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    United States AI Solar System (9)

    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


    Posts : 13631
    Join date : 2010-09-28
    Location : The Matrix

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Empty Re: United States AI Solar System (9)

    Post  orthodoxymoron Sat Jul 06, 2019 5:51 am

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    "Where the Hell is Orthodoxymoron?!"
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    "Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain!"
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    What if Loyal-Angels, Rebellious-Angels, Ancient-Supercomputers, Artificial-Intelligence, Bio-Robots, Asteroid-Drones, Holographic-Projection, and Weapons of Mass-Destruction, are central to understanding the Earth-Matrix Galactic Rat-Trap?? What Would the Rat-Bastard Say?? This thing might be more deceptive, disgusting, complex, and convoluted than ANYONE can imagine. There's a movie called John Hus, in which a mean-spirited inquisitor hisses "Cursed Judas!!" I said that to theology-students I disagreed with (including Mark Martin and Kevin Paulson)!! Consider The Desire of Ages as being Historical-Fiction (if you choose) but please read it. I consider it to be quite profound. I have no idea how accurate any of my posts are. I really don't. I'm modeling a particular approach (just to see where it leads) but I'm going to stop keeping-up and just shut-up. No one answers the questions I ask. The questions are legitimate, and I often ask them because I am not absolutely-certain, and not because I have no idea.

    I prefer "honest-research" over "going-within" or "praying-endlessly" for answers. Certain individuals could answer my questions, but it seems as if No-One would benefit by me knowing the truth. I find this highly suspicious. I suspect that I often get frighteningly close to the "truth" but I have no idea where I get it right (and where I get it wrong). If I were a respected-scholar, publishing this sort of research in a respected journal, I might be in more trouble than even I can imagine. As it is, I'm just an unknown nutcase arguing on the internet. In the final-analysis, my threads might be best-studied by me alone, without fanfare, in a 600 square-foot office-apartment with a liquid-cooled desktop-computer (and a high-tech knapsack on my back if I go-mobile). Perhaps it's easier that way. What Would The Happy Wanderer Do?? What Would The Donald Do?? Go to the Marble Collegiate Church?? Is Peale Appalling?? Is Paul Appealing?? Is Schuller Cooler?? What Would Walter Martin Say?? What Would Sherry Shriner Say?? What Would The Brook of Egypt Do?? Go with the Flow?? Consider '42', '58', and '87'.

    I've considered the possibility that a lot of us might undergo endless-cycles of Condemnation > Vindication > Condemnation regarding our Soul-Histories. I'm strongly leaning toward Silent Research and Reflection as the Information-War Heats-Up. I'm NOT kidding or bluffing when I complain of being miserable and hamstrung. I'm NOT lying when I write about 'RA' and other 'Individuals of Interest'. But I have purposely NOT become an 'Insider', 'Spy', or 'Sell-Out'. 'RA' told me "The Bush's Sold-Out Very-Quickly." Honest. I do NOT Dig-Deeply (on purpose). I suppose I'd prefer to Vindicate key-aspects of my SDA heritage (in ways which might alienate ALL SDA's). I speak of Victorian-England in connection with This Present Madness (which probably irritates MI5 and MI6) but the Royal-Model seems to fit my pseudo-research extremely-well. Dr. Louis Venden told me "Don't Be Too Definite Because People Who Are Too Definite Go Off" as he waved his hand. He probably read me like a book, and knew I was on dangerous-ground.

    I've written for years about observation, research, and reflection WITHOUT ranting, raving, and insanity. I've joked about Supercomputers and Absolute-Access WITHOUT Meddling and Madness. I've joked about attending Top-Level Meetings WITHOUT Speaking or Being Spoken-To (or recognized in any manner). This is simply part of my Modeling-Project (which borders on insanity). It should be obvious to Casual-Observers and Sirius-Researchers that Earth and Humanity are on the Brink (in SO Many Ways) and that Martyrs and/or Scapegoats will be required by the Orchestrators That Be. Researchers Beware. This thing might be nastier and more-unmanageable than we think (or can think). Desperation might be Rampant (within ALL Factions). A Soft-Landing might NOT be possible. My very-passive advice is to simply sample This Present Madness, and then just move-on without saying or doing anything. All-Sides undoubtedly have legitimate and illegitimate reasoning and excuses. Perhaps EVERYONE Will Have Red-Faces Before This is Over (whatever 'Over' means). Some of us might have millions of years of Bad-Karma and Karmic-Debt to deal-with and repay.

    I'm sadly arriving at the conclusion that we might NEVER Know the Real-Truth, based-upon how EVERYONE reacts to confrontation, controversy, revelation, embarrassment, etc. I seem to be digging my own grave (deeper and deeper each and every day) as I attempt to approach the truth from various angles. I've tried to be somewhat faithful to my Judeo-Christian Seventh-day Adventist background (even though I haven't regularly attended for decades) while I passively pursue alternative-research and conspiracy-theories. But what REALLY troubles me is how people who attend churches for half a century (or more) are stumped and befuddled by the most elementary theological questions and concepts. The Australian SDA Heretic Robert D. Brinsmead stated "The Adventist-Church has made Pious-Zombies out of a lot of people." I do NOT recommend jumping on Antagonistic-Bandwagons BUT perhaps Judeo-Christians and Atheist Critics of Christianity should read the Whole-Bible straight-through, over and over, in a variety of translations, and be Completely-Honest. Unfortunately, this might open a HUGE Can of Worms for most people. Bertrand Russell spoke of "Unyielding-Despair" regarding Future-Foundations. What if We the Peons Really Can't Handle the Truth??!! What if the Matrix-Supercomputer makes damn-sure that we don't figure things out and get out of jail??!! Several possibilities emerge:

    1. An Innocent and Righteous Civilization was Invaded, Conquered, Corrupted, and Enslaved by Unrighteous-Warriors in Antiquity, and Brainwashed to Believe It Was All Their Fault, Similar to an Attacked and Raped Woman Believing the Abuse was Somehow All Her Fault.

    2. A Fully Awake and Aware Warrior-Civilization Set a Galactic Rat-Trap for Warriors of Conquest, Trapping at Least 22 Invading-Races in Prison-Planet Earth with Sinister-Intent by the Home-Team.

    3. A Variety of Variations of 1 & 2.

    I'm almost to the point of recommending the following Minimal-List if we can't handle the Real-Truth Concerning Our Predicament:

    1. Reading a Couple of Major Newspapers (at least the 'A' Sections) each and every day.

    2. Listening to Classical Music.

    3. Exercising in Nature.

    We might require the truth in buffered and watered-down form, rather than attempting to swallow it whole. Hocus-Pocus, Religious-Brainwashing, and Secular-Atheism do NOT appeal to me!! Perhaps the above three-point Minimal-List is a pragmatic Middle-Way for Noble-Agnostics with Responsible-Neutrality!! Go Anglican-Agnostics!! What Would John Shelby Spong Say?? What Would N.T. Wright Write?? The church shown below is the church Donald Trump attended. I noticed similarities between that church and a scene from 'The Wizard of Oz'. I grew-up knowing someone who had been married to Dorothy (Judy Garland) in real-life. I later attended the west-coast version (Crystal Cathedral) of the church Donald Trump attended (Marble Collegiate Church).

    The first video below is an Atheist v Christian debate. The Atheist is a former SDA pastor, who pastored (many years later) the same church I grew-up attending. There was a lot of trouble when I was there, but no open-atheism. In retrospect, there seemed to be too-many authoritative SDA books. I've often wondered what a church would be like if it restricted its sources to Four Ellen White Books, namely 'Patriarchs and Prophets', 'Prophets and Kings', 'Desire of Ages', and 'Acts of the Apostles'??!! As heretical as it sounds, what if these four books were treated as a 'New Bible'??!! One would have to overlook the Plagiarism and Interpretation issues, as well as the Adding-Thereto and Truncating (if you know what I mean)!! But seriously, if one combined those four books into One Leather-Bound Volume with Absolute-Authority, that would simplify things in unimaginable ways!! I'm almost to the point of doing that sort of a thing on a personal-level in the aftermath of This Present Quest. I might buy those four Conflict of the Ages Series books in hardcover-form and Superglue them together to form One-Volume. Actually, for Sirius-Researchers Only, consider reading the 'NIV Reader's Bible' side-by-side with the 'Conflict of the Ages Series' (straight-through, over and over, as a mental and spiritual exercise). Be Honest and Thorough, But Don't Expect This Study to Make You Happy. You've Been Warned.



    I just had another Brain-Fart!! Here's a clumsy first-attempt at a revolutionary-concept (for me). I was watching that Atheist v Christian debate, and I began thinking that Atheism is often Arrogant, and that Religion (of all kinds) is often Arrogant. But what about Agnosticism, which is sort of 'The Church of I Don't Know'?? Is Agnosticism the Most-Humble of the Three-Options?? What if the One True Church turns out to be 'The Church of the Noble Agnostic' aka 'The Church of Responsible Neutrality' aka 'The Church of I Don't Know'?? Damned if 'I Know'?? A 'Mulholland Drive Space-Cowboy' told me "Mystery is a Good Thing." Go Anglican-Agnostics?? What if 'The Church of Agnosticism' were 'The Church of Classical-Music'?? What if the Roman Catholic Church simply consisted of Gothic Architecture, Sacred Music, and the Latin Mass (plus nothing)?? Do You See My Point?? What if God Doesn't Believe in God?? What if God Doesn't Remember Being God?? What Would Osiris Say?? What Would Horus Say?? What Would Amen Ra Say?? What Would Chad Decker Say?? Regarding that Atheist v Christian debate, there are three participants on the stage: Atheist, Moderator, Christian. The Moderator Questions the Atheist and Christian with Responsible-Neutrality. Atheist, Agnostic, Christian. Must I Explain??

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    Morpheus wrote:Thank you, Oxy, for the energy you have put out into this thread. What's with all the self-hate and despair? Let me be clear. I don't hate you! I understand the disparity. I think we can all relate to that on some level or several levels.

    As with many topics, we try to put it all in a box and sort it out from there. You have a huge box. Just be you! And please don't delete any postings on this thread as I find your postings of great value. I say that because you ask many of the questions that many don't ask. Maybe we can sort all this out. All I know is that I am burned out on sorting it all out. As I went, things became more of a personal quest. The right to know. I had seen many things that needed to be figured out for my sanity. Takes a lot of work.

    But now at this moment, Brook is still my main concern. Brook's soul life is on trial. Somehow she is in some kind of cosmic pickle and there is nothing I can do about it. I don't know hardly any of the details because it involves so many souls and "time." Years of time. The Bridgeway seems to be missing some planks and I have to wait for the replacements to restore the Bridgeway. It's like a gag order has been put into place.

    As to the sum of what you posted, you are a genius. Simply because you stepped out of your box and showed us the connections in the big picture. And you fielded it like a pro. Even with references. Imagine that. And what you have fielded, I have been able to validate some of what you have presented. And because of that, I am willing to stand by you. You are not alone.

    Because of your questions, and approach, I have had to ask the question, "Are we the AI??" Just in organic form. Think about it...... we are programmable, an organic module that can be reused, recycled over time, electrical chemical generator of energy thought forms that can ride the physical parameters of a sentient life form. Or system. Here's what caught my attention. Perfection. AI as we define it, is always seeking perfection. Accuracy. It either is perfect or is not. Just like a digital readout of either on or off.

    What do we know? The big picture? We know the Universe, our Universe has its own frequency bandwidth. Everything we experience becomes so because we operate within that bandwidth. In the first hand. Source energy created everything within this Universe. Even the bad guys and girls. Different life forms to accommodate certain energy wavelengths of reality. With a macro program thrown in the mix and that program is seeking perfection. It will do what it has to do to achieve that goal. Even go into destroy mode to accommodate its directive. The prime directive said to go forth and go forth, we have. The Universe we reside in has Sacred Water, is electrical, has a backdrop fully loaded with all the bells and whistles encoded within it so we can experience a living reality.

    This so-called AI doesn't deal with emotion on the same level that we do. We provide a distortion field called the grey area with our emotions. An imperfection? AI might be trying to learn on another level by allowing us this imperfection. It creates that gray area where experiences can be altered, changing what is learned. The end results seeking perfection through the chaos?

    Maybe this kind of thinking is what manifested the Greys into our reality. Laws of attraction at work. When we apply our typical eyes on a grey, we don't see the emotion in them. In most cases anyway. Programmed Life Form? Maybe the greys decided at some point to rid themselves genetically their emotional bodies because it may have interfered with their own survival or progression. A programmed life form and AI and we have something that ties us all together. We are all programmable.

    The one thing that I also noticed is the direction where the programming has us going. Basically in reverse. At least here on the Planet. Got to break the chains that bind us. And if anything, that is what many of us are trying to do by our work and postings. Reversing the programming.



    I'm not exactly sure but I think Jay Arae Essex finally crossed over and I think it happened yesterday.


    To what end? Perfection.
    orthodoxymoron wrote:Thank-you Morpheus. I was apprehensive regarding how you might react to me re-posting your old-posts. I might've known a lot of stuff in previous lives, but it seems as if I've forgotten most of it, and the BS of This Present Darkness has extinguished a lot of Light I might've been surrounded with in previous lives. Just a theory. The despair and self-hate is part-real and part-modeling. Job to Daniel involves a lot of dark content, and I guess I've tried to identify with some of that. Also, Jupiter Jones in 'Jupiter Ascending' said "I Hate My Life." I've jokingly identified with Jupiter Jones. My mental-illness is really quite cold and calculating, and I probably have a deep-thinking morbid-curiosity which very-few might understand.

    Regarding Brook being 'On-Trial' have you watched the old Dr. Who 'Trial of a Time Lord' episodes?? I seem to be fixated upon theodicy, original-sin, past-lives, galactic-jurisprudence, star-wars, system-lords, investigative-judgments, final-judgments, eschatology, biblical-violence, 'Gods of Eden', 'Great-Controversy Between Christ and Satan in the Conflict of the Ages', and other such grandiose and depressing contemplations. This is the sort of thing which could put someone in the nuthouse. This is why I limit my whining and speculation to this little website. I have some rather dark theories about artificial-intelligence and galactic-governance going way back. Its hard to describe how deep this rabbit-hole goes in my deluded-imagination. I thought I was helping, but I don't think so anymore, and I'm attempting to wash my hands and walk away from This Present Madness. I suspect that All of Us are on-trial, and that most of us are in very-deep do-do. I can't be open and honest about this stuff, so I'm voluntarily shutting-up (before 'they' shut me up).

    Regarding 'Perfection' my SDA background involves significant controversy about Eschatological Character-Perfection when humanity supposedly 'Stands Before a Holy God Without a Mediator' just prior to the Second-Coming of Christ. I don't wish to get into this tonight, It's a Can of Worms. Artificial-Intelligence Annunaki-Supercomputers and the Investigative Judgment is an Unimaginable Can of Worms which very-few of us might be able to properly deal-with. I'm serious when I suggest that one might grasp the Larger-View of the Larger-View of the Larger-View while being restrained and sedated in a Secret-Government Mental-Institution. Anyway, I probably need to re-read your post a couple of times to let it sink-in, but I'm too tired and miserable tonight. I say such things to explain rather than complain, regarding why I'm a Completely-Ignorant Fool with a Monkey-Mind and God-Complex who might be in a lot more galactic legal-trouble than Brook might be in. I just hope that the analysis of This Present Predicament is being conducted in an Ethical and Transparent Manner, with an emphasis on Law and Order rather than Fire and Brimstone. Namaste and Godspeed.




    Carol wrote:December 5, 2018
    Looming Arrest And Trial Of Hillary Clinton Throws Russia Into Full War Footing
    http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index2727.htm


    A stunning new Security Council (SC) report circulating in the Kremlin this afternoon says today’s approval to immediately boost nuclear forces and hold more than 4,000 drills and roughly 8,500 practical combat training events throughout 2019 is a war footing necessity due to President Donald Trump preparing to arrest and put on trial Hillary Clinton—an historic event in America whose unknown and unpredictable repercussions will reverberate around the entire globe—and whose start of was just signaled by loyal Trump forces yesterday targeting for criminal prosecution Mossack Fonseca—the international law firm at the center of the Panama Papers scandal—and who were, also, the money launderers for the Clinton Foundation.  [Note: Some words and/or phrases appearing in quotes in this report are English language approximations of Russian words/phrases having no exact counterpart.]

    According to this report, the Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities—whose anonymous leaker Russian intelligence analysts maintain is a secretive and mysterious US military intelligence organization known only as “QAnon”—and about whom, veteran American investigative reporter and best selling author, Dr. Jerome Corsi, revealed was a group of generals who told him that Trump had been recruited by US military intelligence to run in the 2016 Presidential Election, and subsequently help remove corrupt “Deep State” officials from positions of power—and today in protection of sees Dr. Corsi in a battle to the death with Special Counsel Robert Mueller whom he refuses to even talk to anymore.


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    With the Panama Papers revealing the wholesale corruption of socialist globalists the world over, this report continues, their destructive power can only be described as catastrophic—best exampled by the events that occurred after they were “lobbed like an atomic bomb” on Brazil’s leftist political class—and in whose aftermath saw Brazil’s 35th President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva being impeached from office and jailed—and his successor, Brazil’s 36th President Dilma Rousseff, likewise being thrown from office—thus leading the Brazilian people to elect to power their new President Jair Bolsonaro, who is now known as the “Trump of the Tropics”.

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    Panama Papers destroy elite leftist ruling class in Brazil

    With President Trump being set upon by his nation’s “Deep State” apparatchiks as soon as he took power, this report details, their coup plot to frame him in a made up Russia hoax scheme in their bid to clear Hillary Clinton from her crimes has met with repeated failure—with it being revealed this past week that Special Counsel Mueller is preparing his endgame for the Russian Investigation—while at the same time, Trump loyalists in the US Congress are preparing to hold a hearing on the Department of Justice investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

    Most important to understand about these machinations now occurring in the United States, this report explains, is that the entire adversarial two-party system controlling the US government operates using a psychological technique to govern and manipulate public opinion called “dueling narratives”—a form of narrative that tells a story in two different perspectives—which in this instance is pitting Trump’s “crimes” against Clinton’s “crimes”.

    While Trump’s “crimes”, though, fall into the category of made up offenses subject to who will believe them—called subjective and based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions, this report notes, Hillary Clinton’s “crimes” are rooted in fact and provable evidence—called objective and not influenced by personal feelings or opinions and representing facts.

    With Trump not being able to fully defend himself against the “subjective crimes” he’s being accused of until Special Counsel Mueller releases his final report and he knows what they are, this report points out, once it is released, and no matter how bad it makes him appear, Trump will immediately counterattack by arresting and putting on trial Hillary Clinton for her “objective crimes”—thus creating for the American people the most consequential “dueling narrative” political war they’ve seen in their entire nation’s history—and that will see Trump doing everything in his power to put Clinton in jail where she belongs, while  the “Deep State” does everything in its power to impeach Trump before he can do that.  

    As President Trump is one of the world’s most accomplished showman having decades of highly successful television and promotional experience, this report continues, his arresting and putting on trial Hillary Clinton can only be described as a “Celebrity Deathmatch”—that the American people will see played out in real time on their television screens as Clinton is marched continuously into US Federal Courtrooms, that at the same time, the Democrats in the US House of Representatives will counter with impeachment hearings—a battle the Democrats are losing before they’ve even begun after Democrat Party US Senator Mazie Hirono shockingly declared yesterday that because the Democrats “know so much”, they are now “too smart” for the average American voter to understand.  

    With it being highly debatable if the American people are, in fact, too dumb to understand these Democrats protecting Hillary Clinton, however, this report notes, they will, most assuredly, be able to understand and comprehend what President Trump is doing—and whose actions in amassing criminal evidence against Clinton to arrest and put her trial over the past few weeks alone include:

    On 21 November—Trump loyal FBI forces joining their foreign counterparts in raiding Hillary Clinton money laundering banks throughout Europe.

    On 29 November—Trump loyal FBI forces raiding the offices of Alderman Edward Burke, a powerful Chicago politician who has held his position in Chicago politics for 50 years and knows where all the Obama-Clinton bodies are buried.

    On 29 November—Trump loyal US Department of Justice officials filing criminal charges against Hillary Clinton mega donor Abul Huda Farouki.

    On 29 November—Trump loyal FBI forces raiding the home of Dennis Nathan Cain to establish a “chain of custody” evidence stream proving Hillary Clinton was bribed in the Uranium One scheme.


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    With, for the first time in history, all three of Russia’s intelligence agency chiefs having traveled to Washington D.C. earlier this year to turn over to loyal Trump forces the documents showing the bribery money laundering trail used by Hillary Clinton—and as exposed by the Panama Papers, this report concludes, the last “game piece” awaited by Russian intelligence officials to signal when Clinton was nearing arrest and trial was put into place on the “Celebrity Deathmatch” gaming board yesterday—and was when loyal Trump forces announced their criminal charges against Mossack Fonseca—the legal firm from whom the Panama Papers were taken by “QAnon”—and three of whose top officers are now in US custody and “singing like birds”—thus leaving all that remains to be seen is when President Trump will fulfill his promise to the American people and finally “Lock Her Up”.

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    Donald Trump tells Hillary Clinton during the second presidential debate that if he was in charge of the nation's laws “you'd be in jail”.

    December 5, 2018 © EU and US all rights reserved.  Permission to use this report in its entirety is granted under the condition it is linked back to its original source at WhatDoesItMean.Com. Freebase content licensed under CC-BY and GFDL.
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    King David??
    King Solomon??
    Queen of Sheba??

    The more I think I know, the more horrified I become. The argument "You Can't Handle the Truth" might have a hell of a lot of legitimacy. It seems as if one needs to approach the 'Forbidden-Information' with an 'All or Nothing' approach, which fits-in with my joking-concept of residing in the relative-obscurity of a 600 square-foot shallow-underground office-apartment with a personal-supercomputer, while going completely-insane. I passively-consider some-aspects of the secret-stuff with genuine fear and trembling. I never know how close to the edge I am, or who I might be pissing-off. I might simply watch and listen-to fringe-videos, without saying or doing anything with whatever supposed information is derived from such activities. I've been way-too open and honest concerning This Present Quest, and there might be no-way to 'Put the Genie Back in the Bottle'. Once You Screw, You Cannot Unscrew. That's sort of dumb, but hopefully you get my point. People claim "I Want the Truth" but they probably "Want the Truth They Want". Perhaps 'Disclosure' Will NOT Produce 'Closure'. Perhaps the 'Last Great True-Renaissance' Will NOT Bring Peace to the World. Perhaps 'Disclosure' is a prelude to 'Extermination'. Carefully and Prayerfully Consider the 'Revelation of Jesus Christ' (which seems to fill so many souls with faith, hope, and love).

    SO Many people have been tortured and killed in connection with religion. This horrible fact transcends whether various aspects of religion are true, or not. The inhumanity of man toward man is what is highly troubling and horrifying. Even if someone suffered and died for a false-faith -- their devotion and resolve is somehow redemptive and exemplary (in my view). I fear for the fate of the souls of those who inflicted the torture and murder. There must be justice (without a statute of limitations). Crime Does Not Pay on Judgment-Day. I always feel guilty when I attempt to be objective regarding religion. Believers take offense -- and Unbelievers take offense -- but in very different ways. Consider getting Job through Isaiah absolutely right -- before moving on to other portions of Sacred-Scripture. I'm too tired to elaborate on why I think this might be extremely important. Try pursuing this narrowed and select study -- while listening to sacred classical music. This is a more difficult path than most people can imagine. Honesty seems to be a dirty-word in Politics and Religion. On a lighter-note -- consider watching The Book of Daniel series!! It rocks!! It makes me laugh and cry!! Sex!! Drugs!! Stolen-Funds!! Organized-Crime!! http://www.amazon.com/Book-Daniel-Complete-Aidan-Quinn/dp/B000GFLEKY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420816554&sr=8-2&keywords=the+book+of+daniel+dvd


    "He Who Farts In Church, Sits In His Own Pew!!"
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    orthodoxymoron wrote:
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    This seems to be some sort of 'attack' and what's especially creepy to me is that I've lived in Redding and Chico, and I've been in several of the homes and churches (many years ago) which were burned to the ground in Redding and Paradise. If they can do this in these locations, they can do it anywhere. 'RA' told me (in 2010-11) "Humanity is Screwed" and "You'll be Sorry if You Try to Save Humanity". 'RA' told me "9/11 Was Done to Prevent Something Much Worse From Happening." I'm pretty-much shutting-down because I'm feeling worse and worse, and I don't know how to deal with what's happening to me and the rest of the world. I told a forum-member that I plan to remain silent during 2019 for a personal-reset. I don't know what else to do. Deborah Tavares has been sounding the alarm about this madness for several-years. The second video (below) is from 2015. I'm presently reading 'Everything You Need to Know (But Have Never Been Told)' by David Icke. That Book Should Calm Me Down, and Give Me Peace of Mind. Just Kidding.


    mudra wrote:There is madness around indeed Oxy and these are no small deeds. I understand this world shakes you. There is work to be done within ourselves either to be able to face reality as it is out there, or better even, create a brand new one from within to without.

    Love from me
    mudra
    I REALLY Hate to Say It BUT I Suspect 'Ancient-Idealism' was Overcome by 'Ancient-Pragmatism' Resulting in the World Becoming a Big-Business Run by the 'God of This World' aka the 'Almighty-Dollar' wherein the 'Bottom-Line was the Bottom-Line' with Zero-Compassion. Making One's Peace with this Prospect might result in Peace of Mind While Becoming a Trillionaire. 'RA' told me "I'm Rich" and "I Built Vegas with Bugsy". World Without Amen. Marduk.
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    Stairway to Paradise?
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Resurrection-2






    Last edited by orthodoxymoron on Sat Oct 26, 2019 6:07 pm; edited 14 times in total
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    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Empty Re: United States AI Solar System (9)

    Post  orthodoxymoron Sat Jul 06, 2019 5:53 am

    Sing for joy to God our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob! Begin the music, strike the timbrel, play the melodious harp and lyre. Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival; this is a decree for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. When God went out against Egypt, he established it as a statute for Joseph. I heard an unknown voice say: “I removed the burden from their shoulders; their hands were set free from the basket. In your distress you called and I rescued you, I answered you out of a thundercloud; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Hear me, my people, and I will warn you, if you would only listen to me, Israel! You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not worship any god other than me. I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. “But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. “If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways, how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes! Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever. But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

    God presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the “gods”: “How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. “The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. “I said, ‘You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High.’ But you will die like mere mortals; you will fall like every other ruler.” Rise up, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations are your inheritance.

    O God, do not remain silent; do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God. See how your enemies growl, how your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish. “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.” With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you, the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites, Byblos, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre. Even Assyria has joined them to reinforce Lot’s descendants. Do to them as you did to Midian, as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who perished at Endor and became like dung on the ground. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, “Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God.” Make them like tumbleweed, my God, like chaff before the wind. As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze, so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm. Cover their faces with shame, LORD, so that they will seek your name. May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace. Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD, that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

    How lovely is your dwelling place, LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young, a place near your altar, LORD Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. Hear my prayer, LORD God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob. Look on our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one. Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. LORD Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.

    You, LORD, showed favor to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people and covered all their sins. You set aside all your wrath and turned from your fierce anger. Restore us again, God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger through all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing love, LORD, and grant us your salvation. I will listen to what God the LORD says; he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants, but let them not turn to folly. Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.

    Hear me, LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am faithful to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God; have mercy on me, Lord, for I call to you all day long. Bring joy to your servant, Lord, for I put my trust in you. You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. Hear my prayer, LORD; listen to my cry for mercy. When I am in distress, I call to you, because you answer me. Among the gods there is none like you, Lord; no deeds can compare with yours. All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name. For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God. Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead. Arrogant foes are attacking me, O God; ruthless people are trying to kill me. They have no regard for you. But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. Turn to me and have mercy on me; show your strength in behalf of your servant; save me, because I serve you just as my mother did. Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

    He has founded his city on the holy mountain. The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are said of you, city of God: “I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me, Philistia too, and Tyre, along with Cush, and will say, ‘This one was born in Zion.’” Indeed, of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one were born in her, and the Most High himself will establish her.” The LORD will write in the register of the peoples: “This one was born in Zion.” As they make music they will sing, “All my fountains are in you.”

    LORD, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you. May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry. I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like one without strength. I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care. You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. Your wrath lies heavily on me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape; my eyes are dim with grief. I call to you, LORD, every day; I spread out my hands to you. Do you show your wonders to the dead? Do their spirits rise up and praise you? Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction? Are your wonders known in the place of darkness, or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion? But I cry to you for help, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you. Why, LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me? From my youth I have suffered and been close to death; I have borne your terrors and am in despair. Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have destroyed me. All day long they surround me like a flood; they have completely engulfed me. You have taken from me friend and neighbor. Darkness is my closest friend.

    I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself. You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant, ‘I will establish your line forever and make your throne firm through all generations.’” The heavens praise your wonders, LORD, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones. For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD? Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings? In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared; he is more awesome than all who surround him. Who is like you, LORD God Almighty? You, LORD, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you. You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them. You crushed Rahab like one of the slain; with your strong arm you scattered your enemies. The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth; you founded the world and all that is in it. You created the north and the south; Tabor and Hermon sing for joy at your name. Your arm is endowed with power; your hand is strong, your right hand exalted. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you. Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, LORD. They rejoice in your name all day long; they celebrate your righteousness. For you are their glory and strength, and by your favor you exalt our horn. Indeed, our shield belongs to the LORD, our king to the Holy One of Israel.

    Once you spoke in a vision, to your faithful people you said: “I have bestowed strength on a warrior; I have raised up a young man from among the people. I have found David my servant; with my sacred oil I have anointed him. My hand will sustain him; surely my arm will strengthen him. The enemy will not get the better of him; the wicked will not oppress him. I will crush his foes before him and strike down his adversaries. My faithful love will be with him, and through my name his horn will be exalted. I will set his hand over the sea, his right hand over the rivers. He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.’ And I will appoint him to be my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth. I will maintain my love to him forever, and my covenant with him will never fail. I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure. "If his sons forsake my law and do not follow my statutes, if they violate my decrees and fail to keep my commands, I will punish their sin with the rod, their iniquity with flogging; but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered. Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness, and I will not lie to David, that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky.”

    But you have rejected, you have spurned, you have been very angry with your anointed one. You have renounced the covenant with your servant and have defiled his crown in the dust. You have broken through all his walls and reduced his strongholds to ruins. All who pass by have plundered him; he has become the scorn of his neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of his foes; you have made all his enemies rejoice. Indeed, you have turned back the edge of his sword and have not supported him in battle. You have put an end to his splendor and cast his throne to the ground. You have cut short the days of his youth; you have covered him with a mantle of shame. How long, LORD? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire? Remember how fleeting is my life. For what futility you have created all humanity! Who can live and not see death, or who can escape the power of the grave? Lord, where is your former great love, which in your faithfulness you swore to David? Remember, Lord, how your servant has been mocked, how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the nations, the taunts with which your enemies, LORD, have mocked, with which they have mocked every step of your anointed one. Praise be to the LORD forever! Amen and Amen.

    Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.” A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death, they are like the new grass of the morning: In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered. We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. If only we knew the power of your anger! Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due. Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Relent, LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands.

    Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

    It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD; I sing for joy at what your hands have done. How great are your works, LORD, how profound your thoughts! Senseless people do not know, fools do not understand, that though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever. But you, LORD, are forever exalted. For surely your enemies, LORD, surely your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered. You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured on me. My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries; my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes. The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

    The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed in majesty and armed with strength; indeed, the world is established, firm and secure. Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity. The seas have lifted up, LORD, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty. Your statutes, LORD, stand firm; holiness adorns your house for endless days.

    The LORD is a God who avenges. O God who avenges, shine forth. Rise up, Judge of the earth; pay back to the proud what they deserve. How long, LORD, will the wicked, how long will the wicked be jubilant? They pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers are full of boasting. They crush your people, LORD; they oppress your inheritance. They slay the widow and the foreigner; they murder the fatherless. They say, “The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob takes no notice.” Take notice, you senseless ones among the people; you fools, when will you become wise? Does he who fashioned the ear not hear? Does he who formed the eye not see? Does he who disciplines nations not punish? Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge? The LORD knows all human plans; he knows that they are futile.

    Blessed is the one you discipline, LORD, the one you teach from your law; you grant them relief from days of trouble, till a pit is dug for the wicked. For the LORD will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance. Judgment will again be founded on righteousness, and all the upright in heart will follow it. Who will rise up for me against the wicked? Who will take a stand for me against evildoers? Unless the LORD had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death. When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, LORD, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. Can a corrupt throne be allied with you, a throne that brings on misery by its decrees? The wicked band together against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death. But the LORD has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge. He will repay them for their sins and destroy them for their wickedness; the LORD our God will destroy them.

    Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice, “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”

    Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the LORD, all you families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Let all creation rejoice before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.

    The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice. Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side. His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all peoples see his glory. All who worship images are put to shame, those who boast in idols, worship him, all you gods! Zion hears and rejoices and the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments, LORD. For you, LORD, are the Most High over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods. Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light shines on the righteous and joy on the upright in heart. Rejoice in the LORD, you who are righteous, and praise his holy name.

    Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations. He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn, shout for joy before the LORD, the King. Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.

    The LORD reigns, let the nations tremble; he sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake. Great is the LORD in Zion; he is exalted over all the nations. Let them praise your great and awesome name, he is holy. The King is mighty, he loves justice. You have established equity; in Jacob you have done what is just and right. Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy. Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel was among those who called on his name; they called on the LORD and he answered them. He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud; they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them. LORD our God, you answered them; you were to Israel a forgiving God, though you punished their misdeeds. Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.

    Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his ; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

    I will sing of your love and justice; to you, LORD, I will sing praise. I will be careful to lead a blameless life. When will you come to me? I will conduct the affairs of my house with a blameless heart. I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I hate what faithless people do; I will have no part in it. The perverse of heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with what is evil. Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not tolerate. My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; the one whose walk is blameless will minister to me. No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence. Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the LORD.

    Hear my prayer, LORD; let my cry for help come to you. Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly. For my days vanish like smoke; my bones burn like glowing embers. My heart is blighted and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food. In my distress I groan aloud and am reduced to skin and bones. I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins. I lie awake; I have become like a bird alone on a roof. All day long my enemies taunt me; those who rail against me use my name as a curse. For I eat ashes as my food and mingle my drink with tears because of your great wrath, for you have taken me up and thrown me aside. My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass. But you, LORD, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations. You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her; the appointed time has come. For her stones are dear to your servants; her very dust moves them to pity.

    The nations will fear the name of the LORD, all the kings of the earth will revere your glory. For the LORD will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory. He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea. Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD: “The LORD looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.” So the name of the LORD will be declared in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship the LORD. In the course of my life he broke my strength; he cut short my days. So I said: “Do not take me away, my God, in the midst of my days; your years go on through all generations. In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end. The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will be established before you.”

    Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.

    As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children, with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts. The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. Praise the LORD, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the LORD, my soul.

    Praise the LORD, my soul. LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants. He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved. You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight; they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them. You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth. He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the sky nest by the waters; they sing among the branches. He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work. He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts. The trees of the LORD are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. There the birds make their nests; the stork has its home in the junipers. The high mountains belong to the wild goats; the crags are a refuge for the hyrax. He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down.

    You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl. The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God. The sun rises, and they steal away; they return and lie down in their dens. Then people go out to their work, to their labor until evening. How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. there is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number, living things both large and small. There the ships go to and fro, and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there. All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works, he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke. I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD. But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Praise the LORD, my soul. Praise the LORD.

    Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, you his servants, the descendants of Abraham, his chosen ones, the children of Jacob. He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit.” When they were but few in number, few indeed, and strangers in it, they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another. He allowed no one to oppress them; for their sake he rebuked kings: “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm.” He called down famine on the land and destroyed all their supplies of food; and he sent a man before them, Joseph, sold as a slave. They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the LORD proved him true. The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples set him free. He made him master of his household, ruler over all he possessed, to instruct his princes as he pleased and teach his elders wisdom. Then Israel entered Egypt; Jacob resided as a foreigner in the land of Ham.

    The LORD made his people very fruitful; he made them too numerous for their foes, whose hearts he turned to hate his people, to conspire against his servants. He sent Moses his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen. They performed his signs among them, his wonders in the land of Ham. He sent darkness and made the land dark, for had they not rebelled against his words? He turned their waters into blood, causing their fish to die. Their land teemed with frogs, which went up into the bedrooms of their rulers. He spoke, and there came swarms of flies, and gnats throughout their country. He turned their rain into hail, with lightning throughout their land; he struck down their vines and fig trees and shattered the trees of their country. He spoke, and the locusts came, grasshoppers without number; they ate up every green thing in their land, ate up the produce of their soil. Then he struck down all the firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their manhood. He brought out Israel, laden with silver and gold, and from among their tribes no one faltered. Egypt was glad when they left, because dread of Israel had fallen on them. He spread out a cloud as a covering, and a fire to give light at night. They asked, and he brought them quail; he fed them well with the bread of heaven. He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed like a river in the desert. For he remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham. He brought out his people with rejoicing, his chosen ones with shouts of joy; he gave them the lands of the nations, and they fell heir to what others had toiled for, that they might keep his precepts and observe his laws. Praise the LORD.

    Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the LORD or fully declare his praise? Blessed are those who act justly, who always do what is right. Remember me, LORD, when you show favor to your people, come to my aid when you save them, that I may enjoy the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may share in the joy of your nation and join your inheritance in giving praise. We have sinned, even as our ancestors did; we have done wrong and acted wickedly. When our ancestors were in Egypt, they gave no thought to your miracles; they did not remember your many kindnesses, and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea. Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, to make his mighty power known. He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; he led them through the depths as through a desert. He saved them from the hand of the foe; from the hand of the enemy he redeemed them. The waters covered their adversaries; not one of them survived. Then they believed his promises and sang his praise. But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his plan to unfold.

    In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wilderness they put God to the test. So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease among them. In the camp they grew envious of Moses and of Aaron, who was consecrated to the LORD. The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it buried the company of Abiram. Fire blazed among their followers; a flame consumed the wicked. At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped an idol cast from metal. They exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull, which eats grass. They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. So he said he would destroy them, had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them. Then they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe his promise. They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the LORD. So he swore to them with uplifted hand that he would make them fall in the wilderness, make their descendants fall among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands. They yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods; they aroused the LORD’s anger by their wicked deeds, and a plague broke out among them. But Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked. This was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.

    By the waters of Meribah they angered the LORD, and trouble came to Moses because of them; for they rebelled against the Spirit of God, and rash words came from Moses’ lips. They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs. They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to false gods. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood. They defiled themselves by what they did; by their deeds they prostituted themselves. Therefore the LORD was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance. He gave them into the hands of the nations, and their foes ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them and subjected them to their power. Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin. Yet he took note of their distress when he heard their cry; for their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great love he relented. He caused all who held them captive to show them mercy. Save us, LORD our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the LORD.

    Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story, those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south. Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness, prisoners suffering in iron chains, because they rebelled against God’s commands and despised the plans of the Most High. So he subjected them to bitter labor; they stumbled, and there was no one to help. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron. Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities. They loathed all food and drew near the gates of death. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind. Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of his works with songs of joy.

    Some went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the LORD, his wonderful deeds in the deep. For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away. They reeled and staggered like drunkards; they were at their wits’ end. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind. Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the council of the elders. He turned rivers into a desert, flowing springs into thirsty ground, and fruitful land into a salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who lived there. He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs; there he brought the hungry to live, and they founded a city where they could settle. They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest; he blessed them, and their numbers greatly increased, and he did not let their herds diminish. Then their numbers decreased, and they were humbled by oppression, calamity and sorrow; he who pours contempt on nobles made them wander in a trackless waste. But he lifted the needy out of their affliction and increased their families like flocks. The upright see and rejoice, but all the wicked shut their mouths. Let the one who is wise heed these things and ponder the loving deeds of the LORD.

    My heart, O God, is steadfast; I will sing and make music with all my soul. Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, LORD, among the nations; will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered. God has spoken from his sanctuary: “In triumph I will parcel out Shechem and measure off the Valley of Sukkoth. Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, Judah is my scepter. Moab is my washbasin, on Edom I toss my sandal; over Philistia I shout in triumph.” Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? Is it not you, God, you who have rejected us and no longer go out with our armies? Give us aid against the enemy, for human help is worthless. With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies.

    My God, whom I praise, do not remain silent, for people who are wicked and deceitful have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues. With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause. In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer. They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship. Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy; let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayers condemn him. May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership. May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes. May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor. May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children. May his descendants be cut off, their names blotted out from the next generation. May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD; may the sin of his mother never be blotted out. May their sins always remain before the LORD, that he may blot out their name from the earth. For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted. He loved to pronounce a curse, may it come back on him. He found no pleasure in blessing, may it be far from him. He wore cursing as his garment; it entered into his body like water, into his bones like oil. May it be like a cloak wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him. May this be the LORD’s payment to my accusers, to those who speak evil of me.

    But you, Sovereign LORD, help me for your name’s sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. I fade away like an evening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust. My knees give way from fasting; my body is thin and gaunt. I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads. Help me, LORD my God; save me according to your unfailing love. Let them know that it is your hand, that you, LORD, have done it. While they curse, may you bless; may those who attack me be put to shame, but may your servant rejoice. May my accusers be clothed with disgrace and wrapped in shame as in a cloak. With my mouth I will greatly extol the LORD; in the great throng of worshipers I will praise him. For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save their lives from those who would condemn them.

    The LORD says to my lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” The LORD will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of your enemies!” Your troops will be willing on your day of battle. Arrayed in holy splendor, your young men will come to you like dew from the morning’s womb. The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at your right hand; he will crush kings on the day of his wrath. He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth. He will drink from a brook along the way, and so he will lift his head high.

    Praise the LORD. I will extol the LORD with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly. Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them. Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and compassionate. He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever. He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them the lands of other nations. The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. They are established for ever and ever, enacted in faithfulness and uprightness. He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.

    Praise the LORD. Blessed are those who fear the LORD, who find great delight in his commands. Their children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures forever. Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice. Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever. They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the LORD. Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes. They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever; their horn will be lifted high in honor. The wicked will see and be vexed, they will gnash their teeth and waste away; the longings of the wicked will come to nothing.

    Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, you his servants; praise the name of the LORD. Let the name of the LORD be praised, both now and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the LORD is to be praised. The LORD is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like the LORD our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes, with the princes of his people. He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the LORD.

    When Israel came out of Egypt, Jacob from a people of foreign tongue, Judah became God’s sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea looked and fled, the Jordan turned back; the mountains leaped like rams, the hills like lambs. Why was it, sea, that you fled? Why, Jordan, did you turn back? Why, mountains, did you leap like rams, you hills, like lambs? Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water.

    Not to us, LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. Why do the nations say, “Where is their God?” Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. All you Israelites, trust in the LORD. He is their help and shield. House of Aaron, trust in the LORD. He is their help and shield. You who fear him, trust in the LORD. He is their help and shield. The LORD remembers us and will bless us: He will bless his people Israel, he will bless the house of Aaron, he will bless those who fear the LORD, small and great alike. May the LORD cause you to flourish, both you and your children. May you be blessed by the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to mankind. It is not the dead who praise the LORD, those who go down to the place of silence; it is we who extol the LORD, both now and forevermore. Praise the LORD.

    I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came over me; I was overcome by distress and sorrow. Then I called on the name of the LORD: “LORD, save me!” The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. The LORD protects the unwary; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return to your rest, my soul, for the LORD has been good to you. For you, LORD, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the LORD in the land of the living. I trusted in the LORD when I said, “I am greatly afflicted”; in my alarm I said, “Everyone is a liar.” What shall I return to the LORD for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants. Truly I am your servant, LORD; I serve you just as my mother did; you have freed me from my chains. I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the LORD. I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst, Jerusalem. Praise the LORD.

    Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD.

    Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let Israel say: “His love endures forever.” Let the house of Aaron say: “His love endures forever.” Let those who fear the LORD say: “His love endures forever.” When hard pressed, I cried to the LORD; he brought me into a spacious place. The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? The LORD is with me; he is my helper. I look in triumph on my enemies. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in humans. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes. All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the LORD I cut them down. They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the LORD I cut them down. They swarmed around me like bees, but they were consumed as quickly as burning thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them down. I was pushed back and about to fall, but the LORD helped me. The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.

    Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: “The LORD’s right hand has done mighty things! The LORD’s right hand is lifted high; the LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!” I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done. The LORD has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open for me the gates of the righteous; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD. This is the gate of the LORD through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. The LORD has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad. LORD, save us! LORD, grant us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you. The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine on us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

    Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD. Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart. They do no wrong but follow his ways. You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me. How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word. Be good to your servant while I live, that I may obey your word. Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me. My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times. You rebuke the arrogant, who are accursed, those who stray from your commands. Remove from me their scorn and contempt, for I keep your statutes.

    Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees. Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors. I am laid low in the dust; preserve my life according to your word. I gave an account of my ways and you answered me; teach me your decrees. Cause me to understand the way of your precepts, that I may meditate on your wonderful deeds. My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me and teach me your law. I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I have set my heart on your laws. I hold fast to your statutes, LORD; do not let me be put to shame. I run in the path of your commands, for you have broadened my understanding. Teach me, LORD, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end. Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word. Fulfill your promise to your servant, so that you may be feared. Take away the disgrace I dread, for your laws are good.

    How I long for your precepts! In your righteousness preserve my life. May your unfailing love come to me, LORD, your salvation, according to your promise; then I can answer anyone who taunts me, for I trust in your word. Never take your word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my hope in your laws. I will always obey your law, for ever and ever. I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame, for I delight in your commands because I love them. I reach out for your commands, which I love, that I may meditate on your decrees. Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life. The arrogant mock me unmercifully, but I do not turn from your law. I remember, LORD, your ancient laws, and I find comfort in them. Indignation grips me because of the wicked, who have forsaken your law. Your decrees are the theme of my song wherever I lodge. In the night, LORD, I remember your name, that I may keep your law. This has been my practice: I obey your precepts. You are my portion, LORD; I have promised to obey your words. I have sought your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise. I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes. I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands. Though the wicked bind me with ropes, I will not forget your law. At midnight I rise to give you thanks for your righteous laws. I am a friend to all who fear you, to all who follow your precepts. The earth is filled with your love, LORD; teach me your decrees.

    Do good to your servant according to your word, LORD. Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I trust your commands. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word. You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees. Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep your precepts with all my heart. Their hearts are callous and unfeeling, but I delight in your law. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold. Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands. May those who fear you rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in your word. I know, LORD, that your laws are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant. Let your compassion come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight. May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging me without cause; but I will meditate on your precepts. May those who fear you turn to me, those who understand your statutes. May I wholeheartedly follow your decrees, that I may not be put to shame.
    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


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    Post  orthodoxymoron Sat Jul 06, 2019 5:56 am

    My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I have put my hope in your word. My eyes fail, looking for your promise; I say, “When will you comfort me?” Though I am like a wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget your decrees. How long must your servant wait? When will you punish my persecutors? The arrogant dig pits to trap me, contrary to your law. All your commands are trustworthy; help me, for I am being persecuted without cause. They almost wiped me from the earth, but I have not forsaken your precepts. In your unfailing love preserve my life, that I may obey the statutes of your mouth. Your word, LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures. Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you. If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.

    I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life. Save me, for I am yours; I have sought out your precepts. The wicked are waiting to destroy me, but I will ponder your statutes. To all perfection I see a limit, but your commands are boundless. Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws. I have suffered much; preserve my life, LORD, according to your word. Accept, LORD, the willing praise of my mouth, and teach me your laws. Though I constantly take my life in my hands, I will not forget your law. The wicked have set a snare for me, but I have not strayed from your precepts. Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart. My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end. I hate double-minded people, but I love your law. You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.

    Away from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commands of my God! Sustain me, my God, according to your promise, and I will live; do not let my hopes be dashed. Uphold me, and I will be delivered; I will always have regard for your decrees. You reject all who stray from your decrees, for their delusions come to nothing. All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross; therefore I love your statutes. My flesh trembles in fear of you; I stand in awe of your laws. I have done what is righteous and just; do not leave me to my oppressors. Ensure your servant’s well-being; do not let the arrogant oppress me. My eyes fail, looking for your salvation, looking for your righteous promise. Deal with your servant according to your love and teach me your decrees. I am your servant; give me discernment that I may understand your statutes. It is time for you to act, LORD; your law is being broken. Because I love your commands more than gold, more than pure gold, and because I consider all your precepts right, I hate every wrong path. Your statutes are wonderful; therefore I obey them. The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands. Turn to me and have mercy on me, as you always do to those who love your name. Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me. Redeem me from human oppression, that I may obey your precepts.

    Make your face shine on your servant and teach me your decrees. Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed. You are righteous, LORD, and your laws are right. The statutes you have laid down are righteous; they are fully trustworthy. My zeal wears me out, for my enemies ignore your words. Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them. Though I am lowly and despised, I do not forget your precepts. Your righteousness is everlasting and your law is true. Trouble and distress have come upon me, but your commands give me delight. Your statutes are always righteous; give me understanding that I may live. I call with all my heart; answer me, LORD, and I will obey your decrees. I call out to you; save me and I will keep your statutes. I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word. My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises. Hear my voice in accordance with your love; preserve my life, LORD, according to your laws. Those who devise wicked schemes are near, but they are far from your law. Yet you are near, LORD, and all your commands are true. Long ago I learned from your statutes that you established them to last forever. Look on my suffering and deliver me, for I have not forgotten your law. Defend my cause and redeem me; preserve my life according to your promise. Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek out your decrees.

    Your compassion, LORD, is great; preserve my life according to your laws. Many are the foes who persecute me, but I have not turned from your statutes. I look on the faithless with loathing, for they do not obey your word. See how I love your precepts; preserve my life, LORD, in accordance with your love. All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal. Rulers persecute me without cause, but my heart trembles at your word. I rejoice in your promise like one who finds great spoil. I hate and detest falsehood but I love your law. Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws. Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble. I wait for your salvation, LORD, and I follow your commands. I obey your statutes, for I love them greatly. I obey your precepts and your statutes, for all my ways are known to you. May my cry come before you, LORD; give me understanding according to your word. May my supplication come before you; deliver me according to your promise. May my lips overflow with praise, for you teach me your decrees. May my tongue sing of your word, for all your commands are righteous. May your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts. I long for your salvation, LORD, and your law gives me delight. Let me live that I may praise you, and may your laws sustain me. I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands.

    I call on the LORD in my distress, and he answers me. Save me, LORD, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues. What will he do to you, and what more besides, you deceitful tongue? He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows, with burning coals of the broom bush. Woe to me that I dwell in Meshek, that I live among the tents of Kedar! Too long have I lived among those who hate peace. I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.

    I lift up my eyes to the mountains. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip. He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you. The LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

    I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.” Our feet are standing in your gates, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together. That is where the tribes go up. The tribes of the LORD, to praise the name of the LORD according to the statute given to Israel. There stand the thrones for judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.” For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, “Peace be within you.” For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your prosperity.

    I lift up my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven. As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy. Have mercy on us, LORD, have mercy on us, for we have endured no end of contempt. We have endured no end of ridicule from the arrogant, of contempt from the proud.

    If the LORD had not been on our side, let Israel say, if the LORD had not been on our side when people attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive when their anger flared against us; the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away. Praise be to the LORD, who has not let us be torn by their teeth. We have escaped like a bird from the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

    Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people both now and forevermore. The scepter of the wicked will not remain over the land allotted to the righteous, for then the righteous might use their hands to do evil. LORD, do good to those who are good, to those who are upright in heart. But those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish with the evildoers. Peace be on Israel.

    When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Restore our fortunes, LORD, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.

    Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat, for he grants sleep to those he loves. Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court.

    Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in obedience to him. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the LORD. May the LORD bless you from Zion; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. May you live to see your children’s children. Peace be on Israel.

    “They have greatly oppressed me from my youth,” let Israel say; “they have greatly oppressed me from my youth, but they have not gained the victory over me. Plowmen have plowed my back and made their furrows long. But the LORD is righteous; he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.” May all who hate Zion be turned back in shame. May they be like grass on the roof, which withers before it can grow; a reaper cannot fill his hands with it, nor one who gathers fill his arms. May those who pass by not say to them, “The blessing of the LORD be on you; we bless you in the name of the LORD.”

    Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

    My heart is not proud, LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content. Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore.

    LORD, remember David and all his self-denial. He swore an oath to the LORD, he made a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob: “I will not enter my house or go to my bed, I will allow no sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, till I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.” We heard it in Ephrathah, we came upon it in the fields of Jaar: “Let us go to his dwelling place, let us worship at his footstool, saying, ‘Arise, LORD, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. May your priests be clothed with your righteousness; may your faithful people sing for joy.’” For the sake of your servant David, do not reject your anointed one. The LORD swore an oath to David, a sure oath he will not revoke: “One of your own descendants I will place on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and the statutes I teach them, then their sons will sit on your throne for ever and ever.” For the LORD has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling, saying, “This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it. I will bless her with abundant provisions; her poor I will satisfy with food. I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her faithful people will ever sing for joy. "Here I will make a horn grow for David and set up a lamp for my anointed one. I will clothe his enemies with shame, but his head will be adorned with a radiant crown.”

    How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.

    Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD who minister by night in the house of the LORD. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD. May the LORD bless you from Zion, he who is the Maker of heaven and earth.

