The Authorised (British spelling) Version of the holy scriptures, commonly known as the Authorized King James Version or KJV, is the word of God and the glory of the English language. For almost 400 years it has led multitudes to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and a whole new life in him and his word. The King James Bible has spread across the world reaching mankind generation after generation. It has saved, comforted, exhorted, rebuked, admonished, warned, enlightened, and edified without ceasing. King James VI & I, founding monarch of Great Britain, not only commanded the translation of the Authorised Version but he actually took an active role in developing the rules for translators and encouraging the completion of the work. The King's College website states, The development of the Bible in English differs from that of other European vernacular translations. Only England has an "authorised version", issued under the auspices of a king who was also the head of the Church. The vernacular Bible was illegal in England long before the Reformation and so began its development at a great disadvantage, but once England became a Protestant country the translated Bible became a symbol of state.

Medici, an Italian family of merchants and bankers who ruled the republic of Florence through economic power and personal influence. By their patronage of the arts they made Florence the center of the Italian Renaissance. The Medici were created dukes of Florence by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1531, and grand dukes of Tuscany by Emperor Maximilian II in 1575. The last Medici grand duke was deposed by the Austrians in 1737. Important members of the Medici family included the following. Giovanni De' Medici: (1360-1429) established the family fortune and made himself ruler of Florence's merchant oligarchy. Cosimo De' Medici: (1389-1464), his son, used his banking business to gain political power and led Florence in a long period of prosperity and artistic achievement. Lorenzo the Magnificent: (1449-1492), grandson of Cosimo, gained fame as a statesman and patron of arts and letters. He was recognized as a poet himself and was largely responsible for the Tuscan dialect becoming the national speech of Italy. Cosimo (I) the Great: (1519-1574) succeeded to the dukedom in 1537 and ruled as a despot. He restored the duchy of Tuscany by conquering the other republics that had been part of it.

Priesthood: In 361 Gregory returned to Nazianzus and was ordained a presbyter by his father, who wanted him to assist with caring for local Christians. The younger Gregory, who had been considering a monastic existence, resented his father's decision to force him to choose between priestly services and a solitary existence, calling it an "act of tyranny". Leaving home after a few days, he met his friend Basil at Annesoi, where the two lived as ascetics. However, Basil urged him to return home to assist his father, which he did for the next year. Arriving at Nazianzus, Gregory found the local Christian community split by theological differences and his father accused of heresy by local monks. Gregory helped to heal the division through a combination of personal diplomacy and oratory. By this time Emperor Julian had publicly declared himself in opposition to Christianity. In response to the emperor's rejection of the Christian faith, Gregory composed his Invectives Against Julian between 362 and 363. Invectives asserts that Christianity will overcome imperfect rulers such as Julian through love and patience. This process as described by Gregory is the public manifestation of the process of deification (theosis), which leads to a spiritual elevation and mystical union with God. Julian resolved, in late 362, to vigorously prosecute Gregory and his other Christian critics; however, the emperor perished the following year during a campaign against the Persians. With the death of the emperor, Gregory and the Eastern churches were no longer under the threat of persecution, as the new emperor Jovian was an avowed Christian and supporter of the church. Gregory spent the next few years combating Arianism, which threatened to divide the region of Cappadocia. In this tense environment, Gregory interceded on behalf of his friend Basil with Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea (Maritima). The two friends then entered a period of close fraternal cooperation as they participated in a great rhetorical contest of the Caesarean church precipitated by the arrival of accomplished Arian theologians and rhetors. In the subsequent public debates, presided over by agents of the Emperor Valens, Gregory and Basil emerged triumphant. This success confirmed for both Gregory and Basil that their futures lay in administration of the Church. Basil, who had long displayed inclinations to the episcopacy, was elected bishop of the see of Caesarea in Cappadocia in 370. -- Gregory at Constantinople: Emperor Valens died in 378. The accession of Theodosius I, a steadfast supporter of Nicene orthodoxy, was good news to those who wished to purge Constantinople of Arian and Apollinarian domination. The exiled Nicene party gradually returned to the city. From his deathbed, Basil reminded them of Gregory's capabilities and likely recommended his friend to champion the trinitarian cause in Constantinople. In 379, the Antioch synod and its archbishop, Meletios, asked Gregory to go to Constantinople to lead a theological campaign to win over that city to Nicene orthodoxy. After much hesitation, Gregory agreed. His cousin Theodosia offered him a villa for his residence; Gregory immediately transformed much of it into a church, naming it Anastasia, "a scene for the resurrection of the faith". From this little chapel he delivered five powerful discourses on Nicene doctrine, explaining the nature of the Trinity and the unity of the Godhead. Refuting the Eunomion denial of the Holy Spirit's divinity, Gregory offered this argument: "Look at these facts: Christ is born, the Holy Spirit is His Forerunner. Christ is baptized, the Spirit bears witness to this… Christ works miracles, the Spirit accompanies them. Christ ascends, the Spirit takes His place. What great things are there in the idea of God which are not in His power? What titles appertaining to God do not apply also to Him, except for Unbegotten and Begotten? I tremble when I think of such an abundance of titles, and how many Names they blaspheme, those who revolt against the Spirit!" -- Gregory's homilies were well-received and attracted ever-growing crowds to Anastasia. Fearing his popularity, his opponents decided to strike. On the vigil of Easter in 379, an Arian mob burst into his church during worship services, wounding Gregory and killing another bishop. Escaping the mob, Gregory next found himself betrayed by his erstwhile friend, the philosopher Maximus the Cynic. Maximus, who was in secret alliance with Peter, bishop of Alexandria, attempted to seize Gregory's position and have himself ordained bishop of Constantinople. Shocked, Gregory decided to resign his office, but the faction faithful to him induced him to stay and ejected Maximus. However, the episode left him embarrassed and exposed him to criticism as a provincial simpleton unable to cope with intrigues of the imperial city. Affairs in Constantinople remained confused as Gregory's position was still unofficial and Arian priests occupied many important churches. The arrival of the emperor Theodosius in 380 settled matters in Gregory's favor. The emperor, determined to eliminate Arianism, expelled Bishop Demophilus. Gregory was subsequently enthroned as bishop of Constantinople at the Basilica of the Apostles, replacing Demophilus.

