Podcasts about Valentinus

The story of St. Valentinus reminds us how to celebrate love.  Related Resource What Would You Say?: Who Was Saint Valentine? ___________ Learn more and register for the Colson Educators program at educators.colsoncenter.org. 

It's Monday, February 17th, A.D. 2025. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 125 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus 18-year-old Catholic woman escapes Pakistani Muslim man An 18-year-old Pakistani woman has been reunited with her Catholic family after six months of captivity, forced conversion to Islam, and coerced marriage to the Muslim who abducted her, reports Morning Star News. Huma Allah Ditta's ordeal began when she failed to return home from her job at a call center in Lahore  on June 28. Her distraught parents began a desperate search after police failed to lift a finger. On August 4th, her parents discovered that she had been abducted by a Muslim man named Abdul Basit Butt.  2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don't understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.” The Catholic mother said, “My husband and I decided to put this matter in God's hands and started praying vigorously for our daughter's return.” The couple's prayers were answered on January 16th, when Huma managed to escape from Butt's custody and was reunited with her family. JD Vance slams Europe for violating free speech of pro-life Christians Last Friday, Vice President J.D. Vance used a speech addressing European leaders at the Munich Security Conference in Germany to slam Europe for violating the free speech and religious rights of pro-life Christians, reports LifeNews.com. VANCE: “When I look at Europe today, it's sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War's winners. … Perhaps most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs. “A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an Army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes. Not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own. “After British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for, Adam replied simply it was on behalf of the unborn son he and his former girlfriend had aborted years before. Now, the officers were not moved. “Adam was found guilty of breaking the government's new buffer zones law, which criminalizes silent prayer and other actions that could influence a person's decision within 200 meters of an abortion facility. He was sentenced to pay thousands of pounds in legal costs to the prosecution.” Vice President Vance expressed disappointment that the United Kingdom had penalized so-called thought crimes. He warned European leaders against censoring pro-lifers. VANCE: “Now, I wish I could say that this was a fluke, a one-off, crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person. But no, this last October, just a few months ago, the Scottish Government began distributing letters to citizens whose houses lay within so called ‘safe access' zones, warning them that even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law. Naturally, the government urged readers to report any fellow citizens suspected guilty of thought crime. “In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.” RFK, Jr. vows to implement Trump's pro-life policies Last Thursday, February 13th, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was confirmed in a 52-48 vote and sworn in as President Donald Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), reported The Epoch Times. Prior to that, during the Senate Health Committee hearing, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri asked Kennedy about whether he would implement President Trump's pro-life policies. Listen to their exchange. HAWLEY: “Under the first Trump presidency, HHS stopped new [National Institutes of Health] research that involved human fetal tissue from elective abortion. You said, ‘Stem cell research today can be done on umbilical cords. You don't need any fetal tissue.'  -- which is correct. My question to you is, ‘Will you reinstate President Trump's policy that ensures that no federal research and no federal tax dollars is conducted on fetal tissue taken from elective abortions?'” KENNEDY: “Yes.” HAWLEY: “Fantastic! Let me ask you just about Title X which prohibits the funding of the use of federal taxpayer funding for abortions or to flow to entities like Planned Parenthood that perform abortions or refer people to abortions. You were asked yesterday if you would support President Trump's rule that says, ‘No Title X funding for those who perform abortions or refer people to abortions.' I think your answer was, ‘Yes. You would reinstate that rule.' I just want to be sure I'm right about that. KENNEDY: “Yes.” HAWLEY: “Fantastic! Last point that I have for you. On mifepristone, the chemical abortion drug, you said yesterday that you would study its safety. I think that's good. I want to make an additional point here just about how the Biden administration changed the rules on mifepristone that I hope that you'll take into consideration because you pointed out that we need to honor the wishes of voters in states and their right to set life policy. “The Biden administration's rule on mifepristone, which they did after the Dobbs decision, means that in any state, including ones like mine [Missouri], where voters or state legislators say, ‘We don't want abortion performed after a certain point,' if the Biden administration rule on chemical abortion stands and you can mail in these abortion drugs without a doctor visit or referral, that means no state ban, no state decision, no voter decision is going to matter. We're going to have a one-size-fits-all policy set here in Washington. I hope you'll take that into consideration.” KENNEDY: “I will implement President Trump's policies.” Valentine's Day birthed through Christian martyr's death And finally, have you ever wondered why we just celebrated Valentine's Day on February 14th, this past Friday? Well, Pastor Valentine or Valentinus was a clergyman in the Roman Empire who lived during the reign of Claudius Gothicus or Claudius II. Because the Emperor was having difficulty getting young men to volunteer to serve in the army to fight his wars, he prohibited marriage which would further hurt the conscription rate. Pastor Valentine, who celebrated God's love and Biblical love between husband and wife, secretly married Christian couples in the forest which ultimately led to his arrest and imprisonment.  While Claudius took a liking to Pastor Valentinus, the bold preacher tried to convert the Emperor which resulted in a sentence of death. In Romans 10:14, the Apostle Paul asks, "How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” Valentine was beaten with clubs and stones.  And when that failed to kill him, Valentine was beheaded on February 14th, A.D. 269. And now you know the rest of the story. Get the children's book entitled Valentine: God's Courageous Evangelist. Close And that's The Worldview on this Monday, February 17th in the year of our Lord 2025. Subscribe by Amazon Music or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Was Valentine's Day really about love—or was it a church cover-up for a near-Pope-turned-heretic?--- Join and support the community: https://www.creationspaths.com/ In this episode of _Creation's Paths_, Charlie and Brian explore the hidden history of Valentine's Day, uncovering its potential ties to Valentinus, an early Christian teacher and theologian. While many assume that the holiday originated with St. Valentine, Charlie presents an alternative theory: that the figure we associate with love may actually be based on Valentinus, a near-Pope-turned-heretic who taught about divine union, love, and spiritual fulfillment.The discussion delves into Valentinus' theology, which emphasized mystical unions, sacred marriage, and the concept of the _pleroma_ (fullness of God). Charlie and Brian trace the evolution of his teachings, their potential influence on later Christian mysticism, and how the Catholic Church may have co-opted his legacy. They also connect Valentinian thought to movements like the Cathars, Kabbalah, and Hermetic traditions.Listeners also get a deep dive into early church conspiracies, theological debates, and how imperialism shaped religious doctrine. With a mix of humor, history, and mysticism, Charlie and Brian uncover how Valentinus' radical ideas about love and unity may have been repackaged into the modern celebration of Valentine's Day.Thank you for Liking and Subscribing to this podcastThank you for sharing this episode with your loved ones, friends and community--- Thank you for Tips or Donations: https://ko-fi.com/cedorsett https://patreon.com/cedorsett $CreationsPathsSubstack: https://www.creationspaths.com/ For all of the things we are doing at The Seraphic Grove go to Creation's Paths https://www.creationspaths.com/ For Educational Resource: https://wisdomscry.com Guided Meditations Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV0C8kiTKv0J2QAAlD1uaIJvQ3Sr9sIqO Christopagan Playlist:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV0C8kiTKv0ISXDQkZBRB7EHrUUJgXlGN The Everything Playlist:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV0C8kiTKv0Ln3eGW-tDk2R68PM6c182OCreation's Paths Podcast: http://www.creationspaths.com/podcast Church of the Oak Podcast: http://churchoftheoak.com/Hallowstead Podcast: http://hallowstead.com/Social Connections: BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/creationspaths.com Threads https://www.threads.net/@creationspaths Instagram https://www.instagram.com/creationspaths/## Chapters:00:00 Introduction and Valentine's Day Overview01:07 Meet the Hosts: Charlie and Brian01:17 Historical Context of St. Valentine02:36 The Conspiracy Theories Around Valentine's Day04:30 Valentinus: The Man Behind the Legend07:07 Valentinus' Teachings and Theology11:38 Valentinus' Influence and Legacy17:37 Modern Connections and Practices29:56 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

What is the Nag Hammadi Library? An Interview with Dr. Dylan Burns Dr. Dylan Burns, a leading scholar on the “Nag Hammadi Library” and related texts, describes the significance of the 1945 archaeological discovery in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. It is not only of great importance for a better understanding of Christian origins, but many of the texts also reveal a great beauty and probing inquiry into the meaning of the divine in human experience. Their great diversity and welcome for women leadership were among the greatest surprises. Dr. Dylan M. Burns is Assistant Professor of the History of Esotericism in Late Antiquity at the University of Amsterdam. He earned his doctorate in Ancient Christianity at Yale University in 2011, before holding research positions in Copenhagen, Leipzig, and Berlin. Among his books are Apocalypse of the Alien God: Platonism and the Exile of Sethian Gnosticism (2014), Did God Care? Providence, Dualism, and Will in Later Greek and Early Christian Philosophy (2020), and The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Codices (2022). Transcript available on the Early Christian Texts website: https://earlychristiantexts.com/what-is-the-nag-hammadi-library/

Dr. Justin Sledge of ESOTERICA takes us through a look at the Valentinians, Valentinus and the Valentinian Demiurge for our 2024 Conclave Keynote.

6 months down - and it's about time we throw ourselves a party we've been stoked for. We hope you enjoy our brand new game ;) Get Exclusive Access - https://patreon.com/flashbrospodcast Discord Server - https://discord.gg/TqM5Yt3mrG ⇩ Pregame | Ep2: Tail ‘Gator https://open.spotify.com/episode/7dr51iOdO0rOSGyuoRYk13?si=hkfnOTf_T42Qydl1eJfZeA 00:00:00 Prelude | Catch-Up 00:58:39 Plugged-In | Patreon Sponsors 01:10:11 Retro Recap 01:28:42 Pixel Press | Patch Notes 02:15:50 Game Drops 02:19:03 Side Quest | Off-Topic 02:22:44 Canon Event 03:11:10 Flash Bros. VERSUS 03:47:52 Party Chat 04:08:22 Shonen Sentiments 04:09:48 Epilogue

Super Bowl - victory, celebration and tragedy; Valentinus and Valentine's Day - a martyr who stood for God and marriage against the Emperor and Empire (government)...we need many more Valentine's in our day; Bills that need your prayers and support...and more. Share to inform and encourage others.

It's Valentine's Day, Wednesday, February 14th, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Jonathan Clark and Adam McManus The persecution of Christians in Yemen Open Doors reports that Christians in Yemen are facing increased persecution after the latest Israel-Hamas conflict broke out four months ago. Since then, the Houthis, a Muslim terrorist group in Yemen, have supported Hamas by attacking commercial ships headed to Israel. Christians in Yemen have become scapegoats for the group's anger over the Israel-Hamas conflict. Samuel, a Christian convert from the country, said, “With the international situation with Israel, life for Christians in Yemen will become so much harder. ... People will tell Houthis who the Christians are to make them happy. Then, they will start to punish the Christians to make the people happy.” Yemen is ranked fifth on the Open Doors' World Watch List of nations where it is most difficult to be a Christian.  House impeached Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas On February 13th, House Republicans successfully impeached Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas —the first cabinet official to be impeached in nearly 150 years, reports The Epoch Times.  He became only the second presidential cabinet member ever to be impeached in the 236-year history of the United States government. Mayorkas, who was appointed by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Democratic Senate in 2021, was impeached on two counts relating to his handling of the border crisis by a vote of 214–213, with all but three Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats opposing the action. Former Secretary of War George Belknap resigned in 1876 after the House passed five counts of impeachment against him. However, the Senate failed to convict Belknap, who was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana), who was absent from the vote last week due to being treated for blood cancer, cast the deciding vote yesterday. The three Republicans who opposed the impeachment resolution last week opposed it the second time around. The trio includes Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, and Rep. Tom McLintock of California.  You can express your frustration with those three Republicans by calling their offices through special links in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com. The 20-page Impeachment Resolution contained two articles with multiple examples of laws that Mayorkas is alleged to have ignored or refused to enforce and illustrations of his blocking congressional oversight, including not producing requested copies of documents. Senator Kennedy vs. Secretary Mayorkas on southern border In a March 28, 2023 House Judiciary Committee hearing, Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana expressed frustration with DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Listen. KENNEDY: “Did you just parachute in from another planet, Mr. Secretary? Because you're the only person in the Milky Way who believes that we're not having massive, massive illegal immigration into America?” MAYORKAS: “Senator, you're putting words into my mouth.” KENNEDY: “No sir. I am accurately describing the situation.” MAYORKAS: “There is no question that we have a very serious challenge at our southern border.” KENNEDY: “We can agree on that. Let me ask you another question. Why don't you just declare a new policy that, other than children, if you present at the southern border, you claim political asylum, and you haven't claimed political asylum at the first safe country, then you can't come in. It would work. If you're coming from Venezuela, and you come through Mexico, if you didn't claim asylum in Mexico, you can't come here. You have to leave. Why don't you just do that?” MAYORKAS: “Well, Senator, let me give you an example with respect to Mexico. A Safe Third Country Agreement …” KENNEDY: “You don't have to have an agreement with Mexico.” MAYORKAS: “Yes, you do.” KENNEDY: “No, you don't.” MAYORKAS: “I believe you do, Senator.” KENNEDY: “You don't. That would stop all the folks from the Northern Triangle countries [of Central America], all the folks from Venezuela, all the folks from Cuba, all the folks from the Middle East from coming into our country. You have to seek it in Mexico, or the other first safe third country, or you can't come in.  Period. Done. End of story. Why don't you do that?” MAYORKAS: “I don't think that we have the unilateral authority…” KENNEDY: “Sure you do. Other countries do it.” MAYORKAS: “Number one. Number two …” KENNEDY:  “Try sneaking into China. … You don't want to do it, Mr. Secretary. That's what it's beginning to look like because you think our borders ought to be open. And it would be more intellectually honest if you just say that.” MAYORKAS: “That is false.” KENNEDY: “I don't agree with you. You have to watch, up here, what people do, not what they say, and everything else is just cottage cheese!” Town officials upset with pastor for helping the homeless City officials in Ohio agreed to drop charges against a pastor who took action to care for the homeless. Pastor Chris Avell of “Dad's Place” in Bryan, Ohio started helping the vulnerable last year. He noticed the city's homeless shelter was often full. In response, city officials ordered Avell to not allow overnight guests and then filed nearly 20 criminal charges against him.  First Liberty represented Avell in his case against the city. He said, “The ministry of the church is not confined to Sunday morning. ... We welcome anyone to experience the love and truth of Jesus, regardless of the time of day. …  Bryan is my home. I am eager to continue to serve God, my community, and the people I love.” 1 John 3:17-18 asks, “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth." Valentine's Day birthed through Christian martyr's death And finally, have you ever wondered why we celebrate Valentine's Day on February 14th? Well, Pastor Valentine or Valentinus was a clergyman in the Roman Empire who lived during the reign of Claudius Gothicus or Claudius II. Because the Emperor was having difficulty getting young men to volunteer to serve in the army to fight his wars, he prohibited marriage which would further hurt the conscription rate. Pastor Valentine, who celebrated God's love and Biblical love between husband and wife, secretly married Christian couples in the forest which ultimately led to his arrest and imprisonment.  While Claudius took a liking to Pastor Valentinus, the bold preacher tried to convert the Emperor which resulted in a sentence of death. In Romans 10:14, the Apostle Paul asks, "How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” Valentine was beaten with clubs and stones.  And when that failed to kill him, Valentine was beheaded on February 14, A.D. 269. And now you know the rest of the story. Close And that's The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Valentine's Day, Wednesday, February 14th in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Hvorfor er Valentinsdagen den 14. februar? Hvem var St. Valentinus og hva har det hele med kjærlighet og kjæresteri å gjøre? I denne episoden besøker vi vår kjære hus-poet Øystein Gravrok i Finnbekken for å få noen svar. Han er født på Valentinsdagen og er derfor å regne som en ekte Valentiner. Det blir gamle sagn om fjellene i Ofoten, legenden Svarta Bjørn og mere til.  En liten rettelse for ordens skyld, det var Nils A. Ytreberg som skrev romanen om Svarta Bjørn. I studio: Trond Blomlie og Øystein Gravrok.