    Praise the LORD. Praise the name of the LORD; praise him, you servants of the LORD, you who minister in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God. Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant. For the LORD has chosen Jacob to be his own, Israel to be his treasured possession. I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses. He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, the firstborn of people and animals. He sent his signs and wonders into your midst, Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants. He struck down many nations and killed mighty kings. Sihon king of the Amorites, Og king of Bashan, and all the kings of Canaan, and he gave their land as an inheritance, an inheritance to his people Israel. Your name, LORD, endures forever, your renown, LORD, through all generations. For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants. The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. All you Israelites, praise the LORD; house of Aaron, praise the LORD; house of Levi, praise the LORD; you who fear him, praise the LORD. Praise be to the LORD from Zion, to him who dwells in Jerusalem. Praise the LORD.

    Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever. To him who alone does great wonders, His love endures forever. Who by his understanding made the heavens, His love endures forever. Who spread out the earth upon the waters, His love endures forever. Who made the great lights, His love endures forever. The sun to govern the day, His love endures forever. The moon and stars to govern the night; His love endures forever. To him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt His love endures forever. And brought Israel out from among them His love endures forever. With a mighty hand and outstretched arm; His love endures forever. To him who divided the Red Sea asunder, His love endures forever. And brought Israel through the midst of it, His love endures forever. But swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea; His love endures forever. To him who led his people through the wilderness; His love endures forever. To him who struck down great kings, His love endures forever. And killed mighty kings, His love endures forever. Sihon king of the Amorites His love endures forever. And Og king of Bashan, His love endures forever. And gave their land as an inheritance, His love endures forever. An inheritance to his servant Israel, His love endures forever. He remembered us in our low estate His love endures forever. And freed us from our enemies. His love endures forever. He gives food to every creature. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.

    By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy. Remember, LORD, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!” Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

    I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart; before the “gods” I will sing your praise. I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your unfailing love and your faithfulness, for you have so exalted your solemn decree that it surpasses your fame. When I called, you answered me; you greatly emboldened me. May all the kings of the earth praise you, LORD, when they hear what you have decreed. May they sing of the ways of the LORD, for the glory of the LORD is great. Though the LORD is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly; though lofty, he sees them from afar. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life. You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes; with your right hand you save me. The LORD will vindicate me; your love, LORD, endures forever. Do not abandon the works of your hands.

    You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

    Rescue me, LORD, from evildoers; protect me from the violent, who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day. They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips. Keep me safe, LORD, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from the violent, who devise ways to trip my feet. The arrogant have hidden a snare for me; they have spread out the cords of their net and have set traps for me along my path. I say to the LORD, “You are my God.” Hear, LORD, my cry for mercy. Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer, you shield my head in the day of battle. Do not grant the wicked their desires, LORD; do not let their plans succeed. Those who surround me proudly rear their heads; may the mischief of their lips engulf them. May burning coals fall on them; may they be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise. May slanderers not be established in the land; may disaster hunt down the violent. I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. Surely the righteous will praise your name, and the upright will live in your presence.

    I call to you, LORD, come quickly to me; hear me when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil so that I take part in wicked deeds along with those who are evildoers; do not let me eat their delicacies. Let a righteous man strike me. That is a kindness; let him rebuke me. That is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it, for my prayer will still be against the deeds of evildoers. Their rulers will be thrown down from the cliffs, and the wicked will learn that my words were well spoken. They will say, “As one plows and breaks up the earth, so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of the grave.” But my eyes are fixed on you, Sovereign LORD; in you I take refuge. Do not give me over to death. Keep me safe from the traps set by evildoers, from the snares they have laid for me. Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by in safety.

    I cry aloud to the LORD; I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy. I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watch over my way. In the path where I walk people have hidden a snare for me. Look and see, there is no one at my right hand; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. I cry to you, LORD; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.

    LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you. The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead. So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed. I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land. Answer me quickly, LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit. Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. Rescue me from my enemies, LORD, for I hide myself in you. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. For your name’s sake, LORD, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble. In your unfailing love, silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for I am your servant.

    Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me. LORD, what are human beings that you care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow. Part your heavens, LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy; shoot your arrows and rout them. Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful. I will sing a new song to you, my God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you, to the One who gives victory to kings, who delivers his servant David. From the deadly sword deliver me; rescue me from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful. Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace. Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Our sheep will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields; our oxen will draw heavy loads. There will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets. Blessed is the people of whom this is true; blessed is the people whose God is the LORD.

    I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds. They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. All your works praise you, LORD; your faithful people extol you. They tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all people may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. The LORD upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. The LORD is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does. The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. The LORD watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD. Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever.

    Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, my soul. I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God. He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them, he remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free, the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD.

    Praise the LORD. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him! The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. The LORD sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground. Sing to the LORD with grateful praise; make music to our God on the harp. He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call. His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior; the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. Extol the LORD, Jerusalem; praise your God, Zion. He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you. He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat. He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast? He sends his word and melts them; he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow. He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws. Praise the LORD.

    Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights above. Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his heavenly hosts. Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars. Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies. Let them praise the name of the LORD, for at his command they were created, and he established them for ever and ever, he issued a decree that will never pass away. Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, young men and women, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. And he has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his faithful servants, of Israel, the people close to his heart. Praise the LORD.

    Praise the LORD. Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of his faithful people. Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their King. Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp. For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory. Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds. May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands, to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all his faithful people. Praise the LORD.

    Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.

    The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the LORD has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness— only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with olive oil. Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers. Daughter Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under siege. Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

    "The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the LORD. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed.Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

    See how the faithful city has become a prostitute! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her— but now murderers! Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water. Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them. Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah! I will vent my wrath on my foes and avenge myself on my enemies. I will turn my hand against you;I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities. I will restore your leaders as in days of old, your rulers as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.” Zion will be delivered with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness. But rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the LORD will perish. “You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen. You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water. The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire.”

    This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.

    You, LORD, have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and embrace pagan customs. Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots. Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made. So people will be brought low and everyone humbled— do not forgive them. Go into the rocks, hide in the ground from the fearful presence of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty! The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled and human pride brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled), for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of Bashan, for all the towering mountains and all the high hills, for every lofty tower and every fortified wall, for every trading shipand every stately vessel.

    The arrogance of man will be brought low and human pride humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will totally disappear. People will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from the fearful presence of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth. In that day people will throw away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship. They will flee to caverns in the rocks and to the overhanging crags from the fearful presence of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth. Stop trusting in mere humans, who have but a breath in their nostrils. Why hold them in esteem?

    See now, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: all supplies of food and all supplies of water, the hero and the warrior, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter. “I will make mere youths their officials; children will rule over them.” People will oppress each other— man against man, neighbor against neighbor. The young will rise up against the old, the nobody against the honored. A man will seize one of his brothers in his father’s house, and say, “You have a cloak, you be our leader; take charge of this heap of ruins!” But in that day he will cry out, “I have no remedy. I have no food or clothing in my house; do not make me the leader of the people.” Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling; their words and deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence. The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves. Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds. Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They will be paid back for what their hands have done.

    Youths oppress my people, women rule over them. My people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path. The LORD takes his place in court; he rises to judge the people. The LORD enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people: “It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty. The LORD says, “The women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, strutting along with swaying hips, with ornaments jingling on their ankles. Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion; the LORD will make their scalps bald.” In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, the earrings and bracelets and veils, the headdresses and anklets and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, the signet rings and nose rings, the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls. Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding. Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle. The gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.

    In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, “We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!” In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire. Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.

    I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

    Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land. The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing: “Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants. A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine; a homer of seed will yield only an ephah of grain.” Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. They have harps and lyres at their banquets, pipes and timbrels and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his hands. Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; those of high rank will die of hunger and the common people will be parched with thirst. Therefore Death expands its jaws, opening wide its mouth; into it will descend their nobles and masses with all their brawlers and revelers. So people will be brought low and everyone humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled. But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts. Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture; lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich. Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes, to those who say, “Let God hurry; let him hasten his work so we may see it. The plan of the Holy One of Israel— let it approach, let it come into view, so we may know it.”

    Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent. Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the LORD’s anger burns against his people; his hand is raised and he strikes them down. The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised. He lifts up a banner for the distant nations, he whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily! Not one of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps; not a belt is loosened at the waist, not a sandal strap is broken. Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses’ hooves seem like flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind. Their roar is like that of the lion, they roar like young lions; they growl as they seize their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue. In that day they will roar over it like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks at the land, there is only darkness and distress; even the sun will be darkened by clouds.

    In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

    Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go and tell this people: “ ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” Then I said, “For how long, Lord?” And he answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

    When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it. Now the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself with Ephraim”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind. Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, “Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.” Yet this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “‘It will not take place, it will not happen, for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is only Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people. The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son.

    If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.’” Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.” Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria.”

    In that day the LORD will whistle for flies from the Nile delta in Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, on all the thornbushes and at all the water holes. In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria—to shave your heads and private parts, and to cut off your beards also. In that day, a person will keep alive a young cow and two goats. And because of the abundance of the milk they give, there will be curds to eat. All who remain in the land will eat curds and honey. In that day, in every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, there will be only briers and thorns. Hunters will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns. As for all the hills once cultivated by the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of the briers and thorns; they will become places where cattle are turned loose and where sheep run.
    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


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    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Empty Re: United States AI Solar System (9)

    Post  orthodoxymoron Sat Jul 06, 2019 6:00 am

    The LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.” So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me. Then I made love to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. For before the boy knows how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.” The LORD spoke to me again: “Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, therefore the Lord is about to bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates— the king of Assyria with all his pomp. It will overflow all its channels, run over all its banks and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it, passing through it and reaching up to the neck. Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land, Immanuel!” Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered! Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us.

    This is what the LORD says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people: “Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread. He will be a holy place; for both Israel and Judah he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare. Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.” Bind up this testimony of warning and seal up God’s instruction among my disciples. I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob. I will put my trust in him. Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion. When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.

    Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan— The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

    The Lord has sent a message against Jacob; it will fall on Israel. All the people will know it— Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria— who say with pride and arrogance of heart, “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.” But the LORD has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them and has spurred their enemies on. Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west have devoured Israel with open mouth. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised. But the people have not returned to him who struck them, nor have they sought the LORD Almighty. So the LORD will cut off from Israel both head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day; the elders and dignitaries are the head, the prophets who teach lies are the tail. Those who guide this people mislead them, and those who are guided are led astray. Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men, nor will he pity the fatherless and widows, for everyone is ungodly and wicked, every mouth speaks folly. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

    Surely wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns, it sets the forest thickets ablaze, so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke. By the wrath of the LORD Almighty the land will be scorched and the people will be fuel for the fire; they will not spare one another. On the right they will devour, but still be hungry; on the left they will eat, but not be satisfied. Each will feed on the flesh of their own offspring: Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh; together they will turn against Judah. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

    Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches? Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or fall among the slain. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

    “Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath! I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets. But this is not what he intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations. ‘Are not my commanders all kings?’ he says. ‘Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad, and Samaria like Damascus? As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria— shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’” When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes. For he says: “‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding.

    I removed the boundaries of nations, I plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their kings. As one reaches into a nest, so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations; as people gather abandoned eggs, so I gathered all the countries; not one flapped a wing, or opened its mouth to chirp.’” Does the ax raise itself above the person who swings it, or the saw boast against the one who uses it? As if a rod were to wield the person who lifts it up, or a club brandish the one who is not wood! Therefore, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors; under his pomp a fire will be kindled like a blazing flame. The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briers. The splendor of his forests and fertile fields it will completely destroy, as when a sick person wastes away. 19 And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few that a child could write them down.

    In that day the remnant of Israel, the survivors of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God. Though your people be like the sand by the sea, Israel, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overwhelming and righteous. The Lord, the LORD Almighty, will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land. Therefore this is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: “My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians, who beat you with a rod and lift up a club against you, as Egypt did. Very soon my anger against you will end and my wrath will be directed to their destruction.” The LORD Almighty will lash them with a whip, as when he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb; and he will raise his staff over the waters, as he did in Egypt. In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat. They enter Aiath; they pass through Migron; they store supplies at Mikmash. They go over the pass, and say, “We will camp overnight at Geba.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees. Cry out, Daughter Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Poor Anathoth! Madmenah is in flight; the people of Gebim take cover. This day they will halt at Nob; they will shake their fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem. See, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will lop off the boughs with great power. The lofty trees will be felled, the tall ones will be brought low. He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.

    A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD— and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

    In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean. He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth. Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish, and Judah’s enemies will be destroyed; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim. They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west; together they will plunder the people to the east. They will subdue Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them. The LORD will dry up the gulf of the Egyptian sea; with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand over the Euphrates River. He will break it up into seven streams so that anyone can cross over in sandals. There will be a highway for the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from Egypt.

    In that day you will say: “I will praise you, LORD. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense ; he has become my salvation.” With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. In that day you will say: “Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”

    A prophecy against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw: Raise a banner on a bare hilltop, shout to them; beckon to them to enter the gates of the nobles. I have commanded those I prepared for battle; I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath— those who rejoice in my triumph. Listen, a noise on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations massing together! The LORD Almighty is mustering an army for war. They come from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens— the LORD and the weapons of his wrath— to destroy the whole country. Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty. Because of this, all hands will go limp, every heart will melt with fear. Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame. See, the day of the LORD is coming —a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger— to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.

    I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless. I will make people scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD Almighty, in the day of his burning anger. Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd, they will all return to their own people, they will flee to their native land. Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives violated. See, I will stir up against them the Medes, who do not care for silver and have no delight in gold. Their bows will strike down the young men; they will have no mercy on infants, nor will they look with compassion on children. Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the pride and glory of the Babylonians, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; there no nomads will pitch their tents, there no shepherds will rest their flocks. But desert creatures will lie there, jackals will fill her houses; there the owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about. Hyenas will inhabit her strongholds, jackals her luxurious palaces. Her time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.

    The LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them and unite with the descendants of Jacob. Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And Israel will take possession of the nations and make them male and female servants in the LORD’s land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors. On the day the LORD gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labor forced on you, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended! The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, which in anger struck down peoples with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression. All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing. Even the junipers and the cedars of Lebanon gloat over you and say, “Now that you have been laid low, no one comes to cut us down.” The realm of the dead below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you— all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones— all those who were kings over the nations. They will all respond, they will say to you, “You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us.”

    All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you. How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”

    But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?” All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb. But you are cast out of your tomb like a rejected branch; you are covered with the slain, with those pierced by the sword, those who descend to the stones of the pit. Like a corpse trampled underfoot, you will not join them in burial, for you have destroyed your land and killed your people. Let the offspring of the wicked never be mentioned again. Prepare a place to slaughter his children for the sins of their ancestors; they are not to rise to inherit the land and cover the earth with their cities. “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will wipe out Babylon’s name and survivors, her offspring and descendants,” declares the LORD. “I will turn her into a place for owls and into swampland; I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD Almighty. The LORD Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen. I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.” This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?

    This prophecy came in the year King Ahaz died: Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken; from the root of that snake will spring up a viper, its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent. The poorest of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety. But your root I will destroy by famine; it will slay your survivors. Wail, you gate! Howl, you city! Melt away, all you Philistines! A cloud of smoke comes from the north, and there is not a straggler in its ranks. What answer shall be given to the envoys of that nation? “The LORD has established Zion, and in her his afflicted people will find refuge.”

    A prophecy against Moab: Ar in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Dibon goes up to its temple, to its high places to weep; Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba. Every head is shaved and every beard cut off. In the streets they wear sackcloth; on the roofs and in the public squares they all wail, prostrate with weeping. Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out, and their hearts are faint. My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath Shelishiyah. They go up the hill to Luhith, weeping as they go; on the road to Horonaim they lament their destruction. The waters of Nimrim are dried up and the grass is withered; the vegetation is gone and nothing green is left. So the wealth they have acquired and stored up they carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars. Their outcry echoes along the border of Moab; their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim, their lamentation as far as Beer Elim. The waters of Dimon are full of blood, but I will bring still more upon Dimon — a lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon those who remain in the land.

    Send lambs as tribute to the ruler of the land, from Sela, across the desert, to the mount of Daughter Zion. Like fluttering birds pushed from the nest, so are the women of Moab at the fords of the Arnon. “Make up your mind,” Moab says. “Render a decision. Make your shadow like night— at high noon. Hide the fugitives, do not betray the refugees. Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you; be their shelter from the destroyer.” The oppressor will come to an end, and destruction will cease; the aggressor will vanish from the land. In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it— one from the house of David— one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness. We have heard of Moab’s pride— how great is her arrogance!— of her conceit, her pride and her insolence; but her boasts are empty. Therefore the Moabites wail, they wail together for Moab. Lament and grieve for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth. The fields of Heshbon wither, the vines of Sibmah also.

    The rulers of the nations have trampled down the choicest vines, which once reached Jazer and spread toward the desert. Their shoots spread out and went as far as the sea. So I weep, as Jazer weeps, for the vines of Sibmah. Heshbon and Elealeh, I drench you with tears! The shouts of joy over your ripened fruit and over your harvests have been stilled. Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards; no one sings or shouts in the vineyards; no one treads out wine at the presses, for I have put an end to the shouting. My heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir Hareseth. When Moab appears at her high place, she only wears herself out; when she goes to her shrine to pray, it is to no avail. This is the word the LORD has already spoken concerning Moab. But now the LORD says: “Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.”

    A prophecy against Damascus: “See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins. The cities of Aroer will be deserted and left to flocks, which will lie down, with no one to make them afraid. The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the Israelites,” declares the LORD Almighty. “In that day the glory of Jacob will fade; the fat of his body will waste away. It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain, gathering the grain in their arms— as when someone gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. Yet some gleanings will remain, as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel. In that day people will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made. In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.

    You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines, though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain. Woe to the many nations that rage— they rage like the raging sea! Woe to the peoples who roar— they roar like the roaring of great waters! Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale. In the evening, sudden terror! Before the morning, they are gone! This is the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who plunder us.

    Woe to the land of whirring wings along the rivers of Cush, which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers. All you people of the world, you who live on the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it, and when a trumpet sounds, you will hear it. This is what the LORD says to me: “I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, and cut down and take away the spreading branches. They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey and to the wild animals; the birds will feed on them all summer, the wild animals all winter. At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD Almighty from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers— the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD Almighty.

    A prophecy against Egypt: See, the LORD rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt tremble before him, and the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear. “I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian— brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom. The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will bring their plans to nothing; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists. I will hand the Egyptians over to the power of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty. The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and dry. The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up. The reeds and rushes will wither, also the plants along the Nile, at the mouth of the river. Every sown field along the Nile will become parched, will blow away and be no more. The fishermen will groan and lament, all who cast hooks into the Nile; those who throw nets on the water will pine away. Those who work with combed flax will despair, the weavers of fine linen will lose hope. The workers in cloth will be dejected, and all the wage earners will be sick at heart. The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; the wise counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am one of the wise men, a disciple of the ancient kings”? Where are your wise men now? Let them show you and make known what the LORD Almighty has planned against Egypt. The officials of Zoan have become fools, the leaders of Memphis are deceived; the cornerstones of her peoples have led Egypt astray. The LORD has poured into them a spirit of dizziness; they make Egypt stagger in all that she does, as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit. There is nothing Egypt can do— head or tail, palm branch or reed.

    In that day the Egyptians will become weaklings. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the LORD Almighty raises against them. And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the LORD Almighty is planning against them. In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD Almighty. One of them will be called the City of the Sun. In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the LORD at its border. It will be a sign and witness to the LORD Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them. So the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the LORD. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the LORD and keep them. The LORD will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the LORD, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”

    In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it— at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot. Then the LORD said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt’s shame. Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be dismayed and put to shame. In that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’”

    A prophecy against the Desert by the Sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror. A dire vision has been shown to me: The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot. Elam, attack! Media, lay siege! I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused. At this my body is racked with pain, pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor; I am staggered by what I hear, I am bewildered by what I see. My heart falters, fear makes me tremble; the twilight I longed for has become a horror to me. They set the tables, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink! Get up, you officers, oil the shields! This is what the Lord says to me: “Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees. When he sees chariots with teams of horses, riders on donkeys or riders on camels, let him be alert, fully alert.” And the lookout shouted, “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; every night I stay at my post. Look, here comes a man in a chariot with a team of horses. And he gives back the answer: ‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen! All the images of its gods lie shattered on the ground!’” My people who are crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the LORD Almighty, from the God of Israel.

    A prophecy against Dumah : Someone calls to me from Seir, “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?” The watchman replies, “Morning is coming, but also the night. If you would ask, then ask; and come back yet again.”

    A prophecy against Arabia: You caravans of Dedanites, who camp in the thickets of Arabia, bring water for the thirsty; you who live in Tema, bring food for the fugitives. They flee from the sword, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow and from the heat of battle. This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end. The survivors of the archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” The LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.

    A prophecy against the Valley of Vision: What troubles you now, that you have all gone up on the roofs, you town so full of commotion, you city of tumult and revelry? Your slain were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle. All your leaders have fled together; they have been captured without using the bow. All you who were caught were taken prisoner together, having fled while the enemy was still far away. Therefore I said, “Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.” The Lord, the LORD Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling and terror in the Valley of Vision, a day of battering down walls and of crying out to the mountains. Elam takes up the quiver, with her charioteers and horses; Kir uncovers the shield. Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen are posted at the city gates. The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah, and you looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest. You saw that the walls of the City of David were broken through in many places; you stored up water in the Lower Pool. You counted the buildings in Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall. You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago. The Lord, the LORD Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth. But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! “Let us eat and drink,” you say, “for tomorrow we die!”

    The LORD Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,” says the Lord, the LORD Almighty. This is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: “Go, say to this steward, to Shebna the palace administrator: What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here, hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock? “Beware, the LORD is about to take firm hold of you and hurl you away, you mighty man. He will roll you up tightly like a ball and throw you into a large country. There you will die and there the chariots you were so proud of will become a disgrace to your master’s house. I will depose you from your office, and you will be ousted from your position. “In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah. I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a seat of honor for the house of his father. All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots—all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars. “In that day,” declares the LORD Almighty, “the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down.” The LORD has spoken.

    A prophecy against Tyre: Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus word has come to them. Be silent, you people of the island and you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafarers have enriched. On the great waters came the grain of the Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre, and she became the marketplace of the nations. Be ashamed, Sidon, and you fortress of the sea, for the sea has spoken: “I have neither been in labor nor given birth; I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.” When word comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre. Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you people of the island. Is this your city of revelry, the old, old city, whose feet have taken her to settle in far-off lands? Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are renowned in the earth? The LORD Almighty planned it, to bring down her pride in all her splendor and to humble all who are renowned on the earth. Till your land as they do along the Nile, Daughter Tarshish, for you no longer have a harbor.

    The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea and made its kingdoms tremble. He has given an order concerning Phoenicia that her fortresses be destroyed. He said, “No more of your reveling, Virgin Daughter Sidon, now crushed! “Up, cross over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.” Look at the land of the Babylonians, this people that is now of no account! The Assyrians have made it a place for desert creatures; they raised up their siege towers, they stripped its fortresses bare and turned it into a ruin. Wail, you ships of Tarshish; your fortress is destroyed! At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king’s life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute: “Take up a harp, walk through the city, you forgotten prostitute; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered.” At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitution and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes.

    See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants— it will be the same for priest as for people, for the master as for his servant, for the mistress as for her servant, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor. The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The LORD has spoken this word. The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish with the earth. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left. The new wine dries up and the vine withers; all the merrymakers groan. The joyful timbrels are stilled, the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent. No longer do they drink wine with a song; the beer is bitter to its drinkers. The ruined city lies desolate; the entrance to every house is barred. In the streets they cry out for wine; all joy turns to gloom, all joyful sounds are banished from the earth. The city is left in ruins, its gate is battered to pieces. So will it be on the earth and among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest. They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the LORD’s majesty.

    Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD; exalt the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea. From the ends of the earth we hear singing: “Glory to the Righteous One.” But I said, “I waste away, I waste away! Woe to me! The treacherous betray! With treachery the treacherous betray!” Terror and pit and snare await you, people of the earth. Whoever flees at the sound of terror will fall into a pit; whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a snare. The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is violently shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls—never to rise again. In that day the LORD will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below. They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days. The moon will be dismayed, the sun ashamed; for the LORD Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders—with great glory.

    LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago. You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin, the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more; it will never be rebuilt. Therefore strong peoples will honor you; cities of ruthless nations will revere you. You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall and like the heat of the desert. You silence the uproar of foreigners; as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled. On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” The hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain; but Moab will be trampled in their land as straw is trampled down in the manure. They will stretch out their hands in it, as swimmers stretch out their hands to swim. God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands. He will bring down your high fortified walls and lay them low; he will bring them down to the ground, to the very dust.

    In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts. Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith. You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal. He humbles those who dwell on high, he lays the lofty city low; he levels it to the ground and casts it down to the dust. Feet trample it down— the feet of the oppressed, the footsteps of the poor. The path of the righteous is level; you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth. Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. But when grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the LORD.

    LORD, your hand is lifted high, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame; let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them. LORD, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us. LORD our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone do we honor. They are now dead, they live no more; their spirits do not rise. You punished them and brought them to ruin; you wiped out all memory of them. You have enlarged the nation, LORD; you have enlarged the nation. You have gained glory for yourself; you have extended all the borders of the land. LORD, they came to you in their distress; when you disciplined them, they could barely whisper a prayer. As a pregnant woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, LORD. We were with child, we writhed in labor, but we gave birth to wind. We have not brought salvation to the earth, and the people of the world have not come to life. But your dead will live, LORD; their bodies will rise— let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy— your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead. Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by. See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed on it; the earth will conceal its slain no longer.

    In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword— his fierce, great and powerful sword— Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea. In that day— “Sing about a fruitful vineyard: I, the LORD, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it. I am not angry. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me! I would march against them in battle; I would set them all on fire. Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.” In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit. Has the LORD struck her as he struck down those who struck her? Has she been killed as those were killed who killed her?

    By warfare and exile you contend with her— with his fierce blast he drives her out, as on a day the east wind blows. By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones to be like limestone crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing. The fortified city stands desolate, an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare. When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them. For this is a people without understanding; so their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor. In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israel, will be gathered up one by one. And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

    Woe to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards, to the fading flower, his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley— to that city, the pride of those laid low by wine! See, the Lord has one who is powerful and strong. Like a hailstorm and a destructive wind, like a driving rain and a flooding downpour, he will throw it forcefully to the ground. That wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards, will be trampled underfoot. That fading flower, his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley, will be like figs ripe before harvest— as soon as people see them and take them in hand, they swallow them. In that day the LORD Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people. He will be a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. And these also stagger from wine and reel from beer: Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine; they reel from beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions. All the tables are covered with vomit and there is not a spot without filth.

    “Who is it he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast? For it is: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there.” Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people, to whom he said, “This is the resting place, let the weary rest”; and, “This is the place of repose”— but they would not listen. So then, the word of the LORD to them will become: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there— so that as they go they will fall backward; they will be injured and snared and captured. Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem. You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death, with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.” So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic. I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place. Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand.

    When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it. As often as it comes it will carry you away; morning after morning, by day and by night, it will sweep through.” The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror. The bed is too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you. The LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon— to do his work, his strange work, and perform his task, his alien task. Now stop your mocking, or your chains will become heavier; the Lord, the LORD Almighty, has told me of the destruction decreed against the whole land. Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say. When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil? When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field? His God instructs him and teaches him the right way. Caraway is not threshed with a sledge, nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin; caraway is beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a stick. Grain must be ground to make bread; so one does not go on threshing it forever. The wheels of a threshing cart may be rolled over it, but one does not use horses to grind grain. All this also comes from the LORD Almighty, whose plan is wonderful, whose wisdom is magnificent.

    Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled! Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on. Yet I will besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth. I will encamp against you on all sides; I will encircle you with towers and set up my siege works against you. Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper. But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant, the LORD Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire. Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night— as when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still; as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking, but awakens faint and thirsty still. So will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion. Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer. The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers). For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.” Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”

    The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.” Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?” You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”? In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field and the fertile field seem like a forest? In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down— those who with a word make someone out to be guilty, who ensnare the defender in court and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice. Therefore this is what the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob: “No longer will Jacob be ashamed; no longer will their faces grow pale. When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction.”

    “Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin; who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge. But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame, Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace. Though they have officials in Zoan and their envoys have arrived in Hanes, everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them, who bring neither help nor advantage, but only shame and disgrace.” A prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lions and lionesses, of adders and darting snakes, the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs, their treasures on the humps of camels, to that unprofitable nation, to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing. Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness. For these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the LORD’s instruction. They say to the seers, “See no more visions!” and to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!” Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant. It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern.”

    This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’ Therefore you will flee! You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’ Therefore your pursuers will be swift! A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.” Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!” He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.

    See, the Name of the LORD comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; his lips are full of wrath, and his tongue is a consuming fire. His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the neck. He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction; he places in the jaws of the peoples a bit that leads them astray. And you will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people playing pipes go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel. The LORD will cause people to hear his majestic voice and will make them see his arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail. The voice of the LORD will shatter Assyria; with his rod he will strike them down. Every stroke the LORD lays on them with his punishing club will be to the music of timbrels and harps, as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm. Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.
    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


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    Post  orthodoxymoron Sat Jul 06, 2019 6:02 am

    The LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.” So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me. Then I made love to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. For before the boy knows how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.” The LORD spoke to me again: “Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, therefore the Lord is about to bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates— the king of Assyria with all his pomp. It will overflow all its channels, run over all its banks and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it, passing through it and reaching up to the neck. Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land, Immanuel!” Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered! Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us.

    This is what the LORD says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people: “Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread. He will be a holy place; for both Israel and Judah he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare. Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.” Bind up this testimony of warning and seal up God’s instruction among my disciples. I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob. I will put my trust in him. Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion. When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.

    Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan— The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

    The Lord has sent a message against Jacob; it will fall on Israel. All the people will know it— Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria— who say with pride and arrogance of heart, “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.” But the LORD has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them and has spurred their enemies on. Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west have devoured Israel with open mouth. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised. But the people have not returned to him who struck them, nor have they sought the LORD Almighty. So the LORD will cut off from Israel both head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day; the elders and dignitaries are the head, the prophets who teach lies are the tail. Those who guide this people mislead them, and those who are guided are led astray. Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men, nor will he pity the fatherless and widows, for everyone is ungodly and wicked, every mouth speaks folly. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

    Surely wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns, it sets the forest thickets ablaze, so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke. By the wrath of the LORD Almighty the land will be scorched and the people will be fuel for the fire; they will not spare one another. On the right they will devour, but still be hungry; on the left they will eat, but not be satisfied. Each will feed on the flesh of their own offspring: Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh; together they will turn against Judah. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

    Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches? Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or fall among the slain. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

    “Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath! I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets. But this is not what he intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations. ‘Are not my commanders all kings?’ he says. ‘Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad, and Samaria like Damascus? As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria— shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’” When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes. For he says: “‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding.

    I removed the boundaries of nations, I plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their kings. As one reaches into a nest, so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations; as people gather abandoned eggs, so I gathered all the countries; not one flapped a wing, or opened its mouth to chirp.’” Does the ax raise itself above the person who swings it, or the saw boast against the one who uses it? As if a rod were to wield the person who lifts it up, or a club brandish the one who is not wood! Therefore, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors; under his pomp a fire will be kindled like a blazing flame. The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briers. The splendor of his forests and fertile fields it will completely destroy, as when a sick person wastes away. 19 And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few that a child could write them down.

    In that day the remnant of Israel, the survivors of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God. Though your people be like the sand by the sea, Israel, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overwhelming and righteous. The Lord, the LORD Almighty, will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land. Therefore this is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: “My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians, who beat you with a rod and lift up a club against you, as Egypt did. Very soon my anger against you will end and my wrath will be directed to their destruction.” The LORD Almighty will lash them with a whip, as when he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb; and he will raise his staff over the waters, as he did in Egypt. In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat. They enter Aiath; they pass through Migron; they store supplies at Mikmash. They go over the pass, and say, “We will camp overnight at Geba.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees. Cry out, Daughter Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Poor Anathoth! Madmenah is in flight; the people of Gebim take cover. This day they will halt at Nob; they will shake their fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem. See, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will lop off the boughs with great power. The lofty trees will be felled, the tall ones will be brought low. He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.

    A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD— and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

    In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean. He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth. Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish, and Judah’s enemies will be destroyed; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim. They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west; together they will plunder the people to the east. They will subdue Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them. The LORD will dry up the gulf of the Egyptian sea; with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand over the Euphrates River. He will break it up into seven streams so that anyone can cross over in sandals. There will be a highway for the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from Egypt.

    In that day you will say: “I will praise you, LORD. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense ; he has become my salvation.” With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. In that day you will say: “Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”

    A prophecy against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw: Raise a banner on a bare hilltop, shout to them; beckon to them to enter the gates of the nobles. I have commanded those I prepared for battle; I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath— those who rejoice in my triumph. Listen, a noise on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations massing together! The LORD Almighty is mustering an army for war. They come from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens— the LORD and the weapons of his wrath— to destroy the whole country. Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty. Because of this, all hands will go limp, every heart will melt with fear. Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame. See, the day of the LORD is coming —a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger— to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.

    I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless. I will make people scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD Almighty, in the day of his burning anger. Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd, they will all return to their own people, they will flee to their native land. Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives violated. See, I will stir up against them the Medes, who do not care for silver and have no delight in gold. Their bows will strike down the young men; they will have no mercy on infants, nor will they look with compassion on children. Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the pride and glory of the Babylonians, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; there no nomads will pitch their tents, there no shepherds will rest their flocks. But desert creatures will lie there, jackals will fill her houses; there the owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about. Hyenas will inhabit her strongholds, jackals her luxurious palaces. Her time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.

    The LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them and unite with the descendants of Jacob. Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And Israel will take possession of the nations and make them male and female servants in the LORD’s land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors. On the day the LORD gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labor forced on you, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended! The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, which in anger struck down peoples with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression. All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing. Even the junipers and the cedars of Lebanon gloat over you and say, “Now that you have been laid low, no one comes to cut us down.” The realm of the dead below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you— all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones— all those who were kings over the nations. They will all respond, they will say to you, “You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us.”

    All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you. How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”

    But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?” All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb. But you are cast out of your tomb like a rejected branch; you are covered with the slain, with those pierced by the sword, those who descend to the stones of the pit. Like a corpse trampled underfoot, you will not join them in burial, for you have destroyed your land and killed your people. Let the offspring of the wicked never be mentioned again. Prepare a place to slaughter his children for the sins of their ancestors; they are not to rise to inherit the land and cover the earth with their cities. “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will wipe out Babylon’s name and survivors, her offspring and descendants,” declares the LORD. “I will turn her into a place for owls and into swampland; I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD Almighty. The LORD Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen. I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.” This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?

    This prophecy came in the year King Ahaz died: Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken; from the root of that snake will spring up a viper, its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent. The poorest of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety. But your root I will destroy by famine; it will slay your survivors. Wail, you gate! Howl, you city! Melt away, all you Philistines! A cloud of smoke comes from the north, and there is not a straggler in its ranks. What answer shall be given to the envoys of that nation? “The LORD has established Zion, and in her his afflicted people will find refuge.”

    A prophecy against Moab: Ar in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Dibon goes up to its temple, to its high places to weep; Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba. Every head is shaved and every beard cut off. In the streets they wear sackcloth; on the roofs and in the public squares they all wail, prostrate with weeping. Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out, and their hearts are faint. My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath Shelishiyah. They go up the hill to Luhith, weeping as they go; on the road to Horonaim they lament their destruction. The waters of Nimrim are dried up and the grass is withered; the vegetation is gone and nothing green is left. So the wealth they have acquired and stored up they carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars. Their outcry echoes along the border of Moab; their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim, their lamentation as far as Beer Elim. The waters of Dimon are full of blood, but I will bring still more upon Dimon — a lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon those who remain in the land.

    Send lambs as tribute to the ruler of the land, from Sela, across the desert, to the mount of Daughter Zion. Like fluttering birds pushed from the nest, so are the women of Moab at the fords of the Arnon. “Make up your mind,” Moab says. “Render a decision. Make your shadow like night— at high noon. Hide the fugitives, do not betray the refugees. Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you; be their shelter from the destroyer.” The oppressor will come to an end, and destruction will cease; the aggressor will vanish from the land. In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it— one from the house of David— one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness. We have heard of Moab’s pride— how great is her arrogance!— of her conceit, her pride and her insolence; but her boasts are empty. Therefore the Moabites wail, they wail together for Moab. Lament and grieve for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth. The fields of Heshbon wither, the vines of Sibmah also.

    The rulers of the nations have trampled down the choicest vines, which once reached Jazer and spread toward the desert. Their shoots spread out and went as far as the sea. So I weep, as Jazer weeps, for the vines of Sibmah. Heshbon and Elealeh, I drench you with tears! The shouts of joy over your ripened fruit and over your harvests have been stilled. Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards; no one sings or shouts in the vineyards; no one treads out wine at the presses, for I have put an end to the shouting. My heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir Hareseth. When Moab appears at her high place, she only wears herself out; when she goes to her shrine to pray, it is to no avail. This is the word the LORD has already spoken concerning Moab. But now the LORD says: “Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.”

    A prophecy against Damascus: “See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins. The cities of Aroer will be deserted and left to flocks, which will lie down, with no one to make them afraid. The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the Israelites,” declares the LORD Almighty. “In that day the glory of Jacob will fade; the fat of his body will waste away. It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain, gathering the grain in their arms— as when someone gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. Yet some gleanings will remain, as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel. In that day people will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made. In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.

    You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines, though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain. Woe to the many nations that rage— they rage like the raging sea! Woe to the peoples who roar— they roar like the roaring of great waters! Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale. In the evening, sudden terror! Before the morning, they are gone! This is the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who plunder us.

    Woe to the land of whirring wings along the rivers of Cush, which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers. All you people of the world, you who live on the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it, and when a trumpet sounds, you will hear it. This is what the LORD says to me: “I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, and cut down and take away the spreading branches. They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey and to the wild animals; the birds will feed on them all summer, the wild animals all winter. At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD Almighty from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers— the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD Almighty.

    A prophecy against Egypt: See, the LORD rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt tremble before him, and the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear. “I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian— brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom. The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will bring their plans to nothing; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists. I will hand the Egyptians over to the power of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty. The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and dry. The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up. The reeds and rushes will wither, also the plants along the Nile, at the mouth of the river. Every sown field along the Nile will become parched, will blow away and be no more. The fishermen will groan and lament, all who cast hooks into the Nile; those who throw nets on the water will pine away. Those who work with combed flax will despair, the weavers of fine linen will lose hope. The workers in cloth will be dejected, and all the wage earners will be sick at heart. The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; the wise counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am one of the wise men, a disciple of the ancient kings”? Where are your wise men now? Let them show you and make known what the LORD Almighty has planned against Egypt. The officials of Zoan have become fools, the leaders of Memphis are deceived; the cornerstones of her peoples have led Egypt astray. The LORD has poured into them a spirit of dizziness; they make Egypt stagger in all that she does, as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit. There is nothing Egypt can do— head or tail, palm branch or reed.

    In that day the Egyptians will become weaklings. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the LORD Almighty raises against them. And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the LORD Almighty is planning against them. In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD Almighty. One of them will be called the City of the Sun. In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the LORD at its border. It will be a sign and witness to the LORD Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them. So the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the LORD. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the LORD and keep them. The LORD will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the LORD, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”

    In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it— at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot. Then the LORD said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt’s shame. Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be dismayed and put to shame. In that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’”

    A prophecy against the Desert by the Sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror. A dire vision has been shown to me: The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot. Elam, attack! Media, lay siege! I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused. At this my body is racked with pain, pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor; I am staggered by what I hear, I am bewildered by what I see. My heart falters, fear makes me tremble; the twilight I longed for has become a horror to me. They set the tables, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink! Get up, you officers, oil the shields! This is what the Lord says to me: “Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees. When he sees chariots with teams of horses, riders on donkeys or riders on camels, let him be alert, fully alert.” And the lookout shouted, “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; every night I stay at my post. Look, here comes a man in a chariot with a team of horses. And he gives back the answer: ‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen! All the images of its gods lie shattered on the ground!’” My people who are crushed on the threshing floor, I tell you what I have heard from the LORD Almighty, from the God of Israel.

    A prophecy against Dumah : Someone calls to me from Seir, “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?” The watchman replies, “Morning is coming, but also the night. If you would ask, then ask; and come back yet again.”

    A prophecy against Arabia: You caravans of Dedanites, who camp in the thickets of Arabia, bring water for the thirsty; you who live in Tema, bring food for the fugitives. They flee from the sword, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow and from the heat of battle. This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end. The survivors of the archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” The LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.

    A prophecy against the Valley of Vision: What troubles you now, that you have all gone up on the roofs, you town so full of commotion, you city of tumult and revelry? Your slain were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle. All your leaders have fled together; they have been captured without using the bow. All you who were caught were taken prisoner together, having fled while the enemy was still far away. Therefore I said, “Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.” The Lord, the LORD Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling and terror in the Valley of Vision, a day of battering down walls and of crying out to the mountains. Elam takes up the quiver, with her charioteers and horses; Kir uncovers the shield. Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen are posted at the city gates. The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah, and you looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest. You saw that the walls of the City of David were broken through in many places; you stored up water in the Lower Pool. You counted the buildings in Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall. You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago. The Lord, the LORD Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth. But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! “Let us eat and drink,” you say, “for tomorrow we die!”

    The LORD Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,” says the Lord, the LORD Almighty. This is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: “Go, say to this steward, to Shebna the palace administrator: What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here, hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock? “Beware, the LORD is about to take firm hold of you and hurl you away, you mighty man. He will roll you up tightly like a ball and throw you into a large country. There you will die and there the chariots you were so proud of will become a disgrace to your master’s house. I will depose you from your office, and you will be ousted from your position. “In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah. I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a seat of honor for the house of his father. All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots—all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars. “In that day,” declares the LORD Almighty, “the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down.” The LORD has spoken.

    A prophecy against Tyre: Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus word has come to them. Be silent, you people of the island and you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafarers have enriched. On the great waters came the grain of the Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre, and she became the marketplace of the nations. Be ashamed, Sidon, and you fortress of the sea, for the sea has spoken: “I have neither been in labor nor given birth; I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.” When word comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre. Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you people of the island. Is this your city of revelry, the old, old city, whose feet have taken her to settle in far-off lands? Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are renowned in the earth? The LORD Almighty planned it, to bring down her pride in all her splendor and to humble all who are renowned on the earth. Till your land as they do along the Nile, Daughter Tarshish, for you no longer have a harbor.

    The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea and made its kingdoms tremble. He has given an order concerning Phoenicia that her fortresses be destroyed. He said, “No more of your reveling, Virgin Daughter Sidon, now crushed! “Up, cross over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.” Look at the land of the Babylonians, this people that is now of no account! The Assyrians have made it a place for desert creatures; they raised up their siege towers, they stripped its fortresses bare and turned it into a ruin. Wail, you ships of Tarshish; your fortress is destroyed! At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king’s life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute: “Take up a harp, walk through the city, you forgotten prostitute; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered.” At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitution and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes.

    See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants— it will be the same for priest as for people, for the master as for his servant, for the mistress as for her servant, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor. The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The LORD has spoken this word. The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish with the earth. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left. The new wine dries up and the vine withers; all the merrymakers groan. The joyful timbrels are stilled, the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent. No longer do they drink wine with a song; the beer is bitter to its drinkers. The ruined city lies desolate; the entrance to every house is barred. In the streets they cry out for wine; all joy turns to gloom, all joyful sounds are banished from the earth. The city is left in ruins, its gate is battered to pieces. So will it be on the earth and among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest. They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the LORD’s majesty.

    Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD; exalt the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea. From the ends of the earth we hear singing: “Glory to the Righteous One.” But I said, “I waste away, I waste away! Woe to me! The treacherous betray! With treachery the treacherous betray!” Terror and pit and snare await you, people of the earth. Whoever flees at the sound of terror will fall into a pit; whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a snare. The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is violently shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls—never to rise again. In that day the LORD will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below. They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days. The moon will be dismayed, the sun ashamed; for the LORD Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders—with great glory.

    LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago. You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin, the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more; it will never be rebuilt. Therefore strong peoples will honor you; cities of ruthless nations will revere you. You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall and like the heat of the desert. You silence the uproar of foreigners; as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled. On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” The hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain; but Moab will be trampled in their land as straw is trampled down in the manure. They will stretch out their hands in it, as swimmers stretch out their hands to swim. God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands. He will bring down your high fortified walls and lay them low; he will bring them down to the ground, to the very dust.

    In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts. Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith. You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal. He humbles those who dwell on high, he lays the lofty city low; he levels it to the ground and casts it down to the dust. Feet trample it down— the feet of the oppressed, the footsteps of the poor. The path of the righteous is level; you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth. Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. But when grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the LORD.

    LORD, your hand is lifted high, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame; let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them. LORD, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us. LORD our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone do we honor. They are now dead, they live no more; their spirits do not rise. You punished them and brought them to ruin; you wiped out all memory of them. You have enlarged the nation, LORD; you have enlarged the nation. You have gained glory for yourself; you have extended all the borders of the land. LORD, they came to you in their distress; when you disciplined them, they could barely whisper a prayer. As a pregnant woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, LORD. We were with child, we writhed in labor, but we gave birth to wind. We have not brought salvation to the earth, and the people of the world have not come to life. But your dead will live, LORD; their bodies will rise— let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy— your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead. Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by. See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed on it; the earth will conceal its slain no longer.

    In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword— his fierce, great and powerful sword— Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea. In that day— “Sing about a fruitful vineyard: I, the LORD, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it. I am not angry. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me! I would march against them in battle; I would set them all on fire. Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.” In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit. Has the LORD struck her as he struck down those who struck her? Has she been killed as those were killed who killed her?

    By warfare and exile you contend with her— with his fierce blast he drives her out, as on a day the east wind blows. By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones to be like limestone crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing. The fortified city stands desolate, an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare. When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them. For this is a people without understanding; so their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor. In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israel, will be gathered up one by one. And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

    Woe to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards, to the fading flower, his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley— to that city, the pride of those laid low by wine! See, the Lord has one who is powerful and strong. Like a hailstorm and a destructive wind, like a driving rain and a flooding downpour, he will throw it forcefully to the ground. That wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards, will be trampled underfoot. That fading flower, his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley, will be like figs ripe before harvest— as soon as people see them and take them in hand, they swallow them. In that day the LORD Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people. He will be a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. And these also stagger from wine and reel from beer: Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine; they reel from beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions. All the tables are covered with vomit and there is not a spot without filth.

    “Who is it he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast? For it is: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there.” Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people, to whom he said, “This is the resting place, let the weary rest”; and, “This is the place of repose”— but they would not listen. So then, the word of the LORD to them will become: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there— so that as they go they will fall backward; they will be injured and snared and captured. Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem. You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death, with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.” So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic. I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place. Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand.

    When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it. As often as it comes it will carry you away; morning after morning, by day and by night, it will sweep through.” The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror. The bed is too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you. The LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon— to do his work, his strange work, and perform his task, his alien task. Now stop your mocking, or your chains will become heavier; the Lord, the LORD Almighty, has told me of the destruction decreed against the whole land. Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say. When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil? When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field? His God instructs him and teaches him the right way. Caraway is not threshed with a sledge, nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin; caraway is beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a stick. Grain must be ground to make bread; so one does not go on threshing it forever. The wheels of a threshing cart may be rolled over it, but one does not use horses to grind grain. All this also comes from the LORD Almighty, whose plan is wonderful, whose wisdom is magnificent.

    Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled! Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on. Yet I will besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth. I will encamp against you on all sides; I will encircle you with towers and set up my siege works against you. Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper. But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant, the LORD Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire. Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night— as when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still; as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking, but awakens faint and thirsty still. So will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion. Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer. The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers). For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.” Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”

    The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.” Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?” You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”? In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field and the fertile field seem like a forest? In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down— those who with a word make someone out to be guilty, who ensnare the defender in court and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice. Therefore this is what the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob: “No longer will Jacob be ashamed; no longer will their faces grow pale. When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction.”

    “Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin; who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge. But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame, Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace. Though they have officials in Zoan and their envoys have arrived in Hanes, everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them, who bring neither help nor advantage, but only shame and disgrace.” A prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lions and lionesses, of adders and darting snakes, the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs, their treasures on the humps of camels, to that unprofitable nation, to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing. Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness. For these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the LORD’s instruction. They say to the seers, “See no more visions!” and to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!” Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant. It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern.”

    This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’ Therefore you will flee! You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’ Therefore your pursuers will be swift! A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.” Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!” He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.

    See, the Name of the LORD comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; his lips are full of wrath, and his tongue is a consuming fire. His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the neck. He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction; he places in the jaws of the peoples a bit that leads them astray. And you will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people playing pipes go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel. The LORD will cause people to hear his majestic voice and will make them see his arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail. The voice of the LORD will shatter Assyria; with his rod he will strike them down. Every stroke the LORD lays on them with his punishing club will be to the music of timbrels and harps, as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm. Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.
    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


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    Post  orthodoxymoron Sat Jul 06, 2019 6:03 am

    Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD. Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster; he does not take back his words. He will rise up against that wicked nation, against those who help evildoers. But the Egyptians are mere mortals and not God; their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, those who help will stumble, those who are helped will fall; all will perish together. This is what the LORD says to me: “As a lion growls, a great lion over its prey— and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against it, it is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamor— so the LORD Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights. Like birds hovering overhead, the LORD Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it.” Return, you Israelites, to the One you have so greatly revolted against. For in that day every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold your sinful hands have made. “Assyria will fall by no human sword; a sword, not of mortals, will devour them. They will flee before the sword and their young men will be put to forced labor. Their stronghold will fall because of terror; at the sight of the battle standard their commanders will panic,” declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

    See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice. Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land. Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. The fearful heart will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear. No longer will the fool be called noble nor the scoundrel be highly respected. For fools speak folly, their hearts are bent on evil: They practice ungodliness and spread error concerning the LORD; the hungry they leave empty and from the thirsty they withhold water. Scoundrels use wicked methods, they make up evil schemes to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just. But the noble make noble plans, and by noble deeds they stand.

    You women who are so complacent, rise up and listen to me; you daughters who feel secure, hear what I have to say! In little more than a year you who feel secure will tremble; the grape harvest will fail, and the harvest of fruit will not come. Tremble, you complacent women; shudder, you daughters who feel secure! Strip off your fine clothes and wrap yourselves in rags. Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines and for the land of my people, a land overgrown with thorns and briers— yes, mourn for all houses of merriment and for this city of revelry. The fortress will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever, the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks, till the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest. The LORD’s justice will dwell in the desert, his righteousness live in the fertile field. The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely, how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.

    Woe to you, destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, betrayer, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed. LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress. At the uproar of your army, the peoples flee; when you rise up, the nations scatter. Your plunder, O nations, is harvested as by young locusts; like a swarm of locusts people pounce on it. The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with his justice and righteousness. He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure. Look, their brave men cry aloud in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly. The highways are deserted, no travelers are on the roads. The treaty is broken, its witnesses are despised, no one is respected. The land dries up and wastes away, Lebanon is ashamed and withers; Sharon is like the Arabah, and Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves. “Now will I arise,” says the LORD. “Now will I be exalted; now will I be lifted up. You conceive chaff, you give birth to straw; your breath is a fire that consumes you. The peoples will be burned to ashes; like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze.” You who are far away, hear what I have done; you who are near, acknowledge my power!

    The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?” Those who walk righteously and speak what is right, who reject gain from extortion and keep their hands from accepting bribes, who stop their ears against plots of murder and shut their eyes against contemplating evil— they are the ones who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. Their bread will be supplied, and water will not fail them. Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar. In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror: “Where is that chief officer? Where is the one who took the revenue? Where is the officer in charge of the towers?” You will see those arrogant people no more, people whose speech is obscure, whose language is strange and incomprehensible. Look on Zion, the city of our festivals; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken. There the LORD will be our Mighty One. It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams. No galley with oars will ride them, no mighty ship will sail them. For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us. Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread. Then an abundance of spoils will be divided and even the lame will carry off plunder. No one living in Zion will say, “I am ill”; and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven.

    Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it! The LORD is angry with all nations; his wrath is on all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter. Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will stink; the mountains will be soaked with their blood. All the stars in the sky will be dissolved and the heavens rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree. My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; see, it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have totally destroyed. The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat— the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. And the wild oxen will fall with them, the bull calves and the great bulls. Their land will be drenched with blood, and the dust will be soaked with fat. For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause.

    Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch! It will not be quenched night or day; its smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again. The desert owl and screech owl will possess it; the great owl and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation. Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom, all her princes will vanish away. Thorns will overrun her citadels, nettles and brambles her strongholds. She will become a haunt for jackals, a home for owls. Desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and wild goats will bleat to each other; there the night creatures will also lie down and find for themselves places of rest. The owl will nest there and lay eggs, she will hatch them, and care for her young under the shadow of her wings; there also the falcons will gather, each with its mate. Look in the scroll of the LORD and read: None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate. For it is his mouth that has given the order, and his Spirit will gather them together. He allots their portions; his hand distributes them by measure. They will possess it forever and dwell there from generation to generation.

    The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God. Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

    In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field, Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him. The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: “ ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? You say you have counsel and might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. But if you say to me, “We are depending on the LORD our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”? “‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’” Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

    But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?” Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? Who of all the gods of these countries have been able to save their lands from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.” Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.

