like this family. And it just like, it hurts them, like, if they try to do something like that to me. I've had the same staff for years and, you know, they work great. I love them. I shout out to my, to my Galba family in East New York. And I just, I just, like, I like building an establishment that's family orientated. That's awesome. That's something good to hear. When I used to, there was like a, a stark difference between when I used to work in my first job in high school. When I was 16, it was a restaurant. And then I worked in two ever. I went from that one to another one in Mineola and which we actually used to cut, cut to, and, Go play ping pong and pool and shit in the basement. Shout out to Labs, but there was a stark difference between the owner of it and the manager of it. The manager, which I'm still friends with to this day that went on to open up his own, his own spot called Sangria in Jamaica was Joey. And he had that. Look that you just mentioned, like if he ever, ever had like an issue with a staff member, he'll call them [00:26:00] aside, call them up to the office and, you know, speak to them, you know, calm, cool, collected and, you know, teach, teach them like how to do something right that he thought that they were doing wrong. And whereas literally the owner, like he would literally like in front of customers, like somebody was holding a plate in their left hand, they should have been holding it like in the right hand, whatever. Like he would yell at them, put them on the spot. Make nervous in front of the customer like no, no, you did that wrong. Come back. Come back over here Like grab him by the shoulder. Look look pick it pick that up that goes on that side You know, he was he was like he's like an old school like Portuguese, dude They you know kind of like rough around the edges kind of yeah, but he didn't have like that type of important to me like leadership skill of You know You have to look beyond a mistake and if you want them to not if you want an employee Not to commit that mistake again, you know, putting them on the spot and putting them on blast and make them feel like shit is not the way to achieve that. Definitely. That's definitely old school. That was actually like my ex partner. That's how he like managed it. But, [00:27:00] man, honestly, waste of talent is the worst you could do. Honestly, if you have your dream, like, my best friend Tony has always wanted to open a laundromat, like, Jesus one day got to do it. If you fail, you fail, but the worst thing to live with is, is, was regret. Like, I, I love what, I, I stand behind my brand. I guarantee it. You know what I'm saying? I love, I, I know I'm gonna do good. You know, I, I have a lot of faith in God. I, I do, I do the right thing. I just know that whatever I put my hands into, it's gonna, it's gonna be good and it has for everything else in the past. So I just feel like it's gonna be good here. And if you have a strong passion for something, you know, start saving your money, get good credit, take a lot, take a take a load out and just follow your dreams. But you don't want to like be 70, 80 and be like, wow, I wish I would have done this before, you know, because regret, you can't buy time again, you know. Absolutely. And that, that, That honestly is something that has motivated me more towards like the whole laundromat idea and like dream, like you said, that, that I've had for, for some time. And like I wanted to do but was like gun shy and hesitant [00:28:00] about and you know, I've went from like the restaurant jobs and stuff to, to now corporate America for like 10 years. And You know, seeing you and your success with, with the, the restaurant and just the entrepreneurship in general, it like made me see that, you know what, it is possible. Like, you know what I mean? And I should like save up, like you said, and, and actually, you know, give it a shot, go for it. And not, not put myself in a position where, you know, I'm, I'm like. Selling every single thing I own or whatever to accomplish a goal, but like hedge my bets and do it, do it smartly. And if God forbid, something fails, you know, I'm not out industry with a, with a can of man. Yeah, definitely. If you have a hundred dollars, don't invest a hundred dollars. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like. Yeah, I would say if you have 20 invest 12, you know, you always gotta be, you know, right now I'm prepared for like a whole year if like nobody comes into my restaurant, I'm prepared to pay a whole year of rent that way I don't lose my place. A lot of people fill in the restaurants because they put everything they have into it.[00:29:00] Business is bad a couple months and you go right in the hole, you know, you're talking about five, 6, 000 of rent, you owe four months, you owe 25, 000, like how do you come back from that, you know? So you got to be prepared to have that rent because it's going to take time, you know, and I ain't got what took me two years to start seeing money and, and I'm. Made all my money back and was able to invest in more and other stuff. Same thing, we're out of here. I'm prepared. Like, if nobody comes in, which I don't think the Russians are going to be that bad, and the pool's going to be that bad, then nobody's going to enter. But, again, I have that military mentality where, like, I'm preparing for the worst. Correct. So, as long as you do that, you have a backup plan I think you'll be fine. That's dope, man. And we are pulling up right now on the outside of it. It looks dope from the outside. Can't wait to take a couple pictures. We're going to pause the podcast for now, take a look around, and get back. Alrighty folks, we are back in the car. You're going to hear some navigation in the background, but please don't mind it. And the restaurant is dope. I was telling Steven inside, I'll repeat it here that I'm like super proud of him, like [00:30:00] seeing his success. And this restaurant, which I know has been a long time goal of his this one specifically like the what did you call it before? Like a fine dining experience type of thing. It's going to be a fine dining. You know, the aesthetics is what I've always wanted. More formal dining, you know, more like to celebrate birthdays, romantic dinners, anniversaries, stuff like that. And it's something I know definitely that it has always been a goal of his, so congratulations. Thank you so much, I appreciate that brother. Can't wait, can't wait to see it open. Tell me the name. You were just getting into a story about the name I cut you off, so you can repeat it here on the podcast, because I think it's, it's, like, just a dope, like, origin story. Well, the name of the complex is called The Breeze. It's it's an industrial it was an old pillow factory. And now it became like a warehouse for businesses. So it's all corporate offices. You have Ethos Club. You have you have a marketing agency. You have people that make skate ramps. It's pretty cool. So it's all commercial. And then there's a retail level that's attached to it. There's a corridor called the Breezeway that you have to go through to come to my place. [00:31:00] And so the whole thing is called the Breeze, the whole complex. And I initially wanted to do a Latin restaurant. So I googled the Breeze in Latin and Aura came out. A U R A. Aura. I like the name also because it reminds me of my grandmother, my father's mother. That's her first name, Aura. And third of all, like it's just like your energy, like your aura. Like what do you portray? Like people were like, my aura is more like, like personality and Steven's always in a good time. And Steven always wants to turn up and you know, make everyone happy. So I love, you know, I love people's aura. I love that name, I love the meaning behind that name. So that's how Aura came about. And then we named it Cochina and Bar. Which means Kitchen and Bar. That's so sick. And the you're gonna, you're gonna, Like the type of cuisine that you picked was Cuban, Asian? Yes. Basically they, a lot of people wanted this space. Cause it's gonna be the feature restaurant for the whole complex. And they just wanted to go with the moves, with the person that would move it. more innovative. It's a very hip neighborhood. A lot of hippies a lot of hipsters, freelancers, [00:32:00] and they want something innovative. They want something new. They don't want your typical Mexican restaurant or Dominican restaurant or anything, you know, regular. So I was like, you know what? My favorite Spanish food is Cuban and everything. I love Chinese food. I can eat Chinese food every day of the week. So I was like, let me just combine these two cuisines. I think there's like two or three in the city, but they're not very popular, you know, and you really have to match. And I was able to get this celebrity chef, Ricardo Cardona, who's like the official chef of the Yankees, Mark Anthony's personal chef the official chef of Edgewater, New Jersey. He's awesome. He teamed up with another Asian chef from L. A., who was featured on a two page article in the L. A. Times. So they combined the menu. It's amazing. I just got the menu. I haven't tasted it yet. We have the tasting next week sometime. But it's just like all the ingredients and everything that you need. It's amazing. Can't wait to try it and I can't wait for you guys to try it. So how does that work? So, so these like celebrity chefs and stuff like that, they, they like put together a menu, [00:33:00] like you said, and the flavors and like how to cook it type of thing, or how to cook certain dishes. And then like the, the chef on like whatever chef you have like working there, they get like taught those, like how to cook, execute those dishes. Well, yes, well, obviously they went to chef school and the good thing about Ricardo Cardona is that he. He's literally gone like everywhere in the, in the, in the world because he likes it. He wants to cook Mexican food. He'll go to Mexico and learn the authentic way of making it. Same thing with like Argentina and Spain. He's been to Asia. He's been to Thailand. Like he's gone to all these countries besides being a chef and learning, you know, the basics, but he's gone to all these countries and has like a special feel to all these, to all these cuisines, you know, it's not, for example, Mexican food, it's just not putting salsa and chips and guacamole in a plate, you know, there's a lot that goes, that goes into it. So it's the same thing with. That's dope. I just didn't know that it worked that way. I thought it was like, let's say Ricardo Cajona or whatever. I thought, like, he was physically, like, in the kitchen making it. You know what I mean? But, it's like, it's like a different level of, like, that whole chef world.[00:34:00] Yes. Yes, yes. That's exactly how it is. And he's very expensive as well, so. Somebody has a lot to do with it. That's crazy. That's awesome. But he has a good resume. He has a big following. Like he'll bring baseball players to your establishment. Celebrities singers. There's you know, the whole nine and that's what builds a place, you know, it must be like a lot of like cloud, like attached to this thing. Correct. And what's dope is we, we just saw the places, obviously like still in the construction, but like you said, it's like like all of the like heavy lifting is out of the way. It's like, now it's like more like decorations and aesthetics and stuff like that being done. And it already, I've never been to Cuba. You went a couple of times. I should have gone when you told me to go with you. And I didn't probably for A reason that I don't even remember. So it obviously wasn't a good reason probably like, oh no, I gotta work. Or like, some dumb shit. But it, like from pictures that I've seen of Cuba and stuff like that, like it, it has, like, I'm starting to, like, I could visualize like those elements like coming together, those, especially like buildings, those, those rusted cars, [00:35:00] you know, it's, it is like, like pastel colors and stuff like that. What I love about Cuba is like you basically transform yourself from like 2019 to like the 1950s. It's a whole transformation with everything, with the people, with the decor, what car you get in, what restaurant you go to. So it's like being trapped in a different era, you know, it's like time traveling. Yeah, exactly. That's awesome. All right. And the, I took some video for, for folks that want to check it out, some videos, some pictures and stuff. And you guys can check it out where I mentioned before sponsored. com for slash podcast forward slash one, four, two. So you could definitely get the visuals. Come along with this episode. So yeah entrepreneurship. I also have a shipping company where I import Items to Dominican Republic and tanks boxes, refrigerators, TVs sofas, and that type of furniture. I remember when you told me about that, like mad long ago, I was like, what the fuck are you talking about? It's literally, it was like in the middle of like the [00:36:00] whole Macquarie transition and stuff like that. You're like, Oh, I'm going to open up another business. I was like, yo, this guy. You're doing, like, way too much. You're biting off, like, more than you could chew, and then that business you still have, like, going. Exactly. Again, like I told you, if you have the right people in play, there's no reason why you can't do it. So, like, a business like that made Mahino that you're obviously not involved, like, day to day, you just, like, collect your, your, like, money from it. Yeah, that's it. When the time comes. Yeah. Nice. But you, like, established it, you started it. Yeah, it's called the Dominicana Cargo Express. I'm actually very good now with the next president elect. We've met a couple times. I'm helping run his campaign here in New York. I'm the secretary of Mil Amigos Abinadel. He's like 90 percent of the tolls that he's gonna win the election, so In DR? Yeah. What's his name? Luis Abinadel. Nice. Yeah. He's a disciple to Peña Gomez. Gotcha. And for folks that don't know, like, like, it's like a big, like, popular thing, especially for Dominicans. Like, my parents, like, ship stuff. My, my, [00:37:00] you know, my wife to, like, her pops and, like, family members that you have over there. It's like, you ship, like, containers. And boxes, and like, literally like these big like jug tanks of liquids and stuff like clothes, food, like stuff like that to the relatives that you have over there. So it's pretty dope. Yeah man, it's cool. And dude honestly my dream is, like I want to be a restauranteur. This is like my, the one I'm opening now is like my dream restaurant. If that pops off, I really literally want to do like, I want to keep the same, I want to branch out franchise out Aura, but like, I want to like, I'm going to change the name and like in the aesthetic of whatever culinary I decide. Like, let's say, for example, I want to do a Mexican restaurant, I'd probably name it Aura Cantina and Agave Bar, you know, something like that along those lines. So like the tagline to it would be like more specific to correct of what culinary it is. Gotcha. Yeah. But you still maintain like the outer, the staple of it. I just I have 11 years left in the port authority to retire, like 10 and a half. [00:38:00] It's a good job, but I honestly, I love working for myself. You know, I love what I do. Like it's, it's fun when I come to, to the restaurants, you know, it's not like I'm dragging my feet and like, fuck, I got to wake up and do this. Like I love getting up and coming over here and seeing what's going on. I like the, like the motion. I like the energy. I like the, the, the busy and, and the craziness that goes behind, behind the scenes in the kitchen. I love all that stuff. And I just want to keep doing it, you know, and I want to pass that. Which is important to like, love what you do, right? Of course it is. It doesn't feel like you're working. If people loved work, you know, they would be free, you know? Yeah, exactly. That's why a lot, that's advice that a lot of people give people that I follow and listen to. Which is, like, find what you love, and are passionate about, and do it, and then figure out a way to get paid from it later. Correct. Correct. And I just want to pass that down to my kids, you know. I want it to be like a Peter Luger's that, you know, it just goes down from generation to generation. Honestly, the way college is going now, I feel like people are just going to keep dropping out, [00:39:00] dropping out because, honestly, these guys, like, you go, you go out there, it's expensive, you spend four years and you can't even get a job getting out, you know, and everything's so competitive and all this computers, you know, it's eliminating so many jobs. I honestly feel like social media is like, it's killing the game. I just, I don't, I don't see college, like, like, Obviously, you know, but for the major professions, like, you know, being a lawyer and doctors, that's always going to exist. Yeah, for very specific professions. Correct. Yeah, but I definitely, like, I think entrepreneurship is important to that extent and, you know, like, either with, like podcasting and writing and, like, my personal goals, like, in that field, and people that I read and listen to on other podcasts, like, that, like, that's a very, very important element. To me, which is establishing that there are alternatives, there are different lanes that if you're willing to like put in the work for it, you can like follow and pursue. Like they're like unorthodox, like different things. You know, it's not just like go to high school, go to college, do four years, get a master's and then get this job. And then work at this job until you're 65, then retire and collect social security and then die. Like [00:40:00] it's not just that path alone. You know, there's an unlimited amount of different paths that people can go from investing in, in businesses. And I think that's important for our generation, which is like in the middle of it now, and for future generations to factor in and put into play. That's a fact. But yeah, bro. Thank you very much for doing the episode. I appreciate it. Anytime. I know folks are going to get a lot from it. And anything else? Remind folks again where Caoba is, where Outta is. Yeah, Caoba is located in East New York, 100 Jamaica Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. Outta is in East Williamsburg. That's on 315 Mesero Street. Estamos ahi a la orden We're there to serve you. I hope you guys come. Try out the amazing food. And the ambiance. And the The The The shift into the nightlife it's, you could get a little bit of everything. You go for dinner, then casual drinks, then end up dancing, you know, the night away with your wife or significant other, whoever, but it's definitely to bring joy to your heart.[00:41:00] And the social media is for Caoba and Aura. Caoba and Aura is underscore NYC and Caoba and Aura underscore bistro. Aura is Aura Cochina. Nice. All right, folks, I'm out. Bye.    

Aproveitando sua estreia na novela "Renascer", atriz e roteirista pernambucana vem ao podcast falar de autoconhecimento, criatividade e alguns de seus muitos projetos no teatro, TV e cinema. Newsletter da quinzena⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Canal do Whatsapp: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Acesso aos Bastidores⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Pós-Jovem nas redes: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Assine a newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Design: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Nayara Lara⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Trilha: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Peartree⁠⁠⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/posjovem/message

News of Galba's betrayal makes its way to Nero who is shocked into action. He sends troops to stop Galba - but they switch sides and join the conspiracy. Nero goes into hiding with the intent of running away to Alexandria and Greece, but even that plan is betrayed. Finally, he comes to the end of his story. And so do we! This is our last episode ever. The post Galba #1 – Republic Schmublic appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

Alright, brave souls and easily spooked wanderers, before we dive into the adult-themed chaos of Dark Enigma, here's your legal heads-up. Our tales and banter might disturb, frighten, or even offend. If you're the kind who faints at the sight of a dark shadow, this might not be your cup of eerie tea. Consider this your warning – listener discretion is advised, and we won't be held responsible for any spilled coffee, dropped jaws, or overly dramatic gasps that may ensue, clutch your pearls at your own peril. So, buckle up, or don't I'm not your mom, and you've been warned! Greetings, my fabulous heathens, and step right up to the vortex of the peculiar and unexplained – this is Dark Enigma! I'm your ringmaster, Nicole Delacroix, here to guide you through tales of things that go bump in the night, creatures that haunt your dreams, supernatural beings with more drama than your nosy neighbor, and a sprinkle of unsolved mysteries. So, buckle up, grab your beverage of choice and prepare to be whisked away to the dark, delightful conundrum of today's episode. Let the weirdness commence, as we dive into today's Dark Enigma. And on today's Dark Enigma brace yourselves for a topic that tickles the paranormal fancy! Here we are, diving into the abyss of the mysterious, armed with our usual dose of sarcasm and a dash of dark humor. And, of course, our drinking game – because let's face it, you're listening to a podcast, and your social calendar is as full as a ghost's wardrobe. So, round up your favorite spirits, be it a fancy wine or a trusty brew, and get ready to embark on a journey into the realms of the weird and wacky. Take a swig every time you're mystified by the podcast's spellbinding tales, or equally spellbinding host, but remember, the choice of poison is entirely yours.  Choose wisely, and let the laughter and libations flow! Alright, now for the game part how about every time I say Poison that will be a single shot and every time I say Potion, that will be a double shot.  Now that the business end is out of the way we can jump headfirst into today's dark enigma… so don your best   as we dive into today's offering of Sips and Schemes – Locusta's Guide To Aromantic Assassinations Today's episode promises not to poison your ears but, you know, can't make any guarantees about your soul as our story today has us diving headfirst into the cauldron of ancient mischief and malevolence. Our main character, and she is a character, is believed to have lived during the 1st century AD. Her notorious activities are often associated with the Roman emperors Nero and Galba, placing her in the midst of the political turmoil and intrigue of that time. The exact years of her birth and death are not well-documented, and much of her story is shrouded in historical ambiguity and legend.

El nuevo emperador, Vitelio, no era cruel como Tiberio, Calígula y Nerón, ni limitado como Claudio, ni víctima de sus favoritos como Galba; pero tenía un defecto tan desastroso como cualquier otro: la gula.Estaba pensando siempre en comer y beber. Vivía con gran lujo en casa, pero a menudo se autoinvitaba a desayunar, almorzar o cenar a casa de alguno de sus cortesanos, donde esperaba que le ofrecieran las más exquisitas viandas.

Galba tenía más de setenta años cuando fue proclamado emperador, por lo que era obvio que no tendría tiempo de hacer todo lo que tenía planeado. Puso mucho empeño en refrenar la insolencia de los soldados, castigar el vicio y llenar el exhausto tesoro público, pero no llegó a lograr nada de eso.Tenía varios favoritos, y, según sus consejos, era o demasiado severo o demasiado suave. Su falta de firmeza hizo que no tardara en haber descontento y revueltas. Como no tenía un hijo que fuera a sucederle, Galba quiso adoptar a un joven noble llamado Lucio Calpurnio Pisón Frugi Liciniano, pero el senado y los soldados no aprobaron esta decisión.

QUAL A REAÇÃO DE RENAN A '' TRAIÇÃO'' DE CHICO FILHO E GALBA NETO ?

L'estremo sacrificio dell'ultimo pretoriano fedele all'imperatore: l'eroica difesa di Sempronio Denso contro gli assassini di Galba.Lorenzo Manara è scrittore di libri storici e fantasy. Leggi subito il mio ultimo romanzo: La Stirpe delle Ossa!

Lexman and his guest discuss Nick Bostrom's book on the possibility of an artificial intelligence gone wrong, known as "Galba." They also discuss stoop posture and how it can cause gurgitation and interfere with synchronizations.

This is part 2 of the Early Church History class. Before the great revolution of 66 in which the Jewish nation declared independence from the Roman empire, no fewer than five micro-revolution occurred between 4 BC and 58 AD. In the years that led up to the first Jewish-Roman war (66-73), incompetent Roman governors repeatedly and egregiously antagonized the Jewish populous until there was no turning back. After the war that destroyed the temple that Herod had renovated, Christians and Jews began parting ways. This episode will briefly cover the three Jewish-Roman wars and how Christians and Jews gradually began to separate. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ9ExalbABs&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=2 —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on history More classes here Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Notes —— Flavius Josephus (AD 37-100) primary source for first-century Jewish history Antiquities of the Jews The Jewish War Revolutionary Movements Athronges (4 BC) Judah the Galilean (AD 6) The Samaritan Prophet (AD 36) Theudas (AD 45) The Egyptian Prophet (AD 58). Four Types of Judaism Pharisees Sadducees Essenes Fourth Philosophy Sicarii The First Jewish-Roman War (66-73) Began in 12th year of Nero's rule anti-taxation protests Roman governor, Gessius Florus, plundered the temple rebellion took Antonia fortress, forcing King Agrippa II and his government to retreat from the city Nero sent Vespasian with four legions In 69 Vespasian went to Rome to become emperor, leaving his son, Titus, to conquer Jerusalem Titus breached the city in 70 He plundered and burned the temple, leaving for Rome in 71 at the head of a Roman triumph The last holdouts fell at Masada in 73 Christians Fled from Jerusalem Jesus warned his followers to flee “when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies” (Luke 21.2-24) Eusebius (AD 324) and Epiphanius (AD 375) both mention the desertion of Christians from Jerusalem Exclusion of Christians from Synagogue Berkat haMinim = blessing the heretics actually a curse upon Christians whom the Jews called “Nazarenes” late first century or early second century In AD 160, Justin Martyr mentions the curse in the synagogues Rabbinic Judaism organized at Yavneh (Jamnia) at the end of the first century Mishna (AD 200) Talmud (AD 500) Three Total Jewish-Roman Wars 66-73 First Jewish-Roman War 115-117 Kitos War 132-135 Bar Kokhba Revolt These wars made Christians less likely to befriend or interact with Jews throughout the Roman Empire in the late-first and early-second centuries. Jews had the reputation of being rebels. Jewish synagogues made it hard for Christians, even those of Jewish ethnicity, to attend since they regularly pronounced a curse on the Nazarenes. Still, Jews and Christians continued to interact and affect each other for the first several centuries of Christianity. Even so, Christianity from the second century onwards gradually adopted Greco-Roman categories of thought, leaving behind our Jewish roots.