Join the conversation as Matt and John talk about the Super Bowl, Valentinus, and Frank Selvey   0:00- intro 3:45- sports 25:52- valentinus  38:50- this day in sports  44:03- one thing

Happy Valentine's Day! Why we celebrate Valentinus and Valentine's Day! He stood against the entire Roman Empire and emperor for Marriage and Family! It's not just romance, love, sex and all the goodies we get...it's about God's design for marriage, family and life! Check out this message with co-host, Addia Wuchner, for updates on bills and legislation that we need to stand for to encourage good government! Share to encourage others.

Get ready to understand Gnosticism in novel ways as April DeConick arrives at the Virtual Alexandria. She will discuss her new book, Comparing Christianities: An Introduction to Early Christianity. Indeed, we'll gain new, startling understandings of the genesis of Christianity, but we'll focus on Gnostic thinkers and sects that pierced the hologram with their dangerous ideas. From Serpent Gnostics to Valentinus, you'll find insights for your own worldview and spirituality.More on April: https://profiles.rice.edu/faculty/april-deconickGet the book: https://amzn.to/48LCspEThe Gnostic Tarot: https://www.makeplayingcards.com/sell/synkrasisHomepage: https://thegodabovegod.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aeonbyteAB Prime: https://thegodabovegod.com/members/subscription-levels/ Virtual Alexandria Academy: https://thegodabovegod.com/virtual-alexandria-academy/Voice Over services: https://thegodabovegod.com/voice-talent/ Astro Gnosis (Meet the Archons): https://thegodabovegod.com/meet-archon-replay/Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/aeon-byte-gnostic-radio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This video describes the variety of development of Christology in early Christianity and tries to determine which theology has the best claim on being the original teaching of the apostles. This video summarizes lots of information from my church fathers series. I mention Clement of Rome, Shepherd of Hermas, Artemon, Theodotus of Byzantium, Paul of Samosata, Photinus of Galatia, Justin Martyr, the Epistle of Barnabas, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Irenaeus of Lyon, Theophilus of Antioch, Novatian, Ignatius of Antioch, Alexander of Alexandria, Arius of Alexandria, Constantine, Origen of Alexandria, Fr. John Behr, Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine of Hippo, Valentinus, Martin Luther, and more.

Click Here for VideoJust because I'm sharing a part of history, and the earlier dominant views of people from one era or another doesn't mean I'm promoting their position. It means I find it interesting, and I explore topics of interest. Knowing our past helps to explain the mess we are in. And every bit of data that points to some sort of atrocity against people who were a threat to the establishment we should examine to see if there's at least some elements of truth in what they stood and died for.Get KRATOM HERE: https://klaritykratom.com/?ref=BaalBustersDR MONZO CODE for 15% off: BaalBusters15. Click the Image at https://SemperFryLLC.comSubmit Questions: https://buymeacoffee.com/BaalBustersHave you tired TRY BLUE? https://tryblue.refr.cc/baalbusters for 17% Off!Get Healthy with DR PETER GLIDDEN, ND https://leavebigpharmabehind.com/?via=pgndhealthGet an Advocate! https://graithcare.vitafyhealth.com/code/BBRESCUETHIS CHANNEL IS INDEPENDENT and has no sponsors but YOUPatreon: https://patreon.com/DisguisetheLimitsFUNDRAISER: https://GiveSendGo.com/BaalBusters Equipment List Itemized on GSGOR https://buymeacoffee.com/BaalBustersor JOIN Locals by Clicking the JOIN Button Beneath the video.RED PILL Expo Event and Livestream Tickets: https://redpilluniversity.org/expo-homepage/ref/179/ code: busterSHIRTS & MERCH https://my-store-c960b1.creator-spring.com/AWESOME Hot Sauce: https://SemperFryLLC.com Use Code at site for 11% Off qualified purchasesTwitter: https://twitter.com/DisguiseLimitsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/baalbusters/Telegram: https://t.me/BaalBustersStudiosFREE Roku TV channel: https://channelstore.roku.com/details/a44cff88b32c2fcc7e090320c66c4d09/baal-busters-broadcastThe Host, Daniel Kristos, is a US Coast Guard veteran, author, a father, small business owner, researcher, personal trainer, avid reader, and independent historian.Click Here for Video Version

What is Gnosticism and who were the Gnostic Christians? While some listeners might have a vague idea of what beliefs define Gnostics, this episode dives deep into the problems with attempts to summarize their teachings. We focus on Ptolemy (student of Valentinus), Justin the Gnostic, and the Apocryphon of John. We also offer some alternative ways to characterize these varied Christian sects. Please consider supporting this Podcast and future projects by donating at: https://www.paypal.me/10mintruthtalks         To view the notes from this episode please click the link below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iMIYv1YIpLuPmr6Fx0m27ZUbQ5QhLzB1JRN6v5mfTks/edit?usp=sharing        Check out some of my videos on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@BiblicalUnitarianPodcast         Follow us on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/OneGodPodcast 

Mere Simulacrity, Session 11 We are in the midst of transitioning from an objectively true, historically consistent, analogue world and into a world that is subjectively purposed, revolutionary, and digital in construct. In fact, more so than ever before, we are in a period of time where the “what is” is being demonized and the wizard's trick of “what it should be” is being lauded as a preferred pathway to the real. A hyperreal world of dreams, visions, technology and digital realization is in many ways attempting to take the place of what mankind has always called “reality.” In the late second century, the Christian Bishop, Irenaeus of Lyon, confronted the Gnostic parasitic cult of Valentinus which proposed that this physical world was a “prison” by which men and women needed to be liberated through Gnostic faith and practice. More specifically understood as “anticosmicism”, the Gnostics proclaimed the belief that the objectively knowable world is inherently evil and opposed to the divine. In the Gnostic formulation of their transformed Christianity, true divinity was not the essence of this real, natural world, but its negation and cancellation. Irenaeus of Lyon warned Christians that this parasitic religion of Gnosticism was a religion masquerading as the Gospel but in reality was a simulacrum of true Christianity: “Error, indeed is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced more true than truth itself.” -Irenaeus of Lyons, AD 180 The Gnostics did not seek harmony with the natural world or with the normative Christian understanding of cultivation and dominion. Instead, the Gnostics attempted to parasitically transform the established Christian faith that sought harmony with God's creation and instead promoted the false concept of the mystical, otherworldly insight that our world must be seen as unnatural and even anti-natural. The natural, in the Gnostic sense, was only available to those that have embraced special knowledge or what can be described as a critical consciousness of the natural world. The way that things are in a natural sense to the Gnostics was “imprisonment” and the mystical otherness of what was not naturally attainable was “liberation.” If you were a woman in the natural and objectively knowable world, in the spiritually anti-natural world the woman's true self was actually that of a man who has been imprisoned by the Demiurgic forces of the natural world. This denial of the objectively real and knowable experienced a renaissance in the 18th and 19th centuries through the works of Swedenborg, Kant, Hegel and eventually Karl Marx. As Dr. James Lindsay has explained at Sovereign Nation's conferences in the past, Marxism is a Neo-Gnostic theology where Man is made to realize he is his own Creator, his own true Sun that revolves around itself. Marx sees himself as the light-bringer, Lucifer, the Morning Star, that awakens this Gnostic consciousness and rebels against God and order. It has continued to this day with further gain of function through Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse and a host of other Neo-Marxists who have embraced unreality and rejected objective standards for truth, life, and human existence. In this powerful presentation from the Sovereign Nation's Mere Simulacrity Conference, Michael O'Fallon explains how the spectre of Gnosticism has been infused into our culture, our faith, and our world. https://sovereignnations.com Support Sovereign Nations: https://paypal.me/sovnations https://patreon.com/sovnations Follow Sovereign Nations: https://sovereignnations.com/subscribe/ © 2023 Sovereign Nations. All rights reserved. #sovereignnations #michaelofallon #4thindustrialrevolution

This is part 6 of the Early Church History class. In the latter half of the second century, two kinds of Christians arose to defend the faith. On the one hand, apologists wrote defenses of Christianity directed at the Roman government. They responded to rumors, arguing that Christians were decent people who should be shown toleration. On the other hand, heresy hunters (or heresiologists) began to combat Christian groups that diverged significantly from apostolic Christianity, such as the Gnostics, Valentinians, and Marcionites. Today we'll briefly overview this fascinating period of Christianity when persuasion not coercion was the means to defeat one's opponents. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43mIuUVqCK0&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=6 —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on Christian 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 —— Apologists (Defenders) of the 2nd C. - Quadratus (130?)- Aristo of Pella (c. 140?)- Aristides (c. 145)- Miltiades (c. 160-180?)- Justin Martyr (d. 165)- Athenagoras (c. 170-180)- Melito of Sardis (c. 170-180?)- Appolinaris of Hierapolis (170-180)- Tatian (d. 180?)- Theophilus of Antioch (c. 180-185)- Epistle of Diognetus (150-225) Quadratus of Athens (130) - addressed book to Hadrian (r. 117-138)- claimed to know people healed by Jesus Epistle of Diognetus (150-225) - author ideas: Hippolytus, Aristides, Pantaenus- common criticisms are that Christians are incestuous b/c we call each other brother and sister, cannibals b/c we eat body and blood of Jesus, atheists b/c we didn't believe in the gods, politically subversive b/c we didn't honor the emperor by offering incense to his statue- Diog. 5.1-17 provides an excellent example of an effective apologist Justin Martyr (100-165) - Stoic -> Peripatetic -> Pythagorean -> Platonist -> Christian- founded a school in Rome- claimed Greek philosophers accessed truth of the Logos, thus Christianity is not a novel religion- Justin addressed his case to the Roman emperor and his sons and the senate and the Roman people (First Apology 1.1-2)- Dialogue with Trypho employed the idea of heresy as defined by a key belief—resurrection (see chapter 80) Heresy Hunters - Justin (140-160)- Irenaeus (180-199)- Tertullian (200-213)- Hippolytus (200-230)- Eusebius (324)- Epiphanius (374-377)- Theodoret (452-453) Standard Arguments - too complicated- trace beliefs to heresiarch- unnatural interpretation of scripture- can't trace beliefs back to the apostles- perverted truth leads to perverted morals- new generations recycle old heresies Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202)- Argued against Valentinus, Marcus, Ptolemaeus, Saturninus, Basilides, Carpocrates, Cerinthus, Ebionites, Nicolaitans, Cerdo, Marcion, Tatian, the Encratites, Orphites, Sethians, Cainites, and others- Against Heresies (aka. The Refutation and Overthrow of Falsely Called Gnosis) intended to equip church leaders to protect their unsuspecting flock from getting tricked into believing any forms of Gnosticism Review - Apologists focused on defending Christianity against outsiders by writing to the Roman authorities and laying out a case for toleration.- Justin Martyr taught that Christianity had continuity with Greek philosophers who also accessed the Logos.- Heresy hunters (heresiologists) defended Christianity against insiders who had differing beliefs from theirs.- Christians fought heresy by using key beliefs they knew their opponents couldn't affirm and by labelling them.- Justin and Irenaeus emphasized resurrection and an ultimate kingdom on earth to exclude those who held varieties of Gnostic beliefs.

This is part 5 of the Early Church History class. Have you heard of the Gnostics before? Gnostics of different types claimed to have secret knowledge of humanity's true origins and destiny. They were intellectuals who combined the philosophical thinking of their day with Jewish and Christian scripture to produce a compelling alternative to biblical Christianity in the second century. In today's episode you'll learn what the Gnostics believed, mostly from their book, The Secret Revelation of John. Next we'll see briefly how Valentinus adapted the Gnostic myth and recruited Christians to join his secret meetings. Although this material is esoteric and somewhat difficult to grasp, I'm convinced a working knowledge of Gnosticism is necessary to understand theological and christological development in the third and fourth centuries (especially in Alexandria). Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxGsWx7OfKE&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV2lk3B0I7Pa77hfwKJm1SRI&index=5 —— Links —— More Restitutio resources on Christian 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 —— The Gnostic Myth According to The Secret Revelation of John1 – the Monad (SRevJohn 4.1-4, 10-11, 28, 30, 34)– initial emanations of aeons in the pleroma (5.13-17, 20, 23; 6.1-3, 7- 10, 12-14, 18-20, 23, 25)– Christ's unique origin and creation of the All (7.1-6, 8-10, 19, 22, 29-30; see also John 1.1-5 in the Bible)– Sophia's rogue reproduction (10.1) and repentance (14.22)– Yaldabaoth generates his own aeons (12.11-12; 14.2)– Yaldabaoth and his aeons create Adam (15.12-15, 19; 17.64; 18.7, 18; 19.12-13)– paradise as a prison and the trees of life and knowledge (20.1, 6, 22; 21.16, 20, 26-31)– Cain, Abel, and Seth (22.16-21, 32-33) Afterlife Possibilities – souls who flees from evil “will be admitted into the repose of the aeons” (SRevJohn 23.24)– souls who are ignorant goes to Yaldabaoth's authorities who “cast it into prison and they consort with it until it awakens from the forgetfulness and receives knowledge” (SRevJohn 23.29-30)– souls who understood but turned away will be tortured “and they will be punished with an eternal punishment” (SRevJohn 23.40) David Brakke: “David Brakke “The myth, then, emphasizes the transcendence of the ultimate God and the corresponding unfolding of God into lower, mediating divine principles, the lowest of which does the work of creating the material universe. These ideas are not unique to Gnostics; rather, they are at home in the discourse of Middle Platonism… These thinkers looked for guidance on the world's origin to Plato's dialogueTimaeus, in which a divine being called “the craftsman” (demiurge) creates the visible universe as a copy of the eternal forms. The craftsman creates lower gods, who then assist him, and the universe that he creates and in which we live is the best possible image of the perfect spiritual world.”2 Life of Christ – Christ comes to awaken people from sleep (SRevJohn 26.22)– Christ did not experience Jesus' crucifixion (Second Treatise of the Great Seth 55.30-56.32)– Birger A. Pearson: “[T]he sufferings endured at the crucifixion were notsuffered by the real Jesus, but only by the physical body which he inhabited, the creation of the archons, whose crucifixion brought about the archon's own destruction…For him, the divine Nous-Christ descended into the human Jesus and displaced his human soul…and, following Jesus' crucifixion, ascended to the Father who had sent him.”3 Valentinus (100-175) – born in Egypt, educated in Alexandria– streamlined version of gnostic myth with Christ in a more central role Valentinians – some more docetic than others– more positive view of the world– three kinds of people: (1) spiritual, (2) psychic, (3) material– used scripture to defend their views, claiming a deeper understanding (see 1 Corinthians 2.6-13)– lasted until 7th century Review– Gnostics believed in a story of spiritual creation and rebellion prior to the creation of matter.– These spiritual aeons emanated out from the original, maximally great, unknowable monad.– They thought our world was fallen not due to human sin, but due to rebellion among the aeons.– The Sethian Gnostics emphasized the seed of Seth as the chosen ones who are indwelt with the spark of the divine.– Understanding knowledge (gnosis) of your origins is how you can experience enlightenment (salvation)– The Gnostic movements were hugely popular and second-century Christians considered them a major threat.– Valentinus streamlined Gnosticism and assigned Christ a more significant role.– Valentinians attended regular church services, but then recruited members to join their meetings to gain esoteric knowledge of hidden meaning within scripture.

Today is Love Day or something like that, so we discuss things about love.  We discuss the history of V-Day on Today is the Greatest Emily gets a bit hot and bothered by one of The Wiggles Matt announces the return of Barney the Dinosaur  CJ lists several new restaurants you can take your date to this week We finalize the 2023 Fat Snack Bracket with a flurry of guest chefs We learn that Grease is making a prequel musical  Just press play already Support the show: https://www.101x.com/justmattandcj/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 For centuries the Church has marked February 14 as the feast day of St. Valentinus. 

The true meaning of Valentine's Day reminds us that there's much more to life than sensual pleasures.  This Breakpoint was originally published on February 14, 2020.  