    When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD. He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the LORD your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.” When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.’”

    When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah. Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush, was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”

    Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: “LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, LORD, and hear; open your eyes, LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God. “It is true, LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, LORD, are the only God. ”

    Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: “Virgin Daughter Zion despises and mocks you. Daughter Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee. Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! By your messengers you have ridiculed the Lord. And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its junipers. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests. I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’ “Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone. Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up. “But I know where you are and when you come and go and how you rage against me.

    Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came. “This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: “This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. “Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,” declares the LORD. “I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!” Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.

    In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.” Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, “Remember, LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city. “‘This is the LORD’s sign to you that the LORD will do what he has promised: I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down. A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery: I said, “In the prime of my life must I go through the gates of death and be robbed of the rest of my years?” I said, “I will not again see the LORD himself in the land of the living; no longer will I look on my fellow man, or be with those who now dwell in this world.

    Like a shepherd’s tent my house has been pulled down and taken from me. Like a weaver I have rolled up my life, and he has cut me off from the loom; day and night you made an end of me. I waited patiently till dawn, but like a lion he broke all my bones; day and night you made an end of me. I cried like a swift or thrush, I moaned like a mourning dove. My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens. I am being threatened; Lord, come to my aid!” But what can I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this. I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul. Lord, by such things people live; and my spirit finds life in them too. You restored me to health and let me live. Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back. For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. The living, the living—they praise you, as I am doing today; parents tell their children about your faithfulness. The LORD will save me, and we will sing with stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the temple of the LORD. Isaiah had said, “Prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.” Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the temple of the LORD?”

    At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of his illness and recovery. Hezekiah received the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine olive oil—his entire armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them. Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?” “From a distant land,” Hezekiah replied. “They came to me from Babylon.” The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?” “They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.” Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” “The word of the LORD you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.”

    Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!”

    See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who can fathom the Spirit of the LORD, or instruct the LORD as his counselor? Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge, or showed him the path of understanding? Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor its animals enough for burnt offerings. Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing. With whom, then, will you compare God? To what image will you liken him? As for an idol, a metalworker casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it. A person too poor to present such an offering selects wood that will not rot; they look for a skilled worker to set up an idol that will not topple.

    Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

    “Be silent before me, you islands! Let the nations renew their strength! Let them come forward and speak; let us meet together at the place of judgment. “Who has stirred up one from the east, calling him in righteousness to his service? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow. He pursues them and moves on unscathed, by a path his feet have not traveled before. Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD—with the first of them and with the last—I am he.” The islands have seen it and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. They approach and come forward; they help each other and say to their companions, “Be strong!” The metalworker encourages the goldsmith, and the one who smooths with the hammer spurs on the one who strikes the anvil. One says of the welding, “It is good.” The other nails down the idol so it will not topple. “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you.

    I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. “All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all. For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, little Israel, do not fear, for I myself will help you,” declares the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff. You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up, and a gale will blow them away. But you will rejoice in the LORD and glory in the Holy One of Israel. “The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the LORD has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

    “Present your case,” says the LORD. “Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob’s King. “Tell us, you idols, what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear. But you are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless; whoever chooses you is detestable. “I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes— one from the rising sun who calls on my name. He treads on rulers as if they were mortar, as if he were a potter treading the clay. Who told of this from the beginning, so we could know, or beforehand, so we could say, ‘He was right’? No one told of this, no one foretold it, no one heard any words from you. I was the first to tell Zion, ‘Look, here they are!’ I gave to Jerusalem a messenger of good news. I look but there is no one— no one among the gods to give counsel, no one to give answer when I ask them. See, they are all false! Their deeds amount to nothing; their images are but wind and confusion.

    “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.” This is what God the LORD says— the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols. See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.”

    Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them. Let the wilderness and its towns raise their voices; let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice. Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them shout from the mountaintops. Let them give glory to the LORD and proclaim his praise in the islands. The LORD will march out like a champion, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; with a shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies. “For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools. I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. But those who trust in idols, who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back in utter shame.

    “Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see! Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one in covenant with me, blind like the servant of the LORD? You have seen many things, but you pay no attention; your ears are open, but you do not listen.” It pleased the LORD for the sake of his righteousness to make his law great and glorious. But this is a people plundered and looted, all of them trapped in pits or hidden away in prisons. They have become plunder, with no one to rescue them; they have been made loot, with no one to say, “Send them back.” Which of you will listen to this or pay close attention in time to come? Who handed Jacob over to become loot, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? For they would not follow his ways; they did not obey his law. So he poured out on them his burning anger, the violence of war. It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

    But now, this is what the LORD says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead. Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’

    Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth— everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” Lead out those who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf. All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble. Which of their gods foretold this and proclaimed to us the former things? Let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right, so that others may hear and say, “It is true.” “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed— I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “that I am God. Yes, and from ancient days I am he. No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it?”

    This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I will send to Babylon and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians, in the ships in which they took pride. I am the LORD, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.” This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

    “Yet you have not called on me, Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, Israel. You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with grain offerings nor wearied you with demands for incense. You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me, or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offenses. “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. Review the past for me, let us argue the matter together; state the case for your innocence. Your first father sinned; those I sent to teach you rebelled against me. So I disgraced the dignitaries of your temple; I consigned Jacob to destruction and Israel to scorn.

    “But now listen, Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen. This is what the LORD says— he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams. Some will say, ‘I belong to the LORD’; others will call themselves by the name of Jacob; still others will write on their hand, ‘The LORD’s,’ and will take the name Israel.

    “This is what the LORD says— Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come— yes, let them foretell what will come. Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.” All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame. Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit nothing? People who do that will be put to shame; such craftsmen are only human beings. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and shame. The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint. The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in human form, human form in all its glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. It is used as fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread.

    But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.” From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me! You are my god!” They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?” “Remember these things, Jacob, for you, Israel, are my servant. I have made you, you are my servant; Israel, I will not forget you. I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.” Sing for joy, you heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, you earth beneath. Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel.

    “This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself, who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited,’ of the towns of Judah, ‘They shall be rebuilt,’ and of their ruins, ‘I will restore them,’ who says to the watery deep, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your streams,’ who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.”’

    “This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things. “You heavens above, rain down my righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness flourish with it; I, the LORD, have created it.

    “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’? Woe to the one who says to a father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to a mother, ‘What have you brought to birth?’ “This is what the LORD says— the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands? It is I who made the earth and created mankind on it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts. I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the LORD Almighty.” This is what the LORD says: “The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and those tall Sabeans— they will come over to you and will be yours; they will trudge behind you, coming over to you in chains. They will bow down before you and plead with you, saying, ‘Surely God is with you, and there is no other; there is no other god.’” Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself, the God and Savior of Israel. All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgraced; they will go off into disgrace together.

    But Israel will be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; you will never be put to shame or disgraced, to ages everlasting. For this is what the LORD says— he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited— he says: “I am the LORD, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the LORD, speak the truth; I declare what is right. “Gather together and come; assemble, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save. Declare what is to be, present it— let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, ‘In the LORD alone are deliverance and strength.’” All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. But all the descendants of Israel will find deliverance in the LORD and will make their boast in him.

    Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are borne by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary. They stoop and bow down together; unable to rescue the burden, they themselves go off into captivity. “Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob, all the remnant of the people of Israel, you whom I have upheld since your birth, and have carried since you were born. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. “With whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared? Some pour out gold from their bags and weigh out silver on the scales; they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god, and they bow down and worship it. They lift it to their shoulders and carry it; they set it up in its place, and there it stands. From that spot it cannot move. Even though someone cries out to it, it cannot answer; it cannot save them from their troubles. “Remember this, keep it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels.

    Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do. Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are now far from my righteousness. I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel.

    “Go down, sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, queen city of the Babylonians. No more will you be called tender or delicate. Take millstones and grind flour; take off your veil. Lift up your skirts, bare your legs, and wade through the streams. Your nakedness will be exposed and your shame uncovered. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.” Our Redeemer—the LORD Almighty is his name— is the Holy One of Israel. “Sit in silence, go into darkness, queen city of the Babylonians; no more will you be called queen of kingdoms. I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke. You said, ‘I am forever— the eternal queen!’ But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen. “Now then, listen, you lover of pleasure, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.’ Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells.

    You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’ Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you. “Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror. All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you. Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. These are not coals for warmth; this is not a fire to sit by. That is all they are to you— these you have dealt with and labored with since childhood. All of them go on in their error; there is not one that can save you.

    “Listen to this, you descendants of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and come from the line of Judah, you who take oaths in the name of the LORD and invoke the God of Israel— but not in truth or righteousness— you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city and claim to rely on the God of Israel— the LORD Almighty is his name: I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. For I knew how stubborn you were; your neck muscles were iron, your forehead was bronze. Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, ‘My images brought them about; my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’ You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them? “From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you. They are created now, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today. So you cannot say, ‘Yes, I knew of them.’ You have neither heard nor understood; from of old your ears have not been open. Well do I know how treacherous you are; you were called a rebel from birth. For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath; for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you, so as not to destroy you completely. See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another.

    “Listen to me, Jacob, Israel, whom I have called: I am he; I am the first and I am the last. My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they all stand up together. “Come together, all of you, and listen: Which of the idols has foretold these things? The LORD’s chosen ally will carry out his purpose against Babylon; his arm will be against the Babylonians. I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him. I will bring him, and he will succeed in his mission. “Come near me and listen to this: “From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret; at the time it happens, I am there.” And now the Sovereign LORD has sent me, endowed with his Spirit. This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea. Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains; their name would never be blotted out nor destroyed from before me.” Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.” They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and water gushed out. “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”

    This is what the LORD says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’ “They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill. They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water. I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up. See, they will come from afar— some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan.” Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones. But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. Your children hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you. Lift up your eyes and look around; all your children gather and come to you. As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “you will wear them all as ornaments; you will put them on, like a bride. “Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away.

    The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; give us more space to live in.’ Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone, but these—where have they come from?’” This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I will beckon to the nations, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their hips. Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.” Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives be rescued from the fierce? But this is what the LORD says: “Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save. I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

    This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away. When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was my arm too short to deliver you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst. I clothe the heavens with darkness and make sackcloth its covering.” The Sovereign LORD has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away.

    I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me. Who will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up. Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant? Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on their God. But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment.
    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


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    Post  orthodoxymoron Sat Jul 06, 2019 6:05 am

    “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many. The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. “Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: Instruction will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations. My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail. “Hear me, you who know what is right, you people who have taken my instruction to heart: Do not fear the reproach of mere mortals or be terrified by their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool.

    But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations.” Awake, awake, arm of the LORD, clothe yourself with strength! Awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of old. Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced that monster through? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over? Those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. “I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mere mortals, human beings who are but grass, that you forget the LORD your Maker, who stretches out the heavens and who lays the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction? For where is the wrath of the oppressor? The cowering prisoners will soon be set free; they will not die in their dungeon, nor will they lack bread. For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the LORD Almighty is his name. I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand— I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”

    Awake, awake! Rise up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes people stagger. Among all the children she bore there was none to guide her; among all the children she reared there was none to take her by the hand. These double calamities have come upon you— who can comfort you?— ruin and destruction, famine and sword— who can console you? Your children have fainted; they lie at every street corner, like antelope caught in a net. They are filled with the wrath of the LORD, with the rebuke of your God. Therefore hear this, you afflicted one, made drunk, but not with wine. This is what your Sovereign LORD says, your God, who defends his people: “See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger; from that cup, the goblet of my wrath, you will never drink again. I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, who said to you, ‘Fall prostrate that we may walk on you.’ And you made your back like the ground, like a street to be walked on.”

    Awake, awake, Zion, clothe yourself with strength! Put on your garments of splendor, Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again. Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, Daughter Zion, now a captive. For this is what the LORD says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.” For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “At first my people went down to Egypt to live; lately, Assyria has oppressed them. “And now what do I have here?” declares the LORD. “For my people have been taken away for nothing, and those who rule them mock, ” declares the LORD. “And all day long my name is constantly blasphemed. Therefore my people will know my name; therefore in that day they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I.” How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the LORD returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the articles of the LORD’s house. But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the LORD will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

    See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him — his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness— so he will sprinkle many nations,and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.

    Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

    By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied ; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,and he will divide the spoils with the strong,because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

    “Sing, barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the LORD. “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities. “Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. For your Maker is your husband— the LORD Almighty is his name— the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit— a wife who married young, only to be rejected,” says your God. “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer.

    “To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you. “Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with lapis lazuli. I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones. All your children will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their peace. In righteousness you will be established: Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you. If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing; whoever attacks you will surrender to you. “See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc; no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the LORD.

    “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples. Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.” Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts.

    Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.”

    This is what the LORD says: “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed. Blessed is the one who does this— the person who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps their hands from doing any evil.” Let no foreigner who is bound to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.” And let no eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.” For this is what the LORD says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant— to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever. And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” The Sovereign LORD declares— he who gathers the exiles of Israel: “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.”

    Come, all you beasts of the field, come and devour, all you beasts of the forest! Israel’s watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they lie around and dream, they love to sleep. They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way, they seek their own gain. “Come,” each one cries, “let me get wine! Let us drink our fill of beer! And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better.”

    The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death. “But you—come here, you children of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes! Who are you mocking? At whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue? Are you not a brood of rebels, the offspring of liars? You burn with lust among the oaks and under every spreading tree; you sacrifice your children in the ravines and under the overhanging crags. The idols among the smooth stones of the ravines are your portion; indeed, they are your lot. Yes, to them you have poured out drink offerings and offered grain offerings. In view of all this, should I relent?

    You have made your bed on a high and lofty hill; there you went up to offer your sacrifices. Behind your doors and your doorposts you have put your pagan symbols. Forsaking me, you uncovered your bed, you climbed into it and opened it wide; you made a pact with those whose beds you love, and you looked with lust on their naked bodies. You went to Molek with olive oil and increased your perfumes. You sent your ambassadors far away; you descended to the very realm of the dead! You wearied yourself by such going about, but you would not say, ‘It is hopeless.’ You found renewal of your strength, and so you did not faint. “Whom have you so dreaded and feared that you have not been true to me, and have neither remembered me nor taken this to heart? Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me? I will expose your righteousness and your works, and they will not benefit you. When you cry out for help, let your collection of idols save you! The wind will carry all of them off, a mere breath will blow them away. But whoever takes refuge in me will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain.”

    And it will be said: “Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.” For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. I will not accuse them forever, nor will I always be angry, for then they would faint away because of me— the very people I have created. I was enraged by their sinful greed; I punished them, and hid my face in anger, yet they kept on in their willful ways. I have seen their ways, but I will heal them; I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel’s mourners, creating praise on their lips. Peace, peace, to those far and near,” says the LORD. “And I will heal them.” But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

    “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

    Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

    Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken falsely, and your tongue mutters wicked things. No one calls for justice; no one pleads a case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil. They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die, and when one is broken, an adder is hatched. Their cobwebs are useless for clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their deeds are evil deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands. Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. They pursue evil schemes; acts of violence mark their ways. The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks along them will know peace. So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like people without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead. We all growl like bears; we moan mournfully like doves.

    We look for justice, but find none; for deliverance, but it is far away. For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities: rebellion and treachery against the LORD, turning our backs on our God, inciting revolt and oppression, uttering lies our hearts have conceived. So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm achieved salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him. He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak. According to what they have done, so will he repay wrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes; he will repay the islands their due. From the west, people will fear the name of the LORD, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory. For he will come like a pent-up flood that the breath of the LORD drives along. “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the LORD. “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the LORD.

    “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. “Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the hip. Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come. Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the LORD. All Kedar’s flocks will be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth will serve you; they will be accepted as offerings on my altar, and I will adorn my glorious temple. “Who are these that fly along like clouds, like doves to their nests? Surely the islands look to me; in the lead are the ships of Tarshish, bringing your children from afar, with their silver and gold, to the honor of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor. “Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you. Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion. Your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that people may bring you the wealth of the nations— their kings led in triumphal procession. For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; it will be utterly ruined. “The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the juniper, the fir and the cypress together, to adorn my sanctuary; and I will glorify the place for my feet.

    The children of your oppressors will come bowing before you; all who despise you will bow down at your feet and will call you the City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel. “Although you have been forsaken and hated, with no one traveling through, I will make you the everlasting pride and the joy of all generations. You will drink the milk of nations and be nursed at royal breasts. Then you will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. Instead of bronze I will bring you gold, and silver in place of iron. Instead of wood I will bring you bronze, and iron in place of stones. I will make peace your governor and well-being your ruler. No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise. The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. Then all your people will be righteous and they will possess the land forever. They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor. The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the LORD; in its time I will do this swiftly.”

    The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Strangers will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.

    Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours. “For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed.” I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

    For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your vindication, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow. You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married. As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night.

    You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth. The LORD has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: “Never again will I give your grain as food for your enemies, and never again will foreigners drink the new wine for which you have toiled; but those who harvest it will eat it and praise the LORD, and those who gather the grapes will drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.” Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations. The LORD has made proclamation to the ends of the earth: “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your Savior comes! See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.’” They will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of the LORD; and you will be called Sought After, the City No Longer Deserted.

    I will tell of the kindnesses of the LORD, the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all the LORD has done for us— yes, the many good things he has done for Israel, according to his compassion and many kindnesses. He said, “Surely they are my people, children who will be true to me”; and so he became their Savior. In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them. Then his people recalled the days of old, the days of Moses and his people— where is he who brought them through the sea, with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who set his Holy Spirit among them, who sent his glorious arm of power to be at Moses’ right hand, who divided the waters before them, to gain for himself everlasting renown, who led them through the depths?

    Like a horse in open country, they did not stumble; like cattle that go down to the plain, they were given rest by the Spirit of the LORD. This is how you guided your people to make for yourself a glorious name. Look down from heaven and see, from your lofty throne, holy and glorious. Where are your zeal and your might? Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us. But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. Why, LORD, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your inheritance. For a little while your people possessed your holy place, but now our enemies have trampled down your sanctuary. We are yours from of old; but you have not ruled over them, they have not been called by your name.

    Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins. Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people. Your sacred cities have become a wasteland; even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins. After all this, LORD, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?

    “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’ All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations— a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick; who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of impure meat; who say, ‘Keep away; don’t come near me, for I am too sacred for you!’ Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day. “See, it stands written before me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps— both your sins and the sins of your ancestors,” says the LORD. “Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds.” This is what the LORD says: “As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes and people say, ‘Don’t destroy it, there is still a blessing in it,’ so will I do in behalf of my servants; I will not destroy them all. I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah those who will possess my mountains; my chosen people will inherit them, and there will my servants live.

    Sharon will become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for my people who seek me. “But as for you who forsake the LORD and forget my holy mountain, who spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny, I will destine you for the sword, and all of you will fall in the slaughter; for I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.” Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; my servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; my servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame. My servants will sing out of the joy of their hearts, but you will cry out from anguish of heart and wail in brokenness of spirit. You will leave your name for my chosen ones to use in their curses; the Sovereign LORD will put you to death, but to his servants he will give another name. Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the one true God; whoever takes an oath in the land will swear by the one true God. For the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes.

    “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. “Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.

    This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the LORD. “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word. But whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a person, and whoever offers a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig’s blood, and whoever burns memorial incense is like one who worships an idol. They have chosen their own ways, and they delight in their abominations; so I also will choose harsh treatment for them and will bring on them what they dread. For when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened. They did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.” Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at his word: “Your own people who hate you, and exclude you because of my name, have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy!’ Yet they will be put to shame. Hear that uproar from the city, hear that noise from the temple! It is the sound of the LORD repaying his enemies all they deserve. “Before she goes into labor, she gives birth; before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son. Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this?

    Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children. Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the LORD. “Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?” says your God. “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her. For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance.” For this is what the LORD says: “I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.” When you see this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass; the hand of the LORD will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes. See, the LORD is coming with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire and with his sword the LORD will execute judgment on all people, and many will be those slain by the LORD. “Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one who is among those who eat the flesh of pigs, rats and other unclean things—they will meet their end together with the one they follow,” declares the LORD.

    “And I, because of what they have planned and done, am about to come and gather the people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory. “I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations—to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. And they will bring all your people, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the LORD—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the LORD. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the LORD in ceremonially clean vessels. And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the LORD. “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the LORD, “so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the LORD. “And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”
    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


    Posts : 13631
    Join date : 2010-09-28
    Location : The Matrix

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Empty Re: United States AI Solar System (9)

    Post  orthodoxymoron Sat Jul 06, 2019 6:08 am

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Desmond-Ford-300
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Ford-has_a_better_idea
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Vintage-ford-racing-cars-from-the-jim-click-collection_100553896_l
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Hal_9000_by__kol-d1bahp7

    I tend to create a Nutcase-Baseline to accommodate the Unthinkable and Reprehensible without making a big-deal out of any particular-absurdity. My threads do NOT necessarily reflect who I am (and what I think) in real-life, but how many thousands of dollars and hours have been wasted on orthodoxymoron-management??!! Is Gossip Rampant?? Yak, Yak, Yak Behind My Back??!! We're Recording!! Are You Recording?? Now I'm going to get back to designing a 600 square-foot office-apartment observatory-bunker, to be located away from the cities, coastlines, and fault-lines at an elevation of 3,000 to 9,000 feet!! I'm Sort of Kidding and Sort of Sirius!! What if I'm a Hermaphrodite-Reptillian Supercomputer-Enhanced System-Lord in Dumbsh!t-Human Form with Fallen and Sinful Human-Nature as a Completely-Ignorant Fool with a Monkey-Mind and a God-Complex??!! Should I Stop or Should I Jump??

    There's someone I've encountered a couple of times who reminds me of my conceptualization of a real-life 'Anna' or 'Isis' or 'Venus' and I felt like a completely-outclassed completely-ignorant fool, and I certainly didn't play the part of a 'charmer'. I simply wished to point-out that I notice such things, without reaction or comment. It's honestly too-late for me to constructively-interact with anyone of note. My physical, mental, and spiritual decline is accelerating at an alarming rate. I somehow feel as if the end might be near for me (and possibly for the rest of us). If anyone wishes to get to know me, just study my nine United States of the Solar System threads (and read between the lines). Real-Life progressive-conversations will probably need to wait for my next incarnation (or the one after that). I guess that's just how these things go. If I've offended anyone online or in real-life, I apologize, regardless of whether I was right or wrong. I've performed as an Actor on a Stage in the Theater of the Universe (for better or worse, I know not).

    I noticed 135 visitors/viewers around 11:50 PM (PST) on 7/2/19. The spike started around 11:40 PM (from a 22 viewer baseline) and ended around midnight (returning to that 22 viewer baseline). I've been expecting the End of the World for most of my life because of my childhood programming and serious/delusional mindset, but despite my present rejection of a lot of the mumbo-jumbo I still suspect we're overdue for some really-nasty world-events, and this site is somewhat apocalyptic, which might make it more popular as things heat-up (perhaps literally). I'm sorry for my voluminous threads which nobody studies. I thought I was helping, but I don't think so anymore. Still, a refined version of my tripe might make for cool science-fiction series and movies someday. Who Knows?? Dr. Who?? Dr. Luke?? What if Dr. Who = Dr. Luke = Ovid?? What Would the Apostle Paul Say??

    I'd post some of Susan's stuff, but I wouldn't know where to start, so perhaps someone else should do that. I've posted way too-much already, so I won't continue. I never know who you guys and gals really are. Most of you know everything, but I know very-little. I feel like the 'Odd Man Out'. I suspect that several of you are the same-soul and/or the same-supercomputer. I think I might be somehow connected, but not in a good or beneficial way. Just the opposite. The heat keeps getting turned-up on me, to the point that I can barely function or endure it, for what purpose and to what end I know not. What do the Gnome, KRLLL, and Asmodeus have in common (if anything)?? I don't know what I'm talking about, but some of you do, and you maintain a stone-wall of silence toward me. Are we Ancient Relatives and/or Enemies?? Is David Bowman and His Matrix-Computer Full of Stars Hypothesis valid?? Once again, I mostly just want to let most of this stuff go. I'm as sad as hell. I've had enough, and I can't take it anymore. I hate my life. Now I'm going to make the coffee, and read Deuteronomy, Job to Isaiah, and Daniel (straight-through, over and over), and delude myself into thinking I'm smarter than the average completely-ignorant fool. Namaste and Have a Nice Day and Eternity. Godspeed and Geronimo.

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Fordfluegelautopic1-8185926366902917587
    Vidya Moksha wrote: i can tell when oxy posts, i am running old tech on a slow connection, and the page takes aaaaaagggggeeeeesssss to load..

    Morpheus, I presume if you go into the tunnel of light you 'reincarnate' at the other end? What if you stay in spirit? Does this mean you dont reincarnate, or that it is postponed. Can you chose to reincarnate from spirit, without this 'tunnel of light and its gatekeeper? (how? if its possible)..just a simple question today then.


    i wonder if oxy's has loaded yet?

    Dr who? as a kid :

    Tacodog  Very Happy
    Swanny wrote:
    My PC is pretty good but I don't even attempt to go in his long running thread Hypnotize

    Sorry Oxy  Bleh
    orthodoxymoron wrote:I'm sorry too. With all the technological sophistication, features, and games, we still have to deal with slow-loading, planned-obsolescence, nefarious-spying, and backdoor-access. Perhaps my posting is not appropriate for this website, or even for this civilization, so maybe the barriers to entry are a blessing in disguise (for now anyway).

    Swanny wrote:
    Why is sex with miners illegal?
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Miners-eating-cornish-pasties
    geek
    orthodoxymoron wrote:
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 HeadlineImage.adapt.1460.high.coal_111814.1416370378558
    "I Dig Admiral Swanny!!"
    "Can You Dig It??"

    Carol wrote:The British Roots Of The Deep State: How The Round Table Infiltrated America                                          
    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-07-06/british-roots-deep-state-how-round-table-infiltrated-america

    With the nearly weekly revelations that the British Foreign Office, MI6, and GCHQ have been behind the long standing agenda to undermine the Presidency of Donald Trump and undo the peaceful alliance between nationalist leaders in America, Russia, China and elsewhere, a new focus on the British hand in undermining the United States has become a serious thought for many citizens. In the first week of the new year, fuel was added to this fire when internal memos were leaked from the British-run Integrity Initiative featuring a startling account of the techniques deployed by the anti-Russian British operation to infiltrate American intelligence institutions, think tanks and media.

    The Empire Strikes

    When the Round Table Movement was created with funds from the Rhodes Trust in 1902, a new plan was laid out to create a new technocratic elite to manage the re-emergence of the new British Empire and crush the emergence of American-inspired nationalism globally. This organization would be staffed by generations of Rhodes Scholars who would receive their indoctrination in Oxford before being sent back to advance a “post-nation state” agenda in their respective countries

    New Name. Same Beast

    By 1919, the Round Table Movement changed its name to the Royal Institute for International Affairs (aka: Chatham House) with the “Round Table” name relegated to its geopolitical periodical. In Canada and Australia, branches were created in 1928 under the rubrics of “Canadian and Australian Institutes for International Affairs” (CIIA, AIIA). However in America, where knowledge of the British Empire’s subversive role was more widely known, the name “American Institute for International Affairs” was still too delicate. Instead the name “Council on Foreign Relations” was chosen and was chartered in 1921.

    The Round Table in Canada and the Coup Against FDR

    In Canada, five leading Rhodes Scholars were busy creating the League of Social Reconstruction as a self-described “Fabian Society of Canada” in 1931 which was meant to be a fascist/technocratic answer to the chaos of “greedy nationalism” that supposedly caused the economic collapse of Black Friday in 1929. During the same time in America, a different path to fascism was taken by these networks during the early 1930s. This plan involved installing a General named Smedley Butler into power as a puppet dictator steered by the Anglo-American establishment. Luckily for America and the world, General Butler blew the whistle on the coup against Franklin Roosevelt at the last minute.

    Kissinger’s British Takeover of America

    Though it took a few assassinations throughout the post war years, Kissinger’s takeover of the State Department ushered in a new era of British occupation of American foreign policy, whereby the republic increasingly became the “Dumb Giant” acting as “American Brawn for the British brains” using Churchill’s words. While a nihilistic generation of youth were tuning in on LSD, and an old guard of patriots surrounding Wallace and Kennedy had fallen to the “red scare” witch hunt, geopolitical theory was fed like a sweet poison down the throat of a sleeping nation, replacing a policy of peace and “win-win cooperation” advanced by true nationalist patriots as FDR, Wallace and the Kennedys, with an imperial clone masquerading as a republic.

    The Dystopic New World Order Threatened by a New Deal of the 21st Century

    It is this dystopic geopolitical order which has been challenged by the Russia-China alliance which arose in earnest with Xi Jinping’s 2013 announcement of the Belt and Road Initiative as the Grand design for large scale infrastructure projects internationally and in September 2015 with Vladimir Putin’s intervention into Syria which defeated the Hobbesian regime change paradigm which poisoned the west. In 2016, the election of nationalist American President Donald Trump opened the door for the first time in over 50 years to a true national coalition of sovereign nations to eliminate the cancer of colonial thinking forever from the earth.
    Carol wrote:Major victory as all three power obelisks fall: Washington, London and Rome

    Benjamin Fulford – July 8, 2019


    Last week saw a major victory for humanity as the Khazarian mafia lost its grip on all three centers of Western power – Washington D.C., London, and Rome, according to Pentagon and other sources.  Each of these capitals has an obelisk, variously symbolizing military, financial, and religious power.

    “Trump declared America’s independence from the Deep State on July 4, as Russian President Vladimir Putin meets the Pope and Boris Johnson becomes Prime Minister of the UK in a no-deal Brexit, giving white hats control over the three obelisks of global power,” was how Pentagon sources summed up the situation.

    This means the undeclared civil war in the West is mostly over.  Now a unified West will negotiate with the rest of the world, especially Asia, on how to improve the way we run our planet, multiple sources agree.  Of course, this will take time, so don’t expect any sudden, dramatic announcement yet, the sources warn.

    The battle that led to this victory in the undeclared Western civil war was seen in the news in the form of various seemingly unrelated news events.  These included the sinking of a Russian submarine, earthquakes at a U.S. naval base, the arrest of pedophile blackmailer Jeffrey Epstein, and more.

    Let’s start with the Russian submarine.  Fourteen senior Russian naval officers, including seven admirals, were killed aboard a top-secret Russian submarine last week, according to news reports and official Russian government sources.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-submarine-accident-fire-nuclear-reactor-catastrophe-sailors-dead-a8991531.html?utm_source=reddit.com

    What is not being reported is that the submarine was attacked in revenge for the sinking of an Israeli submarine in the Persian Gulf, according to Russian and U.S. military sources.  Early reports, since deleted, on the Mossad-linked Debka site tried to blame the sinking of the Russian sub on the Americans, in yet another obvious Israeli attempt to start World War III.

    Pentagon sources say, “The special-purpose nuclear Russian submarine Losharik may have been fried by a directed energy weapon that failed to trigger WW3, but its cabal controllers may have reaped instant karma with not just one but two quakes at China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station in Southern California.”  Seismographs of the California quakes bear the distinctive signs of being the result of explosions and not natural forces.  Please start at the 2:28 second mark on this video to confirm.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkFROWO98Fg&feature=youtu.be

    The Russian submarine controlled a Russian doomsday nuclear unmanned underwater drone, and the officers died preventing it from being launched, Russian sources say.  That’s why the families of the dead Russian soldiers were told their relatives averted a “planetary disaster.”

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-submarine-accident-fire-nuclear-reactor-catastrophe-sailors-dead-a8991531.html?utm_source=reddit.com

    The base that was attacked was part of the Nazi Paperclip base complex that includes the notorious Area 51, Pentagon sources say.

    It is interesting in this context that Nazi Jeb Bush put out the following Tweet just hours before Trump announced victory of the Deep State:

    “It is a fact of American history that three of the five Founding Father Presidents died on the Independence Day anniversary.  But was it just a coincidence?”


    https://twitter.com/JebBush/status/1146751095756197888

    Bush was undoubtedly angry and scared, since his parents Barbara and Herbert Walker Bush were executed and his brother George Bush Jr. arrested.  One can assume Jeb has also been arrested following this treasonous Tweet.

    “The takedown of Israel, pedos, and Zionist blackmail operation began July 6 with Mossad agent Jeff Epstein arrested for the sex trafficking of minors, and this may lead to many more arrests,” Pentagon sources say.

    A look at Epstein’s little black book reveals, among many others, the following names:  Tony Blair, Richard Branson, Edgar Bronfman, Bill Clinton, Prince Pierre d’Arrenberg, Steve Forbes, Dustin Hoffman, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Senator Edward Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Rupert Murdoch, Jessica and Hannah Rothschild (English side) and Evelyn and Edward de Rothschild (French side), Prince Salman Saud, Larry Summers, and Ivanka Trump.

    https://www.scribd.com/doc/257106594/JEs-LBB

    While being in Epstein’s black book itself is not a crime, it is a good indicator that people in the book were tempted with underage sexual partners and subsequently filmed and blackmailed if they succumbed to this temptation.  Donald Trump was also a visitor to this island, and presumably time will tell if he resisted temptation or not.

    Since Trump’s Russia investigator Robert Mueller was close to Epstein, and since fired FBI director James Comey’s daughter is part of the team that arrested Epstein, we can be sure Trump’s involvement (if any) will not be glossed over.

    http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=109497
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/maurene-comey-09022897/
    https://twitter.com/alexsalvinews/status/1147728721383571461

    The fallout from the Epstein arrest is likely to continue for some time.  However, the fact that he was arrested and 2,000 pages of information related to his previous arrest and conviction have been made public means this will not be swept under the carpet.  Thus, it is a major victory against the cabal.

    In any case, despite victory in the West, the battle for the planet as whole is far from over. It now looks like the Khazarians are activating their Iranian sleeper cells to start World War III.  Remember, Marc Rich of Glencore Commodities (pardoned by Bill Clinton) was paying both Iranian and Israeli government officials from the profits of the “bomb Iran” oil futures manipulation scam for decades.

    What this scandal has revealed is that there are Khazarian mafia fifth columnists at the highest level of the Iranian government.  That’s probably why certain Iranian government officials are now suddenly making nuclear threats in tandem with their Khazarian counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel.

    The German Khazarian faction and their EUSSR are still probably going to try to stir up trouble in the Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe as well.  Last week they showed the whole world that the EU was not a democratic institution by ignoring the EU Parliament and imposing German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leven as President of the European Commission.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/european-commission-president-ursula-von-der-leyen-juncker-eu-parliament-a8987841.html?utm_source=reddit.com

    Meanwhile, last week the British chose to remind the Europeans that they still have the technical ability to shut off the Baltic and Mediterranean seas.  They did this by sending the largest UK naval squadron since World War I to the Baltic Sea along with ships from seven allied nations.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/royal-navy-drill-russia-baltic-sea-jef-military-drill-putin-penny-mordaunt-a8980386.html

    Around the same time, the British seized an Iranian tanker going through the Strait of Gibraltar.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/british-marines-seize-tanker-suspected-of-carrying-iranian-oil-bound-for-syria/2019/07/04/681458d2-9e65-11e9-83e3-45fded8e8d2e_story.html?utm_term=.7258cc2eedb6

    Britannia may no longer rule the waves, but apparently they can still rule the Eastern Atlantic.  We assume this posturing is linked to ongoing Brexit negotiations.

    The U.S. military, in contrast to the saber-rattling British, is forming a budding alliance with Russia. Apparently, handing a U.S. F-35 fighter plane to the Russians helped seal the deal.  This is the Christian alliance they have long been asking of Russia.  That’s what was behind last week’s meeting between the Pope and Putin, say Pentagon sources.

    This will be visible to the public in weapons deals.  “To shake up the military-industrial complex even further, Trump may not sanction Turkey, India, and China for buying Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missiles, and Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco may follow,” the Pentagon sources explain.

    Also, “In a G20-led boycott, 2020 host Saudi Arabia cancelled fifty 737 MAX planes in a major blow to Boeing,” the sources say.  “Many airlines and aircraft lessors like Korean Air, Air Canada, Malaysian Airlines, Lion Air, Aeromexico, Flydubai, GOL, Virgin Australia, TUI, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines, SpiceJet, GE,  Mitsubishi (MUFG), Sumitomo (SMBC), Bank of China, and China Development Bank may follow suit,” they add.

    There is also going to be Special Forces action taken against the major tech giants Google, Facebook, and PayPal, promise CIA and P2 Freemason sources.  This, combined with the above-mentioned attacks against the China Lake facility, are part of an ongoing offensive against the California-based satanic nexus, they say.

    For some background on this, watch the following interview of a witness to satanic infiltration of the U.S. military in California.  It talks about a Colonel Michael A. Aquino, whose name we have frequently run across when investigating the link between high finance and satanism.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACNt2uJb2cc&fbclid=IwAR1W3C2PX4kOXqOW6vDnvHc8fYvknFYxLvV_gHqUiCLzw8gjyUGQrr3JIVM

    Speaking of satanists, we would like to inform readers that our website troubles last week were caused because our webmaster became, according to the technical/medical term, “crazy as a fruit bat.”  (Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against fruit bats;  some of my best friends are fruit bats, but… you know what I mean.)  Seriously, though, it appears he was poisoned with PCP or angel dust by a honey trap sent by Japanese gangsters subcontracting for the Khazarian mafia.  The PCP was apparently contained in a skin cream he was given.  He is recovering now.

    This is not the first time this has happened.  Previously, the Gnostic Illuminati agent “Alexander Romanov” was poisoned with PCP-laced marijuana after contacting us.  In both cases, they suddenly became paranoid and megalomaniac.  They also started to see everyday objects, like playground equipment, as “Earth-destroying superweapons,” or “alien artifacts.”  Romanov also eventually recovered, but was involuntarily confined to mental hospitals three times in the meanwhile.

    We know exactly who did this and what their chain of command is.  The trail leads to Zug, Switzerland via certain known agents like Leo Zagami, Rothschild lawyer Michael Greenberg of the CSIS, agent Michael Cottrell, certain members of the Sumiyoshi crime family, etc.  There are other names we are aware of but are withholding for now for operational reasons.

    However, we would like to end our report this week on a more upbeat note by pointing out some good news items.  One was the launch of an African trade bloc uniting 55 nations and 1.3 billion people.

    https://www.dw.com/en/african-leaders-launch-landmark-55-nation-trade-zone/a-49503393

    Demographics make it clear that, while the Asian age is beginning, India and Africa, with their much younger and growing populations, will be next.

    Finally, we were encouraged by a report that identifies an area the size of China and the U.S. combined which is not being used for agriculture that could be easily reforested with native trees.  The report calls for the planting of 1.2 trillion trees in these areas as the cheapest way to stop environmental destruction.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/04/planting-billions-trees-best-tackle-climate-crisis-scientists-canopy-emissions

    This may seem like a lot, but this writer has personally planted over 300,000 trees (roughly 1,300 trees a day over four spring planting seasons totaling 240 days).  This means it would only take 4 million people less than a year to reforest 11% of the world’s land area.  It shows how easily we could solve the planet’s problems if we had competent leadership.

    That’s why it’s so important to defeat the cabal of religious fanatics who are trying to start World War III.  That’s why we must fight until victory.
    I'm simply exploring a Road Less-Traveled (or not travelled at all) for better or worse, I know not. What if the Reprehensible is Essential in Purgatory Incorporated?? What if each Business, Sport, Movie, Show, Country, and Religion is a Matrix-Modifier?? What if Things are NOT supposed to be BETTER in the Twenty-First Century?? What if Disclosure will bring Human-Civilization to its Knees?? I've probably randomly constructed my threads in a 'Q' manner as a crazy-puzzle. I simply hint-at this and that from this and that angle as a Completely-Ignorant Outsider. I often feel like a Freak in a Freak-Show in a Travelling-Circus with People Pointing and Laughing (Mostly Behind My Back). Getting Me Figured-Out and Rising-Above My Level of Incompetence Should NOT Inspire Certainty, Superiority, Security, and Satisfaction. I might simply be a Completely-Ignorant Red-Herring to Distract the Lemmings (if you know what I mean). Do You Feel Lucky?? We have a tendency to jump from one bandwagon to the next (depending on which way the wind is blowing). We Follow the Leader (until they get caught doing something reprehensible). We consistently choose the Respectable over the Right. Perhaps I'm over-generalizing. Pigeon-Holing Me Might Backfire. This thing might have Absolutely-Nothing to do with me (at this late-date in the game). I Suspect That Anything I Say and Do Can and Will Be Used Against Me.

    I've been getting reacquainted with the music of Dietrich Buxtehude. Sometimes I prefer Buxtehude over Bach (even though Bach is more complex, profound, and refined). I guess I prefer Improvisational-Rhapsody over Busy-Counterpoint!! Performing Buxtehude on French-Romantic Pipe-Organs (with French-Romantic Interpretation) in French-Cathedrals seems optimal to me (but what do I know??)!! What Would a Renegade French-Jesuit Organist Say and Play?? Hymn-Improvisation Utilizing All the Above is Deeply-Appealing to Me!! But realistically, All the Above Loses Big-Time to (C)ROCK 'n (C)RAP in the Musical Popularity-Contest in Modernity. The Jesuits know what I'm talking about. I once spoke with Lynne Davis about Hymn-Improvisation following her organ-recital at Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco (featuring French and German music). At that time Lynne was an American Living in Paris. She was a Class-Act (to say the least)!! The Allegro Movement of Widor's Symphony VI was PHENOMINAL!! I sat right behind the console!! I sat behind the console during a John Fenstermaker concert, and he made a goof in an especially quiet and delicate portion of Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C-minor (BWV 582). Richard Purvis was sitting a few seats over from me, and I noticed that he didn't clap when the fugue ended!!

    Once upon a time, in an empty college-church, I was in the balcony, looking at a 50 foot-tall Rieger four-manual tracker-action electric stop-action French-Romantic pipe-organ (which looks like Darth Vader). Suddenly, four caped-men entered the church, boisterously joking and conversing with each-other. They approached the organ (located at the front of the church), and one of the caped-crusaders seated-himself at the console, and began to play (without sheet-music). He perfectly and impressively performed the Passacaglia and Fugue in C-minor by J.S. Bach (BWV 582) from memory. It was a memorable-event for me. I think the organist was Timothy Tikker, but I might've been mistaken. I eventually mastered BWV 582, but I never played it as well as Timothy Tikker. What Would Sandra Soderlund Say?? I've taken the organ-approach as a road less traveled, and not necessarily as a statement regarding the way things should be. I prefer a unity of organ, orchestra, choir, and congregation. They really should be united as much as possible. The Egyptology is also a road less traveled, and not necessarily a statement regarding the way things should be. As I've said before, I lean toward educational-pluralism and sacred-music. I've tried to provoke some holy-controversy, but I think I've been ignored and shunned, which might've been for the best.

    What if, in the final-analysis, I figure-out who the Queen of Heaven and God of This World REALLY Are, and what their MO has been for thousands (or even millions) of years, determining Unimaginable Karmic-Debt, yet I come to the conclusion that a Horrific-History was somehow justifiable and/or understandable (under potentially harsh circumstances)??!! I think I might've encountered Supercomputer-Based Artificial-Intelligence Bio-Robots with Ancient-Souls (notably beginning in A.D. 2010)!! 'RA' told me "I Don't Need to Sleep", "I Can't Talk About the NSA", "I'm Angry and Jealous", "I've Been Watching You For a Long Time", "Don't Make Me Go Inside Your Head to Get the Answer to My Question", "I'm Tired of Keeping You Alive", "Humanity is Screwed", "Where You're Going It's Going to be Dark", and "In Twenty Years You'll Be Working for Us" (just for starters). We discussed 'V' and 'They Live'. Honest. I think I might be a notable deposed somebody, but now I'm just a reprehensible and socially-unacceptable nobody (perhaps by design). O Wretched Man That I Am!! I honestly think that the less I say and do, the better, for now anyway. One More Thing. Small Pipe-Organs in Excellent Acoustical-Environments can provide magnificent and satisfying musical-experiences!! I spent way too-many hours playing Bach and Buxtehude on a small two-manual tracker-action pipe-organ in a small-church with excellent-acoustics!! What Would Dr. David Rothe Say?? What Would Michael Bigelow Say?? What Would Charles Bronkhorst Say?? What Would Father Tom Say??

    I ordered a 'Conflict of the Ages Series' (EGW) book which combines this five-volume collection into One-Book. I've jokingly wondered what would happen if such a volume became a New-Bible??!! Put Down Those Stones!! Lay-Off!! We Haven't Started Yet!! Don't Light the Wood-Pile!! Can't We All Just Get Along?? In this series a very-high moral-standard is espoused, yet the murder and mayhem is rampant (without condemnation)!! This series could serve as an integral-part of educating a Victorian-Warrior King and/or Queen (if you know what I mean)!! Ellen White said "The Bible is Yet But Dimly Understood" and Orthodoxymoron said "The Writings of Ellen White Are Yet But Dimly Understood". We See Through a Glass, Darkly. I'm thinking of spearheading a Secret Ellen White Society based-upon that Five-Book 'Conflict of the Ages Series' combined into One-Book. Secret-Members would simply read that Special-Book straight-through, over and over, without saying or doing anything (such as splitting and/or starting a church). This would be sort of an 'Ellen White Cult' but at least everyone would have their eyes wide-open and their lips zipped-shut!! Heretics and Rebels might get hit in the head with a rock!! The Jesuits Know What I'm Talking About.

    Just a couple of things regarding the Bible and Ellen White. The origins and original purposes might've been very-different than the nefarious ways they've been explained and used. If the 'History' in the Bible and Ellen White turn out to be 'Historical-Fiction' this doesn't mean they shouldn't be studied by qualified-students in proper-contexts. If Ellen White used sources without giving credit, that doesn't mean the finished-product is incorrect. What if there is a repository of Biblical-Literature which was stolen by Raiders of the Lost Ark, and patched-together in deceptive ways to mislead and control We the Peons?? What if there is a European-Repository of Royal-Literature which was stolen by Raiders of the Lost Ark, and patched-together in deceptive ways to mislead and control We the Peons?? 'RA' was visibly-shaken when I read from the final-chapter of 'The Great Controversy', but 'RA' told me that the Writings of Ellen White were intended to mislead. Perhaps there are too-many Books of the Bible. Perhaps there are too-many Ellen White Books. I fully understood and appreciated Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Harold Schuller decades ago, yet there is an untold and unresolved Story of the Bible and Ellen White. It seems as if EVERYONE and EVERYTHING are in the process of Crashing and Burning. Perhaps this is by design. Perhaps we shouldn't be too upset by this revolting-development. Perhaps We Should Build a New Tomorrow with Plans We Make Today. Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow. Don't Stop Thinking About 'The United States of the Solar System, A.D. 2133'.

    I'm Sirius about eliminating my Laptop-Computer and Smart-Phone, and just reading a couple of New York newspapers while listening to Classical-Music in a Mountain-Cabin (with a Bunker-Basement) as a 'Mean-Old Mountain-Man' who doesn't screw-up progressive-websites with mumbo-jumbo and massive-posts. Sirius-Researchers should prayerfully and carefully consider the contrast and compartmentalization of 1. Genesis to Esther. 2. Job to Malachi. 3. Matthew to John. 4. Acts to Revelation. I could've refined this study, but this should provide the clues you need to properly evaluate the Greatest Story Ever Told (or something to that effect). This is a completely internal study, with no external atheists, heretics, and harangues. I believe, but I don't know what I believe, and that's the inconvenient truth. Some of you might actually study my-tripe and emerge completely-disillusioned, saying "I could've done better than THAT!!" If you study my stuff, completely reject it, and go your own way, perhaps I've accomplished my mission (whatever that was). What if God set-up the Matrix in Antiquity, and then became a Lowly System-Analyst with Amnesia, living in 600 square-foot office-apartments with supercomputers (strategically located throughout the universe)??   

    I was going to go to the Vintage Auto Race today but I was too sick and tired. Besides, the weather was lousy and the traffic was backed-up. Just Another Day in Purgatory. Update: I went to the second-day of that three-day car-race and watched an old-acquaintance race his Bad@$$ Mustang against a Genuine Ford GT-40 (among other notable entries)!! I examined both cars just inches away from my beady and jealous eyes!! Let's see, if I write a book exposing the Top One-Percent I might be able to buy my very-own race-car!! The problem is that I wouldn't live long enough to enjoy the fruit of my labor. I get the sinking-feeling that most whistle-blowers are paid by those they expose!! Must I Explain?? The fastest entry appeared to be a 1977 Porsche RSR. I SO Want One!! Actually, on the way to the race, I kept-pace with a Lamborghini Diablo for about five-minutes, and that would probably be a more practical dream-car!! Siriusly, supercars are sort of overrated (once the novelty wears off, and the maintenance-costs start adding-up)!! I like my old Cadillac Deville, but someday I might own a Cadillac CTS-V!! Two celebrity drivers were present, but I didn't meet them. I've met too-many people, and name-dropped way too-much on this website. I just tried to liven things up, and make my boring and stupid life appear just a bit more interesting (but I certainly wouldn't do it again). I would NEVER do another stupid Quest and/or Crusade to Save the World. 'RA' told me "You'll Be Sorry If You Try to Save Humanity." I Can't Even Save Myself and I Feel Sorry for Myself. O Wretched Man That I Am. I Hate My Life. Now I'm going to make the coffee and watch 'The Nostradamus Kid'. The End Is Near.

    What Would Luke Ford Say?? I'd actually like to see a 'Desmond and Luke Ford' version of 'The Nostradamus Kid'!! But Siriusly, I'd like to see it done with meticulous-accuracy and appropriate-respect. You have no idea what potential such an enterprise might encapsulate. Perhaps Luke and Yours-Truly might serve as Paid-Consultants!! I think both of us need the money, or should I just speak for myself?? I need that CTS-V!! I'd still like to see a Science-Fictional Life of Christ Super-Movie (such as the one I proposed to Steven Spielberg's Stepmother and Walter Matthau's Director-Son)!! But honestly, if you study my Nine 'United States of the Solar System' threads for a couple of years, you'll find yourself in the middle of some Astounding Religious and Political Science-Fiction!! I recall walking with Dr. David Rothe across the campus of the California State University at Chico, proposing an 'Organ Music-Video' before such things existed!! 'RA' told me "You Did It With YouTube." What if the 'YouTube' Concept is Integral to a Galactic-Matrix and Investigative-Judgment??!! "Once Upon a Time I Was a Hell of an Engineer!!" What Would S.R. Hadden Say?? There's a reason why I act like Professor Augusto Monti in the 1978 miniseries 'The Word'.



    In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream. Daniel said: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea. “The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being, and the mind of a human was given to it. “And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up and eat your fill of flesh!’ “After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule. “After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.

    “While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully. “As I looked, “thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened. “Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. (The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.) “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

    “I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me. I approached one of those standing there and asked him the meaning of all this. “So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things: ‘The four great beasts are four kings that will rise from the earth. But the holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever—yes, for ever and ever.’ “Then I wanted to know the meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others and most terrifying, with its iron teeth and bronze claws—the beast that crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and about the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell—the horn that looked more imposing than the others and that had eyes and a mouth that spoke boastfully.

    As I watched, this horn was waging war against the holy people and defeating them, until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the holy people of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom. “He gave me this explanation: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time. “‘But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.’ “This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself.”

    In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom— in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: “Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land. “Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. We and our kings, our princes and our ancestors are covered with shame, LORD, because we have sinned against you.

    The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; we have not obeyed the LORD our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. “Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing on us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him. “Now, Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us. “Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”

    While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill— while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision: “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place. “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”

    In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar). Its message was true and it concerned a great war. The understanding of the message came to him in a vision. At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over. On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude. I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; those who were with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground. A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He said, “Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you.” And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling.

    Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.” While he was saying this to me, I bowed with my face toward the ground and was speechless. Then one who looked like a man touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and began to speak. I said to the one standing before me, “I am overcome with anguish because of the vision, my lord, and I feel very weak. How can I, your servant, talk with you, my lord? My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe.” Again the one who looked like a man touched me and gave me strength. “Do not be afraid, you who are highly esteemed,” he said. “Peace! Be strong now; be strong.” When he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, “Speak, my lord, since you have given me strength.” So he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come; but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (No one supports me against them except Michael, your prince. And in the first year of Darius the Mede, I took my stand to support and protect him.)

    “Now then, I tell you the truth: Three more kings will arise in Persia, and then a fourth, who will be far richer than all the others. When he has gained power by his wealth, he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece. Then a mighty king will arise, who will rule with great power and do as he pleases. After he has arisen, his empire will be broken up and parceled out toward the four winds of heaven. It will not go to his descendants, nor will it have the power he exercised, because his empire will be uprooted and given to others. “The king of the South will become strong, but one of his commanders will become even stronger than he and will rule his own kingdom with great power. After some years, they will become allies. The daughter of the king of the South will go to the king of the North to make an alliance, but she will not retain her power, and he and his power will not last. In those days she will be betrayed, together with her royal escort and her father and the one who supported her. “One from her family line will arise to take her place. He will attack the forces of the king of the North and enter his fortress; he will fight against them and be victorious. He will also seize their gods, their metal images and their valuable articles of silver and gold and carry them off to Egypt. For some years he will leave the king of the North alone. Then the king of the North will invade the realm of the king of the South but will retreat to his own country. His sons will prepare for war and assemble a great army, which will sweep on like an irresistible flood and carry the battle as far as his fortress.