Acacius' proposed creed: -- Preface: "We having yesterday assembled by the emperor's command at Seleucia, a city of Isauria, on the 27th day of September, exerted ourselves to the utmost, with all moderation, to preserve the peace of the church, and to determine doctrinal questions on prophetic and evangelical authority, so as to sanction nothing in the ecclesiastic confession of faith at variance with the sacred Scriptures, as our Emperor Constantius most beloved of God has ordered. But inasmuch as certain individuals in the Synod have acted injuriously toward several of us, preventing some from expressing their sentiments, and excluding others from the council against their wills; and at the same time have introduced such as have been deposed, and persons who were ordained contrary to the ecclesiastical canon, so that the Synod has presented a scene of tumult and disorder, of which the most illustrious Leonas, the Comes, and the most eminent Lauricius, governor of the province, have been eye-witnesses, we are therefore under the necessity of making this declaration. That we do not repudiate the faith which was ratified at the consecration of the church at Antioch; for we give it our decided preference, because it received the concurrence of our fathers who were assembled there to consider some controverted points. Since, however, the terms homoousion and homoiousion have in time past troubled the minds of many, and still continue to disquiet them; and moreover that a new term has recently been coined by some who assert the anomoion of the Son to the Father: we reject the first two, as expressions which are not found in the Scriptures; but we utterly anathematize the last, and regard such as countenance its use, as alienated from the church. We distinctly acknowledge the homoion of the Son to the Father, in accordance with what the apostle has declared concerning him, "Who is the image of the invisible God." -- Creed: "We confess then, and believe in one God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and of things visible and invisible. We believe also in his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, who was begotten of him without passion before all ages, God the Word, the only-begotten of God, the Light, the Life, the Truth, the Wisdom: through whom all things were made which are in the heavens and upon the earth, whether visible or invisible. We believe that he took flesh of the holy Virgin Mary, at the end of the ages, in order to abolish sin; that he was made man, suffered for our sin, and rose again, and was taken up into the heavens, to sit at the right hand of the Father, whence he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. We believe also in the Holy Spirit, whom our Lord and Saviour has denominated the Comforter, and whom he sent to his disciples after his departure, according to his promise: by whom also he sanctifies all believers in the church, who are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Those who preach anything contrary to this creed, we regard as aliens from the catholic church."