Valentine's Day provides an opportunity, an excuse really, to share these powerful, loving verses of the heart. The poetic words of mystics are directed towards God as the Beloved lover of their soul, yet their expressions are so loving, so blissful, and ecstatic that they are, at the same time, quite romantic and appropriate for Valentine's Day between soul-mates! I believe the soul-to-soul-mate relationship of romance is a kind of 'reflection' of the soul's relationship with God (soul-to-Oversoul), the ultimate pure love from the Ocean of Love.    Today, two Spiritual Awakening Radio podcasts in one. We'll get to some passages from the ecstatic Gnostic poetry of Valentinus of Alexandria (from the Nag Hammadi Library of Egypt) but first... Valentine's Day Verses of Love from Rumi, Darshan Singh, Guru Amar Das, Baba Farid and Hazrat Sultan Bahu the Sufi!   In Divine Love (Bhakti), Light, and Sound, At the Feet of the Masters, Radhaswami, James Bean Spiritual Awakening Radio Podcasts Sant Mat Satsang Podcasts https://www.SpiritualAwakeningRadio.com    

It's the season of love, but the man we know as St. Valentine is a bit of a mystery, lost to time, and almost certainly an amalgamation of two or more men. Valentinus was a big fan of romantic love, as the story goes, but there's more to be unraveled. Valentine's relics are scattered all over the planet, many of them in wax-sealed paper bags, which isn't much of a thrill for the average tourist. There's naturally some doubt on their authenticity, but that doesn't  seem to stop anybody anymore.More anciently, the middle of February was celebrated in Rome with the feast of Lupercalia, a great festival where the various cults of Rome would gather to purify and renew their city, and remember their furry heritage. This event also featured a romantic element--as long as you only asked the young men. Galatin's Day also celebrated the love of women among the Normans, and may have been a touch more civil by modern standards... Today, the only purification widely celebrated in Rome in February is that of Mother Mary, a carry-over celebration in Christianity informed by the Jewish tradition of faithful motherhood.All this and more in this not-so-romantic entry.Support us at Patreon and SpreadshirtJoin the Community on DiscordLearn more great religion facts on Facebook and Instagram

Who was Valentinus and why do we know him as St. Valentine...and how closely have we followed and honored his martyrdom for marriage and Godly Love? Check it out.

RUMI Says: "Everything you see has its roots in the unseen world. The forms may change, yet the essence remains the same. Every wonderful sight will vanish, every sweet word will fade, but do not be disheartened. The source they come from is eternal, growing, branching out, giving new life and new joy. Why do you weep? The source is within you and this whole world is springing up from it."   This satsang podcast edition of Spiritual Awakening Radio contains readings from many spiritual masters, scriptures, and poet-mystics of the East & West, including Gnostic passages from the Gospel of Truth and other writings of Valentinus of Alexandria.   "In the spirit I see all suspended, In the spirit I know everything held: The flesh hanging from the soul The soul held aloft by the air The air suspended from the ether Fruits manifest themselves out of the Depth A child emerges from the womb."   -- Valentinus, Summer Harvest   "I saw a newborn child, and questioned it to find out who it was. And the child answered me saying, 'I am the Word'".   -- Valentinus, Valentinus' Vision of the Word   In Divine Love (Bhakti), Light, and Sound, At the Feet of the Masters, James Bean Sant Mat Satsang Podcasts Spiritual Awakening Radio https://www.SpiritualAwakeningRadio.com     

Fragments Of The Lost Writings Of Valentinus - Valentinian Gnostic Texts. Valentinus was the best known and, for a time, most successful early Christian Gnostic theologian. He founded his school in Rome. According to Tertullian, Valentinus was a candidate for bishop but started his own group when another was chosen. Valentinus produced a variety of writings, but only fragments survive, largely those quoted in rebuttal arguments in the works of his opponents, not enough to reconstruct his system except in broad outline. His doctrine is known only in the developed and modified form given to it by his disciples, the Valentinians. He taught that there were three kinds of people, the spiritual, psychical, and material; and that only those of a spiritual nature received the gnosis (knowledge) that allowed them to return to the divine Pleroma, while those of a psychic nature (ordinary Christians) would attain a lesser or uncertain form of salvation, and that those of a material nature were doomed to perish. The fragments here are selected from: Bentley Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures https://amzn.to/3GzOFm5 Please consider supporting my work and download this audio as part of the ESOTERIC AND OCCULT WISDOM - MASTER COLLECTION VOL. 2 (an ongoing collection of Gnostic, alchemical, Hermetic, and related occult audio projects that span dozens of hours) at https://altrusiangrace.bandcamp.com Music is by Illuminated Void from "The Vesper Serpent". *JOIN MY PATREON at https://www.patreon.com/altrusiangracemedia *BECOME A YOUTUBE CHANNEL MEMBER at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMzRTOugvDLwhSwJdoSWBZA/join *JOIN THE CULT OF STARRY WISDOM at https://altrusiangrace.bandcamp.com/starry-wisdom-cult *FOLLOW THE AGM PODCAST at https://altrusiangracemedia.podbean.com *MY TSHIRTS AND DESIGNS ON AMAZON at https://amzn.to/3peS9j3 *MY NEW 2022 MERCH LINE "OCCULT NOUVEAU" at https://amzn.to/3OeUHZL *MY TSHIRTS AND DESIGNS ON TEEPUBLIC at https://teepublic.sjv.io/XxvPDX *LICENSE MY MUSIC FOR YOUR PROJECT at https://www.pond5.com/artist/altrusiangracemedia *MY BOOKS ON AMAZON at https://amzn.to/3oQGh6A As an Amazon Associate I earn a small amount from qualifying purchases and it helps to support my channel. Please consider LIKING the video, SUBSCRIBING to the channel, and SHARING the links! These simple actions go a long way in supporting AGM and is truly appreciated!  ~~Places to follow and support Altrusian Grace Media~~ Website ► https://altrusiangrace.blogspot.com/ Bandcamp ► https://altrusiangrace.bandcamp.com Teepublic Store ► https://teepublic.sjv.io/XxvPDX Twitter ► https://twitter.com/AltrusianGrace Rumble ► https://rumble.com/c/c-375437 YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/AltrusianGraceMedia Odessy ► https://odysee.com/@altrusiangracemedia:1 Bitchute ► https://www.bitchute.com/channel/altrusiangracemedia/ To kindly donate directly to my channel: www.paypal.me/altrusiangrace For inquiries regarding voice-over work or licensing for my work (including music) please contact altrusiangracemedia ((at)) gmail.com AGM BACKUP CONTENT ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO0nCG5aqB1CHyU3Xf0TUbg #Gnosticism #Alchemy #Hermeticism #Occult #Esoteric #Audiobook #Mysticism #Gnostic #Egyptian #Christianity #NagHammadi #Spirituality #Jung

Do you think there are any passages in the "Pauline" epistles that look like they might be written by Simon Magus? What do you make of Valentinus's claim that he was in the apostolic line of “Paul” and had secret teachings through Paul's disciple Theudas? If this is true, and Paul is Simon, can any Valentinian-like doctrine be found in any passages in Paul that might, therefore, be likely candidates for an original scrap of Simon's writing? Isn't it suspicious that a Savioe should actually be named "Savior" (Yehoshua)? Wasn't Jesus really, by "holy spirit," intending a dynamic and fresh experience of life in the present moment? I suffer from OCD (scrupulosity) and have an intense fear of going to hell for losing my belief which is totally irrational I know, but certain sensational claims by exorcists have made me wonder if it's all real after all. How can claims like this be rationalized? It seems it is impossible to hold in mind all facades of the jewel that is Jesus, when contemplating him, or having a personal relationship with him in one's mind. In their contemplation of him, are Christians really relating to one character or a cast of characters? Matthew 28:9-10 seem superfluous. Why does the risen Jesus simply repeat what the angel said only a moment before? Could it be that some of the supposed “appearances” can be explained by Jesus' early followers noticing people that reminded them of Jesus and they managed to convince themselves it really was Jesus? Because as odd as that sounds it seems to be what the two men in Lk. 24 did. I doubt that the Flavians invented Christianity. They were so pragmatic and hard-nosed that their strategy would have been simply to crush their enemies.

Unlike the Sethian Gnostics, the Valentinian Gnostics are clearly rooted in Christianity. They were founded by Valentinus, an Egyptian who may have stood for the bishopric of Rome. Valentinus founded a popular crusade that borrowed from the Sethians and the apostle Paul. The movement produced a copious literature: the apocalypse of Paul, the apocalypse of Peter, the apocalypse of Adam, the gospel of Mary, the gospel of Phillip, and the gospel of truth. All of these books were recovered only in the 20th century. The Valentinians formed a parallel church to the orthodox, one much more inviting to women. They attended orthodox services, but operated separate elite clubs. They were only suppressed in the fourth century, after the Roman state granted a monopoly to the orthodox. 

There are many critics of the Bible, but one of the earliest was the Gnostic Marcion. In today's daily episode, we wrap up the learnings around Valentinus, and are introduced to Marcion - one of the earliest critics of the Bible. My website: https://ungraduated.com/ Ungraduated Book: https://www.amazon.com/Ungraduated-Finding-dropping-outdated-systems-ebook/dp/B09SXCBY6R/ref=sr_1_1?crid=28QTYUU7T5BN4&keywords=ungraduated+book&qid=1655499090&sprefix=ungraduate%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1 Join the Ungraduated Living Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/454790476338234

In today's daily episode we continue the study and learning of the Gnostic teacher - Valentinus.  We center on the fact of one of the key elements of Valentinus's teachings - Jesus didn't die for our sins. He was an example and certainly a savior of humanity, but in a different way than what the Bible teaches. My website: https://ungraduated.com/ Ungraduated Book: https://www.amazon.com/Ungraduated-Finding-dropping-outdated-systems-ebook/dp/B09SXCBY6R/ref=sr_1_1?crid=28QTYUU7T5BN4&keywords=ungraduated+book&qid=1655499090&sprefix=ungraduate%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1 Join the Ungraduated Living Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/454790476338234

In this daily episode, we learn about the great Gnostic - Valentinus. My website: https://ungraduated.com/ Ungraduated Book: https://www.amazon.com/Ungraduated-Finding-dropping-outdated-systems-ebook/dp/B09SXCBY6R/ref=sr_1_1?crid=28QTYUU7T5BN4&keywords=ungraduated+book&qid=1655499090&sprefix=ungraduate%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1 Join the Ungraduated Living Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/454790476338234

Elaine Pagels is one the most celebrated scholars of early Christianity in the world.  She is the author of such popular works as "The Gnostic Gospels," "Adam, Eve and the Serpent" and "Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas."  Dr. Pagels talks with Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden about the role and identity of women in early Christianity including the radical early movement known as "Gnosticism."

This week Dr. Jenkins continues his discussion of the Gnostics, looking at four of its main proponents, Basilides, Valentinus, the Sethians, and then the outlier of Marcion. You can see notes and add your own questions to Dr. Jenkins at https://luxchristi.wordpress.com/

This week Dr. Jenkins continues his discussion of the Gnostics, looking at four of its main proponents, Basilides, Valentinus, the Sethians, and then the outlier of Marcion. You can see notes and add your own questions to Dr. Jenkins at https://luxchristi.wordpress.com/

This week Dr. Jenkins continues his discussion of the Gnostics, looking at four of its main proponents, Basilides, Valentinus, the Sethians, and then the outlier of Marcion. You can see notes and add your own questions to Dr. Jenkins at https://luxchristi.wordpress.com/

We hear how Michael started his awakening and the journey through priesthood to A Course In Miracles. There are so many take aways you will enjoy applying to your own lives. On Facebook his profile is Michael Valentinus Wilson and he also has a page by that name where his blog posts arrive automatically. And he has a group ACIMSEPDX where they post Course-related things, including Classes on the Text where one gets together via Zoom on Saturday afternoons (US) to listen to Ken Wapnick's series on the Text. His blog address is mvalentinuswilson.com and my email address is mvalentinuswilson@gmail.com.

Today is Valentine's Day. I thought I'd remind you. I have forgotten this day in the past. I really like to remember and do something special for my spouse, don't you? So, take note of the day. Do you know why we celebrate Valentine's Day? The exact origin of the Christian celebration is debated. One idea is that the Roman Catholic church replaced a pagan fertility festival with a Christian feast day to honor St. Valentine.* But the problem is which Valentine? There were actually three different saints called Valentine or Valentinus. All were martyrs. So if they were martyrs, where did the idea of celebrating romance come from? Well, that's pretty murky too! One possibility is the Roman emperor outlawed marriage, so he would have more single young men to become soldiers. A priest named Valentine continued to marry young couples in secret. But there are other possibilities as well. So, rather than digging further into Valentine's Day history, maybe we should just remember that in God's plan romantic love and marriage are linked. The Song of Solomon describes the love of a groom and his bride. It predates Valentine's Day. Today, don't just celebrate romantic love. Remember that God created us with the capacity for romantic feelings and the best way to experience them, namely marriage. Take a moment to thank God for these things. *"History of Valentine's Day," History.com, https://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day-2 How to leave a review: https://www.sparkingfaith.com/rate-and-review/ Please provide feedback and suggestions at: https://www.sparkingfaith.com/feedback/ Bumper music “Landing Place” performed by Mark July, used under license from Shutterstock.

Can you smell it? Like is in the air! Valentine's Day is here once again and we share some Valentine's Day horror stories, trivia, and the worst Valentine's jokes you've ever heard.

If the entire bible clearly and repeatedly teaches that there is one supreme God who is over all and that Jesus is his subordinate son, then surely we should find evidence of this idea in the historical writings of Christians after the New Testament period. Within the four broad strands of Christianity in the second Read more about 422 One God 12: Early Church History[…]

This is the second episode of our monthly series where Sam and Hank discuss the church fathers. This episode is about Irenaeus of Lyon. He was the Bishop of Lyon in southern France but he had grown up in Smyrna. We discuss his biography, his importance in church history, his writings, his views on gnosticism, his Christology, and other facets of his theology. We also draw parallels and applications of his life and message for Christians today. We also mention Paul Vanderklay, Jonathan Pageau, John Vervaeke, Jordan Peterson, Bishop Barron, James Lindsay, Polycarp, Valentinus, Ignatius of Antioch, John Calvin, Martin Luther, and many more. I hope you enjoy and learn from our discussion.