Matrix? More like Ma tricks and Papa too. Romade Religion, what can you say? Feel controlled? There is a reason for that seizin', listen hear, unherd."Hear" are the links I mentioned: You can find them posted at the following sites: The Piso Project http://pisoproject.wordpress.com The Roman Piso Papers (Scroll down for papers) http://independent.academia.edu/RomanPiso/Papers As I said above, Druidic priests were not A Few Words About The Royal Language (a language within language) http://www.academia.edu/30347785/A_Few_Words_About_The_Royal_Language References: See my paper, 'Napoleon Bonaparte & The Holy Roman Empire' http://www.academia.edu/10994708/Napoleon_Bonaparte_and_The_Holy_Roman_Empire Below are a couple of lists. Understanding The Oligarchy http://www.academia.edu/32492893/Understanding_The_Oligarchy.pdf Understanding The Oligarchy (at Wordpress) http://pisoproject.wordpress.com/understanding-the-oligarchy/ Oligarchy And Ancient Genealogies http://www.academia.edu/28345792/Oligarchy_And_Ancient_Genealogies Napoleon Bonaparte & The Holy Roman Empire http://www.academia.edu/10994708/Napoleon_Bonaparte_and_The_Holy_Roman_Empire The Biblical Dynasty - The Oligarchy Uses Religion Against Us http://www.academia.edu/s/0aa7c0388c/the-biblical-dynasty There was a sect of 'Jews' in the 1st century who were like Secular Humanists. They were fighting for basic human rights and an end to slavery, they were the Pharisees. They were fighting the Romans who were creating Christianity. What Happened At Masada? http://www.academia.edu/33706215/What_Happened_At_Masada_.pdf Seneca, Christianity, And The Caesars http://www.academia.edu/33161068/Seneca_Christianity_And_The_Caesars Christianity Was Exposed By Abelard Reuchlin (AcademiaEdu) http://www.academia.edu/33614693/Christianity_Was_Exposed_By_Abelard_Reuchlin The New Classical Scholarship: The New Forensic Study Of History http://www.academia.edu/31990534/The_NCS_The_New_Forensic_Study_Of_History The True Context Of Ancient History & The Gordian Emperors http://www.academia.edu/s/cc567b0350/the-true-context-of-ancient-history-and-the-gordian-emperors Ancient Alias Names List (2017) http://www.academia.edu/s/a339f0df02/ancient-alias-names-list-2017 Have you wondered about and maybe tried to do research of your own about the Gnostic gospels and other material that did NOT make it into the New Testament canon? Here is my research on it... The Apocryphal New Testament Authorship https://www.academia.edu/s/cbbb322c87/the-apocryphal-new-testament-authorship Was Pliny The Younger, the Roman author and friend of Emperor Trajan, and who was famous for asking Trajan what to do about Christians, also writing as St. Ignatius? Is this more evidence of the Oligarchy (1%) existing even in ancient times? Pliny The Younger As Saint Ignatius http://www.academia.edu/s/99511f2e10/pliny-the-younger-as-saint-ignatiuspdf Some of the easiest evidence regarding the Roman creation of Christianity for those who are just beginning to study the way that we do in the New Classical Scholarship is in examining the works of Pliny The Younger. Emperor Trajan & Pliny The Younger: Mutual Ancestry http://www.academia.edu/s/f6541cd384/emperor-trajan-and-pliny-the-younger-mutual-ancestry Two of my forthcoming papers are very important as evidence of the Roman creation of Christianity. One of these papers is on the subject of the fabrication of Christian persecutions by Roman emperors. This can be shown by giving the descent of all Roman emperors from Antoninus Pius onward, from Arrius Piso (or his immediate family), the main creator of Christianity. And the other paper will show the direct descent of no less than 60 popes from Arrius Calpurnius Piso. At this time, I have already posted the information giving the direct descent of at least 35 popes from Arrius Piso. Scholar Names, Works & Dates: [Authors of Biblical Criticism] Bishop John William Colenso, born Jan. 24, 1814 (1814-1883), 'The Pentateuch Examined'. Sir George Birdwood. Major General Forlong, 'Rivers of Life'. James Ballantyne Hannay, 'Sex Symbolism In Religion'. James Ballantyne Hannay, 'Christianity, the Sources of its Teachings and Symbolism', 1913. James Ballantyne Hannay, 'Bible Folk Lore', a series of six volumes of about 200 pages each. Produced during WWI (1915-1917). James Ballantyne Hannay, 'The Rise, Decline & Fall of the Roman Religion', published postumously, 1925. Sir Richard Burton. Robertson, 'Christianity and Mythology', London, 1900. Matthes. Paulus (1828). Colani (1864). M. Loisy. Bertram, 1922. Van Loon. Laurentius Valla. Sir Harry Johnston. Dr. Cheyne. Lord Kichener. Dr. Barnes (the bishop of Birmingham, Oct. 13th, 1924). Ruskin. Sir Authur Evans. Payne Knight, 'Worship of Priapus'. Naville, 'Discovery of the Book of Law'. German Scholar, Theodor Noldeke (1836-1930). J.C. Oman, 'Cults, Customs and Superstitions of India'. Lecky, 'History of European Morals'. Davidson's Lexicon (issued by Bagster). German Scholar, Christian Gottlieb Wilke (C.G. Wilke), 'Der Urevangelist', 1838. Wilke stated that Mark was the original (earliest) gospel. Bruno Bauer agreed. Allard Pierson (his first published work was about The Sermon On The Mount, and other Synoptic passages, c. 1878). Dirk Loman (c. late 1800s). William Van Manen (c. 1900). Dutch Scholars, Neber and Bolland. Karl Kautsky (1854-1938) 'The Origins of Christianity', 1908. He applied Bruno Bauer's thesis. Dietz, 'Der Ursprung des Christentums', published in Stuttgart, 1908. Some Of The Earliest Scholars Writing About A Roman Creation Of Christian Texts: Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768). Lessing, an essay published between 1774-1778. Bahrdt (1784-1792). Herder (1797). Dupuis (1743-1809). Volney (1757-1820). == This Title, 'Romans Created Christianity' In Other Languages: [Afrikaans: 'Romeine geskep Christendom'] [Albanian: 'Romakët krijuan krishterimin'] ['خلق الرومان المسيحية' :Arabian[ [Armenian: ' Հռոմեացիները քրիստոնյա են ստեղծել'] [Bosnian: 'Rimljani su stvorili hrišćanstvo'] [Bulgarian: 'Римляните създали християнството'] [Chinese: '羅馬人創造了基督教'] [Croatian: 'Rimljani stvorili kršćanstvo'] [Czech: 'Římané vytvořili křesťanství'] [Danish: 'Romerne skabte kristendommen'] [Dutch: 'Romeinen gemaakt christendom'] [Esperanto: 'Romanoj kreis kristanismon'] [Estonian: 'Roomlased loodud kristlus'] [Filipino: 'Nilikha ng mga Romano ang Kristiyanismo'] [Finnish: 'Roomalaiset luonut kristinuskon'] [French: 'Les Romains ont créé le christianisme'] [Frisian: 'Romeinen skepen it kristendom'] [Galacian: 'Os romanos crearon o cristianismo'] [Georgian: ' '] რომაელები ქრისტიანობას ქმნიდნენ [German: 'Romans schuf Christentum'] [Greek: 'Ρωμαίοι δημιούργησαν τον Χριστιανισμό'] ['הרומאים יצרו הנצרות' :Hebrew[ [Hmong Daw: 'Loos tsim Christianity'] [Hungarian: 'Rómaiak létrehozott kereszténység'] [Indonesian: 'Roma dibuat Kekristenan'] [Irish: 'Chruthaigh Rómhánaigh Críostaíocht'] [Italian: 'Romans ha generato Christianity'] [Japanese: 'ローマ人キリスト教を作成'] [Korean: ' 로마인 들은 기독교 만든'] [Latin: 'Romani creavit Christianitatis'] [Latvian: 'Romieši izveidoja kristietība'] [Lithuanian: 'Romėnai sukūrė krikščionybė'] [Luxembourgish: 'Réimer hunn de Christentum geschaf'] [Macedonian: 'Римјаните го создале христијанството'] [Malay: 'Orang-orang Rom mencipta agama Kristian'] [Maltese: 'Romans maħluqa nisranija'] [Mongolian: 'Ромчууд Христийн шашныг бүтээсэн'] [Norwegian: 'Romerne skapte kristendommen'] [Polish: 'Rzymianie utworzone chrześcijaństwa'] [Portuguese: 'Romanos criaram o cristianismo'] [Romanian: 'Romanii au creat crestinismul'] [Russian: 'Римляне создали христианство'] [Samoan: 'Na foafoaina e Roma Kerisiano'] [Scots-Gaelic: 'Rinn Ròmanaich Crìosdaidheachd'] [Serbian: 'Римљани су креирали хришћанство'] ['روميون مسيحييت پيدا ڪيو' :Sindhi[ [Slovak: 'Rimania vytvorili kresťanstvo'] [Slovenian: 'Rimljani ustvaril krščanstvo'] [Somali: 'Roomaanku wuxuu abuuray Masiixiyadda'] [Spanish: 'Romanos crearon el cristianismo'] [Sundanese: 'Rum dijieun Kristen'] [Swahili: 'Warumi iliunda Ukristo'] [Swedish: 'Romarna skapade kristendomen'] [Turkish: 'Romalılar Hıristiyanlık oluşturdu'] [Ukrainian: 'Римляни створений християнство'] [Uzbek: 'Rimliklarga nasroniylikni yaratdi'] [Vietnamese: 'Người La Mã tạo cơ đốc giáo'] [Welch: 'Rhufeiniaid creu Cristnogaeth'] ['רוימער באשאפן קריסטנטום' :Yiddish[ [Zulu: 'AmaRoma adala ubuKristu'] == Do a search to find out where you can find Reuchlin's work (he authored other titles also). Piso Christ: What Is The Book About? http://pisoproject.wordpress.com/piso-christ-what-is-the-book-about/ Piso Christ: The Roman Piso Family Created Christianity. https://www.amazon.com/Piso-Christ-Book-Classical-Scholarship/dp/142692996X Related Subject Matter: ================= (Key Words & Terms) History, Ancient History, Rome, Ancient Rome, Roman Empire, Roman Emperors, Popes, Papal History, Christianity, History of Christianity, Origin of Christianity, Emperor, Emperors, Roman Catholic History, Holy Roman Empire, Arrius Calpurnius Piso, Roman Piso Family, Ancient Alias Names, Ancient Pen Names, Gordian Emperors, Emperor Antoninus Pius, Arius Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, Oligarchy, Royal Supremacy, Royal Language, Aliases, Genealogy, Ancient Genealogy, Ancient Genealogies, Historia, Historia Augusta, Flavius Josephus, Pliny The Younger, Suetonius, Tacitus, Plutarch, Hero of Alexandria, Apollonius of Tyana, Philostratus 'The Athenian', Philostratus 'The Younger', Herodian, Emperor Constantine, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Lucius Verus, Commodus, Pertinax, Pescennius Niger, Didius Julianus, Clodius Albinus, Septimius Severus, Severus Alexander, Maximinus, Maximus, Probus, Clodius II, Constantius, Constantius Chlorus, Eusebius, Pope Eusebius, Church Father, Early Christianity, Roman Creation of Christianity, Nero, 666, Julius Calpurnius Piso, Julius Piso I, First 10 Popes, Justin Martyr, St. John 'The Divine', The Revelation, gospels, The Gospel of Thomas, Gnostic, Gnostic Gospels, Apocryphal, texts, holy, sacred, free, info, sample, paper, papers, research, research paper, Heron, Herod, Agrippa, Philo, Logos, Talmud, Pharisee, pharisees, sect, Cornelius, Theodosius I, Arcadius, Honorius, Byzantine, Byzantium, Constantinople, ancient literature, forensic history, censorship, Medieval, medieval censorship, Inquisition, Crusade, crusades, Church, Church History, comparative, religion, religious, organized religion, Abelard Reuchlin, Professor, Bruno Bauer, James Ballantyne Hannay, Marcus, Antonius, Cleopatra, Julius, Caesar, Caesars, Antonius Primus, Cestius Gallus, Nero, Vitellius, Otho, Licinianus, Frugi, Piso, Julius Servianus, Julius Severus, Julius Constantius I, Galba, New, New Testament, Bible, gospels, epistles, Panegyricus, Timothy, Justinian The Jurist, Proculus Calpurnius Piso, Silanus Piso, Herodes Atticus, ben Pantera, Scribes, genealogy, genealogies, royal, royal line, royal blood, historiography, philosophy, history of, historical Jesus, Dark Ages, Secular Humanism, Atheism, Atheist, Atheists, Historical Anthropology, Anthropology, Anthropology of Religion, Imperial, Imperial Rome, Roma, Classics, Classical Antiquity, Religion as psychological warfare, Werner Eck. Anthropology, genealogical charts, genealogy, archaeology, Origins of Christianity, Holy, Holy Roman Empire, Imperial Rome, Roman Empire, popes, emperor, emperors, King James, Bible, biblical, classics, classical history, historic, Pliny The Elder, Seneca, Aria, Arria, Arria The Younger, Arria The Elder, Arius, Arrius, Fadilla, Arria Fadilla, Arria Antonina, Antonius, Marcus Antonius, Antonius Primus, of Alexandria, of Tyana, of Rome, of Athens, Gnostics, gospel, Gospel of, Thomas, Mary, Magdalan, magi, three, three days, three wise men, rooster, hen, cock, crow, crew, Alexander, Sabina, Gaius Calpurnius Piso, Constantine, Julius Constantius, Constantius Chlorus, Emperor, emperors, Flavia, Flavian, Flavians, Titus, Domitian, Vespasian, Nerva, Augustus, Julius Caesar, Caesar, Tiberius, Gneius Calpurnius Piso, Gaius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Clodius Albinus, Septimius Severus, Severus Alexander, Pupienus, Claudius Gothicus, Probus, Gallienus, Tacitus, Florian, Florianus, Balbinus, Postumus, Philip I, Philip II, Pacatian, Jotapian, Aquilia Severa, Annia, Annia Faustina, Julia Soaemias, Julia Maesa, Diadumenian, Elagabalus, Julia Domna, Caracalla, Lucius Verus, Lucilla, Geta, Titiana, Manlia Scantilla, Didia Clara, Pescennius Niger, St. Peter, Saint, Saint Peter, Linus, and Werner Eck. Roman coins, denominations, coinage, province, Augustus, Claudius, Nero, Vitellius, Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Severus Alexander, Elagabalus, Gordian III, Philip I 'The Arab', Claudius II 'Gothicus', denari, denarii, denarius, coins, coin, ancient coins, numismatic, celator, ancient mints, silver, gold, copper, aureus, drachm, didrachm, tetradrachm, follis, antoninianus, antoninianii, potin, billon, error, restrike, restrikes, silver wash, silvered, limes, AE, AE3, AR, AV, miliarense, siliqua, centenionalis, argenteus, dupondius, quadrans, cistophorus, sestertius, quinarius, as, As, Semis, triens, sextans, unica, quadrigatus, moneyer, victoriatus, solidus, scripulum. 

News of Galba's betrayal makes its way to Nero who is shocked into action. He sends troops to stop Galba - but they switch sides and join the conspiracy. Nero goes into hiding with the intent of running away to Alexandria and Greece, but even that plan is betrayed. Finally, he comes to the end of his story. And so do we! This is our last episode ever. The post Nero #47 – THE END appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

Nero celebrates two official triumphs. Not for military victories, but for singing. It's the last straw. A new rebellion is formed, lead by Vindex and Galba. The post Nero #46 – The Last Straw appeared first on Life Of The Caesars.

Ibtdai Ayyam, Ambiya aur Ajeab Makhlooqat ka Byaan, Silsila Ahadees e Sahiha

Ibtadai ayyam, Ambiya aur Ajeeb Makhlooq ka Byaan, Silsila Ahadees e Sahiha.

