Are Protestants Christian?

Please Note: I'm not writing here to say any religion is the true or right one but merely as my friend asked me the question.

Protestants are those who reject the doctrine as told by the Mainstream Church. A belief in Jesus and the "Resurrection of Christ" but have different interpretation of scripture.

The word Kathos comes from the Greek word for Pure, early Christians used it to describe the universal Christian faith. It was also used in later history to describe a group with distinctively different views to Modern Christians as we know them and they were called the Cathars based mainly in the Languedoc region of France and other parts of Europe from the 11th - 13th century who were Christian but believed in dualism.

Christian denominations are Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic. The word Church originally means community.

Orthodox

Egyptian Coptic, Ethiopian and Syrian. 

These three are probably the oldest churches in the world created immediately after the death of Jesus.

Protestant Orthodox churches

Greek, Armenian, Serbian, Russian etc can mainly be seen as having arisen from the great schism in 1054 AD.

The west retained this term and became known as Roman Catholic. 

Churches in the East are known as Greek, Eastern or Russian Orthodox.

Protestant

The main groups of Protestant churches arose from Calvinism & Lutherianism,  many other Churches have sprung from these

Calvinists 

Believe only a chosen few (predestination) will go to heaven & the absolute sovereignty of God.

Calvinism was created in Switzerland by John Calvin in 1520 and in 1560 was Reformed by Ulrich Zwingli/Theodore Beza.

Mainly in Germany, Netherlands Scandinavia 

Huguenots, Presbyterian, Puritans are based on Calvinism.

Jehovah's Witnesses

I don't really know about their beliefs but as many of us know them from their prostelysing (banging on your door and trying to convert you I thought I'd say something).

Witnesses rely on the authority of the Bible, worship only one God, and trust in Jesus' death and resurrection for salvation.

Some other beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses differ from mainstream Christianity, they reject the Trinity and the existence of Hell. Witnesses also have strong apocalyptic ideas Witnesses have been expecting the imminent arrival of Armageddon and the end times.

Lutherians

Believe any one can attain salvation through faith & therefore some control over his life. Each man is allowed his own interpretation of the bible Holy Bible (Old Testament and New Testament) and some parts of the Apochrya.

Church of England is based on Luthers teachings.

The Church of England was created after King Henry VIII had requested permission to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon and under the influence of King Philip II of Spain the Pope said "No".

Anne Boleyn Henry mistress introduced him to the idea of Lutherianism and in 1534 by an Act of Supremacy he became the Supreme ruler of the Anglican church and divorced his Wife.

Gideons

An Evangelical church whose main task is distributing free Bibles, The Gideons principally use the King James Version for their Bibles. The Gideons also distribute New King James Bibles and Testaments, which they refer to as "Modern English Version" (MEV). Gideon, their namesake was from the tribe of Manasseh, he helped free the people of Israel and condemned their worship of idols. He was also called the Judge of hebrews.

Methodists

Were created by John Wesley 1787 and exported to most of the English colonies (Africa and West Indies) by missionaries. Also based on teachings from Dutch Calvinists.


Mormons 
Say that conventional Christian churches have lost the authority of God. They believe that conventional Christian beliefs are a mixture of the truth and of errors that have been added over the centuries.
Mormons believe that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose on the third day. They believe that there would be no salvation without his atonement. They believe Christ will return to earth to reign and rule and they practice Polygamy.
They do not accept the idea of original sin their idea of baptism is different. Mormons believe people are baptised for the remission of their own sins.

One point of note is that the founder Joseph Smith was a Freemason and  when Mormons worship in the temple the ritual is very similar to Freemasons.
The symbols, signs, vocabulary and clothing are the same as Freemasonry, including robes, aprons, handshakes, ritualistic raising of the arms, etc.
Mormons also learn Masonic handshakes but these must be given to sentinel angels only, so they can be allowed into heaven. The symbols and signs all have a different meaning to Freemasonry.

Rastafari

Believe in the Judeo-Christian God, whom they call Jah. In general, Rastafari beliefs are based in Judaism and Christianity, with an emphasis on Old Testament laws and prophecies and the Book of Revelation. Allegorical meaning is often sought in the Holy Piby (Rastafari Bible) and the Kebra Nagast (Ethiopian Orthodox Bible)..

Jah was manifested on earth as Jesus, who Rastas believe was black, and Emperor Haile Selassie (as opposed to the European view of blond with blue eyes). Selassie is referred to as His Imperial Majesty or H.I.M. (pronounced "him") he is worshipped as divine. 