Rt Valentinus (55) »Ein Hering« vorgetragen von Rt Gerstäcker OK (55)

Jonathan Stewart is a Deacon in The Apostolic Johannite Church in Montreal. The Apostolic Johannite Church is a modern day church in the gnostic and esoteric christian tradition. Jonathan also is the host of "Talk Gnosis" on the Gnostic Wisdom Network youtube channel. We talk about the history and emergence of Christian Gnostic. It's connections to the orthodox Christian tradition, it's beliefs and teachings, it's various historical manifestations and the state of Christian Gnosticism today. We mention Khalil Andani, Manichaeism, Valentinus, Marcion, The Apostle Paul, Paul Magnus, Philo of Alexandria, Irenaeus of Lyon, Justin Martyr, Paul the Apostle, John the Apostle, John the Baptist, Hermeticism, The Nag Hammadi Library, The Cathars, Meister Eckhart, Theosophy, Carl Jung, and more. Gnostic Wisdom Network youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/GnosticNYC The Apostolic Johannite Church: https://www.johannite.org/

Like the drink pop song? check it out here: https://www.reverbnation.com/Sayreofficial/song/8642528-your-love-the-outfield-cover As most of you may or may not know, Valentine’s Day occurs every February 14. Across the United States and in other places around the world, candy, flowers and horrible gifts are exchanged between loved ones and potential flames, all in the name of St. Valentine. But, have you ever asked yourself “who is this fantastical saint and where did these sappy traditions come from?” Did some guy in a cave, thousands of years ago, screw up with his woman after bopping her on the head with a stick? Did he just say “ugh...sorry… here rock”? The Midnight Train Podcast is sponsored by VOUDOUX VODKA.www.voudoux.com Ace’s Depothttp://www.aces-depot.com BECOME A PRODUCER!http://www.patreon.com/themidnighttrainpodcast Find The Midnight Train Podcast:www.themidnighttrainpodcast.comwww.facebook.com/themidnighttrainpodcastwww.twitter.com/themidnighttrainpcwww.instagram.com/themidnighttrainpodcastwww.discord.com/themidnighttrainpodcastwww.tiktok.com/themidnighttrainp And wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Subscribe to our official YouTube channel:OUR YOUTUBEWell, the history of Valentine’s Day—and the story of its patron saint—is actually shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains traces of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was this Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient ritual? The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom died or were out to death, rather than renouncing their religion. One legend tells us that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, and ever the romantic, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were inevitably discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Still others insist that it was Saint Valentine of Terni, a bishop, who was the true namesake of the holiday. He, too, was beheaded by Claudius II outside Rome. So… you know… Claudius was a swell guy. Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl—possibly his jailor’s daughter—who visited him during his imprisonment. Before his death, it has been said that he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still used today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and—most importantly—romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France. The French! We are the most romantic! Screw the English!  While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to celebrate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial—which probably occurred around A.D. 270—others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was actually a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. Get all that? Sure you do! At the start of the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. Poor dog! They would then strip the goat’s hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. Yep. Too bad that tradition is gone. Sounds SUPER fun! Anyway, Far from being a bunch of scared pansies, Roman women welcomed the slap of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year. Yeah! Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city’s bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. So, it was like eharmony but with a little more sacrifice and far less computers. Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity but was eventually outlawed, BUT OF COURSE IT WAS—as it was deemed “un-Christian”—at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day. It wasn’t until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, alright! which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance. Because, ya know if birds do it… I mean… anyway. The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer was the first to record St. Valentine’s Day as a day of romantic celebration in his 1375 poem “Parliament of Foules,” writing, ““For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.” Smooth, Chaucer, real smooth. Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine’s didn’t begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. (The greeting is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England.) Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois. Now, that chubby little bastard Cupid is often portrayed on Valentine’s Day cards as a naked cherub launching arrows of love at unsuspecting lovers. But the Roman God Cupid has his roots in Greek mythology as the Greek god of love, Eros. Accounts of his birth vary; some say he is the son of Nyx and Erebus; others, of Aphrodite and Ares; still others suggest he is the son of Iris and Zephyrus or even Aphrodite and Zeus (who would have been both his father and grandfather… because, you know… incest). According to the Greek Archaic poets, Eros was a handsome immortal who played with the emotions of Gods and men, using golden arrows to incite love and leaden ones to simply fuck with people. It wasn’t until the Hellenistic period that he began to be portrayed as the mischievous, chubby child he’d become on Valentine’s Day cards. Such a weird transition. From handsome immortal to a fat baby in a diaper. In addition to the United States, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Australia. In Great Britain, Valentine’s Day began to be popularly celebrated around the 17th century. By the middle of the 18th century, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes, and by 1900 printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one’s feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine’s Day greetings. Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland, known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” made extravagant creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as “scrap.” Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 145 million Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year only next to Christmas Some cool notes on St. Valentine. .  In all, there are about a dozen St. Valentines, plus a pope.The saint we celebrate on Valentine’s Day is known officially as St. Valentine of Rome in order to differentiate him from the dozen or so other Valentines on the list. Because “Valentinus”—from the Latin word for worthy, strong or powerful—was a popular moniker between the second and eighth centuries A.D., several martyrs over the centuries have carried this name. The official Roman Catholic roster of saints shows about a dozen who were named Valentine or some variation thereof. The most recently beatified Valentine is St. Valentine Berrio-Ochoa, a Spaniard of the Dominican order who traveled to Vietnam, where he served as bishop until his beheading in 1861. Pope John Paul II canonized Berrio-Ochoa in 1988. There was even a Pope Valentine, though little is known about him except that he served a mere 40 days around A.D. 827.  Valentine is the patron saint of beekeepers and epilepsy, among many other things.Saints are certainly expected to keep busy in the afterlife. Their holy duties include interceding in earthly affairs and entertaining petitions from living souls. In this respect, St. Valentine has wide-ranging spiritual responsibilities. People call on him to watch over the lives of lovers, of course, but also for interventions regarding beekeeping and epilepsy, as well as the plague, fainting and traveling. As you might expect, he’s also the patron saint of engaged couples and happy marriages.  You can find Valentine’s skull in Rome.The flower-adorned skull of St. Valentine is on display in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome. In the early 1800s, the excavation of a catacomb near Rome yielded skeletal remains and other relics now associated with St. Valentine. As is customary, these bits and pieces of the late saint’s body have subsequently been distributed to holy containers around the world. You’ll find other bits of St. Valentine’s skeleton on display in the Czech Republic, Ireland, Scotland, England and France. Here’s one for the ladies! You can actually celebrate Valentine’s Day several times a year.Because of the abundance of St. Valentines on the Roman Catholic roster, you can choose to celebrate the saint multiple times each year. Aside from February 14, you might decide to celebrate St. Valentine of Viterbo on November 3. Or maybe you want to get a jump on the traditional Valentine celebration by feting St. Valentine of Raetia on January 7. Women might choose to honor the only female St. Valentine (Valentina), a virgin martyred in Palestine on July 25, A.D. 308. The Eastern Orthodox Church officially celebrates St. Valentine twice, once as an elder of the church on July 6 and once as a martyr on July 30.Ok! So the lovey dovey shit is out of the way, let’s talk about some Murders. At 10:30 a.m. on Saint Valentine's Day, Thursday, February 14, 1929, seven men were murdered at the garage at 2122 North Clark Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago's North Side. They were shot by four men using weapons that included two Thompson submachine guns. Two of the shooters were dressed as uniformed policemen, while the others wore suits, ties, overcoats, and hats. Witnesses saw the fake police leading the other men at gunpoint out of the garage after the shooting. The victims included five members of George "Bugs" Moran's North Side Gang. Moran's second in command and brother-in-law Albert Kachellek (alias James Clark) was killed along with Adam Heyer, the gang's bookkeeper and business manager, Albert Weinshank, who managed several cleaning and dyeing operations for Moran, and gang enforcers Frank Gusenberg and Peter Gusenberg. Two collaborators were also shot: Reinhardt H. Schwimmer, a former optician turned gambler and gang associate, and John May, an occasional mechanic for the Moran gang. Real Chicago police officers arrived at the scene to find that victim Frank Gusenberg was still alive. He was taken to the hospital, where doctors stabilized him for a short time and police tried to question him. He had sustained 14 bullet wounds; the police asked him who did it, and he replied, "No one shot me." He died three hours later.[4] Al Capone was widely assumed to have been responsible for ordering the murders in an attempt to eliminate Moran. Moran was the last survivor of the North Side gunmen; his succession had come about because his similarly aggressive predecessors Vincent Drucci and Hymie Weiss had been killed in the violence that followed the murder of original leader Dean O'Banion.[5][6] Several factors contributed to the timing of the plan to kill Moran. Earlier in the year, North Sider Frank Gusenberg and his brother Peter unsuccessfully attempted to murder Jack McGurn. The North Side Gang was complicit in the murders of Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo and Antonio "The Scourge" Lombardo. Both had been presidents of the Unione Siciliana, the local Mafia, and close associates of Capone. Moran and Capone had been vying for control of the lucrative Chicago bootlegging trade. Moran had also been muscling in on a Capone-run dog track in the Chicago suburbs, and he had taken over several saloons that were run by Capone, insisting that they were in his territory. The plan was to lure Moran to the SMC Cartage warehouse on North Clark Street on February 14, 1929 to kill him and perhaps two or three of his lieutenants. It is usually assumed that the North Siders were lured to the garage with the promise of a stolen, cut-rate shipment of whiskey, supplied by Detroit's Purple Gang which was associated with Capone. The Gusenberg brothers were supposed to drive two empty trucks to Detroit that day to pick up two loads of stolen Canadian whiskey. All of the victims were dressed in their best clothes, with the exception of John May, as was customary for the North Siders and other gangsters at the time. Most of the Moran gang arrived at the warehouse by approximately 10:30 a.m., but Moran was not there, having left his Parkway Hotel apartment late. He and fellow gang member Ted Newberry approached the rear of the warehouse from a side street when they saw a police car approaching the building. They immediately turned and retraced their steps, going to a nearby coffee shop. They encountered gang member Henry Gusenberg on the street and warned him, so he too turned back. North Side Gang member Willie Marks also spotted the police car on his way to the garage, and he ducked into a doorway and jotted down the license number before leaving the neighborhood. Capone's lookouts likely mistook one of Moran's men for Moran himself, probably Albert Weinshank, who was the same height and build. The physical similarity between the two men was enhanced by their dress that morning; both happened to be wearing the same color overcoats and hats. Witnesses outside the garage saw a Cadillac sedan pull up to a stop in front of the garage. Four men emerged and walked inside, two of them dressed in police uniform. The two fake police officers carried shotguns and entered the rear portion of the garage, where they found members of Moran's gang and collaborators Reinhart Schwimmer and John May, who was fixing one of the trucks. The fake policemen then ordered the men to line up against the wall. They then signaled to the pair in civilian clothes who had accompanied them. Two of the killers opened fire with Thompson sub-machine guns, one with a 20-round box magazine and the other a 50-round drum. They were thorough, spraying their victims left and right, even continuing to fire after all seven had hit the floor. Two shotgun blasts afterward all but obliterated the faces of John May and James Clark, according to the coroner's report. To give the appearance that everything was under control, the men in street clothes came out with their hands up, prodded by the two uniformed policemen. Inside the garage, the only survivors in the warehouse were May's dog "Highball" and Frank Gusenberg — despite 14 bullet wounds. He was still conscious, but he died three hours later, refusing to utter a word about the identities of the killers. The Valentine's Day Massacre set off a public outcry which posed a problem for all mob bosses.[7] Victims EditPeter Gusenberg, a front-line enforcer for the Moran organizationsFrank Gusenberg, the brother of Peter Gusenberg and also an enforcerAlbert Kachellek (alias "James Clark"), Moran's second in commandAdam Heyer, the bookkeeper and business manager of the Moran gangReinhardt Schwimmer, an optician who had abandoned his practice to gamble on horse racing and associate with the gangAlbert Weinshank, who managed several cleaning and dyeing operations for Moran; his resemblance to Moran is allegedly what set the massacre in motion before Moran arrived, including the clothes that he was wearingJohn May, an occasional car mechanic for the Moran gang[8] Within days, Capone received a summons to testify before a Chicago grand jury on charges of federal Prohibition violations, but he claimed to be too unwell to attend.[9] It was common knowledge that Moran was hijacking Capone's Detroit-based liquor shipments, and police focused their attention on Detroit's predominantly Jewish Purple Gang. Landladies Mrs. Doody and Mrs. Orvidson had taken in three men as roomers ten days before the massacre, and their rooming houses were directly across the street from the North Clark Street garage. They picked out mugshots of Purple Gang members George Lewis, Eddie Fletcher, Phil Keywell, and his younger brother Harry, but they later wavered in their identification. The police questioned and cleared Fletcher, Lewis, and Harry Keywell. Nevertheless, the Keywell brothers (and by extension the Purple Gang) remained associated with the crime in the years that followed. Many also believed that the police were involved, which may have been the intention of the killers. On February 22, police were called to the scene of a garage fire on Wood Street where they found a 1927 Cadillac sedan disassembled and partially burned, and they determined that the killers had used the car. They traced the engine number to a Michigan Avenue dealer who had sold the car to a James Morton of Los Angeles. The garage had been rented by a man calling himself Frank Rogers, who gave his address as 1859 West North Avenue. This was the address of the Circus Café operated by Claude Maddox, a former St. Louis gangster with ties to the Capone gang, the Purple Gang, and the St. Louis gang, Egan's Rats. Police could not turn up any information about persons named James Morton or Frank Rogers, but they had a definite lead on one of the killers. Just minutes before the killings, a truck driver named Elmer Lewis had turned a corner a block away from 2122 North Clark and sideswiped a police car. He told police that he stopped immediately but was waved away by the uniformed driver, who was missing a front tooth. Board of Education president H. Wallace Caldwell had witnessed the accident, and he gave the same description of the driver. Police were confident that they were describing Fred Burke, a former member of Egan's Rats. Burke and a close companion named James Ray were known to wear police uniforms whenever on a robbery spree. Burke was also a fugitive, under indictment for robbery and murder in Ohio. Police also suggested that Joseph Lolordo could have been one of the killers because of his brother Pasqualino's recent murder by the North Side Gang. Police then announced that they suspected Capone gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi, as well as Jack McGurn and Frank Rio, a Capone bodyguard. Police eventually charged McGurn and Scalise with the massacre. Capone murdered John Scalise, Anselmi, and Joseph "Hop Toad" Giunta in May 1929 after he learned about their plan to kill him. The police dropped the murder charges against Jack McGurn because of a lack of evidence, and he was just charged with a violation of the Mann Act; he took his girlfriend Louise Rolfe across state lines to marry. The case stagnated until December 14, 1929, when the Berrien County, Michigan Sheriff's Department raided the St. Joseph, Michigan bungalow of "Frederick Dane", the registered owner of a vehicle driven by Fred "Killer" Burke. Burke had been drinking that night, then rear-ended another vehicle and drove off. Patrolman Charles Skelly pursued, finally forcing him off the road. Skelly hopped onto the running board of Burke's car, but he was shot three times and died of his wounds that night. The car was found wrecked and abandoned just outside St. Joseph and traced to Fred Dane. By this time, police photos confirmed that Dane was in fact Fred Burke, wanted by the Chicago police for his participation in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Police raided Burke's bungalow and found a large trunk containing a bullet-proof vest, almost $320,000 in bonds recently stolen from a Wisconsin bank, two Thompson submachine guns, pistols, two shotguns, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. St. Joseph authorities immediately notified the Chicago police, who requested both machine guns. They used the new science of forensic ballistics to identify both weapons as those used in the massacre. They also discovered that one of them had also been used to murder New York mobster Frankie Yale a year and a half earlier. Unfortunately, no further concrete evidence surfaced in the massacre case. Burke was captured over a year later on a Missouri farm. The case against him was strongest in connection to the murder of Officer Skelly, so he was tried in Michigan and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison in 1940. On January 8, 1935, FBI agents surrounded a Chicago apartment building at 3920 North Pine Grove looking for the remaining members of the Barker Gang. A brief shootout erupted, resulting in the death of bank robber Russell Gibson. Taken into custody were Doc Barker, Byron Bolton, and two women. Bolton was a Navy machine-gunner and associate of Egan's Rats, and he had been the valet of Chicago hit man Fred Goetz. Bolton was privy to many of the Barker Gang's crimes and pinpointed the Florida hideout of Ma Barker and Freddie Barker, both of whom were killed in a shootout with the FBI a week later. Bolton claimed to have taken part in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre with Goetz, Fred Burke, and several others. The FBI had no jurisdiction in a state murder case, so they kept Bolton's revelations confidential until the Chicago American newspaper reported a second-hand version of his confession. The newspaper declared that the crime had been "solved", despite being stonewalled by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, who did not want any part of the massacre case. Garbled versions of Bolton's story went out in the national media. Bolton, it was reported,[where?] claimed that the murder of Bugs Moran had been plotted in October or November 1928 at a Couderay, Wisconsin resort owned by Fred Goetz. Present at this meeting were Goetz, Al Capone, Frank Nitti, Fred Burke, Gus Winkler, Louis Campagna, Daniel Serritella, William Pacelli, and Bolton. The men stayed two or three weeks, hunting and fishing when they were not planning the murder of their enemies. Bolton claimed that he and Jimmy Moran were charged with watching the S.M.C. Cartage garage and phoning the signal to the killers at the Circus Café when Bugs Moran arrived at the meeting. Police had found a letter addressed to Bolton in the lookout nest (and possibly a vial of prescription medicine). Bolton guessed that the actual killers had been Burke, Winkeler, Goetz, Bob Carey, Raymond "Crane Neck" Nugent,[10] and Claude Maddox (four shooters and two getaway drivers). Bolton gave an account of the massacre different from the one generally told by historians. He claimed that he saw only "plainclothes" men exit the Cadillac and go into the garage. This indicates that a second car was used by the killers. George Brichet claimed to have seen at least two uniformed men exiting a car in the alley and entering the garage through its rear doors. A Peerless Motor Company sedan had been found near a Maywood house owned by Claude Maddox in the days after the massacre, and in one of the pockets was an address book belonging to victim Albert Weinshank. Bolton said that he had mistaken one of Moran's men to be Moran, after which he telephoned the signal to the Circus Café. The killers had expected to kill Moran and two or three of his men, but they were unexpectedly confronted with seven men; they simply decided to kill them all and get out fast. Bolton claimed that Capone was furious with him for his mistake and the resulting police pressure and threatened to kill him, only to be dissuaded by Fred Goetz. His claims were corroborated by Gus Winkeler's widow Georgette in an official FBI statement and in her memoirs, which were published in a four-part series in a true detective magazine during the winter of 1935–36. She revealed that her husband and his friends had formed a special crew used by Capone for high-risk jobs. The mob boss was said to have trusted them implicitly and nicknamed them the "American Boys". Bolton's statements were also backed up by William Drury, a Chicago detective who had stayed on the massacre case long after everyone else had given up. Bank robber Alvin Karpis later claimed to have heard secondhand from Ray Nugent about the massacre and that the "American Boys" were paid a collective salary of $2,000 a week plus bonuses. Karpis also claimed that Capone had told him while they were in Alcatraz together that Goetz had been the actual planner of the massacre. Despite Byron Bolton's statements, no action was taken by the FBI. All the men whom he named were dead by 1935, with the exception of Burke and Maddox. Bank robber Harvey Bailey complained in his 1973 autobiography that he and Fred Burke had been drinking beer in Calumet City, Illinois at the time of the massacre, and the resulting heat forced them to abandon their bank robbing ventures. Historians are still divided on whether or not the "American Boys" committed the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Many mobsters have been named as part of the Valentine's Day hit team. Two prime suspects are Cosa Nostra hit men John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. In the days after the massacre, Scalise was heard[by whom?] to brag, "I am the most powerful man in Chicago." Unione Siciliana president Joseph Guinta had recently elevated him to the position of the Unione's vice-president. Nevertheless, Scalise, Anselmi, and Guinta were found dead on a lonely road near Hammond, Indiana on May 8, 1929. Gangland lore has it that Capone had discovered that the pair were planning to betray him. Legend states[where?] that Capone produced a baseball bat at the climax of a dinner party thrown in their honor and beat the trio to death.[11] Police tested the two Thompson submachine guns (serial numbers 2347 and 7580) found in Fred Burke's Michigan bungalow and determined that both had been used in the massacre. One of them had also been used in the murder of Brooklyn mob boss Frankie Yale, which confirmed the New York Police Department's long-held theory that Burke had been responsible for Yale's death. Les Farmer, a deputy sheriff in Marion, Illinois, purchased gun number 2347 on November 12, 1924. Marion and the surrounding area were overrun by the warring bootleg factions of the Shelton Brothers Gang and Charlie Birger. Farmer had ties with Egan's Rats, based 100 miles away in St. Louis, and the weapon had wound up in Fred Burke's possession by 1927. It is possible that he used this same gun in Detroit's Milaflores Massacre on March 28, 1927. Chicago sporting goods owner Peter von Frantzius sold gun number 7580 to a Victor Thompson, also known as Frank V. Thompson, but it wound up with James "Bozo" Shupe, a small-time hood from Chicago's West Side who had ties to various members of Capone's outfit. Both guns are still in the possession of the Berrien County, Michigan Sheriff's Department. The garage at 2122 N. Clark Street was demolished in 1967, and the site is now a parking lot for a nursing home.[12] The bricks of the north wall against which the victims were shot were purchased by a Canadian businessman. For many years, they were displayed in various crime-related novelty displays. Many of them were later sold individually, and the remainder are now owned by the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.[13]