Babylon the Great Revelation 17 by William Klock You've all seen Pinocchio, haven't you?  It wasn't by any means my favourite kids' movie.  I think I must have been about seven years old the one and only time I saw it.  I don't remember much about it beyond the general idea of the puppet who wanted to be a real boy.  But that was because one scene terrorised me and has stuck with me all these years.  Do you remember “Pleasure Island”?  An evil character called the Coachman rounded up bad little boys with a promise of fun and took them to an amusement park on Pleasure Island.  There they could eat and drink and smoke and indulge themselves in all the things that bad boys like to do but usually get in trouble for doing.  It was the ultimate good time.  But there was a catch, as there always is with that sort of “fun”.  Once they boys spent enough time on Pleasure Island, they'd start growing ears and tails, they'd lose the ability to talk, and they'd eventually turn into donkeys.  Then the Coachman would sell them to work as slaves, hauling carts in the saltmines.  The moral of the story was simple: act like a jackass and you become a jackass!  The book of Proverbs says something very similar—but Proverbs never gave me nightmares!  Der Struwwelpeter, the famous German moralising storybook for kids, wasn't half so terrifying.  At least in Der Struwwelpeter the bad kids died.  That wasn't nearly as bad as being turned into a donkey for life. As I began last week to think about today's text, I couldn't help but think of Pinocchio, having a good time and suddenly horrified to discover he'd grown donkey ears and a tail.  When Carlo Collodi wrote the story, he had an age-old lesson in mind.  It's one that goes back to Proverbs—and to Jesus and to St. Paul and to St. John.  Sin is enticing because it is so often deceptively attractive, but in the end it will eat us alive and spit us out.  It brings us inevitably to judgement—and we see this in Revelation 17 and 18 as the Lord's judgement falls on Rome.  It's yet another warning against the deceptive attractions of sin and of worldliness.  But it's also, along with the rest of the book, an exhortation to the Church.  Keep the themes of Revelation in mind: tribulation, perseverance, and kingdom.  Jesus' people will find themselves opposed—even to the point of martyrdom—by the wicked of the world, by its corrupted values and its sinful systems.  And the situation may look hopeless.  Back in Chapter 13 the nations marvelled at the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”  Those silly Christians?  What did they think they were doing?  What do they think they'd accomplish standing up the beast?  And yet Revelation was the promise to those people—even as they were fed to the lions—that Jesus is Lord, that he has and he will defeat the beast, and that his people will be vindicated.  It's, as St. Paul wrote, foolishness to the gentiles.  But if you'd heard and believed the good news that Jesus was crucified and rose again, conquering death itself, it all makes sense.  We just need to be reminded now and again to keep this gospel, this cross-centred, this Easter perspective. And so John goes on at length about the judgement about to fall on the enemies of Jesus and his people.  It begins with Jerusalem, but when Jerusalem has been judged, the Lord's justice then confronts the Greco-Roman world.  It goes hand in hand with the commissioning of the disciples by Jesus: You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  God's judgement pave the way and goes before the powerful proclamation of the gospel.  In Chapter 15 John saw the beast's judgement prepared as heaven sang God's praises—just as Israel had sung his praises at the fall of Pharaoh, his false gods, and the Egyptian army.  In Chapter 16 we saw the bowls of judgement poured out on beast.  This language of the “beast” is drawn from Daniel, where four ferocious beasts represent various empires, so we know the beast here represents the current great empire of John's day.  The beast is, on the one hand backed by the power and authority of the dragon—of Satan—and himself backs the second beast who causes the nations to worship him.  John, in his symbolic language, made it clear that this beast is Rome, headed by its Emperor who claims divinity and has an entire cult devoted to spreading his false gospel.  John has already given us a sense of why judgement had to fall on Rome, but now he goes into detail.  Look at Chapter 17. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”  And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.  The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.  And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations.”  And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.   Pleasure Island was an age-appropriate—well, almost—story for kids about the deceptive attractiveness of sin.  John writes to adults—and adults who lived in a world as of yet untempered by the gospel.  He writes far more graphically.  The debauchery of the ancient world is, I think, hard for us to imagine.  Today's decadent, debauched, and obscene celebrations of “pride” begin to come close to daily life in the pre-gospel world.  The Romans were the moralistic prudes of the Mediterranean world, but even in Rome prostitution and sodomy, sexual abuse of children and slaves, infanticide, and even sometimes human sacrifice were the rule of the day.  As much as we grieve the moral sewer that our culture has become, the ancient world was far worse. And Rome sat on top of it all.  One of the angels from the last chapter whisks John away to the wilderness to show him the subject of the judgement that has been poured out.  John sees a woman arrayed in fine clothes.  Purple and scarlet dyes were very expensive to produced and usually reserved for royalty and the very wealthy.  She is beautifully and extravagantly adorned in jewellery.  Everything about her has the look of success, of wealth, and most of all, desirability.  And she's ready to party.  She holds a chalice and reels drunkenly.  But her chalice doesn't hold wine.  Her wine, the wine with which she entices the nations, the wine with which she makes them drunk, John writes, is sexual immorality.  John says the cup is full of “abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality”.  Our English versions are somewhat restrained in their translations here.  “sexual immorality” is the Greek word porneia.  It's the word for illicit sex and for prostitution.  The words for abominations and impurities refer to things and to acts that are deeply vile, disgusting in every way, that defile and degrade, and that not only merit, but cry out for judgement and condemnation.  Inside the cup the cup are filth, excrement, disease—to tip it would be to release a sewer, both literally and metaphorically. The woman is stunningly beautiful to look upon, she is fabulously weathly, and she is full of promises.  But it's all a lie.  She sits astride the beast—seven heads and ten horns, the servant of Satan, whom John earlier identified as the Emperor and his emprie—and, he writes, despite her appearance, she is really “Babylon, the mother of prostitutes and earth's abominations”.  It's imagery from the Old Testament.  Babylon was not only the place were the great tower was built in humanity's attempt to reach heaven in our own power, but the city that would became the enemy and eventually the conqueror of Israel.  Babylon represents everything that stood opposed to the Lord and to his people.  And this new Babylon is even worse.  She sits astride the dragon, reeling, drunk on the blood of Jesus and his people.  Again, she is beautiful and sits there welcoming the nations with a promise of wealth and a good time, but it's all built on wickedness.  The underlying reality—strip off the make-up, the jewellery, the expensive clothes, pour out the cup—and what you find is vile, disgusting, utterly stomach-churning. There's a reason John uses this imagery of a prostitute to depict the enemy of God's people.  Revelation is about God and his people, whom we see at the end as the lamb and his bride.  The story culminates with the marriage of the lamb—husband and wife are joined and their relationship is characterized by faithfulness.  The prostituted represents the polar opposite. This imagery goes back to the Old Testament and to Israel and the Lord.  Israel was his bride, but she was repeatedly unfaithful.  Think of the prophet Hosea, who used his own marriage to a prostitute, as a prophetic image of Israel's rejection of the Lord as she ran after foreign gods and idols.  Babylon was the epitome of idolatry in the Old Testament, but now the Greco-Roman world has taken up that torch.  The nations worship false gods, whose idols and temples are beautiful and full of promises, but who cannot deliver.  And now, Caesar himself, claimed to be divine and with that claim, has gathered the peoples and tongues of the earth under his banner.  The devil had deceived the nations and now empires like Rome and kings like Caesar enticed the world away from God.  Babylon all over again. And, of course, prostitution is a fitting metaphor for every form of statism.  Rome—not to mention our own contemporary nations—offer us security, well-being, and wealth—only submit, and it's all yours.  And just as certainly as one is trapped by the false promises of prostitution and pornography, so Caesar traps, ensnares, and enslaves.  And the foolish would rather go along with the lies than walk away from what they've already lost.  I can't think of a better real-life illustration than what the Finance Minister said this week with regard to more government spending on more programs in an attempt to save us from the results of the previous two years' government spending and programs.  The only way out of our economic predicament is austerity, but the State has promised prosperity and prosperity she must deliver.  The cup is full and inviting, but inside is abomination and impurity—or, at least in this case, stagflation and all the misery that comes with it. These systems, whether Babylon, or Rome, or Washington, or Ottawa derive their power from the beast.  John goes on in verses 7 and 8:   When I saw her, I marveled greatly.  But the angel said to me, “Why do you marvel?  I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.  The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.   Again, John is reminded not to be deceived by the woman.  She is backed by the beast.  But then the beast itself.  John was clear before that the beast represents the Roman Emperor—that was currently Nero at John's time of writing.  This bit about “was, is not, and is about to rise…and go to destruction” isn't the easiest thing to parse out, but seems, I think, to be referring to the chaos into which the imperial throne was soon to fall with the suicide of Nero and the “Year of the Four Emperors” that followed.  However we work out the specifics, the angel's point is that the Emperor stands under God's judgement and he warns: Even as the empire descends into the chaos of this judgement, the people of the earth—at least those who do not belong to Jesus and whose names are not recorded in the book of life—instead of seeing what's happening, repenting, and turning to the Lord, they will double-down on their commitment to the beast.  They would rather continue in their idolatry than admit that the Lord is God.  And Jesus' people need to be prepared, because this is why the beast goes after the saints: They are the only ones who stand as witness to the falsity of his claims at divinity and the truth that Jesus is the risen Lord.  This is why the woman who sits astride him has made herself drunk on their blood. Now, in verses 9-18 the angels explains all of this further. This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while.  As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.  And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast.  These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast.  They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”   The angel's explanation probably seems more cryptic than helpful to us.  To John and his readers it would have been clear.  Not all of it is difficult for us, though.  That this woman is seated on seven mountains or hills would have been, to anyone in the First Century and still today, an unmistakable reference to the city of Rome.  The seven horns of the beast are relatively clear, too.  The angel says they represent seven kings—or seven different caesars.  At the time of writing there have been five.  That would be Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius.  One is.  That's Nero.  The seventh who must remain a short while could refer to Galba, who reigned a short seven months after Nero, but probably sums up the year of chaos in which there were four rival claimants to the throne, none of which lasted.  That would make the eighth, who is like the seven, Vespasian, the founder of the Flavian Dynasty that followed.  He was enough like the earlier emperors that he was just as deserving of destruction.  I think there's something fairly obviously symbolic about these numbers as well.  The seven emperors give to the empire a false appearance of and the eighth, parodying Jesus who rose on the eighth day, will have appeared to have cleaned up the mess, dealt with the chaos, and led the empire into a new and better day, when the fact is that, just like his predecessors, he is leading the empire straight into the Lord's judgement.  I think this is the real message those early believers needed to hear.  Again, they were mocked.  “There is none like the beast!  Who would be foolish enough to rise up against him?”  And here, again, John is reminded that even though the beast and his empire have the appearance of might and perfection, even though they appear impervious to defeat, it's all going to come falling down under its own corrupt weight.  Look at verses 15-18: And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.  And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute.  They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.  And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.”   Again, the details here point unmistakably to the city of Rome as the prostitute.  She had dominion over the kings of the earth.  Nothing else fit that description in John's day.  The ten kings represented by the beast's ten horns seem to refer to kings or other rulers within the empire—rulers of the nations over which she has dominion.  But in the end, Rome will devour itself.  The great prostitute will be stripped naked, her flesh devoured, and finally burned with fire.  The rulers whom she robbed blind in exchange for false promises will turn on their mistress and destroy her.  That said, even as they bring justice to the prostitute, they are part of the same system represented by the beast.  They may be through with their mistress, but they are just as intent on making war on the Lamb—as John writes in verse 14—as the beast ever was.  If nothing else, John's vision here and the angel's explanation sounds an awful lot like Nero's burning of Rome—setting fire to the city so that he could build his new palace on top of the devastation—and then blame the fire on Christians. But verse 14 is, again, an exhortation to persevere in the midst of tribulation.  The Lamb will conquer, because he is, after all, “King of kings and Lord of lords” and those who are with him are called “chosen and faithful”.  Again, it all looked like so much foolishness to people invested in the beast's system, but to those who knew the reality of the cross, it all made sense.  They just needed to be reminded.  Jesus has conquered by his blood and the Church—those whom Jesus called to take up our crosses and to follow him—will conquer through our own self-sacrifice, as we give our all—even sometimes our own blood—for the sake of the gospel. Brothers and Sisters, that's the heart of the lesson here.  The who's who of the symbolism is important too and we need to get it right, because it's important to our understanding of the story we tell and our place in it, but I think the really important, the critical truth for us here is much the same as it was for those Asian Christians in the First Century: Don't fall prey to the lies of the prostitute.  The systems and philosophies of the world make us promises galore: promises of wealth, promises of security, promises of self-discovery and identity.  But those promises are empty snares and behind them all lies the dragon, the devil, who has been telling lies to humanity from the beginning.  He tempts us to give ourselves over to wealth.  He tempts us to submit ourselves body and soul to the State.  He temps us to find our worth in material goods.  He entices us to satisfy our appetites with gluttony and with illicit sex.  He tells us that we will find satisfaction in identity, whether that's race or sex or sexual orientation.  He undermines marriage and the family and then holds out the State and sexual immorality as substitutes.  His agents in this world hold out a golden chalice, to all appearances filled with wine, but inside is abomination and filthiness.  Inside is idolatry that ensnares, entwines, corrupts—and ultimately leads us away from Jesus and straight to destruction.  Brothers and Sisters, stand firm and look to Jesus for your security and for your identity.  We will find ourselves caught up in the battle and when we do, John reminds us that this is no accident.  We are soldiers of the Lamb, the King of kings and Lord of lords, and we will conquer by his blood and by the word of our testimony.  Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ will come again. Let's pray: Our Father, in the Collect we acknowledged that we are weak and that you are our source of strength.  Again, we ask for the help of your grace that we might stand firm in faith against the enemies of the Lamb, and as your Church advance the cause of the gospel to the ends of the earth.  Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Blessed is the One Who Stays Awake Revelation 16 By William Klock There's an old story of a clergyman, who out of concern for a parishioner who had been absent for some time, went to visit her at home.  He saw her car in the driveway.  The drapes were drawn, but he could see the lights were one.  He could hear the faint sound of the TV.  She was clearly home.  He knocked on the door and waited.  No answer.  Then he heard the TV go silent.  He knocked again.  Still no answer.  He waited.  Out of the corner of his eye he saw a faint movement of the living room drapes, as if someone had peeked around the edge.  Still no answer.  He rang the doorbell and waited again.  Still nothing.  He sighed, pulled one of his cards from his pocket, and slipped it into the front door's weather stripping.  Then he had an idea.  If anyone needed to read her Bible, it was she.  So he took the card back, pulled out his pen, and wrote on the back “Revelation 3:20”—“Behold, I stand at the door and knock”—and slipped the card back into the weatherstripping.  “She'll have to look that one up,” he thought, “and maybe she'll keep reading while her Bible's open.”  He rang the bell one more time, waited again, and left. On Sunday morning he was pleased to see that the woman was in church, but she left too quickly for him to greet her.  Then, as he was getting ready to leave the church, one of the wardens approached, holding a little card.  “It was in the offering plate,” the warden said as he handed it to him.  The priest took the card and saw it was one of his own.  He turned it over and saw the Bible reference he'd written: “Revelation 3:20”.  Underneath it the woman had written another: “Genesis 3:10”.  He laughed.  That's Adam's answer to the Lord, “I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Revelation 16 continues with the Lord's judgement on Greco-Roman world.  We looked at Chapter 15 two weeks ago and saw the announcement of seven plagues, carried by seven angles in bowls like those used for drink offerings in the temple.  In Chapter 16 we'll now see those plagues poured out—the wrath of God revealed.  And in the middle of the plagues John stops—in verse 15—to give a warning to God's people: “Behold, I am coming like a thief!  Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”   It's a warning from Jesus for his Church to stay alert and on guard—not to be distracted, but to be diligently about the work he's given.  He gave similar warnings to the churches at Sardis and Laodicea.  The reference is to an officer in the temple in John's day, who was tasked with making sure that the men on watch stayed awake.  He would make the rounds of the temple and if he caught anyone asleep, he would beat him.  If he found the same man asleep a second time, he would strip the man naked and burn his clothes.[1]  One commentator writes, “The danger is of being caught not momentarily but habitually off guard—not, to put it crudely, with trousers down, but without trousers at all.”[2] Consider Jesus' warning to the Christians in Sardis: Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. (Revelation 3:2) Brothers and Sisters, it is easy to become complacent.  Either we become complacent and neglect our calling to proclaim and to live out the good news about Jesus and to declare the mighty works of God.  Or we become complacent in that we become worldly.  We live in the world and it's easy to be unconsciously influenced by it when we keep our guard down and neglect to feed ourselves on God's word and to share in the means of grace found in the Church.  It's also easy to become complacent through wilful compromise with the world.  We face opposition and instead of standing firm, we compromise in the hopes that the world will oppose us less—maybe that they'll even like us.  We see an awful lot of this today.  Churches looking to attract “seekers” structure ministry and worship around what is attractive to unbelievers—which can be great when done thoughtfully and carefully, but disastrous when, as so often happens, we end up looking more like the world than the church.  Or we cozy up to the world's system, especially to politics—Left or Right—it can go either way.  When we allow ourselves to be overtaken by the world's ways of thinking, whether that be commercialism and materialism or expressive individualism, the sexual revolution, and post-modern gender theory.  Or—I think most appropriate in light of our text today—we water down our message.  Large parts of the Western Church today are hesitant to talk about sin and about the consequences of sin, about the wrath of God and of judgement.  H. Richard Niebuhr famous described the gospel of much of modern Christendom as: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgement through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”[3]  Such a faith is worthless—for those who believe—and for the world to which it is proclaimed.  The Church that preaches such a message is no church at all and when God's judgement does come, such churches will be swept away with everything else not of the kingdom—caught naked and asleep at her post.  It's important that the Church be clear about the difference between the things of God and the things of the world, the difference between godliness and sin, and knowing the kingdom of God, and be able to persevere in the midst of tribulation—that, to use John's metaphor, we stay awake and keep our pants on. As John announces the judgement that was soon to come on the pagan world of Caesar, using the language of cataclysmic plagues, the Church was expected to recognise the judgement of God in the same way that Israel had seen, recognised, and praised the judgment of God on Pharaoh, the supposed god-king, and on his pantheon of false gods.  John saw those who had conquered the beast, like Israel of old watching Pharaoh's army drown, singing the praises of their victorious God.  Brothers and Sisters, God's people are called to singing of his victory for the sake of the world and, in doing so, we glorify him.  Now look at Chapter 16.  John writes: Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”   Remember that in the last scene, John saw the heavenly tabernacle filled with smoke—so full that no one could enter.  And out came seven angels bearing bowls.  The image is of the priests of the old covenant bearing their drink offerings at the conclusion of the daily service.  Since no one could enter the heavenly tabernacle because of the smoke, this must be the voice of God directing the angels.  John then goes on: So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.   The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea.   The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.  (Revelation 16:2-4) Just like the plagues poured out on rebellious Jerusalem, the plagues poured out on the pagan nations are meant to remind us of the plagues the Lord brought on Egypt.  First, painful sores reminiscent of the boils that afflicted the Egyptians.  Second, the sea turning to blood and then, third, the fresh waters turning to blood as well. In contrast to the plagues poured out on rebellious Jerusalem, these plagues are universal in scope.  The earlier plagues were limited—a third of the water, a third of the people.  I think the idea in this distinction is that when God disciplined his rebellious children, there was an opportunity for the pagan nations to see, to take heart, and to repent of their wickedness themselves.  Now that opportunity has passed.  The wine of God's wrath has been tread out in the winepress and the wicked peoples who drank the blood of the saints are now—metaphorically—left with nothing but putrid blood to drink. That raises another question?  Are these plagues meant to be understood literally?  I think it's fairly clear, given the context, that they are not.  The imagery draws on the Lord's past judgement on the nations that afflicted his people, first Egypt and then, we'll see, Babylon.  The point is that the Lord is now going to judge Rome.  Remember the point of Revelation: tribulation, perseverance, and kingdom.  Jesus' main purpose in giving John this vision is to encourage the saints to persevere in the midst of tribulation.  The great New Testament scholar, George Caird, puts it this way: “The theme of the whole series [i.e., the plagues] is neither the collapse of the physical universe nor the punishment of individual men for their personal contribution to the world's iniquity, both of which come later when the record books are opened…but the ending of persecution through the removal of the persecutor.”[4]  The angels underscore this when they sing out between the third and fourth plagues.  Look at verses 5 to 7: And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, “Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was,          for you brought these judgments. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets,          and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!”   And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty,          true and just are your judgments!”   The Lord's judgement vindicates his saints and brings justice on their persecutors.  The songs of the angels and of the altar—I assume these are the martyrs we saw earlier under the altar—the song is a needed reminder of the goodness of the Lord's judgement.  We modern Christians have often become uncomfortable with judgement—Niebuhr's God without wrath and kingdom without judgement.  One morning this week I left my prayer book at home.  I had left a Canadian prayer book on my desk—the 1962 edition—after looking up something in the lectionary last week, so I picked it up for Morning Prayer.  And I was jarred by the changes they made in the Psalter.  Wherever they could, they eliminated or watered down the passages that speak of or call for the Lord's judgement.  Whole psalms were removed.  Because modern Christians have—to our shame—become exceedingly uncomfortable with the topic of the wrath and judgement of God.  And yet, the angels sing here, it is God's justice which reveals his holiness.  Do we consider that when we sing “Holy, holy, holy Lord God almighty”?  And do we consider that it is the Lord's justice that is our consolation as we face a world that opposes us because it opposes him?  Brothers and Sisters, we need to remember that the Lord is revealed to be true and just because he judges wickedness and, in that, he deserves our praises.  There is no reason to preach the gracious mercy of the cross, if there is nothing from which we need deliverance. Now the fourth plague—verses 8 and 9: The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire.  They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues.  They did not repent and give him glory.   The fourth of the trumpets that announcement judgement on Jerusalem heralded a plague of darkness.  Now the fourth bowl brings the opposite.  It metaphorically highlights the Lord's vindication of his saints.  The martyrs we saw under the altar back in Chapter 7 were consoled with the words: They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;          the sun shall not strike them,          nor any scorching heat.  (Revelation 7:16) In contrast, the wicked are exposed to the full justice of the Lord.  And yet, even as they experience his wrath, like Pharaoh, their hearts are hardened.  They know the source of their affliction, but rather than repent, rather than turn from their evil and give him glory, they curse him. With the fifth bowl, the judgement narrows from the wider pagan world of the Greeks and Romans to its throne—to the heart and embodiment of its wickedness. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness.  People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores.  They did not repent of their deeds. (Revelation 16:10-11) The Lord's judgement now falls on the beast, on Caesar, on Nero himself.  Darkness—political chaos—descends on the empire.  In a.d. 69 the Senate declared Nero a public enemy.  He fled and committed suicide.  A year of chaos—referred to as the Year of the Four Emperors—ensued.  Galba became emperor.  He was murdered by Otho.  Meanwhile, Vitellius popular for his military victories in Germany, vied for the throne and won the support of the imperial guard.  Otho committed suicide.  But Vitellius had his own rival in the general, Vespasian, who was besieging Jerusalem.  In the end, Vespasian's supporters in the military outnumbered those of Vitellius, who abdicated and was promptly lynched by a mob in Rome.  It was a year of chaos and civil war.  But again, even as the beast was toppled from his throne, there was no repentance.  Nero, who had initiated the empire's persecution of the saints, was cast down, but in quick succession four others seized his throne and made the same blasphemous claims to divinity that he had. And the sixth bowl.  Verses 12-16: The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east.  And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs.  For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.  (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”)  And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.   John has referred to Rome symbolically as Babylon—historically the great enemy of the people of God.  And now the symbolism of the judgements recalls the fall of Babylon, while at the same time conjuring up the great fear of Rome at that time.  Ancient Babylon fell to the Medes when the invaders diverted the Euphrates River so that they could enter the city.  Now it's Rome's turn to fall.  Rome's great enemy to the east was the Parthian empire—on the other side of the Euphrates.  In the midst of Rome's political chaos, war was coming.  John writes of the kings of the nations assembling to battle at a place called in Hebrew, Harmageddon—the Mount of Megiddo.  It's a little interesting in that there's no Mount Megiddo.  Megiddo is a valley between the mountains—the route from the coastal plain of Palestine to the interior, to Syria and Damascus.  For that reason it had a been a place of many battles.  Deborah and Barak had won their victory there in Judges.  It was the place where King Josiah met his Waterloo, so to speak.  And that's precisely how John uses “Megiddo” here.  That there's no actual Mount Megiddo suggests strongly that John isn't using this location literally.  When we say someone has met their Waterloo, we don't literally mean that they've gone to Waterloo to lose a battle.  Waterloo is a metaphor for defeat and John uses Megiddo in a similar way here.  Rome will meet her enemies and she will fall.  The beast's own wickedness will catch up with him both at home and abroad and he will be toppled from his throne. But in the middle of all this there's that warning.  “Stay awake,” warns Jesus.  Hearkening back to the plague of frogs in Egypt, the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet spew forth demonic spirits imaged as frogs.  These unclean spirits perform signs that deceive the kings of the nations and summon them to the battle.  Jesus warns his people not to be conned by the false prophets and their lying signs.  Pharoah's magicians had once mimicked the Lord's miracles and the prophets of the dragon and the beast will do the same.  God's people must be alert, he warns, that they not fall prey to the enemy's propaganda. And in verses 17-20 the seventh and final bowl is poured out. The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake.  The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.  And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found.  And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.   The final judgement is poured out into the air, the space between heaven and earth, and the only language John can employ to describe the result is the language of de-creation used by the Old Testament prophets.  Zechariah had once described the fall of Jerusalem using this metaphorical language—the city being split in two by an earthquake.  Now Rome is metaphorically split in three in the chaos of lightning, thunder, and earthquakes.  I think it's very possible this is a reference to the civil war that was about the rattle Rome to its core, but it was a civil war that would topple the beast who had persecuted the saints.  And yet, still, the wicked continue to curse God.  The men who took Nero's place on the throne did not continue the persecution of the saints, but they continued with their blasphemous claims to divinity.  Nevertheless, John says, “God remembered Babylon the great”.  This is our lead-in to Chapters 17 and 18.  The great city will be revealed as the world's whore.  But in that revelation, the faithfulness and the beauty of the Lord's bride will also be revealed. John saw the end of pagan Rome.  Or it might be better to say that he saw the beginning of the end of pagan Rome.  As Caird also rightly points out, Israel's prophets had always used this kind of apocalyptic language “to give theological depth and urgency to this historical crisis which he and his people were facing at the moment.  John, too, had his vision of the End, but because he had learnt his theology at the foot of the Cross, he knew that an end could also be a beginning.”[5] The Lord's judgement would cast down the beast, break his empire, and in time the good news about Jesus, proclaimed by saints and witnesses by the blood of the martyrs would transform the world.  And, Brothers and Sisters, it will continue to do so.  Throughout history the power of the gospel has brought transformation, but it's never as simple as we might like: Okay, the gospel has conquered here, now the Church can go over there or over there to conquer and forget about here.  The Church triumphs there, and then wanes here, only to triumph again here, later.  We in the West are experiencing what it's like to live in a post-Christian world—the waning of the gospel here—to fall out of favour, to experience opposition.  If John were here today he would warn and exhort us as he did the Christians of his own day: “Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”  Don't give up.  Don't succumb to the spirit of the age.  Don't be swayed by the lies of the unclean spirits.  The gospel will triump here again and it will do so through the witness of faithful Christians.  So live in deep community with your church family.  Drink deeply at the well of grace provided by the sacraments.  Steep yourself in the word of God.  Don't be afraid to be different—to be holy—and to proclaim the sinfulness of sin, the gracious mercy of God revealed at the cross, and the lordship of Jesus over all things.  Be shaped by faith-filled hope for Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. Let's pray: Almighty God, we thank you for the exhortation you have given us through John.  You judge the wicked and deliver your people.  Your gospel is powerful and transforms the world.  Strengthen our faith and fill us with hope in these truths, so that we can live courageously for Jesus in the face of hatred and opposition.  Renew us by your Spirit and make us faithful witnesses of the transforming power of your word.  Judge the wicked, we pray, vindicate your people, and set your fallen creation to rights.  Through Jesus we pray, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, new and for ever.  Amen. [1] Philip Carrington, The Meaning of Revelation (London: SPCK, 1931), 265. [2] J. P. M. Sweet, Revelation (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1979), 249. [3] The Kingdom of God in America (New York: Harper and Row, 1959), 193. [4] The Revelation of St. John the Divine (London: A & C Black, 1966), 201. [5] 210

Abrimos el programa repasando esa otra actualidad de la mano de José Antonio Méndez Sanz, profesor de metafísica de la Universidad de Oviedo antes de emprender una nueva ruta en tren en compañía de Manu Espiña. El historiador Faustino Zapico nos acercará lo ocurrido el 8 de junio del 68 cuando Galba sucedió a Nerón en Roma tras el suicidio de éste. El faranduleo con Henar García y una nueva entrega del Tú antes molabas, dedicado en esta ocasión a las series inspiradas en películas y viceversa y que contará con las voces de Diego Asenjo, David Baizán y David Ortuño, pondrán el punto y final al programa de hoy.