Family life: The bishop and historian Eusebius of Caesarea states that she was about 80 [years old] on her return from Palestine (Israel). Since that journey has been dated to 326-28, Helena was probably born in 248 or 250. Little is known of her early life. Fourth-century sources, following Eutropius' "Breviarium," record that she came from a low background. Saint Ambrose was the first to call her a stabularia, a term translated as "stable-maid" or "inn-keeper". He makes this fact a virtue, calling Helena a bona stabularia, a "good stable-maid". Other sources, especially those written after Constantine's proclamation as emperor, gloss over or ignore her background. ... Relic discoveries: Constantine appointed his mother Helen as Augusta Imperatrix, and gave her unlimited access to the imperial treasury in order to locate the relics of Judeo-Christian tradition. In 326-28 Helena undertook a trip to the Holy Places in Palestine. According to Eusebius of Caesarea she was responsible for the construction or beautification of two churches, the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, and the Church on the Mount of Olives, sites of Christ's birth and ascension. Local founding legend attributes to Helena's orders the construction of a church in Egypt to identify the Burning Bush of Sinai. The chapel at St. Catherine's Monastery--often referred to as the Chapel of Saint Helen-is dated to the year AD 330. -- Jerusalem was still rebuilding from the destruction of Emperor Hadrian, who had built a temple dedicated, according to conflicting accounts, to Venus or Jupiter over the site of Jesus's tomb near Calvary and renamed the city Aelia Capitolina. According to tradition, Helena ordered the temple torn down and, according to the legend that arose at the end of the fourth century, in Ambrose, On the Death of Theodosius (died 395) and at length in Rufinus' chapters appended to his translation into Latin of Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, which does not mention the event, chose a site to begin excavating, which led to the recovery of three different crosses. Then, Rufinus relates, refusing to be swayed by anything but solid proof, the empress (perhaps through Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem) had a woman who was already at the point of death brought from Jerusalem. When the woman touched the first and second crosses, her condition did not change, but when she touched the third and final cross she suddenly recovered, and Helena declared the cross with which the woman had been touched to be the True Cross. On the site of discovery, Constantine ordered built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as well as those on other sites detected by Helena. -- She also found the nails of the crucifixion. To use their miraculous power to aid her son, Helena allegedly had one placed in Constantine's helmet, and another in the bridle of his horse. Helena left Jerusalem and the eastern provinces in 327 to return to Rome, bringing with her large parts of the True Cross and other relics, which were then stored in her palace's private chapel, where they can be still seen today. Her palace was later converted into the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. This has been maintained by Cistercian monks in the monastery which has been attached to the church for centuries. Tradition says that the site of the Vatican Gardens was spread with earth brought from Golgotha by Helena to symbolically unite the blood of Christ with that shed by thousands of early Christians, who died in the persecutions of Nero. -- According to one tradition, Helena acquired the Holy Tunic on her trip to Jerusalem and sent it to Trier. Several of Saint Helena's treasures are now in Cyprus, where she spent some time. Some of them are a part of Jesus Christ's tunic, pieces of the holy cross and the world's only pieces of the rope to which Jesus was tied with on the Cross. The latter has been held at the Stavrovouni Monastery, which was also founded by Saint Helena.

Religious policy: Constantine is perhaps best known for being the first Christian Roman emperor; his reign was certainly a turning point for the Church. In February 313, Constantine met with Licinius in Milan where they developed the Edict of Milan. The edict stated that Christians should be allowed to follow the faith of their choosing. This removed penalties for professing Christianity (under which many had been martyred in previous persecutions of Christians) and returned confiscated Church property. The edict protected from religious persecution not only Christians but all religions, allowing anyone to worship whichever deity they chose. A similar edict had been issued in 311 by Galerius, then senior emperor of the Tetrarchy; Galerius' edict granted Christians the right to practice their religion but did not restore any property to them. The Edict of Milan included several clauses which stated that all confiscated churches would be returned as well as other provisions for previously persecuted Christians. ... Constantine did not patronize Christianity alone, however. After gaining victory in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312), a triumphal arch-the Arch of Constantine-was built (315) to celebrate it; the arch is decorated with images of Victoria and sacrifices to gods like Apollo, Diana, and Hercules, but contains no Christian symbolism. In 321, Constantine instructed that Christians and non-Christians should be united in observing the venerable day of the sun, referencing the esoteric eastern sun-worship which Aurelian had helped introduce, and his coinage still carried the symbols of the sun cult until 324. Even after the pagan gods had disappeared from the coinage, Christian symbols appeared only as Constantine's personal attributes: the chi rho between his hands or on his labarum, but never on the coin itself. Even when Constantine dedicated the new capital of Constantinople, which became the seat of Byzantine Christianity for a millennium, he did so wearing the Apollonian sun-rayed Diadem. -- The reign of Constantine established a precedent for the position of the emperor as having some influence within the religious discussions going on within the Catholic Church of that time, e.g., the dispute over Arianism. Constantine himself disliked the risks to societal stability that religious disputes and controversies brought with them, preferring where possible to establish an orthodoxy. The emperor saw it as his duty to ensure that God was properly worshiped in his empire, and that what proper worship consisted would be determined by the Church. In 316, Constantine acted as a judge in a North African dispute concerning the validity of Donatism. After deciding against the Donatists, Constantine led an army of Christians against the Donatist Christians. More significantly, in 325 he summoned the Council of Nicaea, effectively the first Ecumenical Council (unless the Council of Jerusalem is so classified). Nicaea was dealt mostly with Arianism. Constantine also enforced the prohibition of the First Council of Nicaea against celebrating the Lord's Supper on the day before the Jewish Passover (14th of Nisan) (see Quartodecimanism and Easter controversy). Constantine made new laws regarding the Jews. They were forbidden to own Christian slaves or to circumcise their slaves.