Legend: Valentine's Day is February 14. It is not a holiday, but it is a special day for many people in different countries around the world. Each year on Valentine's Day, friends and lovers exchange valentine cards, chocolates, candy, flowers, and other gifts. In elementary schools in North America, children make valentines for their classmates and put them in a large, decorated mailbox. On February 14, the teacher opens the box and distributes the cards to the students. Many schools also celebrate Valentine's Day with parties. People in many countries love to send and receive valentines. These days, more people send e-cards than regular cards. The cost of stamps is high, and e-cards are more convenient. There are many symbols of Valentine's Day, such as hearts, roses, and cupids. The symbol of cupid comes from ancient Roman times. Cupid was the son of the love goddess, Venus. Cupid was a playful child who flew around shooting love arrows into people's hearts, making them fall in love. There are many different stories about the origin of Valentine's Day. According to one legend, the custom of sending a card to a loved one goes back to the days of the Roman Empire. In the third century, there was a priest named Valentinus. Valentinus was put in jail and sentenced to die by Emperor Claudius because of his Christian beliefs. When Valentinus was in jail, he fell in love with the jailer's daughter. According to the story, the jailer's daughter was blind, but Valentinus had special abilities and was able to cure her. When he was in jail, she brought him food and delivered messages. The night before Valentinus was executed, he wrote a goodbye note to the jailer's daughter and signed it “Your Valentine.” If you want to get in contact with me: aliceconte9@gmail.com My speaking challenge: https://alice-conte.mailchimpsites.com/31day-speaking-challenge --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alice679/message

Legend: Valentine's Day is February 14. It is not a holiday, but it is a special day for many people in different countries around the world. Each year on Valentine's Day, friends and lovers exchange valentine cards, chocolates, candy, flowers, and other gifts. In elementary schools in North America, children make valentines for their classmates and put them in a large, decorated mailbox. On February 14, the teacher opens the box and distributes the cards to the students. Many schools also celebrate Valentine's Day with parties. People in many countries love to send and receive valentines. These days, more people send e-cards than regular cards. The cost of stamps is high, and e-cards are more convenient. There are many symbols of Valentine's Day, such as hearts, roses, and cupids. The symbol of cupid comes from ancient Roman times. Cupid was the son of the love goddess, Venus. Cupid was a playful child who flew around shooting love arrows into people's hearts, making them fall in love. There are many different stories about the origin of Valentine's Day. According to one legend, the custom of sending a card to a loved one goes back to the days of the Roman Empire. In the third century, there was a priest named Valentinus. Valentinus was put in jail and sentenced to die by Emperor Claudius because of his Christian beliefs. When Valentinus was in jail, he fell in love with the jailer's daughter. According to the story, the jailer's daughter was blind, but Valentinus had special abilities and was able to cure her. When he was in jail, she brought him food and delivered messages. The night before Valentinus was executed, he wrote a goodbye note to the jailer's daughter and signed it “Your Valentine.” If you want to get in contact with me: aliceconte9@gmail.com My speaking challenge: https://alice-conte.mailchimpsites.com/31day-speaking-challenge --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/alice679/message

Where did Valentine's Day Come From?The history of Valentine’s Day—and the story of its patron saint—is shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient riteThe Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Still others insist that it was Saint Valentine of Terni, a bishop, who was the true namesake of the holiday. He, too, was beheaded by Claudius II outside RomeOther stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl—possibly his jailor’s daughter—who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and—most importantly—romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France. While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial—which probably occurred around A.D. 270—others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. (Lupercalia was an ancient pagan festival held each year in Rome on February 15. Although Valentine’s Day shares its name with a martyred Christian saint, some historians believe the holiday is actually an offshoot of Lupercalia. Unlike Valentine’s Day, however, Lupercalia was a bloody, violent and sexually-charged celebration awash with animal sacrifice, random matchmaking and coupling in the hopes of warding off evil spirits and infertility.) (No one knows the exact origin of Lupercalia, but it has been traced back as far as the 6th century B.C.According to Roman legend, the ancient King Amulius ordered Romulus and Remus—his twin nephews and founders of Rome—to be thrown into the Tiber River to drown in retribution for their mother’s broken vow of celibacy. A servant took pity on them, however, and placed them inside a basket on the river instead. The river-god carried the basket and the brothers downriver to a wild fig tree where it became caught in the branches.

With this podcast, we celebrate Saint Valentine's Day – the origin of which – as you will learn – is genuinely heart-rending.    There remains some confusion among theologians as to which of two Catholic clerics named Valentinus* lent their name to Valentine's Day.  But these days, many believe that those two clerics – a priest and a bishop – were likely the same person because of location and time.    You see – the locations are the neighboring cities of Rome and Terni, and it's possible that one cleric worked in both locations but at different times.  And what about the time?  All activities took place during the third century.    Thus, for storytelling purposes, we assume there was one Valentinus, who achieved sainthood, whom we will now refer to as Saint Valentine.      Stories from History's Dust Bin is a 3-volume set of historical short stories.  These are the nuggets of gold that had fallen by the wayside… the little known and unusual.  Many of these gems were destined to be forever lost until they were collected, dusted off and brought back to life by author Wayne Winterton.   Each podcast episode features one of over 450 short stories from either Winterton's Award-Winning Stories from Dust Bin series* or the companion volume, From Ace to Zamboni: 101 More Dust Bin Stories, as narrated by either the author or his son, William, or daughter, Jana.   If you enjoy today's episode, please leave us 5 stars and a glowing review on iTunes!  And if you don't want to wait a whole week to hear another story from the Dust Bin, consider picking up the books on Amazon (either downloadable or good ol' fashioned ink and paper).   The Entire History's Dust Bin Collection Is Available On Amazon: https://amzn.to/3bDrip4    

"When the Father, who alone is good, visits the heart, he makes it holy and fills it with Light. And so a person who has such a heart is called blessed, for that person will see God." -- Valentinus of Alexandria "May the Grace beyond time and space that was before the beginnings of the Universe fill our inner being and increase within us the semblance of itself as the grain of mustard seed." -- Valentinus

This is episode ten of the Always Extra Podcast, your number one source for a dope Valentines! Tune in with us this week as we discuss pagan rituals, Micheladas, Jeeps, and somehow still center it around couples' most sort of sacred holiday, Valentines! YAY! Also, details about our Slow Dance Romance Giveaway!!! Tune in to find out what's new and Always EXTRA!

For this episode of The Alchemical Mind, we switch gears from the dark cosmology of the Sethians to the Gospel of Phillip and the Valentinians. Valentinus was educated in Alexandria and set up his school in Rome and was largely influential in early Christianity by introducing the original concept of a triune god. Apparently through his discontent of not becoming bishop of Rome, Valentinus set up his school with a curiously non-dual view of the nature of god that was deeply influenced by the Platonists, Hermeticists, and Eastern ideology. In The Gospel Of Philip, we learn about the Valentinian view of the nature of god, the sacraments, the divinity of Christ, the creation of the world, and most importantly, the importance of words and symbols and their interpretations. If you'd like to check in touch, follow the podcast on Twitter, @MindAlchemical, or just leave a voicemail directly on Anchor.fm. I will now be posting these episodes on Youtube so subscribe there as well! If you haven't subscribed yet, be sure to do so on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a review, and share with a friend. Music provided by Kabbalistic Village. Huge thanks! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-alchemical-mind/support

The British writer M. John Harrison is responsible for some of the most significant incursions of the Weird into the literary imagination of the last several decades. His 1992 novel The Course of the Heart is a masterful exercise in erasing whatever boundary you care to mention, from the one between reality and mind to the one between love and horror. Recounting the lives of three friends as they play out the fateful aftermath of a magical operation that went horribly wrong, Harrison's novel gives Phil and JF the chance to talk contemporary literature, metaphysics, Gnosticism, zones (see episodes 13 & 14), myth, transcendence, history, and arachnology. Together, they weave a fragile web of ideas centered on that imperceptible something that forever trembles at the edge of our perception, beckoning us to step into its world, and out of ours. REFERENCES M. John Harrison, [The Course of the Heart](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17742.TheCourseoftheHeart ) M. John Harrison, "The Great God Pan" Arthur Machen, The Great God Pan (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/389) Philip K. Dick, Ubik (https://www.amazon.com/Ubik-Philip-K-Dick/dp/0547572298) Philip K. Dick, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (https://www.amazon.com/Three-Stigmata-Palmer-Eldritch/dp/0547572557) Weird Studies, Episode 14 on Stalker (https://www.weirdstudies.com/14) Jonathan Carrol (https://jonathancarroll.com/), American novelist Robert Aickman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Aickman), British writer Magic Realism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism), literary genre Phil Ford, “An Essay on Fortuna, parts 1 and 2,” Weird Studies Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies) John Crowley, Ægypt (http://johncrowleyauthor.com/magic-and-history/) Jorge Borges," The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Approach_to_Al-Mu'tasim)" Strange Horizons, Interview with M. John Harrison (http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/articles/interview-m-john-harrison/) M. John Harrison on worldbuilding (http://web.archive.org/web/20080410181840/http://uzwi.wordpress.com/2007/01/27/very-afraid/) Thomas Ligotti, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Ligotti) American horror writer [Weird Studies subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/WeirdStudies/comments/i8h0yk/weirdstudiessynchronicityengine/)_ Albert Camus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Camus), French philosopher David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/319/the-spell-of-the-sensuous-by-david-abram/) Spiders’ nervous systems (https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-thoughts-of-a-spiderweb-20170523/) Valentinus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentinus_(Gnostic)), gnostic theologian Simon Magus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Magus), religious figure Wiccan goddess and god (https://wiccaliving.com/wiccan-goddess-god/) Bruno Schulz, The Street of Crocodiles (https://www.amazon.com/Street-Crocodiles-Classic-20th-Century-Penguin/dp/0140186255) Weird Studies, Episode 37 with Stuart Davis (https://www.weirdstudies.com/37)

New Age syncretism is nothing new, and this dude from the 2nd century proves it.

In this episode we look in detail at the lineaments of Irenaeus of Lyons' argument against Gnostic thinkers like Marcion and Valentinus.

In this episode we look at the second-century Greek theologian Irenaeus of Lyons, sketching what we know of his lifeand the nature of the major error he was called upon to combat, namely, Gnosticism, which has some remarkable similarities tomodern New Age thinking. A second installment next week will look in more detail at the actual lineaments of his argumentagainst Gnostic thinkers like Marcion and Valentinus.  Bede's Podcast is in partnership with H&E Publishing (www.hesedandemet.com)You can follow H&E Publishing on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram 

The Nag Hammadi Library today on the Metaphysical Theater The Nag Hammadi Library, a collection of thirteen ancient books (called "codices") containing over fifty texts, was discovered in upper Egypt in 1945. This immensely important discovery includes a large number of primary Gnostic scriptures – texts once thought to have been entirely destroyed during the early Christian struggle to define "orthodoxy" – scriptures such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and the Gospel of Truth. The discovery and translation of the Nag Hammadi library has provided impetus to a major re-evaluation of early Christian history and the nature of Gnosticism. (Readers unfamiliar with this history may wish to read an excerpt from Elaine Pagels' excellent popular introduction to the Nag Hammadi texts, The Gnostic Gospels.) We have add extensive resources on two centrally important texts from Nag Hammadi: The Gospel of Thomas and The Secret Book of John. Multiple authoritative translations of several Nag Hammadi scriptures are included in the collection.  Valentinus and Valentinian Gnosis. Valentinus was one of the most influential Gnostic Christian teachers of the second century A.D., and was the only Gnostic considered for election as Bishop of Rome (Pope). He founded a movement which spread throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Despite persecution by developing orthodoxies, the Valentinian school endured for over 600 years. A large number of texts in the Nag Hammadi collection are influence by Valentinian tradition. Due to its importance, we have a large section of the library dedicated specifically to Valentinus and the Valentinian Tradition. Check out, by typing into google " is this the largest metaphysical library on the web?" And thank you for listening to this Anchor FM podcast of the metaphysical theater

Kenny dan Andri udah temenan lebih dari 5 tahun, pertemuan mereka diawali dari Andri yang nawarin plum kurus walaupun kenny udah mencium bau-bau MLM dari maksud pertemuan Andri tapi terbukti sampe sekarang masih temenan. Perjalanan sukses Andri ga mudah dari awal jualan jeans sampe sukses di MLM sampe bisa bawa bokapnya jalan-jalan ke Sydney! WOWWW! penasaran sama apa aja yang pernah dijual Andri? U WILL AMAZED! click play now! 