Abrimos el programa repasando esa otra actualidad de la mano de José Antonio Méndez Sanz, profesor de metafísica de la Universidad de Oviedo antes de emprender una nueva ruta en tren en compañía de Manu Espiña. El historiador Faustino Zapico nos acercará lo ocurrido el 8 de junio del 68 cuando Galba sucedió a Nerón en Roma tras el suicidio de éste. El faranduleo con Henar García y una nueva entrega del Tú antes molabas, dedicado en esta ocasión a las series inspiradas en películas y viceversa y que contará con las voces de Diego Asenjo, David Baizán y David Ortuño, pondrán el punto y final al programa de hoy.

Abrimos el programa repasando esa otra actualidad de la mano de José Antonio Méndez Sanz, profesor de metafísica de la Universidad de Oviedo antes de emprender una nueva ruta en tren en compañía de Manu Espiña. El historiador Faustino Zapico nos acercará lo ocurrido el 8 de junio del 68 cuando Galba sucedió a Nerón en Roma tras el suicidio de éste. El faranduleo con Henar García y una nueva entrega del Tú antes molabas, dedicado en esta ocasión a las series inspiradas en películas y viceversa y que contará con las voces de Diego Asenjo, David Baizán y David Ortuño, pondrán el punto y final al programa de hoy.

In Ancient Rome, all the best stories have one thing in common—murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city, Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was butchered in the theater, Claudius was poisoned at dinner, and Galba was beheaded in the Forum. In one 50-year period, 26 emperors were murdered. But what did killing mean in a city where gladiators fought to the death to sate a crowd? In A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Harry N. Abrams, 2021), Emma Southon examines a trove of real-life homicides from Roman history to explore Roman culture, including how perpetrator, victim, and the act itself were regarded by ordinary people. Inside Ancient Rome's darkly fascinating history, we see how the Romans viewed life, death, and what it means to be human. Emma Southon holds a PhD in ancient history from the University of Birmingham. She co-hosts a history podcast with writer Janina Matthewson called History is Sexy and works full time as a bookseller at Waterstones Belfast. Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press, 2020). Visit him online at ZalmanNewfield.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Ancient Rome, all the best stories have one thing in common—murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city, Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was butchered in the theater, Claudius was poisoned at dinner, and Galba was beheaded in the Forum. In one 50-year period, 26 emperors were murdered. But what did killing mean in a city where gladiators fought to the death to sate a crowd? In A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Harry N. Abrams, 2021), Emma Southon examines a trove of real-life homicides from Roman history to explore Roman culture, including how perpetrator, victim, and the act itself were regarded by ordinary people. Inside Ancient Rome's darkly fascinating history, we see how the Romans viewed life, death, and what it means to be human. Emma Southon holds a PhD in ancient history from the University of Birmingham. She co-hosts a history podcast with writer Janina Matthewson called History is Sexy and works full time as a bookseller at Waterstones Belfast. Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press, 2020). Visit him online at ZalmanNewfield.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/italian-studies

In Ancient Rome, all the best stories have one thing in common—murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city, Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was butchered in the theater, Claudius was poisoned at dinner, and Galba was beheaded in the Forum. In one 50-year period, 26 emperors were murdered. But what did killing mean in a city where gladiators fought to the death to sate a crowd? In A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Harry N. Abrams, 2021), Emma Southon examines a trove of real-life homicides from Roman history to explore Roman culture, including how perpetrator, victim, and the act itself were regarded by ordinary people. Inside Ancient Rome's darkly fascinating history, we see how the Romans viewed life, death, and what it means to be human. Emma Southon holds a PhD in ancient history from the University of Birmingham. She co-hosts a history podcast with writer Janina Matthewson called History is Sexy and works full time as a bookseller at Waterstones Belfast. Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press, 2020). Visit him online at ZalmanNewfield.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law

In Ancient Rome, all the best stories have one thing in common—murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city, Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was butchered in the theater, Claudius was poisoned at dinner, and Galba was beheaded in the Forum. In one 50-year period, 26 emperors were murdered. But what did killing mean in a city where gladiators fought to the death to sate a crowd? In A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Harry N. Abrams, 2021), Emma Southon examines a trove of real-life homicides from Roman history to explore Roman culture, including how perpetrator, victim, and the act itself were regarded by ordinary people. Inside Ancient Rome's darkly fascinating history, we see how the Romans viewed life, death, and what it means to be human. Emma Southon holds a PhD in ancient history from the University of Birmingham. She co-hosts a history podcast with writer Janina Matthewson called History is Sexy and works full time as a bookseller at Waterstones Belfast. Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press, 2020). Visit him online at ZalmanNewfield.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In Ancient Rome, all the best stories have one thing in common—murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city, Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was butchered in the theater, Claudius was poisoned at dinner, and Galba was beheaded in the Forum. In one 50-year period, 26 emperors were murdered. But what did killing mean in a city where gladiators fought to the death to sate a crowd? In A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Harry N. Abrams, 2021), Emma Southon examines a trove of real-life homicides from Roman history to explore Roman culture, including how perpetrator, victim, and the act itself were regarded by ordinary people. Inside Ancient Rome's darkly fascinating history, we see how the Romans viewed life, death, and what it means to be human. Emma Southon holds a PhD in ancient history from the University of Birmingham. She co-hosts a history podcast with writer Janina Matthewson called History is Sexy and works full time as a bookseller at Waterstones Belfast. Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press, 2020). Visit him online at ZalmanNewfield.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Ciclos de conferencias: Batallas de Roma: de Julio César al fin del Imperio (III). El año de los cuatro emperadores (69 d. C.). Las dos batallas de Cremona, punto de inflexión de la guerra civil. Francisco Gracia Alonso. El abrupto final de la dinastía Julio-Claudia marcó el inicio de la consolidación de las dictaduras militares en el Imperio romano que, de hecho, constituían la base del poder en Roma desde el final de la República. La fidelidad a sus jefes de los contingentes militares estacionados en las fronteras del Imperio marcará la sucesión de enfrentamientos entre el asesinato de Galba y la consolidación en el poder de Vespasiano. Se analiza la estructura del ejército romano a mediados del siglo I d. C.; la distribución territorial de las legiones; la importancia de las unidades auxiliares y el papel determinante desempeñado por la guardia pretoriana en la situación política. A partir de la fuentes escritas y la documentación arqueológica se estudian las dos batallas de Bedriacum (proximidades de Cremona) que enfrentaron sucesivamente a las tropas de Otón y las de Vitelio, el 14 de abril del 69, finalizada con la derrota y suicidio del primero, y a las de Vitelio con las de Vespasiano comandadas por Marco Antonio Primo, entre el 24 y 25 de octubre del mismo año, que significó la derrota de los vitelianos y la posterior ejecución del propio Vitelio, cerrando la consolidación en el poder de Vespasiano y el período de inestabilidad social y política. Explore en canal.march.es el archivo completo de Conferencias en la Fundación Juan March: casi 3.000 conferencias, disponibles en audio, impartidas desde 1975.

Well, you have your Bible, please open up with me to Isaiah. We're going to be in Isaiah 9:1-7. Over the last couple of weeks or so leading up to Christmas, Pastor Jacob has been working through the story of Christ's birth in the Gospel of Matthew, one of the most popular text. I think we would all agree in the Bible and yet the events that we read about in that passage and Mark or in Matthew Chapters one and two and in the corresponding infancy narrative in Luke's Gospel are stories and events that didn't arise out of the blue. In other words, the event of Christ's birth were events that were planned before the foundation of the world and events that were anticipated in the Old Testament. Today we're going to look at just one of those prophecies that looks forward to Christ's birth. It looks forward to Christ's incarnation some seven hundred years before it actually took place. So hear now the word of the Lord from Isaiah 9:1-7, I will be reading out of the English Standard Version. "But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. 3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. 5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Isaiah 9:1-7, ESV This is the word of the Lord. In the year sixty-nine A.D., about two thousand years ago or so, a year that's been called the so-called "Long Year" by historians. The Roman Empire went through something of a tense period of conflict and civil war. It actually all started the previous year back in sixty-eight A.D., when one of the most deranged emperors to ever govern Rome died. His name was Nero, and in 68 A.D., Nero killed himself. His successor, a guy named Galba, Emperor Galba, became emperor. Now, when word of this event, this transition of power, reached the eastern boundaries of the empire, where two generals named Vespasian and his son, Titus, were busy leveling Jerusalem and the surrounding area because of a large scale Jewish revolt that was underway. The younger of the two generals, whose name was General Titus dropped everything to go back to Rome and congratulate the new emperor who had ascended to the throne. You see, if you were among the first to greet the new guy and to make sure that he likes you, well, in the end, that would work out on your behalf. So that was Titus' plan, get the new guy to like me. So he began his long journey back to Rome to greet Emperor Galba. On his long, way back, a few things happened. First, long before Titus even got to Rome, Emperor Galba was assassinated a few months after he took control in January of 69 A.D. A new emperor named Otho took power of the empire in Rome. Right when that happened, something else happened. Another general and another area of the empire whose name was Vitellius decided that now was his opportunity to become emperor, and so he declared himself emperor and decided to march upon Rome and against Otho and his supporters. A few months later, Vitellius successfully overthrew the second guy named Otho as emperor. Given all of this upheaval that was going on in Rome, what was Titus, the first general who was going back to Rome to congratulate the first guy who had now died, what was he going to do? In the midst of all of this upheaval, he was kind of stuck in the middle and wondering, who should he get behind? You see, if you tied yourself to the wrong guy. That wasn't good because their downfall would eventually be your downfall. Well, in the end, here's what Titus did. He decided that with all of this turmoil unfolding, he'd go back and make sure that his dad Vespasian became emperor, and a few months later, Vespasian and marched on Rome, and he became emperor, too. Now, if you found that whole historical synopsis to be somewhat dizzying and confusing, that's because it is. Un the history of the Roman Empire sixty-nine A.D. was a dark and tumultuous year of political upheaval. It saw, if you were counting four different emperors in the course of a year, it was a year of backbiting and civil war. If, like General Titus, you were caught in the middle of all that, well, your next move would seal your own fate as well. You see, your future was bound up in who you supported. Support the wrong guy and you're not going to have much of a future. When you think about it, even if you support the winner and this is the kind of environment you call home, how long do you think you really have until somebody comes for you next? Now, on the one hand, the events of that story of sixty-nine A.D. and the tumultuous time of the Roman Empire are far removed in a variety of ways from our own context. On the other hand, you and I are always faced, we're always faced with decisions in life like Titus about who or what to support who or what to hitch our future ambitions to. Whether we're talking about the world of politics or our own future ambitions, or even something that's inconsequential as the world of sports. We're always trying to navigate this world and hopefully come out on top by supporting the right causes and the right people. Be that as it may, the Bible tells us that whatever we decide to get behind in this world, whatever alliances we gravitate towards and however shrewd we are in navigating this environment of competing forces, no amount of skillful maneuvering in the present can give us the kind of triumph that we look for or the satisfaction that we long for. You see, the Bible tells us that there are many good things and right things to get behind in this world, spiritually speaking, we live in a world of sin and unbelief and darkness. This world could never and will never yield a solution to its own problems. Our only hope then, while we live in this world, is to get behind somebody who is not of this world, but who nevertheless came into this world some two thousand years ago to triumph over the present darkness. So our big idea this morning is this walk in the light of the Son. Now we'll talk about the historical setting of our passage, Isaiah chapter nine, in just a moment. For now, keep in mind that when Isaiah writes what he writes here in Isaiah nine, some seven hundred years before Christ's birth and incarnation, Isaiah is speaking into a bleak and dark situation that's unfolding in his own day. He sees God's people descending into a time of darkness and gloom. Yet, in the context of that, he also looks forward to a future day where he sees a dramatic reversal on the horizon, a reversal that subverts expectations. So as we look at our passage, we'll see first how Isaiah describes this reversal as glory that overcomes gloom and then how he explains this reversal as deliverance that overcomes bondage. First, a description of how glory overcomes gloom and versus one through three and then an explanation deliverance, overcoming bondage and verses four through seven. Most commentators break this passage down and those two parts, and so I'm following accordingly. 1. How Glory Overcomes Gloom 2. Deliverance that Overcomes Bondage How Glory Overcomes Gloom So let's begin with seeing how glory overcomes gloom. Now throughout this passage, again, keep in mind that Isaiah is looking forward. He's looking forward to a future day. He's standing in about the seven hundred B.C., and yet he's looking to a future day on the horizon. To appreciate the descriptions that Isaiah provides of that coming day, we have to first appreciate when he says what he says. In other words, we have to appreciate something about the historical context in which Isaiah is prophesying. As we'll see, it's a context of doom and gloom and darkness. Understand that in the lead up to what Isaiah tells us here in Isaiah chapter nine, the prophet has been speaking from Isaiah seven through Isaiah eight, and now into Isaiah, nine, into a particular situation that was transpiring in Judah during the reign of King Ahaz around seven hundred thirty-four B.C. You see at that time, King Ahaz and the kingdom he led, known as Judah, were faced with a kind of international turmoil of their own. You see immediately to their north and alliance was forming. Actually, an alliance had already formed between two nations between Syria and the 10 northern tribes of Israel. This new alliance that had formed just north of Ahaz decided to put Ahaz and the Kingdom of Judah in their crosshairs. In fact, they were intent with overthrowing Ahaz and the Kingdom of Judah. As Isaiah is writing what he's writing, those armies from the North are already on the move. They're already pressing down southward, taking over city after city in Judah intent on overthrowing Ahaz and his kingdom. So Ahaz is faced with the potential loss of the kingdom he governs. He has a choice to make. Would he get behind the Israel-Syria alliance so that they would stop attacking him? Perhaps he could surrender to them while he still has time left and promised to pay them tribute so that they wouldn't attack him any longer? Kind of like paying the mafia for protection. Or on the other hand, maybe Ahaz would rather than align himself with that alliance to turn to the real superpower of the day a nation known as Assyria and get behind them so that they would offer him protection from this alliance forming in the north. In short, Ahaz is faced with a decision about what alliances to form, about who to get behind so that perhaps his kingdom that was under attack would be spared. Before he makes that decision, the prophet Isaiah comes to him in Isaiah chapter seven, and he pleads with Ahaz not to get behind anyone. Rather, he tells him to forsake all of these worldly alliances and the geopolitical wheeling and dealing that's going on in the day and instead look to the Lord. To trust that the Lord is going to deliver Judah from international threats near and far, just like he's always done throughout their history. Does Ahaz listen to Isaiah's advice? Well, no, he doesn't. Instead, and we would find this out if we were looking at Isaiah seven, he proceeds with forming an alliance with Assyria and though it saves Judah in the short term, ultimately, it's the decision that would lead to the devastation of his kingdom. First, after he makes that decision, Syria and the 10 northern tribes of Israel would be devastated by Assyria, the superpower of the day. That might have been good news for someone like Ahaz, who was only living in the short term by what he could see. After Ahaz is gone later, in history after he dies, Judah would suffer at the hands of that superpower too. Throughout Isaiah chapter seven and eight in the lead up to Isaiah nine, the prophet Isaiah looks forward to the future, and he outlines the consequences for rejecting the way of faith that he held out for Ahaz. Isaiah announces that because many in Judah, including the king himself, have rejected the way of faith and have chosen instead to live in the short term by what their eyes could see, the nation as a whole would be plunged into deep darkness and gloom. Even in that darkness, here's the good news. God would preserve a faithful remnant, a portion of his people who still trusted in him. Who were marked not merely by their national identity as Israelite or Judahites, but by their spiritual identity as a people who hunger and thirst for the Lord and for his promises. For people like that, here's where we come to the burst of light in Isaiah 9:1, the day of salvation would eventually dawn. Look again at verse one where we read, "But there will be no gloom for her, who was in anguish." There will be gloom after Ahaz, gloom will set in for the nation of Judah. Isaiah is looking beyond that at this point, and he says, "But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations." Back in the early 1990s, and some of you might remember this, one of the most dangerous cities in the world was Medellin, Colombia. In fact, at the time, I think it was labeled the most dangerous city in the world. During the heights of Pablo Escobar's drug cartel, which was based in Medellin. The city had something like a murder rate of nearly 400 murders per 100,000 people. It was by far the highest in the world. To give you a comparison, the highest murder rate in the United States today is St. Louis, which is about 64 murders per 100,000 people. So that was, you know, doing the math something like eight fold what St. Louis is today. Moreover, the poverty rate in Medellin in the early 1990s was something like 50 percent. The infrastructure of the city left much to be desired. After Escobar's death that the city underwent this incredible transformation, the homicide rate plummeted, the poverty rate fell too. Over the course of the next few decades, Medellin has been transformed into what one publication calls it one of the smartest cities in the world. Now, of course, all cities have issues Medellin included, but the transformation that city has undergone in three decades is truly remarkable. Well, when our text opens in verse one, we hear Isaiah announce an even more remarkable transformation than that. He tells us that the lands to the north of Judah and Jerusalem, the lands of Zebulon and Neftali would be transformed. Now this was land that was originally settled by God's people all the way back in the book of Joshua. The people of God who lived there, the Israelites who lived there under King David and under King Solomon, they flourished in that place. After Solomon died, well, that land quickly became a land of idolatry. False worship sprang up on the mountains of Zebulon and Neftali and the surrounding regions, and the land became a setting for international conflict. It was eventually land that was devastated by Assyria, in Ahaz's own day. We learn in the Bible that after a Syria devastated the land of Zebulon and Neftali, the carried away the Jewish population that lived there and then repopulated it again with pagan gentiles who didn't worship the Lord instead. In God's providence Assyria turned this land into a place of deep darkness and gloom in more ways than one. Yet, Isaiah looks forward to a day when that depleted and dark territory would be the first to be transformed. Of course, the kind of transformation that Isaiah envisions and Isaiah 9:1 has nothing to do with the implementation of any social or technological program. It has nothing to do with any kind of earthly glory whatsoever. Rather, Isaiah sees transformation of this territory because God himself is on the move. Understand that whenever we hear about light breaking into darkness in the Bible, it's nearly always associated with the presence of the glory of God. For example, the psalmist proclaims in Psalm 104:1-2, "You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light, as with a garment." The advent of light into the world, then, is nothing more and nothing less than the emergence of God's presence into the world, to dwell with his people. And to deal with the dominance of spiritual darkness that had overtaken not only the land but also the world. As Isaiah looks forward to this day, the advent of God's glorious presence, well, he tells us in verse three that this really has nothing to do at all with a geographical plot of land. Rather, it has everything to do with what this will mean for God's people. Look at verse three, where the prophet Isaiah proclaims quote, "You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you, as with joy at the harvest as they are glad when they divide the spoil." Again, Isaiah is peering forward to a future day just like he was in versus one through two. As an aside, what's interesting is that throughout these verses, these first three verses in Isaiah, he sees these events of the future as so certain that he actually speaks about them in the past tense. He did that when he spoke of God's presence back in the land, and now he does that again when he talks about the effects that this has on God's people. So what is the effect that God's presence has on God's people? Well, first he talks about the multiplication of God's people. Remember, in Isaiah's own day as he's writing this prophecy, those who were actually looking to God by faith were few. It was maybe a small remnant among the people of Judah and Israel who actually believed in the Lord and love the Lord. In the future, Isaiah tells us when light breaks through the darkness, he sees a dramatic increase in numbers. Not only Jews, but also pagans from the nations would soak in the light of God's presence. Remember, because of Assyria, those northern regions became a mixture of gentiles and Jews, which is why Isaiah calls them here Galilee of the Nations. When light arrives, when God's presence breaks into human history, he paints this picture where even a remnant of the Gentiles will be transformed from a people of unbelief to a people of faith. God's people, then we learn when God's presence arrives would swell numerically. They would spread out geographically, and we only need to read through the book of Acts to see how that takes shape and in their growth. We also learn that their joy would increase, too. If you're looking at the imagery of verse three Isaiah likens the joy of God's people when God's presence arrives to that of a farmer after a bountiful harvest. Much of you farmers are joyful right now, that's the kind of joy that's envisioned here. Then he pictures that likewise as joy of a victorious army dividing up plunder after a battle that they won. But that leads to the question why? Why are they so joyful? Why are they filled with such joy? Well, very simply, the joy of God's people is conditioned by nothing other than the fact that with the advent of this light, they now dwell secure in the presence of God. When I was a kid, my parents were kind enough. Year in and year out to take my sister and I on a number of great vacations. Often one of the places we would go to was the happiest place on Earth, Walt Disney World. Now, as a kid who was spoiled and got to go to Walt Disney World fairly often, you would think that I would appreciate the thoughtfulness of my parents and the sacrifice that it was to take me there year in and year out and that as a kid, I would have simply just appreciated being at Walt Disney World, but that that would have been enough for me. But if that's what you're assuming, then you've never vacationed with kids. You see, without fail, every time we went on one of these extravagant vacations as a kid, even to Disney, it was never enough just to be on vacation. I always wanted something more. I remember one year in particular as a kid, that there was this toy Davy Crockett rifle that I saw in one of the gift shops, the gift shop that Disney strategically locates just to drive every parent crazy. I had to have it. For days in the so-called Happiest Place on Earth, all I thought about was this toy rifle asking my parents for every five minutes and unable to find any semblance of joy in the so-called Happiest Place on Earth until I held this overpriced faux wooden rifle in my hands. Talk about needing to shift my priorities. If we're all honest with ourselves, I think this also captures how we too often live in God's world, too. You see, when we become Christians, I think many of us can attest to the fact that God was enough. To be in his presence, to be in his church and to study his word might have felt like drinking water from a fire hose. It was a lot, but it was also a satisfying place to be. At some point we settle in and we often begin to obsess over comparatively insignificant things. Remember, in verse three of our passage, God's people are rejoicing with exceedingly exceeding joy simply because they're in God's presence. Their joy isn't conditioned by anything else other than God is in their midst. Friends, that's a game changer for God's people. That's everything in dictating our joy in the Christian life, too. But is that enough for you? Does that reality by itself produce joy in your life, or is your joy conditioned by a host of far more insignificant factors? If you profess Christ, let me ask you this, do people know you by your joy? You see, one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is joy, and we're called to be known as God's people for our joy. So do people know you as someone who professes steadfast joy in Christ? Or are you on the flip side, known more is a critical curmudgeon, as a bitter killjoy, always upset about something and always with an axe to grind. Now, of course, that's not to say we need to fake it when we walk through real suffering in life and when the world feels like a two ton elephant on our back. But even in suffering, the Bible tells us that there is a profound, not superficial, but substantive joy in knowing God and being in his presence. Joy in trusting that our identity as Sons of God is rooted and secured through the work of Christ. Friends, it's true that we live in an angry and scared and delusional world, but we're a people who don't belong to this world. We don't think like this world. We don't relate with each other in the back biting and exhausting way that citizens of this world relate with each other. Our joy is not and cannot be conditioned by anything in this world because if it is, it's understandable why we would be a miserable kind of people. We have what the world does not. So let me exhort you with this don't so obsess over the scraps of life that you fail to appreciate the feast that's laid before us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Find your joy, real joy, substantive joy in Jesus Christ. So Isaiah describes this future day when God's glorious presence would powerfully break into the world and his people would flourish in quantity and quality as a result. When we turn to verses four through seven, Isaiah puts meat on the bones, as it were, by describing for us more about the character of God's presence in the world and more reason that we have to be a joyful people as we pilgrim in this world. Deliverance that Overcomes Bondage So this leads to the second point deliverance that overcomes bondage. Now, when we turn to verses four through seven, if you're looking at your Bible, you may notice that in verses four or five and six, Isaiah begins at least in the English translation. With this word for the idea here is that in each of these verses, Isaiah is explaining both the nature of God's advent and the reasons we have to be a people of joy. In doing this, he gives us three what we call vignettes, three pictures to explain God's advent as our deliverance out of bondage, the bondage of darkness. So let's take a look at these three vignettes. First look at verse four, where Isaiah tells us that through the advent of God's glorious presence, God's people are delivered from bondage. They're pictured here as a people who were once pressed down with a wooden bar on their necks. That's this idea of a yoke with a rod in the hands of a taskmaster used against them. This symbolism pictures God's people living under an oppressive burden, a burden that that clearly goes beyond merely physical things. When the light arrives, what happens? Well, this burden is dramatically broken. Notice that the relief they experience is also likened in our passage to the relief that was brought about by Gideon in the book of Judges. That's what this reference at the final line of verse for when we hear about Midian, that's what that calls to mind. If you don't know the story in the book of judges. When God's people, particularly in the north of Israel, the land of Zebulon and Naftali were oppressed by the Midianites, God raised up Gideon to deliver them. If you were to look at the book of Judges and read about that deliverance, you would find that Gideon's triumph over the Midianites was, by all accounts, unexpected. It subverted expectations because the Lord called Gideon to go up against Midian with only 300 men. Yet, through that unexpected band of men led by Gideon, God saved his people. In the same way, I say, tells us that the deliverance that God's advent brings will come about in an equally, actually an even more unexpected way. A way that subverts expectations. We'll have to wait until verse six to hear more about that. In verse five Isaiah tells us that through the advent of God's presence, it's as if a war has also been won. The imagery is that of a military equipment being burned by fire. What's important in this imagery is that at no point in Isaiah's forward looking future picture that he gives; do we hear anything about God's people actually fighting a battle or winning a battle. In fact, the only picture we have is that of God's people enjoying the end of a battle that's already been won. As Alec Motera puts it, "They have entered the battlefield only after the fighting is done." They win a victory without actually fighting a war on their own. Now these two vignettes the one in verse four and the one in verse five are both helpful for us in explaining God's advent. They explain the character of God's presence and what it means, what he breaks into human history. They explain the reasons that we have to be a people of joy. When we come to verses six and seven, the final two verses in our passage, we also come to the vignette, the picture that holds everything else together, this is the one in verses six through seven that explains the victory. This is the one that explains the nature of the burdens lifted, and this is the one that puts flesh and blood to the coming of God's presence into the world. Unexpectedly, at least for those hearing and reading this and Isaiah's own day, the climax of deliverance is a child. Talk about deliverance through unexpected means. Yet in this child, we find that God himself has come. Notice in verse six that there are four names that are ascribed to this child. This is a famous passage; it was read for us earlier. Most of us probably all know what these titles are, we read Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Now, each of these four names, when you really get down to it, would simply be inappropriate to give to any ordinary child, even a child who's born into royalty because each one of these titles are packed with notions of divinity. Let's just look at two of these. First, the title wonderful counselor may seem tame on the surface of things. It may seem as if this is simply somebody who doles out pious and positive advice, and that's about it. Kind of like a motivational speaker of sorts. That's not at all with this title suggests. In fact, one commentator named Paul House opts for a translation "wonderful planner", because this title points to one who plans supernatural things and then carries them out. It has nothing to do with somebody who just sits on high and doles out positive advice that you can take or leave. In short, the language here suggests that this child is vested with the knowledge to plan redemption and then the authority to carry it out. The next title, Mighty God, suggests even more clearly that than the first the divinity of this child. This is a child who embodies the power of God in his person. Who defeats the enemies of God, and then, like God himself, is the rightful object of worship for the people of God. Understand, then, that the descriptions and the titles that are given to this son point to a ruler that the world could never produce on its own. This is one who represents perfectly God's people before God and who in turn perfectly rules over God's people as God's true king. It's no surprise, then, that Isaiah nine, this passage that we've been reading and studying and preaching on is cited in Matthew chapter four at the outset of Jesus's public ministry in Galilee of the Gentiles and applied to Jesus. It's no surprise that Jesus, in his incarnation, is described in John one as light that had broken into the world. John 1:09 tells us of Jesus, the true light which gives light to everyone, has come. The future hope that Isaiah declares then for the small and faithful remnant in his own day, living in darkness, living in gloom has nothing to do with political deliverance from an international enemy. It has nothing to do with anything earthly whatsoever. It has nothing to do with getting behind the right earthly power or the right earthly king or the right earthly kingdom. Rather, the ultimate hope that Isaiah holds out to them and us is Jesus Christ. The one who has dealt with our greatest enemies of sin and death and the devil and the only one through whom, to paraphrase the Apostle Paul in Colossians one, transfers us his people from the domain of darkness to his own glorious kingdom of light. Application Friends, the gospel tells us that the things this world values, things that may have a veneer of wisdom and power, of things that we might be really tempted in our own lives to invest all of our capital into are ultimately things that are powerless to do what we really need from them. So often the world pulls us into thinking that our ultimate hope depends on what we get behind in this world. You see these metaphors of light and darkness, metaphors that we find all over the scriptures, are also commonplace elsewhere in life. Typically, when the world wants to baptize something as good, even if it's not good, it's associated with light. Any time the world wants to identify something as evil, it cloaks it in the metaphor of darkness. For example, the Philadelphia Eagles are a team of light, and the Dallas Cowboys are a team of deep, deep darkness. That's true. Yet the Bible tells us that the true light, the true light that has come into this world has nothing to do with this world. The true light is not found in what looks powerful in this world. Rather, it's found in what the world considers lowly and despised. It found in the one who is born to a teenage girl from a backwater town in Galilee of the nations, on the fringes of the most powerful empire in the first century A.D. By all accounts, the light that dawns in the first century A.D. in Jesus Christ subverts expectations in a plethora of ways. Yet in this child lies the power of God. Friends like General Titus and Ahaz before him, we're often driven by angst about being on the winning team. After all, nobody wants to be on the "wrong side of history". The Bible pleads with us to vest our hope not in anything that this world values, but in this child, Jesus Chris. The one who stands at the center of human history and the one who stands at the end of human history. So if you're not a Christian this morning, let me ask you this. What alliances in this world are you banking on right now? How's that working out for you? You see, the Bible pleads with us, as do I, to ally yourself above everything else with God's king, Jesus Christ through faith alone. That is our only hope in this ruthless and dark, dark world. At the same time, this passage calls all of us, whether you're a Christian or not, to check our allegiances and to align ourselves or realign ourselves with the true light and the true king. This is what I want to leave us with. That is just as we do not seek salvation from anything that this world offers, so too do not despair, the apparent dominance of darkness in this world. You see, there's much in this world that could distress us if we let it. I don't think I need to say that, but I'll say it when we look out into our neighborhoods and into our worlds, we see that the darkness of sin and unbelief hangs over everything. Then we turn inward and then we examine our own hearts and we see our own sin. When we do that, how many of us have cried out with the Apostle Paul, "wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death?" While there will always, always be much to pray for, and there's always much that could drive us to despair, understand the light of the glory of God's presence has already broken into this world. The church has already spread abroad all across the world and continues to do so to this very day, even in places that we would identify as places of deep darkness and persecution for the church. The Spirit, we know is also actively at work in the church, actively at work, even in our own local church, in our ministries, at work in our members. All of us are learning day by day what it means to walk in the light of the glory of God. The Bible tells us that the light has already dawned and far from disappearing or fading into the night sky, the Bible looks forward to the day when Jesus Christ will come again in a second advent and the light of the glory of God will be so bright that sun and moon will no longer have a purpose in the new heavens and the new Earth. Revelation 21 has something to say about that. Again, there's much we could despair over in this world, but brothers and sisters, the first advent that we celebrate has already come. The second, I promise you, is on its way. In the meantime, the Lord, our God, through his Spirit, is in our midst. What alliance could be any more consequential than that one? Pray with me. Father, we thank you for what Isaiah looked forward to, that we look back upon. That is the advent and appearing of your glory and your Son. Lord, we thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you that Jesus Christ was and did everything that Isaiah looked forward to in his own day. Lord, I pray that as we walk, as sojourners and exiles in this often dark world that you would help us remember who we are and whose we are. That you would help us correct any battle allegiances that we have with this world. That you would instead realign us day by day with what is true and what is right and what is good. What we ask this in Christ name. Amen.