Historical context: According to Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic tradition, [Emperor] Constantine I adopted Christianity as his system of belief after the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 A.D. His legions, who were victorious, fought under the "labarum", a standard (flag) with the first two Greek letters of Christ's name [XP - the first two (capital) letters chi (X) and rho (P) of the Greek word Christ] {Note: Constantine replaced the cross of Christianity with the letters X and P - the letters probably had a dual occult meaning}. -- In 313 A.D., the Edict of Milan legalized Christianity {Note: without mentioning Christianity by name} **alongside other religions {specifically heretical sects of Christianity} allowed in the Roman Empire. In 325 A.D., the First Council of Nicaea signaled consolidation of Christianity under an orthodoxy endorsed by Constantine, and though this did not make other Christian groups outside the adopted definition illegal, the dissenting Arian bishops [who were in all probability occult agents working for Constantine] were initially exiled. **But Constantine reinstated Arius {the heretic} before his death ***and exiled Orthodox {Christian} Athanasius of Alexandria. In 380 A.D. Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the Roman Empire's official religion (see State church of the Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire and the Goths) and did enforce the edict. In 392 he [Emperor Theodosius I] passed legislation prohibiting all pagan cultic worship. During the 4th century, however, there was no real unity between church and state: In the course of the Arian controversy, leading Trinitarian bishops, such as Athanasius, Hilary of Poitiers, and Gregory of Nyssa, were exiled by Arian emperors, as were leading Arian and Anomoean theologians such as Aëtius. Towards the end of the century [during the ongoing Church and State power struggle], **Bishop Ambrose of Milan made the powerful Emperor Theodosius do penance for several months after the massacre of Thessalonica before admitting him again to the Eucharist [Communion Supper]. On the other hand, only a few years later, Chrysostom, who as bishop of Constantinople criticized the excesses of the royal court [the Government], and was eventually banished and died while traveling to his place of exile. -- Theological Implications: Theologians critical of the Constantinian shift [Government presiding over Christianity] also see it as the point at which membership in the Christian church became associated with citizenship (in the country) rather than a personal decision (with Jesus). American theologian Stanley Hauerwas names the shift as the foundation for the expression of Christianity in the United States today that is closely associated with patriotism and civil religion.

Tertullian lived in the ancient city of Carthage in what is now Tunisia, sometime around 200 AD. Very little is known about his life - that little comes either from writers two centuries later, or from the scanty personal notes in his works. Much of it has been asserted to be untrue anyway by some modern writers. He was born a member of the educated classes, and clearly gained a good education. Life in his times wasn't very different in some ways to the modern day - he indulged his passions as he saw fit, including sex, and like everyone else attended the games where gladiators killed each other and criminals were eaten alive, for the enjoyment of the spectators. But among the sights he saw, was that of Christians being executed this way. He was struck with the courage with which stupid and contemptible slave men and little slave girls faced a hideous death, against all nature; and after investigating, became a Christian himself, and turned his budding talents to writing in defense of this despised and victimised group. Tertullian was the first Christian writer to write in Latin, and was described three centuries later as writing 'first, and best, and incomparably', of all the writers to do so. (by the unknown author of 'Praedestinatus'). His writing is aggressive, sarcastic and brilliant, and at points very funny even after 2000 years. He was deeply conscious of his own failings, and had a burning desire for truth and integrity. He was described by Jerome as celebrated in all the churches as a speaker; and his works bear the marks of the need to keep an audience awake! His erudition was immense. Much of what he read is lost, but what remains gives a picture of wide reading, which was celebrated even in antiquity. He wrote a great number of works - how many is unknown. Thirty-one are extant; lists of known lost works are elsewhere on this site; but we have no reason to suppose this to be anything like an exhaustive list. Most of those extant have come down to us by the slenderest of threads, and the very nature of Tertullian's terse and ironic style, means that copyists made many errors, and in some cases his text is beyond certain restoration. Not all of his works were ever completed. His most important work is the Apologeticum, in defense of the Christians. Running it close must be Adversus Praxean, in which the doctrine of the Trinity comes into clear focus for the first time, in response to a heretic who was twisting the biblical balance between the persons of the Godhead. In this work, he created most of the terminology with which this doctrine was to be referred (and is still), such as Trinitas, etc. His discussion of how heretical arguments are in general to be handled in De praescriptio haereticorum also deserves wider recognition. Tertullian wrote no systematic theology; all of his works are brought forth by a local event, a persecution, or a heretic. In his time, the church finally decided to reject a movement calling itself 'The New Prophecy', and known later as Montanism. The New Prophecy made no doctrinal innovations, but said that the Holy Spirit was calling Christians to a more ascetic position. But obeying the prophets inevitably meant a problem, if the bishop did not recognise their authority. Tertullian had grown angry at what looked like compromise creeping into the church - unwillingness to be martyred, willingness to forgive more serious public sins - and aligned himself with the Montanists [it was a prophetic movement that called for a reliance on the spontaneity of the Holy Spirit and a more conservative personal ethic. Parallels have been drawn between Montanism and modern day movements such as Pentecostalism and the charismatic movement - wiki.com]. It is unclear whether this involved actually leaving the church, but his later works are avowedly Montanist, and one or two explictly attack the mainstream church on these points. As such he was not recognised as a Saint, despite his orthodoxy, and his works were all marked as condemned in the 6th Century Decretum Gelasianum. His later life is unknown, and we do not know if he was martyred or died of old age as Jerome says.