Remember the good old days, when Valentine's Day was so simple? A nice card, some flowers, maybe a box of chocolates… These days, voices everywhere tell us that we dare not settle for such mundane gifts for that special someone. “Forget the chocolates and flowers,” says the Today Show. “Think creative and thoughtful.” To help, they came up with their “Top 10 hottest gifts” for Valentine's Day. For the guys? How about a heart-shaped box of beef jerky for the guys, or perhaps a bouquet of salami (I'm not kidding). For the ladies, they suggest a pair of Spanx Faux Leather Leggings or bubble-gum colored slip-on sneakers? Or couples might “gift” each other a heart-shaped waffle iron, or a “touch bracelet set” so you can send each other digital love messages that “vibrate and light up.” Attempts to commercialize romantic love, what the Greeks called eros (more on that in a moment), is nothing new, but it's quite clear that, in our Valentine's Day traditions, we've lost the history of what was, historically, a feast day of the Church: The feast day of the third-century Christian martyr: Valentinus of Rome. While no a lot is known about Valentinus, the most-widely accepted version of his martyrdom is that he ran afoul of emperor Claudius II. Believing that “Roman men were unwilling to join the army because of their strong attachment to their wives and families,” Claudius banned marriage. Valentinus defied the emperor by marrying couples in secret. He was caught and executed for his crimes. Whether the story happened exactly that way, every ancient reference to Valentinus associates February 14th with his martyrdom and sacrifice. Romantic love, what C.S. Lewis called “Eros,” is by no means a wrong or sinful expression of our humanity. In fact, it's a gift from God. As Lewis wrote in “The Four Loves,” when rightly ordered, eros causes us to toss “personal happiness aside as a triviality and [plant] the interests of another in the center of our being.” Romantic love can be, as Lewis put it, “a foretaste, of what we must become to all if Love Himself rules in us without a rival.” In other words, there is a proper place for eros … not as an end in and of itself, but as a means. Eros points beyond itself, and points our hearts beyond ourselves, to a higher love, agape, a love that can only come from God Himself. The imminent season of Lent turns our focus toward that total self-giving love of God, the love that caused God to become man, to live and die as one of us, for our sakes, despite our sin and rebellion. The sexual revolution has, in so many ways, disordered eros, not only treating it as an end instead of a means, but also twisting it to such a degree that it is no longer selfless and life-giving. At the very least, eros offers another opportunity for retailers and advertisers to cash in, at its worst, eros devolves into a sort of mutant sensuality brings so much selfishness, damage, and brokenness to our culture. The true meaning of Valentine's Day reminds us that there's so much more to life than sensual pleasures, more than salami bouquets or bubblegum slip-ons, more to love than the shriveled-up version that has captivated our Western imaginations. The feast of St. Valentine should lead us to reflect on the wonder and nature of God's love for us, and inwardly reflect on whether and how it is shaping us, and how from that love, we are able to love God and to love others. Valentinus's response to God's love was to give up his own life, in an attempt to re-order that which what was being disordered by the emperor. For us too, like Valentinus, a similar kind of “death” is required, if we are to embrace God's love and return it to Him and our neighbors. We are asked to die to self, which will include a death to the desires that our culture treats as ultimate. Now, of course, none of this lets us off the hook with our wives. So guys, don't forget the flowers.   And while I am at it, let me express my deep thanks for faithful and consistent support so many of you offer to the Colson Center. This makes it possible for us to continue to equip Christians every day through our daily BreakPoint commentaries with the clarity and courage they need to live out the Gospel.  

Unübersehbar prangen die Herzen an Blumenläden und vielen anderen „kommerziellen Einrichtungen“. Es ist Valentinstag. „Alles Quatsch“, sagen viele – vor allem Singles und Menschen, die sich von ihrem Partner in Sachen Romantik nicht nur zum Valentinstag ohnehin wenig erhoffen. „Wir haben uns jeden Tag gern“, sagen andere und argumentieren damit, dass sie sich nicht vorschreiben lassen wollen, wann sie sich besonders zu lieben haben. Wusstest Du: Der Valentinstag geht zurück auf einen christlichen Geistlichen namens Valentinus, der vor langer langer Zeit heimlich Paare getraut hat, die zusammen sein wollten, weil sie ineinander verliebt waren – auch gegen den Willen der Familien. Der Geistliche soll den Brautpaaren nach der Zeremonie Blumen aus seinem Garten geschenkt haben… und wurde dafür eines Tages ermordet. Wer den Valentinstag also aus Trotz nicht begeht, dem sei versichert, dass es ein Tag ist, wo man eigentlich Menschen gedenkt, die selber trotzig waren… Single am Valentinstag? Jeder Mensch, der aktuell nicht in einer Partnerschaft ist, kann an diesem Tag auch etwas tun… vielleicht für einen Freund oder einen Bekannten. Vielleicht für jemanden, der ein Dankeschön oder ein Lob verdient oder für jemanden, der eine Aufmunterung oder eine liebe Geste gebrauchen kann. Vielleicht sogar einen sogenannten „Random Act of Kindness“: Hierbei geht es darum, etwas Nettes und Uneigennütziges für einen Fremden zu tun. Oder vielleicht sogar, etwas für jemanden, den man kennt und mag - aber eben anonym. Warum denn eigentlich nicht? Der Valentinstag wäre ein guter Tag dafür – genau wie jeder andere – ein bisschen mehr Herzlichkeit in die Welt zu bringen.

Track list ******************************************************************************* 01. Karol XVII & MB Valence, Lazarusman, Gorge - Whispers (Gorge Extended Remix) 02. Animal Trainer - Pirates Games 03. Odd Parents - Learn To Fly (Maceo Flight Home Remix) 04. Ruben Mandolini - Romantica 05. Mr. V - Jus Dance (Dario D'Attis Remix) 06. Miyagi - Aurora (Original Mix) 07. Kruse, Nuernberg - Lost N Free feat. Brolin (Original Mix) 08. 16 Bit Lolitas - Deep In My Soul (Original Mix) 09. Northern Lite - You Are Not Alone (AirDice Remix) 10. Lana Del Rey - Love (Einsauszwei Dub Mix) 11. Deep Sheperd - Lovely Nights ******************************************************************************* Specially for Valentines Day GaDi from Germany selected this soulful tech house mix feat. tracks by Karol XVII, Miyagi, Northern Lite and many more. Find us on the web: http://www.dhcat.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deephousecats/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwcUSe8m5Q1-qZcZ1w8MejA/feed iTunes: http://bit.ly/dhcat-itunes-subscribe Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/deephousecatshow Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deephousecatshow

Unübersehbar prangen die Herzen an Blumenläden und vielen anderen „kommerziellen Einrichtungen“. Es ist Valentinstag. „Alles Quatsch“, sagen viele – vor allem Singles und Menschen, die sich von ihrem Partner in Sachen Romantik nicht nur zum Valentinstag ohnehin wenig erhoffen. „Wir haben uns jeden Tag gern“, sagen andere und argumentieren damit, dass sie sich nicht vorschreiben lassen wollen, wann sie sich besonders zu lieben haben. Wusstest Du: Der Valentinstag geht zurück auf einen christlichen Geistlichen namens Valentinus, der vor langer langer Zeit heimlich Paare getraut hat, die zusammen sein wollten, weil sie ineinander verliebt waren – auch gegen den Willen der Familien. Der Geistliche soll den Brautpaaren nach der Zeremonie Blumen aus seinem Garten geschenkt haben… und wurde dafür eines Tages ermordet. Wer den Valentinstag also aus Trotz nicht begeht, dem sei versichert, dass es ein Tag ist, wo man eigentlich Menschen gedenkt, die selber trotzig waren… Single am Valentinstag? Jeder Mensch, der aktuell nicht in einer Partnerschaft ist, kann an diesem Tag auch etwas tun… vielleicht für einen Freund oder einen Bekannten. Vielleicht für jemanden, der ein Dankeschön oder ein Lob verdient oder für jemanden, der eine Aufmunterung oder eine liebe Geste gebrauchen kann. Vielleicht sogar einen sogenannten „Random Act of Kindness“: Hierbei geht es darum, etwas Nettes und Uneigennütziges für einen Fremden zu tun. Oder vielleicht sogar, etwas für jemanden, den man kennt und mag - aber eben anonym. Warum denn eigentlich nicht? Der Valentinstag wäre ein guter Tag dafür – genau wie jeder andere – ein bisschen mehr Herzlichkeit in die Welt zu bringen.

Valentine's Day also was called Saint Valentine's Day and called Feast of Saint Valentine is celebrated every year on February 14th. It first started out as a Western Christian feast day honoring one or two early saints named Valentinus. It is known as a cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and romantic love on many regions of the world.- The history of Valentine's Day. Many early Christian martyrs were named Valentine honored on February 14th are Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni.- There are numerous martyrdom stories in relation to Valentine's including a written account of Saint Valentine of Rome's imprisonment for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire. A legend says that Saint Valentine restored sight to blind daughter of his judge, and he wrote her a letter signed "your Valentine" as a farewell before his execution. The Feast of Saint Valentine was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496AD to be celebrated on February 14 in honour of the Christian martyr, Saint Valentine of Rome, who died on that date in 269AD. On the first day of Valentine's Day in the country of England, it is connected to romantic love centered around Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. In the 18th-century England, Valentine's Day grew into an occasion in which couples expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionary, and sending greeting cards known as Valentine's. Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, greeting cards. In Europe, Saint Valentine's Keys are given to lovers as romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver's heart. It is also given to children to ward off epilepsy called Saint Valentine's Malady.- February 14 is celebrated as St. Valentine's Day in various Christian denominations.

In “Love One Another”, Rodney shares that the origins of Valentine’s Day is based on a ancient raucous Roman festival and the honoring of the work of a 3rd century Christian leader named Valentinus, is quite a bit different than what you may recognize as our present day celebration of love and romance. That being said, the Bible contains a great deal about the subject of love. John the apostle declared, “God is love.” Because God is love you have the capacity and should continue loving one another. God loved you first and sent his one and only Son to be your Savior. Therefore, love each other as it is the full expression of God’s love. Since you now know and have experienced God’s extravagant love, you can trust in God’s unfailing love. There is no fear in love. Love consumes and overrides your feelings of fear, and allows you to love one another, with reckless abandon, just like Jesus loves you.

In “Love One Another”, Rodney shares that the origins of Valentine’s Day is based on a ancient raucous Roman festival and the honoring of the work of a 3rd century Christian leader named Valentinus, is quite a bit different than what you may recognize as our present day celebration of love and romance. That being said, the Bible contains a great deal about the subject of love. John the apostle declared, “God is love.” Because God is love you have the capacity and should continue loving one another. God loved you first and sent his one and only Son to be your Savior. Therefore, love each other as it is the full expression of God’s love. Since you now know and have experienced God’s extravagant love, you can trust in God’s unfailing love. There is no fear in love. Love consumes and overrides your feelings of fear, and allows you to love one another, with reckless abandon, just like Jesus loves you.

Rachel Lourens vertelt over haar kledinglijn SeeFeel voor blinde vrouwen. / Een reportage over het Apeldoornsche Bosch, de Joods-psychiatrische instelling die door de Duitse bezetter werd ontruimd. / Te gast is Anna Timmerman, sinds 1 januari directeur van de vredesorganisatie PAX. / De rubriek In de buurt van God bezoekt de Dominicanenkerk in Zwolle. Daar bevindt zich een relikwie van Valentinus. / Tot slot een bijbelse miniatuur over de Bergrede van Jezus door ds. Netty de Jong-Dorland.

Under the expert guidance of Geoffrey Smith, we explore the world-view of Valentinus – an elite intellectual Christian thinker of the second century – and his legacy – a reputation for the blackest heresy and a demiurgical Christian movement known nowadays as Valentinianism.

In this episode, Mike Aquilina and Kris McGregor discuss Valentinus and Gnostic teaching.

Dont call it a comeback, denn wir waren nur eben mal 2 Monate verhindert. Dafür aber doppelt so geschmacklos und unvorbereitet zurück. Wir entschuldigen uns. Eigentlich sind wir ganz anders.

Vi pratar om alla hjärtans dag, dagen efter själva dagen! Galet va? Leni har kollat upp vem som kom på själva alla hjärtans dag och dess ursprung. Haris kanaliserar spanska alter egon. Det blir mycket om förhållanden i detta avsnitt! Det är ett delvis bra avsnitt.  

Valentinus ja Casa di Giulietta

Valentinus ja Casa di Giulietta

In the first episode we explore the development of the concept of heresy by two early christian teachers, Valentinus and Irenaeus. We then begin a multi-part series on the origins of Jiu Jitsu and Kempo, addressing some of the myths surrounding the samurai class in the process, as well as talking about some of the other, less famous, inhabitants of feudal Japan.

In this FUN SIZE episode, Ream and Patrick talk about Valentine's Day! Valentine's Day is an annual holiday celebrated on February 14. It originated as a Western Christian liturgical feast day honoring one or more early saints named Valentinus, and is recognized as a significant cultural and commercial celebration in many regions around the world, although it is not a public holiday in any country. The day first became associated with romantic love within the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). In Europe, Saint Valentine's Keys are given to lovers "as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver’s heart", as well as to children, in order to ward off epilepsy (called Saint Valentine's Malady). Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards. This episode is so fun! You're gonna fall in love with it! Follow Ream on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Reamkore Follow Patrick on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PatrickHastie Follow The Nostalgic Front on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NostalgicFront Support our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NostalgicFront Follow The Nostalgic Front on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenostalgicfrontpodcast/ Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thenostalgicfront/ Subscribe on Apple Podcasts (iTunes): https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nostalgic-front/id451098806?mt=2 Subscribe on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/patrick-hastie/the-nostalgic-front Go listen to all the other shows on the Brain Machine Network! http://brainmachinenetwork.com And remember, if you're not an NFer you're an MFer, so get the f*** outta here!

We are joined by Dr. Andreas J. Köstenberger, Senior Research Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, for a detailed discussion on the important book he co-authored with Dr. Michael J. Kruger, The Heresy of Orthodoxy. Subtitled "How contemporary culture's fascination with diversity has reshaped our understanding of early Christianity", The Heresy of Orthodoxy deconstructs the fashionable trend—both in academia and popular culture—to view early Christianity as essentially a diverse collection of irreconcilable theologies, and through historical reasoning cogently argues for the priority of normative Christianity. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)

We are joined by Dr. Andreas J. Köstenberger, Senior Research Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, for a detailed discussion on the important book he co-authored with Dr. Michael J. Kruger, The Heresy of Orthodoxy. Subtitled "How contemporary culture's fascination with diversity has reshaped our understanding of early Christianity", The Heresy of Orthodoxy deconstructs the fashionable trend—both in academia and popular culture—to view early Christianity as essentially a diverse collection of irreconcilable theologies, and through historical reasoning cogently argues for the priority of normative Christianity. (For show notes please visit http://themindrenewed.com)

Human male sage and wizard. My family is no stranger to wealth, power, and privilege. In the glory days of Neverwinter, my parents were the count and countess of Corlinn Hill, a large estate located in the hills northeast of the city; however, disaster struck when Mount Hotenow erupted twenty-nine years ago, which devastated Neverwinter and erased Corlinn Hill from the map. As one of the few survivors of the devastating eruption, I was on the road at age eight. As a child, I was fascinated with maps and had a very keen mind; as a result, I was able to find my way to Triboar, a nearby town, with a map and a compass.