More great books at LoyalBooks.com

More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Entrevista com o Deputado Estadual| Galba Novaes

Taking after Tiberius and Caligula, Nero had his own flare for the depraved and sadistic. This Emperor, known for "playing the fiddle" as Rome burned, was quite the interesting character. Join me this week as we discuss the life and proclivities of the Emperor Nero. Please note: Episodes of Kinky Facts contain adult themes, graphic content, and vulgar language. It is not suitable for anyone under the age of 18, it is also not suitable for work. Listener discretion is advised. Want more Kinky Facts? Follow me on instagram or TikTok: the_dahlia_rose Only Fans : rose.dahlia (free to subscribe) To read my spicy short stories, poems, or to suggest kinky facts visit my website at: https://dahliarose.weebly.com/ Music from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/soulful-sparks License code: I3XF9GKGKU2CSCKG Soulful Sparks by Soundroll Sources: https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub368/entry-6272.html#chapter-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero#Revolt_of_Vindex_and_Galba_and_Nero's_death https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nero-Roman-emperor https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/nero https://www.livescience.com/40277-emperor-nero-facts.html https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/06/14/how-nasty-was-nero-really https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/new-nicer-nero-history-roman-emperor-180975776/ https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/roman-emperor-nero-e98c6470945e https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domus_Aurea https://erenow.net/ancient/thejoyofsexus/75.php --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Aquesta setmana, a les Portes de Troia, tractarem el combuls any 69 dC, el conegut Any dels quatre emperadors. Repassarem els principats dels emperadors Galba, Otó, Vitel·li i Vespasià i analitzarem la memòria que ens ha arribat sobre ells.

“Lives” is a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans by the ancient Greek historian Plutarch who lived during the first and second century AD. The work consists of twenty-three paired biographies, one Greek and one Roman, and four unpaired, which explore the influence of character on the lives and destinies of important persons of Ancient Greece and Rome. Rather than providing strictly historical accounts, Plutarch was most concerned with capturing his subjects common moral virtues and failings. This volume includes the complete “Lives” in which you will find the biographies of the following persons: Theseus, Romulus, Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius, Solon, Poplicola, Themistocles, Camillus, Pericles, Fabius, Alcibiades, Coriolanus, Timoleon, Æmilius Paulus, Pelopidas, Marcellus, Aristides, Marcus Cato, Philopœmen, Flamininus, Pyrrhus, Caius Marius, Lysander, Sylla, Cimon, Lucullus, Nicias, Crassus, Sertorius, Eumenes, Agesilaus, Pompey, Alexander, Cæsar, Phocion, Cato the younger, Agis, Cleomenes, Tiberius Gracchus, Caius Gracchus, Demosthenes, Cicero, Demetrius, Antony, Dion, Marcus Brutus, Aratus, Artaxerxes, Galba, and Otho. Plutarch's “Lives” remains today as one of the most important historical accounts of the classical period. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

W dzisiejszym odcinku będziemy mówić sporo o kazirodztwie czyli o związkach z osobami blisko spokrewnionymi. Wprawdzie Biblia tego zakazywała, a z czasem było coraz więcej dowodów na to, że prowadzi to do chorób u dzieci zrodzonych z takich związków. Mimo wszystko w dawnych czasach władcy często wybierali sobie żony spośród bliskich krewnych. Dzięki temu władza pozostawała w rodzinie. Takie bliskie związki były normalne w Egipcie, w rodzinie Heroda, ale także wiele lat później w Europie wśród Habsburgów. Jak obliczają niektórzy historycy Karol II Habsburg w 14 liniach był potomkiem Joanny Szalonej. Podobnie to wyglądało w rodzinie Heroda.Antypater ojciec Heroda Wielkiego miał jeszcze jednego syna Fazaela. Jego syn o tym samym imieniu często jest nazywany Fazaelem II. Po śmierci swojego ojca poślubił on córkę stryja Heroda Wielkiego. Jego najmłodsza córka została żoną Heroda Agryppy I. Innymi słowy Herod Agryppa ożenił się ze swoją bliską kuzynką. Z tego małżeństwa urodził się Herod Agryppa II, który zarówno po mieczu jak i po kądzieli był prawnukiem Heroda Wielkiego. Łącznie Herod Agryppa I i jego kuzynka Kypros mieli pięcioro dzieci. My jednak skupimy się dzisiaj na trójce z nich. Będą to Herod Agryppa II oraz jego siostry Berenika i Druzylla.W ten sposób doszliśmy do prawnuka Heroda Wielkiego czyli Heroda Agryppę II. Urodził się on w Rzymie i tam też umarł. Gdy zmarł jego ojciec był zbyt młody aby dostać władzę. Miał wtedy zaledwie 17 lat. Potem dostał od cesarza Klaudiusza trochę ziemi ale nigdy tyle ile mieli jego poprzednicy z rodu Heroda. Herod Agryppa II miał dwie znane siostry Berenikę oraz Druzyllę. Ta druga siostra pierwsza pojawia się w Biblii. W Dziejach Apostolskich 24:24 czytamy, że apostoł Paweł był sądzony w Cezarei. Czytamy tam: “po kilku dniach przybył Feliks z żoną swoją Druzyllą, która była Żydówką. Kazał więc sprowadzić Pawła i przysłuchiwał się mu, co mówił o wierze w Jezusa Chrystusa”. Kim był ten Feliks?Cesarz Klaudiusz o mało co nie stracił życia podczas zamachu na swojego poprzednika czyli Kaligulę. Tak więc nie wiedząc komu zaufać powierzył ważne rządzenie swoim imperium wyzwoleńcom. Rzymianie dość dobrze traktowali domowych niewolników. Często ich wyzwolili, a ci byli zaufanymi swoich panów - w pewnym sensie tworząc powiększoną rodzinę swojego pana. Jednym z takich byłych niewolników był Pallas, a Feliks był jego bratem. Tak więc Pallas, który jako jeden z tych wyzwoleńców zarządzał imperium rzymskim w imieniu Klaudiusza mianował swojego brata Feliksa zarządcą Judei (po łacinie procurator).Ten były niewolnik wybierał sobie za żony księżniczki. Najpierw ożenił się z inną Druzyllą, która była prawnuczką Kleopatry VII i Marka Antoniusza. Później ożenił się z Druzyllą, która była prawnuczką Heroda Wielkiego. Druzylla była córką Heroda Agryppy I, a siostrą Agryppy II oraz Bereniki. Druzylla, prawnuczka Heroda Wielkiego także miała wcześniej męża, który był królem, ale porzuciła go dla Feliksa. Z małżeństwa z Feliksem miała syna nazywanego Agryppą III. Ich syn zginął później podczas wybuchu Wezuwiusza w roku 79. Agrypa III przebywał wtedy w Pompejach.Apostoł Paweł staną przed Feliksem w Cezarei i jak czytamy w kolejnych wersetach rozdziału 24 Dziejów Apostolskich słuchał wyjaśnień apostoła. Paweł mówił mu o panowaniu nad sobą oraz o sądzie, który ma przyjść. Feliks się tym wystraszył. Jednak nie zwolnił Pawła, bo czekał na łapówkę od niego. Ostatni werset tego rozdziału mówi, że po Feliksie zarządcą Judei został Porcjusz Festus. W czasach tych dwóch prokuratorów rozpoczął się konflikt w Cezarei. Jak mówiłem w odcinku 11 tej audycji - port w Cezarei. Stanęła tam też świątynia Augusta. Przybyło tam wielu Greków, co doprowadziło do wielu problemów. Żydzi uważali, że to ich miasto, bo przecież zbudował je ich król Herod Wielki. Zarówno Feliks jak i następujący po nim Porcjusz Festus nie rozwiązali tego konfliktu. Festus odesłał obie strony konfliktu czyli zarówno Żydów jak i Greków do Nerona. Doprowadziło to później do buntu.Biblia mówi, że Paweł stanął przed kolejnym napastnikiem czyli Festusem. Chciał się on przypodobać Żydom, którymi miał rządzić i chciał odesłać Pawła do Jerozolimy. Wtedy apostoł Paweł skorzystał ze swojego rzymskiego obywatelstwa i odwołał się co cezara, którym wtedy był Neron. Paweł, który kilka lat spędził w tym więzieniu w Cezarei miał już okazję poznać najmłodszą córkę zmarłego króla Heroda Agryppy I czyli Druzyllę oraz przede wszystkim jej męża Feliksa. Teraz będzie miał okazję poznać resztę rodzeństwa, bo Festus korzystając z przybycia króla Heroda Agryppy II poprosił go o pomoc w sprawie apostoła Pawła. W Dziejach Apostolskich 25:23 czytamy: “gdy przyszli Agryppa i Berenika z wielką okazałością i weszli do sali przyjęć (...) na rozkaz Festusa przyprowadzono Pawła”. Prawie cały kolejny rozdział Dziejów Apostolskich czyli rozdział 26 to obrona Pawła przed namiestnikiem Festusem oraz królem Agryppą II i jego siostrą Berenike.Ciekawe jest to, że wobec poprzedniego namiestnika Feliksa, dla którego Druzylla porzuciła swojego męża Paweł mówił o panowaniu nad sobą oraz o nadchodzącym sądzie. Wprawdzie nie powiedział wprost, że Bóg ukarze rozpustników, ale chyba to chciał zasugerować. Teraz przed Herodem Agryppą II i Berenike mówi o zmartwychwstaniu oraz o proroctwach. Trzeba wam jednak wiedzieć, że powszechnie w tamtych czasach uważano, że Agryppa II współżyje ze swoją siostrą Berenike. Agryppa II był o rok starszy od Berenike, Druzylla była młodsza od Berenike o 10 lat. Gdy pierwszy raz rozeszły się pogłoski o tym, że żyje ze swoim bratem nakłoniła króla Cylicji, aby dał się obrzezać i została jego żoną. Potem jednak zostawiła swojego męża i wróciła do swojego brata. Właśnie wtedy doszło do przesłuchania apostoła Pawła.Może warto przypomnieć, że Jan Chrzciciel zginął właśnie dlatego, że krytykował Herodiadę, że opuściła swojego męża dla Heroda Antypasa. Z tego powodu król Herod Antypas kazał później ściąć Jana. Paweł stojący najpierw przed Feliksem, który żył z księżniczką Druzyllą, która również opuściła swojego męża chyba sugerował, że czeka ich kara. Wobec Agryppy II i Berenike nic o tym nie wspomniał. Oczywiście Paweł stojąc przed nimi bronił swojej sprawy w sądzie. Feliks wzywał go wielokrotnie i chyba dość długo i często rozmawiali, a przed królem Agryppą II, Paweł stanął tylko raz i jego przemowę przerwał później namiestnik Festus. Biblia później pisze o podróży Pawła do Rzymu, gdzie stanął przed Neronem, ale jak się potoczyły losy Agryppy II, Berenike i Druzylli?Król Herod Agryppa I rządził w zasadzie całym państwem. Mówiłem o nim w poprzednim odcinku. Jego syn Agryppa II w momencie śmierci ojca miał dopiero 17 lat, a cesarz Klaudiusz dał mu małe królestwo po jego stryju. Judeą zaczęli ponownie rządzić namiestnicy. Ci rzymscy prokuratorowie przebywali głównie w Cezarei i właśnie dlatego apostoł Paweł tak długo przebywał tam w więzieniu. W 66 roku konflikt pomiędzy Grekami i Żydami w Cezarei przerodził się w bunt, a potem powstanie. Grecy złożyli ofiarę z ptaków tuż obok żydowskiej synagogi w Cezarei. Dla Żydów był to wystarczający powód do powstania, które wybuchło właśnie tego roku czyli w 66. Rzymianie wysłali legion pod dowództwem Gallusa z pobliskiej Syrii, ale został on pokonany. W 67 roku na północy pojawił się legion kierowany przez Wespazjana i jego syna Tytusa. Jednak w ciągu jednego roku od czerwca 68 do lipca 69 roku w Rzymie zmieniło się wielu cesarzy. Ten okres nazywa się rokiem czterech Cesarzy. Najpierw został zabity Neron, po którym panował Galba, po nim Oton, po którym cesarzem został Witeliusz, aż w końcu Wespazjan, który tłumił powstanie w Judei. Tak więc Wespazjan ruszył do Rzymu, a powstanie stłumił jego syn Tytus. Zarówno Herod Agryppa II jak i jego siostra Berenike poparli Rzymian. Berenike stała się jednak dla Tytusa kimś więcej.Berenike została kochanką Tytusa. Gdy w 70 roku zdobywano Jerozolimę prosiła go o to, aby nie niszczyć świątyni. Niestety żołnierze niechcący ją podpalili. Tytus zdobył i zniszczył Jerozolimę, a później zbudowano mu łuk triumfalny w Rzymie, który istnieje do naszych czasów. Berenike pojechała z nim do Rzymu i tam żyli otwarcie razem. Tytus obiecywał jej małżeństwo. Niestety dla niej później pod naporem opinii publicznej odesłał ją. Rzymianie mieli złe skojarzenia z królowymi ze wschodu. Juliuszowi Cezarowi mieli za złe związek z Kleopatrą VII, a teraz Tytusowi wyrzucano związek z księżniczką Berenike. Tak więc nie została cesarzową gdy w 79 roku Tytus po śmierci ojca został cesarzem.Podsumowując Herod Agryppa I miał trójkę dzieci, które przeszły do historii. Wprawdzie jego syn Agryppa II nie rządził tak wielkim królestwem jak ojciec, ale także był królem. Oskarżano go o związek z siostrą Berenike. Ta siostra była później kochanką Tytusa i o mało co zostałaby wraz z nim cesarzową. Najmłodsza córka Agryppy I czyli Druzylla związała się z wyzwoleńcem Feliksem i miała z nim syna Agryppę III, który zginął w Pompejach podczas wybuchu Wezuwiusza w 79 roku. Cała ta trójka czyli Agryppa II oraz jego siostry Berenike i Druzylla, cała ta trójka spotkała się z apostołem Pawłem podczas jego uwięzienia w Cezarei.Na koniec może warto jeszcze wspomnieć, że podczas powstania Żydów do powstania w 66 roku dołączył Józef z rodu kapłańskiego. Dostał się on do niewoli, ale potem został wyzwolony przez Wespazjana. Wyzwoleńcy dostawali nazwisko swojego byłego pana tak więc Józef przeszedł do historii z nazwiskiem cesarzy Wespazjana i Tytusa. Przeszedł do historii jako Józef Flawiusz. Był to żydowski historyk, który napisał takie dzieła jak “Wojna żydowska” czy “Dawne dzieje Izraela”. Wiele informacji, które podawałem wam w tych audycjach pochodzi właśnie od Józefa Flawiusza.

