The Most Important Events in Human History

             The most important and pivotal events in the universally accepted human history, arranged chronologically. Each of these events still have repercussions in today’s modern world. Events related to Christianity are highlighted in bold text. Everything is connected. Read up on each of these events to see why they are of such importance to the modern world.

These are just a few of the major events. I’m sure you could probably add many more.

The use of the BC/BCE and AD/CE temporal designations are just to keep everybody happy.

ca 10,000 BC/BCE: The invention of agriculture. Obviously.

ca 3200 BC/BCE: The invention of writing. Obviously.

6^th or 5^th Century BC/BCE: The life of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. The exact dates

of his life are disputed.

ca 4 BC/BCE – 30 AD/CE: The life of Jesus of Nazareth.

ca 49 AD/CE: At the Council of Jerusalem, the leaders of the young Church decided to

accept Gentiles into the Church without requiring them to undergo circumcision.

70 AD/CE: The Roman military destroys the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

217 AD/CE: The Jian’an Plague kills about 2,000,000 people in China.

313 Ad/CE: The Edict of Milan in which Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity.

325 AD/CE: The Council of Nicea is held in what is now Iznik, Turkiye. The council

condemned Arianism and clarified the church’s christology.

476 AD/CE: The fall of the Western Empire.

541 – 549 AD/CE: The Plague of Justinian kills up to 100,000,000 people in Europe and

West Asia.

            Ca 570 – 632 AD/CE: The Prophet Muhammad and the birth of Islam.

735 – 737 AD/CE: A smallpox epidemic kills about 2,000,000 people in Japan.

800 AD/CE: Charlemagne is crowned as Emperor, uniting church and state.

1054 AD/CE: The Great Schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox

Churches.

            1066 -1071 Ad/CE: The Norman Conquest of England. The strong central state

government which developed persists until this day. 

            1095 -1300 AD/CE: The Crusades. Cultural and religious resentments and hatreds caused 

by this series of wars persist until today.

1346 – 1353 AD/CE: The Black Plague (bubonic plague) kills about 25,000,000 to

30,000,000 in Eurasia and North Africa.

            1378 – 1417 AD/CE: During the Great Western Schism, the Roman Catholic Church split

into political factions over who legitimately held the office of the papacy, resulting in multiple

competing popes in Rome and Avignon, France.  

ca 1440 - 1456 AD/CE: Invention of the printing press. Printing of the Gutenberg Bible.

1492 AD/CE: Cristobal Colon (aka Christopher Columbus) discovers America.

1492 – 1614 AD/CE: The Reconquitsa, in which Muslim rulers were driven from Spain.

1517 AD/CE: The start of the Protestant Reformation.

1611 AD/CE: The production of the King James Version of the Bible.  This Bible, written in the English which was spoken at the time, made the Bible available to any English speaker who could read. 

ca 1760 – 1840 AD/CE: The industrial revolution.

1789 – 1799 AD/CE: The French Revolution.

1914 – 1918 AD/CE: World War I caused between 15,000,000 to 22,000,000 deaths.

1918 - 1920 AD/CE: The Spanish Flu pandemic kills between 17,000,000 to 50,000,000

people worldwide. Some extreme estimates say as many as 100,000,000.

1939 – 1945 AD/CE: World War II. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombs caused up

to 246,000 deaths. About 6,000,000 Jews were killed in the Holocaust. World War II caused

between 7,000,000 to 85,000,000 deaths.

            1960 to 1990 Ad/CE: The development of the internet.

2019 AD/CE: The COVID- 19 pandemic kill up to an estimated 36,000,000 people.

Internet Security

On 3 May 2016, Google Security sent out this message,

Your HTTPS settings have changed. All visitors are now able to view your blog over an encrypted connection by visiting https://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com. Existing links and bookmarks to your blog will continue to work.

HTTPS is fundamental to internet security; it protects the integrity and confidentiality of data sent between websites and visitors' browsers. Last September, we began rolling out HTTPS support for blogspot domain blogs so you could try it out. Today, we’re launching another milestone: an HTTPS version for every blogspot domain blog. With this change, visitors can access any blogspot domain blog over an encrypted channel.

Existing links and bookmarks to your blogs are not affected by this launch, and will continue to work. Please note that blogs on custom domains will not yet have HTTPS support.

The important thing for the reader to take from this is that “Existing links and bookmarks to your blog will continue to work.”