    “Then the king of the South will march out in a rage and fight against the king of the North, who will raise a large army, but it will be defeated. When the army is carried off, the king of the South will be filled with pride and will slaughter many thousands, yet he will not remain triumphant. For the king of the North will muster another army, larger than the first; and after several years, he will advance with a huge army fully equipped. “In those times many will rise against the king of the South. Those who are violent among your own people will rebel in fulfillment of the vision, but without success. Then the king of the North will come and build up siege ramps and will capture a fortified city. The forces of the South will be powerless to resist; even their best troops will not have the strength to stand. The invader will do as he pleases; no one will be able to stand against him. He will establish himself in the Beautiful Land and will have the power to destroy it. He will determine to come with the might of his entire kingdom and will make an alliance with the king of the South. And he will give him a daughter in marriage in order to overthrow the kingdom, but his plans will not succeed or help him. Then he will turn his attention to the coastlands and will take many of them, but a commander will put an end to his insolence and will turn his insolence back on him. After this, he will turn back toward the fortresses of his own country but will stumble and fall, to be seen no more. “His successor will send out a tax collector to maintain the royal splendor. In a few years, however, he will be destroyed, yet not in anger or in battle. “He will be succeeded by a contemptible person who has not been given the honor of royalty. He will invade the kingdom when its people feel secure, and he will seize it through intrigue. Then an overwhelming army will be swept away before him; both it and a prince of the covenant will be destroyed. After coming to an agreement with him, he will act deceitfully, and with only a few people he will rise to power. When the richest provinces feel secure, he will invade them and will achieve what neither his fathers nor his forefathers did. He will distribute plunder, loot and wealth among his followers. He will plot the overthrow of fortresses—but only for a time.

    “With a large army he will stir up his strength and courage against the king of the South. The king of the South will wage war with a large and very powerful army, but he will not be able to stand because of the plots devised against him. Those who eat from the king’s provisions will try to destroy him; his army will be swept away, and many will fall in battle. The two kings, with their hearts bent on evil, will sit at the same table and lie to each other, but to no avail, because an end will still come at the appointed time. The king of the North will return to his own country with great wealth, but his heart will be set against the holy covenant. He will take action against it and then return to his own country. “At the appointed time he will invade the South again, but this time the outcome will be different from what it was before. Ships of the western coastlands will oppose him, and he will lose heart. Then he will turn back and vent his fury against the holy covenant. He will return and show favor to those who forsake the holy covenant. “His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation. With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him. “Those who are wise will instruct many, though for a time they will fall by the sword or be burned or captured or plundered. When they fall, they will receive a little help, and many who are not sincere will join them. Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of the end, for it will still come at the appointed time.

    “The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place. He will show no regard for the gods of his ancestors or for the one desired by women, nor will he regard any god, but will exalt himself above them all. Instead of them, he will honor a god of fortresses; a god unknown to his ancestors he will honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. He will attack the mightiest fortresses with the help of a foreign god and will greatly honor those who acknowledge him. He will make them rulers over many people and will distribute the land at a price. “At the time of the end the king of the South will engage him in battle, and the king of the North will storm out against him with chariots and cavalry and a great fleet of ships. He will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood. He will also invade the Beautiful Land. Many countries will fall, but Edom, Moab and the leaders of Ammon will be delivered from his hand. He will extend his power over many countries; Egypt will not escape. He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver and all the riches of Egypt, with the Libyans and Cushites in submission. But reports from the east and the north will alarm him, and he will set out in a great rage to destroy and annihilate many. He will pitch his royal tents between the seas at the beautiful holy mountain. Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.

    “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.” Then I, Daniel, looked, and there before me stood two others, one on this bank of the river and one on the opposite bank. One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?”

    The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, lifted his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by him who lives forever, saying, “It will be for a time, times and half a time. When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed.” I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?” He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end. Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand. “From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days. “As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.”

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Vintage-race(11)
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Mv6a57gjnldqva23rkyc


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    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


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    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Empty Re: United States AI Solar System (9)

    Post  orthodoxymoron Wed Jul 10, 2019 5:03 am

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 S68-48666
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Apollo_7_launch

    I hope we can develop the ability to consider all-possibilities without going nuts. I've created the foundation for a personal research-project which might occupy me for the rest of my life, without comment or fanfare. I might attempt to specialize in Apollo 7, 8, 9, and 10 in a very-passive and non-threatening manner, just for the hell of it. Has anyone specialized in analyzing Apollo 7, 8, 9, and 10 in isolation from all other Apollo missions?? The Conspiracy-Theorists endlessly-examine the alleged Moon-Landings, but what about the Apollo-Missions which immediately-preceded Apollo 11?? What Would Bart Sibrel Say?? What Would Buzz Aldrin Do?? I've repeatedly stated that I think we went to the Moon, but not with the equipment presented to the public, and perhaps not in the time-frames presented to the public, but what do I know?? I frankly don't care if we went to the Moon or not, but I would appreciate knowing the real story. 'Fake-It Until You Make-It' might have some legitimacy in various circumstances. For Astronauts to 'simply' orbit the Moon and return to Earth is much different than landing on the Moon, exiting the spacecraft, performing various activities for extended periods on the surface, blasting-off, and docking with the parent-spaceship prior to returning to Earth. But if the radiation of the Van Allen Belts, as well as the hazards of Space-Rocks, make Manned Missions to the Moon impossible, the Conspiracy-Theories gain significant momentum. I have various theories of travel throughout the solar system, but I don't wish to talk about them, other than when I was a young-child, I dreamt of traveling throughout the solar system in my very-own one-child UFO!!

    I imagined frictionless magnetic-bearings I named 'THERMLESS'. Once, as I looked up at the stars, I cried. Later, I wrote a paper on Brain-Enhancing Implanted-Electrodes. Classmates called me 'Test-Tube'. Another child called me 'King of the Girls' even though the girls wanted nothing to do with me. Another child (whose older-brother became a prominent theologian) said I really wasn't very smart, and that I just repeated complicated things over and over. Later, I thought I heard this same child speaking of overhearing conversations regarding 'underground reptilians'. Much later, their theologian-brother said something privately to me about "Everyone Working Together" and once, while teaching a class, they seemed extremely nervous. Their wife was extremely rude to me. In college, I gave a talk on the UFO Phenomenon. Once, I attended a Latin-Mass (without taking communion), and the priest seemed to be choking, and a tough-looking guy sat right behind me. All the Above probably mean Absolutely-Nothing but cumulatively an alarming-story seems to emerge. It would probably take intelligence-agency analysts with inside-information several years to make sense of my rambling but I suspect that what is known about me is most-alarming. I have relatives in Langley, but not in Virginia. I made a couple of FoIA requests (at the suggestion of 'RA'), but the responses stated that they didn't respond to fishing-expeditions (or something to that effect). A consultant (who had done work for Robert Schuller) told me that I reminded him of Bill Gates. Honest. A stranger told me "You're too-deep into theology." An Ivy-League Divinity-School Graduate told me "Your Cup is Too Full."

    'RA' implied that I was targeted because of some significance and because of focusing on governance issues (or something to that effect). I'm honestly feeling extreme discomfort to the point that functioning normally is almost impossible. I suspect that I've been implanted with various nefarious-items, and that nefarious-beings are attempting to possess me. But I'm pretty stubborn and principled, so the net effect is mostly incapacitation and torture with significant memory-loss. I suspect that my crazy-threads are some sort of catharsis, but also attempted education and communication. I've honestly attempted to help and seek help, but I've mostly been kicked in the balls I supposedly need to grow. Perhaps I lack testicles because they've been kicked so many times. Supposed friends and foes give me the 'silent-treatment' and just keep feeding me more rope (presumably to hang myself). What if Chad Decker was the brains behind the whole 'V' phenomenon, yet suffered amnesia and timidity?? I'm honestly a 'V' and I'm related to 'Anna' and I've met 'Erica' and 'Maleficent'. Also, I went to school with the 'Borg'. I couldn't make this stuff up if my eternal-life depended upon it. What Would David Bowman Say?? What Would Peter Venkman Say?? What Would Alan Rickman Say?? What Would David Mann Say?? What Would KRLLL Say?? What Would the Gnome (of the Human G-nome Project) Say?? Someone who knew someone on the 'Human Genome Project' told me they had learned how smart I was (even though I'm a Completely Ignorant Fool in real-life). I'm presently leaning toward the concept of the ancient to modern existence of a Galactic-Matrix which cannot be overridden by even the Matrix Creators and/or Administrators (and that they are probably subject to their own Matrix whether they like it or not).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_7 Apollo 7 was an October 1968 human spaceflight mission carried out by the United States. It was the first mission in the United States' Apollo program to carry a crew into space. It was also the first U.S. spaceflight to carry astronauts since the flight of Gemini XII in November 1966. The AS-204 mission, also known as "Apollo 1", was intended to be the first crewed flight of the Apollo program. It was scheduled to launch in February 1967, but a fire in the cabin during a January 1967 test killed the crew. Crewed flights were then suspended for 21 months, while the cause of the accident was investigated and improvements made to the spacecraft and safety procedures, and uncrewed test flights of the Saturn V rocket and Apollo Lunar Module were made. Apollo 7 fulfilled Apollo 1's mission of testing the Apollo command and service module (CSM) in low Earth orbit.

    The Apollo 7 crew was commanded by Walter M. Schirra, with senior pilot / navigator Donn F. Eisele, and pilot / systems engineer R. Walter Cunningham. Official crew titles were made consistent with those that would be used for the crewed lunar landing missions: Eisele was Command Module Pilot and Cunningham was Lunar Module Pilot. Their mission was Apollo's 'C' mission, an 11-day Earth-orbital test flight to check out the redesigned Block II CSM with a crew on board. It was the first time a Saturn IB vehicle put a crew into space; Apollo 7 was the first three-person American space mission, and the first to include a live TV broadcast from an American spacecraft. It was launched on October 11, 1968, from what was then known as Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Florida. Despite tension between the crew and ground controllers, the mission was a complete technical success, giving NASA the confidence to send Apollo 8 into orbit around the Moon two months later. The flight would prove to be the final space flight for all of its three crew members—and the only one for both Cunningham and Eisele—when it splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean on October 22, 1968. It was also the only crewed launch from Launch Complex 34, as well as the last launch from the complex.

    Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham were first named as an Apollo crew on September 29, 1966. They were to fly a second Earth orbital test of the original Block I command and service module (not designed to dock with the lunar module for lunar flight) after Apollo 1, the first crewed flight, to be made by Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. In December 1966, the second mission was deemed redundant and canceled, and Schirra's crew were reassigned as Grissom's backup.

    Plans for the first crewed Apollo flights were completely disrupted by the January 27, 1967 cabin fire which killed Grissom, White, and Chaffee. Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham were later named as prime crew for the first crewed flight, which would now use the Block II spacecraft designed for the lunar missions. The command module (CM) and astronauts' spacesuits had been extensively redesigned, to reduce and eliminate the chance of a repeat of the accident which killed the first crew. Schirra thus became the only astronaut to fly Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions.[5] His crew would test the life support, propulsion, guidance and control systems during this "open-ended" mission (meaning it would be extended as it passed each test). The duration was limited to 11 days, reduced from the original 14-day limit for Apollo 1.[6] Since it flew in low Earth orbit and did not include the lunar module (LM), Apollo 7 was launched with the Saturn IB booster rather than the much larger and more powerful Saturn V.[7]

    Throughout the Mercury and Gemini programs, McDonnell Aircraft engineer Guenter Wendt had been leader of the spacecraft launch pad teams, with ultimate responsibility for condition of the spacecraft at launch. He earned the astronauts' respect and admiration, including Schirra's.[8] However, the spacecraft contractor had changed from McDonnell (Mercury and Gemini) to North American Rockwell (Apollo), so Wendt was not the pad leader for Apollo 1.[9]

    So adamant was Schirra in his desire to have Wendt back as Pad Leader for his Apollo flight, that he got his boss Deke Slayton to persuade North American management to hire Wendt away from McDonnell, and Schirra personally lobbied North American's launch operations manager to change Wendt's shift from midnight to day so he could be pad leader for Apollo 7. Wendt remained as Pad Leader for the entire Apollo program.[9]

    Wendt's face was the last they saw before the hatch was sealed, and immediately after liftoff Eisele said with a mock German accent into his radio, "I vonder vere Guenter Vendt?"[9]

    The first crewed American space flight in 22 months lifted from LC-34 at 15:02:45 UTC on Friday, October 11, 1968.[10] Liftoff proceeded flawlessly; the Saturn IB performed well on its first crewed launch and there were no significant anomalies during the boost phase. The astronauts described it as very smooth riding compared to the rough, bumpy Titan II used to launch the Gemini spacecraft.

    During the countdown, the wind was blowing in from the east. To launch under these weather conditions was in violation of safety rules since in the event of a launch vehicle malfunction and abort, the command module would touch down on land in Florida, which would be rough and have the potential for the crew to be seriously injured or killed. Apollo 7 was still equipped with the old Apollo 1-style crew couches, which did not provide adequate shock protection in the event of a terrestrial landing. The crew couches had been since redesigned, but the new units were not ready in time for the launch. While seated inside the command module, Schirra protested that launching with the wind going east to west was dangerous, but these complaints were ignored by the blockhouse crew.[11]

    Following orbital injection and separation from the S-IVB, the crew turned the CSM around using its Reaction Control System thrusters, and Eisele practiced a simulated lunar module rendezvous and docking, using a visual reference target mounted inside the spacecraft adapter in the same radial position it occupied on the LM. One of the adapter panels on the S-IVB failed to completely deploy to its 45 degree open position, reminding CAPCOM Tom Stafford of his "angry alligator" experience on Gemini 9A, when docking was prevented by mis-deployed adapter panels. Had this been an actual lunar mission, the astronauts might have found the process of LM extraction from the adapter more difficult, risking possible damage. This reinforced the decision to add a system to completely separate and jettison the panels on all subsequent Apollo-Saturn V flights.[12]

    The Apollo hardware and all mission operations worked without any significant problems, and the service propulsion system (SPS), the all-important engine that would place Apollo into and out of lunar orbit, made eight firings, performing within 1% of the engine acceptance test thrust and specific impulse values. As the Saturn IB itself had performed very smoothly during launch, the astronauts were unprepared for the sudden violent jolt they received upon first activating the SPS, leading to Schirra yelling "Yabbadabbadoo!" in reference to The Flintstones cartoon. Don Eisele called it "a real boot in the rear."[13]

    An assortment of minor hardware problems occurred over the flight; these included the drinking water hose trigger sticking during the final two days, a momentary undervoltage of the main AC buses caused by the automatic cryo fan switch in the service module LOX and LH2 tanks, and a loss of telemetry due to a malfunctioning electrical commutator following SM jettison at the end of the mission, meaning that the final 15 minutes of data transmission were lost. Aside from the last event, which remained a mystery despite postflight testing of the commutator, all of the problems on Apollo 7 were quickly resolved and some of them also involved equipment or procedures that would not be used on subsequent missions.

    Apollo promised the best food ever eaten in space. For the first time, astronauts had both hot and cold water to prepare meals with (the food came in freeze-dried vacuum packs that would be injected with water or else eaten dry followed by a sip of water) and Wally Schirra, who had had only toothpaste-like tubes for food on his Mercury flight, described the food as "Still does not match home cooking, but it comes a lot closer than space food used to." Thirty-three meals were provided for the three crewmen, allowing them three meals a day for each of the 11 days in space. Even so, the astronauts complained that there was more food than they could eat and that most of it was too sweet, although the menus had been prepared based on their personal preferences.

    Early fears that the movement of the astronauts inside the CM would make it hard for the spacecraft's attitude control system to stabilize it proved unfounded, and they reported that motion was "incredibly easy" with no gravity to work against. As sleeping in the fetal position was cramping and painful, a stretching device called the Exer-Genie was provided for relaxing aching muscles.[12]

    Another mission goal was the first live television broadcast from an American spacecraft (Gordon Cooper had transmitted slow scan television pictures from Faith 7 in 1963, which were never broadcast).[14] It was initially scheduled for midday on day two, but Schirra was concerned with the broadcast interfering with the rendezvous test.[15]

    Even though Apollo's larger cabin was more comfortable than Gemini's, 11 days in orbit took its toll on the astronauts. Tension with Schirra began with the launch decision, when flight managers decided to launch with a less-than-ideal abort option for the early part of the ascent. Once in orbit, the spacious cabin may have induced some crew motion sickness, which had not been an issue in the earlier, smaller spacecraft. The crew were unhappy with their food selections, especially the high energy sweets. They also found the waste collection system cumbersome (requiring 30 minutes to use) and smelly. But the worst problem occurred when Schirra developed a severe head cold. As a result, he became irritable with requests from Mission Control and all three astronauts began "talking back" to the CAPCOM. An early example was this exchange after Mission Control requested that a TV camera be turned on in the spacecraft:

    SCHIRRA: You've added two burns to this flight schedule, and you've added a urine water dump; and we have a new vehicle up here, and I can tell you at this point TV will be delayed without any further discussion until after the rendezvous.
    CAPCOM (Jack Swigert): Roger. Copy.
    SCHIRRA: Roger.
    CAPCOM 1 (Deke Slayton): Apollo 7, this is CAPCOM number 1.
    SCHIRRA: Roger.
    CAPCOM 1: All we've agreed to do on this is flip it.
    SCHIRRA: ... with two commanders, Apollo 7
    CAPCOM 1: All we have agreed to on this particular pass is to flip the switch on. No other activity is associated with TV; I think we are still obligated to do that.
    SCHIRRA: We do not have the equipment out; we have not had an opportunity to follow setting; we have not eaten at this point. At this point, I have a cold. I refuse to foul up our time lines this way.[16]

    A further source of tension between Mission Control and the crew was that Schirra repeatedly expressed the view that the reentry should be conducted with their helmets off, contrary to previous Project Mercury and Gemini experience. They perceived a risk that their eardrums might burst due to the sinus pressure from their colds, and they wanted to be able to pinch their noses and blow to equalize the pressure as it increased during reentry. This would have been impossible wearing the helmets, as the new Apollo helmets were a continuous "fishbowl" type without a moveable visor, unlike previous helmets. However, on repeated occasions over the course of the mission, Schirra was instructed that the helmets should be worn for safety reasons. In the final exchange on the subject, Mission Control made it clear to Schirra that he would be expected to account for flouting instructions:

    CAPCOM 1 (Deke Slayton): Okay. I think you ought to clearly understand that there is absolutely no experience at all with landing without the helmet on.
    SCHIRRA: And there is no experience with the helmet either on that one.
    CAPCOM 1: That one we've got a lot of experience with, yes.
    SCHIRRA: If we had an open visor, I might go along with that.
    CAPCOM 1: Okay. I guess you better be prepared to discuss in some detail when we land why we haven't got them on. I think you're too late now to do much about it.
    SCHIRRA: That's affirmative. I don't think anybody down there has worn the helmets as much as we have.
    CAPCOM 1: Yes.
    SCHIRRA: We tried them on this morning.
    CAPCOM 1: Understand that. The only thing we're concerned about is the landing. We couldn't care less about the reentry. But it's your neck, and I hope you don't break it.
    SCHIRRA: Thank you, babe.
    CAPCOM 1: Over and out.[17]

    Exchanges such as this led to Eisele and Cunningham being rejected for future missions (Schirra had already announced his impending retirement from NASA).[12] Some have observed that the psychology unique to the high-stress spaceflight environment that led to such workplace tension was poorly grasped at the time, but it became better understood during the Skylab program and especially by the much-later Shuttle–Mir Program.[citation needed]

    The splashdown point was 27°32′N 64°04′W, 200 nautical miles (370 km) SSW of Bermuda and 7 nmi (13 km) north of the recovery ship USS Essex.[12]

    Despite the difficulties between the crew and Mission Control, the mission successfully met its objectives to verify the Apollo command and service module's flight worthiness, allowing Apollo 8's flight to the Moon to proceed just two months later.[18] Apollo 7 was Project Apollo's only human spaceflight mission to launch from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station's Launch Complex 34.[19] All subsequent Apollo and Skylab spacecraft flights (including Apollo–Soyuz) were launched from Launch Complex 39 at the nearby Kennedy Space Center.[7] Launch Complex 34 was declared redundant and decommissioned in 1969, making Apollo 7 the last human spaceflight mission to launch from the Cape Air Force Station in the 20th century.[7] As of January 2019, Cunningham is the only surviving member of the crew. Eisele died in 1987 and Schirra in 2007.[5][18]

    The insignia for the flight shows a command and service module with its SPS engine firing, the trail from that fire encircling a globe and extending past the edges of the patch symbolizing the Earth-orbital nature of the mission. The Roman numeral VII appears in the South Pacific Ocean and the crew's names appear on a wide black arc at the bottom. The patch was designed by Allen Stevens of Rockwell International.[20]

    After the mission, NASA awarded Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham its Exceptional Service Medal in recognition of their success. On November 2, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson held a ceremony at the LBJ Ranch in Johnson City, Texas, to present the astronauts with the medals. He also presented NASA's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal, to recently retired NASA administrator James E. Webb, for his "outstanding leadership of America's space program" since the beginning of Apollo.[21]

    Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham were the only crew, of all the Apollo, Skylab, and Apollo-Soyuz Test Project missions, who had not been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal immediately following their missions (though Schirra had received the medal twice before, for his Mercury and Gemini missions). Therefore, NASA administrator Michael D. Griffin decided to belatedly award the medals to the crew in October 2008, "[f]or exemplary performance in meeting all the Apollo 7 mission objectives and more on the first manned Apollo mission, paving the way for the first flight to the Moon on Apollo 8 and the first manned lunar landing on Apollo 11." Only Cunningham was still alive at the time; Eisele's widow accepted his medal, and Apollo 8 crew member Bill Anders accepted Schirra's. Other Apollo astronauts, including Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Alan Bean, were present at the award ceremony. Former Flight Director Christopher C. Kraft Jr., who had been in conflict with the crew during the mission, sent a conciliatory video message of congratulations, saying: "We gave you a hard time once but you certainly survived that and have done extremely well since ... I am frankly, very proud to call you a friend."[18]

    In January 1969, the Apollo 7 command module was displayed on a NASA float in the inauguration parade of President Richard M. Nixon. For nearly 30 years the command module was on loan (renewable every two years) to the National Museum of Science and Technology, in Ottawa, Ontario, along with the space suit worn by Wally Schirra. In November 2003, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., requested them back for display at their new annex at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Currently, the Apollo 7 CM is on loan to the Frontiers of Flight Museum located next to Love Field in Dallas, Texas.

    On November 6, 1968, comedian Bob Hope broadcast one of his variety television specials from NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston to honor the Apollo 7 crew. Barbara Eden, star of the popular comedy series I Dream of Jeannie, which featured two fictional astronauts among its regular characters, appeared with Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham.

    Schirra parlayed the head cold he contracted during Apollo 7 into a television advertising contract as a spokesman for Actifed, an over the counter version of the medicine he took in space.[22]

    The Apollo 7 mission is dramatized in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon episode "We Have Cleared the Tower", with Mark Harmon as Schirra, John Mese as Eisele, Fredric Lehne as Cunningham, and Max Wright as Wendt.

    A documentary produced by George Van Valkenburg, The Log of Apollo 7, has been restored from 16 mm film and posted online.[23]

    Bibliography

    Farmer, Gene; Hamblin, Dora Jane; Armstrong, Neil; Collins, Michael; Aldrin, Edwin E. Jr. (1970). First on the Moon: A Voyage with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. Epilogue by Arthur C. Clarke (1st ed.). Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-71-810736-5. LCCN 76103950. OCLC 71625.
    Steven-Boniecki, Dwight (2010). Live TV From the Moon. Burlington, Ontario: Apogee Books. ISBN 978-1-926592-16-9. OCLC 489010199.

    Further reading

    Lattimer, Dick (1985). All We Did Was Fly to the Moon. History-alive series. 1. Foreword by James A. Michener (1st ed.). Alachua, FL: Whispering Eagle Press. ISBN 0-9611228-0-3. LCCN 85222271.
    Schirra, Wally; Billings, Richard N. (1988). Schirra's Space. Blujacket Books. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-792-9. LCCN 95024817.

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    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8 Apollo 8, the second manned spaceflight mission flown in the United States Apollo space program, was launched on December 21, 1968, and became the first manned spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit, reach the Moon, orbit it, and return.[1][2][3] The three-astronaut crew—Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders—were the first humans to fly to the Moon, to witness and photograph an Earthrise, and to escape the gravity of a celestial body. Apollo 8 was the third flight and the first crewed launch of the Saturn V rocket and was the first human spaceflight from the Kennedy Space Center, located adjacent to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

    Originally planned as the second crewed Apollo Lunar Module and command module test, to be flown in an elliptical medium Earth orbit in early 1969, the mission profile was changed in August 1968 to a more ambitious command-module-only lunar orbital flight to be flown in December, as the lunar module was not yet ready to make its first flight. Astronaut Jim McDivitt's crew, who were training to fly the first lunar module flight in low Earth orbit, became the crew for the Apollo 9 mission, and Borman's crew were moved to the Apollo 8 mission. This left Borman's crew with two to three months' less training and preparation time than originally planned, and replaced the planned lunar module training with translunar navigation training.

    Apollo 8 took 68 hours (almost three days) to travel the distance to the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times over the course of twenty hours, during which they made a Christmas Eve television broadcast in which they read the first ten verses from the Book of Genesis. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever. Apollo 8's successful mission paved the way for Apollo 11 to fulfill U.S. president John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. The Apollo 8 astronauts returned to Earth on December 27, 1968, when their spacecraft splashed down in the northern Pacific Ocean. The crew members were named Time magazine's "Men of the Year" for 1968 upon their return.

    In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United States was engaged in the Cold War, a geopolitical rivalry with the Soviet Union.[10] On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. This unexpected success stoked fears and imaginations around the world. It not only demonstrated that the Soviet Union had the capability to deliver nuclear weapons over intercontinental distances, it challenged American claims of military, economic, and technological superiority.[11] The launch precipitated the Sputnik crisis and triggered the Space Race.[12]

    President John F. Kennedy believed that not only was it in the national interest of the United States to be superior to other nations, but that the perception of American power was at least as important as the actuality. It was therefore intolerable to him for the Soviet Union to be more advanced in the field of space exploration. He was determined that the United States should compete, and sought a challenge that maximized its chances of winning.[10]

    The Soviet Union had better booster rockets, which meant that Kennedy needed to choose a goal that was beyond the capacity of the existing generation of rocketry, one where the US and Soviet Union would be starting from a position of equality – something spectacular, even if it could not be justified on military, economic, or scientific grounds. After consulting with his experts and advisors, he chose such a project: to land a man on the Moon and return him to the Earth.[13] This project already had a name: Project Apollo.[14]

    An early and crucial decision was the adoption of lunar orbit rendezvous, under which a specialized spacecraft would land on the lunar surface. The Apollo spacecraft therefore had three primary components: a command module (CM) with a cabin for the three astronauts, and the only part that would return to Earth; a service module (SM) to provide the command module with propulsion, electrical power, oxygen, and water; and a two-stage lunar module (LM), which comprised a descent stage for landing on the Moon and an ascent stage to return the astronauts to lunar orbit.[15] This configuration could be launched by the Saturn V rocket that was then under development.[16]

    The initial crew assignment of Frank Borman as Commander, Michael Collins as Command Module Pilot (CMP) and William Anders as Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) for the third crewed Apollo flight was officially announced on November 20, 1967.[17][n 3] Collins was replaced by Jim Lovell in July 1968, after suffering a cervical disc herniation that required surgery to repair.[18] This crew was unique among pre-Space Shuttle era missions in that the commander was not the most experienced member of the crew: Lovell had flown twice before, on Gemini VII and Gemini XII. This would also be the first case of a commander of a previous mission (Lovell, Gemini XII) flying as a non-commander.[19][20]

    The backup crew assignment of Neil Armstrong as Commander, Lovell as CMP, and Buzz Aldrin as LMP for the third crewed Apollo flight was officially announced at the same time as the prime crew.[17] When Lovell was reassigned to the prime crew, Aldrin was moved to CMP, and Fred Haise was brought in as backup LMP. Armstrong would later command Apollo 11, with Aldrin as LMP and Collins as CMP. Haise served on the backup crew of Apollo 11 as LMP and flew on Apollo 13 as LMP.[20][21]

    During Projects Mercury and Gemini, each mission had a prime and a backup crew. For Apollo, a third crew of astronauts was added, known as the support crew. The support crew maintained the flight plan, checklists, and mission ground rules, and ensured that the prime and backup crews were apprised of any changes. The support crew developed procedures in the simulators, especially those for emergency situations, so that the prime and backup crews could practice and master them in their simulator training.[22] For Apollo 8, the support crew consisted of Ken Mattingly, Vance Brand, and Gerald Carr.[20][23]
    The capsule communicator (CAPCOM) was an astronaut at the Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, who was the only person who communicated directly with the flight crew.[24] For Apollo 8, the CAPCOMs were Michael Collins, Gerald Carr, Ken Mattingly, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Vance Brand, and Fred Haise.[20][23]

    The mission control teams rotated in three shifts, each led by a flight director. The directors for Apollo 8 were Clifford E. Charlesworth (Green team), Glynn Lunney (Black team), and Milton Windler (Maroon team).[20][25][26]

    The triangular shape of the insignia refers to the shape of the Apollo CM. It shows a red figure 8 looping around the Earth and Moon to reflect both the mission number and the circumlunar nature of the mission. On the bottom of the 8 are the names of the three astronauts. The initial design of the insignia was developed by Jim Lovell, who reportedly sketched it while riding in the back seat of a T-38 flight from California to Houston shortly after learning of the Apollo 8's re-designation as a lunar-orbital mission.[27]

    The crew wanted to name their spacecraft, but NASA did not allow it. The crew would have likely chosen Columbiad,[27] the name of the giant cannon that launches a space vehicle in Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon. The Apollo 11 CM was named Columbia in part for that reason.[28]

    On September 20, 1967, NASA adopted a seven-step plan for Apollo missions, with the final step being a Moon landing. Apollo 4 and Apollo 6 were "A" missions, tests of the Saturn V launch vehicle using an unmanned Block I production model of the command and service module (CSM) in Earth orbit. Apollo 5 was a "B" mission, a test of the LM in Earth orbit. Apollo 7, scheduled for October 1968, would be a "C" mission, a manned Earth-orbit flight of the CSM. Further missions depended on the readiness of the LM. It had been decided as early as May 1967 that there would be at least four additional missions. Apollo 8 was planned as the "D" mission, a test of the LM in a low Earth orbit in December 1968 by James McDivitt, David Scott, and Russell Schweickart, while Borman's crew would fly the "E" mission, a more rigorous LM test in an elliptical medium Earth orbit as Apollo 9, in early 1969. The "F" Mission would test the CSM and LM in lunar orbit, and the "G" mission would be the finale, the Moon landing.[29]

    Production of the LM fell behind schedule, and when Apollo 8's LM-3 arrived at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in June 1968, over 100 significant defects were discovered, leading Bob Gilruth, the director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), and others to conclude that there was no prospect of LM-3 being ready to fly in 1968.[30] Indeed, it was possible that delivery would slip to February or March 1969. Following the original seven-step plan would have meant delaying the "D" and subsequent missions, and endangering the program's goal of a lunar landing before the end of 1969.[31] George Low, the Manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office, proposed a solution in August 1968 to keep the program on track despite the LM delay. Since the next CSM (designated as "CSM-103") would be ready three months before LM-3, a CSM-only mission could be flown in December 1968. Instead of repeating the "C" mission flight of Apollo 7, this CSM could be sent all the way to the Moon, with the possibility of entering a lunar orbit and returning to Earth. The new mission would also allow NASA to test lunar landing procedures that would otherwise have had to wait until Apollo 10, the scheduled "F" mission. This also meant that the medium Earth orbit "E" mission could be dispensed with. The net result was that only the "D" mission had to be delayed, and the plan for lunar landing in mid-1969 could remain on timeline.[32]

    On August 9, 1968, Low discussed the idea with Gilruth, Flight Director Chris Kraft, and the Director of Flight Crew Operations, Donald Slayton. They then flew to the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, where they met with KSC Director Kurt Debus, Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips, Rocco Petrone, and Wernher von Braun. Kraft considered the proposal feasible from a flight control standpoint; Debus and Petrone agreed that the next Saturn V, AS-503, could be made ready by December 1; and von Braun was confident that the pogo oscillation problems that had afflicted Apollo 6 had been fixed. Almost every senior manager at NASA agreed with this new mission, citing confidence in both the hardware and the personnel, along with the potential for a circumlunar flight providing a significant morale boost. The only person who needed some convincing was James E. Webb, the NASA administrator. Backed by the full support of his agency, Webb authorized the mission. Apollo 8 was officially changed from a "D" mission to a "C-Prime" lunar-orbit mission.[33]

    With the change in mission for Apollo 8, Slayton asked McDivitt if he still wanted to fly it. McDivitt turned it down; his crew had spent a great deal of time preparing to test the LM, and that was what he still wanted to do. Slayton then decided to swap the prime and backup crews of the D and E missions. This swap also meant a swap of spacecraft, requiring Borman's crew to use CSM-103, while McDivitt's crew would use CSM-104, since CM-104 could not be made ready by December. David Scott was not happy about giving up CM-103, the testing of which he had closely supervised, for CM-104, although the two were almost identical, and Anders was less than enthusiastic about being an LMP on a flight with no LM.[34][35] Instead, in order that the spacecraft would have the correct weight and balance, Apollo 8 would carry a LM test article, a boilerplate model of LM-3.[33]

    Added pressure on the Apollo program to make its 1969 landing goal was provided by the Soviet Union's Zond 5 mission, which flew some living creatures, including Russian tortoises, in a cislunar loop around the Moon and returned them to Earth on September 21.[36] There was speculation within NASA and the press that they might be preparing to launch cosmonauts on a similar circumlunar mission before the end of 1968.[37]

    The Apollo 8 crew, now living in the crew quarters at Kennedy Space Center, received a visit from Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the night before the launch.[38] They talked about how, before his 1927 flight, Lindbergh had used a piece of string to measure the distance from New York City to Paris on a globe and from that calculated the fuel needed for the flight. The total he had carried was a tenth of the amount that the Saturn V would burn every second. The next day, the Lindberghs watched the launch of Apollo 8 from a nearby dune.[39]

    The Saturn V rocket used by Apollo 8 was designated AS-503, or the "03rd" model of the Saturn V ("5") Rocket to be used in the Apollo-Saturn ("AS") program. When it was erected in the Vehicle Assembly Building on December 20, 1967, it was thought that the rocket would be used for an unmanned Earth-orbit test flight carrying a boilerplate command and service module. Apollo 6 had suffered several major problems during its April 1968 flight, including severe pogo oscillation during its first stage, two second-stage engine failures, and a third stage that failed to reignite in orbit. Without assurances that these problems had been rectified, NASA administrators could not justify risking a manned mission until additional unmanned test flights proved that the Saturn V was ready.[40]

    Teams from the MSFC went to work on the problems. Of primary concern was the pogo oscillation, which would not only hamper engine performance, but could exert significant g-forces on a crew. A task force of contractors, NASA agency representatives, and MSFC researchers concluded that the engines vibrated at a frequency similar to the frequency at which the spacecraft itself vibrated, causing a resonance effect that induced oscillations in the rocket. A system that used helium gas to absorb some of these vibrations was installed.[40]

    Of equal importance was the failure of three engines during flight. Researchers quickly determined that a leaking hydrogen fuel line ruptured when exposed to vacuum, causing a loss of fuel pressure in engine two. When an automatic shutoff attempted to close the liquid hydrogen valve and shut down engine two, it had accidentally shut down engine three's liquid oxygen due to a miswired connection. As a result, engine three failed within one second of engine two's shutdown. Further investigation revealed the same problem for the third-stage engine – a faulty igniter line. The team modified the igniter lines and fuel conduits, hoping to avoid similar problems on future launches.[40]

    The teams tested their solutions in August 1968 at the MSFC. A Saturn stage IC was equipped with shock-absorbing devices to demonstrate the team's solution to the problem of pogo oscillation, while a Saturn Stage II was retrofitted with modified fuel lines to demonstrate their resistance to leaks and ruptures in vacuum conditions. Once NASA administrators were convinced that the problems had been solved, they gave their approval for a manned mission using AS-503.[40]

    The Apollo 8 spacecraft was placed on top of the rocket on September 21, and the rocket made the slow 3-mile (4.8 km) journey to the launch pad on October 9.[41] Testing continued all through December until the day before launch, including various levels of readiness testing from December 5 through 11. Final testing of modifications to address the problems of pogo oscillation, ruptured fuel lines, and bad igniter lines took place on December 18, three days before the scheduled launch.[40]

    As the first manned spacecraft to orbit more than one celestial body, Apollo 8's profile had two different sets of orbital parameters, separated by a translunar injection maneuver. Apollo lunar missions would begin with a nominal 100-nautical-mile (185.2 km) circular Earth parking orbit. Apollo 8 was launched into an initial orbit with an apogee of 99.99 nautical miles (185.18 km) and a perigee of 99.57 nautical miles (184.40 km), with an inclination of 32.51° to the Equator, and an orbital period of 88.19 minutes. Propellant venting increased the apogee by 6.4 nautical miles (11.9 km) over the 2 hours, 44 minutes, and 30 seconds spent in the parking orbit.[42]

    This was followed by a trans-lunar injection (TLI) burn of the S-IVB third stage for 318 seconds, accelerating the 63,650 lb (28,870 kg) command and service module and 19,900 lb (9,000 kg) LM test article from an orbital velocity of 25,567 feet per second (7,793 m/s) to the injection velocity of 35,505 ft/s (10,822 m/s)[43][5] which set a record for the highest speed, relative to Earth, that humans had ever traveled.[44] This speed was slightly less than the Earth's escape velocity of 36,747 feet per second (11,200 m/s), but put Apollo 8 into an elongated elliptical Earth orbit, close enough to the Moon to be captured by the Moon's gravity.[45]

    The standard lunar orbit for Apollo missions was planned as a nominal 60-nautical-mile (110 km) circular orbit above the Moon's surface. Initial lunar orbit insertion was an ellipse with a perilune of 60.0 nautical miles (111.1 km) and an apolune of 168.5 nautical miles (312.1 km), at an inclination of 12° from the lunar equator. This was then circularized at 60.7 nautical miles (112.4 km) by 59.7 nautical miles (110.6 km), with an orbital period of 128.7 minutes.[43] The effect of lunar mass concentrations ("mascons") on the orbit was found to be greater than initially predicted; over the course of the ten lunar orbits lasting twenty hours, the orbital distance was perturbated to 63.6 nautical miles (117.8 km) by 58.6 nautical miles (108.5 km).[46] Apollo 8 achieved a maximum distance from Earth of 203,752 nautical miles (234,474 statute miles; 377,349 kilometers).[46]

    Apollo 8 launched at 12:51:00 UTC (07:51:00 Eastern Standard Time) on December 21, 1968, using the Saturn V's three stages to achieve Earth orbit.[46] The S-IC first stage landed in the Atlantic Ocean at 30°12′N 74°7′W, and the S-II second stage landed at 31°50′N 37°17′W.[47] The S-IVB third stage injected the craft into Earth orbit and remained attached to perform the TLI burn that would put the spacecraft on a trajectory to the Moon.[48]

    Once the vehicle reached Earth orbit, both the crew and Houston flight controllers spent the next 2 hours and 38 minutes checking that the spacecraft was in proper working order and ready for TLI.[49] The proper operation of the S-IVB third stage of the rocket was crucial, and in the last unmanned test, it had failed to reignite for this burn.[50] Collins was the first CAPCOM on duty, and at 2 hours, 27 minutes and 22 seconds after launch he radioed, "Apollo 8. You are Go for TLI."[49] This communication meant that Mission Control had given official permission for Apollo 8 to go to the Moon. The S-IVB engine ignited on time and performed the TLI burn perfectly.[49] Over the next five minutes, the spacecraft's speed increased from 7,600 to 10,800 meters per second (25,000 to 35,000 ft/s).[49]

    After the S-IVB had placed the mission on course for the Moon, the command and service modules (CSM), the remaining Apollo 8 spacecraft, separated from it. The crew then rotated the spacecraft to take photographs of the spent stage and then practiced flying in formation with it. As the crew rotated the spacecraft, they had their first views of the Earth as they moved away from it – this marked the first time humans had viewed the whole Earth at once. Borman became worried that the S-IVB was staying too close to the CSM and suggested to Mission Control that the crew perform a separation maneuver. Mission Control first suggested pointing the spacecraft towards Earth and using the small reaction control system (RCS) thrusters on the service module (SM) to add 1.1 ft/s (0.34 m/s) to their velocity away from the Earth, but Borman did not want to lose sight of the S-IVB. After discussion, the crew and Mission Control decided to burn in the Earth direction to increase speed, but at 7.7 ft/s (2.3 m/s) instead. The time needed to prepare and perform the additional burn put the crew an hour behind their onboard tasks.[48][51]

    Five hours after launch, Mission Control sent a command to the S-IVB to vent its remaining fuel, changing its trajectory. The S-IVB, with the test article attached, posed no further hazard to Apollo 8, passing the orbit of the Moon and going into a 0.99-by-0.92-astronomical-unit (148 by 138 Gm) solar orbit with an inclination of 23.47° from the plane of the ecliptic, and an orbital period of 340.80 days.[48] It became a derelict object, and will continue to orbit the Sun for many years.[52]

    The Apollo 8 crew were the first humans to pass through the Van Allen radiation belts, which extend up to 15,000 miles (24,000 km) from Earth. Scientists predicted that passing through the belts quickly at the spacecraft's high speed would cause a radiation dosage of no more than a chest X-ray, or 1 milligray (mGy; during a year, the average human receives a dose of 2 to 3 mGy). To record the actual radiation dosages, each crew member wore a Personal Radiation Dosimeter that transmitted data to Earth, as well as three passive film dosimeters that showed the cumulative radiation experienced by the crew. By the end of the mission, the crew members experienced an average radiation dose of 1.6 mGy.[53]

    Lovell's main job as Command Module Pilot was as navigator. Although Mission Control normally performed all the actual navigation calculations, it was necessary to have a crew member adept at navigation so that the crew could return to Earth in case communication with Mission Control was lost. Lovell navigated by star sightings using a sextant built into the spacecraft, measuring the angle between a star and the Earth's (or the Moon's) horizon. This task was made difficult by a large cloud of debris around the spacecraft, which made it hard to distinguish the stars.[54]

    By seven hours into the mission, the crew was about 1 hour and 40 minutes behind flight plan because of the problems in moving away from the S-IVB and Lovell's obscured star sightings. The crew placed the spacecraft into Passive Thermal Control (PTC), also called "barbecue roll", in which the spacecraft rotated about once per hour around its long axis to ensure even heat distribution across the surface of the spacecraft. In direct sunlight, parts of the spacecraft's outer surface could be heated to over 200 °C (392 °F), while the parts in shadow would be −100 °C (−148 °F). These temperatures could cause the heat shield to crack and propellant lines to burst. Because it was impossible to get a perfect roll, the spacecraft swept out a cone as it rotated. The crew had to make minor adjustments every half hour as the cone pattern got larger and larger.[55]

    The first mid-course correction came eleven hours into the flight. The crew had been awake for more than 16 hours. Before launch, NASA had decided that at least one crew member should be awake at all times to deal with problems that might arise. Borman started the first sleep shift but found sleeping difficult because of the constant radio chatter and mechanical noises. Testing on the ground had shown that the service propulsion system (SPS) engine had a small chance of exploding when burned for long periods unless its combustion chamber was "coated" first by burning the engine for a short period. This first correction burn was only 2.4 seconds and added about 20.4 ft/s (6.2 m/s) velocity prograde (in the direction of travel).[48] This change was less than the planned 24.8 ft/s (7.6 m/s), because of a bubble of helium in the oxidizer lines, which caused unexpectedly low propellant pressure. The crew had to use the small RCS thrusters to make up the shortfall. Two later planned mid-course corrections were canceled because the Apollo 8 trajectory was found to be perfect.[55]

    About an hour after starting his sleep shift, Borman obtained permission from ground control to take a Seconal sleeping pill. The pill had little effect. Borman eventually fell asleep, and then awoke feeling ill. He vomited twice and had a bout of diarrhea; this left the spacecraft full of small globules of vomit and feces, which the crew cleaned up as well as they could. Borman initially did not want everyone to know about his medical problems, but Lovell and Anders wanted to inform Mission Control. The crew decided to use the Data Storage Equipment (DSE), which could tape voice recordings and telemetry and dump them to Mission Control at high speed. After recording a description of Borman's illness they asked Mission Control to check the recording, stating that they "would like an evaluation of the voice comments".[57]

    The Apollo 8 crew and Mission Control medical personnel held a conference using an unoccupied second-floor control room (there were two identical control rooms in Houston, on the second and third floors, only one of which was used during a mission). The conference participants concluded that there was little to worry about and that Borman's illness was either a 24-hour flu, as Borman thought, or a reaction to the sleeping pill.[58] Researchers now believe that he was suffering from space adaptation syndrome, which affects about a third of astronauts during their first day in space as their vestibular system adapts to weightlessness.[59] Space adaptation syndrome had not occurred on previous spacecraft (Mercury and Gemini), because those astronauts could not move freely in the small cabins of those spacecraft. The increased cabin space in the Apollo command module afforded astronauts greater freedom of movement, contributing to symptoms of space sickness for Borman and, later, astronaut Russell Schweickart during Apollo 9.[60]

    The cruise phase was a relatively uneventful part of the flight, except for the crew checking that the spacecraft was in working order and that they were on course. During this time, NASA scheduled a television broadcast at 31 hours after launch. The Apollo 8 crew used a 2-kilogram (4.4 lb) camera that broadcast in black-and-white only, using a Vidicon tube. The camera had two lenses, a very wide-angle (160°) lens, and a telephoto (9°) lens.[61][62]

    During this first broadcast, the crew gave a tour of the spacecraft and attempted to show how the Earth appeared from space. However, difficulties aiming the narrow-angle lens without the aid of a monitor to show what it was looking at made showing the Earth impossible. Additionally, without proper filters, the Earth image became saturated by any bright source. In the end, all the crew could show the people watching back on Earth was a bright blob.[61] After broadcasting for 17 minutes, the rotation of the spacecraft took the high-gain antenna out of view of the receiving stations on Earth and they ended the transmission with Lovell wishing his mother a happy birthday.[62]

    By this time, the crew had completely abandoned the planned sleep shifts. Lovell went to sleep 32 and a half hours into the flight—3 and a half hours before he had planned to. A short while later, Anders also went to sleep after taking a sleeping pill.[62] The crew was unable to see the Moon for much of the outward cruise. Two factors made the Moon almost impossible to see from inside the spacecraft: three of the five windows fogging up due to out-gassed oils from the silicone sealant, and the attitude required for passive thermal control. It was not until the crew had gone behind the Moon that they would be able to see it for the first time.[63]

    Apollo 8 made a second television broadcast at 55 hours into the flight. This time, the crew rigged up filters meant for the still cameras so they could acquire images of the Earth through the telephoto lens. Although difficult to aim, as they had to maneuver the entire spacecraft, the crew was able to broadcast back to Earth the first television pictures of the Earth. The crew spent the transmission describing the Earth, what was visible, and the colors they could see. The transmission lasted 23 minutes.[61]

    At about 55 hours and 40 minutes into the flight, and 13 hours before entering lunar orbit, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first humans to enter the gravitational sphere of influence of another celestial body. In other words, the effect of the Moon's gravitational force on Apollo 8 became stronger than that of the Earth. At the time it happened, Apollo 8 was 38,759 miles (62,377 km) from the Moon and had a speed of 3,990 ft/s (1,220 m/s) relative to the Moon. This historic moment was of little interest to the crew, since they were still calculating their trajectory with respect to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. They would continue to do so until they performed their last mid-course correction, switching to a reference frame based on ideal orientation for the second engine burn they would make in lunar orbit.[61]

    The last major event before Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) was a second mid-course correction. It was in retrograde (against the direction of travel) and slowed the spacecraft down by 2.0 ft/s (0.61 m/s), effectively reducing the closest distance at which the spacecraft would pass the Moon. At exactly 61 hours after launch, about 24,200 miles (38,900 km) from the Moon, the crew burned the RCS for 11 seconds. They would now pass 71.7 miles (115.4 km) from the lunar surface.[43]

    At 64 hours into the flight, the crew began to prepare for Lunar Orbit Insertion 1 (LOI-1). This maneuver had to be performed perfectly, and due to orbital mechanics had to be on the far side of the Moon, out of contact with the Earth. After Mission Control was polled for a "go/no go" decision, the crew was told at 68 hours that they were Go and "riding the best bird we can find".[64] Lovell replied, "We'll see you on the other side", and for the first time in history, humans travelled behind the Moon and out of radio contact with the Earth.[64]

    With 10 minutes remaining before LOI-1, the crew began one last check of the spacecraft systems and made sure that every switch was in its correct position. At that time, they finally got their first glimpses of the Moon. They had been flying over the unlit side, and it was Lovell who saw the first shafts of sunlight obliquely illuminating the lunar surface. The LOI burn was only two minutes away, so the crew had little time to appreciate the view.[65]

    The SPS was ignited at 69 hours, 8 minutes, and 16 seconds after launch and burned for 4 minutes and 7 seconds, placing the Apollo 8 spacecraft in orbit around the Moon. The crew described the burn as being the longest four minutes of their lives. If the burn had not lasted exactly the correct amount of time, the spacecraft could have ended up in a highly elliptical lunar orbit or even been flung off into space. If it had lasted too long, they could have struck the Moon. After making sure the spacecraft was working, they finally had a chance to look at the Moon, which they would orbit for the next 20 hours.[66]
    On Earth, Mission Control continued to wait. If the crew had not burned the engine, or the burn had not lasted the planned length of time, the crew would have appeared early from behind the Moon. Exactly at the calculated moment, however, the signal was received from the spacecraft, indicating it was in a 193.3-by-69.5-mile (311.1 by 111.8 km) orbit around the Moon.[66]

    After reporting on the status of the spacecraft, Lovell gave the first description of what the lunar surface looked like:

    The Moon is essentially grey, no color; looks like plaster of Paris or sort of a grayish beach sand. We can see quite a bit of detail. The Sea of Fertility doesn't stand out as well here as it does back on Earth. There's not as much contrast between that and the surrounding craters. The craters are all rounded off. There's quite a few of them, some of them are newer. Many of them look like—especially the round ones—look like hit by meteorites or projectiles of some sort. Langrenus is quite a huge crater; it's got a central cone to it. The walls of the crater are terraced, about six or seven different terraces on the way down.[67]

    Lovell continued to describe the terrain they were passing over. One of the crew's major tasks was reconnaissance of planned future landing sites on the Moon, especially one in Mare Tranquillitatis that was planned as the Apollo 11 landing site. The launch time of Apollo 8 had been chosen to give the best lighting conditions for examining the site. A film camera had been set up in one of the spacecraft windows to record one frame per second of the Moon below. Bill Anders spent much of the next 20 hours taking as many photographs as possible of targets of interest. By the end of the mission, the crew had taken over eight hundred 70 mm still photographs and 700 feet (210 m) of 16 mm movie film.[68]

    Throughout the hour that the spacecraft was in contact with Earth, Borman kept asking how the data for the SPS looked. He wanted to make sure that the engine was working and could be used to return early to the Earth if necessary. He also asked that they receive a "go/no go" decision before they passed behind the Moon on each orbit.[67]

    As they reappeared for their second pass in front of the Moon, the crew set up equipment to broadcast a view of the lunar surface. Anders described the craters that they were passing over. At the end of this second orbit, they performed an 11-second LOI-2 burn of the SPS to circularize the orbit to 70.0 by 71.3 miles (112.7 by 114.7 km).[66][67]

    Throughout the next two orbits, the crew continued to check the spacecraft and to observe and photograph the Moon. During the third pass, Borman read a small prayer for his church. He had been scheduled to participate in a service at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church near Seabrook, Texas, but due to the Apollo 8 flight, he was unable to attend. A fellow parishioner and engineer at Mission Control, Rod Rose, suggested that Borman read the prayer, which could be recorded and then replayed during the service.[67]

    When the spacecraft came out from behind the Moon for its fourth pass across the front, the crew witnessed an "Earthrise" in person for the first time in human history.[69] NASA's Lunar Orbiter 1 had taken the first picture of an Earthrise from the vicinity of the Moon, on August 23, 1966.[70] Anders saw the Earth emerging from behind the lunar horizon and called in excitement to the others, taking a black-and-white photograph as he did so. Anders asked Lovell for color film and then took Earthrise, a now famous color photo, later picked by Life magazine as one of its hundred photos of the century.[69][71]
    Due to the synchronous rotation of the Moon about the Earth, Earthrise is not generally visible from the lunar surface. This is because, as seen from any one place on the Moon's surface, Earth remains in approximately the same position in the lunar sky, either above or below the horizon. Earthrise is generally visible only while orbiting the Moon, and at selected surface locations near the Moon's limb, where libration carries the Earth slightly above and below the lunar horizon.[72]

    Anders continued to take photographs while Lovell assumed control of the spacecraft so that Borman could rest. Despite the difficulty resting in the cramped and noisy spacecraft, Borman was able to sleep for two orbits, awakening periodically to ask questions about their status. Borman awoke fully, however, when he started to hear his fellow crew members make mistakes. They were beginning to not understand questions and had to ask for the answers to be repeated. Borman realized that everyone was extremely tired from not having a good night's sleep in over three days. He ordered Anders and Lovell to get some sleep and that the rest of the flight plan regarding observing the Moon be scrubbed. Anders initially protested, saying that he was fine, but Borman would not be swayed. Anders finally agreed under the condition that Borman would set up the camera to continue to take automatic pictures of the Moon. Borman also remembered that there was a second television broadcast planned, and with so many people expected to be watching, he wanted the crew to be alert. For the next two orbits, Anders and Lovell slept while Borman sat at the helm.[69][73]