Revelation 17:7-18 Series: Just Conquer Part 46 # Introduction It has been observed that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and getting the same result, but expecting a different one. Because of sin, there are more insane people than polite people want to acknowledge. To be insane means to be in a state of mind which prevents normal perception and behavior. Our English word comes from *insanus*, which is the idea of not being *sanus*, so *not healthy*. While we know that man's depravity means he is spiritually dead and incapable of seeing the truth on his own, one of the symptoms is a mental sickness that *believes* in the dark. It's "normal" only in the sense that he's not by himself in his perceptions of reality. The last days will be marked by a society of unrestrained delusion. There will be great, global agreement on impossible things, at least until the hour when agreement self-destructs. This is the insane part, because the agreement was on destruction, so it was only a matter of time before it imploded. A society cannot survive if it is built on idolizing a liar and living in deception. Only those who *can't* be insane won't be, and the only ones who can't are called by the Spirit and chosen by the Father and faithful to the Lamb. The burden of Revelation 17 is to show the path of destruction, to show what has been determined for those who deceive and are deceived. They love to hate, their "love" turns to hate, and it is insane to think that it was ever going to turn out differently. They have a mind for war, a shared mind set for destruction, and those who are raised up in such an irrational system are destined to fall. As believers, we are not just being given information about the future world insanity and the sorts of persecution that believers will face, we are being given a different mindset, we are being given a share in the conquering King, and we are being given confidence in God's Word. *All* of His words will be fulfilled, and it can't be any other way. It is the definition of insanity to deny His sovereignty, let alone to make war against the Lamb. We have been considering John's visions of the Great Tribulation for a number of chapters. What we have seen unveiled with the apostle are not things that have happened yet, they are not things that are currently on stage either. That said, we are not luny to think that they are immanent. We are not mentally unfit, or unhinged because we think they could happen at any moment, because John himself wrote that they would happen soon, as did many other NT writers. When we see insanity in our own day, we are seeing the same path of destruction. Our heightened awareness of the two paths, one of conquering and the other of being conquered, only helps us be faithful. Revelation 17 began with a vision of a "great prostitute," who represents a system of spheres which seduce men with the promise of prosperity and pleasure. The woman works with the beast, the Antichrist, until he turns on her, which anyone who knows anything about beasts could have told her would happen. John introduced the prostitute and identified some of her behavior in verses 1-6, and in verses 7-18 he is given an angelic interpretation of what it all means. Five times we'll read "that you saw" (verses 8, 12, 15, 16, 18) as the angel provides divine commentary. # Raised to Fall (verses 7-14) John's response to the vision begins halfway through our verse 6: "When I saw her, I marveled greatly." We might compare this to the first time Digory saw Queen Jadis, or what Ahab thought about Jezebel: Wow, and *Yikes*! There was an overwhelming sense of pomp (she “was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup") along with an overwhelming sense of corruption (she held “a cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality" and “was drunk with the blood of the saints"). The prostitute was a breathtaking nightmare. The "angel said" to John, "'Why do you marvel? I will show you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with the seven heads and ten horns that carries her" (verse 7). Her appearance has a perfectly sane explanation and John has no need to be so staggered. Now we see about the beast, the heads, then the horns. ## The Beast is raised to fall. (verse 8) The verse opens and shuts with a description of the beast as one who "was, and is not, and is about" to come. The beast is the Antichrist according to chapter 13, and his is mostly a political power with a religious complexion. The beast has always been jealous of the anointed Son, and even this description is a bad parody of the eternal Logos. The beast "is about to rise from the bottomless pit," from his underworld abyss (see 11:7). But even with such a devilish arrival, he will come from hell "and go to destruction." It's a one-way road to Looserville (ἀπώλειαν means loss and ruin). He'll do damage all along his route, but the end of his comeback is downfall. It has also been determined that many will love and laud this loser; "the dwellers on earth...will marvel to see the beast." The angel explains their marveling as an inevitable identity. They are "the dwellers on earth *whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world*." They were not chosen to see anything different. They were not chosen to know the truth, and so they *can't* and won't. They were not chosen to be delivered from the path of destruction. ## The Heads are raised to fall. (verses 9-11) John saw the prostitute riding the beast and he saw that the beast "was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns" (17:3). The angel has an interpretation. "This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; they are also seven kings" (verse 9-10a). As we've already seen, having a mind is no sure indicator of having wisdom in it. That the heads symbolize "seven mountains" suggests the beast's connection with Rome. John's original readers surely would have connected the "seven hilled city,” the *urbs septicollis*, with Rome, as Suetonius and Virgil and Cicero and other Roman historians referred to it. A mind with wisdom is needed, though, because it's not just geographical, it's also generational. The heads are also "seven kings," and note the 5 + 1 + 1 pattern: "five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while" (verse 10). The sequence is much too specific to interpret the seven as just a perfect number, whatever the actual number. And also, such a specific sequence is impossible to fit with Roman emperors, as Preterists expect and as others attempt. Among those who believe that these seven kings are seven Roman Caesars, there is as much agreement about *which seven* as there is agreement about the efficacy of the Dominion election software, which is to say, not much. Even “Roman historians themselves debated whether Julius should be included as the first e.g., Suetonius [yes] vs. Tacitus [no].” (Osborne) Start with Julius Caesar, then Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, then Nero would be sixth, making Galba the Antichrist? Or skip the three quick Caesars (Galba, Otho, and Vitellius), the beast would be Vespasian? What about the weighty evidence that John wrote Revelation during the reign of Domitian, with Titus before him, then how do you count? An alternative would be to take these kings as considered with their dominions, so seven kingdoms throughout history. The first five would be Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece. The one that "is" would be the Roman Empire, and the one what will remain only a little while would be the final world kingdom of the Antichrist. "As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction" (verse 11). This would allow for the beast to return from the abyss, rise to power, receive a mortal wound and recover, then reign as the seventh *and* in another way as the eighth, and so "belongs to the seven,” but the ultimate embodied devil-king. As each of the heads had fallen or would fall, so the final head "goes to destruction." Don't forget, Jesus has already risen from the dead, the beast has no hope. ## The Horns are raised to fall. (verses 12-14) As a typical symbol in the Bible, horns stand for military powers. "The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast" (verse 12). The horns are in cahoots. "These are of one mind and hand over their power and authority to the beast" (verse 11). These kings couldn't have received their power apart from the beast, but they combine their authority to honor and serve the beast. Like the earth-dwellers, they are a confederacy of the insane. “One mind” (μίαν γνώμην) here and in verse 17; they all vote raises for themselves. "They will make war on the Lamb." Whether or not these are the kings from the east referenced in 16:12, they will assemble at the place called Armageddon "for battle on the great day of God the Almighty" (16:14, 16), and the battle itself is summarily described in 19:19-21. It is a *slaughter*. These kings were raised to fall. It had to be. "The Lamb will conquer them, for he is the Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful" (verse 14). The reason that the most powerful kings on earth can't win is that they are facing the *King of kings* (see Deuteronomy 10:17; Psalm 136:2-3; Daniel 2:47). By definition their war was insane. Their perception of reality is destroyed, and so is their cause and their kingdoms. The whole interpretation explains that they are raised to fall. # Love to Hate (verses 15-18) As the sane know, the insane will eventually tear themselves apart. "And the angel said to me, 'The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages'" (verse 15). The prostitute sits on them in terms of her dominating influence; she dominates all of the spheres of life. For a while, as she sat on the beast, she had great influence over the rulers of the world. Now they turn on her. "And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute." It's a tale as old as time. Amnon hated Tamar after he raped her as much as he thought he loved her before (2 Samuel 13:15). The kings who loved the pleasurable company of the prostitute now seek her ruin. "They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire." God used similar language to describe His punishment on Israel's unfaithfulness in Ezekiel. > “And I will direct my jealousy against you, that they may deal with you in fury. They shall cut off your nose and your ears, and your survivors shall fall by the sword. They shall seize your sons and your daughters, and your survivors shall be devoured by fire. They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewels. Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and your whoring begun in the land of Egypt, so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore. > “For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hands of those from whom you turned in disgust, and they shall deal with you in hatred and take away all the fruit of your labor and leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your whoring shall be uncovered. Your lewdness and your whoring have brought this upon you, because you played the whore with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols.” (Ezekiel 23:25–30, ESV) She's “made desolate” (a form of ἐρημόω), laid waste, deserted, depopulated (BAGD). She is exposed, eaten, and engulfed in flame. Just as with one mind the kings served the beast, with one mind they act here. More is said, "for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled" (verse 17). A mindset of destruction will inevitably turn on itself, especially when God *causes* it to happen. It's not just permission. He multiplies their insanity. *God* purposes for this sphere drunkenness and desolation. "And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth" (verse 18). The prostitute can't be Jerusalem. Jerusalem didn't embrace Rome's idolatry, and Jerusalem didn't entice the kings of the world. Jerusalem was already failing before AD 70, not at the top of her game before being made desolate. # Conclusion You cannot legislate, you cannot persuade and convince, *deceived* people *not* to attack themselves, or to attack what they think is not themselves but actually is. They believe that they are right, that their work is good. Such a state of delusion is not just demonic, it is *divine*. Many cannot unsee the glory of the beast and his ways. They have a beast-bias, and their blindness is confirmed whenever they see darkness. We are among those who cannot unsee the Lamb. We cannot unsee the Logos by whom and through whom and for whom all things were created. We cannot unsee the Lamb who was slain and by His blood ransomed people for God from every tribe, tongue, and nation. We cannot unsee the Lord of lords and King of kings, and have courage to conquer in the Logos-Lamb-Lord of all. ---------- ## Charge Under normal circumstances I would charge you, as God's people, to take advantage of this week's liturgy to do all your eating of potatoes and pie and drinking of wine and sparkling cider and fellowship with family and friends to the glory of God. But these are not normal circumstances. So instead I charge you to *double-down* on your thankfulness, and, like you might use two paper plates at a potluck, *double-up* your ceramic plates with potatoes and pie and wine and cider and family and friends to the glory of God. Do not water down your gratitude-gravy by being grumpy or grumbly. Do not mask your defiance to despotic edicts with actual disobedience to God. ## Benediction: > And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:18–21, ESV)

Revelation 13:11-18 Series: Just Conquer #38 # Introduction If you understand these parts of Revelation to describe future events, as I do, you may wonder how you could reasonably claim an optimistic eschatology. The dragon hates the community connected with the Messiah and chases them into the wilderness in chapter 12. The beast out of the sea parodies the Messiah and conquers many of the saints to their death. Another beast is introduced in this final paragraph of chapter 13, and he appears to be successful in wooing the world into beast worship and putting to death those who refuse. Where is the optimism supposed to fit? Jesus will return, and will win, eventually, but everyone (who's orthodox) believes that. We might look longingly over at those who seem so happy believing that these things in Revelation already happened (except for Jesus' return), that we're past all this beastly Roman Empire stuff, and all we see today are bumps in the gospel's path to success. A couple things: in order to say that all this beastly stuff was fulfilled in the first century, you have to selectively skip over a bunch of the story; the same is true if you only think the beasts are repeating cycles of cruelty throughout history. Even more than that, the angle I really want you to see from this passage: the world does go to hell in a hand-basket, but in a flame of *desperation*. The reason it seems so bad is due to *deceit*. Behind the scenes is the truth of failure and ineptitude. We're optimistic because we know the truth. We're optimistic because we know *why* it's bad; this is the best the beasts can muster. In a parody of the Trinity, the dragon gives his authority to a beast from the sea, and now a third being comes to point to the first beast. While this second beast is identified as a false prophet (explicitly as soon as 16:13), he rounds out the unholy trinity, just as the Spirit came to point to the Son. # The Debut of the Earth-Beast (verses 11-12) A new vision begins as John again says, **11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.** We know this is a second beast, a third character, because John says it is **another**, because it comes from a different place, because it has a different number of horns, because it is represented by another animal, and because it points to "the first beast" in verse 12. The beast comes **out of the earth**, which probably meant it was less scary than a beast out of the sea. In the apocryphal book of 1 Enoch, Leviathan is a female monster who lived in the ocean's abyss and Behemoth was the male monster who lived in a waste wilderness (Mounce). That this second beast only had **two horns** rather than ten means that it is less forceful, and looking **like a lamb** suggests that it is less fierce, unlike the leopard-bear-lion. Jesus Himself said that false prophets come in “sheep's clothing.” The nominal and compromised in faith may not notice. Nevertheless **it spoke like a dragon**, like a serpent, like *the* serpent, charming and deceiving Eve in the garden. There's more than one way to skin a cat, big mouths and slick tongues. “Whereas the first beast speaks loudly and defiantly against God, the second beast makes the first beast's claims sound plausible and persuasive” (Beale). ## It Works Delegated Authority (verse 12a) Verse 12 introduces us to the activity of the beast in two general ways which are expanded in verses 13-17. The key word in Greek is ποιέω (*poieo*), variously translated as "makes" or “causes” or "exercises" or "performs." **12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence,** meaning that the earth beast works on behalf of and for the pleasure of the first beast; there is only one policy maker. We'll see more specifically what his authority accomplishes starting in verse 13. ## It Works Worldwide Idolatry (verse 12b) The primary sphere of the earth-beast is religious and his role is to make an idol out of the sea-beast. He's in a support position under the sea-beast **and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.** This aspect will definitely get more attention below, for now we see the debut of his character. He is a parody of the Spirit who glorifies the Son (John 16:14). He will bring about the final www - world-wide-worship. Is this an anti-God *ideology*, like secularism, or is this beast incarnate? Is the beast false religion or a false prophet, in other words, is the false prophet an abstraction or and individual? Is it merely an abstraction thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20; 20:10)? It sure doesn't appear to be so. # The Ministry of the Earth-Beast (verses 13-17) The earth-beast has a *ministry*. There are four main aspects to his work. ## It Works Signs (verse 13) How is a false prophet to get any traction without some miracles? **13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people,** Like the magicians in Egypt mimicked the miracles God worked through Moses, so this prophet mimics the two witnesses in chapter 11. It's happening around the same time as their testimony, in the three and a half years, so the earth-beast's ability gets a side-by-side play in the news cycle. The witnesses called down fire from heaven like Elijah, and the earth-beast **(makes) fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people**, as a public spectacle, for sake of gaining street cred. This beast is a master at wowing a crowd. ## It Works Deception (verse 14) He does more than make a crowd to wow, he's able to get the crowd to make an idol before which to bow. **14 and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.** The signs point somewhere. The propaganda is significant and powerful enough that he **deceives those who dwell on the earth**. The earth-beast convinces the earth-dwellers that he is legit. They believe his Ministry of Truth. They swallow his lies. They do whatever he says. Paul also wrote about the culture of deception around the antichrist. > The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. (2 Thessalonians 2:9–10) What the earth-beast tells the earth-dwellers to do is **to make an image for the beast**. This image is mentioned again in chapters 14, 15, 16, 19, and 20. The earth-beast makes worshippers out of all of them, but in this case he's making all of them into idolators. There's no truth behind this. It's similar to when Nebuchadnezzar made a huge image of himself and required all people to bow down whenever the trumpets blew (Daniel 3). He commanded their worship. Caesars had temples built for themselves, including images of themselves to be worshipped. Caligula apparently had his head put on other statues (Osborne). Domitian had a 23-foot tall statue to himself in Ephesus. While all that's true, don't forget this image is of one **that was wounded by the sword and yet lived**. However anticipatory the Caesars might be to this beast, none of them attain to this level. Note: **it is allowed**, another "it was given," divine passive. The earth-beast only works with permission. ## It Works Death (verse 15) More miracle, more manipulation, more death. **15 And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.** For the second time in as many verses we're reminded that "it was given" to the earth-beast to give **breath** or "spirit" to the image. He makes it come alive. Ventriloquism and/or magic are possible. This could be a deep fake, sure. It could also be a demonic miracle, in which the demonic earth-beast is given power by God to give men over to their deceptive lusts. The beast not only appears to be alive, the beast appears to be *jealous*. Also as with Nebuchadnezzar, any who refuse to worship this image will **be slain**, and the implication is that the image itself is given power to do the killing. ## It Works Control (verses 16-17) In cahoots with the Antichrist's State, all parts of society will be under the domination of the deceit. **16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.** Even under a one-world-government, the only equality is that everyone needs to worship the government. The Marxists will still be disappointed since there's still the Haves and the Have-nots. There's still important people, rich people, elites, and the rest. They don't lose their status, all the distinctions are not erased, but everyone will need to accept a public identification with the beast. They must be **marked on the right hand or the forehead**. Perhaps the only thing in Revelation more discussed than the mark of the beast is the number of the beast, which is coming up in the next verse. The point of this mark is sort of allegiance, but more so ownership. The beast mandates it for submission and surveillance. I am aware of the (modern) speculations of the various forms the **mark** might take, embedded microchips or barcodes. It could be as simple as a branding or tattoo, something John's readers were familiar with and that still happens today. It is at least visible to John in his vision, and the locations are generally uncovered spots, not spiritual (though it is possible to understand the sealing in chapter 7 and the writing in 14:1 as spiritual; consider also Deuteronomy 6:8.). “The ‘forehead' represents ideological commitment and the ‘hand' the practical outworking of that commitment” (Beale). It mimics the sealing of the 144k, but without such a mark **no one can buy or sell**. It's a boycott, an embargo, a shunning, a *magnus cultus* requiring civil disobedience from believers. Is that so unimaginable? The **mark** is **the name of the beast** or **the number of its name**. We're about ready to consider the number. But note that the brand is connected to the beast. # The Number of the Sea-Beast (verse 18) As the image to be worshipped is of the first/sea beast, so is the number. **18 This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.** It's not six-six-six, it's "six hundred (and) sixty (and) six.” In English we would call it the expanded form. Why a **number** at all? There was an ancient practice called *gematria*, which we sort of play on the back of cereal boxes for fun. It was a code, in which each letter of the alphabet corresponded to a number. For example, in Greek, alpha would be equivalent to the number one, beta would be two, and once you get to ten, then by tens to one-hundred. Reverse engineering it is possible to make all sorts of names equal 666. It's been done with Hitler and the pope; I'm sure there's some way to combine initials and names for Trump. The most popular is Nero. But there are so many problems with Nero that I am not convinced. It would not only have to be "Nero Caesar," but it would have to be based on the his Latin name *turned into Hebrew* equivalents for the counting, dependent on an *incorrect Hebrew spelling* (an entire letter must be dropped). The counting doesn't work in Greek, and there is no clue in the context that tells us to translate (as 9:11; 16:16) and then calculate. Also, *none* of the pastors/theologians in the first few centuries of the church (Ireneaus has other suggestions) thought it added up to Nero. Others make a case that it has the same number as the initials of the emperor's names from Julius to Vespasian, except that it includes Galba and *omits two*, Otho and Vitellius (Beale), the three emperors in quick succession in AD 69. And why would John write it this way? To avoid exile? Is he being cryptic to protect his readers while telling them to conquer? While I do think that there is a future application of this number to the final antichrist, what is really significant is that this antichrist will *still not be god*. This is still **the number of a man**. He requires worship because he's petty. He makes death threats against those who won't worship him, because he's not worth worshipping otherwise. He does have power, but the best he can do is deceive. So the number 666 falls short of the 777 with a threefold hurt, “failure upon failure upon failure” (Hendricksen, quoted by Mounce). He can't even get to 667. Nebuchadnezzar's image was only a double-digit irony, sixty cubits by six cubits (Daniel 3:1). Remember, the **mark** is the **name** is the **number**, which means that he's known by, and his followers are identified by, a trifecta of ineptitude. It **calls for wisdom**, not to do puzzles, but not to be pessimistic. **Understanding** is a more of a *moral* calculation than a math problem. The beast is *not* divine, *not* perfect. He is the perfect not-perfect. No one comes so close and falls short of the glory of God. He is stuck being a man with a demon. He is never #1, but always #2. Always a beast, never the Bridegroom (think Revelation 19:6-8). # Conclusion Was Goliath a monster? Did Goliath wreak havoc and work terror? Of course he did. Knowing what you know, do you want to be Goliath? Do you want that sort of glory? If you could see the end of the story at the start, how optimistic would you be when David picked out his stones? It'd be *which* stone would be the one, not whether the battle would be won. The sea-beast is a parody. He's propped up by the earth-beast. Those who worship him willingly only do so because they are spiritually blind. The unholy trinity is so desperate that they will self-destruct. Yes, together they will make for public and perverted pressure and while the saints will need to endure, they will see right through the ineptitude. --- ## Charge You have been chosen not to be deceived or deluded, but to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:13). You have been called through the gospel so that you may obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ (2:14). So don't be bogged down by the propaganda of the toothless. They are all beast and no #blessed. Love and live for the truth of the Triune God, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You are marked by Him. ## Benediction: > Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. (2 Thessalonians 2:16–17, ESV)