Film Comment: Megan is Missing

One commenter on Netflix calls Megan is Missing, “Maybe the most disturbing thing I have ever seen.”  Another says, “Everyone with young teen children should watch this and take the warnings to heart.”  Many commenters just said, “Don’t watch this.”  At least one commenter makes the absolutely ludicrous claim that the film amounts to victim blaming. Some criticize the film saying that it is nothing more than "torture porn" and that it capitalizes on pedophilia and child abduction.  The reason I think that it is not intended to be exploitive is the included video statement by Marc Klaas, whose young daughter Polly was abducted, raped, and murdered.  Klaas seems to be a hardened, driven man.  I do not believe that he would put his endorsement on a film which exploits the very thing against which he has battled for years.

http://www.klaaskids.org/about/pollystory.html

http://www.pollyklaas.org/

A few Netflix commenters, who totally missed the point, said that the film is not a very good horror film. This is true and not true.  As a "horror film," Megan is Missing is technically not up to current standards; the acting is substandard, the special effects are minimal, there is little actual plot, and the "horror" does not appear until the last twenty minutes.  For caring, but naive, parents or for the clueless or careless teenager, this film can produce wide-eyed horror!

A warning: I would say that you should not watch this film. Once you have chosen to seen this film, you will be unable to “unsee” it; it will frighten, disgust, and militarize you. This film can be psychologically damaging to some people.  Two sixteen year old viewers reported being "mentally scarred" by the film, but another said, "I wish more girls my age would watch this; maybe they wouldn't go missing." The film contains near constant profanity, teenage sexuality, teenage drug use, rape, physical abuse, pedophilia, abduction, murder, fetishism, gore, and other disturbing elements.

The film is about two girls.  Fifteen year-old Megan is a sexually promiscuous drug-using party girl who maintains a close friendship with an unlikely partner, the sweet, naive, and innocent Amy, who is rejected by the other girls in town precisely because she is sweet, naive, and innocent. Megan's family life is terrible: her father is absent, her stepfather is in prison, and her mother's only parenting skill is to yell.  Amy's parents are loving, sweet, affectionate, conventional parents who know absolutely nothing about her personal life. Both sets of parents are totally unaware of what is happening to their girls.

Megan has met an interesting young man on line (she has never actually seen him because his "webcam is broken"). She agrees to meet him behind the local diner. She goes alone and disappears.

Amy is sure that something bad has happened to Megan and is afraid that the young man whom Megan met online is involved.  She contacts the young man online and during their argument, he insults and threatens her.  She takes her fears to the police and then suddenly disappears.

The last twenty minutes of the film are so intense and horrible that they disturbed even some of the long-time horror gore-hounds who complained about this film.  

There is no mention of Christianity or even of religion in this film.  That does not mean that there is nothing that Christians can take from this movie.

1. Be aware of who your children's friends are.

2. Be aware of your children's cell phone and internet activities.

3. Try not to frighten your children but make sure that they are aware of the tactics used by sexual predators.  As I have told my grandchildren, "Don't be afraid, just be smart."

Jesus said, "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves." Matthew 10:16 (KJV)

We are to be confident and wise and not do stupid things. We should teach our children also to be confident and wise and not to do stupid things.

……………………………………

Information about Internet safety.

http://christianity.about.com/od/practicaltools/tp/christianisps.htm

http://www.covenanteyes.com/2013/11/20/internet-safety-christian-solutions/

http://www.internetsafety.com/press-internet-safety-solution-safe-eyes.php

Excellent, detailed child internet safety information.  Adults would do well to also follow these rules.  The information was reviewed by Steven Dowshen, MD

http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/net_safety.html

http://kidshealth.org/parent/misc/reviewers.html

Baptist Top 1000 Ranking

Saints on the Loose! is currently ranked number 362 on the Baptist Top 1000 website, the world's largest directory of Baptist websites.

The worldwide number of websites continues to grow at a rapid pace.  In 2008, there were about 165,000,000 sites.  By December 2012, the number had grown to about 634,000,000 and by April 2013 the number had reached 649,000,000 with about 412,000,000,000 individually indexed pages.  (The statistics are from the internet security and data mining company, Netcraft.) 

Only about 187,000,000 of the sites are active.  Many of the inactive sites were created to lock up every imaginable variation of domain name for commercial companies in order to prevent cyber-squatting.  Also, some of the sites are pre-registered for later sale by web domain companies.