Episode 0262 - Gnostic Studies, part 9 (Click on the above link, or here, for audio) Review of Valentinus life & theology, compared to Ra's 3 Principles (Will-Love-Light). Cosmology of Father, Son, Aeons, Sophia, Fall & Resurrection. ■ V. Theology (D.Brons): http://gnosis.org/library/valentinus/Valentinian_Theology.htm ■ V. Life (D.Brons): http://gnosis.org/library/valentinus/Valentinus.htm

Episode 0254 - Gnostic Studies, part 7 (Click on the above link, or here, for audio.) Short biographies of Valentinus; first complete reading of the Gospel of Truth (GOTr; Grant, trans.). East-West mind & religion; name & form. Cosmogenesis & 3 Principles; emanations & return to source. ■ Valentinus Bio: http://gnosis.org/library/valentinus/Valentinus.htm ■ Coptic Gospels Intro: http://

Irenaeus understands heresy. What were the big heresies he dealt with? There were three representative heretical groups: the Ebionites, Gnostics (Valentinian) and Marcion. How does this all fit? Explore the themes of the relationship of Creation, God, and humankind, the relationship of the God of the Old Testament and God of the New Testament, and the relationship of Jesus, God, and humankind. Explore the views of textual authority (“scripture”). The Ebionites’ main tenants were that a “lesser god” made the world and Jesus was born naturally by Joseph and Mary; Christ and Jesus are distinct; and Christ is impassible. The Ebionites only use the gospel of Matthew. Consider the Gnostics (gnosis (γνῶσις) means knowledge). Does their view of creation make sense? What kind of Gnosticism are we talking about? A big part of it was that of Valentinus. Tertullian states that Valentinus, “. . .marked out a path for himself with the subtlety of a serpent.” For Gnostics, salvation is achieved through “gnosis”. Explore Cosmogony. What does pleroma mean? It means “fullness” and it is the world of the gods. Within the pleroma is Sophia (wisdom), one of the Aeons. In John 1:1-3 we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” They saw this as a description of the pleroma and believed Sophia fell from the pleroma and was restored into the kenoma. The Gnostics believed Jesus as Redeemer restored Sophia. She left behind the demiurge, a lesser god abandoned by Sophia. They believed the demiurge created the earth and man. His residual spark got passed on to man. They held that matter is bad but some have the potential for redemption and at some point will be invited back into the pleroma. People could be redeemed by a secret knowledge. Christ Aeon saves people in the higher God. They believe either that Jesus was the fleshly man on whom the Christ Aeon descended or Jesus was the actual Christ Aeon who only appeared to be in the flesh. Dualistic- resurrection does not include the flesh. Consider that there is a three-fold division of mankind: Pneumatics, Psychics, and Somatics.

Explore the structure of the “Against Heresies”. Books I and II function as a unit. Books II-V are an expositional through Scripture. Book I includes the presentation of various heretics. What is Irenaeus’ aim in Book I? His aim is to identify and “unmask” the heretics. Irenaeus especially identifies Valentinus, Ptolemy, and other Gnostics. His methodology is to compare their views with the Rule of Truth. Book I includes the ‘Ptolemaean’ hypothesis, the ecclesial Rule of Truth, and the genealogy of the Valentinians and the heretics. Book II is about refuting the heresies. He points out that the heretics do not understand that there is one God – they are not monotheists. They wrongly think Christ represents Aeons (godlike deities) and wrongly think mankind are just intellectual spirits. Irenaeus shows how the Christian God, the Creator, is above all others. In Book II, Irenaeus lays out a section on one God, Christ, and Anthropology.

Continue to explore the timeline of Irenaeus. Politically, Marcus Aurelius was emperor and was co-ruler of Rome (161-180). He was last of the “5 good emperors”. This was not a good time for Rome and it was also not a good time for Christians. They were accused of “secret crimes” and of atheism since they did not believe in the gods. They were also accused of Thyestes feasts. Consider what Marcus Minucius Felix writes about the subject. There were also scattered yet severe persecutions. Mob violence occurred outside of Lyons. Irenaeus was tasked with carrying a letter to Rome so they would know what was happening in the western provinces. Lyons was the largest “colony” north of the Alps. It was a culturally significant city. Irenaeus’ flock was mostly migrants. This was the location in which Irenaeus wrote his works. His two extent works are The Detection and Overthrow of the Falsely-Named Knowledge (Against Heresies) and Demonstration of Apostolic Preaching. There are also six lost works. The purpose of Irenaeus’ writing is to bring clarity where there is confusion. What do we do with the Old Testament and Jesus? At this time there were Judaizers, Marcion, Valentinus and the Gnostics. How is Christ moving at this time in history?

Continue to explore Paul’s use of wordplay. Paul used some unexpected humor by making a pun on Onesimus's name in Philemon 11, which meant "useful". Paul also uses self-deprecation in 2 Corinthians 11:1, sarcasm in Acts 22:2-3, and in Galatians 5:12. Explore the topic of humor in church history. Tertullian speaks of the value of laughter as an apologetic. Harold Brown speaks of the work of Irenaeus as exposing the error of Valentinus by observing that Irenaeus exposed it with brilliance, as well as with humor. The humor of Augustine is seen especially in his work on the Psalms. Erasmus’s work “In Praise of Folly” is a great satire against many of the churchmen of his day. John Knox was not indisposed to mirth and humor, of which, as of other traits of his character, his writings furnish abundant evidence. It is difficult to find humor in Edwards. “Humor” is not a notion that Edwards is at all familiar with, so far as his preaching is concerned although there seems to have been a little. There is, as well, some storytelling. Edwards’ preaching changed when he moved out of Northampton to Stockbridge to preach to both the Mohican and Mohawk American Indians. He was much more likely to use stories and narrative when speaking to the Indians. Spurgeon is known as the “man who tells the jokes”. Much of the humor has been excised from his printed sermons. This may be because they were offhanded comments, or because Spurgeon edited them out. In Church History we find Martin Luther stating, “. . . the story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac must have lost a fragment of an emotional dialogue between father and son, with Isaac saying, “Let’s talk this over”. Isaac’s fondling of Rebecca in Genesis 26:8 prompted Luther to comment, “We are permitted to laugh and have fun with, and embrace, our wives, whether they are naked or clothed.“

Continue to explore Canon in the 2nd Century. Consider Tatian’s Diatessaron, which means “through the four”. His text harmonized the four gospels but Tatian was eventually branded a heretic for his Gnostic views and theology. Explore Canon considerations of the 2nd Century. The Church had three options: choose just one such as Marcion or the Ebionites; choose a synthetic Gospel for example, Tatian’s; or allow an array of Gospels. Consider the Muratorian Fragment, which is the earliest list of authoritative books that we have. It contains the Gospel of Luke and assumes the Gospel of Mark, John, some of the Pauline writings including 1 and 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and Romans. It also contains Philemon, Titus, 1 and 2 Timothy, Jude and 1 and 2 John, Wisdom of Solomon, Revelation of John, and Apocalypse of Peter. It rejects the books of Valentinus, Marcion, Milteides, Basilides, and the Montanists. This proves that prior to Athanasius, a lot of work was being done to understanding which texts are authoritative. Textual authority leads to Christian identity. Explore Irenaeus on the Gospels. Irenaeus is adamant that there is only one Gospel. He is the first to say there are four Gospels that tell a singular Gospel message – no more and no less. Irenaeus also preserved the earliest ordering of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Others ordered them as Mathew, John, Luke, and Mark due to the preference of the eyewitness accounts. Irenaeus’ Bible contained the Old Testament, which included commonly accepted books along with some additions to Daniel, Baruch, 2 Esdras, 1 Enoch. For the New Testament, Irenaeus would have had a collection of books he saw as “accepted” including the four Gospels, Acts, 13 Epistles of Paul, Hebrews, 1 Peter, 1 John, and Revelation. It possibly may have included the Shepherd of Hermas as well.

Consider exegetical strategies including the total reading of Scripture. The Bible is a single text and teaches a coherent, unified truth about the nature of God and human destiny. The central belief is that it is all about Jesus. It is collecting all the data and trying to find what the unifying bit is that takes us from Genesis to Revelation. Consider the example of Ignatius of Antioch being challenged. “Where is it taught in the archives?” Ignatius, stated in his letter to the Philadelphians, “Moreover, I urge you to do nothing in a spirit of contentiousness, but in accordance with the teaching of Christ. For I heard some people say, ‘If I do not find it in the archives, I do not believe it in the gospel.’ And when I said to them, ‘It is written,’ they answered me, ‘That is precisely the question.’ But for me, the “archives” are Jesus Christ, the unalterable archives are his cross and death and his resurrection and the faith that comes through him; by these things I want, through your prayers, to be justified.” Ignatius answered the question by saying “Jesus is the original document.” Jesus is the basis for a right reading of Scripture. Marcion and Valentinus misunderstood who Jesus is and what his role was. Irenaeus on the unity of Scripture holds that there are three main aspects – hypothesis, economy, and recapitulation. The hypothesis is the “gist” of a literary work – it is the overall purpose. Irenaeus stated, “Heretical interpretations read as if someone destroyed the figure of a man in the authentic portrait of a king, carefully created by a skillful artist out of precious stones, and rearranged the stones to make the image of a dog or fox, declaring that this badly composed image is that good image of the king made by the skillful artist.” What is the plan of the text? Explore how the Scripture and the Rule of Faith work together. If we understand the hypothesis and Christ correctly, everything will make sense. The Patristic Fathers showed us the need to apply Christ wholly to the Scriptures.

In Exodus 1:8, we read about a change in Egyptian leadership from one unnamed pharaoh to another, "who knew not Joseph." So soon? Were there other pharaohs between them? Might the longevity of the Patriarchs be lingering after-effects of Adam & Eve sneaking a bite of the Tree of Life? Is it possible that Mt. Vesuvius was the inspiration for the apocalyptic material in Mark? How do you answer the anti-intellectual verses that suggest that you are suppressing the truth? Secondly, what are some of the major reasons that you reject the truth claims of the Bible and its followers? What are the similarities between Jesus and the Greco-Roman god Serapis? What do you know or suspect about where and for whom each Gospel (and, what the heck, any non-canonical gospels or other particularly interesting books that come to mind) was written? Eisenman argues that Paul attacked James in the 40s, and that this event became the model for the canonical stoning of Stephen. If this were true, how would that fit with Paul's statements in Galatians 1:18-19? Is there any parallel between the Jesus Christ of Revelation 22:16 and Lucifer the fallen angel? If Satan was such a minor figure in the Jewish religion and the Old Testament, and even at times an almost benevolent figure, how or why did he get to be such a major villain in the Christian religion? Since Satan doesn't fall from Heaven until right before J.C. is due for his Second Visit then just who in the hell are these unclean spirits/demons that pop up in the New Testament? Is there really a contradiction in Matthew 11 when John asks if Jesus is the Messiah after having already recognized Jesus when he had baptized him earlier in Matthew? Is there necessarily a contradiction between 1Cor 15:22-23 and Mark 12:18-27, the former saying that the dead will rise when Christ returns, while the latter says that at least some saints already live with God, e.g., Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Might Jesus mean simply that God remains their God and therefore will not leave them dead? Can you explain how Oneness theology and Trinitarianism originated and came to diverge? Valentinus believed in the tripartite nature of man, being made up of body, soul and spirit. Most evangelical Christians believe that the soul and spirit are interchangeable. But Paul speaks of these three separate parts of man in 1 Thessalonians 5:23. I know that Valentinus claimed to be a disciple of Theudas, one of Paul's own disciples. Do you think that Valentinus' strange anthropology is an indication that he may actually reflect Paul's theology more closely than the orthodox church? 1 Samuel 13:1, about Saul's age at his coronation, is variously translated as "one year," "was thirty years old," "was forty years old and a son of one year." What was the original intent of this verse? In his Church History Eusebius outlines his Christology. God is of two natures, Father and Son. Why no mention of the Holy Spirit and Trinity? Who divided scripture into all its chapters and verses? When was it done and how did the worldwide church all agree to adopt these divisions? Re: the possibility of Joseph moving Jesus from his tomb to the criminals' graveyard, William Lane Craig stated that according to Jewish law it was illegal for Joseph to use his family tomb as a temporary holding spot for Jesus. How would you answer this? What is your reasoning concerning the Jewish allegation that the apostles stole the body? What do you know about controversy around Genesis 4:1 implying God begat Cain? What's the most interesting development or revelation in Biblical scholarship/Biblical criticism to come out this year? Jesus and stepdad Joseph are referred to in English bibles as carpenters, but the Koine Greek term is 'tekton', which I believe has a more general meaning of a skilled craftsman or builder. Is there a Koine Greek word specifically for carpenter, which was oddly not used? Can you please provide a handy thumb-nail sketch of Macion's theology? The way some left leaning Christians speak about Christianity, it's as if the religion is about nothing but giving away everything to poor people. Are they correct? What is your opinion of the doctrine of Annihilationism? Are there any Bible Atlases that are particularly well done, or are so laughably wrong? If we don't believe what Acts tells us about Paul, what are the grounds for disbelieving that an individual by that name wrote several principle letters? He could be called Paul, Polycarp, or Paulycarp, for all it matters. Or is the point more to argue that no single person wrote any major portion of what has come down to us in the post gospel New Testament? If there was a mythical Jesus what do you think the point of the relatively short time on the cross is? And much more ...

  Mr. Wayne Marcy author and giving his testimony. Saint Valentinus From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Saint Valentine's Day, also known as Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine,[1] is a holiday observed onFebruary 14each year. It is celebrated in many countries around the world, although it is not a holiday in most of them.  