Revelation 13:1-10 Series: Just Conquer #36 # Introduction Evil never creates, it only corrupts. Idols are like viruses: they need a carrier. Satan himself lives on borrowed glory, and it makes him furious. Power, when exercised against God, can't help but reflect God who *defines* power, not to mention being delegated from Him. Consider how it works with pleasure. Hell hath invented no pleasure, the best hell can do is pervert pleasure. C.S. Lewis had Uncle Screwtape observe the following: > “Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy's ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one." (_The Screwtape Letters_, 44) Now imagine a team of demon writers in the abyss, fever-sweating ideas for the great dragon who wants to be worshiped at a level above his creation grade. The best they can come up with is for the dragon to imitate the true God. Their most innovative efforts are mere plagiarism of the way their Enemy does it; they've got nothing original. When the dragon leaves the room, they whine about how unfair it is that the Enemy has all the best ideas. The dragon has already been jealous of the Almighty and tried to devour the male child, God's Son. In Revelation 13 the dragon sets up his own son-like character, repeating the pattern he saw in the Messiah. Rather than the “Son of Man” (Matthew 20:28), here is a Beast who has the “number of a man” (Revelation 13:18). The beast is the final Antichrist, he is the Great Wannabe of all time. The apostle John is the only one in the NT to use the word, ἀντίχριστος, and only in 1st and 2nd John. There are also ψευδόχριστοι, “false christs.” Though he doesn't use either of those exact words here, the beast is the ultimate embodiment of one who denies the Father and the Son (see 1 John 2:22). This beast occupies John's vision in Revelation 13:1-10. There is a second beast introduced in verse 11, a false prophet who points to the beast, like the Spirit came to point to the Son. It is a parody of the Trinity, but not in love or holiness. Parody is an imitation or version that falls short of the real thing, sometimes for (or resulting in) comic effect. A parody is the best the beast can be. In verses 1-10 there are three paragraphs, the first two are about the beast and the third about believers in dealing with the beast. We'll start by seeing the beastly parody, an attempted imitation of the male child, in five ways. # A Parody of the Lamb's Deity (verse 1) Last we saw with John, the dragon was standing on the shore of the sea (12:18), about to summon this agent of evil forth. ** And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.** (verse 1) The vision observes a creature appearing almost in slow motion, revealing more parts of the multi-headed monster as it rises. That this **beast** rises **out of the sea** connects it with the dragon, connects it with the abyss, connects it with the imagery of the deeps, of the unknown, of chaos (though it's not the kraken). In Revelation 11:7 (and 17:8) the beast arises from “the abyss”; it's more than the Mediterranean Sea. The **ten horns and seven heads** matches a previous description of the dragon who had seven heads (12:3), except that horns and heads are switched in order. The similarity means the dragon and the beast are intimately connected, sort of a “if you've seen me you've seen him” parallel (John 14:9), even though the dragon and the beast are not the same being. With the **horns** of the beast mentioned first, there is an emphasis on power, especially military force. There are ten horns on the fourth beast in Daniel's vision (Daniel 7:7), referring to ten kings (Daniel 7:24) that come out of the fourth beast (Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece). It is also a parody of the ram with seven horns, which was John's vision of the Lamb in Revelation 5:6. In Revelation 17:10 we will be told explicitly that the horns and heads are kings. This is fascinating, and multi-faceted. This would not be the first time that a beast from the depths pictured a devouring kingdom. “Rahab” was the name of a sea-monster that represented Egypt (Psalm 89:10). The beast in Revelation 13 represents *both* the Roman Empire *and* the power of the Roman Empire embodied in one creature. This is the State as the agent of Satan, and, as is often the case, the State as typified in a figurehead. The Caesars fulfilled this fantastically, various heads of state fulfill this currently, and a future antichrist will fulfill it finally. The dragon is the figure behind evil and oppressive kingdoms. For what it's worth, the Reformers thought that the Antichrist would come from the Catholic Church, a combination of political and religious power. There is good arguments for it. There are **diadems on its horns**, jewels on a wannabe crown. The **blasphemous names on its heads** show that the beast is attempting to take worship, which we'll see in verse 4. Blasphemy is to speak slander against God, and the beast does so by presenting itself in God's place. He's taking **names** that don't belong to him. Here is “the deification of secular authority. It is a ‘counterfeit power' that is self-centered” (Mounce). Augustus accepted temples built in his honor, and according to Suetonius, Domitian asked to be called “our Lord and our God.” The beast is a wannabe King of kings, a wannabe divine Messiah. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts blasphemously. # A Parody of the Lamb's Empire (verse 2a) With the beast out of the water, John sees more. **And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth.** (verse 2a) Daniel 7 saw a lion (7:4), a bear (7:5), and a leopard (7:6), with a fourth beast with many horns. Here in 13:2 they are all wrapped up in one beast. Three animals are mentioned: a leopard, a bear, and a lion. All three are part of Daniel's vision in Daniel 7, except there they represent three subsequent kingdoms. Here they combine into one. This is the Voltron of beasts. It is swift and cruel, it is large and crushing, it is bold and terrible. It is the State as beast, as god. The Roman Empire was, is, and will be. # A Parody of the Lamb's Anointing (verse 2b) One of the great pictures in the Bible is the Father handing over authority to His Son. In the last couple chapters of Revelation, Psalm 2 has been echoed numerous times, including the anointing of the Male Child who would rule the nations (Revelation 12:5). The dragon jealously wishes that he could have a similar thing and goes through the same sort of ceremony. ** And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.** (verse 2b) Again, the dragon and his beast are closely related, but there is a delegation here of three things: 1) power, 2) throne, 3) authority. The dragon is going to work through the beast, through the State power, and specifically through the Antichrist. Satan transfers his authority, giving the beast all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, as he tempted Jesus with in Matthew 4:8-9. **Power** means he can enforce what he mandates. **Throne** is center of attention. **Authority** is over business (Revelation 13:17), over life and death. # A Parody of the Lamb's Resurrection (verse 3a) This is the most amazing, and most crucial part of the parody. ** One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed.** (verse 3a) There's no good trying to be an *replacement*-christ without appearing like Christ, and the glory of the Christ is in His resurrection from the dead. The beast, or at least one of its heads, gives appearance of having the same resurrection power. In Revelation 5:6, John saw the Lamb “standing as having been slain.” Here one of the beast's heads **seemed to have a mortal wound**, “as having been slain to death.” According to 13:4 it was by a sword. He either comes back from the dead through demonic power, or he goes through a deceptive and dramatic presentation. In the first century Caligula recovered from a severe sickness, who had altars made for him throughout the empire. There were expectations that Nero was going to come back from the dead; it's called the Nero *redivivus* myth. He killed himself (AD 68), but many people didn't believe it, or they expected him to return in some way. But all of the details taken together in Revelation 13 aren't satisfied with Nero, as beastly as he was, especially since Rome (as the beast) didn't die. Nor even Vespasian who restored the Roman Empire after the the civil war and three successive Caesars after Nero (in AD 68-69, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius)(Mounce). While these may be precursors, there will be a final parody. There is a *worship* component, a religious aspect to the state's control. Pharaoh had it. The Caesars have it. The (false) prophet will use this recovery as the centerpiece of his message to get the world to worship the Antichrist (13:14). # A Parody of the Lamb's Homage (verses 3b-4) As I said, there is a religious aspect. **[A]nd the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”** (verses 3b–4) This is *universal* acceptance; the **whole earth**, all of those who are not believers in the Lamb, give homage—public honor and respect—to the beast. They **marveled** and **followed** and **worshiped**. These are how men responded to Jesus as they saw His miraculous works and they walked after Him and hailed Him as the Messiah. > “Deification of secular power is in fact the worship of Satan.” (Mounce) The worship is exclusive, no one else is in the beast's class. **"Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?"** These are questions of preeminence and invincibility, of incomparability. The rhetoric demands an acknowledgment: the beast is best, the beast beats all contenders. The rhetoric deliberately parodies questions meant for the true God: > O LORD God of hosts, > who is mighty as you are, O LORD, > with your faithfulness all around you? > (Psalm 89:8) > # Conclusion Both the Lamb and the beast have swords, followers, and horns, both are mortally wounded, recover, and receive universal authority and worship. It's more than a first-century Caesar. But the beast brings chaos not order, evil not good, death not life (Thomas). Is it so hard to imagine that the whole world will be delighted to follow this "savior"? There is a God-shaped hole in every man's heart. We are made as worshipers; we *will* worship. We are also made with a longing for eternity, with a want for an answer to death. Men long for a savior; it is the oldest story in the book. But what they really want is a savior who promises salvation without dealing with their sin. This is what an antichrist offers, this is what the Messianic State offers. These offers, though, are parodies of the Lamb's sacrifice for sinners, and worse than parodies, they are ultimately useless, disappointing, and a *proof* of their guilt rather than a remedy for it. There is no salvation outside of Christ, no matter how much men wish it was, or how many men try to agree that it is. The beast is a poser, the great wannabe. This isn't to mock him per se, it is for clarity. Believers will see it for what it is, and suffer, while unbelievers will see and think they are saved while being devoured. * * * ## Charge Do you hunger to know true glory? Do you long to live for true greatness? Do you need a pattern to follow? Do you need strength? Look to Christ. He is the only Savior you need, He is the only Savior there is. ## Benediction: > May your hearts be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:2-3, 6-7, ESV)

Never look at a solar eclipse. Unless you're wearing badass solar eclipse glasses and taking cool photos. Night Sky Pix sent us an article about photographing the upcoming solar eclipse, and it's so in depth we'll need to get it back from the Challenger Deep. So, if you live in the right places, get your camera and your solar filters and get snapping.SimRefinery is the least well known Sim game of all time. That's because Maxis never actually finished it and it's been sitting in a box for decades. But now it's been temporarily released on Archive.org and around 20 000 people have downloaded it. SimRefinery was a training simulation commissioned by Chevron and designed to help introduce refinery workers and company staff learn about the operations of their facilities.DJ is cautiously excited about Promised Neverland, an Amazon live action remake of the anime with the same name. A knock off version of the Eloi from The Time Machine find out what they're being kept for and try to escape. Don't get your hopes up though, what are the chances someone will actually make a good live action anime adaptation?This week, Professor tries to drive across America in Overland and DJ takes a time machine to a medieval battle royale.Upcoming annual Solar eclipse and how to take photos of it- https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2020-june-21- https://nightskypix.com/how-to-photograph-a-solar-eclipse/Unreleased SimRefinery prototype from the shadows of history-https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/06/a-lost-maxis-sim-game-has-been-discovered-by-an-ars-reader-uploaded-for-all/- https://obscuritory.com/sim/when-simcity-got-serious/Promised Neverland now a live action series on Amazon-https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/promised-neverland-live-action-series-in-development-at-amazon-1234629626/Games PlayedProfessor– Overland – https://store.steampowered.com/app/355680/Overland/Rating: 3.5/5DJ– Shadow Arena – https://store.steampowered.com/app/1226470/Shadow_Arena/Rating: 3/5Other topics discussedSimpsons Solar Eclipse!! from the episode Gone Maggie Gone (Marge takes a peek at the solar eclipse, which blinds her)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sE0haQuvp0Pinhole Camera (A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens but with a tiny aperture (the so-called pinhole) – effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side.Light from a scene passes through the aperture and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box, which is known as the camera obscura effect.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinhole_cameraCamera Obscura (Camera obscura (plural camerae obscurae or camera obscuras, from Latin camera obscūra, “dark chamber”), also referred to as pinhole image, is the natural optical phenomenon that occurs when an image of a scene at the other side of a screen (or, for instance, a wall) is projected through a small hole in that screen as a reversed and inverted image (left to right and upside down) on a surface opposite to the opening.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_obscuraDisposable Camera (A disposable or single-use camera is a simple box camera meant to be used once. Most use fixed-focus lenses. Some are equipped with an integrated flash unit, and there are even waterproof versions for underwater photography.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_camera4–5 July 2020 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse (The Moon may turn slightly darker than a usual Full Moon for those in much of North and South America, and Africa during the maximum phase of this penumbral lunar eclipse.)- https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2020-july-5SimRefinery (SimRefinery was a computer management simulation game designed to simulate Chevron's Richmond refinery operation. It was developed by the Maxis Business Simulations division of Maxis in 1993.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimRefineryInternet Archive (The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge." It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, movies/videos, moving images, and millions of books. In addition to its archiving function, the Archive is an activist organization, advocating a free and open Internet.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_ArchiveOpenTTD (OpenTTD is a business simulation game in which players try to earn money via transporting passengers and freight by road, rail, water and air. It is an open-source remake and expansion of the 1994 Chris Sawyer video game Transport Tycoon Deluxe.- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenTTD- https://www.openttd.org/Days of Thunder (Days of Thunder is a 1990NASCAR racing simulation video game loosely based on the 1990 movie Days of Thunder. Oberth's version was recovered from floppy discs in 2020 after his death by the Video Game History Foundation and its source code was made available in June 2020 with permission of Oberth's estate.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_Thunder_(1990_video_game)- https://gamehistory.org/days-of-thunder-nes-unreleased/A Super Mario 64 decompilation- https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64Maxis (Maxis is an American video game developer and a division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by EA in 1997. Maxis is best known for its simulation games, including The Sims, Spore and SimCity.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MaxisSpore (Spore is a 2008 life simulation real-time strategy God game developed by Maxis, published by Electronic Arts and designed by Will Wright, and was released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(2008_video_game)The Office (American TV Series) (The Office is an American mockumentary sitcom television series that depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. It is an adaptation of the 2001-2003 BBC series of the same name, being adapted for American television by Greg Daniels, a veteran writer for Saturday Night Live, King of the Hill, and The Simpsons.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Office_(American_TV_series)Red Dwarf (American version) (a pilot episode for an American version (known as Red Dwarf USA) was produced through Universal Studios with the intention of broadcasting on NBC in 1992.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dwarf#U.S._versionThe I.T. Crowd (American version) (An American version of The IT Crowd was almost aired by NBC in 2007–08. It starred Richard Ayoade reprising his role as Moss, with Joel McHale as Roy, Jessica St. Clair as Jen and Rocky Carroll as Denholm. A third attempt at an NBC remake was confirmed in January 2018.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_IT_Crowd#American_versionsNetflix’s live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop will tone down Faye’s revealing costume from the anime.-https://screenrant.com/live-action-cowboy-bebop-show-faye-costume-changes/A Quiet Place (A Quiet Place is a 2018 American post-apocalypticscience fiction horror film co-written, directed by and starring John Krasinski. Written by Bryan Woods, Scott Beck and Krasinski, the plot revolves around a father (Krasinski) and a mother (Emily Blunt) who struggle to survive and raise their children in apost-apocalyptic world inhabited by blind extraterrestrial creatures with an acute sense of hearing.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Quiet_Place_(film)Arachnids (Starship Troopers monster) (The Arachnids (more commonly known as Bugs, and Archies) are a hostile alien species that have conquered many planets across space.)- https://starshiptroopers.fandom.com/wiki/ArachnidNicholas Cage (Nicolas Kim Coppola, known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and filmmaker. To avoid the appearance of nepotism as Coppola's nephew, he changed his name early in his career to Nicolas Cage, inspired in part by the Marvel Comics superhero Luke Cage.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_CageLuna Park Sydney (Luna Park Sydney is a heritage-listed amusement park located at 1 Olympic Drive, Milsons Point, North Sydney Council, New South Wales, Australia, on the northern shore of Sydney Harbour. The amusement park is owned by the Luna Park Reserve Trust, an agency of the Government of New South Wales, and was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 5 March 2010.)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_Park_SydneyLuna Park Ghost Train and the legend of the Devil-Horned Man-https://cdn.mamamia.com.au/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/19135844/luna-park-feature.jpg- https://www.mamamia.com.au/luna-park-ghost-train/XR SEQ Podcast (TNC Podcast)- https://thatsnotcanon.com/xrseqpodcastShout Outs9 June 1909 – Alice Huyler Ramsey, 22-year-old housewife from Hackensack, New Jersey, becomes the 1st woman to drive across the US, in a Maxwell 30, drives 3,800 miles from Manhattan to San Francisco in 59 days - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Huyler_Ramsey#Transcontinental_driveOn June 9, 1909, Alice Huyler Ramsey 22-year-old housewife and mother began a 3,800-mile journey from Hell Gate in Manhattan, New York, to San Francisco, California, in a green, four-cylinder, 30-horsepower Maxwell DA. On her 59-day trek she was accompanied by two older sisters-in-law and 19 year-old friend Hermine Jahns, none of whom could drive a car. They arrived amid great fanfare on August 7, although about three weeks later than originally planned. The group of women used maps from the American Automobile Association to make the journey. Only 152 of the 3,600 miles (244 of the 5,767 kilometers) that the group traveled were paved. Over the course of the drive, Ramsey changed 11 tires, cleaned the spark plugs, repaired a broken brake pedal and had to sleep in the car when it was stuck in mud. The women mostly navigated by using telephone poles, following the poles with more wires in hopes that they would lead to a town. Along the way, they crossed the trail of a manhunt for a killer in Nebraska, Ramsey received a case of bedbugs from a Wyoming hotel, and in Nevada they were surrounded by a Native American hunting party with bows and arrows drawn. Ramsey was named the "Woman Motorist of the Century" by AAA in 1960.9 June 2020 – Kathy Sullivan first American woman to walk in space has become the first woman to reach the deepest known spot in the ocean - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/08/science/challenger-deep-kathy-sullivan-astronaut.htmlOn Sunday, Kathy Sullivan, 68, an astronaut and oceanographer, emerged from her 35,810-foot dive to the Challenger Deep, according to EYOS Expeditions, a company coordinating the logistics of the mission. This also makes Dr. Sullivan the first person to both walk in space and to descend to the deepest point in the ocean. The Challenger Deep is the lowest of the many seabed recesses that crisscross the globe. Dr. Sullivan and Victor L. Vescovo, an explorer funding the mission, spent about an hour and a half at their destination, nearly seven miles down in a muddy depression in the Mariana Trench, which is about 200 miles southwest of Guam. “As a hybrid oceanographer and astronaut this was an extraordinary day, a once in a lifetime day, seeing the moonscape of the Challenger Deep and then comparing notes with my colleagues on the ISS about our remarkable reusable inner-space outer-spacecraft,” Dr. Sullivan said in a statement released by EYOS Expeditions on Monday.11 June 2020 – Mel Winkler passes away at 78 - https://deadline.com/2020/06/mel-winkler-dead-obituary-oswald-new-batman-adventures-actor-doc-hollywood-1202956911/Mel Winkler, a character actor with numerous TV, film and stage credits as well as being a recognizable voice behind characters on the animated series. Winkler appeared in such films as Doc Hollywood and Devil in a Blue Dress . After a 1969 stint on daytime’s The Doctors, he appeared steadily in episodic TV roles from the 1970s through the early 2000s, including such series as The Cosby Show, The Young Riders, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Star Trek: Voyager, Touched by an Angel, NYPD Blue and The Shield. As a voice actor, he was best known as the voice of the guardian mask Aku Aku in the Crash Bandicoot series, Lucius Fox in The New Batman Adventures and Johnny Snowman in the TV seriesOswald. He passed away in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles, California.11 June 2020 – Queen Elizabeth dials in to first official video call to chat to UK’s carers - https://metro.co.uk/2020/06/11/queen-dials-first-official-video-call-chat-uks-carers-12837809/The Queen has become the latest person to get into the lockdown trend of group video chats, after she made her first official public-facing conference call. Sat comfortably from the Oak Room in Windsor Castle, the 94-year-old monarch dialled in to chat to four carers about the difficulties they have faced during the coronavirus pandemic. The monarch – dressed in a floral dress and pearls – was also joined by her daughter Princess Anne, in the call on June 4 to mark Carers Week. In a video shared by the Royal Family’s Twitter account, the Queen praises the carers and chief executive of the Carers Trust, Gareth Howells, for their ‘extraordinary’ efforts. She can be heard saying: ‘I’m very impressed by what you have achieved already. I’m very glad to have been able to join you today.’ It was a first for the Queen’s long reign and she was the last to join the call and first to leave – a formal etiquette of royal engagements that Buckingham Palace decided to preserve. One carer on the call said it was ‘surreal’ to be sitting in her bedroom while talking to two Royals on a video call.Remembrances9 June 68 AD – Nero - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeroNero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus was Roman emperor from 54 to 68, the last ruler of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. He was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius and became Claudius' heir and successor. Like Claudius, Nero became emperor with the consent of the Praetorian Guard. Nero's mother, Agrippina the Younger, dominated Nero's early life and decisions until he cast her off and had her killed five years into his reign. Nero's rule is usually associated with tyranny and extravagance. Most Roman sources, such as Suetonius and Cassius Dio, offer overwhelmingly negative assessments of his personality and reign; Tacitus claims that the Roman people thought him compulsive and corrupt. Suetonius tells that many Romans believed that the Great Fire of Rome was instigated by Nero to clear the way for his planned palatial complex, the Domus Aurea. According to Tacitus he was said to have seized Christians as scapegoats for the fire and burned them alive, seemingly motivated not by public justice but by personal cruelty. There is evidence of his popularity among the Roman commoners, especially in the eastern provinces of the Empire, where a popular legend arose that Nero had not died and would return. At least three leaders of short-lived, failed rebellions presented themselves as "Nero reborn" to enlist popular support. He died from suicide outside Rome at the age of 30 with his final words “Too late! This is fidelity!”9 June 1959 – Adolf Windaus - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_WindausAdolf Otto Reinhold Windaus, German chemist who won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1928 for his work on sterols and their relation to vitamins. He was the doctoral advisor of Adolf Butenandt who also won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939. Throughout his life, Windaus won many awards including the Goethe Medal, the Pasteur Medal, and the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. In addition to his many accomplishments and discoveries in science, Windaus was also one of the very few German chemists who did not work with the Nazis and openly opposed their regime. As the head of the chemical institute at the University of Göttingen, Windaus personally defended one of his Jewish graduate students from dismissal. Windaus believed that while every man had a moral code, his science was motivated by curiosity, and was not driven by politics, ethics, and applications of his discoveries. This viewpoint caused Windaus to decline to research poison gas during World War I. He was involved in the discovery of the transformation of cholesterol through several steps to vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol). He gave his patents to Merck and Bayer and they brought out the medical Vigantol in 1927. He died at the age of 82 in Göttingen,West Germany.9 June 1990 – George Beadle - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_BeadleGeorge Wells Beadle, American geneticist. In 1958 he shared one-half of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Edward Tatum for their discovery of the role of genes in regulating biochemical events within cells. Beadle and Tatum's key experiments involved exposing the bread mold Neurospora crassa to x-rays, causing mutations. In a series of experiments, they showed that these mutations caused changes in specific enzymes involved in metabolic pathways. These experiments led them to propose a direct link between genes and enzymatic reactions, known as the One gene-one enzyme hypothesis. The one gene–one enzyme hypothesis is the idea that genes act through the production of enzymes, with each gene responsible for producing a single enzyme that in turn affects a single step in a metabolic pathway. He died from Alzheimer's disease at the age of 85 in Pomona, California.Famous Birthdays9 June 1640 – Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_I,_Holy_Roman_EmperorLeopold I (full name: Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Felician), Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. The second son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, by his first wife, Maria Anna of Spain, Leopold became heir apparent in 1654 by the death of his elder brother Ferdinand IV. Elected in 1658, Leopold ruled the Holy Roman Empire until his death in 1705, becoming the longest-ruling Habsburg emperor (at 46 years and 9 months). Leopold's reign is known for conflicts with the Ottoman Empire in the east and rivalry with Louis XIV, a contemporary and first cousin, in the west. After more than a decade of warfare, Leopold emerged victorious from the Great Turkish War thanks to the military talents of Prince Eugene of Savoy. By the Treaty of Karlowitz, Leopold recovered almost all of the Kingdom of Hungary, which had fallen under Turkish power in the years after the 1526 Battle of Mohács. Leopold fought three wars against France: the Franco-Dutch War, the Nine Years' War, and the War of the Spanish Succession. In this last, Leopold sought to give his younger son the entire Spanish inheritance, disregarding the will of the late Charles II. Leopold started a war that soon engulfed much of Europe. When peace returned, Austria could not be said to have emerged as triumphant as it had from the war against the Turks. He was born in Vienna.9 June 1843 – Bertha von Suttner - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_von_SuttnerBertha Felicitas Sophie Freifrau von Suttner also known as Baroness Bertha von Suttner née Countess Kinsky.Austrian-Bohemian pacifist and novelist. In 1905, she became the second female Nobel laureate (after Marie Curie in 1903), the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the first Austrian laureate. In 1889 Suttner became a leading figure in the peace movement with the publication of her pacifist novel, Die Waffen nieder! (Lay Down Your Arms!), which made her one of the leading figures of the Austrian peace movement. The book was published in 37 editions and translated into 12 languages. In 1897 she presented Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria with a list of signatures urging the establishment of an International Court of Justice and took part in the First Hague Convention in 1899 with the help of Theodor Herzl, who paid for her trip as a correspondent of the Zionist newspaper, Die Welt. Suttner's pacifism was influenced by the writings of Immanuel Kant, Henry Thomas Buckle, Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin and Leo Tolstoy (Tolstoy praised Die Waffen nieder!) conceiving peace as a natural state impaired by the human aberrances of war and militarism. As a result, she argued that a right to peace could be demanded under international law and was necessary in the context of an evolutionary Darwinist conception of history. Suttner was a respected journalist, with one historian describing her as "a most perceptive and adept political commentator". She was born in Prague,Kingdom of Bohemia.9 June 1961 – Michael J. Fox - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_J._FoxMichael Andrew Fox, known professionally as Michael J. Fox, is a Canadian-American, actor, comedian, author, film producer and activist with a film and television career spanning from the 1970s. He starred in the Back to the Future trilogy in which he portrayed Marty McFly. Other notable roles have included his portrayal of Alex P. Keaton on the American sitcom Family Ties and Mike Flaherty on the ABC sitcom Spin City . He has won five Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, a Grammy Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991 at age 29, and disclosed his condition to the public in 1998. He semi-retired from acting in 2000 as the symptoms of the disease worsened. He has since become an advocate for research toward finding a cure, and founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Since 1999, Fox has mainly worked as a voice-over actor in films such as Stuart Little and Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire. On the CBS TV show The Good Wife, he earned Emmy nominations for three consecutive years for his recurring role as crafty attorney Louis Canning. He has also taken recurring guest roles and cameo appearances in Boston Legal, Scrubs,Curb Your Enthusiasm, Rescue Me, and Designated Survivor. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2010, and was also inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2000. He was born in Edmonton,Alberta.Events of Interest9 June 53 AD – The Roman emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia. - https://www.mintageworld.com/media/detail/12089-claudia-octavia-and-nero-got-married-/In 53 AD, Octavia was married to her adopted brother Nero after she was legally transferred to another clan. Apparently her stepmother Agrippina had planned this marriage even before her own marriage to Claudius. Nevertheless, Nero succeeded his adoptive father as Emperor, making Octavia Empress. It appears their marriage was loveless and also childless.9 June 68AD – Nero commits suicide, after quoting Homer's Iliad, thus ending the Julio-Claudian dynasty and starting the civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors - https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/nero#section_3Nero failed to respond decisively to a revolt in Gaul, prompting further unrest in Africa and in Spain, where the governor Galba declared himself legate of the Senate and Roman People. Soon the Praetorian Guard declared allegiance to Galba, and the Senate followed suit, declaring Nero an enemy of the people. Nero attempted to flee, but upon learning that his arrest and execution were imminent, he took his own life. Fifty years later, the historian Suetonius reported Nero’s final lament: “What an artist dies in me!” The civil war during the year of the Four Emperors was described by ancient historians as a troubling period. According to Tacitus, this instability was rooted in the fact that emperors could no longer rely on the perceived legitimacy of the imperial bloodline, as Nero and those before him could. Galba began his short reign with the execution of many of Nero's allies. One such notable enemy included Nymphidius Sabinus, who claimed to be the son of Emperor Caligula. The social, military and political upheavals of the period had Empire-wide repercussions, which included the outbreak of the Revolt of the Batavi.9 June 1959 – The USS George Washington is launched. It is the first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_George_Washington_(SSBN-598)#Construction_and_launchingThe USS George Washington was launched on 9 June 1959 sponsored by Mrs. Ollie Mae Anderson (née Rawlins), wife of US Treasury Secretary Robert B. Anderson, and commissioned on 30 December 1959 as SSBN-598 with Commander James B. Osborn in command of the Blue crew and Commander John L. From, Jr. in command of the Gold crew. The George Washington was originally scheduled to become the USS Scorpion, but during her construction she was lengthened by the insertion of a 130-foot missile section and finished as a fleet ballistic-missile submarine. The George Washington was commissioned into service in December 1959 and the United States instantly gained the most powerful deterrent force imaginable - a stealth platform with enormous nuclear firepower. Arguably, it can be considered the submarine that has most influenced world events in the 20th Century. In the early 1980s the George Washington had her missile removed and was reclassified as an attack submarine before finally being decommissioned several years later.9 June 1979 – The Ghost Train fire at Luna Park Sydney, Australia, kills seven. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Sydney_Ghost_Train_fireOn the night of 9 June 1979, a fire broke out inside the ride at approximately 10:15 pm. Due to a combination of low water pressure, under-staffing within the park, and inadequate coverage of the Ghost Train by the park's fire hose system, the fire was able to completely consume the ride.It took an hour to bring the fire under control, but it was extinguished before any significant damage could be done to the adjacent River Caves and Big Dipper. The fire killed six children and one adult, and destroyed the amusement park's ghost train. Inadequate fire-fighting measures and low staffing caused the fire to completely destroy the ride, which was first constructed in 1931, and had been transported from Glenelg, South Australia to Milsons Point, New South Wales during 1934 and 1935. Originally the fire was blamed on electrical faults, but arson by unknown figures has also been claimed. The exact cause of the fire could not be determined by a coronial inquiry. The coroner also ruled that, while the actions of Luna Park's management and staff before and during the fire (in particular their choosing not to follow advice on the installation of a sprinkler system in the ride) breached their duty of care, charges of criminal negligence should not be laid. The case was reopened in 1987: no new findings were made, although the police investigation and coronial inquiry were criticised. The fire forced the closure of Luna Park until 1982, when it reopened under a new name and new owners.IntroArtist – Goblins from MarsSong Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)Song Link -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJFollow us onFacebook- Page - https://www.facebook.com/NerdsAmalgamated/- Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/440485136816406/Twitter - https://twitter.com/NAmalgamatedSpotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6Nux69rftdBeeEXwD8GXrSiTunes -https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/top-shelf-nerds/id1347661094RSS -http://www.thatsnotcanonproductions.com/topshelfnerdspodcast?format=rssInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/nerds_amalgamated/Email - Nerds.Amalgamated@gmail.comSupport via Podhero- https://podhero.com/podcast/449127/nerds-amalgamatedRate & Review us on Podchaser - https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/nerds-amalgamated-623195