A Christian Internet Filter

CleanInternet.com (www.cleaninter.net/) is a Christian internet filter which can be installed on IBM and PC-based computers.  It is compatible with Windows 8, 7, Vista, and XP.  The filter blocks numerous categories of websites which might be offensive or unsuitable for children.

The categories blocked are: drugs and drug use, alcohol and alcohol use, tobacco and tobacco use, sites which offer free web pages, gambling sites, sites which advocate illegal activities, graphic violence, murder, suicide,  sites about bodily functions and vulgar humor,  profanity, pornographic and “adults only” sites, chat rooms, personal advertisements.

The filter does not work on Mac computers.  Clean Internet recommends http://www.MacWebFilter.com/

Christian Search Engines

The following three links contain a list of Christian search engines prepared by Michael Wong.

http://www.search-engines-2.com/topic/christian-search-engines.html

http://www.search-engines-2.com/topic/christian-search-engines-2.html

http://www.search-engines-2.com/topic/christian-search-engines-3.html

Electronic Versions of the Bible

Here are a few electronic versions of the Bible.  I have not searched each site and do no know their denominational origins or the safety of each site.  Use customary internet caution.

http://www.thebiblesource.com/electronic-bibles

http://www.biblegateway.com/

http://ebible.org/

http://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-versions/#13441162297121&0|3/1/2013%201:37:09%20AM|z-index:%201002;%20width:%20619px;%20height:%20520px;%20margin-left:%20-309.5px;%20left:%2050%;%20top:%2070px;%20position:fixed;|nlst

http://bibledatabase.net/

http://www.personalpromisebible.com/bibles/electronic-versions.html

A New Way of Looking At Genesis 5:1-32

I cannot stress this enough; NEVER ACCEPT INFORMATION JUST BECAUSE IT IS PUBLISHED IN A BOOK OR ON THE INTERNET!  Not everyone is a careful researcher and many jump to unwarranted conclusions without thinking things through to their logical conclusions.  But, watch this:

(Some videos will not play properly when you click on the triangle.  Instead,  click on the title line in the picture and the video will begin .  When the video is completed, close the You Tube pop-up window to return to this blog.)

The names are Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Manaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methusaleh, Lamech, and Noah.

1This is the written account of Adam’s line.

When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “man.a”

3When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. 4After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 5Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.

6When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the fatherb of Enosh. 7And after he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8Altogether, Seth lived 912 years, and then he died.

9When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. 10And after he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11Altogether, Enosh lived 905 years, and then he died.

12When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel. 13And after he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14Altogether, Kenan lived 910 years, and then he died.

15When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared. 16And after he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. 17Altogether, Mahalalel lived 895 years, and then he died.

18When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. 19And after he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20Altogether, Jared lived 962 years, and then he died.

21When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. 24Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

25When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. 26And after he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27Altogether, Methuselah lived 969 years, and then he died.

28When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29He named him Noahc and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” 30After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31Altogether, Lamech lived 777 years, and then he died.

32After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.

I did a few quick searches on the Hebrew language origins of these names and here is what I found:

ADAM:  of the ground, taken out of the red earth, man, mankind

SETH: appointed, substituted (as in the substitution of Seth for the murdered Abel)

ENOSH: mortal, frail, feeble

CAINAN: fixed, possession, dwelling chamber

MAHALEEL: praise of God

JARED: a descent, going down

ENOCH: consecrated, dedicate, train up

METHUSALEH: man of the javelin, man of the dart, man of the spear, his death shall bring,  he shall die, it shall be sent

LAMECH: of uncertain derivation, strong, conqueror, destroyer, despairing, (There seems to be much disagreement and discussion over the meaning of this name.)

Noah: rest, comfort

Sources:

Easton, Matthew George, “Biblical meaning for ‘Cainan’ in Easton’s Bible Dictionary,”  bible-history.com-eastons; 1897.

“Methuselah’s Name,” http://www.apricotpie.com/james/methuselahs-name

Strong, James, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, 1895.

Tinney, Merill C., ed. The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary (Grand Raoids , Mi.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1967)

How Chuck Missler derived the meanings of the names in the list.

http://www.khouse.org/articles/2000/284/

.XXX Domain Names

The ICM Registry of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has recently opened up registration of .XXX domain names to General Availability status.  Domain names are  specific unique identifiers of individual websites on the internet.  General availability means that anyone can register and own any domain name. And, sometimes, anyone does.