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. "Origen and Paul: The Example of Their Anthropologies" is a public lecture by Christoph Markschies, one of the world’s leading scholars of early Christian studies. Markschies holds the Harnack Chair of Church History (Ancient Christianity) at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where he also served as President from 2006-2010. Professor Markschies studied Theology, Classics, and Philosophy in Marburg, Jerusalem, and Munich, and received his doctorate (1991) and Habilitation (1994) from the University of Tübingen. The recipient of multiple honorary doctorates, his many publications include seminal studies of such key figures as Valentinus, Origen and Ambrosius. Professor Markschies is the Vice-President of the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and a member of the Academy of Erfurt and Heidelberg, the European Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Akademia Europea. See more at: http://divinity.uchicago.edu/christoph-markschies-divinity-school

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. "Origen and Paul: The Example of Their Anthropologies" is a public lecture by Christoph Markschies, one of the world’s leading scholars of early Christian studies. Markschies holds the Harnack Chair of Church History (Ancient Christianity) at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where he also served as President from 2006-2010. Professor Markschies studied Theology, Classics, and Philosophy in Marburg, Jerusalem, and Munich, and received his doctorate (1991) and Habilitation (1994) from the University of Tübingen. The recipient of multiple honorary doctorates, his many publications include seminal studies of such key figures as Valentinus, Origen and Ambrosius. Professor Markschies is the Vice-President of the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and a member of the Academy of Erfurt and Heidelberg, the European Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Akademia Europea. See more at: http://divinity.uchicago.edu/christoph-markschies-divinity-school

This episode, we take a short break from the narrative to explore a group of sects that will vex the Church more than any other previous heresy, Gnosticism! Music “Sons of Constantinople” by Tyler Cunningham, licensed under Pond5. HistoryoftheEarlyChurch.wordpress.com HistoryoftheEarlyChurch@gmail.com Facebook.com/EarlyChurchPodcast

APOSTLE TALK - Future News Now! WWW.REALMIRACLES.COM with Prince Handley VALENTINE LOVE FOR YOU You can listen to this message NOW.Click on the LibSyn pod circle at top left. (Allow images to display.)Listen NOW or download for later. Optional play here >>> Blubrry After you listen to this message, you can scroll down for all messagespreviously in the Archives (with Show Notes). Please email this message to a friend. RSS PODCAST 24/7 release of Prince Handley blogs, teachings, and podcasts >>> STREAM Text:  "follow princehandley"  to 40404 (in USA) Or, Twitter: princehandley ____________________________________________________________ DESCRIPTION: Valentine Day: What's LOVE got to do with it? How to KNOW real love ... and how to GIVE it. _____________________________________________________________ VALENTINE LOVE (PODCAST READY) In several countries Valentine’s Day is celebrated as a time of love.Over 188 million Valentine’s Day cards are purchased every year ... and 73 percent of them are bought by women. Parents receive around 20 percent of the cards. Over 50 million roses are purchased for Valentine’s gifts every year. The saint whose feast was celebrated on the day now known as St. Valentine's Day was possibly one of three martyred men named Valentinus who lived in the late third century, during the reign of Emperor Claudius II. Not much ... if anything ... is really known about any of the three. However, we do have some knowledge of the origin of the day known as Valentine Day. The true story behind Valentine’s Day is about a man named Valentinus, a courageous Christian who lived during the third century. Going against the Roman emperors decrees, Valetinus performed secret marriage ceremonies in the woods. After helping many lovers to be joined together in HOLY MATRIMONY, he was dragged before the emperor, who was angry both because of the weddings and because of Valentinus’ refusal to worship the Roman gods. Valentinus was sentenced to death because of these crimes; however, Valentinus proclaimed to the emperor that Jesus is God’s Son, and then invited the emperor to believe in Jesus and be saved! There are many true-life stories, as well as songs, about love. Van Gogh, the gifted and renowned artist, legend has it (maybe not true) cut off the lower part of his own left ear, which he wrapped in newspaper and gave to a prostitute named Rachel in the local brothel, because a friend had deserted him. In 1993, Tina Turner came out with her famous song, “What’s love Got to Do with It?? You know ... when we love someone, we do NOT count the money, we count the occasions! (The memories.) There was a survey taken, asking people what they would like to do with someone they loved, and three of the top answers were as follows: 1. A walk on the beach; 2. Quality time talking; and, 3. Dinner alone. None of the above cost money. WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? Jesus said to the church of Ephesus, “I have somewhat against you, because you have left your first love.? (Revelation 2:4) Personally, I would rather be a soul winner with NO wisdom and the love of God leading people to Christ than a wise old prophet leading NO souls to Christ. I want to retain my FIRST LOVE ... and to worship my FIRST LOVE: the Lord Jesus, the Messiah of Israel. Love motivated God to send His only Son to earth to die on a cross and suffer and pay for your sins and my sins Love motivated Jesus to obey the Father and come to earth for you and for me. Love motivated Yeshua at the age of 12 to stay behind in Jerusalem when his parents were returning home from the Feast of the Passover. They did not realize he was gone for a whole day, and then it took three days to find him, where he was listening to and teaching the teachers: the doctors of the Law. The word LOVE is used 310 times in the Holy Bible ... 33 times in the Book of First John, where 17 times it talks about “Love the Lord.? In I John Chapter Three, God tells us: “Every one who hates his Brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has Immortal Life within him. We have learned to know what love is from this--that Christ laid down his life on our behalf. Therefore we also ought to lay down our lives on behalf of our Brothers. But, if any one has worldly possessions, and yet looks on while his Brother is in want, and hardens his heart against him, how can it be said that the love of God is within him? My children, do not let our love be mere words, or end in talk; let it be true and show itself in acts. By that we shall know that we are on the side of the Truth; and we shall satisfy ourselves in God's sight, that if our conscience condemns us, yet God is greater than our conscience and knows everything. Dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, then we approach God with confidence, and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we are laying his commands to heart, and are doing what is pleasing in his sight. His Command is this -- that we should put our trust in the Name of his Son, Messiah Yeshua, and love one another, in accordance with the Command that he gave us. And he who lays his commands to heart maintains union with Messiah, and Messiah with him. And by this we know that Messiah maintains union with us -- by our possession of the Spirit which he gave us.? – I John 3:15-24 This Valentine’s Day, give yourself - your time, your energy, your resources - to someone you love. Show them your love! And then ... do the same to God. If you were the only person on Planet Earth, Jesus would still have made the trip for you. He loves you so much that He gave more than an ear ... He gave his life ... for YOU! You can never be so bad that Jesus will NOT love you! And ... you will never be able to measure God’s love for you. Trust Him today ... respond to His love. The MIRACLES ... and the LOVE of God ... are aimed at you from every direction. _____________________________________________________________ If you have been helped or received a miracle as a result of this study, email us and let us know what God has done for you. You may contact us by email at: PrinceHandley@gmail.com You may contact us by postal mail at: Prince Handley - P.O. 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Seminars (overseas), Email to: apostlehandley@gmail.com Real Miracles, Healing, Prayer, Ministry Studies & Help for You: www.realmiracles.com Free Bible Studies by Email (New Testament Introduction), Email to: worldservicesinc@gmail.com Jewish Rabbinical Studies (tell your Jewish friends): www.realmiracles.com/rabbinical.htm The University of Excellence (Advanced Studies in Missions, Leadership, and Church Growth), Email to: universityofexcellence@gmail.com ______________________________________________________________

Today, Father Bryan Ouellette speaks about the Valentinian School of Gnosticism. Who were the Valentinians and what was their relationship to orthodox Christianity? Find out why history remembers the Christian Gnostics to be the followers of Valentinus and his theology.

The First Centuries – Part 5 // Irenæus The historical record is pretty clear that the Apostle John spent his last years in Western Asia Minor, with the City of Ephesus acting as his headquarters. It seems that during his time there, he poured himself into a cadre of capable men who went on to provide outstanding leadership for the church in the midst of difficult trials. Men like Polycarp of Smyrna, Papias & Apolinarius of Hierapolis, & Melito of Sardis. These and others were mentioned by Polycrates, the bishop of Ephesus in a letter to Victor, a bishop at Rome in about AD 190.These students of John are considered to be the last of what's called The Apostolic Age. The greatest of them was Irenæus. Though he wasn't a direct student of the Apostle, he was influenced by Polycarp, & is considered by many as one of the premier and first Church Fathers.Not much is known of Irenæus' origins. From what we can piece together from his writings, he was most likely born and raised in Smyrna around AD 120. He was instructed by Smyrna's lead pastor, Polycarp, a student of John. He says he was also directly influenced by other pupils of the Apostles, though he doesn't name them. Polycarp had the biggest impact on him, as evidenced by his comment, “What I heard from him, I didn't write on parchment, but on my heart. By God's grace, I bring it constantly to mind.” It's possible Irenæus accompanied Polycarp when he traveled to Rome and engaged Bishop Anicetus in the Easter controversy we talked about last episode.At some point while still a young man, Irenæus went to Southern Gaul as a missionary. He settled at Lugdunum where he became an elder in the church there. Lugdunum eventually became the town of Lyon, France. In 177, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the church in Lugdunum was hammered by fierce persecution. But Irenæus had been sent on a mission to Rome to deal with the Montanist controversy. While away, the church's elderly pastor Pothinus, was martyred. By the time he returned in 178 the persecution had spent itself and he was appointed as the new pastor.Irenæus worked tirelessly to mend the holes persecution had punched in the church in Southern Gaul. In both teaching and writing, he provided resources other church leaders could use in faithfully discharging their pastoral duties, as well as refuting the various and sundry errors challenging the new Faith. During his term as the pastor of the church at Lyon, he was able to see a majority of the population of the City converted to Christ. Dozens of missionaries were sent out to plant churches across Gaul.Then, about 190, Irenæus simply disappears with no clear account of his death. A 5th C tradition says he died a martyr in 202 in the persecution under Septimus Severus. The problem with that is that several church fathers like Eusebius, Hippolytus, & Tertullian uncharacteristically fail to mention Irenæus' martyrdom. Because martyrs achieved hero status, if Irenæus had been martyred, the Church would have marked it. SO most likely, he died of natural causes. However he died, he was buried under the altar St. John's in Lyons.Irenæus' influence far surpassed the importance of his location. The bishopric of Lyon was not considered an important seat. But Irenæus' impact on the Faith was outsized to his position. His keen intellect united a Greek education with astute philosophical analysis, and a sharp understanding of the Scriptures to produce a remarkable defense of The Gospel. That was badly needed at the time due to the inroads being forged by a new threat – Gnosticism, which we spent time describing in Season 1.Irenæus' articulation of the Faith brought about a unanimity that united the East & Western branches of the Church that had been diverging. They'd end up reverting to that divergence later, but Irenæus managed to bring about a temporary peace through his clear defense of the faith against the Gnostics.Irenæus admits he had a difficult time mastering the Celtic dialect spoken by the people where he served but his capacity in Greek, in which he composed his writings, was both elegant & eloquent without running to the merely flowery. His content shows he was familiar with the classics by authors like Homer, Hesiod, & Sophocles as well as philosophers like Pythagoras & Plato.He shows a like familiarity with earlier Christian writers such as Clement, Justin Martyr, & Tatian. But Irenæus is really only 1 generation away from Jesus and the original Apostles due to a couple long life-times; that of John, and then his pupil, Polycarp. We find their influence in Irenæus' remark impugning the appeal of Gnosticism, “The true way to God, is through love. Better to know nothing but the crucified Christ, than fall into the impiety of overly curious inquires & silly nuances.” Reading Irenæus' work on the core doctrines of the Faith reveal his wholehearted embrace of Pauline theology of the NT. Where Irenæus goes beyond John & Paul was in his handling of ecclesiology; that is, matters of the Church. Irenæus wrote on things like the proper handling of the sacraments, and how authority in the church ought to be passed on. A close reading of the 2nd C church fathers reveals that this issue was of major concern to them. It makes sense it would. Jesus had commissioned the Apostles to carry on His mission and to lay the foundation of the Faith & Church. The Apostles had done that, but in the 2nd C, the men the Apostles had raised up were themselves aging out. Church leaders were burdened with the question of how to properly pass on the Faith once for all delivered to the saints, to those who came next. What was the plan?We'll come back to that later . . .Irenæus was a staunch advocate of what we'll call Biblical theology, as opposed to a theology derived from philosophical musing, propped up by random Bible verses. He's the first of the church fathers to make liberal use of BOTH the Old & New Testaments in his writings. He uses all four Gospels and nearly all the letters of the NT in the development of his theology.His goal in it all was to establish unity among believers. He was so zealous for it because of the rising popularity of Gnosticism, a new religious fascination attractive an increasing number of Christians.Historians have come to understand that like many emergent faiths, Gnosticism was itself fractured into different flavors. The brand Irenæus dealt with was the one most popular in his region; Valentinian Gnosticism, or, Valentinianism.While several writings are attributed to Irenæus, by far his most important and famous was Against Heresies, his refutation of Gnosticism. Written sometime btwn 177 & 190, it's 5 volumes is considered by most to be the premier theological work of the ante-Nicene era. It's also the main source of knowledge for historians on Gnosticism and Christian doctrine in the Apostolic Age. It was composed in response to a request by a friend wanting a brief on how to deal with the errors of both Valentinus & Marcion. Both had taught in Rome 30 yrs earlier.  Their ideas then spread to France.The 1st of the 5 volumes is a dissection of what Valentinianism taught, and more generally how it differed from other sects of Gnosticism. It shows that Irenæus had a remarkable grasp of a belief system he utterly & categorically rejected.The 2nd book reviewed the internal inconsistencies and contradictions of Gnosticism.The last 3 volumes give a systematic refutation of Gnosticism from Scripture & tradition which Irenæus makes clear at that time were one and the same. He shows that the Gospel which was at first only oral, was subsequently committed to writing, then was faithfully taught in churches through a succession of pastors & elders. So, Irenæus says, The Apostolic Faith & tradition is embodied in Scripture, and in the right interpretation of those scriptures by pastors (AKA as bishops). And the Church ought to have confidence in those pastors' interpretations of God's Word because they've attained their office through a demonstrated succession. Of course, the succession Irenæus referred to was manifestly evident by virtue of the fact he wrote in the last quarter of the 2nd C & was himself, as we've seen, just a generation removed from the Apostle John.Irenæus set all this over against the contradictory opinions of heretics who fundamentally deviated from this well-established Faith & simply could not be included in the catholic, that is universally agreed on, faith carved out by Scripture and its orthodox interpretation by a properly sanctioned teaching office.The 5th and final volume of Against Heresies includes Irenæus' exposition of pre-millennial eschatology; that is, the study of Last things, or in modern parlance – the End Times. No doubt he does so because it stood in stark contrast with the muddled teaching of the Gnostics on this subject. It might be noted that Irenæus' pre-millennialism wasn't unique. He stood squarely with the other writers of the Apostolic & post-apostolic age.Irenæus' view of the inspiration of Scripture is early anticipation of what came to be called Verbal plenary inspiration. That is, both the writings and authors of Scripture were inspired, so that what God wanted expressed was, without turning the writers into automatons. God expressed His will through the varying personalities of the original authors. He even accounts for the variations in Paul's style across his epistles to his, at times, rapid-fire dictation & the agency of the Holy Spirit's urging at different times and in different situations.Irenæus' emphasis on both Scripture and the apostolic tradition of its interpretation has been seen as a boon to the idea of establishing an official teaching magisterium in the Church. Added to that is his remarks that the church at Rome held a special place in providing leadership for the Church as a whole. He based this on Rome being the location of the martyrdom of both Peter & Paul. While Irenæus acknowledges they did not START the church there, he reasoned they most certainly were regarded as its leaders when they were there. And there was a tradition that Peter appointed the next bishop, one Linus, to lead the Church when he was executed. While it's true Irenæus did indeed suggest Rome ought to take the lead, he said it was the CHURCH there that ought to do so; not its bishop. The point may seem minor, but it's important to note that Irenaeus himself resisted positions taken by the Bishop at Rome. In our last episode, we noted his chronicle of Polycarp's & Anicetus' disagreement over when to celebrated Easter. Anicetus' successor was Bishop Victor, who took a hardline approach with the Quartodecamins and wanted to forcefully punish them. While as the bishop of the church in Lyon, Irenaeus was ready to follow the policy of the Church at Rome, he objected to Victor's heavy-handedness and reminded him of his predecessor's more fair-minded policy.So while Irenaeus does indeed urge a role of first-place for the Church at Rome, we can't go so far as to say he establishes the principle of the primacy of the bishop of Rome. He's not an apologist for papal primacy.Nor does he advocate apostolic succession as it's come to be defined today. What Irenaeus does say is that the Scriptures have to be interpreted rightly; meaning, they have to align with that which the Apostles consistently taught, and that the people who were to be trusted to that end were those linked back to the Apostles because they'd HEARD them explain themselves.He argued this because the Gnostics claimed a secret oral tradition given them from Jesus himself. Irenaeus maintained that the pastors & elders of the Church were well-known and linked to the Apostles and had always maintained the same message that wasn't secret at all. Therefore, it was those pastors who provided the only safe interpretation of Scripture.For Irenaeus, apostolic authority was only valid so long as it actually squared with apostolic teaching, which itself was codified in the Gospels and epistles of the NT – along with what the direct students of the Apostles said they'd taught. Irenæus didn't concoct a formula for the passing of apostolic authority from one generation to the next in perpetuity.Irenaeus became a treasured authority for men like Hippolytus and Tertullian who drew freely from him. He also became a major source for establishing the canon of the NT. He regarded the entire OT as God's Word as well as most of the books our NT while excluding a large number of Gnostic pretenders. There's some evidence that before Irenaeus, believers lined up under different Gospels as their preferred accounts of the Life of Jesus. The Churches of Asia Minor preferred the Gospel of John while Matthew was the most popular overall. Irenaeus made a convincing case that all 4 Gospels were God's Word. That made him the earliest witness to the canonicity of M,M,L & J. This stood over against the accepted writings of a heretic named Marcion who only accepted portions of Luke's Gospel.Irenaeus cited passages of the NT about a thousand times, from 21 of the 27 books, including Revelation. Inferences to the other books can be found as well.Irenaeus provides a perfect bridge from the Apostles to the next phase of Church History presided over by the Fathers, of which he's considered among the first.