DISCLAIMER: I am sorry, for the bad sound compared to earlier episodes. I was still experimenting with my mic settings. Next will be better. Promise! CONTENT: Cologne is in turmoil in the Year of the Four Emperors in 69 CE. Agrippina is dead, so is now her son, emperor Nero. Who will become the new Roman emperor? Four men throw their hats into the ring. One of them is Vitellius, the Roman governor of Cologne. The consequences for Cologne as a border town are horrible. At the end of the year 69 CE, our young city is besieged by the Germanic tribe of the Batavians and fears total destruction. More Info and Links to this podcast: linktr.ee/thofCGN

On the Roman calendar, March 15th was known as the Ides of March—once most notable as the year’s deadline for settling debts. That changed in 44 BC when Julius Caesar walked into the Theatre of Pompey for a routine meeting with the Roman Senate. Caesar was then at his apotheosis. He had made himself Dictator Perpetuo. He was about to embark on a three year expedition, which, if successful, would, as Plutarch wrote, “complete this circuit of his empire, which would then be bounded on all sides by the ocean." All of Rome hung on what would happen next. Would he name himself king? Would he destroy his remaining enemies? Would Rome destroy itself? Would it be content to be yoked under a tyrant?We don’t know, because it was yesterday 2,064 years ago that Brutus, Cato’s son-in-law, and his wife, Porcia, took matters into their own hands. Soon, Caesar was dead. What remained was a bloody Civil War in which the Roman Republic was nearly restored. It didn’t quite go the way that Brutus hoped. Cato himself was not quite successful in his attempt to rally the Roman people to stand up to their traditions. But the example remains in history as a partly inspiring, partly cautionary tale: Can an individual change the course of history? Can things blow up in our faces? Yes. The answer is yes to both. That’s basically the complicated arc of Conspiracy, which tells the story of Peter Thiel's quixotic, bold, desperate, deranged, inspiring (your pick) plot to take down Gawker Media, the gossip blog that had outed him, that he felt had become too powerful. The knock against the Stoics—one repeated by Thiel himself once or twice—is that they are too resigned, that they accept the status quo. This would have been surprising to Rome’s emperors, from Julius Caesar to Nero to Galba and Domitian, who were all convinced that the Stoics were plotting against them. It is almost ironic that Marcus Aurelius became the Stoic philosopher king, because nearly every single one of his predecessors believed that the Stoics were seeking to destroy the monarchy entirely. No one thought that Cato or Thrasea or Musonius Rufus were passive. They feared them. They believed they were radicals who sought to change things. With yesterday being the anniversary of the Ides of March, we challenge you to think about where that spirit has gone. We could use more boldness, and less passivity. We could use more vision, courage, creativity, a sense of justice, a willingness to try and fail, to risk and hope. We could use more people courageous enough to reject the status quo and fight for change they believe in. We could use more people trying.

You may already know about the gender-bending, sexually deviant Roman emperors Caligula, Nero, and Elagabalus, but do you know about the ill-fated Emperor Galba, who was a gruff, old-school Roman who nonetheless liked "muscular men"?

- Hoy volvemos a recordar la obra de Suetonio, su título cuando menos, para seguir hablando de cada uno de los emperadores que tuvo Roma hasta la caída del imperio occidental. En esta ocasión Nerón será el protagonista indiscutible del monográfico, pero no el único, y es que también citaremos a sus tres sucesores, cuyo gobierno se concentró en apenas un tumultuoso año. Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

Wanna know some quick essentials to growth hacking your brand? Wanna know a bit more about growth hacking in general? Matt @mattgottesman talks with Ruslan Galba (growth hacker) in this 2nd part episode about what growth hacking really is, why it's crucial to learn and implement for your brand, 5 main stages of growth experiments, pirate funnels, facebook ads, platforms worth considering, tools everyone can learn and use and more...

You wanna know how to evolve your company and grow it in an ever changing digital landscape? Matt @mattgottesman talks with Ruslan Galba (founder of Tegra Agency) about what's happening to brands globally in the digital age, evolving your brand to the right market fit, understanding data to grow, the importance of being transparent on social media, the future of brands and marketing, mindset, collaboration and more...

Galba Zsoltot nagyon kevés embernek kell bemutatni, aki valaha már foglalkozott a testével. Zsolti az OldSchool Training vezetője, a http://confidenceandpower.hu szakmai agya, motorja! . Zsolti a magyar edzőtársadalom ikonikus alakja. Ha ismered, akkor azért hallgasd meg a mostani adást, de ha esetleg nem ismernéd még őt, akkor meg természetesen azért. Az ő története is érdekes, és nem mindennapi! . Hallgass értéket!

Det gik stærkt i det såkaldte ‘Firkejserår’. Efter Neros død tog den aldrene Galba magten, men han blev straks upopulær, og et oprør anført af Vitellius brød ud. Inden opstanden nåede til Rom, blev Galba dog myrdet af endnu en rival, Otho, der herefter blev kejser.Han forsøgte at mægle med Vitellius, men den fremstrakte hånd blev afvist, og Otho gjorde efter et nederlag på slagmarken nederlag. Da Vittelius satte sig på magten i Rom blev han udfordret af Vespasian, og efter et sammenstød mellem deres hære i Cremona kunne Vespasian i år 69 lade sig hylde til kejser i Rom.Den nye kejser indvarslede en mere stabil periode i Roms historie, men trods sit ry for at være en kedelig rad, indledte han i 72. e.Kr. byggeriet af amfiteatret Colosseum, som i dag er det ultimative symbol på antikkens Rom.

This week Rob & Chris learn about Claudius and his great victories in Britain, that he didn't actually lead cause he's to delicate. But not too delicate to marry his cousin, who eventually poisons him so Nero can be ruler of Rome...spoiler alert. Then Nero banished his mom from Rome, cuts off his wife's head and uses it as an engagement ring to marry his friends wife. But he kicked her to death and found a boy replacement instead. But people got really mad when he sang Billie Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" on his roof while Rome was burning down, so they forced him to commit suicide, but he was a pussy and needed his friends help. Then after a short old guy stint with Galba, Rome ends up with Vespasian, but he has to finishing fighting the Jews first. TLDR: Pass The Old Bay

5 de Junio de 1878. Nace Pancho Villa. 6 de Junio de 1840. Muere Marcelino Champagnat. 7 de Junio de 1778. Nace Beau Brummell. 8 de Junio del año 68. Galba es proclamado emperador romano. 9 de Junio de 1874. Nace Launceston Elliot. 10 de Junio de 2004. Muere Ray Charles. 11 de Junio de 1900. Nace Carmen Polo.

Strict. If you were to choose one adjective from the multitude of adjectives available, strict would be the one that you would use (knowing full well that Gala would appreciate the subjunctive form). So what if he is the first of four emperors in 69CE? So what that he doesn't last long? Who cares if he is clearly a public school headmaster from 1950's England in disguise? All that needs to be answered is, does he have a certain Je Na Caesar? (and why, oh why, did he not just pay the bloody Praetorian Guard a damn bonus?) 

MP3 Audioबोलो बरसानेवाली की जय जय जयश्याम प्यारे की जयबंसीवारे की जयबोलो पीत पटवारे की जय जयमेरे प्यारे की जयमेरी प्यारी की जयगलबाँहें डाले छवि न्यारी की जय राधे रानी की जय जयमहारानी की जयनटवारी की जयबनवारी की जय राधे रानी की जय जयमहारानी की जयबोलो बरसानेवाली की जय जय जयराधे से रस ऊपजे, रस से रसना गाय । अरे कृष्णप्रियाजू लाड़ली, तुम मो पे रहियो सहाय ॥राधे रानी की जय जयमहारानी की जयवृष्भानु दुलारी की जय जय जयबोलो कीरथि प्यारी की जय जय जय ??बोलो बरसानेवाली की जय जय जय मेरे प्यारे की जयमेरी प्यारी की जयनटवारी की जयबनवारी की जय गलबाँहें डाले छवि न्यारी की जयवृन्दावन के वृक्ष को मरम न जाने कोय । जहाँ डाल डाल और पात पे श्री राधे राधे होय ॥ राधे रानी की जय जयमहारानी की जयबोलो बरसानेवाली की जय जय जयएक चंचल एक भोली भाली की जय राधे रानी की जय जयमहारानी की जयवृन्दावन बानिक बन्यो  जहाँ भ्रमर करत गुंजार ।अरी दुल्हिन प्यारी राधिका, अरे दूल्हा नन्दकुमार ॥राधे रानी की जय जयमहारानी की जयनटवारी की जयबनवारी की जय एक चंचल एक भोली भाली की जयवृन्दावन से वन नहीं, नन्दगाँव सो गाँव ।बन्सीवट सो वट नहीं, कृष्ण नाम सो नाम ॥ बन्सीवारे की जयबन्सीवारे की जय बोलो पीतपटवारे की जय जय जय राधे रानी की जय जयमहारानी की जयराधे मेरी स्वामिनी मैं राधे की दास ।जनम जनम मोहे दीजियो श्री वृन्दावन वास ॥सब द्वारन को छाँड़ि के, अरे आयी तेरे द्वार ।वृषभभानु की लाड़ली, तू मेरी ओर निहार ॥राधे रानी की जय जयमहारानी की जयजय हो  !बोलो वृन्दावन की जय । अलबेली सरकार की जय ।बोलो श्री वृन्दावन बिहारी लाल की जय ॥ bolo barasAnevAlI kI jay jay jayshyAm pyAre kI jaybaMsIvAre kI jaybolo pIt paTvAre kI jay jaymere pyAre kI jaymerI pyArI kI jaygalbA.NheM DAle Chavi nyArI kI jayrAdhe rAnI kI jay jaymahArAnI kI jaynaTvArI kI jaybanvArI kI jayrAdhe rAnI kI jay jaymahArAnI kI jaybolo barasAnevAlI kI jay jay jayrAdhe se ras Upje, ras se rasnA gAy |re kR^iShNapriyAjU lA.DlI, tum mo pe rahiyo sahAy ||rAdhe rAnI kI jay jaymahArAnI kI jayvR^iShbhAnu dulArI kI jay jay jaybolo kIrthi pyArI kI jay jay jay ??bolo barasAnevAlI kI jay jay jaymere pyAre kI jaymerI pyArI kI jaynaTvArI kI jaybanvArI kI jaygalbA.NheM DAle Chavi nyArI kI jayvR^indAvan ke vR^ikSh ko maram na jAne koy |jahA.N DAl DAl aur pAt pe shrI rAdhe rAdhe hoy ||rAdhe rAnI kI jay jaymahArAnI kI jaybolo barasAnevAlI kI jay jay jayek chaMchal ek bholI bhAlI kI jayrAdhe rAnI kI jay jaymahArAnI kI jayvR^indAvan bAnik banyo  jahA.N bhramar karat guMjAr |rI dulhin pyArI rAdhikA, re dUlhA nandakumAr ||rAdhe rAnI kI jay jaymahArAnI kI jaynaTvArI kI jaybanvArI kI jayek chaMchal ek bholI bhAlI kI jayvR^indAvan se van nahIM, nandagA.Nv so gA.Nv |bansIvaT so vaT nahIM, kR^iShN nAm so nAm ||bansIvAre kI jaybansIvAre kI jaybolo pItapaTvAre kI jay jay jayrAdhe rAnI kI jay jaymahArAnI kI jayrAdhe merI svAminI maiM rAdhe kI dAs |janam janam mohe dIjiyo shrI vR^indAvan vAs ||sab dvAran ko ChA.N.Di ke, re AyI tere dvAr |vR^iShabhbhAnu kI lA.DlI, tU merI or nihAr ||rAdhe rAnI kI jay jaymahArAnI kI jayjay ho  !bolo vR^indAvan kI jay |albelI sarkAr kI jay |bolo shrI vR^indAvan bihArI lAl kI jay || 

When Otho dispatches with his predecessor Galba and declares himself Emperor he quickly finds himself under siege from Vitellius in Germany.

Rome descends into civil war and four contenders eventually vie for the rank of Caesar. The first to have any real success is an ageing governor and general from Spain, Galba.

Vespasian literally went from victory to victory. He finished reducing all the pockets of resistance in Galilee, and sent detachments all over the Decapolis, Perea, Judea, Idumea, Samaria, and Jericho, methodically driving out all the remaining rebels and forcing them to flee to Jerusalem. There were rumors of revolt in Turkey, so Vespasian quickened his pace to finish the Judean war, just in case his forces would be needed elsewhere. Just when he was ready to besiege Jerusalem, news reached him that Nero had died. Everything was put on hold until a new emperor could give him new orders. It took over a year for things in Rome to get under control, but when the dust settled, Vespasian was proclaimed the new emperor. This changed everything. If you wish to have the free PDF written lesson outline for this podcast, simply email us to request it (preterist1@preterist.org). Be sure to mention the date of this podcast when you contact us.Support the show (https://www.preterist.org/donate/credit-card-donations/)

After murdering Galba, Otho ascended to the throne in January 69 AD. He immediately had to deal with Vitellius revolt and after suffering a defeat at Bedriacum in April, Otho committed suicide having served as Emperor for just three months

Galba's refusal to pay off the Praetorian Guard came back to haunt him when Otho looked for accomplices to aid in his assassination plot early in 69 AD.