Cybersquatters are people and companies who buy up domain names in the hope of selling them later for a large profit.  Imagine how much money a celebrity or company would spend to block a pornographic website bearing their name.   Imagine www.Disney.xxx.  That is why the Disney company snapped up the domain name before anyone else could.  This is defensive registration of the domain name to prevent what amounts to legal extortion, or worse, an actual pornographic website bearing the iconic name.

Universities have begun to pro-actively buy up domain names.  The University of Kansas wisely has bought the domain www.kugirls.com and many others.  Other universities which have bought .xxx domains include Michigan, Penn State, Purdue, Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, and Missouri.  Many companies are doing the same thing.  It might be wise for well-known churches and ministries to consider.

One very good thing about the .xxx suffix is that it can be used to filter out or block known pornographic websites from search engine results.  ICANN also has a proposed suffix .KIDS which would be for use by websites designed specifically for children.

"The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities. Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide.

An often-used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the phone book for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. " (Quotation taken from Wikipedia)
.

For more reading:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2011-12-09/xxx-university-domain/51825300/1?csp=ip 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.xxx 

http://www.icmregistry.com/

Anytime I post anything related to sex or pornography on this blog there are several visits by searchers originating on pornographic sites.  My hope is that these visitors may see Something on this blog which speaks to them. 

24 Hour Christian Internet Radio

www.Christianrock.net is a listener supported 24 hour internet radio station.  It features Christian music in four formats: Rock, Hard Rock (they really mean it), Hip Hop, and Praise Music.  The station is registered as a Christian non-profit ministry and donations are tax-deductible in the United States.

The station supports Windows, Mac, iPhone, Droid, and Blackberry devices.  There are numerous listening formats: high speed internet, low speed internet, iTunes, VLC players, WINAmp, Windows Media Player, xiialive, flycast, and four iPhone applications.

Download the Bible to Your Mobile Device

To download the Bible to your mobile device go to www.YouVersion.com/download .  The application has been downloaded over 12,000,000 times.  The download is free from Pastor Craig Groeschel and his congregation at Life Church.  They have fourteen church campuses (in Florida, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas) and online church services.

Christian Online Forums

There are numerous online discussion forums in which members can ask questions and conduct discussions with other members.  The number of subjects is unlimited and almost nothing is off limits for discussion.  This is the place where some people ask their embarrassing questions because of the relative anonimity of the internet.  Others use it to discuss doctrine and other questions for which they need explanations.  Some just use the forums to say what they personally want to say.

A few of the largest forums are listed below; there are many more.  "Threads" are continual discussions with responses by numerous people.  (This is edited from the original post; some of the links didn't work so I removed the listings.)
www.Christiandoctrinediscussion.com/blogs
www.christianforumsite.com (4079 members)
www.christianforums.com (274,526 members with 7,542,365 threads)
www.christianityboard.com (3488 members)
www.Christianzoneforum.com (755 members)
www.redeemedforum.com (71 members)
www.worthychristianforums.com (86,158 members)
www.topix.com/forum/religion/christian (This is a very active site with 10,320 threads.)
www.forums.christiansunite.com (3496 members)
www.christianteenforums.com (14,618 members)
www.forums.ourchurch.com (68,615 members)
www.true2ourselves.com (3646 members, 5271 threads)
www.christianhealingforum.com
www.realchristiansingles.com/forum.php
www.christianwritersforum.com (403 members)
www.truechristianforum.com/ (2548 members)  This one states, "Our Christian message boards are Christian message boards, not Judeo Christian message boards.  There is nothing Judeo about True Christians."  I would say that these people need to go back and read their Bibles again.  An understanding of at least rudimentary Judaism is essential for a correct understanding of Christianity.

XXXChurch

A little talked about problem within the Church is sexual addiction and/or addiction to pornography among Christians. Some Christians can barely say the word. Others wish it would just go away and leave them alone. Others can't believe that their beloved deacon might secretly spend hours on the Internet trolling for free pornography, feeling horribly guilty the entire time, but unable to stop.

The website, http://xxxchurch.com is a ministry to persons addicted to pornography and to persons in the sex industry who wish to get out. The site makes available free pornography filters for computers, support for those trying to break their addiction, and online classes for teens, men, women, spouses, parents, pastors, and churches.