Hippolytus of Rome (170 - 235) was the most important 3rd-century theologian in the Christian Church in Rome, where he was probably born. Photios I of Constantinople describes him in his Bibliotheca (cod. 121) as a disciple of Irenaeus, who was said to be a disciple of Polycarp, and from the context of this passage it is supposed that he suggested that Hippolytus himself so styled himself. However, this assertion is doubtful. He came into conflict with the popes of his time and seems to have headed a schismatic group as a rival bishop of Rome. For that reason he is sometimes considered the first Antipope. He opposed the Roman bishops who softened the penitential system to accommodate the large number of new pagan converts. However, he was very probably reconciled to the Church when he died as a martyr. He is the person usually understood to be meant by Saint Hippolytus. Starting in the 4th century, various legends arose about him, identifying him as a priest of the Novatianist Schism or as a soldier converted by Saint Laurence. He has also been confused with another martyr of the same name.

Writings attributed to the Apostles circulated among the earliest Christian communities. The Pauline epistles were circulating, perhaps in collected forms, by the end of the 1st century A.D. - Justin Martyr (103 A.D - 165 A.D.) in the mid 2nd century, mentions "memoirs of the apostles" [New Testament] as being read on Sunday alongside the "writings of the prophets" [Old Testament]. A four gospel canon (the Tetramorph) was asserted by Irenaeus, c. 180 A.D., who refers to it directly. -- By the early 200s A.D., **Origen may have been using the same twenty-seven books as in the Catholic New Testament canon, though there were still disputes over the canonicity of the Letter to the Hebrews, James, II Peter, II and III John, and Revelation, known as the Antilegomena. Likewise, the Muratorian fragment is evidence that, perhaps as early as 200 A.D., there existed a set of Christian writings somewhat similar to the twenty-seven-book NT canon, which included four gospels and argued against objections to them. Thus, while there was a good measure of debate in the Early Church over the New Testament canon, the major writings are claimed to have been accepted by almost all Christians by the middle of the 3rd century. -- In his Easter letter of 367 A.D., Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, gave a list of the books that would become the twenty-seven-book NT canon, and he used the word "canonized" (kanonizomena) in regards to them. The first council that accepted the present canon of the New Testament may have been the Synod of Hippo Regius in North Africa (AD 393); the acts of this council, however, are lost. A brief summary of the acts was read at and accepted by the Councils of Carthage in 397 A.D. and 419 A.D. These councils were under the authority of St. Augustine, who regarded the canon as already closed. Pope Damasus I's Council of Rome in 382 A.D., if the Decretum Gelasianum is correctly associated with it, issued a biblical canon identical to that mentioned above, or, if not, the list is at least a 6th-century compilation. Likewise, Damasus' commissioning of the Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible, c. 383 A.D., was instrumental in the fixation of the canon in the West. In c. 405 A.D., Pope Innocent I sent a list of the sacred books to a Gallic bishop, Exsuperius of Toulouse. Christian scholars assert that, when these bishops and councils spoke on the matter, however, they were not defining something new but instead "were ratifying what had already become the mind of the Church." -- For the Orthodox, the recognition of these writings as authoritative was formalized in the Second Council of Trullan of 692 A.D., although it was nearly universally accepted in the mid 300's A.D. The Canon of Scripture was the result of debate and research, reaching its final term for Catholics at the dogmatic definition of the Council of Trent when the Old Testament Canon was finalized in the Catholic Church as well. -- Thus, some claim that, from the 4th century, there existed unanimity in the West concerning the New Testament canon (as it is today), and that, by the 5th century, the Eastern Church, with a few exceptions, had come to accept the Book of Revelation and thus had come into harmony on the matter of the canon. Nonetheless, full dogmatic articulations of the canon were not made until the Canon of Trent of 1546 A.D. for Roman Catholicism, the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1563 A.D. for the Church of England, the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1647 A.D. for Calvinism, and the Synod of Jerusalem of 1672 A.D. for the Greek Orthodox.