Rastafari do not believe in an afterlife, but instead look to Zion/Africa as a heaven on earth. True Rastas are believed to be immortal, both physically and spiritually, a concept called "everliving."

An important Rastafari concept is "I and I," which is said instead of "you and I." It concerns the oneness between humanity and God as well as the equality of all humans.

They Believe in a concept called Babylon, which refers to the white power structure of Europe and the Americas. Rastafari seek to resist Babylon, which once cruelly enslaved blacks and still continue to hold them down through poverty, illiteracy, inequality, and trickery.

The greed and conceit of Babylon is contrasted with the humble simplicity and naturalness of the Rastas'

Roman Catholic Church

Was founded by St. Peter now mainly in France, Italy, Spain, Americas although historically was throughout Europe until Luther stuck his notes to the door of the Church in Augsburg. They believe in the Holy Bible (Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocrypha).

Holy Trinity

I'm going to write this as I remember it;-)

The Trinity is the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. 

God exists as three persons but is one God, meaning that God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have exactly the same nature. Whatever attributes and power God the Father has, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have as well. They are eternal, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinitely wise, infinitely holy, infinitely loving and omniscient.

Confusing huh?! Keep in mind my understanding of it is different to other denominations as I went to a Church of England school.

Original Sin

All humans are born not only with a predisposition to sinful behavior, but with an inherently sinful nature. The result is that every person is born deserving eternal damnation, whether or not they have actually committed a sin yet.

Purgatory (Only Roman Catholics believe in this).

A temporary place of punishment for those who have died with unconfessed sins.

The Pope 

Catholics believe in the Pope's interpretation of the Bible as they believe the Pope is God's representative on Earth. Jesus said to St Peter "Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock I will build My church". The whole argument between Protestants and Catholics concerning the Pope's authority is largely due to the interpretation of the word Peter. Peter in Greek is Petros. Rock is Petra and the New testament was originally written in Greek (The Eastern part of the Roman Empire covering Israel/Judea spoke Greek).

The Great Schism of 1054D

Cerularius was the head of the Eastern Church of the Roman empire in Constantinople although it had fallen to the Ottomans in 1024AD. To insist he recognise the Pope head of the Church of the Western empire as the head and mother of both churches. When he refused to do so he was excommunicated so, he excommunicated the Pope of the Western Church. And, ever since the has been split along doctrinal, linguistic and theological views.

Confession

Admission of sin, either directly to God in prayer, generally to the congregation, or privately to a priest.

Love & Light to you - whatever your faith;-)

Question?

I'm asking myself if ideas create reality, or is reality that gives rise to certain ideas


A big, fat, huge, enormous smile on my face;-)

Did the Mayans get it right - Will the world end in 2012

We use a dating system called the Gregorian calendar.

It was put together to give us an accurate estimate to the tropical year (time required for the Sun, beginning at a chosen ecliptic longitude, to make one complete cycle of the seasons and return to the same point on the ecliptic longitude).

Most of Europe (Well countries under Papist rule)  stopped using the Julian calendar (named after the great Ceasar) and switched over to the Gregorian starting in 1582, at which point the 10 day slip between the actual time of year and traditional time of year on which calendar events occurred became really misaligned and were having a major effect on calculating Easter and other holidays. 

So,  Pope Gregory XIII decreed that the day after October 4, 1582 would be October 15, 1582, the Papist countries of France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy complied. 

Various Catholic German countries (Germany was still not yet one country and still full of small autocratic states),  The Netherlands (The Flemish Belgians had not yet split and created Belgium),  Switzerland , Austria and Hungary followed a few years later. The other Protestant German countries adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1700. 

By this time, the calendar was out by 11 days. 

England (and the American colonies who committed treason 20 years later) finally followed in 1752, and Wednesday, September 2, 1752 was immediately followed by Thursday, September 14, 1752. This change resulted in widespread calendar riots and the populace demanding "Give us the eleven days back!" as they lost pay. Russia adopted it in the early 1900's and China and India in the later in the 20th Century.

It has a few problems - the cycle of the Earth and Sun sometimes slows down. For instance I've read before that we have a missing day every century, owing to the rounding up of 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45.25 seconds to 3651/4 days in the Julian calendar that was used before the Gregorian one.

In addition, the new calendar is still losing 26 seconds from the solar cycle annually (I need to verify this). Add to the fact that the Julian calendar made a leap of 67 days to sync with the solar cycle, shortly after Julius Ceasar died there was confusion with the methodology involved, with the most damaging being the three years leap years (instead of the now common four). 