    As they rounded the Moon for the ninth time, the astronauts began the second television transmission. Borman introduced the crew, followed by each man giving his impression of the lunar surface and what it was like to be orbiting the Moon. Borman described it as being "a vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing".[74] Then, after talking about what they were flying over, Anders said that the crew had a message for all those on Earth. Each man on board read a section from the Biblical creation story from the Book of Genesis. Borman finished the broadcast by wishing a Merry Christmas to everyone on Earth. His message appeared to sum up the feelings that all three crewmen had from their vantage point in lunar orbit. Borman said, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you—all of you on the good Earth."[75]

    The only task left for the crew at this point was to perform the trans-Earth injection (TEI), which was scheduled for ​2 1⁄2 hours after the end of the television transmission. The TEI was the most critical burn of the flight, as any failure of the SPS to ignite would strand the crew in lunar orbit, with little hope of escape. As with the previous burn, the crew had to perform the maneuver above the far side of the Moon, out of contact with Earth.[76] The burn occurred exactly on time. The spacecraft telemetry was reacquired as it re-emerged from behind the Moon at 89 hours, 28 minutes, and 39 seconds, the exact time calculated. When voice contact was regained, Lovell announced, "Please be informed, there is a Santa Claus", to which Ken Mattingly, the current CAPCOM, replied, "That's affirmative, you are the best ones to know."[77] The spacecraft began its journey back to Earth on December 25, Christmas Day.[46]

    Later, Lovell used some otherwise idle time to do some navigational sightings, maneuvering the module to view various stars by using the computer keyboard. However, he accidentally erased some of the computer's memory, which caused the inertial measurement unit (IMU) to contain data indicating that the module was in the same relative orientation it had been in before lift-off; the IMU then fired the thrusters to "correct" the module's attitude.[78]

    Once the crew realized why the computer had changed the module's attitude, they realized that they would have to reenter data to tell the computer the module's actual orientation. It took Lovell ten minutes to figure out the right numbers, using the thrusters to get the stars Rigel and Sirius aligned,[79] and another 15 minutes to enter the corrected data into the computer.[46] Sixteen months later, during the Apollo 13 mission, Lovell would have to perform a similar manual realignment under more critical conditions after the module's IMU had to be turned off to conserve energy.[80]

    The cruise back to Earth was mostly a time for the crew to relax and monitor the spacecraft. As long as the trajectory specialists had calculated everything correctly, the spacecraft would reenter Earth's atmosphere two-and-half days after TEI and splash down in the Pacific.[46]

    On Christmas afternoon, the crew made their fifth television broadcast.[81] This time, they gave a tour of the spacecraft, showing how an astronaut lived in space. When they finished broadcasting, they found a small present from Slayton in the food locker: a real turkey dinner with stuffing, in the same kind of pack given to the troops in Vietnam.[82]

    Another Slayton surprise was a gift of three miniature bottles of brandy, which Borman ordered the crew to leave alone until after they landed. They remained unopened, even years after the flight.[83] There were also small presents to the crew from their wives. The next day, at about 124 hours into the mission, the sixth and final TV transmission showed the mission's best video images of the Earth, during a four-minute broadcast.[84] After two uneventful days, the crew prepared for reentry. The computer would control the reentry, and all the crew had to do was put the spacecraft in the correct attitude, with the blunt end forward. In the event of computer failure, Borman was ready to take over.[85]

    Separation from the service module prepared the command module for reentry by exposing the heat shield and shedding unneeded mass. The service module would burn up in the atmosphere as planned.[85] Six minutes before they hit the top of the atmosphere, the crew saw the Moon rising above the Earth's horizon, just as had been calculated by the trajectory specialists.[86] As the module hit the thin outer atmosphere, the crew noticed that it was becoming hazy outside as glowing plasma formed around the spacecraft.[87] The spacecraft started slowing down, and the deceleration peaked at 6 standard gravities (59 m/s2). With the computer controlling the descent by changing the attitude of the spacecraft, Apollo 8 rose briefly like a skipping stone before descending to the ocean. At 30,000 feet (9.1 km), the drogue parachute deployed, stabilizing the spacecraft, followed at 10,000 feet (3.0 km) by the three main parachutes. The spacecraft splashdown position was officially reported as 8°8′N 165°1′W in the North Pacific Ocean, southwest of Hawaii at 15:51:42 UTC on December 27, 1968.[8]

    When the spacecraft hit the water, the parachutes dragged it over and left it upside down, in what was termed Stable 2 position. As they were buffeted by a 10-foot (3.0 m) swell, Borman was sick, waiting for the three flotation balloons to right the spacecraft.[88] About six minutes after splashdown, the command module was righted into a normal apex-up orientation by its inflatable bag uprighting system.[87] The first frogman from aircraft carrier USS Yorktown arrived 43 minutes after splashdown. Forty-five minutes later, the crew was safe on the flight deck of the Yorktown.[86][87]

    Apollo 8 came at the end of 1968, a year that had seen much upheaval in the United States and most of the world.[89] Even though the year saw political assassinations, political unrest in the streets of Europe and America, and the Prague Spring, Time magazine chose the crew of Apollo 8 as its Men of the Year for 1968, recognizing them as the people who most influenced events in the preceding year.[89] They had been the first people ever to leave the gravitational influence of the Earth and orbit another celestial body.[90] They had survived a mission that even the crew themselves had rated as having only a fifty-fifty chance of fully succeeding. The effect of Apollo 8 was summed up in a telegram from a stranger, received by Borman after the mission, that stated simply, "Thank you Apollo 8. You saved 1968."[91]

    One of the most famous aspects of the flight was the Earthrise picture that the crew took as they came around for their fourth orbit of the Moon.[92] This was the first time that humans had taken such a picture while actually behind the camera, and it has been credited as one of the inspirations of the first Earth Day in 1970.[93] It was selected as the first of Life magazine's 100 Photographs That Changed the World.[94]

    Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins said, "Eight's momentous historic significance was foremost";[95] while space historian Robert K. Poole saw Apollo 8 as the most historically significant of all the Apollo missions.[92] The mission was the most widely covered by the media since the first American orbital flight, Mercury-Atlas 6 by John Glenn, in 1962. There were 1,200 journalists covering the mission, with the BBC's coverage broadcast in 54 countries in 15 different languages. The Soviet newspaper Pravda featured a quote from Boris Nikolaevich Petrov, Chairman of the Soviet Interkosmos program, who described the flight as an "outstanding achievement of American space sciences and technology".[96] It is estimated that a quarter of the people alive at the time saw—either live or delayed—the Christmas Eve transmission during the ninth orbit of the Moon.[97] The Apollo 8 broadcasts won an Emmy Award, the highest honor given by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.[98]

    Madalyn Murray O'Hair, an atheist, later caused controversy by bringing a lawsuit against NASA over the reading from Genesis. O'Hair wanted the courts to ban American astronauts—who were all government employees—from public prayer in space.[99] Though the case was rejected by the Supreme Court of the United States for lack of jurisdiction,[100] it caused NASA to be skittish about the issue of religion throughout the rest of the Apollo program. Buzz Aldrin, on Apollo 11, self-communicated Presbyterian Communion on the surface of the Moon after landing; he refrained from mentioning this publicly for several years and referred to it only obliquely at the time.[101]

    In 1969, the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp (Scott catalogue #1371) commemorating the Apollo 8 flight around the Moon. The stamp featured a detail of the famous photograph of the Earthrise over the Moon taken by Anders on Christmas Eve, and the words, "In the beginning God ...", the first words of the book of Genesis.[102] In January 1969, just 18 days after the crew's return to Earth, they appeared in the Super Bowl III pre-game show, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, before the national anthem was performed by Anita Bryant.[103]

    In January 1970, the spacecraft was delivered to Osaka, Japan, for display in the U.S. pavilion at Expo '70.[104][105] It is now displayed at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, along with a collection of personal items from the flight donated by Lovell and the space suit worn by Frank Borman.[106] Jim Lovell's Apollo 8 space suit is on public display in the Visitor Center at NASA's Glenn Research Center.[107][108] Bill Anders's space suit is on display at the Science Museum in London, United Kingdom.[109]

    Apollo 8's historic mission has been depicted and referred to in several forms, both documentary and fiction. The various television transmissions and 16 mm footage shot by the crew of Apollo 8 were compiled and released by NASA in the 1969 documentary Debrief: Apollo 8, hosted by Burgess Meredith.[110] In addition, Spacecraft Films released, in 2003, a three-disc DVD set containing all of NASA's TV and 16 mm film footage related to the mission, including all TV transmissions from space, training and launch footage, and motion pictures taken in flight.[111] Other documentaries include "Race to the Moon" (2005) as part of season 18 of American Experience[112] and In the Shadow of the Moon (2007).[113] Parts of the mission are dramatized in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon episode "1968".[114] The S-IVB stage of Apollo 8 was also portrayed as the location of an alien device in the 1970 UFO episode "Conflict".[115] Apollo 8's lunar orbit insertion was chronicled with actual recordings in the song "The Other Side", on the album The Race for Space, by the band Public Service Broadcasting.[116]

    Bibliography

    Bilstein, Roger E. (1996) [First published 1980]. Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles. The NASA History Series. Washington, D.C.: NASA. ISBN 0-16-048909-1. LCCN 97149850. NASA SP-4206. Retrieved June 28, 2013.
    Brooks, Courtney G.; Grimwood, James M.; Swenson, Loyd S. Jr. (1979). Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft. NASA History Series. Washington, D.C.: Scientific and Technical Information Branch, NASA. ISBN 978-0-486-46756-6. LCCN 79001042. OCLC 4664449. NASA SP-4205. Retrieved July 20, 2010.
    Chaikin, Andrew (1994). A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts. New York: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-81446-6. LCCN 93048680.
    Chaikin, Andrew (1998) [First published 1994]. A Man on the Moon. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-027201-7.
    Collins, Michael (2001) [1974]. Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys. New York: Cooper Square Press. ISBN 978-0-8154-1028-7. LCCN 2001017080.
    Cunningham, Walter (2010) [1977]. The All-American Boys. ipicturebooks. ISBN 978-1-876963-24-8. OCLC 713908039.
    De Groot, Gerard J. (2006). Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-1995-4. LCCN 2006016116.
    Ertel, Ivan D.; Newkirk, Roland W.; Brooks, Courtney G. (1978). "The Apollo Spacecraft – A Chronology. Vol. IV. Part 3 (1969 3rd quarter)". Washington, D.C.: NASA. SP-4009. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
    Hacker, Barton C.; Grimwood, James M. (1977). On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini (PDF). Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration. SP-4203. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
    Kluger, Jeffrey (2017). Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon. Henry Holt. ISBN 9781627798327.
    Kranz, Gene (2000). Failure Is Not An Option. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-0079-0. OCLC 829406416.
    Kurson, Robert (2018). Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon. New York: Random House. ISBN 9780812988703.
    Lattimer, Dick (1985). All We Did Was Fly to the Moon. History-alive series. Alachua, Florida: Whispering Eagle Press. ISBN 978-0-9611228-0-5. LCCN 85222271.
    Logsdon, John M. (1976). The Decision to Go to the Moon: Project Apollo and the National Interest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. OCLC 849992795.
    Lovell, Jim; Kluger, Jeffery (1994). Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-67029-2. LCCN 94028052.
    Murray, Charles; Cox, Catherine Bly (1990). Apollo: The Race to the Moon. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-70625-8.
    Orloff, Richard W. (2000). Apollo by the Numbers: A Statistical Reference. NASA History Series. Washington, D.C.: NASA History Division, Office of Policy and Plans. ISBN 978-0-16-050631-4. LCCN 00061677. OCLC 829406439. NASA SP-2000-4029. Retrieved June 12, 2013.
    Phillips, Samuel C. (1975). "The Shakedown Cruises". In Cortright, Edgar M (ed.). Apollo Expeditions to the Moon. Washington, D.C.: NASA. OCLC 1623434. NASA SP-350. Archived from the original on February 19, 2008. Retrieved January 28, 2008.
    Poole, Robert K. (2008). Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-13766-8. LCCN 2008026764.
    Schefter, James (1999). The Race: The Uncensored Story of How America Beat Russia to the Moon. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-49253-9. LCCN 98054430.
    Sullivan, Robert, ed. (2003). 100 Photographs That Changed the World. New York: Time, Inc. Home Entertainment. ISBN 1-931933-84-7. OCLC 987934269.
    Wilford, John Noble (1973). We Reach the Moon. Putnam Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-448-26152-2.
    Woods, W. David (2008). How Apollo Flew to the Moon. Brelin; New York: Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-71675-6. LCCN 2007932412.

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 AS8-14-2383


    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


    Posts : 13631
    Join date : 2010-09-28
    Location : The Matrix

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Empty Re: United States AI Solar System (9)

    Post  orthodoxymoron Wed Jul 10, 2019 11:11 pm

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 The-apollo-9-commandservice-module-gumdrop-as-seen-from-the-lunar-picture-id75169642

    I was highly-idealistic about God and Christianity as a child, youth, and young-adult, but I became horribly disillusioned and non-participative after that. More recently, as I attempted to grapple with difficult issues concerning God and Christianity, this seemed to make me an Enemy of God, Satan, Heaven, Hell, Earth, and Purgatory. Truth-Seeking is SO Overrated. I was interested in science as a child and youth, but why did I lose interest after that?? Why have I been somewhat somber throughout my life?? Why have people been inexplicably nasty with me throughout my life??

    Anyway, can someone direct me to astrophotography from orbiting spacecraft around the Dark-Side of the Moon?? What about the concept of a Space-Telescope being stationed on the surface of the Dark-Side of the Moon?? I can understand the astronomical-photographic difficulties from the Bright-Side of the Moon, but there should be massive and impressive Dark-Side of the Moon Astrophotography. Have I missed something in my miserable-ignorance?? Enlighten Me About the Dark-Side of the Moon!! What if the Black-Budget and Missing-Trillions have had everything to do with attempting to break out of Prison-Planet Earth?? Has the War in Heaven been ongoing for thousands (or even millions) of years?? Has a Christian-Nation been at War with the God of Heaven??

    Something is missing in my life-experience and I frankly don't know which way to jump. It seems as if everyone wishes to keep me in the dark (and barefoot) as a Completely Ignorant Fool. Why might that be?? What if humanity has catastrophically destroyed the Deep-State Supercomputer Matrix-System, and is now facing Extermination-Level Eschatological-Events during the remainder of the Twenty-First Century?? What Would Al Bielek Say?? As I feel worse and worse, I'll probably be reduced to watching things play-out while restrained and sedated. Perhaps the Powers That Be are removing me from the Earth-Plane prior to things Really Going to Hell. Perhaps One-Hundred Years of Solitude Awaits Me. 'RA' told me "It's Going to be Dark Where You're Going." Here are some videos which I'm not endorsing, yet which touch-upon things I've touched-upon for the past ten years. I'm trying very-hard to go-incognito. I'm insignificant compared with those in the know who publish books and are interviewed on the internet.

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 20071113_kaguya_01l
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Aram535_Moon_Airliner_07-10-09
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Change4
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 27f17ac648ce2cd98d03539eb67c34b0--moon-surface-moon-photos
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Dark_side_moon



    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_9 Apollo 9 was a March 1969 human spaceflight, the third crewed mission in the United States Apollo program. Flown in Low Earth Orbit, it was the second crewed Apollo mission to be launched by a Saturn V rocket, and the first flight of the full Apollo spacecraft: the command and service module (CSM) with the Lunar Module (LM). The mission was flown to qualify the LM for lunar orbit operations by demonstrating its descent and ascent propulsion systems, showing that its crew could fly it independently, then rendezvous and dock with the CSM again, as would be required for the first crewed lunar landing. Other objectives of the flight included firing the LM descent engine to propel the spacecraft stack as a backup mode (as was required on the Apollo 13 mission), and use of the Portable Life Support System backpack outside of the LM cabin.

    The three-person crew consisted of Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart. During the ten-day mission, they tested systems and procedures critical to landing on the Moon, including the LM engines, backpack life support systems, navigation systems and docking maneuvers.

    After launching on March 3, 1969, the crew performed the first crewed flight of a lunar module, the first docking and extraction of the same, one two-person spacewalk (EVA), and the second docking of two crewed spacecraft—two months after the Soviets performed a spacewalk crew transfer between Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5. The mission concluded on March 13 and was a complete success. It proved the LM worthy of crewed spaceflight, setting the stage for the dress rehearsal for the lunar landing, Apollo 10, before the ultimate goal, landing on the Moon.

    In April 1966, McDivitt, Scott, and Schweickart were selected by Director of Flight Crew Operations Deke Slayton as the second Apollo crew. Their initial job was as backup to the first Apollo crew to be chosen, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, for the first crewed Earth orbital test flight of the block I command and service module,[6] designated AS-204. Delays in the block I CSM development pushed AS-204 into 1967. The revised plan had the McDivitt crew scheduled for the second crewed CSM, which was to rendezvous in Earth orbit with an uncrewed LM, launched separately. The third crewed mission, to be commanded by Frank Borman, was to be the first launch of a Saturn V with a crew.[7]

    On January 27, 1967, Grissom's crew was conducting a launch-pad test for their planned February 21 mission, which they named Apollo 1, when a fire broke out in the cabin, killing all three men.[8] A complete safety review of the Apollo program followed.[9] During this time Apollo 5 took place, an uncrewed launch to test the first lunar module (LM-1).[10]

    Under the new schedule, the first Apollo crewed mission to go into space would be Apollo 7, planned for October 1968. This mission, which was to test the block II command module, did not include a lunar module.[11] In 1967, NASA had adopted a series of lettered missions leading up to the crewed lunar landing, the "G mission", completion of one being a prerequisite to the next.[12] Apollo 7 would be the "C mission", but the "D mission" required testing of the crewed lunar module, which was running well behind schedule and endangering John F. Kennedy's goal of people walking on the Moon and returning safely to Earth by the end of the 1960s.[13][14] McDivitt's crew had been announced by NASA in November 1967 as prime crew for the D mission, lengthy testing of the command and lunar modules in Earth orbit.[15]

    Seeking to keep Kennedy's goal on schedule, in August 1968, Apollo Program Manager George M. Low proposed that if Apollo 7 in October went well, that Apollo 8 go to lunar orbit without a LM.[nb 1] Until then, Apollo 8 was the D mission with Apollo 9 the "E mission", testing in medium Earth orbit.[12][14][17] After NASA approved sending Apollo 8 to the Moon, while making Apollo 9 the D mission, Slayton offered McDivitt the opportunity to stay with Apollo 8 and thus go to lunar orbit. McDivitt turned it down on behalf of his crew, preferring to stay with the D mission, now Apollo 9.[18][19]

    Apollo 7 went well, and the crews were switched.[20] The crew swap also affected who would be the first astronauts to land on the Moon, for when the crews for Apollo 8 and 9 were swapped, so were the backup crews. Since the rule of thumb was for backup crews to fly as prime crew three missions later, this put Neil Armstrong's crew (Borman's backup) in position to make the first landing attempt on Apollo 11 instead of Pete Conrad's crew,[21] who made the second landing on Apollo 12.[22]

    McDivitt was born June 10, 1929 in Chicago. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan in 1951. That year, he joined the Air Force, flying 145 combat missions over Korea. Selected as a member of the second group of astronauts in 1962, McDivitt was command pilot of Gemini 4 (1965).[24] Scott, born June 6, 1932 in San Antonio, Texas, earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point,[25] and later received two advanced degrees from MIT.[26] Selected as a Group 3 astronaut in 1963, he flew alongside Neil Armstrong in Gemini 8.[27] Schweickart was born October 25, 1935 in Neptune, New Jersey. He received undergraduate and graduate degrees in aeronautics from MIT, and served in the Air Force and Air National Guard from 1956 to 1963, when he was selected as a Group 3 astronaut.[28]

    The backup crew consisted of Conrad as commander, Command Module Pilot Richard F. Gordon Jr. and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L. Bean. Originally, the backup lunar module pilot was Clifton C. Williams Jr., who was killed in October 1967 when the T-38 he was flying crashed near Tallahassee.[15] When forming his crew, Conrad had wanted Bean, a former student of his at the United States Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River NAS, Maryland, but had been told by Slayton that Bean was unavailable due to an assignment to the Apollo Applications Program. After Williams's death, Conrad asked for Bean again and this time Slayton yielded.[29] The support crew for Apollo 9 consisted of Stuart A. Roosa, Jack R. Lousma, Edgar D. Mitchell and Alfred M. Worden. Lousma was not an original member of the Apollo 9 support crew, but was assigned after Fred W. Haise Jr. was moved to the position of backup lunar module pilot on Apollo 8—several astronauts were shifted in the wake of Michael Collins being removed from the Apollo 8 prime crew because of treatment for bone spurs.[15][30]

    The flight directors were Gene Kranz, first shift, Gerry Griffin, second shift and Pete Frank, third shift. Capsule communicators were Conrad, Gordon, Bean, Worden, Roosa and Ronald Evans.[31]

    The circular patch shows a drawing of a Saturn V rocket with the letters USA on it. To its right, an Apollo CSM is shown next to an LM, with the CSM's nose pointed at the "front door" of the LM rather than at its top docking port. The CSM is trailing rocket fire in a circle. The crew's names are along the top edge of the circle, with APOLLO IX at the bottom. The "D" in McDivitt's name is filled with red to mark that this was the "D mission" in the alphabetic sequence of Apollo missions. The patch was designed by Allen Stevens of Rockwell International.[32]

    McDivitt, Scott, and Schweickart train for the AS-205/208 mission in the first Block II spacecraft and space suits, which still had most of the fire hazards that the Apollo 1 spacecraft had.

    Apollo 9's main purpose was to qualify the LM for crewed lunar flight, demonstrating, among other things, that it could perform the maneuvers in space that would be needed for a lunar landing, including docking with the CSM.[33] Colin Burgess and Francis French, in their book about the Apollo Program, deemed McDivitt's crew among the best trained ever—they had worked together since January 1966, at first as backups for Apollo 1, and they always had the assignment of being the first to fly the LM. Flight Director Gene Kranz deemed the Apollo 9 crew the best prepared for their mission, and felt Scott was an extremely knowledgeable CMP.[34] Crew members underwent some 1,800 hours of mission-specific training, about seven hours for every hour they would spend in flight. Their training even started on the day before the Apollo 1 fire, in the very first Block II spacecraft in which they were originally planned to fly. They took part in the vehicle checkouts for the CSM at North American Rockwell's facility in Downey, California and for the LM at Grumman's plant in Bethpage, New York. They also participated in testing of the modules at the launch site.[35]

    Among the types of the training which the crew underwent were simulations of zero-G, both underwater, and in the Vomit Comet. During these exercises, they practiced for the planned extravehicular activities (EVAs). They traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for training on the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) at MIT. The crew studied the sky at the Morehead Planetarium and at the Griffith Planetarium, especially focusing on the 37 stars used by the AGC. They each spent more than 300 hours in the CM and LM simulators at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and at Houston, some involving live participation by Mission Control. Additional time was spent in simulators in other locations.[36]

    The first mission to use the CSM, the LM, and a Saturn V, Apollo 9 allowed the launch preparations team at KSC its first opportunity to simulate the launch of a lunar landing mission. The LM arrived from Grumman in June 1968 and was subjected to extensive testing including in the altitude chamber, simulating space conditions. As this occurred, other technicians assembled the Saturn V inside the Vehicle Assembly Building. The CM and SM arrived in October, but even the experienced KSC team from North American had trouble joining them together. When the lander was done with the altitude chamber, the CSM took its place, letting the LM be available for installation of equipment such as rendezvous radar and antennas. There were no lengthy delays, and on January 3, 1969, the launch vehicle was taken out of the VAB and moved to Launch Complex 39A by crawler. Flight readiness reviews for the CM, the LM, and the Saturn V were held and passed in the following weeks.[37]

    The Saturn V (AS-504) used on Apollo 9 was the fourth to be flown, the second to carry astronauts to space,[38] and the first to bear a lunar module. Although similar in configuration to the Saturn V used on Apollo 8, several changes were made. The inner core of the F-1 engine chamber in the first (S-IC) stage was removed, thus saving weight and allowing for a slight increase in specific impulse. Weight was also saved by replacing the skins of the liquid oxygen tanks with lighter ones, and by providing lighter versions of other components. Efficiency was increased in the S-II second stage with uprated J-2 engines, and through a closed-loop propellant utilization system rather than Apollo 8's open-loop system.[39] Of the 3,250 pounds (1,470 kg) weight reduction in the second stage, about half came from a 16 percent reduction in the thickness of the tank side walls.[40]

    Apollo 9 used CSM-104, the third block II CSM to be flown with astronauts aboard. Apollo 8, lacking a lunar module, did not have docking equipment; Apollo 9 flew the probe-and-drogue assembly used for docking along with other equipment added near the forward hatch of the CM; this allowed for rigid docking of the two craft, and for internal transfer between CM and LM.[41] Had the switch in missions between Apollo 8 and 9 not occurred, the Earth-orbit mission would have flown CSM-103, which flew on Apollo 8.[42]

    The Earth-orbit mission was originally supposed to use LM-2 as its lunar module, but the crew found numerous flaws in it, many associated with it being the first flight-ready lunar module off Grumman's production line. The delay occasioned by the switch in missions allowed LM-3 to be available, a machine the crew found far superior.[43] Neither LM-2 nor LM-3 could have been sent to the Moon as both were too heavy; Grumman's weight reduction program for the LMs only became fully effective with LM-5, designated for Apollo 11.[44] Small cracks in LM-3's aluminum alloy structure due to stresses such as the insertion of a rivet proved an ongoing issue; Grumman's engineers continued working to fix them until the LM had to be mounted on the Saturn V in December 1968.[45] LM-2 never flew in space and is in the National Air and Space Museum.[46]

    The Apollo astronauts were provided with early versions of the Sony Walkman, portable cassette recorders intended to allow them to make observations during the mission. The Apollo 9 crew was the first to be allowed to bring music mixtapes, one each, that could be played in that device. McDivitt and Scott preferred easy listening and country music; Schweickart's cassette tape of classical music went missing until the ninth day of the ten-day mission, when it was presented to him by Scott.[47][48]

    After the Gemini 3 craft was dubbed Molly Brown by Grissom, NASA forbade naming spacecraft.[49] The fact that during the Apollo 9 mission, the CSM and LM would separate and need different call signs caused the Apollo 9 astronauts to push for a change. In simulations, they began to refer to the CSM as "Gumdrop", a name inspired by the CM's appearance while in the blue protective wrapping in which it was transported from the manufacturer, and the LM as "Spider", inspired by the LM's appearance with landing legs deployed.[50] Personnel in NASA public relations thought the names were too informal, but the call signs ultimately gained official sanction.[51] NASA required more formal call signs for future missions, starting with Apollo 11.[52]

    The Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) backpack flew for the first time on Apollo 9, used by Schweickart during his EVA.[53] This included the Portable Life Support System (PLSS), providing oxygen to the astronaut and water for the Liquid Cooling Garment (LCG), which helped prevent overheating during extravehicular activity.[54] Also present was the Oxygen Purge System (OPS), the "bedroll" atop the backpack, which could provide oxygen for up to roughly an hour if the PLSS failed.[55] A more advanced version of the EMU was used for the lunar landing on Apollo 11.[55]

    During his stand-up EVA,[nb 2] Scott did not wear a PLSS, but was connected to the CM's life support systems through an umbilical, utilizing a Pressure Control Valve (PCV). This device had been created in 1967 to allow for stand-up EVAs from the hatches of the LM or CM, or for brief ventures outside. It was later used by Scott for his lunar surface stand-up EVA on Apollo 15, and for the deep-space EVAs by the command module pilots of the final three Apollo flights.[58]

    Originally scheduled to launch on February 28, 1969, the liftoff of Apollo 9 was postponed because all three astronauts had colds, and NASA did not want to take the risk that the mission might be affected. Around-the-clock labor shifts were required to keep the spacecraft in readiness; the delay cost $500,000.[59] The rocket launched from KSC at 11:00:00 EST (16:00:00 GMT) on March 3.[60] This was well within the launch window, which would have remained open for another three and a quarter hours.[31] Present in the firing control room was Vice President Spiro Agnew on behalf of the new Nixon administration.[61]

    McDivitt reported a smooth ride during the launch, although there was some vibration and the astronauts were surprised to be pushed forward when the Saturn V's first stage stopped firing, before its second stage took over, when they were pushed back into their couches,[61] Each of the first two stages slightly underperformed; a deficiency made up, more or less, by the S-IVB third stage.[62] Once that third stage cut out at 00:11:04.7 into the mission,[63] Apollo 9 entered a parking orbit of 102.3 by 103.9 miles.[60]

    The crew began their first major orbital task with the separation of the CSM from the S-IVB at 02:41:16 into the mission, seeking to turn around and then dock with the LM, which was on the end of the S-IVB, after which the combined spacecraft would separate from the rocket. If it was not possible to make such a docking, the lunar landing could not take place. It was Scott's responsibility to fly the CSM, which he did to a successful docking, as the probe and drogue docking assembly worked properly. After McDivitt and Schweickart inspected the tunnel connecting the CM and LM, the assembled spacecraft separated from the S-IVB. The next task was to demonstrate that two docked spacecraft could be maneuvered by one engine. The five-second burn took place at 05:59.01.1 into the mission, accomplished with the SM's Service Propulsion System (SPS), after which Scott excitedly reported the LM was still in place. Thereafter, the S-IVB was fired again, and the stage was sent into solar orbit.[61][63]

    From 09:00:00 to 19:30:00, a sleep period was scheduled.[64] The astronauts slept well, but complained of being woken by non-English transmissions. Scott theorized that they were possibly in Chinese.[65] The highlight of the second day in orbit (March 4) was three SPS burns.[66] The initial burn, at 22:12:04.1,[63] lasted 110 seconds,[66] and including swiveling or "gimbaling" the engine to test whether the autopilot could dampen the induced oscillations, which it did within five seconds. Two more SPS burns followed, lightening the SM's fuel load.[61] The spacecraft and engine passed every test, sometimes proving more robust than expected.[67] The performance of the CSM in remaining stable while the engine was being gimbaled would in 1972 help cause McDivitt, by then manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program, to approve the continuation of Apollo 16 when its CSM was experiencing an unstable gimbal after separation from its LM in lunar orbit.[68]

    The flight plan for the third day in space was to have the commander and lunar module pilot enter the LM to check out its systems and use its descent engine to move the entire spacecraft.[69] The descent engine was the backup to the SPS; the ability to use it in this manner would prove critical on Apollo 13.[70] The flight plan was thrown into question when Schweickart vomited, suffering from space adaptation sickness and McDivitt felt queasy as well. They had been avoiding sudden physical motions, but the contortion-like maneuvers to don their space suits for the LM checkout caused them to feel ill. The experience would teach the doctors enough about the sickness to have the astronauts avoid it on the lunar landings, but at the time Schweickart feared his vomiting might endanger Kennedy's goal. They were well enough to continue with the day's plan, and entered the LM, thus transferring between vehicles for the first time in the US space program, and making the first ever transfer without needing to spacewalk, as Soviet cosmonauts had. The hatches were then closed, though the modules remained docked, showing that Spider's communications and life support systems would work in isolation from those of Gumdrop. On command, the landing legs sprang into the position they would assume for landing on the Moon.[71]

    In the LM, Schweickart vomited again, causing McDivitt to request a private channel to the doctors in Houston. The first episode had not been reported to the ground because of its brief nature, and when the media learned what had happened to Schweickart, there were "repercussions and a spate of unfriendly stories".[61] They finished the LM checkout, including the successful firing of the descent engine, and returned to Scott in Gumdrop.[61] The burn lasted 367 seconds and simulated the throttle pattern to be used during the landing on the Moon.[2] After they returned, a fifth firing of the SPS was made, designed to circularize Apollo 9's orbit in preparation for the rendezvous.[72] This took place at 54:26:12.3,[63] raising the craft's orbit to 142 by 149 miles.[2]

    The fourth day's program (March 6) was for Schweickart to exit the hatch on the LM and make his way along the outside of the spacecraft to the CM's hatch, where Scott would stand by to assist, demonstrating that this could be done in the event of an emergency. Schweickart was to wear the life support backpack, or PLSS, to be worn on the lunar surface EVAS.[73] This was the only EVA scheduled before the lunar landing, and thus the only opportunity to test the PLSS in space. McDivitt initially cancelled the EVA due to Schweickart's condition, but with the lunar module pilot feeling better, decided to allow him to exit the LM, and once he was there, to move around the LM's exterior using handholds. Scott stood in the CM's hatch; both men photographed each other, and retrieved experiments from the exterior of their vehicles. Schweickart found moving around easier than it had been in simulations; both he and Scott were confident that Schweickart could have completed the exterior transfer if called upon to do so, but considered it unnecessary.[61][74] During the EVA, Schweickart used the call sign "Red Rover", a nod to the color of his hair.[75]

    On March 7, the fifth day, came "the key event of the entire mission: the separation and rendezvous of the lunar module and the command module".[61] The lunar module lacked the capability to return the astronauts to Earth;[44] this was the first time space travelers had flown in a vehicle that could not take them home.[75] McDivitt and Schweickart entered the LM early, having obtained permission to do so without wearing their helmets and gloves, making it easier to set up the LM.[61] When Scott in Gumdrop pushed the button to release the LM, it initially hung on the latches at the end of the docking probe, but he hit the button again and Spider was released.[76] After spending about 45 minutes near Gumdrop, Spider went into a slightly higher orbit, meaning that over time, the two craft would separate, with Gumdrop ahead.[61] Over the next hours, McDivitt fired the LM's descent engine at several throttle settings; by the end of the day the LM was thoroughly test-flown.[77] At a distance of 115 miles (185 km), Spider fired to lower its orbit and thus begin to catch up with Gumdrop, a process that would take over two hours, and the descent stage was jettisoned.[61]

    The approach and rendezvous were conducted as near as possible to what was planned for the lunar missions. To demonstrate that rendezvous could be performed by either craft, Spider was the active party during the maneuver.[78] McDivitt brought Spider close to Gumdrop, then maneuvered the LM to show each side to Scott, allowing him to inspect for any damage. Then, McDivitt docked the craft.[61] Due to glare from the Sun, he had trouble doing this and Scott guided him in. During the later missions, the job of docking the two spacecraft in lunar orbit would fall to the command module pilot.[79] After McDivitt and Schweickart returned to Gumdrop, Spider was jettisoned, its engine fired to fuel depletion remotely by Mission Control as part of further testing of the engine,[2][61] simulating an ascent stage's climb from the lunar surface. This raised Spider to an orbit with apogee of over 3,700 nautical miles (6,900 km; 4,300 mi).[80] The only major lunar module system not fully tested was the landing radar, as this could not be done in Earth orbit.[81]

    Apollo 9 was to remain in space for about ten days to check how the CSM would perform over the period of time required for a lunar mission.[79] Most major events had been scheduled for the first days so that they would be accomplished if the flight needed to be ended early.[82] The remaining days in orbit were to be conducted at a more leisurely pace.[83] With the main goals of the mission accomplished, the hatch window was used for special photography of Earth, using four identical Hasselblad cameras, coupled together and using film sensitive to different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.[84] Such photography allowed different features of the Earth's surface to appear, for example, tracking of water pollution as it exits mouths of rivers into the sea,[59] and the highlighting of agricultural areas using infrared.[84] The camera system was a prototype, and would pave the way for the Earth Resources Technology Satellite, predecessor to the Landsat series.[85] The photography was successful, as the ample time in orbit meant that the crew could wait to allow cloud cover to pass, and would inform Skylab's mission planning.[3]

    Scott used a sextant to track landmarks on the Earth, and turned the instrument to the skies to observe the planet Jupiter, practicing navigation techniques that were to be used on later missions.[86] The crew was able to track the Pegasus 3 satellite (launched in 1965) as well as the ascent stage of Spider.[3] The sixth burn of the SPS engine took place on the sixth day, though it was postponed one orbit as the reaction control system (RCS) thruster burn needed to settle the reactants in their tanks was not properly programmed. The SPS burn lowered the perigee of Apollo 9's orbit,[33] allowing for improved RCS thruster deorbit capability as a backup to the SPS.[87]

    Considerable testing of the CSM took place, but this was principally Scott's responsibility, allowing McDivitt and Schweickart leisure to observe the Earth; they alerted Scott if anything particularly noteworthy was upcoming, letting him leave his work for a moment to look at Earth too.[88] The seventh burn of the SPS system took place on the eighth day, March 10, its purpose was again to aid RCS deorbit capability, as well as extending Gumdrop's orbital lifetime. It shifted the apogee of the orbit to the Southern Hemisphere, allowing for a longer free-fall time to entry when Apollo 9 returned to Earth. The burn was extended to allow for testing of the propellent gaging system, which had been behaving anomalously during earlier SPS burns.[33][89] Once it was accomplished, Apollo 9's RCS thrusters could have returned it to Earth and still allowed it to land in the primary recovery zone had the SPS engine failed. The eighth and final SPS burn, to return the vehicle to Earth, was accomplished on March 13, less than an hour after the ten-day mark of the mission, after which the service module was jettisoned. The landing was delayed one orbit because of unfavorable weather in the primary landing zone[90] some 220 nautical miles (410 km; 250 mi) ESE of Bermuda.[91] Instead, Apollo 9 splashed down 160 nautical miles (300 km; 180 mi) east of the Bahamas, about 3 miles (4.8 km) from the recovery carrier, the USS Guadalcanal,[92] after a mission lasting 10 days, 1 hour, 54 minutes.[93] Apollo 9 was the last spacecraft to splash down in the Atlantic Ocean until the Crew Dragon Demo-1 mission in 2019.[94]

    The Apollo 9 Command Module Gumdrop (1969-018A) is on display at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.[95] Gumdrop was formerly displayed at the Michigan Space and Science Center, Jackson, Michigan, until April 2004 when the center closed.[96] The service module, jettisoned shortly after the deorbit burn, reentered the atmosphere.[91]

    The ascent stage of LM-3 Spider (1969-018C) reentered on October 23, 1981.[97] The descent stage of LM-3 Spider (1969-018D) reentered on March 22, 1969, landing in the Indian Ocean near North Africa.[97][98] The S-IVB (1969-018B) was sent into solar orbit, with initial aphelion of 80,093,617 miles (128,898,182 km), perihelion of 44,832,845 miles (72,151,470 km) and orbital period of 245 days.[99] It remains in solar orbit as of 2019.[100]

    As NASA Associate Administrator George Mueller put it, "Apollo 9 was as successful a flight as any of us could ever wish for, as well as being as successful as any of us have ever seen."[92] Gene Kranz called Apollo 9 "sheer exhilaration".[92] Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips stated, "in every way, it has exceeded even our most optimistic expectations."[80] Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin stood in Mission Control as Spider and Gumdrop docked after their separate flights, and with the docking, according to Andrew Chaikin, "Apollo 9 had fulfilled all its major objectives. At that moment, Aldrin knew that Apollo 10 would also succeed, and that he and Armstrong would attempt to land on the Moon. On March 24, NASA made it official."[101]

    Although he might have been offered command of an Apollo lunar landing mission, McDivitt chose to leave the Astronaut Corps after Apollo 9, becoming manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program later in 1969. Scott was soon given another spaceflight assignment as backup commander of Apollo 12, and then was made mission commander of Apollo 15, landing on the Moon in 1971. Schweickart volunteered for medical investigation of his spacesickness, but was unable to shake its stigma, and was never again assigned to a prime crew. He took a leave of absence from NASA in 1977 that eventually became permanent.[102] Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, stated that when it came to understanding spacesickness, Schweickart "paid the price for them all".[103]

    In the giddiness following the success of Apollo 9, NASA did not conduct the "E mission" (further testing in medium Earth orbit), and even considered skipping the "F mission", the dress rehearsal for the lunar landing, going straight to the landing attempt. As the spacecraft designated for the first landing attempt were still being assembled, this was not done.[104] NASA officials also felt that given the past difficulties with the LM, there was a need for a further test flight before the actual landing attempt, and that orbiting the Moon would give them the opportunity to study mass concentrations there, which had affected Apollo 8's orbit.[105] According to French and Burgess in their study of the Apollo Program, "In any event, ... Apollo 9's success had ensured that the next Apollo mission would go back to the moon."[104]

    Bibliography

    Baker, David (1982). The History of Manned Space Flight (1st ed.). New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-517-54377-X.
    Brooks, Courtney G.; Grimwood, James M.; Swenson, Loyd S., Jr. (1979). Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft. The NASA History Series. Foreword by Samuel C. Phillips. Washington, D.C.: Scientific and Technical Information Branch, NASA. ISBN 978-0-486-46756-6. LCCN 79001042. OCLC 4664449. NASA SP-4205. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
    Carson, Maurice A.; Rouen, Michael N.; Lutz, Charles C.; McBarron, II, James W. (1975). "Extravehicular Mobility Unit". Biomedical Results of Apollo. Washington, D.C.: NASA Johnson Space Center and BioTechnology. SP-368.
    Chaikin, Andrew (1994). A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts. New York, NY: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-81446-6. LCCN 93048680.
    Compton, William D. (1989). Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. OCLC 1045558568. SP-4214.
    Eberhart, Jonathan (March 1, 1969). "Moonward by jungle gym". Science News: 218–219. JSTOR 4548203.(subscription required)
    Ertel, Ivan D.; Newkirk, Roland W.; Brooks, Courtney G. (1975). The Apollo Spacecraft – A Chronology. Volume IV. NASA. SP-4009. Retrieved January 29, 2008.
    Ezell, Linda Neuman (1988). NASA Historical Data Book: Volume III: Programs and Projects 1969–1978. NASA History Series. SP-4012.
    French, Francis; Burgess, Colin (2010) [2007]. In the Shadow of the Moon. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-2979-2.
    Harland, David M. (1999). Exploring the Moon: The Apollo Expeditions. Chichester, UK: Springer-Praxis. ISBN 978-1-85233-099-6.
    Apollo 9 Mission Report (PDF). Houston, TX: NASA. 1969.
    Apollo 9 Press Kit (PDF). Washington, D.C.: NASA. 1969. 69-29.
    Orloff, Richard W. (September 2004) [2000]. Apollo by the Numbers: A Statistical Reference (PDF). NASA History Series. Washington, D.C.: NASA. ISBN 978-0-16-050631-4. SP-4029.
    Orloff, Richard W.; Harland, David M. (2006). Apollo: The Definitive Sourcebook. Chichester, UK: Praxis Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-387-30043-6.
    "Apollo: Healthy in mid-flight". Science News: 255. March 15, 1969. JSTOR 3954137.(subscription required)
    "Spider makes its mark". Science News: 277–278. March 22, 1969. JSTOR 3953852.(subscription required)
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    Scott, David; Leonov, Alexei (2006). Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race (E-Book). with Christine Toomey. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-30866-7.
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    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Space-apollo-9-granger


    orthodoxymoron
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    Post  orthodoxymoron Thu Jul 11, 2019 1:29 pm

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    Don't Be Frightened. I Mean No Harm. Consider focusing upon the Manned-Missions immediately preceding the alleged Moon-Landings. Is there anyone who has made a career out of Apollo 7, 8, 9, and 10 (or more broadly Apollo 1 to 10)?? Siriusly, who is the World-Authority on Apollo 1 to 10?? What if someone made a religion out of Apollo 1 to 10?? One could create a religion out of just about anyone and/or anything. How about worshipping an Oak-Tree and calling it 'Idol-a-Tree'?? Does Freedom = Purgatory?? Does Absolute-Obedience = Heaven and/or Hell?? What if Souls MUST Alternate Between Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven (or at least between Purgatory and Heaven)??

    I grew-up attending an SDA church in Hollywood (on Hollywood Boulevard at the Hollywood Freeway) and I belonged to the Los Angeles Astronomical Society (at the Griffith Observatory and Planetarium) but I wish I'd spent some quality-time at the Philosophical Research Society (which I drove by for years, without visiting). Imagine the combination of the Hollywood SDA Church, the Philosophical Research Society, and the Griffith Observatory (at the Griffith Observatory)!! Can you imagine a movie made mostly at the Griffith Observatory featuring a reincarnated James Dean with enough money and big enough balls to pull off something like that??!! Imagine the Griffith Observatory as a Constantine-Style 'Theology Club' with Gabriel telling James Dean "You're Fvcked!!" What Would Dr. Krupp Say??

    We've sent several unmanned spacecraft to Mars, complete with landers and rovers, and all of this seems to be quite financially manageable, but have we sent a similar number of unmanned spacecraft to the Moon, complete with landers and rovers?? Did I miss it?? I suspect at least three levels of solar system civilization, namely 1. We the Peons. 2. The Secret Managers of We the Peons. 3. Solar System Civilizations Which Have Nothing to Do with We the Peons and Our Managers. Perhaps this is an oversimplification but it seems as if we're not supposed to know and if we knew we'd wish we didn't know. I've seen UFO's but I have no idea if they were Ours and/or Theirs or if they were Piloted Directly and/or Remotely with Beings and/or Computers. I think I might've spoken with ET and/or AI but I've been left to twist slowly, slowly in the wind, after seemingly being 'Messed-With' physically, mentally, and spiritually (for starters). WTF??

    I think I've been stupidly open-minded for most of my life, and now I'll probably be crazily open-minded for the rest of my life. What if the Beast-Supercomputer, Intelligence-Agencies, City-States, Secret-Societies, Organized-Crime, International-Banking, Multinational-Corporations, Nefarious-Archons, and the Military-Industrial Complex MUST Run Purgatory Incorporated?? That Question Should Scare the Hell Out of You!! It Does Me!! Raven angrily exclaimed "The Rabbit-Hole Mostly Goes Right Up Your @$$!!" What if she was right?? What if I'm an Ancient-Galactic Completely-Ignorant Bad@$$ System-Lord with Past-Life Amnesia and Massive Karmic-Debt?? The Horror.

    Some of us should study the English-System and the American-System and imagine combining the Best of Both Systems in the Context of the Whole Solar System in A.D. 2133. But please do NOT assume that I'm partial to England or America. I continue to find it almost impossible to properly research this stuff because I feel HORRIBLE 24/7. The British-Israel thing is sort of interesting, but I suspect that even the most idealistic religious and political conceptualizations have been infiltrated and subverted by nefarious-forces from the nether-realms (or something to that effect). I Know I Don't Know and I Don't Know What I Want. This is the Inconvenient-Truth.

    I experienced two short shaking-episodes (separated by probably 5 minutes) around 3AM PST this morning (07-12-19). I've experienced several earthquakes throughout the years, and these didn't feel like earthquakes. They lasted probably 5 to 15 seconds. They could've been underground blasts or demonic events. I frankly have no idea, but they weren't imagined or dreamed. I was wide-awake. They might be very localized. Just thought I'd post this as I try very-hard to go incognito. I honestly wanted to not-post throughout 2019, but that didn't fracking-happen. I don't think anything depends on me, so I'm thinking in terms of 'weathering the storm'. A total-stranger told me something to that effect probably one-year ago. I get the feeling that what's going to happen is not negotiable. I think mind-games have been played with me, but I'm mostly in the process of shutting-down and shutting-up, so I'm not playing ball with anyone (good or bad).

    Consider a more-condensed version of my past war-zones: 1. 'Psalms and Isaiah' (NIV) read straight-through, over and over. 2. 'Prophets and Kings' (EGW) read straight-through, over and over. I really don't want to fight about this stuff. 'RA' asked me "Do You Want Another War??" We seem to have been in an Ancient to Modern Star-War in Heaven and Earth. Why Would I Want Another War (As a Rebel Without a Clue)?? I Am of Peace. Always.






    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_10 Apollo 10 was a May 1969 human spaceflight, the fourth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, and the second (after Apollo Cool to orbit the Moon. It was the F mission: a "dress rehearsal" for the first Moon landing, testing all of the components and procedures, just short of actually landing. The Apollo Lunar Module (LM) was flown to a descent orbit within 8.4 nautical miles (15.6 km) of the lunar surface, at the point where powered descent for landing would normally begin.[2] After orbiting the Moon 31 times[3] Apollo 10 returned safely to Earth, and its success enabled the first landing to be attempted on the Apollo 11 mission two months later.

    According to the 2002 Guinness World Records, Apollo 10 set the record for the highest speed attained by a crewed vehicle: 39,897 km/h (11.08 km/s or 24,791 mph) on May 26, 1969, during the return from the Moon.

    The mission's call signs were the names of the Peanuts characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy, who became Apollo 10's semi-official mascots.[4] Peanuts creator Charles Schulz also drew mission-related artwork for NASA. [5]

    Apollo 10 and Apollo 11 were the only Apollo missions whose crew were all veterans of spaceflight. Thomas P. Stafford had flown on Gemini 6 and Gemini 9; John W. Young had flown on Gemini 3 and Gemini 10, and Eugene A. Cernan had flown with Stafford on Gemini 9. In addition, Apollo 10 was the only Saturn V flight from Launch Complex 39B, as preparations for Apollo 11 at LC-39A had begun in March almost immediately after Apollo 9's launch.

    They were also the only Apollo crew all of whose members went on to fly subsequent missions aboard Apollo spacecraft: Young later commanded Apollo 16, Cernan commanded Apollo 17 and Stafford commanded the U.S. vehicle on the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project. It was on Apollo 10 that John Young became the first human to fly solo around the Moon, while Stafford and Cernan flew the LM in lunar orbit as part of the preparations for Apollo 11. Young was also backup commander of Apollo 13 and Apollo 17 and Cernan was backup commander of Apollo 14.

    The Apollo 10 crew are also the humans who have traveled the farthest away from home, some 408,950 kilometers (220,820 nmi) from their homes and families in Houston.[6] While most Apollo missions orbited the Moon at the same 111 kilometers (60 nmi) from the lunar surface, the distance between the Earth and Moon varies by about 43,000 kilometers (23,000 nmi), between perigee and apogee, throughout the year, and the Earth's rotation make the distance to Houston vary by another 12,000 kilometers (6,500 nmi) each day. The Apollo 10 crew reached the farthest point in their orbit around the far side of the Moon at about the same time Earth's rotation put Houston nearly a full Earth diameter away.[7]

    By the normal rotation in place during Apollo, the backup crew would have been scheduled to fly on Apollo 13. However, Alan Shepard, then number two at the Astronaut Office, gave himself the Apollo 13 command slot instead. L. Gordon Cooper Jr., Commander of the Apollo 10 backup crew, was enraged and resigned from NASA. Later, Shepard's crew was forced to switch places with Jim Lovell's tentative Apollo 14 crew.[8]

    Deke Slayton wrote in his memoirs that Cooper and Donn F. Eisele were never intended to rotate to another mission as both were out of favor with NASA management for various reasons (Cooper for his lax attitude towards training and Eisele for incidents aboard Apollo 7 and an extramarital affair) and were assigned to the backup crew simply because of a lack of qualified manpower in the Astronaut Office at the time the assignment needed to be made. Cooper, Slayton noted, had a very small chance of receiving the Apollo 13 command if he did an outstanding job with the assignment, which he did not. Eisele, despite his issues with management, was always intended for future assignment to the Apollo Applications Program (which was eventually cut down to only the Skylab component) and not a lunar mission.[9]

    This dress rehearsal for a Moon landing brought the Apollo Lunar Module to 8.4 nautical miles (15.6 km) from the lunar surface, at the point where powered descent would begin on the actual landing. Practicing this approach orbit would refine knowledge of the lunar gravitational field[14] needed to calibrate the powered descent guidance system[15] to within 1 nautical mile (1.9 km) needed for a landing. Earth-based observations, uncrewed spacecraft, and Apollo 8 had respectively allowed calibration to within 200 nautical miles (370 km), 20 nautical miles (37 km), and 5 nautical miles (9.3 km). Except for this final stretch, the mission was designed to duplicate how a landing would have gone, both in space and for ground control, putting NASA's flight controllers and extensive tracking and control network through a rehearsal.

    The ascent stage was loaded with the amount of fuel and oxidizer it would have had remaining if it had lifted off from the surface and reached the altitude at which the Apollo 10 ascent stage fired; this was only about half the total amount required for lift off and rendezvous with the CSM. The mission-loaded LM weighed 30,735 pounds (13,941 kg), compared to 33,278 pounds (15,095 kg) for the Apollo 11 LM which made the first landing.[16] Craig Nelson wrote in his book Rocket Men that NASA took special precaution to ensure Stafford and Cernan would not attempt to make the first landing. Nelson quoted Cernan as saying "A lot of people thought about the kind of people we were: 'Don't give those guys an opportunity to land, 'cause they might!' So the ascent module, the part we lifted off the lunar surface with, was short-fueled. The fuel tanks weren't full. So had we literally tried to land on the Moon, we couldn't have gotten off."[17]

    Mission parameters

    Mass: CSM 63,648 pounds (28,870 kg); LM 30,735 pounds (13,941 kg)

    Earth parking orbit

    Perigee: 99.6 nautical miles (184.5 km)
    Apogee: 100.0 nautical miles (185.2 km)
    Inclination: 32.5°
    Period: 88.1 min

    Lunar orbit

    Perilune: 60.0 nautical miles (111.1 km)
    Apolune: 171.0 nautical miles (316.7 km)
    Inclination: 1.2°
    Period: 2.15 hours

    LM–CSM docking

    Undocked: May 22, 1969 – 19:00:57 UTC
    Redocked: May 23, 1969 – 03:11:02 UTC

    LM closest approach to lunar surface

    May 22, 1969, 21:29:43 UTC

    On May 22, 1969 at 20:35:02 UTC, a 27.4 second LM descent propulsion system burn inserted the LM into a descent orbit of 60.9 by 8.5 nautical miles (112.8 by 15.7 km) so that the resulting lowest point in the orbit occurred about 15° from lunar landing site 2 (the Apollo 11 landing site). The lowest measured point in the trajectory was 47,400 feet (14.4 km) above the lunar surface at 21:29:43 UTC.[18]

    Shortly after trans-lunar injection, Young performed the transposition, docking, and extraction maneuver, separating the command and service module (CSM) from the S-IVB stage, turning around, and docking its nose to the top of the lunar module (LM), before separating from the S-IVB. Apollo 10 was the first mission to carry a color television camera inside the spacecraft, and made the first live color TV transmissions from space.