Update 03-03-2012: After this group of postings there should be only one or two more blog postings of material until Holy Week 2012. Then the postings of Holy Week 2012 or shortly after would conclude the Basic Christian blog Ministry. ~ God bless everyone, David Anson Brown

WHAT IS IMPLIED IN EVANGELICAL FAITH:

1. It implies an intellectual perception of the things, facts, and truths believed. No one can believe that which he does not understand.
2. Evangelical faith implies the appropriation of the truths of the Gospel to ourselves. It implies an acceptance of Christ as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The soul that truly believes in Christ, believes that He tasted death for every man, and of course for it. It apprehends Christ as the Saviour of the world, as offered to all, and embraces and receives Him for itself. It appropriates His atonement, and His resurrection and His intercession, and His promises to itself. Christ is thus presented in the Gospel not only as the Saviour of the world, but also to the individual acceptance of men. He saves the world no further than He saves individuals. Evangelical faith implies a personal acceptance and appropriation of Christ to meet the necessities of the individual soul.
3. Faith is a state of committal to Christ, and of course it implies that the soul will be unreseveredly yielded up to Him, in all His relations to it, so far and so fast as these are apprehended by the intellect.
4. Evangelical faith implies an evangelical life. This would not be true if faith were merely an intellectual state or exercise. But since, as we have seen, faith is of the heart, since it consists in the committal of the will to Christ, it follows, by a law of necessity, that the life will correspond with faith. Let this be kept in perpetual remembrance.
5. Evangelical faith implies repentance towards God, that is, a turning from sin to God.
6. Evangelical faith implies a renunciation of self-righteousness. It is impossible for one to embrace Christ as the Saviour of the soul, any further than he renounces all hope or expectation of being saved by his own works, or righteousness.
7. Of course it implies peace of mind. In Christ the soul finds its full and present salvation. It has found its resting-place in Christ, and rests in profound peace under the shadow of the Almighty.
8. It implies hope, as soon as the believing soul considers what is conveyed by the Gospel, that is, a hope of eternal life in and through Christ.
9. It implies joy in God and in Christ. St. Peter speaks of joy as the unfailing accompaniment of faith, as resulting from it.
10. Present evangelical faith implies a state of present sinlessness [covered by the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7)]. Observe: faith is the yielding and committal of the whole will, and of the whole being to Christ. This, and nothing short of this, is evangelical faith. But this comprehends and implies the whole of present, true obedience to Christ. This is the reason why faith is spoken of as the condition, and as it were, the only condition, of salvation. It really implies all virtue.

When contemplated as an attribute of love, it is only a branch of sanctification. When contemplated in the wider sense of universal conformity of will to the will of God, it is then synonymous with entire present sanctification. Contemplated in either light, its existence in the heart must be inconsistent with present sin there. Faith is an attitude of the will, and is wholly incompatible with present rebellion of will against Christ. This must be true, or what is faith? -- REVIVAL TRUTHS by Charles G. Finney

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A group of researchers from the University of Milano-Bicocca and SUPSI, by means of longitudinal data provided by INVALSI (Italian Institute for the Evaluation of the Education System), has confirmed that early smartphone usage before the age of 12 does not bring benefits. Instead, it is associated with lower digital skills, higher problematic smartphone use and can, in fact, diminish the academic performance of students.

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While existing travel websites primarily display the cheapest or fastest travel option, the new BookSmart24 app also finds the most CO2- and emission-efficient variant for the chosen route. The platform enables users to make smart and responsible booking decisions and to realize that traveling in an environmentally conscious manner does not necessarily have to be more expensive.

Fisher-Price issues a partial recall on all models of over two million Snuga Swings after five infants die from suffocation

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The Ground-Breaking and Global Business Promotion Ceremony of Qingdao International Cruise Terminal Area was held at Qingdao Port on March 28.

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Court revives Enigma's lawsuit against Malwarebytes. Court rules immunity protection under Section 230 of CDA is "not limitless."

Italy's new prime minister Giorgia Meloni explains why so many people are afraid of her victory. American newspapers categorize her as "far-right", but Italian newspapers call her "center-right". Let's see what she does.

The new Prime Minister of Italy.

Wow. pic.twitter.com/fkKTM8I9Fs

— Aaron Ginn (@aginnt) September 26, 2022

New trenches and berms are being constructed along the frontier in the occupied Golan Heights.

(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 24, 2024 ) The paper-based consumer bags market is experiencing growth due to increasing environmental regulations, rising consumer awareness, and growing demand from various end-use industries. Stricter regulations regarding plastic bags are driving the shift towards paper-based...