My Theory

So, Anyway I have this theory based on a loose calculation of this Great Cycle in its entirety against the modern calendar, taking into account the faults and adjustments incorporated into it give me the feeling that the prophesised date would be sometime around a 3 month period October to December , 2011 (or thereabouts)  - Stop rolling around in laughter - I'm wondering if when people tell us the Mayan calendar says it will all end it in 2012 have they taken all of this into consideration.

Actually, I remember seeing one of those disaster movies where the Gov't knew it was going to happen and the President was black! (Maybe, we were being prepared). What if the Mayan calendar just ends as there was no more space on the calendar as 5,125 years is lot to map out;-)

I found this interesting as this is within weeks of Elenin the comet projected perihelion (to you and I thats the closest point to the Sun in a planet's orbit - the furthest point is called aphelion) and, more alarmingly, within 12 days of its forecasted perigee (closest orbital distance to the center of earth) and another comet in November called Yu 55.

What so special about the Elenin and YU 55 comets? (I hear you ask) Well, hmmmmm, That's another story In the meantime you can  go search on the web and you'll see people are getting all excited - (Remember I didn't say anything about Lizards;-)

David Icke - Don't sound so crazy to me

David Icke explains what's wrong with Globalisation and the Banking system

My feelings towards a few people today.

Could you do it?

Emotional attachment to material objects is not good - sentimental value (It was my Dead fathers, Granny etc) is acceptable. I learnt a long time ago that all it does is cloud your vision - strip it all away and there's a certain freedom from your Ego.

Yes, i'm a blagger, but they're all Weasels

How am I able to trust any of the information i'm receiving - I definitely, cannot trust our information sources, because they're all controlled by these huge multilateral corporations.

These huge Conglomerates/Corporations/banks or whatever cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed, nor excommunicated, for they have no souls run by people who in general on the most part are equally soulless and untrustworthy.

I think (no change that to) I must get out of this s*it before I become one of these soulless people who I see smiling whilst they plot on how to score points over each other.
Its very sad that you work with these individuals day in day out and yet you can't for one moment trust them or let your guard down.....They call it Corporate politics, and i'm asking myself do I really need this bull?!!!, they seem to think because your in the office they can do what ever nastiness they want!.

Today, I feel like i'm sitting in W*nkerdom surrounded by W*nkers who are masters in the art of W*nkology at the top of their game who get upset when I tell them "don't be a W*nker all your life! Have a day off;-)"

Why is it that so many people are defined by their job and seem so skilled that they know how to do my job as well! I'm a little annoyed one might say by these know-nothing F%#s;. In some ways i'm beginning to view working in Corporate environment as an evil social organisation, a stage, a play if you will in which people realise or fail to realise purposeful and productive lives in terms of their own definition......quite sad really that they measure their success in terms of the money they earn and position they hold instead of focusing on being a decent human being.

Initial Statement from occupyLSX.org

1 The current system is unsustainable. It is undemocratic and unjust. We need alternatives; this is where we work towards them.

2 We are of all ethnicities, backgrounds, genders, generations, sexualities dis/abilities and faiths. We stand together with occupations all over the world.

3 We refuse to pay for the banks’ crisis.

4 We do not accept the cuts as either necessary or inevitable. We demand an end to global tax injustice and our democracy representing corporations instead of the people.

5 We want regulators to be genuinely independent of the industries they regulate.

6 We support the strike on the 30^th November and the student action on the 9^thNovember, and actions to defend our health services, welfare, education and employment and to stop wars and arms dealing.

7 We want structural change towards authentic global equality. The world’s resources must go towards caring for people and the planet, not the military, corporate profits or the rich.

8 We stand in solidarity with the global oppressed and we call for an end to the actions of our government and others in causing this oppression.

9 This is what democracy looks like. Come and join us!

Ale the Roman

A pic of my friend Ale from Roma and I when she came to visit me in Amsterdam. A big hug to you Madam;-) x

A big, fat, huge, enormous smile on my face;-)

Apple Founder Steve Jobs Dies at 56 - RIP.

‎"Don't let yourself be trapped by dogma, which in my opinion is living with the results of other peoples thinking" Steve Jobs, on life, on death.

My own perspective

The journey of life is a strange thing. Nothing is ever as it seems and the lessons that the Universe lays in our path hit you on so many different levels.

Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long and overtime it will balance out.

Power and Beauty of youth

I remember years ago being advised "That you should Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth while it lasts - you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded".

In another 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and
be reminded of how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked

Location:Beursplein,Amsterdam,The Netherlands