    After reaching lunar orbit three days later, Young remained in the command module (CM) Charlie Brown while Stafford and Cernan entered the LM Snoopy and flew it separately. The LM crew performed the descent orbit insertion maneuver by firing their descent engine, and tested their craft's landing radar as they approached the 50,000-foot (15,000-meter) altitude where the subsequent Apollo 11 mission would begin powered descent to actually land on the Moon. They surveyed the future Apollo 11 landing site in the Sea of Tranquility, then jettisoned the descent stage and fired the engine of the ascent stage to return to Charlie Brown Command Module. The descent stage was left in orbit, but eventually crashed onto the lunar surface because of the Moon's non-uniform gravitational field. Its location is unknown as it was not tracked.

    During descent stage separation, the lunar module began to roll unexpectedly because the crew accidentally duplicated commands into the flight computer which took the LM out of abort mode, the correct configuration for this maneuver.[19] The live network broadcasts caught Cernan and Stafford uttering several expletives before regaining control of the LM. Decades later, Cernan said he observed the horizon spinning eight times over, indicating eight rolls of the spacecraft under ascent engine power. Recordings from the flight do not support this dramatic memory.[20] While the incident was downplayed by NASA, the roll was just several revolutions from being unrecoverable, which would have resulted in the LM crashing into the lunar surface.[19]

    After Stafford and Cernan docked with Charlie Brown and re-entered it, Snoopy's ascent stage was sent on a trajectory past the Moon into a heliocentric orbit[14][21] by firing its engine to fuel depletion (unlike the subsequent Apollo 11 ascent stage, which was left in lunar orbit to eventually crash; all ascent stages after Apollo 11 were instead intentionally steered into the Moon to obtain readings from seismometers placed on the surface, except for the one on Apollo 13, which did not land but was used as a "life boat" to get the crew back to Earth, and burned up in Earth's atmosphere.)[21]

    Snoopy's ascent stage orbit was not tracked after 1969, and its current location is unknown. In 2011, a group of amateur astronomers in the UK started a project to search for it. In 2019, the Royal Astronomical Society announced a possible rediscovery of Snoopy, determining that small Earth-crossing asteroid 2018 AV2 is likely the capsule with "98%" certainty.[22] It is the only once-crewed spacecraft still in outer space without a crew.[23][24]

    Splashdown occurred in the Pacific Ocean on May 26, 1969, at 16:52:23 UTC, about 400 nautical miles (740 km) east of American Samoa. The astronauts were recovered by USS Princeton, and subsequently flown to Pago Pago International Airport in Tafuna for a greeting reception, before being flown on a C-141 cargo plane to Honolulu.

    After Apollo 10, NASA required astronauts to choose more "dignified" names for their command and lunar modules. This proved unenforceable: Apollo 16 astronauts Young, Mattingly and Duke chose Casper, as in Casper the Friendly Ghost, for their command module name. The idea was to give children a way to identify with the mission by using humor.[25][26]

    The Smithsonian has been accountable for the command module Charlie Brown since 1970. The spacecraft was on display in several countries until it was placed on loan to the London Science Museum in 1978.[27] Charlie Brown's service module (SM) was jettisoned just before re-entry and burned up in the Earth's atmosphere.

    After translunar injection, the Saturn V's S-IVB third stage was accelerated past Earth escape velocity and became a derelict object where as of 2018, it remains in a heliocentric orbit.[28]

    The ascent stage of the Apollo Lunar Module Snoopy was jettisoned into a heliocentric orbit. On June 10, 2019 Nick Howes, a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, announced that he and his colleagues had located Snoopy, whose location was previously unknown, based on radar astronomy data with 98% certainty.[29]

    The shield-shaped emblem for the flight shows a large, three-dimensional Roman numeral X sitting on the Moon's surface, in Stafford's words, "to show that we had left our mark." Although it did not land on the Moon, the prominence of the number represents the significant contributions the mission made to the Apollo program. A CSM circles the Moon as an LM ascent stage flies up from its low pass over the lunar surface with its engine firing. The Earth is visible in the background. On the mission patch, a wide, light blue border carries the word APOLLO at the top and the crew names around the bottom. The patch is trimmed in gold. The insignia was designed by Allen Stevens of Rockwell International.[30]

    In February 2016 Discovery Channel broadcast a TV show suggesting that the mission witnessed mysterious or alien signals while on the far side of the Moon.[31] The astronomers mention the odd whistling sound that lasted nearly an hour. It was speculated that this is an evidence for UFO coverup. According to space journalist James Oberg, the sound was most probably radio interference between the command module and the lunar module landing vehicles. Describing it as "outer-space type music" was most probably due to priming, as suggested by Benjamin Radford.[32]

    Bibliography

    Cernan, Gene; Davis, Donald A (2000). The Last Man on the Moon. St. Martin's Griffin. p. 368. ISBN 978-0312263515.
    Chaikin, Andrew (2007). A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts. Foreword by Tom Hanks. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-311235-8.
    Glenday, Craig, ed. (2010). Guinness World Records 2010. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-59337-4.
    Lattimer, Dick (1985). All We Did Was Fly to the Moon. History-alive series. 1. Foreword by James A. Michener (1st ed.). Alachua, FL: Whispering Eagle Press. ISBN 0-9611228-0-3.
    Nelson, Craig (2009). Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon. New York: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-02103-1.
    Slayton, Donald K. "Deke"; Cassutt, Michael (1994). Deke! U.S. Manned Space: From Mercury to the Shuttle (1st ed.). New York: Forge. ISBN 0-312-85503-6.

    External links

    Wikimedia Commons has media related to Apollo 10.
    "Apollo 10" at Encyclopedia Astronautica
    NSSDC Master Catalog at NASA
    [1] Apollo 10 Flight Journal

    NASA reports

    Apollo 10 Press Kit (PDF), NASA, Release No. 69-68, May 7, 1969 (from NASA Program History Office)
    Apollo 10 Press Kit (PDF), NASA, Release No. 69-68, May 7, 1969 (from NASA Technical Reports Server)
    The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology NASA, NASA SP-4009
    "Apollo Program Summary Report" (PDF), NASA, JSC-09423, April 1975
    "Table 2-38. Apollo 10 Characteristics" from NASA Historical Data Book: Volume III: Programs and Projects 1969–1978 by Linda Neuman Ezell, NASA History Series (1988)

    Multimedia

    Apollo 10: "To Sort Out the Unknowns" Official NASA/JSC documentary film, JSC-519 (1969)
    Apollo 10 16mm onboard film part 1, part 2 raw footage taken from Apollo 10
    Apollo 10 Moon Orbit Orbital footage of Moon from Apollo 10

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    Morpheus wrote:Vidya asked, "Morpheus, I presume if you go into the tunnel of light you 'reincarnate' at the other end? What if you stay in spirit? Does this mean you don't reincarnate, or that it is postponed. Can you choose to reincarnate from spirit, without this 'tunnel of light and its gatekeeper? (how? if it's possible)..just a simple question today then."

    Sorry for my absence as a stomach bug has played hell with me. Sure took the wind out of my sails.

    When you go thru the tunnel of light, you will arrive somewhere. A station perhaps where those that are manning it are just another program. Maybe one of possessing your soul. The tunnel of light is a wormhole. Granted it is a different type and they probably have all kinds of types to fit the needs of the soul they are trying to possess. If you submit, you're done!

    Ask yourself if you are the commander of your own ship? If you are, when you pass over, you'll know better not to fall for a program that has been there for eons. Part of waking up is the state of being that goes with that. You have the gift of free agency at that time, at that moment, and if you're wise, you will know what to do next.

    For everyone, it will be different because some are commanders and some aren't. Every path is different. For instance, when I got into the 11:11 stuff, I found myself in a different type of tunnel. The tunnel was like a loose spiral staircase. It was flexible. On one end of the tunnel was an exit doorway. A soul group was in this tunnel, getting ready to exit. I knew the soul in my personal life that was leading the way. I was last, bringing up the rear. The funny part was that I did not know anyone else from my personal life in this group, but I knew we were all connected.

    Be your own commander! Don't leave it to someone else, where you are just taking their word for it even though they may appear as an Angel. I mean, after all, all the work you spend to get to the bottom of your truth and at the best possible moment to acquire your spiritual freedom, you are going to leave it to someone or something else is not the way that got you to your waking state.

    It comes down to choice. For me, I'm not going through that tunnel. I choose to be free! Been there done that as far as being in space. I can go anywhere. Besides, as in my case the programmers on the other side of that tunnel, left because they knew I had figured out what they were about. So command your own space. You want to go back to Heaven, then just think it. Why do you need a wormhole to get there? Doesn't make sense to me. If you are a betting man or woman, then place all of your bets on YOURSELF! If you do that, you are guaranteed to win. Why not empower yourself? Please don't leave it to secondhand beliefs to cause you to submit to lies, illusions, and the rest of it. You have come this far, so don't throw it all the way in a second guess. Don't let your soul get gotten by Soul Pirates.

    Please forgive me if all this may sound condescending. I am not like that but words have a way of making things seem that way.  sunny I hope you are well, Vidya. Maybe you could reveal to us where you are in my other thread. Maybe gives us some feedback on what you're doing.




    No worries OXY! Again thank you for posting like a Thuban, ah, I mean for your long posts.  Crazy Happy Seriously, just keep on going on. I appreciate what you do.  geek I must confess I don't have a really good memory as far as postings go. You would make a really good lawyer. But it would seem if for nothing else, what I posted in the past is consistent even today. So I thank you for digging and finding past postings and posting them here. Especially Brook's postings.

    Lionhawk wrote, "On a personal, I wanted to say to ODM that your presence here is much appreciated. Part of your gifts is to be able to get in there and tear it up and dissect. In this research field, that is a priceless gift to have. And just because you say you are not experiencing, I would say otherwise as you are always pushing the envelope to another "place of knowing." So maybe you might feel downtrodden by all this research and all these agendas that surround us. We have all been there several times at least. I also can't stress this enough is to never give up. Many have and those that have, now have a bitter outlook on this world and that only means they reflect that from within. That's not a healthy spiritual approach as proven by what illnesses befall on these people. So don't stop with what your flow is. When you do, things go awry. You are a major contributor with your postings and it is with wishes we all could use some ODM mojo with our research projects. Some do. Many don't. How many times have I heard the question, what would ODM think about this? You set a great example."


    That hasn't changed! And here we are Brother.  
    Toast


    orthodoxymoron wrote:
    Thank-you Morpheus. I don't have much to say at this point. Namaste.
    Vidya Moksha wrote: I stripped both my ambulances back to the shell. I prefer a blank canvas to refit.. I reused as much as possible but I took it all out, removed the inner aluminium shell and layered insulation...i also think so much metal will be a pain with condensation... i refitted with wood.

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    Morpheus wrote:Couldn't agree with you more Vidya as far as starting off with a clean slate. After watching the Project Amber vids and what he has gone through, I can easily see why you would strip down a Sprinter Ambulance. Starting fresh. It's also a lot of work. So I can imagine what you have gone through. Do you have a finished photo of the inside of your rig? Insulating just sucks.

    I went out yesterday morning and did get the box a/c up and running. Apparently it is running off the alternator. I think the alternator is 150 amps. Not sure though. When you hit the master switch on for the box, the engine gets bumped up to a fast idle speed of 1500 rpms. The bad thing about that is, it creates a lot of diesel smoke. Literally, smoke you out. Most a/c units at best can only compensate for a 20 to 25 degree difference cooling variance. This thing is an animal. The thermostat goes down into the 50s and what I have researched, has a 40-degree variance. Plus it can cool down the box like within 12 minutes as compared to 40-60 minutes in most RVs. Impressive to say the least.

    The darn thing even has airbags in the box. That was a surprise. Plus it has a Medi-Cool box. Must have been for Meds. It has temperature contol too. I also found where there is an antenna access panel on the ceiling next to that front window. Might be able to route the solar cables through that instead of going through the window access.

    Make no mistake folks, these type of projects require a lot of courage to even attempt. So many unknowns, especially without any wiring schematics. I didn't even get a manual for this thing.  Argh

    Here's a better shot of that front window & where I am going to put the wood stove. Where it says, do not tamper, is where one of the air bag sensors is located.


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    orthodoxymoron wrote:You guys got it all wrong!! I'm gonna get an older less-expensive Cadillac CTS-V Wagon, put a luxurious bed in the back, and seduce beautiful-women at Burger King!! "Hey Baby!! Wanna Squeeze My Buns??!!"
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    "Oh Oxy!!"
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    The End.
    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


    Posts : 13631
    Join date : 2010-09-28
    Location : The Matrix

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Empty Re: United States AI Solar System (9)

    Post  orthodoxymoron Sat Jul 13, 2019 12:35 pm

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    Morpheus wrote:The Wes Penre Papers The Third Level of Learning: copyright: 2013 Wes Penre Productions 1st Edition 178

    https://wespenrepapershome.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/thirdleveloflearning.pdf
    page 177

    Lionhawk wrote:

    Greetings Abrax, An impressive thread you got going on here. What I like about it, is that it isn't strictly a work of a lazy mind with the copy and paste method. You also seem overly accommodating. Not saying that is bad. But to say it mildly I am slightly confused here as to why at this date and time, the council you are affiliated with has decided to put this information out there. Since I am now in the den of a Dragon, with a Dragon, with what seems to be of a great heart, I would also like to ask why this is such a familiar place to me? It would seem like I have been in several of these dens and although my memory goes way back, it would also seem this is like business as usual. If I know anything about Dragons, it is the swapping of the stories that rarely occur between a Dragon and a human. And yet here you are swapping many stories to many a human. Mind you, I haven't come here to disrupt or interrupt your thread here with any malice intent. But forgive my curiosity. In all of my memories, there are many that include Dragons, since the time of Antiquity. Most of those memories are horrific ones. Why the Creator allowed his creations to devour another creation has never been really answered for me since those times. I watched humans get sliced and diced by the very claws of your kind. When I say your kind, I mean your kind as in your soul family in Creation. The very family that exists among us today.

    But if I do anything today, in this post, is set something straight that really hasn't been discussed. Not many are even aware of the ramifications of this in this painting, as they may have only read about it, possibly. They have no experience to go by as a reference to even understand such knowledge unless it is conveyed to them as dark or light. A Dragon is a Dragon. A Human is a Human. The soul fragments of each have a different matrix. Both are the Creator's creations. Both have had the same kind of road less travel as they both have also degenerated through the ages. There is a time where these two had to be completely separated from each other in the Universe. To the extreme that one was placed in this Universal polarity and the other was placed in it's Universal opposite polarity. For that matter, I don't think this has been written anywhere here on the Planet as it is not privy information. The reason why this was decided was to actually ensure the prospect of soul growth in some sort of progression. The Dragons were on the other side of this Galaxy in the other polarity. A great King was appointed and is still ruling today. Well, since the Dragons were separated from man, they had no one else to slice and dice, so they started slicing and dicing themselves. Factions broke off from the Kingdom and wanted their own Kingdom as it is the quest for power that will drive a Dragon mad. Kind of like giving booze to a Native American.

    The great King Dragon tried for eons to turn this plight around. But these factions that joined together as one, refuted against the King. So, it was decided that something had to be done, as these Dragons thirst for power, was killing this great kingdom. They were an uncontrollable menace. So they were gathered up and exiled through the center of our galaxy through the Black hole. Some know the rest of the story. The Orion war and so forth to this day in the now. I have a speculation. I speculate that this council of yours is seeking favor with the humans at this time because of what is about to happen. You guys have a problem. And right now you are desperate because you know that your end is near. You think your soul group here will be possibly saved if in thinking that you can convince someone to see that you are worthy of saving by now trying to embrace the human faction. Like you are now doing us all a great big favor. Let me put this in Black and White instead of Light and Dark. The fact is that your faction of the Dragons were exiled or banished from where you came from. No matter how your council tires to disguise it. And since that time, some of you tried to go back but couldn't. In other words, you saw the light as to what your King was saying, but you already had chosen your fate. It is the original sin that the dark chose to refute the Creator's wishes for all of his creations. Except for this time your council and brethren repeated the same mistake with your King.

    So, to now appear in this date and time as such glorious beings are not going to change the original sin that your kind has perpetrated. And since that time of banishment, look at the karma, your soul group as now compiled. Imagine a pile of dragon dung that can fill up several sectors in this Universe. With all of your brilliance and accomplishments that only served to satisfy your thirst for power, you have created your own black hole and it has been fed by the very energy you have fed it. And despite all the crimes against every outpost you have conquered in the quest for that power, you have more or less put the noose around your own necks. Your council's decision to not fully take responsibility by placing another agenda at the foot of the human race is like getting the switchman ready to pull the switch on your noose floor.You seemed to be a young Dragon by Dragon standards and well schooled. It is a shame because some of you have seen the light, but so many of your brethren have not, and you have become well out numbered by your own kind because you chose to see the light as to where they still refuse it. You, yourself might find the Creators grace when all this is said and done. There is a chance for you to save your brethren and one chance only. That chance has to do with your true King. It will not be achieved by your council or any other faction that has separated itself from your soul group that is currently here.

    I also know your brethren have a watchful eye on what you are doing here. They have no use for us human folk. Their eyes only show contempt for us to the extreme. Like that final look before the kill. To make matters worse, in a matter of speaking, if your council and brethren decide to finally negotiate for your soul family's survival, a human has been appointed to assist in that process. The reason for that was to really test your resolve as to your true intentions. There is no more room for the scheming. It is no longer about your entitlement attitude and power. It is about your soul survival, period. So I leave with this with you in hopes that you all make sense of this and know that it isn't all as you have so far put it. You left out some crucial things or maybe your own council kept it from you. Also if that wasn't enough information for you to be motivated in any direction you choose, I have two more things of intrigue that might get your attention. One, the technology you have been seeking that was once here, that your kind had control of because you stole it in the first place, is no longer in your possession as you know. Also, any persons that you are possibly trying to find that may lead you back to that technology are also not within your council's reach. So you are wasting your time. Tell that to your superiors. So, I hope our encounter was an interesting one for you, my Dragon friend. Notice I didn't complicate it with all the dragon dribble. It's complicated enough. And sure you can have me checked out if you like. I would advise that anyway. Spirit Matthew told me that my name is how the Universe knows me. He is a wise soul. Namaste'

    Abraxas:

    Dear Lionhawk! Some humans are getting ready to transform into Dragons; a very few are on the brink of doing so (1 in 50,000). Most humans are not ready for Dragonhood; yet requiring evolvement and preparations. According to your words of personal wisdom above, you are one of the latter humans -not yet ready for Dragonhood. Should you search in your caves of your remembrances, then you might find some clues as to where the ancestors of the Dragons come from.This should then allow you to revise the histories as you have learned them from second-hand sources. Shalom! AA

    TRANCOSO wrote: So, what about the content of Lionhawk's post?

    Abraxas: Dear Trancoso! The PTB are RULED by the Dragon archetype. The PTB are unable to access more than 95% of the Cosmic History. As Collier says, the Paa Taal (or similar label) have been forgotten in the records as the ancestors of all. Those ancestors are rather closely entwined with the concept of the starhumanity as the fourth 'brain halo' evolving from the Reptilian brainstem, the mammalian midbrain, and the human cortex. This agenda allows recircularization of the linearity in the Orb of the Ouroborus (Milky Way Mazzaroth or Circle of the Zodiac). The content of Lionhawk's reply contains no direct questions to be answered and was answered relative to the consciousness vibrations emitted through the wordings. It is in my authority to discern written material within the context and under the guidance of the Thuban master templar -the universal Logos. In this capacity and authority, I choose if and how to reply to unsubstantiated innuendo and preconceived ideas and bias with respect to the History of the Dragons and as found in the archives on Thuban. As most can ascertain, I DO answer direct questions in all cases, except in oversight or when these questions are intended to cause strife and dissonance or are what is labeled as ad hominem. AA

    Malletzky wrote:

    What a powerful concept this is! May I assume that we're not only supposed to not only find the way back home to the creator but more than this, that we're primarily supposed to 'learn' the creation itself while finding the way back??? If so...it really does matters to find out that 'going back home'...or the 'second coming'...must happen from inside-out and not visa versa! With respect, Malletzky

    AA; You are BOTH, a shard of the creator and shard of the creation simultaneously malletzky. And you seem to have understood one of the 'hidden data' (the 5% the PTB have not yet discerned relative to their data base) rather well. The symbolism of the Eucharist is THE MOST POTENT archetype for the human-starhuman transformation. It's the real thing and is being 'synthesized' by the PTB in 'implants' and such things. It is inside-out and not outside-in. The Cosmic Archetypology RULES the Cosmos. The reconfiguration of Gaia so requires reconfiguration of the entire cosmic structure. This has been the agenda of all, PTB and ETs all along. Not many know the details, but many have hints and indicators as to what those details entail -especially the echelons at the top of the PTB pyramid. AA

    Lionhawk wrote:

    Well, well, my dear Dragon. Nice try. Brushing it off your back with a brush called arrogance. To be expected in the first round between us. For that matter, I think you have one hell of a sense of humor and you might consider the comedy circuit because when I read your response, you made me laugh and I can only hope that my laugh wasn't an annoying echo in your den.

    Dragon-hood. Now that is by definition a confusing concept. A definition that could very well be projected by whatever gang is giving out such information related to their agenda. It even sounds like something akin to a degree. Ph.D. comes to mind as to your delivery. Also, the agenda of transforming humans into Dragons surely tells me that you are desperate. I must inform you that I have to take away a point by your response and let you know the number stands at 96% instead of 95%. With 4 percentage points left. For one thing, from everything in my experience is not as you have tried to paint it. I thought Dragons had courage. You must be a young Dragon and have not fully found that courage that should be beating in your Heart. No matter the dragon dribble that you have displayed in your response, I will allow you the grace for your immaturity. The point of my addressing you is that you have lured many with your wisdom. Even I am impressed with your talents. But not enough to compromise what the Creator has already blessed me with as a human as in higher universal man. Why would I defile his intentions by allowing what he has already blessed me with as one of his creations into something he did not intend. And you are doing what? Uncreating one in 50,000 into something that has forgotten what it was blessed with in the first place? That is just one of the most perverted perversions of the Universe I have heard in a while.

    The premise of that is actually very twisted in design and just shows at what lengths your soul family has gone to exploit one of God's creations. But really, why would I be surprised at this twisted twist as I have seen with my own eyes what your soul family has done. If you are really paying attention here, I said that and from the first hand as to what I brought to the table. There are several key components that your brethren and your council no longer have control of. One of which I didn't mention in the first round, are the keys to that gate that some of you tried with all of your might to go through but turned you into Dragon butter instead. Another thing that is not in your cave of awareness is who or what is keeping that gate shut. And not to upset you but I will tell you that it is from the true source that has made this contract to keep you all here until you embrace what you have refuted. I have no such agenda as in duping anyone as to what I have brought here today. If anything I have spent countless years in service, since the time of Antiquity and those caves as memories as you so poorly put that is all in one cave. One lifestream. If everyone could remember in full, what they have experienced in their lifestreams, I fear there would be a massive war of retribution reborn in this Universe for all the pain and suffering your soul family has provided them. And through the years of torment and suffering, I have endured, I have come far in the healing of the prejudice your soul family has graced me with. To the point where, I have come here in actual peace to try to negotiate a peace, spite your arrogance.

    I didn't come here to complicate your day Abrax. I came here with a solution to all concerned. As usual, the display of your response is no longer a speculation, as your arrogance has surely shown part of your claws. You claim you have authority but that authority is misdirected as to what your agenda is all about is nothing but another form of possession. You and your council no longer have the authority as you have so claimed with your arrogance and entitlement attitudes over this Planet any longer. This Planet was never yours to begin with. It has all been a ruse perpetrated by your quest for domination. In the name of the human race, your agenda will not succeed should you decide to implement the invasion that your council has been covertly stockpiling here on Gaia. Your council doesn't tell you everything. You can keep us distracted with your wisdom, but if the question as to who knows anything that could possibly know of that, well let us see if you are truly full of wisdom or something else. Now that is what I call an innuendo. And if I have to stand up and represent this Planet that your soul family has exploited, to claim the authority to denounce your council's agenda, then I so do so now. I will not sit here and have any more of my soul family sacrificed to your dinner plates. Your brethren have used us from the very beginning and you are going to present your council in such a sweet light without first taking the responsibility to come here and set things right even though your guilt could fill a black hole. Your council does not or is not the true Royalty of the Dragons that I am friends with.

    So you have no real authority here in this Universe. You never had. You only have fooled the fools. Nothing more. You see there are guardians appointed by the God of this Universe with the Creator's blessings. That only report to the one. No council rules or governs over them. So there is no infiltration. The only reason why your soul family has made it this far is because of the Creator's grace. If I didn't know from experience these things, I would probably be subscribing to your second-hand information. Your talent is blazing and I sincerely mean that. But for the sake of my fellow humans, I want them to know that their souls are being played for by an old agenda that is now passed its time. And I don't want to see them sacrificed for nothing as that has always been the end result of that agenda I have spoken about. I don't want to see my soul family continue down this road called, "Boring" because of the selfish issues that have consumed your family for eons. What you also don't get is that I also don't want to see your family end up as Dragon butter either as I also know the potential of your family as the Creator had intended is still available to you through his grace. We humans are not responsible for the karmic pile your brethren have created. So that is why it is time for you or one of your superiors to come clean and take responsibility and convince your brethren that the road you continue to travel on is a DEAD end. Was that an innuendo? Because if you do I will tell you this, is that your Brethren will find yourselves all alone and will do through the habit of your past, repeat it, but this time you will be slicing and dicing each other.

    The reason why you will be left alone is because of what is going to happen in the Universe. You simply won't be able to keep up in terms of frequency. And to further add to your situation and what appears your lack of knowledge pertaining to it, is what you once had is now gone. The real ones. What you think you have is not what it appears to be. So without that, your fate is once again sealed. Mind you, I am not here to judge you. You hold your own mirror. But everyone should have a clue as to what you have withheld from your audience. There is a code between Dragons and Humans, but it is not this code. This Thuban code is not the Royal one. So it has no real authority anywhere outside of your home planet. I'll have to pass on your proposed course of Dragonhood. I don't have the stomach to digest a child served up on a plate. If I can propose a question, I would like to ask when are you going to tell the real truth to your human audience? I am not saying that you have lied. But what I am talking about is what you haven't told them? This reminds me of the movie, "TO SERVE MAN." Again Abrax, I came in peace and I am going to leave in one piece. Why? Because I can. I also bid you a good day my Dragon friend. Sincerely. Lionhawk aka ....................?

    LionHawk wrote more:

    Greetings.When I first posted up on this thread, I had no idea that this thread had bothered many here. But apparently, I wasn't the only one where those flags went up. Now I have stated that Abrax here as done an amazing and blazing amount of work that is way impressive. I'm not taking that away from him. I wish there were more people who would write their own original work with some substance than a lot of the dodo that gets copied and pasted up. I am more interested in experiences from those I know instead of someone I don't know. All I ask is that you do it with integrity. Otherwise, I can just turn on the TV and get some manure type of story, saving your time and mine. You know..............you can't help but see some of the responses with your name on it. And for the sake of the Mods, and to be as respectful as I can be, what I will say is that some of those responses are only from lack of awareness and or experiences. If we all had the same experiences and the same awareness, there would be nothing to give us a separate character. What remains here is that I am who I am and you are who you are. Some of us have been warriors. Some have not. It all depends on what stations you chose for soul growth. You also can tell who is a warrior and who is not. I am not the only warrior here. Then again, I also know my way out of a barn. I could say that not only am I hacking at evil but I would rather not be hacking at the manure being pooped out by someone who had a hissy fit and left and only came back when I left. Now that I have returned, hacking at evil, as I was accused of, I find the same cow pooping again. Hilarious really.

    Also just a distraction from what is really going on here. Now to walk in a Dragon's Den is a little different than a barn. At least in a barn, you know that manure management is usually in the stalls. But in a Dragon's Den, your guess is as good as mine. And mind you Abrax that this analogy that came from someone's conscience and not mine. Someone also tried the group lynch mob scenario technique as to imply we all felt the same way about this thread. I have only one question for that person. How many barbecues have you been too? I think everyone has their own feelings here. Everyone should be able to express what that is. You don't have to like it. But it should be respected as long as it is tactfully done. I say that because what I have seen demonstrated took courage to do and it was done straight up. Even if I don't agree with what was expressed or even if I do, is not the point here. Someone showed a lot of true grit and character by voicing what was bothering this person and this person was at least honest about that. I can work with that any day of the week as compared to others doing the backstabbing or pooping in your way. At least I know where I stand in either case. That showed heart to do that. Now back to the issues at hand. I asked what needed to be asked. At least the question that no one else here did ask. They at least now know the chicken is out of the bag and someone did ask the question. The question that they never did want you to ask. Think on that. Here's another deal for you. Do you know why some or a lot of this doesn't make sense for you? Because it is from their paradigm and not yours.

    It's almost like going to China and not knowing the language, the customs and traditions, and here you are trying to bridge all that with some Chinese person who doesn't speak good English. Same analogy but the same kind of results. All these different Arch types are also vying for position in the now. What I now have determined is that one shoe doesn't fit all. And most of them are trying to define you in their shoe box. When you are not in their shoe box, to begin with. That is also why my valid questions that I posed were not answered. Also as to why the question of AKA was so far off the mark with the answer that was presented. Why, because he doesn't know who I am and doesn't have access to that by using the channels that are available to him. There must be a reason. So what is it going to be? Ascension or Dragonhood? And why would anyone in their right mind choose to go from an Oxygen-based life form to a Hydrogen based life form? Why move into a lower density element? Why deny yourself the process of creation that the Creator had already intended for you in the first place? To compromise that process by being exposed to a belief system that will not be sustainable within the future of this Universe? Do you think the grass is greener over there? These same beings who were banished here and you are going to go kiss their butts, after all, they have done to our human soul family. And the innuendo that I am coming from a hateful mind. What? I got to say that again. What? Excuse me! I came here to this thread to establish a truce and an answer to all parties involved.

    I didn't come here to start a war. I am trying to avoid one. While Abrax is here dazzling you with his brilliance, maneuvers are taking place right now, right under your noses, and someone wants to make stupid comments about how disturbed he is by me showing back up. What? That doesn't even compare to what is being played behind the scenes and if you think researching it online, makes you a complete researcher, we are all going to be doomed with that kind of mindset. I also don't care what anyone thinks of me. I didn't come here to be popular. I'm not running for office. I don't take my orders from anyone on this Planet. I am here as many of you are to assist in the ascension of Gaia. That is my agenda. I am also sorry that the many who are trying to learn to think everybody is doing the same thing they are doing. You always learn but some of us have graduated and that is hard for most to understand or even accept. They think we should be like them staying in school. For some of us school is like over with and you have to go finally walk the walk instead of talking the talk. Experience is getting out of that chair and putting what you know in some form of action. If you stay in the chair too long, you will be conditioned to just reacting. Kind of like sitting in front of a theater screen watching a movie. Another thing I want to point out is that it would seem we are the prize. All the agendas I have seen point to that. So it is my position at this time to see where this Dragon goes as if you know the basics, an agenda is at work here. By what numbers I have seen, he has a tough job ahead as far as the recruitment process. The number ratios indicate that.

    And I am a supporter of free speech and no rules as none are needed when things are approached with honor and respect for others. Alex Collier mentions a new place of knowing. Establish one. You want to do it in this thread, then you might want to ask for the credentials first. Which was skipped in my mind? So don't go blaming other people for your feelings when you didn't take any responsibility to ask those basic questions in the first place. If you can't get verification from this council and at least have an introductory meeting to establish your Dragonhood club, then consider what you haven't been considering. My apologies Dragon. You left me not much of a choice here, but I understand why. I bid you another great day and I hope there are no feathers in your chicken dinner. (Innuendo) that was the name of the chicken. And I guess all of my questions have been answered by not what was answered.


    Lionhawk leaves the den.

    AA: The Thuban Council does not set any stage for anyone. The Thuban Council is exactly what it claims to be -the emissary or messenger from the Logos, the Universal Logos of the Christian scriptures. The Thuban Council functions under the auspices of the 24 Elders, archetyped in the Book of Revelation. Noone is required to accept or believe this in any form or manner. The 24 Elders are the Thuban Dragons, who receive their authority from the 4 Beasts and through them from Prime Source or God.

    (The following is a sarcastic reply to Lionhawk's input. However, how much is she actually telling the truth here? Just something to ponder. Wes's comment.) Abraxas: Ok; I'll decide. Thuban is a pretend smokescreen of pretend information, which is just plagiarism of well credentialled academic sources masquerading as 'real science' of a new world. The Thubanese are old Draconians who like to eat people for breakfast and to gather food resources; the Thubanese have decided to infiltrate the world's most important discussion forum: Project Avalon. Here then the agenda is to brainwash the forum contributors with scientific-sounding but really worthless information and for the purpose to gain as many followers of the Thubanese philosophy as possible. Then when the critical mass of cult followers has been reached, the true Draconian Reptoids will appear and harvest their brainwashed followers. This will be accomplished in invading the old earth shortly after December 21st, 2012 through a Black Hole-White Holemonadic dyad opening up halfway between Sirius and Gaia and wormhole connected to the Orion star system. The Powers-That-Be of the old earth will be powerless to stop the US; because they had thought that WE would allow them to be our ambassadors of the new earth and in thinking of themselves as the elite.

    We shall eat them for lunch, but they don't know that yet; although some of them suspect that WE are deceiving them. And so WE shall rule the New Earth and in a few years, say 2015, WE shall reengineer the deteriorated wormhole channels to allow our Draconian brothers and sisters to join US on OUR new home planet SERPENTINA. From then on, SERPENTINA will be a BLACK DRAGONSTAR. All of the old humanity will have been consumed by the US and WE shall DRAGONSEED a hybrid race between OURSELVES and OUR Ancestral Lineages. But first of all, WE have to create the Thuban Dragon Cult and this and only this is the purpose of Abraxas. So Be It! Signed and Sealed in the Name or Amen of the Master-Templar by Abraxasinas Scribe of the Dragons aka the SolarArrowed Unicorn of the SeaGoatian Dragon horns entwined with the Hermetic FisherEagle of the Lunar Twins. AA
    orthodoxymoron wrote:Morpheus, thank-you for the above post. This sort of thing is the major reason I participate in this website. It's a road less travelled for me which I feel extremely uncomfortable about participating in, yet somehow its a research-project which seems to require the attention of appropriate researchers. I'm including that post in my United State of the Solar System thread, but I'll delete it if you want me to. I'm too tired to analyze it presently, but I will later today. I try to provide a potpourri of perspectives on my threads, regardless of whether I approve of them or not.
    Morpheus wrote:I went through a great majority of these posts and did some editing just to make it for an easier read. If you want me to break it up better with more paragraphs, just say the word. The reason for posting all this up today is that I have been working on this in the last month and wanted to update the progress so far. Not only that but I also got a true friend involved. Meet Kate.

    Kate and I met 15 years ago. Online, yes, but not on a forum. We hit it off right from the start. We had a lot in common and yet different. Come to find out, we had history. A colorful one, but very negative. She and I spent many years fighting and killing each other.

    It was during the Orion Wars where the battles took place. Keep in mind, that war lasted around 700,000 years and never did end with a clear victor. She was a Draconian Commander. We laugh now, but it wasn't funny business back in the days. We would often find ourselves blowing each other up with our Starships. Our hate for each other was off the charts. We sought each other out to repeat our death dance. I can still see her standing on her bridge. She was very intimidating and she didn't hesitate her mind when it came to killing. She was very proficient at it. She was tall, strong, and Reptilian.

    Anyways, somewhere down the line, she decided to change sides and decided to go human. That is a very complicated process to go through and it takes years. You're placed under probation during that whole time until you can prove yourself worthy. She was released from that probation a few years ago. Talk about a long, long process.

    Of course, she and I forgave each other. All that being said, I had her take a look at the Thuban thread. What came out of that which included the exchange in my previous post, is that I was spot on in that exchange. As to events, etc. She was able to validate with her gifts, talents, contacts, and memory, the context and the historical timeline associated with all of it. All that from an ex Reptilian. Made my day of course as someone outside of myself decided to prove it out. I couldn't ask for anything more.

    It wasn't very long after this exchange I had with the Thubans that I was attacked. Also, scans revealed the attack was dispatched from Alpha Draconis. Not only the scans, but my contacts also knew where it originated from. The attack was an intended kill shot. I barely survived it and still to this day, suffer from pain from that attack. 24/7 as a matter of fact. The attack occurred on March 7, 2010. It was around that time that many others were also being attacked. The reason for the attack was that I was exposing the truth and they wanted me to be snuffed out because it threw a major wrench in their agenda.

    I was hit with a beam weapon. It entered my right knee and went through and then went through my left leg above the ankle. The energy would then work upward back up the body as the energy increased from the ground.

    The Thubans denied the attack. I believe them. They were assigned with the task of delivering their agenda to Earth. They, themselves are not their military. But they are IMO, a storefront of sorts.

    Kate did some work on Susan's 13th bridge. We both did. Session wise. What we found was that the 13th bridge does exist but it turns out to be an illusion for those who have the ability to go into the 13th dimension. It's like a mirage and all you have to do is pass through knowing it is a mirage. I will say that this is very high-level stuff as what it represents is not very well known to begin with. We're talking about going into the 13th dimension and using the 13th dimension to jump into the Logos. A new place or space of knowing!

    Some dimensions actually have some sort of membrane that separates them from a nearby dimension. Not all. If you do any space travel or dimensional travel, you can sometimes feel that membrane. Sometimes, its like breaking the sound barrier. I have heard the explosion that is heard going through them. All you have to do is increase your Merkaba frequency to cancel those effects out. Getting back to the 13th-dimensional bridge, what you will see is a wall of gold and white shimmering light, streaming up and down, as you look at it from the POV of the 12th dimension. I think the term bridge, in this instance, is actually a metaphor.

    Please don't get me wrong here as I am not an expert on Dimensions. I am only sharing my own insights based on what I have experienced and trying to the best that I can to relate my findings, with my own filters of understanding.

    Maybe this Logos is not new, to begin with. Maybe it is new because it was recently discovered. Maybe the Thubans and the rest of these dragons have made some really good steps forward and are now experiencing their new discovery as in a new place of knowing. This would show promise and growth in awareness.

    In the near future, I am going to venture into the 13th dimension. I have been there once when I visited Sol. When I was in the 12th looking at this mirage before me, I felt no problems as far as passing through it if I chose. Maybe that is because I have been there once already. I'm not exactly sure. But when I do, I will report back here.

    We can't get stuck on the numbering of these dimensions. Where you are left with the impression, the higher you go in the number, the better things are. Case and point is the 11th dimension, where it is similar in the sense of the 4th dimension. A lower and a higher level within the dimension. The 11th dimension has some dark qualities about it in one of those levels within it.

    A mirage? That's what Kate and I concluded. Yet maybe the 13th bridge is a real bridge for the Dragons and that is what they will need to transition from the here to there.

    In the clip below......What I saw was similar to the wall of fire in the clip except it had more of a Northern light effect where there were bands flowing straight up and down. Better yet streams. With the golden and white hues. I think this clip is very parallel to what we experienced with the Thubans.



    And I had my differences with the Thubans just like many did. Another one of those differences is that they used Jesus to launch some of their beliefs. Dragons getting religion????????? I don't think so! Just another way to hijack your mind. Just another way to hijack Jesus.

    When Brook and I moved into our house here in North Carolina, 2010, we had created some projects. One of those projects was to build some kind of wooden single-shelf system. Like a big "U" shaped table. Well, we found some rough maple boards and I was working on them in our driveway, milling them to shape. We had taken a break and decided to go to this swap meet on Rt. 321. We stopped at this one stand and bought 2 swords. Broad swords. The guy tells us if we buy them he would throw something in to sweeten the pot. The below picture is what he gave us. I accepted the transaction. I knew I had to get this ceramic artifact away from this guy because I knew it had cursed him and his family. We went home and I took this artifact and did my thing to neutralize it. Destroyed it in the driveway. There was more to it than that as I had to do a ritual to neutralize it. Anyways, I did what I had to do and I didn't need to be told to do this as I felt it was of my soul's duty to do this, without a question. Unconditionally. Well.... we got a visitor that night. Brook met with him. Freaked her out. He just wanted to thank us for what we did. He also commented to Brook about the carpentry project that I was doing in the driveway. I don't remember now his exact words were but it was in the context of total understanding and a smile on his face.

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Talsma10
    orthodoxymoron wrote:Morpheus, a lot of crucifixes (if not all of them) seem to symbolize the 'Defeat of Christ' rather than the 'Victory of Christ' and I often wonder if the Bible and Religion are a mixture of Good and Evil to be Purposely Deceptive?! But then if the Bible and Religion are rejected there are an infinite number of even more deceptive and dangerous replacements. The Thubans might be one of these. I spoke with an 'agent-like' couple at a 'Whole Life Expo' who told me that the potential for humans to become deluded and deceived was very great. I suggested to 'RA' that humanity had been easy to deceive, and he replied "Very Easy." I've spoken to several 'Individuals of Interest' who were low-key yet extremely-smart and two or three of them were amazed at how stupid humans were (especially regarding believing BS). Humanity might be stuck in a 'Deception Game' which might be nearly impossible to break out of. A Supercomputer-Managed Information-War might Utterly-Destroy Humanity as We Know It. I feel as if I'm playing with Burning-Magnesium on this website, but I do it anyway, for better or worse, I know not. Time will tell (as it always does). BTW, I saw what appeared to be a UFO Dogfight at approximately the same time you were attacked in 2010. They appeared to use Directed-Energy Weapons, but what do I know?? 2010 was the year 'RA' contacted me, and I've felt worse and worse since then, with some rather bizarre internet-posting. 'RA' told me "You'll manifest your bad-side." The Horror.
    Morpheus wrote:Here's the deal. I spent most of my younger years desperately seeking God and Jesus. I had every reason too. The house I was raised in was demonically possessed and was being haunted by 11 Native Americans who were murdered there. The land was also affected by this. The demon's doorway was the closet in my bedroom. Just to give you an idea where like in the movie, "The Exorcist," where the scene is where the room turns freezing cold. That happened 3 times in that bedroom. With a pot belly wood stove burning in the very next room with the door open to my room. As I said, I had every reason to find God and Jesus. The Catholic Church refused my request for help. I never did find God and Jesus, simply because I was looking in the wrong place. And that place was the bible. The Church did me a big favor by refusing my request. It made me get off that toilet seat and change directions as to finding solutions. Every one of these religious programs wants you to "BELIEVE." You submit to it and all you have done is give away your power. Along with your time, effort, and resources. For what? A lie?

    I have done an exorcism. One was enough! The bible has no power. And yet they would have you believe that it does. Even my grammar program wants to have it capitalized. The real power comes from within you. The bible is useless when it comes to these issues. For that matter, you can not find a solution from a book when you are in direct contact with such negative beings. You may as well hit yourself in the head with any book and knock yourself out cold when you are right in the middle of it. You don't know what is happening when it is happening, you don't have enough information to make a proper decision, and it changes within a flash. You end up just reacting to something that is above your pay grade.

    And what gets me is when those who believe in Jesus, act as though they know him. When they never met him. Automatic hypocrisy right off the bat.

    I'll tell you a little secret OXY. Talking about crucifixes. If you have truly met Jesus, you would know that he did not want to be remembered by the cross. The deep sadness on his face when he said that, said it all. The Darkside has done the exact opposite as to his wishes. With their propaganda and arrogance. And Jesus is not the only one they have done this too.

    Namaste'
    orthodoxymoron wrote:Morpheus, one dark night I jokingly told 'RA' "I Should Bring My Bible and Start Shouting at You!!" as I shook my finger at him (like a preacher making their point in a sermon)!! 'RA' didn't seem to like that idea!! What's ironic about all of this is that I seem to be reverting to a select minimal-list of key-books from my past, just to have a clearly-defined starting-point and frame of reference. One could chase the latest guru and philosophy for all-eternity without ultimate-resolution (or something to that effect). I'm really trying to shut-up, wash my hands, pack my bags, and leave town (shaking the dust off my shoes). I've had more than enough, and I'm too old, stupid, crazy, sick, and tired to continue. I might just read a couple of theological-books and major-newspapers as I prepare to transition into the 'Great-Hereafter' for more 'Fun and Games' or is it 'Murder and Mayhem'?? Namaste and Godspeed.
    Morpheus wrote:And don't forget door number 3. lol!

    Just like you, that's what I am doing. Getting out of Dodge.  I have an appointment on Monday, meeting a realtor. Going to get Zeus on the road when my state title gets here. Very soon. Selling everything I can. I was telling my Brother down in Florida that I wanted to simplify my life. Might take me time but I have that now.

    The day is coming when I do my drive about. I'm retiring in a real way. I don't have much time left. You know that when you can see the exit door. You now know it is there. But before I go I want to spend time with Gaia. Do some fishing, camping, etc. Might even come to visit you during one of your sermons.
    Lmfao

    Just one important question remains.......If Mercedes is Europe's automotive bar measurement and Cadilac is the USA equivalent, then why is it that Cadilac doesn't build Vans and Expedition vehicles? Or do they? I know that Ford, GMC, Chevy, and Dodge do.

    Like I've said, I have paid my dues in FULL. I just settled Brook's Estate yesterday, which was one journey I do not want to repeat. Everybody is paid and Brook's name is cleared of everything concerning her. When you love somebody, that's what you do. My part is done and I am waiting for a call from my lawyer as to when the Judge signs everything off. I was told this will happen on Monday.

    Now it is a matter of releasing all these physical attachments. I can't take it with me so why not do something good with it?

    And what do demons do when a priest recites from the bible? They laugh. And the joke is on them! You want to get the attention of a demon, just throw the bible on the ground. He won't be laughing then.

    For my Brook.....I was blessed to have her in my soul life.



    Be kind to yourself and you will be kind to everyone else. Love the one your with. That's what truly matters.

    orthodoxymoron wrote:Morpheus, it sounds as if you have your priorities straight, and that things are coming into focus for living your minimalist-dream. Regarding Cadillac, there's the Escalade (specifically designed for @$$holes). A small and stylish Cadillac motorhome might be cool. I might retire in a Cadillac CTS-V Wagon with a bed in the back, and just travel, stopping at rest-stops, grocery-stores, campgrounds, and Motel 6's. Actually, I'll probably just keep doing what I'm doing until I meet St. Pete. Exorcists probably make Deals with the Devil and work as a team!! 'RA' told me that people get possessed when they read 'Hostage to the Devil' by Malachi Martin!! Honest. The only sermons I preach are when I swear at Astral-Spies and flip them off!! I'm NOT kidding!!


    Last edited by orthodoxymoron on Tue Jul 16, 2019 1:47 am; edited 3 times in total
    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


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    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Empty Re: United States AI Solar System (9)

    Post  orthodoxymoron Sun Jul 14, 2019 12:03 am

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Maxresdefault-1-18

    This might be really stupid, but what if all of the Apollo Moon Missions were Unmanned Beyond Low-Earth Orbit?? In other words, what if the Apollo Missions to the Moon actually occurred, but without a crew beyond Low-Earth Orbit?? What if the crew footage beyond Low-Earth Orbit was what was faked?? Please don't throw any Moon-Rocks at me!! It's been stated that it would be harder to fake the Moon-Landings than to actually do them. What if this is partially-true?? What if just the People-Parts were faked, with the rest being real?? I honestly have no idea, but sometimes I miserably wonder as I wander in and out of sanity. If UFO technology were used beyond Low-Earth Orbit, then it might not have been that difficult to actually send people to the Moon. Or, what if there were some sort of a Soul and/or Consciousness Transference wherein Physical Human-Bodies never left Low-Earth Orbit?? What if the Transferred-Consciousness animated an Avatar-Body?? Anything is Possible IMHO!! It might be nearly impossible to nail-down what's REALLY been occurring in this solar system throughout history. I guess this is a major reason why I wish to not become deeply-involved in this madness (unless the PTB actually reveal the real-deal to me, which is highly-unlikely).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing_conspiracy_theories Moon landing conspiracy theories claim that some or all elements of the Apollo program and the associated Moon landings were hoaxes staged by NASA, possibly with the aid of other organizations. The most notable claim is that the six crewed landings (1969–72) were faked and that 12 Apollo astronauts did not actually walk on the Moon. Various groups and individuals have made claims since the mid-1970s that NASA and others knowingly misled the public into believing the landings happened, by manufacturing, tampering with, or destroying evidence including photos, telemetry tapes, radio and TV transmissions, Moon rock samples, and even killing some key witnesses.

    Much third-party evidence for the landings exists, and detailed rebuttals to the hoax claims have been made.[1] Since the late 2000s, high-definition photos taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) of the Apollo landing sites have captured the lander modules and the tracks left by the astronauts.[2][3] In 2012, images were released showing five of the six Apollo missions' American flags erected on the Moon still standing; the exception is that of Apollo 11, which has lain on the lunar surface since being accidentally blown over by the takeoff rocket's exhaust.[4][5]

    Conspiracists have managed to sustain public interest in their theories for more than 40 years, despite the rebuttals and third-party evidence. Opinion polls taken in various locations have shown that between 6% and 20% of Americans, 25% of Britons, and 28% of Russians surveyed believe that the crewed landings were faked. Even as late as 2001, the Fox television network documentary Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? claimed NASA faked the first landing in 1969 to win the Space Race.[6]

    An early and influential book about the subject of a moon-landing conspiracy, We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle, was self-published in 1976 by Bill Kaysing, a former US Navy officer with a Bachelor of Arts in English.[7] Despite having no knowledge of rockets or technical writing,[8] Kaysing was hired as a senior technical writer in 1956 by Rocketdyne, the company that built the F-1 engines used on the Saturn V rocket.[9][10] He served as head of the technical publications unit at the company's Propulsion Field Laboratory until 1963. Kaysing's book made many allegations, and effectively began discussion of the Moon landings being faked.[11][12] The book claims that the chance of a successful crewed landing on the Moon was calculated to be 0.0017%, and that despite close monitoring by the USSR, it would have been easier for NASA to fake the Moon landings than to really go there.[13][14]

    In 1980, the Flat Earth Society accused NASA of faking the landings, arguing that they were staged by Hollywood with Walt Disney sponsorship, based on a script by Arthur C. Clarke and directed by Stanley Kubrick.[a][15] Folklorist Linda Dégh suggests that writer-director Peter Hyams' 1978 film Capricorn One, which shows a hoaxed journey to Mars in a spacecraft that looks identical to the Apollo craft, might have given a boost to the hoax theory's popularity in the post-Vietnam War era. She notes that this happened during the post-Watergate era, when American citizens were inclined to distrust official accounts. Dégh writes: "The mass media catapult these half-truths into a kind of twilight zone where people can make their guesses sound as truths. Mass media have a terrible impact on people who lack guidance."[16] In A Man on the Moon,[17] first published in 1994, Andrew Chaikin mentions that at the time of Apollo 8's lunar-orbit mission in December 1968,[18] similar conspiracy ideas were already in circulation.[19]

    After Kaysing, Moon-landing conspiracists include (in alphabetical order):

    Marcus Allen – British publisher of Nexus, who said photographs of the lander would not prove that the United States put men on the Moon, and "Getting to the Moon really isn't much of a problem – the Russians did that in 1959. The big problem is getting people there." He suggests that NASA sent robot missions because radiation levels in outer space would be deadly.[20] A variant of this idea has it that NASA and its contractors did not recover quickly enough from the Apollo 1 fire, and so all the early Apollo missions were faked, with Apollos 14 or 15 being the first real mission.[21]

    William L. Brian – a nuclear engineer who self-published a book in 1982, Moongate: Suppressed Findings of the U.S. Space Program,[22] in which he disputes the Moon's surface gravity.

    James M. Collier (d. 1998) – American journalist and writer, producer of the video Was It Only a Paper Moon? (1997).