Consumer education is something many small software companies tend to overlook. While the benefits of consumer education may not always be obvious, the fact of the matter is that educated customers are good customers, and happier customers. A customer who does not understand an applications capabilities or features is more likely to experience frustration with it, making them less satisfied with your product and also potentially draining your support time.

Consumer Education

As small business owners across the nation gear up for Small Business Saturday, a record number of shoppers are making plans to support their favorite local businesses. According to the fourth-annual Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey, released by the National Federation of Independent Businesses and American Express, supporting local small businesses continues to be a priority for shoppers nationwide.

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Everyone by now is well aware that IT networks are subject to various cyber threats, and small and medium size businesses (SMBs) must protect against them just as larger enterprises do. But these threats are not limited to the online world. SMBs also have to protect the IT equipment itself from physical dangers.

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Our never-ending quest towards self-improvement is a long journey of small steps. Small habits we repeat day after day, week after week, year after year. Small habits that have turned us into who we are today can also determine who we will become in the future. Below are 7 Power Habits of some of the greatest human beings to ever live.

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It is not a one-time undertaking but an ongoing process that must be revisited throughout the life of any business. In fact, nearly half of all CEOs launch a company reorganization during their first two years on the job.

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It is easy to see why text messaging is the most-used data service across the world. We send and receive five times as many texts compared with the number of phone calls each day, according to mobile intelligence firm Informate.

A huge 90 percent of the time, a text is read within the first three minutes of receiving. Customers who receive texts from businesses tend to have a 40 percent higher conversion rate than those who do not. Small businesses could benefit from this consumer behaviour.

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A few rules of SEO, like publishing great content and providing a good user experience, are universal.

But not all websites thrive by using the exact same set of SEO guidelines.

News websites, in particular, place greater emphasis on certain elements than other types of sites.

Here are five best practices you should keep in mind to optimize your news site for search.

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As your small business grows, it will eventually become too big to run out of your home. With steady clients coming in or an expanding workforce of people you have hired, you probably don't want to keep conducting business in your basement or at your kitchen table.

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The start of a new year provides the perfect opportunity for business owners to set new goals and find unique ways to improve their operations. There are plenty of different options for your 2020 resolutions, from shoring up your finances to organizing your online presence. Here are some suggestions and tips from members of the online small business community.

Grow Your Savings with Money New Mindset
If one of your resolutions for 2020 is to save more money for your business, you may need to shift your mindset. So how can you look at things a bit differently in the new year? Jamie T. Wiseman of Miss Millennia Magazine explores a handful of mindset shifts in this post.

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Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, consumer confidence has declined in all 50 states, according to ongoing research from Morning Consult. And we all know that consumer confidence is a critical component of economic growth. As businesses begin to reopen across America, they need to work hard to restore this critical sentiment. To that end, consumer confidence may well be the only marketing message that matters for some time to come.

As consumers weigh the pros and cons of carefully reemerging from quarantine, many marketers will need to make a point of reassuring them in their messaging. Here are four smart marketing approaches to consider as you seek to restore consumer confidence.

1. Reframe social distancing.
2. Acknowledge the struggle.
3. Build consumer trust.
4. Emphasize safety.

The survey shows that consumers have already been going out of their way to support small businesses. 86% of those surveyed say they have continued to support locally owned businesses during quarantine.

The research uncovers how consumers have been supporting local businesses during lockdown. For example, 77% said they have been participating in a virtual experience offered by a local business. 60% of consumers said they have been ordering more takeaways and deliveries from local restaurants.

Rae has posted a series of political stances that define a sort of moderate conservative manifesto. It hits everything from...

Sooner or later, I'll get around to writing a proper review, but for now I'll just suggest that you run...

(EMAILWIRE.COM, November 04, 2024 ) The Aluminum Flat Rolled Products Market is set for expansion as demand rises in automotive, construction, and packaging industries. Aluminum’s lightweight and corrosion-resistant properties make it ideal for use in energy-efficient vehicles and sustainable buildings....

Prime Management Consultants Ltd leads the way as Aviation Consultants with a unique, diverse and practical approach to all matters affecting the aviation industry. Historically it’s key personnel and global team are selected with strong Aviation Management backgrounds.

New York Comic Con 2018: Constantine: City of Demons At the 2018 New York Comic Con, DVDTalk’s Francis Rizzo III sat down with the cast and crew of the new feature-length animated film Constantine: City if Demons, due out...