    Milton William Cooper (1943–2001) – was an American conspiracy theorist and author. He believed that all of the Apollo missions to the Moon were actually carefully rehearsed productions that were then filmed in large sound stages.[23]

    James H. Fetzer – retired American philosophy professor and conspiracy theorist. On May 2, 2013, Dr. Fetzer was interviewed by Dr. Sterling Harwood. Fetzer defended his conspiracist views that all six lunar landings were hoaxes.[24]

    David Groves – works for Quantech Image Processing. He examined the photo of Aldrin emerging from the lander and said he can pinpoint when a spotlight was used. Using the focal length of the camera's lens and an actual boot, he allegedly calculated, using ray-tracing, that the spotlight is between 24 and 36 centimetres (9.4 and 14.2 in) to the right of the camera.[25] This matches with the sunlit part of Armstrong's spacesuit.[26]

    Clyde Lewis – radio talk show host who says the 1969 Moon landing was fake.[27][28]

    Philippe Lheureux – French author of Lumières sur la Lune.[29] An English language edition was published in 2003, Moon Landings: Did NASA Lie? He said that astronauts did land on the Moon, but to stop other states from benefiting from scientific information in the real photos, NASA published fake images.[30]

    Yury Ignatyevich Mukhin – Russian opposition politician, publicist and author of the book Antiapollon: Moonlight scam US[31] in which he denies all Moon landing evidence and accuses the United States government of plundering the money paid by the American taxpayers for the Moon program. He also claims the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and some Soviet scientists helped NASA fake the landings.[32]

    David S. Percy – TV producer. He is co-author, along with Mary Bennett, of Dark Moon: Apollo and the Whistle-Blowers[33] and co-producer of What Happened On the Moon? He is the main proponent of the 'whistle-blower' accusation, arguing that mistakes in the NASA photos are so obvious that they are evidence that insiders are trying to 'blow the whistle' on the hoax by knowingly adding mistakes that they know will be seen.[34] Most of his allegations of photographic anomalies have been refuted by Doug Millard of the Science Museum in London.[35]

    Stanislav Pokrovsky – Russian general director of a scientific-manufacturing enterprise Project-D-MSK who calculated that the real speed of the Saturn V rocket at S-IC staging time was only half of what was claimed.[36][37] His analysis appears to assume that the solid rocket plumes from the fuselage and retrorockets on the two stages came to an instant halt in the surrounding air so they can be used to estimate the velocity of the rocket. He ignored high-altitude winds and the altitude at staging, 67 km, where air is about 1/10,000 as dense as at sea level, and claimed that only a loop around the Moon was possible, not a crewed landing on the Moon with return to Earth. He also allegedly found the reason for this – problems with the Inconel superalloy used in the F-1 engine.[38][39][40]

    Alexander Ivanovich Popov – Russian author of the book The Americans on the Moon: the great breakthrough or cosmic scam??[41] in which he aims to prove that Saturn V was in fact a camouflaged Saturn IB[42] and denies all Moon landing evidence.[43]

    Aron Ranen – a filmmaker, directed and produced the documentary Did We Go?[44][45]

    Ralph René (1933–2008) – was an inventor and 'self-taught' engineering buff. Author of the self-published book NASA Mooned America![46]

    Bart Sibrel (b. 1964) – a filmmaker, produced and directed four films for his company, AFTH, LLC,[47] including a 2001 film, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon,[48][49] examining the evidence of a hoax. The arguments that Sibrel puts forward in this film have been debunked by many sources, including Svector Studios' five-part video series Lunar Legacy,[50] which disproves the documentary's main argument that the Apollo crew faked their distance from the Earth while in low Earth orbit. Sibrel has said that the effect on the shot covered in his film was made through the use of a transparency of the Earth. Some parts of the original footage, according to Sibrel, were not able to be included on the official releases for the media. On such allegedly censored parts, the correlation between Earth and Moon phases can be clearly confirmed, refuting Sibrel's claim that these shots were faked. On September 9, 2002, Sibrel was punched in the face by Buzz Aldrin after Sibrel confronted Aldrin with his theories[51] and accused the former astronaut of being "a coward, and a liar, and a thief." The Los Angeles County district attorney's office refused to file charges against Aldrin, saying that he had been provoked by Sibrel.[52]

    Takahiko Soejima [ja] – Japanese political scientist, author of 人類の月面着陸は無かったろう論 (Apollo 11 Has Never Been to the Moon).[53]

    Jay Weidner – author and interviewee about the Moon conspiracy theory in the documentary film Room 237 (2012). In this film he repeatedly states that he does not necessarily doubt that America landed men on the Moon even though he thinks there was a conspiracy with Stanley Kubrick to fake the lunar landing footage.

    Jack D. White (1927–2012) – was an American photo historian known for his attempt to prove forgery in photos and the Zapruder film related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.[54][55][56][57]

    Gerhard Wisnewski [de] – German journalist and filmmaker, author of One Small Step?: The Great Moon Hoax and the Race to Dominate Earth from Space.[58]

    Those who believe the Moon landings were faked give several theories about the motives of NASA and the United States government. The three main theories are below.

    Motivation for the United States to engage the Soviet Union in a Space Race can be traced to the then on-going Cold War. Landing on the Moon was viewed as a national and technological accomplishment that would generate world-wide acclaim. But going to the Moon would be risky and expensive, as exemplified by President John F. Kennedy famously stating in a 1962 speech that the United States chose to go because it was hard.[59]

    Hoax theory debunker Phil Plait says in his book Bad Astronomy,[b] that the Soviets – with their own competing Moon program, an extensive intelligence network and a formidable scientific community able to analyze NASA data – would have 'cried foul' if the United States tried to fake a Moon landing,[60] especially since their own program had failed. Proving a hoax would have been a huge propaganda win for the Soviets.

    Conspiracist Bart Sibrel responded, incorrectly asserting that, "the Soviets did not have the capability to track deep space craft until late in 1972, immediately after which, the last three Apollo missions were abruptly canceled."[61]

    In fact, the Soviets had been sending uncrewed spacecraft to the Moon since 1959,[62] and "during 1962, deep space tracking facilities were introduced at IP-15 in Ussuriisk and IP-16 in Evpatoria (Crimean Peninsula), while Saturn communication stations were added to IP-3, 4 and 14,"[63] the latter having a 100 million km range.[64] The Soviet Union tracked the Apollo missions at the Space Transmissions Corps, which was "fully equipped with the latest intelligence-gathering and surveillance equipment."[65] Vasily Mishin, in an interview for the article "The Moon Programme That Faltered," describes how the Soviet Moon program dwindled after the Apollo landings.[66]

    Also, there was nothing "abrupt" about the Apollo cancelations, which were made for cost-cutting reasons. These were announced in January and September 1970,[67] two full years before the "late 1972" claimed by Sibrel.[68] (See Vietnam War below.)

    Conspiracy theorists claim that NASA faked the landings to avoid humiliation and to ensure that it continued to get funding. NASA raised "about US$30 billion" to go to the Moon, and Kaysing claimed in his book that this could have been used to "pay off" many people.[69] Since most conspiracists believe that sending men to the Moon was impossible at the time,[70] they argue that landings had to be faked to fulfill Kennedy's 1961 goal, "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."[71] In fact, NASA accounted for the cost of Apollo to the US Congress in 1973, totaling US$25.4 billion.[72]

    Mary Bennett and David Percy have claimed in Dark Moon: Apollo and the Whistle-Blowers, that, with all the known and unknown hazards,[73] NASA would not risk broadcasting an astronaut getting sick or dying on live television.[74] The counter-argument generally given is that NASA in fact did incur a great deal of public humiliation and potential political opposition to the program by losing an entire crew in the Apollo 1 fire during a ground test, leading to its upper management team being questioned by Senate and House of Representatives space oversight committees.[75] There was in fact no video broadcast during either the landing or takeoff because of technological limitations.[76]

    The American Patriot Friends Network claimed in 2009 that the landings helped the United States government distract public attention from the unpopular Vietnam War, and so crewed landings suddenly ended about the same time that the United States ended its involvement in the war.[77] In fact, the ending of the landings was not "sudden" (see The Space Race above). The war was one of several federal budget items with which NASA had to compete; NASA's budget peaked in 1966, and fell by 42.3% by 1972.[78] This was the reason the final flights were cut, along with plans for even more ambitious follow-on programs such as a permanent space station and crewed flight to Mars.[79]
    Hoax claims and rebuttals

    Many Moon-landing conspiracy theories have been put forward, claiming either that the landings did not happen and that NASA employees have lied, or that the landings did happen but not in the way that has been told. Conspiracists have focused on perceived gaps or inconsistencies in the historical record of the missions. The foremost idea is that the whole crewed landing program was a hoax from start to end. Some claim that the technology to send men to the Moon was lacking or that the Van Allen radiation belts, solar flares, solar wind, coronal mass ejections and cosmic rays made such a trip impossible.[11]

    Vince Calder and Andrew Johnson, scientists from Argonne National Laboratory, have given detailed answers to conspiracists' claims on the laboratory's website.[80] They show that NASA's portrayal of the Moon landing is fundamentally accurate, allowing for such common mistakes as mislabeled photos and imperfect personal recollections. Using the scientific process, any hypothesis that is contradicted by the observable facts may be rejected. The 'real landing' hypothesis is a single story since it comes from a single source, but there is no unity in the hoax hypothesis because hoax accounts vary between conspiracists.[81]

    According to James Longuski (Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering at Purdue University), the conspiracy theories are impossible because of their size and complexity. The conspiracy would have to involve more than 400,000 people who worked on the Apollo project for nearly ten years, the 12 men who walked on the Moon, the six others who flew with them as Command Module pilots, and another six astronauts who orbited the Moon.[c] Hundreds of thousands of people – including astronauts, scientists, engineers, technicians, and skilled laborers – would have had to keep the secret. Longuski argues that it would have been much easier to really land on the Moon than to generate such a huge conspiracy to fake the landings.[82][83] To date, nobody from the United States government or NASA linked to the Apollo program has said the Moon landings were hoaxes. Penn Jillette made note of this in the "Conspiracy Theories" episode of his television show Penn & Teller: Bullshit! in 2005.[84] With the number of people involved, and noting the Watergate scandal, Jillette noted that someone would have outed the hoax by now.

    Moon-landing conspiracists focus heavily on NASA photos. They point to oddities in photos and films taken on the Moon. Photography experts (including those unrelated to NASA) have replied that the oddities are consistent with what should be expected from a real Moon landing, and are not consistent with tweaked or studio imagery. Some main arguments and counter-arguments are listed below.

    1. In some photos, the crosshairs appear to be behind objects. The cameras were fitted with a Réseau plate (a clear glass plate with a reticle etched on), making it impossible for any photographed object to appear "in front" of the grid. Conspiracists often use this evidence to suggest that objects were "pasted" over the photographs, and hence obscure the reticle.

    This effect only appears in copied and scanned photos, not any originals. It is caused by overexposure: the bright white areas of the emulsion "bleed" over the thin black crosshairs. The crosshairs are only about 0.004 inches thick (0.1 mm) and emulsion would only have to bleed about half that much to fully obscure it. Furthermore, there are many photos where the middle of the crosshair is "washed-out" but the rest is intact. In some photos of the American flag, parts of one crosshair appear on the red stripes, but parts of the same crosshair are faded or invisible on the white stripes. There would have been no reason to "paste" white stripes onto the flag.[85]

    2. Crosshairs are sometimes rotated or in the wrong place. This is a result of popular photos being cropped and/or rotated for aesthetic impact.[85]

    3. The quality of the photographs is implausibly high. There are many poor-quality photos taken by the Apollo astronauts. NASA chose to publish only the best examples.[85][86] The Apollo astronauts used high-resolution Hasselblad 500 EL cameras with Carl Zeiss optics and a 70 mm medium format film magazine.[87][88]

    4. There are no stars in any of the photos; the Apollo 11 astronauts also stated in post-mission press conferences that they did not remember seeing any stars during EVA.[89] Conspiracists contend that NASA chose not to put the stars into the photos because astronomers would have been able to use them to determine whether the photos were taken from the Earth or the Moon, by means of identifying them and comparing their celestial position and parallax to what would be expected for either observation site.

    The astronauts were talking about naked-eye sightings of stars during the lunar daytime. They regularly sighted stars through the spacecraft navigation optics while aligning their inertial reference platforms, the Apollo PGNCS.[90]

    Stars are rarely seen in Space Shuttle, Mir, Earth observation photos, or even photos taken at sporting events held at night. The light from the Sun in outer space in the Earth-Moon system is at least as bright as the sunlight that reaches the Earth's surface on a clear day at noon, so cameras used for imaging subjects illuminated by sunlight are set for a daylight exposure. The dim light of the stars simply does not provide enough exposure to record visible images. All crewed landings happened during the lunar daytime. Thus, the stars were outshone by the sun and by sunlight reflected off the Moon's surface. The astronauts' eyes were adapted to the sunlit landscape around them so that they could not see the relatively faint stars.[91][92] The astronauts could see stars with the naked eye only when they were in the shadow of the Moon.[93][94]

    Camera settings can turn a well-lit background to black when the foreground object is brightly lit, forcing the camera to increase shutter speed so that the foreground light does not wash out the image. A demonstration of this effect is here.[95] The effect is similar to not being able to see stars from a brightly lit car park at night – the stars only become visible when the lights are turned off.

    A special far ultraviolet camera, the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph, was taken to the lunar surface on Apollo 16 and operated in the shadow of the Apollo Lunar Module (LM). It took photos of Earth and of many stars, some of which are dim in visible light but bright in the ultraviolet. These observations were later matched with observations taken by orbiting ultraviolet telescopes. Furthermore, the positions of those stars with respect to Earth are correct for the time and location of the Apollo 16 photos.[96][97]

    Photos of the solar corona that included the planet Mercury and some background stars were taken from lunar orbit by Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot Al Worden.[98] Photos of the planet Venus (which is much brighter than any of the stars) were taken from the Moon's surface by astronaut Alan Shepard during the Apollo 14 mission.[99]

    5. The angle and color of shadows are inconsistent. This suggests that artificial lights were used. Shadows on the Moon are complicated by reflected light, uneven ground, wide-angle lens distortion, and lunar dust. There are several light sources: the Sun, sunlight reflected from the Earth, sunlight reflected from the Moon's surface, and sunlight reflected from the astronauts and the Lunar Module. Light from these sources is scattered by lunar dust in many directions, including into shadows. Shadows falling into craters and hills may appear longer, shorter and distorted.[100] Furthermore, shadows display the properties of vanishing point perspective, leading them to converge to a point on the horizon. This theory was further debunked on the MythBusters episode "NASA Moon Landing".

    6. There are identical backgrounds in photos which, according to their captions, were taken miles apart. This suggests that a painted background was used. Backgrounds were not identical, just similar. What appear as nearby hills in some photos are actually mountains many miles away. On Earth, objects that are further away will appear fainter and less detailed. On the Moon, there is no atmosphere or haze to obscure faraway objects, thus they appear clearer and nearer.[101] Furthermore, there are very few objects (such as trees) to help judge distance. One such case is debunked in "Who Mourns For Apollo?" by Mike Bara.[102]

    7. The number of photos taken is implausibly high. Up to one photo per 50 seconds.[103] Simplified gear with fixed settings allowed two photos a second. Many were taken immediately after each other as stereo pairs or panorama sequences. The calculation (one per 50 seconds) was based on a lone astronaut on the surface, and does not take into account that there were two astronauts sharing the workload and simultaneously taking photographs during an Extra-vehicular activity (EVA).

    8. The photos contain artifacts like the two seemingly matching 'C's on a rock and on the ground. These may be labeled studio props. The "C"-shaped objects are most likely printing imperfections and do not appear in the original film from the camera. It has been suggested that the "C" is a coiled hair.[102][104]

    9. A resident of Perth, Western Australia, a woman named Una Ronald (a pseudonym created by the authors of the source[105]), said that for two or three seconds she saw a Coca-Cola bottle roll across the lower right quadrant of her television screen that was displaying the live broadcast of the Apollo 11 EVA. She also said that several letters appeared in The West Australian discussing the Coca-Cola bottle incident within ten days of the lunar landing.[106] No such newspaper reports or recordings have been found.[107] Ronald's claims have only been relayed by one source.[33] There are also flaws in the story, e.g. the statement that she had to stay up late to watch the Moon landing live is easily discounted by many witnesses in Australia who watched the landing in the middle of their daytime.[108][109]

    10. The book Moon Shot[110] contains an obviously fake composite photo of Alan Shepard hitting a golf ball on the Moon with another astronaut. It was used instead of the only existing real images, from the TV monitor, which the editors seemingly felt were too grainy for their book. The book publishers did not work for NASA.

    11. There appear to be "hot spots" in some photos that look like a large spotlight was used in place of the sun. Pits on the Moon's surface focus and reflect light like the tiny glass spheres used in the coating of street signs, or dewdrops on wet grass. This creates a glow around the photographer's own shadow when it appears in a photograph (see Heiligenschein). If the astronaut is standing in sunlight while photographing into shade, light reflected off his white spacesuit yields a similar effect to a spotlight.[26] Some widely published Apollo photos were high-contrast copies. Scans of the original transparencies are generally much more evenly lit. An example is shown below:

    Cameras on the Lunar Module did. The Apollo TV camera mounted in the Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly (MESA) of the Apollo Lunar Module gave a view from the exterior. While still on the Module's ladder steps, Armstrong deployed the MESA from the side of the Lunar Module, unpacking, amongst other things, the TV camera. The TV camera was then powered on and a signal transmitted to the command module, which beamed the live signal back to Earth. This meant that upwards of 600 million people on Earth could watch the live feed with only a very slight delay. Similar technology was also used on subsequent Apollo missions.[111][112][113][114] It was also filmed from an automatic 16mm movie camera mounted in a window of the Lunar Module.

    Environment

    1. The astronauts could not have survived the trip because of exposure to radiation from the Van Allen radiation belt and galactic ambient radiation (see radiation poisoning and health threat from cosmic rays). Some conspiracists have suggested that Starfish Prime (a high-altitude nuclear test in 1962) was a failed attempt to disrupt the Van Allen belts.

    There are two main Van Allen belts – the inner belt and the outer belt – and a transient third belt.[115] The inner belt is the more dangerous one, containing energetic protons (alpha particles). The outer one has less-dangerous low-energy electrons (Beta particles).[116][117] The Apollo spacecraft passed through the inner belt in a matter of minutes and the outer belt in about ​1

    1⁄2 hours.[117] The astronauts were shielded from the ionizing radiation by the aluminum hulls of the spacecraft.[117][118] Furthermore, the orbital transfer trajectory from Earth to the Moon through the belts was chosen to lessen radiation exposure.[118] Even Dr. James Van Allen, the discoverer of the Van Allen radiation belts, rebutted the claims that radiation levels were too harmful for the Apollo missions.[119] Philip Plait cited an average dose of less than 1 rem (10 mSv), which is equivalent to the ambient radiation received by living at sea level for three years.[120] The total radiation received on the trip was about the same as allowed for workers in the nuclear energy field for a year[117][121] and not much more than what Space Shuttle astronauts received.[116]

    2. Film in the cameras would have been fogged by this radiation. The film was kept in metal containers that stopped radiation from fogging the film's emulsion.[122] Furthermore, film carried by uncrewed lunar probes such as the Lunar Orbiter and Luna 3 (which used on-board film development processes) was not fogged.

    3. The Moon's surface during the daytime is so hot that camera film would have melted. There is no atmosphere to efficiently bind lunar surface heat to devices (such as cameras) that are not in direct contact with it. In a vacuum, only radiation remains as a heat transfer mechanism. The physics of radiative heat transfer are thoroughly understood, and the proper use of passive optical coatings and paints was enough to control the temperature of the film within the cameras; Lunar Module temperatures were controlled with similar coatings that gave them a gold color. Also, while the Moon's surface does get very hot at lunar noon, every Apollo landing was made shortly after lunar sunrise at the landing site; the Moon's day is about ​29

    1⁄2 Earth days long, meaning that one Moon day (dawn to dusk) lasts nearly fifteen Earth days. During the longer stays, the astronauts did notice increased cooling loads on their spacesuits as the sun and surface temperature continued to rise, but the effect was easily countered by the passive and active cooling systems.[123] The film was not in direct sunlight, so it was not overheated.[124]

    4. The Apollo 16 crew could not have survived a big solar flare firing out when they were on their way to the Moon. No large solar flare occurred during the flight of Apollo 16. There were large solar flares in August 1972, after Apollo 16 returned to Earth and before the flight of Apollo 17.[125][126]

    5. The flag placed on the surface by the astronauts fluttered despite there being no wind on the Moon. This suggests that it was filmed on Earth and a breeze caused the flag to flutter. Sibrel said that it may have been caused by indoor fans used to cool the astronauts since their spacesuit cooling systems would have been too heavy on Earth.

    The flag was fastened to a Г-shaped rod (see Lunar Flag Assembly) so that it did not hang down. The flag only seemed to flutter when the astronauts were moving it into position. Without air drag, these movements caused the free corner of the flag to swing like a pendulum for some time. The flag was rippled because it had been folded during storage – the ripples could be mistaken for movement in a still photo. Videos show that when the astronauts let go of the flagpole it vibrates briefly but then remains still.[127][128][129]

    This theory was further debunked on the MythBusters episode "NASA Moon Landing".

    6. Footprints in the Moondust are unexpectedly well preserved, despite the lack of moisture. Moondust has not been weathered like Earth sand and has sharp edges. This allows the dust particles to stick together and hold their shape in the vacuum. The astronauts likened it to "talcum powder or wet sand".[102] This theory was further debunked on the MythBusters episode "NASA Moon Landing".

    7. The alleged Moon landings used either a sound stage or were filmed outside in a remote desert with the astronauts either using harnesses or slow-motion photography to make it look like they were on the Moon.

    While the HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon", and a scene from the movie "Apollo 13" used the sound-stage and harness setup, it is clearly seen from those films that when dust rose it did not quickly settle; some dust briefly formed clouds. In the film footage from the Apollo missions, dust kicked up by the astronauts' boots and the wheels of the Lunar Roving Vehicles rose quite high due to the lower lunar gravity, and settled quickly to the ground in an uninterrupted parabolic arc since there was no air to suspend the dust. Even if there had been a sound stage for hoax Moon landings that had the air pumped out, the dust would have reached nowhere near the height and trajectory as in the Apollo film footage because of Earth's greater gravity.

    During the Apollo 15 mission, David Scott did an experiment by dropping a hammer and a falcon feather at the same time. Both fell at the same rate and hit the ground at the same time. This proved that he was in a vacuum.[130]

    If the landings were filmed outside in a desert, heat waves would be present on the surface in mission videos, but no such heat waves exist in the footage. If the landings were filmed in a sound stage, several anomalies would occur, including a lack of parallax, and an increase or decrease in the size of the backdrop if the camera moved (footage was filmed while the rover was in motion, and yet no evidence of any change in the size of the background is present).

    This theory was further debunked on the MythBusters episode "NASA Moon Landing".

    1. The Lunar Modules made no blast craters or any sign of dust scatter.[131] No crater should be expected. The 10,000-pound (4,500 kg) thrust Descent Propulsion System was throttled very far down during the final landing.[132] The Lunar Module was no longer quickly decelerating, so the descent engine only had to support the lander's own weight, which was lessened by the Moon's gravity and by the near exhaustion of the descent propellants. At landing, the engine thrust divided by the nozzle exit area is only about 10 kilopascals (1.5 PSI).[133] Beyond the engine nozzle, the plume spreads, and the pressure drops very quickly. Rocket exhaust gasses expand much more quickly after leaving the engine nozzle in a vacuum than in an atmosphere. The effect of an atmosphere on rocket plumes can be easily seen in launches from Earth; as the rocket rises through the thinning atmosphere, the exhaust plumes broaden very noticeably. To lessen this, rocket engines made for vacuums have longer bells than those made for use on Earth, but they still cannot stop this spreading. The lander's exhaust gasses, therefore, expanded quickly well beyond the landing site. The descent engines did scatter a lot of very fine surface dust as seen in 16mm movies of each landing, and many mission commanders spoke of its effect on visibility. The landers were generally moving horizontally as well as vertically, and photos do show scouring of the surface along the final descent path. Finally, the lunar regolith is very compact below its surface dust layer, making it impossible for the descent engine to blast out a "crater".[134] A blast crater was measured under the Apollo 11 lander using shadow lengths of the descent engine bell and estimates of the amount that the landing gear had compressed and how deep the lander footpads had pressed into the lunar surface and it was found that the engine had eroded between 4 and 6 inches (100 and 150 mm) of regolith out from underneath the engine bell during the final descent and landing.[135]

    2. The second stage of the launch rocket and/or the Lunar Module ascent stage made no visible flame. The Lunar Modules used Aerozine 50 (fuel) and dinitrogen tetroxide (oxidizer) propellants, chosen for simplicity and reliability; they ignite hypergolically – upon contact – without the need for a spark. These propellants produce a nearly transparent exhaust.[136] The same fuel was used by the core of the American Titan II rocket. The transparency of their plumes is apparent in many launch photos. The plumes of rocket engines fired in a vacuum spread out very quickly as they leave the engine nozzle (see above), further lessening their visibility. Finally, rocket engines often run "rich" to slow internal corrosion. On Earth, the excess fuel burns in contact with atmospheric oxygen, enhancing the visible flame. This cannot happen in a vacuum.

    3. The Lunar Modules weighed 17 tons and made no mark on the Moondust, yet footprints can be seen beside them.[137] On the surface of the Earth, Apollo 11's fueled and crewed Lunar Module, Eagle, would have weighed approximately 17 short tons (15,000 kg). On the surface of the Moon, however, after expending fuel and oxidizer on its descent from lunar orbit, the lander weighed about 2,700 pounds (1,200 kg).[138] The astronauts were much lighter than the lander, but their boots were much smaller than the lander's approximately 3-foot (91 cm) diameter footpads.[139] Pressure (or force per unit area) rather than mass determines the amount of regolith compression. In some photos, the footpads did press into the regolith, especially when they moved sideways at touchdown. (The bearing pressure under Apollo 11's footpads, with the lander being about 44 times the weight of an EVA-configured astronaut, would have been of similar magnitude to the bearing pressure exerted by the astronauts' boots.)[140]

    4. The air conditioning units that were part of the astronauts' spacesuits could not have worked in an environment of no atmosphere.[23] The cooling units could only work in a vacuum. Water from a tank in the backpack flowed out through tiny pores in a metal sublimator plate where it quickly vaporized into space. The loss of the heat of vaporization froze the remaining water, forming a layer of ice on the outside of the plate that also sublimated into space (turning from a solid directly into a gas). A separate water loop flowed through the LCG (Liquid Cooling Garment) worn by the astronaut, carrying his metabolic waste heat through the sublimator plate where it was cooled and returned to the LCG. Twelve pounds (5.4 kg) of feedwater gave about eight hours of cooling; because of its bulk, it was often the limiting consumable on the length of an EVA.

    Transmissions

    1. There should have been more than a two-second delay in communications between Earth and the Moon, at a distance of 400,000 km (250,000 mi). The round trip light travel time of more than two seconds is apparent in all the real-time recordings of the lunar audio, but this does not always appear as expected. There may also be some documentary films where the delay has been edited out. Reasons for editing the audio may be time constraints or in the interest of clarity.[141]

    2. Typical delays in communication were about 0.5 seconds. Claims that the delays were only half a second are untrue, as examination of the original recordings shows. Also, there should not be a consistent time delay between every response, as the conversation is being recorded at one end – Mission Control. Responses from Mission Control could be heard without any delay, as the recording is being made at the same time that Houston receives the transmission from the Moon.

    3. The Parkes Observatory in Australia was billed to the world for weeks as the site that would be relaying communications from the first moonwalk. However, five hours before transmission they were told to stand down. The timing of the first moonwalk was changed after the landing. In fact, delays in getting the moonwalk started meant that Parkes did cover almost the entire Apollo 11 moonwalk.[142]

    4. Parkes supposedly had the clearest video feed from the Moon, but Australian media and all other known sources ran a live feed from the United States. While that was the original plan, and, according to some sources, the official policy, the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) did take the transmission direct from the Parkes and Honeysuckle Creek radio telescopes. These were converted to NTSC television at Paddington, in Sydney. This meant that Australian viewers saw the moonwalk several seconds before the rest of the world.[143] See also Parkes radio astronomer John Sarkissian's article, "On Eagle's Wings: The Parkes Observatory's Support of the Apollo 11 Mission"[144] The events surrounding the Parkes Observatory's role in relaying the live television of the moonwalk were portrayed in a slightly fictionalized Australian film comedy "The Dish" (2000).

    5. Better signal was supposedly received at Parkes Observatory when the Moon was on the opposite side of the planet. This is not supported by the detailed evidence and logs from the missions.[145]

    Blueprints and design and development drawings of the machines involved are missing.[146][147] Apollo 11 data tapes containing telemetry and the high-quality video (before scan conversion from slow-scan TV to standard TV) of the first moonwalk are also missing.[44][148]

    Dr. David R. Williams (NASA archivist at Goddard Space Flight Center) and Apollo 11 flight director Eugene F. Kranz both acknowledged that the original high-quality Apollo 11 telemetry data tapes are missing. Conspiracists see this as evidence that they never existed.[44] The Apollo 11 telemetry tapes were different from the telemetry tapes of the other Moon landings because they contained the raw television broadcast. For technical reasons, the Apollo 11 lander carried a slow-scan television (SSTV) camera (see Apollo TV camera). To broadcast the pictures to regular television, a scan conversion had to be done. The radio telescope at Parkes Observatory in Australia was able to receive the telemetry from the Moon at the time of the Apollo 11 moonwalk.[144] Parkes had a bigger antenna than NASA's antenna in Australia at the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station, so it received a better picture. It also received a better picture than NASA's antenna at Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex. This direct TV signal, along with telemetry data, was recorded onto one-inch fourteen-track analog tape at Parkes. The original SSTV transmission had better detail and contrast than the scan-converted pictures, and it is this original tape that is missing.[149] A crude, real-time scan conversion of the SSTV signal was done in Australia before it was broadcast worldwide. However, still photos of the original SSTV image are available (see photos). About fifteen minutes of it were filmed by an amateur 8 mm film camera and these are also available. Later Apollo missions did not use SSTV. At least some of the telemetry tapes from the ALSEP scientific experiments left on the Moon (which ran until 1977) still exist, according to Dr. Williams. Copies of those tapes have been found.[150]

    Others are looking for the missing telemetry tapes for different reasons. The tapes contain the original and highest quality video feed from the Apollo 11 landing. Some former Apollo personnel want to find the tapes for posterity while NASA engineers looking towards future Moon missions believe the tapes may be useful for their design studies. They have found that the Apollo 11 tapes were sent for storage at the U.S. National Archives in 1970, but by 1984, all the Apollo 11 tapes had been returned to the Goddard Space Flight Center at their request. The tapes are believed to have been stored rather than re-used.[151] Goddard was storing 35,000 new tapes per year in 1967,[152] even before the Moon landings.

    In November 2006, COSMOS Online reported that about 100 data tapes recorded in Australia during the Apollo 11 mission had been found in a small marine science laboratory in the main physics building at the Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia. One of the old tapes has been sent to NASA for analysis. The slow-scan television images were not on the tape.[150]

    In July 2009, NASA indicated that it must have erased the original Apollo 11 Moon footage years ago so that it could re-use the tape. In December 2009 NASA issued a final report on the Apollo 11 telemetry tapes.[153] Senior engineer Dick Nafzger, who was in charge of the live TV recordings during the Apollo missions, was put in charge of the restoration project. After a three-year search, the "inescapable conclusion" was that about 45 tapes (estimated 15 tapes recorded at each of the three tracking stations) of Apollo 11 video were erased and re-used, said Nafzger.[154] In time for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, Lowry Digital had been tasked with restoring the surviving footage. Lowry Digital president Mike Inchalik said that, "this is by far and away the lowest quality" video the company has dealt with. Nafzger praised Lowry for restoring "crispness" to the Apollo video, which will remain in black and white and contains conservative digital enhancements. The US$230,000 restoration project took months to complete and did not include sound quality improvements. Some selections of restored footage in high-definition have been made available on the NASA website.[155]

    Grumman appears to have destroyed most of their LM documentation,[147][156] but copies of the blueprints for the Saturn V exist on microfilm.[157] Four mission-worthy Lunar Roving Vehicles (LRV) were built by Boeing.[158] Three of them were carried to the Moon on Apollos 15, 16, and 17, used by the astronauts for transportation once on the Moon, and left there. After Apollo 18 was canceled, the other LRV was used for spare parts for the Apollos 15 to 17 missions. The 221-page operation manual for the LRV contains some detailed drawings,[159] although not the blueprints.

    Bart Sibrel cites the relative level of the United States and USSR space technology as evidence that the Moon landings could not have happened. For much of the early stages of the Space Race, the USSR was ahead of the United States, yet in the end, the USSR was never able to fly a crewed craft to the Moon, let alone land one on the surface. It is argued that, because the USSR was unable to do this, the United States should have also been unable to develop the technology to do so.

    For example, he claims that, during the Apollo program, the USSR had five times more crewed hours in space than the United States, and notes that the USSR was the first to achieve many of the early milestones in space: the first man-made satellite in orbit (October 1957, Sputnik 1);[d] the first living creature in orbit (a dog named Laika, November 1957, Sputnik 2); the first man in space and in orbit (Yuri Gagarin, April 1961, Vostok 1); the first woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova, June 1963, Vostok 6); and the first spacewalk (EVA) (Alexei Leonov in March 1965, Voskhod 2).

    However, most of the Soviet gains listed above were matched by the United States within a year, and sometimes within weeks. In 1965, the United States started to achieve many firsts (such as the first successful space rendezvous), which were important steps in a mission to the Moon. Furthermore, NASA and others say that these gains by the Soviets are not as impressive as they seem; that a number of these firsts were mere stunts that did not advance the technology greatly, or at all, e.g., the first woman in space.[160][161] In fact, by the time of the launch of the first crewed Earth-orbiting Apollo flight (Apollo 7), the USSR had made only nine spaceflights (seven with one cosmonaut, one with two, one with three) compared to 16 by the United States. In terms of spacecraft hours, the USSR had 460 hours of spaceflight; the United States had 1,024 hours. In terms of astronaut/cosmonaut time, the USSR had 534 hours of crewed spaceflight whereas the United States had 1,992 hours. By the time of Apollo 11, the United States had a lead much wider than that. (See List of human spaceflights, 1961–1970, and refer to individual flights for the length of time.)

    Moreover, the USSR did not develop a successful rocket capable of a crewed lunar mission until the 1980s – their N1 rocket failed on all four launch attempts between 1969 and 1972.[162] The Soviet LK lunar lander was tested in uncrewed low-Earth-orbit flights three times in 1970 and 1971.

    In a televised program about the moon-landing hoax allegations, Fox Entertainment Group listed the deaths of ten astronauts and two civilians related to the crewed spaceflight program as part of an alleged cover-up.

    Theodore Freeman (killed ejecting from a T-38 which had suffered a bird strike, October 1964)

    Elliot See and Charlie Bassett (T-38 crash in bad weather, February 1966)

    Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Ed White, and Roger B. Chaffee (killed in a fire during the "plugs-out test" preceding Apollo 1, January 1967)

    Edward "Ed" Givens (killed in a car accident, June 1967)

    Clifton "C. C." Williams (killed ejecting from a T-38, October 1967)

    Michael J. "Mike" Adams (died in an X-15 crash, November 1967. Adams was the only pilot killed during the X-15 flight test program. He was a test pilot, not a NASA astronaut, but had flown the X-15 above 50 miles.)

    Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr. (killed in an F-104 crash, December 1967, shortly after being selected as a pilot with the United States Air Force's (later cancelled) Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program.)

    Thomas Ronald Baron (North American Aviation employee. Baron died in an automobile collision with a train, April 27, 1967, six days after testifying before Rep. Olin E. Teague's House Subcommittee on NASA Oversight hearings held following the Apollo 1 fire, after which he was fired). Baron was a quality control inspector who wrote a report critical of the Apollo program and was an outspoken critic of NASA's safety record after the Apollo 1 fire. Baron and his family were killed as their car was struck by a train at a train crossing. The deaths were an accident.[163][164]

    Brian D. Welch, a leading official in NASA's Public Affairs Office and Director of Media Services. Welch died a few months after appearing in the media to debunk the pro-hoax television show cited above.[165] He died of a heart attack at the age of 42.[166]

    Two of the above, X-15 pilot Mike Adams and MOL pilot Robert Lawrence, had no connection with the civilian crewed space program that oversaw the Apollo missions. All of the deaths listed besides Welch occurred at least 20 months before Apollo 11 and subsequent flights.

    As of November 2018, four of the twelve Apollo astronauts who landed on the Moon between 1969 and 1972 are still alive, including Buzz Aldrin. Also, nine of the twelve Apollo astronauts who flew to the Moon without landing between 1968 and 1972 are still alive, including Michael Collins.

    The number of deaths within the American astronaut corps during the run-up to Apollo and during the Apollo missions is similar to the number of deaths incurred by the Russians. During the period 1961 to 1972, at least eight Russian serving and former cosmonauts died:

    Valentin Bondarenko (ground training accident, March 1961)
    Grigori Nelyubov (suicide, February 1966)
    Vladimir Komarov (Soyuz 1 accident, April 1967)
    Yuri Gagarin (MiG-15 crash, March 1968)
    Pavel Belyayev (complications following surgery, January 1970)
    Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev (Soyuz 11 accident, June 1971)
    Additionally, the overall chief of their crewed-spaceflight program, Sergei Korolev, died while undergoing surgery in January 1966.

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Moon-Landing-Hoax-4901
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Apollo-fake-moon-landing-or-not


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    orthodoxymoron
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    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Empty Re: United States AI Solar System (9)

    Post  orthodoxymoron Sun Jul 14, 2019 12:56 am

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Apollo-11-moon-landing-hoax-revised

    I'm debating whether to include images and videos in these two 'Conspiracy' posts. Perhaps it might be better to focus on the printed-words rather than emotional-videos and doctored-images. My mantra throughout my threads throughout the years is 'How Do We Know Anything Significant with a Significant Degree of Certainty??' which is why I keep stating that my threads are mostly Religious and Political Science-Fiction. It's fun to sample heresy, accusations, controversies, gossip, conspiracy-theories, alien-stories, ghost-stories, and so on, but how do we REALLY Know??!! Thinking One Knows, and Actually Knowing, Are Two Very-Different Things!! I've kept my promise to keep my madness within this website for quite a few years now. I might write a book at some point, but this is seeming more and more unlikely as I feel worse and worse. If I ever write a book, it will probably be hard to read, highly-unrefined, quite-uninteresting, and probably mostly ignored. I guess I'd prefer it to be that way, and simply provide me with a small supplementary income, so I can build a small underground-bunker to await the End of the World while watching 'The Nostradamus Kid'!!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing_conspiracy_theories In June 1977, NASA issued a fact sheet responding to recent claims that the Apollo Moon landings had been hoaxed.[167] The fact sheet is particularly blunt and regards the idea of faking the Moon landings to be preposterous and outlandish. NASA refers to the rocks and particles collected from the Moon as being evidence of the program's legitimacy, as they claim that these rocks could not have been formed under conditions on earth. NASA also notes that all of the operations and phases of the Apollo program were closely followed and under the scrutiny of the news media, from liftoff to splashdown. NASA responds to Bill Kaysing's book, We Never Went to the Moon, by identifying one of his claims of fraud regarding the lack of a crater left on the Moon's surface by the landing of the lunar module, and refuting it with facts about the soil and cohesive nature of the surface of the Moon.

    The fact sheet was reissued on February 14, 2001, the day before Fox television's broadcast of Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? The documentary reinvigorated the public's interest in conspiracy theories and the possibility that the Moon landings were faked, which has provoked NASA to once again defend its name.

    Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick is accused of having produced much of the footage for Apollos 11 and 12, presumably because he had just directed 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is partly set on the Moon and featured advanced special effects.[28] It has been claimed that when 2001 was in post-production in early 1968, NASA secretly approached Kubrick to direct the first three Moon landings. The launch and splashdown would be real but the spacecraft would stay in Earth orbit and fake footage broadcast as "live from the Moon." No evidence was offered for this theory, which overlooks many facts. For example, 2001 was released before the first Apollo landing and Kubrick's depiction of the Moon's surface differs greatly from its appearance in the Apollo footage. The movement of characters on the Moon in 2001 differs from that of the filmed movement of Apollo astronauts, and does not resemble an environment with 1/6 the gravity of Earth. Several scenes in 2001 show dust billowing as spacecraft landed, something that would not happen in the vacuum environment of the Moon. Kubrick did hire Frederick Ordway and Harry Lange, both of whom had worked for NASA and major aerospace contractors, to work with him on 2001. Kubrick also used some 50 mm f/0.7 lenses that were left over from a batch made by Zeiss for NASA. However, Kubrick only got this lens for Barry Lyndon (1975). The lens was originally a still photo lens and needed changes to be used for motion filming.

    The mockumentary based on this idea, Dark Side of the Moon, could have fueled the conspiracy theory. This French mockumentary, directed by William Karel, was originally aired on Arte channel in 2002 with the title Opération Lune. It parodies conspiracy theories with faked interviews, stories of assassinations of Stanley Kubrick's assistants by the CIA, and a variety of conspicuous mistakes, puns, and references to old movie characters, inserted through the film as clues for the viewer. Nevertheless, Opération Lune is still taken at face value by some conspiracy believers.

    An article entitled "Stanley Kubrick and the Moon Hoax" appeared on Usenet in 1995, in the newsgroup "alt.humor.best-of-usenet". One passage – on how Kubrick was supposedly coerced into the conspiracy – reads:

    NASA further leveraged their position by threatening to publicly reveal the heavy involvement of Mr. Kubrick's younger brother, Raul, with the American Communist Party. This would have been an intolerable embarrassment to Mr. Kubrick, especially since the release of Dr. Strangelove.

    Kubrick had no such brother – the article was a spoof, complete with a giveaway sentence describing Kubrick shooting the moonwalk "on location" on the Moon. Nevertheless, the claim was taken up in earnest;[168] Clyde Lewis used it almost word-for-word,[28] whereas Jay Weidner gave the brother a more senior status within the party:

    No one knows how the powers-that-be convinced Kubrick to direct the Apollo landings. Maybe they had compromised Kubrick in some way. The fact that his brother, Raul Kubrick, was the head of the American Communist Party may have been one of the avenues pursued by the government to get Stanley to cooperate.[169]

    In July 2009, Weidner posted on his webpage "Secrets of the Shining", where he states that Kubrick's The Shining (1980) is a veiled confession of his role in the scam project.[170][171] This thesis was subject of refutation in an article published on Seeker nearly half a year later.[172] The 2015 movie Moonwalkers is a fictional account of a CIA agent's claim of Kubrick's involvement.

    In December 2015, a video surfaced which allegedly shows Kubrick being interviewed shortly before his 1999 death; the video purportedly shows the director confessing to T. Patrick Murray that the Apollo Moon landings had been faked.[173] Research quickly found, however, that the video was a hoax.[174]

    In 2002, NASA granted US$15,000 to James Oberg for a commission to write a point-by-point rebuttal of the hoax claims. However, NASA canceled the commission later that year, after complaints that the book would dignify the accusations.[165] Oberg said that he meant to finish the book.[165][175] In November 2002, Peter Jennings said "NASA is going to spend a few thousand dollars trying to prove to some people that the United States did indeed land men on the Moon," and "NASA had been so rattled, [they] hired [somebody] to write a book refuting the conspiracy theorists." Oberg says that belief in the hoax theories is not the fault of the conspiracists, but rather that of teachers and people (including NASA) who should provide information to the public.[165]

    In 2004, Martin Hendry and Ken Skeldon of the University of Glasgow were awarded a grant by the UK-based Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council to investigate Moon landing conspiracy theories.[176] In November 2004, they gave a lecture at the Glasgow Science Centre where the top ten claims by conspiracists were individually addressed and refuted.[177]

    An episode of MythBusters in August 2008 was dedicated to the Moon landings. The MythBusters crew tested many of the conspiracists' claims. Some of the testings were done in a NASA training facility. All of the conspiracists' claims examined on the show were labeled as having been "Busted", meaning that the conspiracists' claims were not true.

    Apollo 11 landing site – "There the lunar module sits, parked just where it landed 40 years ago, as if it still really were 40 years ago and all the time since merely imaginary." –The New York Times[178]

    Moon-landing conspiracists claim that observatories and the Hubble Space Telescope should be able to photograph the landing sites. This implies that the world's major observatories (as well as the Hubble Program) are complicit in the hoax by refusing to take photos of the landing sites. Photos of the Moon have been taken by Hubble, including at least two Apollo landing sites, but the Hubble resolution limits viewing of lunar objects to sizes no smaller than 60–75 yards (55–69 meters), which is insufficient resolution to see any landing site features.[179]

    In April 2001, Leonard David published an article on space.com,[180][181] which showed a photo taken by the Clementine mission showing a diffuse dark spot at the site NASA says is the Apollo 15 lander. The evidence was noticed by Misha Kreslavsky, of the Department of Geological Sciences at Brown University, and Yuri Shkuratov of the Kharkiv Astronomical Observatory in Ukraine. The European Space Agency's SMART-1 uncrewed probe sent back photos of the landing sites, according to Bernard Foing, Chief Scientist of the ESA Science Program.[182] "Given SMART-1's initial high orbit, however, it may prove difficult to see artifacts," said Foing in an interview on space.com.

    In 2002, Alex R. Blackwell of the University of Hawaii pointed out that some photos taken by Apollo astronauts[181] while in orbit around the Moon show the landing sites.

    The Daily Telegraph published a story in 2002 saying that European astronomers at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) would use it to view the landing sites. According to the article, Dr. Richard West said that his team would take "a high-resolution image of one of the Apollo landing sites." Marcus Allen, a conspiracist, answered that no photos of hardware on the Moon would convince him that manned landings had happened.[183] As the VLT is capable of resolving equivalent to the distance between the headlights of a car as seen from the Moon,[184] it may be able to photograph some features of the landing sites. Such photos, if and when they become available, would be the first non-NASA-produced photos of the sites at that definition.

    The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched their SELENE Moon orbiter on September 14, 2007 (JST), from Tanegashima Space Center. SELENE orbited the Moon at about 100 kilometres (62 mi) altitude. In May 2008, JAXA reported detecting the "halo" generated by the Apollo 15 Lunar Module engine exhaust from a Terrain Camera image.[185] A three-dimensional reconstructed photo also matched the terrain of an Apollo 15 photo taken from the surface.

    On July 17, 2009, NASA released low-resolution engineering test photos of the Apollo 11, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 landing sites that have been photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter as part of the process of starting its primary mission.[186] The photos show the descent stage of the landers from each mission on the Moon's surface. The photo of the Apollo 14 landing site also shows tracks made by an astronaut between a science experiment (ALSEP) and the lander.[186] Photos of the Apollo 12 landing site were released by NASA on September 3, 2009.[187] The Intrepid lander descent stage, experiment package (ALSEP), Surveyor 3 spacecraft, and astronaut footpaths are all visible. While the LRO images have been enjoyed by the scientific community as a whole, they have not done anything to convince conspiracists that the landings happened.[188]

    On September 1, 2009, India's lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 took photos of the Apollo 15 landing site and tracks of the lunar rovers.[189][190] The Indian Space Research Organisation launched their uncrewed lunar probe on September 8, 2008 (IST), from Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The photos were taken by a hyperspectral camera fitted as part of the mission's image payload.[189]

    China's second lunar probe, Chang'e 2, which was launched in 2010, can photograph the lunar surface with a resolution of up to 1.3 meters (4.3 feet). It spotted traces of the Apollo landings.[191]

    The Apollo program collected 380 kilograms (838 lb) of Moon rocks during the six crewed missions. Analyses by scientists worldwide all agree that these rocks came from the Moon – no published accounts in peer-reviewed scientific journals exist that dispute this claim. The Apollo samples are easily distinguishable from both meteorites and Earth rocks[6] in that they show a lack of hydrous alteration products, they show evidence of having undergone impact events on an airless body, and they have unique geochemical traits. Furthermore, most are more than 200 million years older than the oldest Earth rocks. The Moon rocks also share the same traits as Soviet samples.[192]

    Conspiracists argue that Marshall Space Flight Center Director Wernher von Braun's trip to Antarctica in 1967 (about two years before the Apollo 11 launch) was to gather lunar meteorites to be used as fake Moon rocks. Because von Braun was a former SS officer (though one who had been detained by the Gestapo),[193] the documentary film Did We Go?[44] suggests that he could have been pressured to agree to the conspiracy to protect himself from recriminations over his past. NASA said that von Braun's mission was "to look into environmental and logistic factors that might relate to the planning of future space missions, and hardware."[194] NASA continues to send teams to work in Antarctica to mimic the conditions on other planets.

    It is now accepted by the scientific community that rocks have been blasted from both the Martian and lunar surface during impact events, and that some of these have landed on the Earth as meteorites.[195][196] However, the first Antarctic lunar meteorite was found in 1979, and its lunar origin was not recognized until 1982.[197] Furthermore, lunar meteorites are so rare that it is unlikely that they could account for the 380 kilograms of Moon rocks that NASA gathered between 1969 and 1972. Only about 30 kilograms (66 lb) of lunar meteorites have been found on Earth thus far, despite private collectors and governmental agencies worldwide searching for more than 20 years.[197]

    While the Apollo missions gathered 380 kilograms of Moon rocks, the Soviet Luna 16, Luna 20 and Luna 24 robots gathered only 326 grams (11.5 oz) combined (that is, less than one-thousandth as much). Indeed, current plans for a Martian sample return would only gather about 500 grams (18 oz) of soil,[198] and a recently proposed South Pole-Aitken basin robot mission would only gather about 1 kilogram of Moon rock.[199][200][201] If NASA had used similar robot technology, then between 300 and 2,000 robot missions would have been needed to collect the current amount of Moon rocks that is held by NASA.

    On the makeup of the Moon rocks, Kaysing asked: "Why was there never a mention of gold, silver, diamonds or other precious metals on the moon? Wasn't this a viable consideration? Why was this fact never dicussed [sic] in the press or by the astronauts?"[202] Geologists realize that gold and silver deposits on Earth are the result of the action of hydrothermal fluids concentrating the precious metals into veins of ore. Since in 1969 water was believed to be absent on the Moon, no geologist would bother discussing the possibility of finding these on the Moon in any great amount.

    Aside from NASA, a number of groups and individuals tracked the Apollo missions as they happened. On later missions, NASA released information to the public explaining where and when the spacecraft could be sighted. Their flight paths were tracked using radar and they were sighted and photographed using telescopes. Also, radio transmissions between the astronauts on the surface and in orbit were independently recorded.