Ractopamine is a drug given to pigs and cows in the last months of their lives to "make the meat more lean". Taiwan has been blocking imports of meat from the US over concerns that the drug's residues that stay in the meat are less than healthy. At a recent Codex Alimentarius Commission meeting, the meat producing and exporting countries, and those heavily lobbied and pressured by US diplomats prevailed in a close vote to make the agency adopt a standard for residues of ractopamine in meat. That means that the countries that resist meat from doped animals will have a harder time to justify why they don't want to subject their citizens to yet another experiment for the sake of the economy of large-scale animal-to-meat operations. Scott Tips of the National Health Federation has represented the consumer side at Codex and he reports on the meeting: After taking a vote by secret ballot this late morning, the Chairman of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, Mr. Sanjay Dave, announced the results of the voting on whether or not Ractopamine (a steroid-like vet drug, the residues of which remain in the slaughtered animal to then be consumed by meat-eaters) standards were adopted. Out of 143 ballots cast, the vote was 69 for Ractopamine, 67 against Ractopamine, with 7 abstaining. If only one vote had shifted from the “for” camp to the “against” camp, then the result would have been completely different and the Ractopamine standard would not have been adopted. This voting was forced upon the Commission by the insistence of the United States, Costa Rica, and Brazil that the long stalemate over the adoption of a standard for Ractopamine MRLs (Maximum Residue Levels) could not be resolved through the Codex-preferred process of “consensus” but would, after all, have to be voted upon......

The European Union on Tuesday took the debate about genetically modified crops to the public with a survey asking citizens to share their thoughts on organic farming, reports Phys.org in a recent article titled EU asks citizens to join debate on GM food Image credit: americanoverkill.com The article continues ... The bloc's 500 million consumers are invited to complete an anonymous online questionnaire on the European Commission's Agriculture and Rural Development website (ec.europa.eu/agriculture/consultations/organic/2013_en.htm). The consultation, which ends on April 10, is part of a review of European policy on organic agriculture. The survey is available in all official EU languages. English is the one linked here, but other languages are available from a drop-down menu at the top of the page. The Phys.org article, putting emphasis on the GM angle, goes on to say......

More and more evidence is coming to light that Dr. Wakefield was on the right track when he researched the connection between the MMR vaccine and intestinal inflammation in the vaccinated children. Was Dr. Andrew Wakefield Right After All? Wakefield’s Lancet Paper Vindicated New Published Study Verifies Andrew Wakefield’s Research on Autism But how did Dr. Wakefield first get into the sights of the UK vaccine industry and how was the campaign against him mounted? Martin Walker, the author of "Dirty Medicine" and a number of other books on health, closely followed the case that eventually resulted in Dr. Wakefield's exile from the UK. He describes how it all happened and how the vaccine manufacturers were able to bring down the full weight of government and the courts against both Wakefield and the many parents who were suing for recognition of the damage vaccines had done to their children. "As a campaigner of 40 years, I think that what surprises me most about Dr Wakefield’s case, is how easily and how completely we were defeated by the pharmaceutical companies, how over a thousand parents and children were written out of history together with their adverse drug reactions. Part of this defeat for the parents, the children and the doctors concerned was grounded in an unfortunate understanding that pharmaceutical company executives were decent people and humanitarians. In fact the pharmaceutical companies, their corporate structure and their relentless pursuit of profit, their fraudulent practices represent one of the last remaining shibboleths, in our society which need to be completely reformed, democratised, divested of vested interests and made public from top to bottom." We do learn from experience. That is why we should pay attention to how this case went so wrong and why the campaign to ruin those researchers and to leave the damaged children by the wayside was mounted in the first place. So it won't happen again. Here is Martin Walker's essay....

Join us for 'Helping Others To Freedom', a series based on David Legge's book, 'Breaking Through Barriers to Blessing'. We will explore how we can be set free from bondages of Satan and healed from wounds of the heart. This study is for people who need set free themselves, or for those who want to be used to help others into freedom. In this introductory episode, David lays down some biblical foundations and considers how freedom ministry is something the church is commissioned by Jesus to engage in today. This message is available at https://www.preachtheword.com now in MP3 audio format and in HD video on our YouTube Channel (https://youtube.com/PreachTheWord)...

Ciudad Real, 12 de noviembre de 2024.- El Gobierno de Castilla-La Mancha ha rendido homenaje a Manuel Marín, destacando su papel esencial en la construcción de una Europa democrática y cohesionada. Este reconocimiento fue manifestado por Nazaret Rodrigo, directora general de Asuntos Europeos, durante la presentación del libro ‘Raíz y Rama. Un homenaje a Manuel […]

Artículo publicado en : El Gobierno de Castilla-La Mancha Resalta el Legado de Manuel Marín en la Construcción Democrática de Europa

El próximo domingo 24 de noviembre, el reconocido grupo musical Candela & Son ofrecerá un concierto solidario en Toledo con el propósito de recaudar fondos para los afectados por la reciente DANA. El evento, que comenzará a las 19.00 horas en el pabellón del Colegio Nuestra Señora de los Infantes, tiene un costo de entrada […]

Artículo publicado en : Concierto Solidario De Candela&Son En Toledo Por La DANA: ¡Consigue Tus Entradas Ya!

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