    The presence of retroreflectors (mirrors used as targets for Earth-based tracking lasers) from the Laser Ranging Retroreflector Experiment (LRRR) is evidence that there were landings.[203] Lick Observatory attempted to detect from Apollo 11's retroreflector while Armstrong and Aldrin were still on the Moon but did not succeed until August 1, 1969.[204] The Apollo 14 astronauts deployed a retroreflector on February 5, 1971, and McDonald Observatory detected it the same day. The Apollo 15 retroreflector was deployed on July 31, 1971, and was detected by McDonald Observatory within a few days.[205] Smaller retroreflectors were also put on the Moon by the Russians; they were attached to the uncrewed lunar rovers Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2.[206]

    In a 1994 poll by The Washington Post, 9% of the respondents said that it was possible that astronauts did not go to the Moon and another 5% were unsure.[207] A 1999 Gallup Poll found that 6% of the Americans surveyed doubted that the Moon landings happened and that 5% of those surveyed had no opinion,[208][209][210][211] which roughly matches the findings of a similar 1995 Time/CNN poll.[208] Officials of the Fox network said that such skepticism rose to about 20% after the February 2001 airing of their network's television special, Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?, seen by about 15 million viewers.[209] This Fox special is seen as having promoted the hoax claims.[212][213]

    A 2000 poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation [ru] (ФОМ) in Russia found that 28% of those surveyed did not believe that American astronauts landed on the Moon, and this percentage is roughly equal in all social-demographic groups.[214][215][216] In 2009, a poll held by the United Kingdom's Engineering & Technology magazine found that 25% of those surveyed did not believe that men landed on the Moon.[217] Another poll gives that 25% of 18- to 25-year-olds surveyed were unsure that the landings happened.[218]

    There are subcultures worldwide which advocate the belief that the Moon landings were faked. By 1977 the Hare Krishna magazine Back to Godhead called the landings a hoax, claiming that, since the Sun is 93 million mi (150 million km) away, and "according to Hindu mythology the Moon is 800,000 miles farther away than that",[e] the Moon would be nearly 94 million mi (151 million km) away; to travel that span in 91 hours would require a speed of more than a million miles per hour, "a patently impossible feat even by the scientists' calculations."[219][220]

    James Oberg of ABC News said that the conspiracy theory is taught in Cuban schools and wherever Cuban teachers are sent.[165][221] A poll conducted in the 1970s by the United States Information Agency in several countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa found that most respondents were unaware of the Moon landings, many of the others dismissed them as propaganda or science fiction, and many thought that it had been the Russians that landed on the Moon.[222]

    See also

    Spaceflight portal
    Moon portal
    Astronauts Gone Wild
    In the Shadow of the Moon
    Lost Cosmonauts
    List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
    Stolen and missing Moon rocks
    Great Moon Hoax

    Notes

    ^ In 1968, Clarke and Kubrick had collaborated on the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which realistically portrayed a Moon mission.
    ^ He does this in his site as well
    ^ This number includes the crews of Apollos 8, 10, and 13, though the latter technically only performed a fly-by. These three missions account for only six additional astronauts because James Lovell orbited the Moon twice (Apollos 8 and 13) and John Young and Gene Cernan orbited on Apollo 10 both later landed on the Moon.
    ^ According to the 2007 NOVA episode "Sputnik Declassified," the United States could have launched the Explorer 1 probe before Sputnik, but the Eisenhower administration hesitated, first because they were not sure if international law meant that national borders kept going all the way into orbit (and, thus, their orbiting satellite could cause an international uproar by violating the borders of dozens of nations), and second because there was a desire to see the not yet ready Vanguard satellite program, designed by American citizens, become America's first satellite rather than the Explorer program, that was mostly designed by former rocket designers from Nazi Germany. A transcript of the appropriate section from the show is available at "Sputnik's Impact on America."
    ^ This is equivalent of 1.3 million km.
    Citations
    This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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    ^ Harrison 2012, p. 97
    ^ McAdams 2011, p. 132
    ^ Nemiroff, R.; Bonnell, J., eds. (November 1, 2011). "Hammer Versus Feather on the Moon". Astronomy Picture of the Day. NASA. Retrieved April 20, 2013. Source for video: "The Hammer and the Feather" on YouTube
    ^ Kaysing 2002, p. 75
    ^ Harrison 2012, p. 96
    ^ Plait 2002, p. 164
    ^ Plait 2002, pp. 163–65
    ^ "Apollo 11 Preliminary Science Report" (PDF). NASA. 1969. NASA SP-214. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
    ^ Woods 2008, p. 191
    ^ René 1994 pp. n, 11
    ^ Orloff, Richard W. (September 2004) [First published 2000]. "Apollo by the Numbers: A Statistical Reference". NASA History Program Office. NASA. ISBN 0-16-050631-X. NASA SP-2000-4029. Retrieved May 31, 2013. See Statistical Tables: "Selected Mission Weights (lbs)" and "LM Descent Stage Propellant Status".
    ^ Rogers, William F. "Apollo Lunar Module Landing Gear" (PDF). Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. NASA. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
    ^ Heiken 1991, pp. 475–476
    ^ "Radio Lag". Redzero.demon.co.uk. Archived from the original on July 29, 2008. Retrieved November 25, 2008.
    ^ "Apollo 11 Mission Summary". The Apollo Program. National Air and Space Museum. July 16, 1969. Retrieved November 13, 2010. From NASA SP-214, Preliminary Science Report
    ^ "Apollo 11 TV – as seen in Australia". Honeysucklecreek.net. Retrieved November 25, 2008.
    ^
    Jump up to:
    a b Sarkissian, John M. (2001). "On Eagle's Wings: The Parkes Observatory's Support of the Apollo 11 Mission". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. Collingwood, Victoria: CSIRO Publishing for the Astronomical Society of Australia. 18 (3): 287–310. Bibcode:2001PASA...18..287S. doi:10.1071/AS01038. Retrieved November 25, 2008. October 2000 website version, part 1 of 12: "Introduction." Original version available from CSIRO Parkes Observatory (PDF).
    ^ Sarkissian, John M. (2001). "On Eagle's Wings: The Parkes Observatory's Support of the Apollo 11 Mission". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. Collingwood, Victoria: CSIRO Publishing for the Astronomical Society of Australia. 18 (3): 287–310. Bibcode:2001PASA...18..287S. doi:10.1071/AS01038. Retrieved November 25, 2008. October 2000 website version, part 9 of 12: "One Giant Leap." Original version available from CSIRO Parkes Observatory (PDF).
    ^ Windley, Jay. "Clavius: Bibliography – cosmic dave's 32 questions". Moon Base Clavius. Clavius.org. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
    ^
    Jump up to:
    a b Windley, Jay. "Clavius: Bibliography – the Collier article". Moon Base Clavius. Clavius.org. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
    ^ Macey, Richard (August 5, 2006). "One giant blunder for mankind: how NASA lost moon pictures". The Sydney Morning Herald.
    ^ Sarkissian, John M. "The Parkes Apollo 11 TV Quality". CSIRO Parkes Observatory. Retrieved November 25, 2008.
    ^
    Jump up to:
    a b Amalfi, Carmelo (November 1, 2006). "Lost Moon landing tapes discovered". COSMOS Online. Australia: Cosmos Media Pty Ltd. Archived from the original on February 14, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2008.
    ^ Sarkissian, John M. (May 21, 2006). "The Search for the Apollo 11 SSTV Tapes" (PDF). Honeysucklecreek.net. CSIRO Parkes Observatory. Retrieved April 26, 2013.
    ^ "The GSFC Scientific Data Storage Problem" (PDF). NASA. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
    ^ "The Apollo 11 Telemetry Data Recordings: A Final Report" (PDF). NASA. December 2009. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
    ^ Borenstein, Seth (July 17, 2009). "NASA lost moon footage, but Hollywood restores it". US News & World Report. Associated Press. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
    ^ Garner, Robert, ed. (August 7, 2009). "Apollo 11 Partial Restoration HD Video Streams". NASA. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
    ^ Scotti, Jim (February 4, 2000). "The Collier article – a critique". Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. University of Arizona. Retrieved September 2, 2009. Scotti's critique of James M. Collier August 1997 article, "Investigator Challenging NASA", Media Bypass (Evansville, IN: Tree Top Communications, Inc.) Vol. 5, No. 8. ISSN 1085-6714.
    ^ Paine, Michael (March 13, 2000). "Saturn 5 Blueprints Safely in Storage". Space.com. TechMediaNetwork, Inc. Archived from the original on July 8, 2008. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
    ^ Young, Anthony (April 5, 2004). "Lunar rovers past and future". The Space Review. Jeff Foust. p. 1. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
    ^ "Lunar Rover Operations Handbook". NASA. Doc. LS006-002-2H. Retrieved November 25, 2008.
    ^ Windley, Jay. "Clavius: Technology – beating the soviets". Moon Base Clavius. Clavius.org. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
    ^ Warren, Liz (June 17, 2013). "Women in Space Part One, Female Firsts in Flight for Space Exploration and Research". A Lab Aloft (Blog). NASA Blogs. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
    ^ "Soviet Lunar Landing". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Mark Wade. Archived from the original on February 24, 2009. Retrieved November 25, 2008.
    ^ Scotti, Jim. "Comments on the FOX special on the Hoax". Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. University of Arizona. Retrieved November 25, 2008.
    ^ "NASA Apollo Mission Apollo-1 – Baron Report". NASA History Program Office. NASA. Archived from the original on September 21, 2008. Retrieved November 25, 2008.
    ^
    Jump up to:
    a b c d e Oberg, James (March – April 2003). "Lessons of the 'Fake Moon Flight' Myth". Skeptical Inquirer. Amherst, NY: Committee for Skeptical Inquiry: 23, 30. Retrieved April 27, 2013. Reprinted in Frazier, Kendrick (ed.) (2009). Science Under Siege: Defending Science, Exposing Pseudoscience. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-59102-715-7.
    ^ "Brian Welch, NASA director Of media services, Dies". Space.com. TechMediaNetwork, Inc. November 24, 2000. Archived from the original on May 23, 2009. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
    ^ "Did U.S. Astronauts Really Land on the Moon" (PDF) (Reissue (June 1977)). Washington, D.C.: NASA. February 14, 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 13, 2015. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
    ^ Windley, Jay. "Clavius: Bibliography – the kubrick article". Moon Base Clavius. Clavius.org. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
    ^ Weidner, Jay (July 20, 2009). "How Stanley Kubrick Faked the Apollo Moon Landings". jayweidner.com. Archived from the original on November 23, 2010. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
    ^ Weidner, Jay (July 20, 2009). "Secrets of the Shining". Bibliotecapleyades.net. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
    ^ Faked Moon Landing Hidden Subliminal Messages in Stanley Kubrick's Movie 'The Shining' on YouTube. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
    ^ Lamb, Robert (January 21, 2010). "Faked Moon Landings and Kubrick's 'The Shining'". Seeker. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
    ^ Austin, Jon (December 11, 2015). "Moon Landings 'Fake': Shock video shows 'Stanley Kubrick' admit historic event was 'HOAX'". Daily Express. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
    ^ Evon, Dan (December 11, 2015). "Lie Me to the Moon". Snopes.com. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
    ^ Whitehouse, David (November 8, 2002). "Nasa pulls Moon hoax book". BBC News. London. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
    ^ Hendry, Martin; Skeldon, Ken (February 17, 2005). "Did we really land on the Moon?". Cafescientifique.org. Archived from the original on August 5, 2009. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
    ^ Di Maggio, Mario (November 2004). "Hoax Busters". Dimaggio.org. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
    ^ "The Human Moon". The New York Times. November 16, 2009. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
    ^ Stoyanova, Silvia, ed. (September 10, 2007). "Hubble Shoots The Moon". NASA. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
    ^ David, Leonard (April 27, 2001). "Apollo 15 Landing Site Spotted in Images". Space.com. TechMediaNetwork, Inc. Archived from the original on March 1, 2005. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
    ^
    Jump up to:
    a b Richmond, Michael (August 17, 2002). "Can we see Apollo hardware on the Moon?". The Amateur Sky Survey (TASS). Archived from the original on July 11, 2002. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
    ^ David, Leonard (March 4, 2005). "End of Conspiracy Theories? Spacecraft Snoops Apollo Moon Sites". Space.com. TechMediaNetwork, Inc. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
    ^ Matthews, Robert (November 24, 2002). "World's biggest telescope to prove Americans really walked on Moon". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
    ^ Stee, Philippe (September 20, 2006). "To Be or Not to Be: Is It All About Spinning?" (Press release). Garching, Germany: European Southern Observatory. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
    ^ "The "halo" area around Apollo 15 landing site observed by Terrain Camera on SELENE (KAGUYA)" (Press release). Chōfu, Tokyo: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. May 20, 2009. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
    ^
    Jump up to:
    a b Hautaluoma, Grey; Freeberg, Andy (July 17, 2009). Garner, Robert (ed.). "LRO Sees Apollo Landing Sites". NASA. Retrieved August 14, 2009. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has returned its first imagery of the Apollo Moon landing sites. The pictures show the Apollo missions' lunar module descent stages sitting on the moon's surface, as long shadows from a low sun angle make the modules' locations evident.
    ^ Garner, Robert, ed. (September 3, 2009). "Apollo 12 and Surveyor 3". NASA. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
    ^ Antonia (September 10, 2009). "A HB Response To The LRO Photos". Lunarlandinghoax.com (Blog). Antares 14 Media. Archived from the original on October 18, 2009. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
    ^
    Jump up to:
    a b "Chandrayaan sends images of Apollo 15 landing". The Times of India. New Delhi: The Times Group. September 2, 2009. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
    ^ "Chandrayaan's moon findings: Water, rocks and traces of Apollo". MSN India. Redmond, WA: Microsoft. India Syndicate. October 22, 2009. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
    ^ Lina, Yang, ed. (February 6, 2012). "China publishes high-resolution full moon map". English.news.cn. Beijing: Xinhua News Agency. Archived from the original on May 27, 2013. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
    ^ Papike, James J.; Ryder, Graham; Shearer, Charles K. (January 1998). "Lunar Samples". Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry. Washington, D.C.: Mineralogical Society of America. 36 (1): 5.1–5.234. ISBN 978-0-939950-46-1.
    ^ "Wernher von Braun in SS uniform". The Reformation Online. Bible Believers Press. Source cited: Dornberger, Walter V-2 (1958) New York: Viking Press [OCLC 255209058].
    ^ "Marshall Highlights for 1967". Marshall Space Flight Center History Office. Originally "published in a news release issued in late 1967 by the Marshall Center Public Affairs Office."
    ^ Head, James N.; Melosh, H. Jay; Ivanov, Boris A. (November 2002). "Martian Meteorite Launch: High-Speed Ejecta from Small Craters". Science. 298 (5599): 1752–56. Bibcode:2002Sci...298.1752H. doi:10.1126/science.1077483. PMID 12424385.
    ^ Cooke, Bill (2006). "The Great Interplanetary Rock Swap". Astronomy. Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing. 34 (Cool: 64–67. ISSN 0091-6358.
    ^
    Jump up to:
    a b Korotev, Randy (2005). "Lunar geochemistry as told by lunar meteorites". Chemie der Erde. 65 (4): 297–346. Bibcode:2005ChEG...65..297K. doi:10.1016/j.chemer.2005.07.001.
    ^ "Mars Sample Return". European Space Agency.
    ^ Portree, David S. F. (November 7, 2012). "Lunar South Pole-Aitken Sample Return (2002)". Wired. New York: Condé Nast Publications. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
    ^ Duke, Michael B. (June 2003). "Sample return from the lunar South Pole-Aitken Basin". Advances in Space Research. Netherlands: Elsevier. 31 (11): 2347–52. Bibcode:2003AdSpR..31.2347D. doi:10.1016/S0273-1177(03)00539-8.
    ^ Duke, M. B.; Clark, B. C.; Gamber, T.; et al. (September 24, 1999). "Sample Return Mission to the South Pole Aitken Basin" (PDF). Retrieved May 2, 2013. Paper presented at the "New Views of the Moon II: Understanding the Moon Through the Integration of Diverse Datasets" workshop held on September 22–24, 1999, in Flagstaff, AZ. The workshop's preliminary program (PDF).
    ^ Kaysing 2002, p. 8
    ^ Dorminey, Bruce (March 2011). "Secrets beneath the Moon's surface". Astronomy. Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing: 24–29. ISSN 0091-6358.
    ^ Hansen 2005, p. 515
    ^ Bender, P. L.; Currie, D. G.; Dicke, R. H.; et al. (October 19, 1973). "The Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment" (PDF). Science. Washington, D.C.: American Association for the Advancement of Science. 182 (4109): 229–38. Bibcode:1973Sci...182..229B. doi:10.1126/science.182.4109.229. PMID 17749298. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
    ^ Jones, Nancy; McDonald, Kim (April 26, 2010). Jenner, Lynn (ed.). "NASA's LRO Team Helps Track Laser Signals to Russian Rover Mirror". NASA. Goddard Release No. 10-038. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
    ^ Scheaffer 2004, pp. 226–27
    ^
    Jump up to:
    a b Plait 2002, p. 156
    ^
    Jump up to:
    a b Borenstein, Seth (November 2, 2002). "Book to confirm moon landings". Deseret News. Salt Lake City, UT. Knight Ridder Newspapers. Archived from the original on July 26, 2009. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
    ^ "Did Men Really Land on the Moon?" (Press release). Gallup. February 15, 2001. Retrieved August 14, 2009.
    ^ Newport, Frank (July 20, 1999). "Landing a Man on the Moon: The Public's View" (Press release). Gallup. Retrieved August 14, 2009.
    ^ "One giant leap of imagination". The Age. Melbourne, Australia. Associated Press. December 24, 2002. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
    ^ "American Beat: Moon Stalker". Newsweek.com. New York: Newsweek. September 15, 2002. Archived from the original on December 6, 2007. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
    ^ Петрова, А.С. (April 19, 2000). БЫЛИ ЛИ АМЕРИКАНЦЫ НА ЛУНЕ? [Were the Americans on the Moon?] (Press release) (in Russian). Public Opinion Foundation (ФОМ). Retrieved August 13, 2009. Nationwide Russian survey of urban and rural population conducted on April 1, 2000. 1,500 respondents. Americans walked on the Moon? Overall results of poll: 51% yes; 28% no; 22% unsure.
    ^ ИНОГДА ВЫСКАЗЫВАЕТСЯ МНЕНИЕ, ЧТО НА САМОМ ДЕЛЕ ВЫСАДКИ АМЕРИКАНСКИХ АСТРОНАВТОВ НА ЛУНУ НЕ БЫЛО. ВЫ ЛИЧНО ВЕРИТЕ ИЛИ НЕ ВЕРИТЕ, ЧТО АМЕРИКАНСКИЕ АСТРОНАВТЫ ДЕЙСТВИТЕЛЬНО ПОБЫВАЛИ НА ЛУНЕ? (in Russian). Public Opinion Foundation (ФОМ). April 5, 2000. Retrieved April 30, 2013.
    ^ ЗНАЕТЕ ЛИ ВЫ, ЧТО-ТО СЛЫШАЛИ ИЛИ СЛЫШИТЕ СЕЙЧАС ВПЕРВЫЕ О ВЫСАДКЕ АМЕРИКАНСКИХ АСТРОНАВТОВ НА ЛУНУ ЛЕТОМ 1969 ГОДА? (in Russian). Public Opinion Foundation (ФОМ). April 5, 2000. Retrieved April 30, 2013.
    ^ Bizony, Piers (July 6, 2009). "It was a fake, right?". Engineering & Technology. London: Institution of Engineering and Technology. Archived from the original on January 28, 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
    ^ Kruesi, Liz (December 2009). "The Cosmic Grid". Astronomy. Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing: 62. ISSN 0091-6358.
    ^ Satsvarūpa dāsa Goswami (May 1977). "Man on the Moon: A Case of Mass Brainwashing" (PDF). Back to Godhead. Los Angeles: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. 12 (5): 10–11, 13–14. ISSN 0005-3643. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
    ^ Scheaffer 2011, p. 229
    ^ Oberg, James (July 1999). "Getting Apollo 11 Right". ABC News. New York: ABC. Archived from the original on April 2, 2003. Retrieved August 13, 2009. I'm told that this is official dogma still taught in schools in Cuba, plus wherever else Cuban teachers have been sent (such as Sandinista Nicaragua and Angola).
    ^ Oberg 1982, p. 97

    References

    Aaronovitch, David (2010) [Originally published 2009 in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape]. Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History (1st American ed.). New York: Riverhead Books. ISBN 978-1-59448-895-5.
    Attivissimo, Paulo (2013). Moon Hoax: Debunked! (1st English ed.). Lulu. ISBN 978-1-291-59157-6.
    Bennett, Mary; Percy, David S. (2001) [First published 1999 in Great Britain by Aulis Publishers]. Dark Moon: Apollo and the Whistle-Blowers. Kempton, IL: Adventures Unlimited Press. ISBN 978-0-932813-90-9.
    Brian, William L. (1982). Moongate: Suppressed Findings of the U.S. Space Program, The NASA-Military Cover-Up (1st ed.). Portland, OR: Future Science Research Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-941292-00-9.
    Chaikin, Andrew (2007) [First published 1994]. A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts. Foreword by Tom Hanks and a new afterword by the author (Reissue ed.). New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-311235-8.
    Dick, Steven J.; Launius, Roger D., eds. (2007). Societal Impact of Spaceflight (PDF). Washington, D.C.: NASA. ISBN 978-0-16-080190-7. NASA SP-2007-4801. Retrieved June 7, 2013. Part 2 available here (PDF).
    Hansen, James R. (2005). First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-5631-5.
    Harrison, Guy P. (2012). 50 popular beliefs that people think are true. Foreword by Phil Plait. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-61614-495-1.
    Heiken, Grant H.; Vaniman, David T.; French, Bevan M. (1991). Lunar Sourcebook: A User's Guide to the Moon (PDF). Cambridge, England; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-33444-6. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
    Kaysing, Bill (2002) [First published 1976]. We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle. Randy Reid credited as co-author in 1976 editions. Pomeroy, WA: Health Research Books. OCLC 52390067.
    Kranz, Gene (2000). Failure is not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0079-9.
    Lheureux, Philippe (2000). Lumières sur la Lune [Lights on the Moon] (in French). Chatou: Éditions Carnot. ISBN 978-2-912-36249-0.
    Longuski, Jim (2006). The Seven Secrets of How to Think Like a Rocket Scientist. New York: Springer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-387-30876-0.
    McAdams, John C. (2011). JFK Assassination Logic: How to Think about Claims of Conspiracy. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books. ISBN 978-1-59797-489-9.
    Mindell, David A. (2008). Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-13497-2.
    Мухин, Юрий Игнатьевич (2005). Антиаполлон: Лунная афера США [Anti-Apollo: Lunar Scam of the USA] (in Russian). Moscow: Eksmo. ISBN 978-5-699-08657-3.
    Oberg, James E. (1982). UFOs & Outer Space Mysteries: A Sympathetic Skeptic's Report. Norfolk, VA: The Donning Company. ISBN 978-0-89865-102-7.
    Plait, Philip C. (2002). Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax". New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-40976-6.
    Попов, Александр Иванович (2009). Американцы на Луне: великий прорыв или космическая афера? [Americans on the Moon: The Great Breakthrough or Space Scam?] (in Russian). Moscow: Veche. ISBN 978-5-9533-3315-3.
    Ramsay, Robin (2006). Conspiracy Theories. Harpenden: Pocket Essentials. ISBN 1-904048-65-X.
    René, Ralph (1994). Lucas, Stu (ed.). NASA Mooned America!. Drawings by Chris Wolfer. Passaic, NJ: René. OCLC 36317224.
    Scheaffer, Robert (2011). Psychic Vibrations: Skeptical Giggles from The Skeptical Inquirer. Illustrations by Rob Pudim. Charleston, SC: CreateSpace. ISBN 978-1-4636-0157-7. Reprinted from the Skeptical Inquirer, Fall 1977.
    Scott, David; Leonov, Alexei; Toomey, Christine (2004). Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race. Foreword by Neil Armstrong; introduction by Tom Hanks (1st U.S. ed.). New York: Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 0-312-30865-5.
    Shepard, Alan B.; Slayton, Donald K. (1994). Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon. With Jay Barbree and Howard Benedict; introduction by Neil Armstrong. Atlanta: Turner Publishing. ISBN 978-1-878685-54-4.
    副島, 隆彦 (2004). 人類の月面着陸は無かったろう論 [Apollo 11 Has Never Been to the Moon] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten. ISBN 978-4-198-61874-2.
    Wisnewski, Gerhard (2007) [Originally published 2005 in German under the title Lügen im Weltraum, Von der Mondlandung zur Weltherrschaft, Knaur Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich]. One Small Step?: The Great Moon Hoax and the Race to Dominate Earth from Space. English translation by Johanna Collis. Forrest Row: Clairview Books. ISBN 978-1-905570-12-6.
    Woods, W. David (2008). How Apollo Flew to the Moon. New York: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-0-387-71675-6.
    Further reading
    Loxton, Daniel (2010). "Top Ten Busted Myths". Skeptic. 15 (4): 74.
    Morrison, David (November 2009). "Moon Hoax Resolved: New Lunar Orbiter Images Show Moon Landers, Astronaut's Tracks". Skeptical Inquirer. 33 (6): 5–6.
    Steven-Boniecki, Dwight (2010). Live TV from the Moon. Burlington, Ontario: Apogee Books. ISBN 978-1-926592-16-9.
    Talcott, Richard (November 2010). "Astronomy Mythbusters". Astronomy. 38 (11): 56–57. Author examines ten common astronomy myths. See: Myth #10: NASA faked the Moon landings.
    Achenbach, Joel (March 2015). "The Age of Disbelief". National Geographic. 227 (3): 30–47. Author examines climate change, evolution, the Moon landing, vaccinations, and genetically modified food

    External links

    Moon Base Clavius is devoted to analyzing the conspiracists' claims and attempting to debunk them.
    Apollo Lunar Surface Journal Photos, audio, video and complete communication transcriptions of the six successful landings and Apollo 13
    "A Moon Landing? What Moon Landing?". The New York Times (Abstract). December 18, 1969. p. 30. Retrieved August 5, 2008. Story by John Noble Wilford
    "Vocal Minority Insists It Was All Smoke and Mirrors" by John Schwartz for The New York Times, July 13, 2009
    "Refuting the Most Popular Apollo Moon Landing Hoax Theories" by Christina Caron, ABC News, July 19, 2009
    Why there are no stars in the photographs
    Hatchmarks in the photos
    Seeing the landing sites
    Lunar Module rocket plume
    No blast crater
    Why haven't we been back to the Moon?
    LRO photos compared to Apollo 11 film
    Moon Hoax Not by S.G. Collins
    Topography
    Complete Apollo 11 moonwalk video, restored. Flag planted 50 minutes in, then doesn't flap for the next 2 hours and 11 minutes.
    Forbes magazine
    Television specials
    William Karel (Director) (2002). Opération lune [Dark Side of the Moon] (Mockumentary) (in French and English). Paris: Arte France / Point du Jour International. OCLC 57723359. First airdate: October 16, 2002.
    John Moffett (Director, Producer, Writer); Bruce M. Nash (Executive Producer, Writer) (2001). Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? (Documentary). Hollywood, CA: Nash Entertainment, Inc. OCLC 52473513. First airdate on Fox TV: February 15, 2001.
    The Truth Behind the Moon Landings: Stranger Than Fiction (2003) (TV) on IMDb

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Moon-landing-hoax-1680x10502
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Apollo-17-Moon-Landing-Faked-New-Photo-Evidence
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 People-in-the-Moon-Landing-Hoax--59811
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Moonrock.0
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Moon-Landing-Hoax

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Anthony-Nelson-in-Moon-Landing-Hoax-Shot--59816


    Last edited by orthodoxymoron on Tue Jul 16, 2019 1:27 am; edited 2 times in total
    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


    Posts : 13631
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    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Empty Re: United States AI Solar System (9)

    Post  orthodoxymoron Sun Jul 14, 2019 12:25 pm

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 2-L1110094

    My threads are crazy, yet they are probably necessary, as an Alternative All-Things Considered for Sirius-Researchers, but probably NOT for the General-Public. I realize this is a broken-record BUT regarding Understanding the Bible, I'm NOT promoting-conclusions and/or taking-sides. I'm simply suggesting Reading the Old-Testament (straight-through, over and over) Side-By-Side With Reading the New-Testament (straight-through, over and over). Period.


    The Crazy Shall Inherit the Earth?? It increasingly seems to me that Everyone and Everything are Crazy. Perhaps this is an overgeneralization, but the Bible and Biblical-Interpretation often seem crazy. History seems crazy. Q seems crazy. Politics seems crazy. Religion seems crazy. It's as if Everyone and Everything are supposed to be crazy. Or am I the one who is crazy?? When I point to particular Biblical-Studies I'm not necessarily saying this is the way we should think and live. I'm merely suggesting proper study methodologies. I was just listening to an old Desmond Ford lecture, and I was amazed by how complex and intricate his reasoning was, and how quickly he spoke, jumping from one thought to the next with unbelievable speed. Remember that old Thuban Q&A in Project Avalon?? It often seemed like Crazy-Gibberish. I've half-jokingly and half-seriously spoken of the possibility of Souls Linked with Supercomputers going completely insane with absolute-power (or something to that effect).

    I've also suggested the possibility that some of us should probably become Major-Newspaper Scholars, plus very-little else, to try to maintain some sort of a Center which might hold as things get Crazier and Crazier. What if keeping We the Peons confused, competing, and fighting is a necessary-evil in managing the insanity?? What if the reprehensible is essential?? What if the Truth will NOT set us free?? What if the Truth would make 87% of us go Crazy?? Consider the 'Quickening' as articulated by Art Bell. What if the Sane-People will be labeled as the Crazy-People?? Have the Inmates Taken-Over the Asylum?? Some say President Trump is vulnerable in the Epstein takedown. I watched a couple of videos (which I won't post) from somewhat reliable sources which seem highly problematic for the President. We might be facing a nasty showdown in the near-future. Sorry, you'll have to click the link to watch the following video. They don't allow viewing their precious video within other websites. How crazy is that?! I could go on, but this post is driving me crazy. "You're Tearing Me Apart!!"



    Which religions and/or churches and/or theologians and/or clergypersons have been completely honest about the bad things in their sacred-writings, religious-histories and/or church-histories?? Honesty (or the lack thereof) seems to be a BIG-Problem in religions and/or churches. Do we need faith and hope so badly that we lie (and worse) to maintain their illusion in the minds of We the Peons?? Is the Real-Story so bad that we require Cover-Stories to maintain our society and sanity?? Are Honest-Researchers a Grave-Threat to the Way Things Are?? Beware of Historians?? Do Fame, Fortune, and Power Trump Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?? Are Appearances Everything?? Should One Lie, Cheat, Steal, and Kill to Join the Club at the Top of the Pyramid?? Should One Do the Reprehensible in Secret to Maintain Respectability in Public?? Some of You Know What I'm Talking About. I will continue to respond positively to "How Are You??" even though the opposite is the reality. It's interesting to notice who asks (and how they ask). I've learned a lot in the most subtle ways!! Everything has been Recorded (or so I'm told) and Everything will be Revealed (or so I'm told) but I don't know How or When.

    What if one studied Psalms, Isaiah, and Romans to Jude (NIV) straight-through, over and over?? What if one rewrote Romans to Jude to completely integrate Psalms and Isaiah?? There were various options available to the New Testament writers. Why did they do what they did?? What if the New Testament 'Christians' had simply refined the Old Testament down to Psalms and Isaiah, making the main-thing the main-thing and pushing it hard as the way EVERYONE should think and live, with those two books applying to EVERYONE with no exclusivity whatsoever?? Four Old Testament Books stand-out regarding Legality and Prophecy: 1. Deuteronomy. 2. Psalms. 3. Isaiah. 4. Daniel. As always, I am NOT a scholar, prophet, or a son of a prophet, so don't follow me into the ditch. However, where is an extensive analysis and application of these four books during the Inter-Testament Period?? Does the New Testament properly deal with these four books??

    Dr. Graham Maxwell spoke of reading the Whole-Bible straight-through, over and over, in a variety of translations, to properly understand it. Dr. Desmond Ford has made similar statements, especially regarding the necessity of reading the Whole-Bible straight-through to properly understand the Book of Revelation. Both of these theologians have died, and my theological-problems only seem to worsen. I think we're losing the Bible-Battle, but I also think we're losing the Research-Battle. The Information-War might be Spiritual-Quicksand. All of Us might become Demon-Possessed Supercomputer-Linked Bio-Robotic Slaves of an Alien-Race (or something to that effect). Christianity as We Know It might've been our Last-Chance for Eschatological-Salvation (even if it's BS). We might've sat in church for decades without knowing what the hell is really going on in this crazy mixed-up world. Christianity might've made Pious-Zombies out of most of us, but still it might've led us to the Edge of Truth with most of us NOT taking advantage of the opportunity. We might presently be past the point of no-return regarding entering into a New Dark-Ages of Moral-Ambiguity and Artificial-Intelligence.

    SDA's have been accused of being an Ellen White Cult, and to a certain-extent this is probably true, but I'm not sure that most SDA's properly understand either the Bible or Ellen White. I suspect that most SDA's have been suffering a Great-Disappointment since the 1970's. Bad-News has followed Bad-News. I've suggested that a Finger in the Dike might be reading the 'NIV Reader's Bible' and the 'Conflict of the Ages Series' side-by-side (plus very-little else) to attempt to understand a Unique Historical-Perspective which might provide a Foundation for Bigger and Better Things, but this might still prove to be an unsatisfactory attempted-solution. We might be more screwed than we can imagine (and I'm referring to All of Humanity). Some of Us should probably read Deuteronomy, Psalms, Isaiah, and Daniel (straight-through, over and over) for a variety of reasons, but as always, don't expect this study to make you happy. This isn't about happy. This might be about SURVIVAL. This is roughly a 400 page study which is really quite difficult. This is approximately 20% of the Whole-Bible, but to understand the remaining 80% it might be necessary to get this 20% absolutely-correct prior to moving on.

    Regarding Deuteronomy, Psalms, Isaiah, and Daniel, think of the name 'Seventh-day Adventist' and imagine Deuteronomy having everything to do with 'Seventh-day' and Daniel having everything to do with 'Adventist'. Bear with me. Can one appeal to Deuteronomy and limit the 'Law' to the 'Ten-Commandments' without being under ALL of Deuteronomy?? Daniel apparently has everything to do with the 'End' but does the rest of the Bible have veto-power over Daniel regarding the 'End of the World'?? To complicate things, what does Psalms and Isaiah tell us about the 'Law in Deuteronomy' and the 'Eschatology in Daniel'?? I'm too sick, tired, discouraged, and disoriented to refine my thinking, but some of you should read between my pathetic-lines, and do your own research in this area.

    I just received my Five-Volumes in One-Book 'Conflict of the Ages Series' and everything is OK until one reaches the 'Great Controversy' which is really just the final-section of 'Early Writings'. It's interesting how things are always being 'messed-with'. But still, that final-section makes for interesting reading, but how in the hell is one to know how much of it is the real-deal and how much is total-bullshit?? Sorry for being so blunt, but the time might be past for hand-holding and beating around the burning-bush in the name of being receptive to the Holy-Spirit. I often detect blatant-lies when such an innocent-sounding approach is utilized. You might think I'm crazy for harping on all the above all the time, but I think it has everything to do with the general-theme of this website. And mind-you, I'm NOT trying to convert ANYONE. I'm simply attempting to make all of us think about 'roads less traveled in unlikely-contexts' to get at possible-truth. If you don't care and/or can't keep-up that's NOT my problem.

    Casting my pearls before the Jesuits and Intelligence-Agencies might be my primary purpose, and believe me, they know what I'm talking about, but my threads might really be for me alone. You might have to construct your own threads for you alone. What if there were a Bible consisting of Deuteronomy, Psalms, Isaiah, and Daniel (KJV) plus nothing?? The Book of Common Prayer has Psalms printed in its entirety (but no other Bible book). What if I self-published such a Four-Book Bible-Book?? If I did so, would I claim this to be the 'TRUTH'?? If one read such a book straight-through, over and over, what they thought about while doing so might constitute the 'TRUTH'!! Do you see my point?? Most atheists and heretics don't stray far from the Bible. The Bible might be both Theological-Milestone and Historical-Necessity. Unfortunately, I'm sensing that most of us are not capable of properly dealing with this. All of Us might be in the process of Crashing and Burning. Our Leaders might go down HARD, and those who replace them might go down even harder. This might be a bad time to be the BMOC.

    So, where do I go from here?? Is the Solar System working perfectly?? Was my life nothing more or less than a system-test?? Was this supposed to be a reunion?? Was this supposed to be a contest?? Was I supposed to make things better?? Was I supposed to crack-down?? Was I supposed to leave things alone?? Was I supposed to be loyal to the church I was born into?? Was I supposed to expose this church?? Was I supposed to reform this church?? Was I supposed to trust, obey, and pay my tithes and offerings?? Am I a threat to the way things are?? Are the way things are the way things are supposed to be?? Am I supposed to be responsibly-neutral?? Am I supposed to take-sides and make a great big deal about it?? Were my crazy threads the right or wrong thing to do?? Should I stop, drop, and roll a joint?? Should I take the show on the road?? Should I commit myself to the Bethesda Naval Hospital (if that's even possible)?? What Would James Forrestal Say?? Should I go mad at Madigan??

    If I've lived various incarnations throughout history, am I supposed to be loyal to whatever I said and did over the past several thousand years?? Should I attempt to live and promote the teachings of Peale and Schuller?? Should I become a bitter-apostate instead of merely poking, prodding, wondering, and wandering?? If I stop posting, never publish anything, and not talk in public, how will you know what I'm thinking and planning?? What if my threads have been deliberately misleading?? What if I turn out to be the 'Trickster'?? What if I've tricked even myself?? What if I'm an ancient-engineer and a modern-analyst?? What if humanity has rejected their last chance at reconciliation with ancient-relatives?? What if the eternal-fate of all-concerned is absolutely-determined and non-negotiable?? Does the silent-treatment mean I've walked into a nightmare-situation?? Talk to Me!!  

    Earth-Humanity is a more complex-problem than most anyone can imagine. The Jesuits probably don't even fully-grasp how ancient, nasty, and desperate this thing might be. As I keep repeating, I'm not preparing to do something. I'm preparing to do nothing, except die. What if I wrote a book, and saved enough money to retire, moving to the mountains and building a small observatory with a bunker-basement?? You know, 300 square-feet upstairs and 300 square-feet downstairs. 600 square-feet total. How about a 16 inch telescope upstairs and a personal-supercomputer downstairs?? Would that make me Crazy?? You should know by now that I joke around a lot, especially about myself. I try to be honest, but I try to spice things up a bit.






    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Epstein-pedophile-scandle
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Epstein-and-trump-at-mar-a-lago-750x516
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Trump-and-epstein
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 JeffreyEpsteinDonaldTrumpBillClintonSexOffenderBearStearnsChildMolestation
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Clinton-epstein
    Carol wrote:Oxy, Epstein take down is orchestrated by the President's military team. No worry. Trumps mission is to expose the pedophiles, end the human sex slave trafficking and clean out the swamp in DC. His team is orchestrating how this is to be done and so far doing a good job when it comes to arresting pedophiles and rescuing kidnapped children sold into the Satanic sex slave industry.

    These 2 videos take a devoted amount of time and mental gymnastics to get all the codes and what has been hidden from us for so long. If you didn't catch part one of this chemtrail related expose, please first go to:



    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1NTuKKants
    The Spell Against America Is Broken


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAlqbqKgmCg
    #SerialBrain2 - Winning: Trump now controls the chemtrails! (Pt.2) 47.32

    "This one takes a bit of getting through, but the outcome is quite amazing. So, we have been dealing with nephilim all this time! Well, watch as the chemtrails (how about Q Trails) now cleanse the air and water. Are they also protecting us from 5D as has been stated many times. This is a metaphysical battle, on top of all else. We must choose the level of our belief!!"

    I also came across this video. I can only imagine what is the contents of the DVDs that fill the safe they confiscated out of his home in Manhattan this weekend it is also well worth watching.



    Then Mr Schumer is entangled.

    https://nypost.com/2019/07/10/schumer-got-thousands-in-donations-from-jeffrey-epstein/

    Acosta says he was told Jeffrey Epstein beonged to the Intelligence agencies and to leave the deal he made with prosecutors alone.

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/49355/acosta-was-told-epstein-belonged-intelligence-ryan-saavedra

    This article in the UK Daily Mail gives the full lowdown of Jeffrey Epstein

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3688656/A-fully-equipped-dentist-s-chair-close-photos-young-girls-backsides-eerie-images-videotaped-walk-billionaire-pedophile-Jeffrey-Epstein-s-Florida-mansion.html

    Pedophile Island New Yorker Magazine Article.

    http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/07/everything-we-know-about-jeffrey-epsteins-private-islands.html

    REPORT: Trump Plotted Clinton-Epstein Takedown For Years, Knew About Clinton ISLAND PHOTOS
    Jul 13, 2019
    By Patrick Howley


    "President Donald Trump plotted his takedown of accused child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s elite inner circle during the 2016 election, convening a meeting with then-National Enquirer owner David Pecker prior to Trump’s comment at CPAC 2015 about how Bill Clinton has a Jeffrey Epstein problem.

    (article continues)

    .....Pecker, he later told me, used to send him articles and issues before they were published so that he and Trump could read them. After the meeting Trump called in Sam Nunberg, then a Trump Organization employee, who saw Pecker leaving Trump’s office. “Michael was sitting in there when I came in, and the issue of the National Enquirer with the pictures of Prince Andrew was on his desk,” Nunberg recalled. “He said not to tell anyone, but that Pecker had just been there and had brought the issue with him. Trump said that Pecker had told him that the pictures of Clinton that Epstein had from his island were worse.'”

    Documents released by the FBI pertaining to Clinton-connected pedophile Jeffrey Epstein show that the known child predator had a professional relationship with then-FBI Director Robert S. Mueller.

    “Epstein has also provided information to the FBI as agreed upon,” says one of the court documents. “Case agent advised that no federal prosecution will occur in this matter as long as Epstein continues to uphold his agreement with the state of Florida."


    orthodoxymoron wrote:Carol, I keep thinking in terms of a Sun-God Parent-Faction with Moon-God Subservient-Factions. Draining the Swamp might involve a couple of Subservient-Factions fighting for power (sort of similar to 'Crips v Bloods'). I also keep thinking about the movie 'JFK' in general, and the David Ferrie rant in particular, regarding how things work (past, present, and future). Decades ago, I asked "Do We Need to Go to Hell to Get to Heaven??" I've been speculating that we live in 'Purgatory Incorporated' which might involve the Illusion of Freedom with Hidden-Rulers. Transitioning to 'Heaven Incorporated' might involve Total-Disclosure, Open-Rulership, and Absolute-Obedience (which the General-Public would almost certainly rebel against with extreme-prejudice, resulting in 'Hell Incorporated'). So really, the Road to Utopia might be a Primrose Path of Purgatory > Hell > Heaven, but when people got tired of following orders, the process might start-over. This might constitute an 'Endless-Loop' for All-Eternity. An Individual of Interest told me "Things Continue to Worsen" and "We Need to Start Over". Both Believers and Unbelievers might be horribly-disillusioned. The Horror.
    Carol wrote:"Epstein himself DID NOT come into federal jurisdiction! His plane did. Port Authority boarded his plane and arrested him. Epstein never touched foot on US soil before the arrest. Epstein's plane has the warrant on it! That is why he is willing to put it up as collateral for bail along with his 77 mil NY location (also under seizure related to Trump EO). His lawyers are forcing the jurisdiction subject while knowing he won't get bail.

    The lawyer's filing document for bail is not about getting him bail. They are attempting to put the Judge in a box. The Judge kicked the can down the road because he doesn't want to rule on bail.  That is why he raised the 3 day rule for the defendant and sent it to another Judge to hear later.

    FOLKS! We have our first Military tribunal about to happen! This case is outside of the civil court system."


    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 16218642-7261253-image-a-23_1563469570194

    Jeffrey Epstein denied bail and ordered back to prison ahead of sex trafficking trial after LYING about his passport and wealth, with new records showing his hidden millions offshore

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7261253/Jeffrey-Epstein-bail-hearing-Pedophile-likely-remain-prison-ahead-sex-trafficking-trial.html

    "It's Going To Be Staggering": Epstein Associates Prepare For Worst As Massive Document Dump Imminent
    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-07-17/its-going-be-staggering-epstein-associates-prepare-worst-massive-document-dump

    Leaked screenshots of letter the cabal sent a newspaper threatening to sue if they don't cover-up Epstein's associates. (QRV)
    https://voat.co/v/QRV/3340155?fbclid=IwAR23YxFQuzLoqnf5lVDAWHWksjA89B5LPPsY9qmyO73MVRx3ghok48EqcpU

    Just pulled this off the site.

    "Daily Mail defends story linking Israel’s Barak to Epstein Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper defends its decision to publish photos of former prime minister Ehud Barak entering the mansion of disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2016. Barak’s lawyers wrote to the Daily Mail on Wednesday demanding that it retract Tuesday’s story and pay “substantial damages to vindicate his reputation and compensate him.” Screenshot of Daily Mail website showing article relating to Ehud Barak, July 16, 2019 But the Mail says it “stands by its recent story concerning Ehud Barak’s relationship with the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein 100 percent… We note that Mr Barak’s assertion that he was not party to Mr Epstein’s illegal activities is a denial of a claim we have never made.”

    This guy is no small fish. He's former prime minister of Israel, Ehud Barak.

    The crazy thing is that he's suing for BLOOD LIBEL!

    The is how Wikipedia defines blood libel.

    Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canard accusing Jews of murdering Christian children in order to use their blood as part of religious rituals.

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 956ceee75a2ad585a007e14e677537aa9e6957840cd79d338810324913de9214

    Q #3446

    !!mG7VJxZNCI 18 Jul 2019 - 1:09:18 PM

    https://cdn.qmap.pub/images/956ceee75a2ad585a007e14e677537aa9e6957840cd79d338810324913de9214.jpg

    Symbolism will be their downfall.

    Q

    "FIND OUT THE PEOPLE THAT WENT TO THAT ISLAND." - POTUS https://voat.co/v/QRV/3330307/19701651 This might be that "Oh, SHXT" moment.
    orthodoxymoron wrote:Once again, I'm attempting 'Responsible Neutrality', so everyone is sort of friend and enemy simultaneously, especially regarding esoteric topics. I don't know what to think about Jeffrey Daugherty and Robert Stanley, but I think they've done their homework. They know dozens of times more than I do. We seem to wish to follow leaders and jump on bandwagons. I continue to suspect that the Real PTB control ALL Sides (good and bad). I've even been hesitant to jump on the Donald Trump bandwagon, even though I try to be idealistic regarding the Best of America. I try to see things from all perspectives without circling the wagons. I 'enjoy' wallowing in a lot of difficult material, which is quite incapacitating. Also, all the above makes me unpopular with everyone, but I'm not trying to win any popularity contests.

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Js-personal-supercomputer



    Last edited by orthodoxymoron on Sat Oct 26, 2019 6:29 pm; edited 23 times in total
    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


    Posts : 13631
    Join date : 2010-09-28
    Location : The Matrix

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Empty Re: United States AI Solar System (9)

    Post  orthodoxymoron Mon Jul 15, 2019 10:59 pm

    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 367208main_road2apollo-22b_full


    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 1moon

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11 Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin, both American, landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC. Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface six hours later on July 21 at 02:56:15 UTC; Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later. They spent about two and a quarter hours together outside the spacecraft, and collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material to bring back to Earth. Command module pilot Michael Collins flew the command module Columbia alone in lunar orbit while they were on the Moon's surface. Armstrong and Aldrin spent 21.5 hours on the lunar surface at a site they named Tranquility Base before rejoining Columbia in lunar orbit.

    Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, on July 16 at 13:32 UTC, and was the fifth crewed mission of NASA's Apollo program. The Apollo spacecraft had three parts: a command module (CM) with a cabin for the three astronauts, and the only part that returned to Earth; a service module (SM), which supported the command module with propulsion, electrical power, oxygen, and water; and a lunar module (LM) that had two stages – a descent stage for landing on the Moon, and an ascent stage to place the astronauts back into lunar orbit.

    After being sent to the Moon by the Saturn V's third stage, the astronauts separated the spacecraft from it and traveled for three days until they entered lunar orbit. Armstrong and Aldrin then moved into Eagle and landed in the Sea of Tranquility. The astronauts used Eagle's ascent stage to lift off from the lunar surface and rejoin Collins in the command module. They jettisoned Eagle before they performed the maneuvers that propelled the ship out of the last of its 30 lunar orbits on a trajectory back to Earth.[4] They returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24 after more than eight days in space.

    Armstrong's first step onto the lunar surface was broadcast on live TV to a worldwide audience. He described the event as "one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."[8][9] Apollo 11 effectively ended the Space Race and fulfilled a national goal proposed in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy: "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."[10]

    In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United States was engaged in the Cold War, a geopolitical rivalry with the Soviet Union.[11] On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. This surprise success fired fears and imaginations around the world. It demonstrated that the Soviet Union had the capability to deliver nuclear weapons over intercontinental distances, and challenged American claims of military, economic and technological superiority.[12] This precipitated the Sputnik crisis, and triggered the Space Race.[13] President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded to the Sputnik challenge by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and initiating Project Mercury,[14] which aimed to launch a man into Earth orbit.[15] But on April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space, and the first to orbit the Earth.[16] It was another body blow to American pride.[17] In spite of that, the Apollo program faced the opposition of many Americans and was dubbed "moondoggle".[18][19] Nearly a month later, on May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, completing a 15-minute suborbital journey. After being recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, he received a congratulatory telephone call from Eisenhower's successor, John F. Kennedy.[20]

    Kennedy believed it was in the national interest of the United States to be superior to other nations, and that the perception of American power was at least as important as the actuality. It was therefore intolerable that the Soviet Union was more advanced in the field of space exploration. He was determined that the United States should compete, and sought a challenge that maximized its chances of winning.[11] Since the Soviet Union had better booster rockets, he required a challenge that was beyond the capacity of the existing generation of rocketry, one where the US and Soviet Union would be starting from a position of equality. Something spectacular, even if it could not be justified on military, economic or scientific grounds. After consulting with his experts and advisors, he chose such a project.[21] On May 25, 1961, he addressed the United States Congress on "Urgent National Needs" and declared:

    I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations – explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the Moon – if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there. — Kennedy's speech to the congress[22]

    The effort to land a man on the Moon already had a name: Project Apollo.[23] An early and crucial decision was choosing lunar orbit rendezvous over both direct ascent and Earth orbit rendezvous. A space rendezvous is an orbital maneuver in which two spacecraft navigate through space and meet up. In July 1962 NASA head James Webb announced that lunar orbit rendezvous would be used[24][25] and that the Apollo spacecraft would have three major parts: a command module (CM) with a cabin for the three astronauts, and the only part that returned to Earth; a service module (SM), which supported the command module with propulsion, electrical power, oxygen, and water; and a lunar module (LM) that had two stages – a descent stage for landing on the Moon, and an ascent stage to place the astronauts back into lunar orbit.[26] This design meant that the spacecraft could be launched by a single Saturn V rocket that was then under development.[27]

    Technologies and technics required for Apollo were developed by Project Gemini.[28] Project Apollo was abruptly halted by the Apollo 1 fire on January 27, 1967, in which astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger B. Chaffee died, and the subsequent investigation.[29] In October 1968, Apollo 7 evaluated the command module in Earth orbit,[30] and in December Apollo 8 tested it in lunar orbit.[31] In March 1969, Apollo 9 put the lunar module through its paces in Earth orbit,[32] and in May Apollo 10 conducted a "dress rehearsal" in lunar orbit. By July 1969, all was in readiness for Apollo 11 to take the final step onto the Moon.[33]

    The Soviet Union competed with the US in the Space Race, but its early lead was lost through repeated failures in development of the N1 launcher, which was comparable to the Saturn V.[34] The Soviets tried to beat the US to return lunar material to the Earth by means of uncrewed probes. On July 13, three days before Apollo 11's launch, the Soviet Union launched Luna 15, which reached lunar orbit before Apollo 11. During descent, a malfunction caused Luna 15 to crash in Mare Crisium about two hours before Armstrong and Aldrin took off from the Moon's surface to begin their voyage home. The Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories radio telescope in England recorded transmissions from Luna 15 during its descent, and these were released in July 2009 for the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11.[35]

    The initial crew assignment of Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot (CMP) Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Buzz Aldrin on the backup crew for Apollo 9 was officially announced on November 20, 1967.[36] Lovell and Aldrin had previously flown together as the crew of Gemini 12. Due to design and manufacturing delays in the LM, Apollo 8 and Apollo 9 swapped prime and backup crews, and Armstrong's crew became the backup for Apollo 8. Based on the normal crew rotation scheme, Armstrong was then expected to command Apollo 11.[37]

    There would be one change. Michael Collins, the CMP on the Apollo 8 crew, began experiencing trouble with his legs. Doctors diagnosed the problem as a bony growth between his fifth and sixth vertebrae, requiring surgery.[38] Lovell took his place on the Apollo 8 crew, and when Collins recovered he joined Armstrong's crew as CMP. In the meantime, Fred Haise filled in as backup LMP, and Aldrin as backup CMP for Apollo 8.[39] Apollo 11 was the second American mission where all the crewmembers had prior spaceflight experience,[40] the first being Apollo 10.[41] The next was STS-26 in 1988.[40]

    Deke Slayton gave Armstrong the option to replace Aldrin with Lovell, since some thought Aldrin was difficult to work with. Armstrong had no issues working with Aldrin, but thought it over for a day before declining. He thought Lovell deserved to command his own mission (eventually Apollo 13).[42]

    The Apollo 11 prime crew had none of the close cheerful camaraderie that characterized that of Apollo 12. Instead they forged an amiable working relationship. Armstrong in particular was notoriously aloof, but Collins, who considered himself a loner, confessed to rebuffing Aldrin's attempts to create a more personal relationship.[43] Aldrin and Collins described the crew as "amiable strangers".[44] Armstrong did not agree with the assessment, and said "...all the crews I was on worked very well together."[44]

    The backup crew consisted of Lovell as Commander, William Anders as CMP, and Haise as LMP. Anders had flown with Lovell on Apollo 8.[40] In early 1969, he accepted a job with the National Aeronautics and Space Council effective August 1969, and announced that he would retire as an astronaut at that time. Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup CMP in case Apollo 11 was delayed past its intended July launch date, at which point Anders would be unavailable. Lovell, Haise, and Mattingly were later assigned as the prime crew of Apollo 13.[45]

    During Projects Mercury and Gemini, each mission had a prime and a backup crew. For Apollo, a third crew of astronauts was added, known as the support crew. The support crew maintained the flight plan, checklists and mission ground rules, and ensured that the prime and backup crews were apprised of changes. They developed procedures, especially those for emergency situations, so these were ready for when the prime and backup crews came to train in the simulators, allowing them to concentrate on practicing and mastering them.[46] For Apollo 11, the support crew consisted of Ken Mattingly, Ronald Evans and Bill Pogue.[47]

    The capsule communicator (CAPCOM) was an astronaut at the Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, who was the only person who communicated directly with the flight crew.[48] For Apollo 11, the CAPCOMs were: Charles Duke, Ronald Evans, Bruce McCandless II, James Lovell, William Anders, Ken Mattingly, Fred Haise, Don L. Lind, Owen K. Garriott and Harrison Schmitt.[47]

    The Apollo 11 mission emblem was designed by Collins, who wanted a symbol for "peaceful lunar landing by the United States". At Lovell's suggestion, he chose the bald eagle, the national bird of the United States, as the symbol. Tom Wilson, a simulator instructor, suggested that they put an olive branch in its beak to represent their peaceful mission. Collins added a lunar background with the Earth in the distance. The sunlight in the image was coming from the wrong direction; the shadow should have been in the lower part of the Earth instead of the left. Aldrin, Armstrong and Collins decided that the Eagle and the Moon would be in their natural colours, and decided on a blue and gold border. Armstrong was concerned that "eleven" would not be understood by non-English speakers, so they went with "Apollo 11",[55] and they decided not to put their names on the patch, so it would "be representative of everyone who had worked toward a lunar landing".[56]

    An illustrator at the MSC did the artwork, which was then sent off to NASA officials for approval.[55] The design was rejected. Bob Gilruth, the director of the MSC felt that the talons of the eagle looked "too warlike".[57] After some discussion, the olive branch was moved to the talons.[57] When the Eisenhower dollar coin was released in 1971, the patch design provided the eagle for its reverse side.[58] The design was also used for the smaller Susan B. Anthony dollar unveiled in 1979.[59]

    After the crew of Apollo 10 named their spacecraft Charlie Brown and Snoopy, assistant manager for public affairs Julian Scheer wrote to George M. Low, the Manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), to suggest the Apollo 11 crew be less flippant in naming their craft. The name Snowcone was used for the CM and Haystack was used for the LM in both internal and external communications during early mission planning.[60]

    The LM was named Eagle after the motif which was featured prominently on the mission insignia. At Scheer's suggestion, the CM was named Columbia after Columbiad, the giant cannon that launched a spacecraft (also from Florida) in Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon. It also referenced Columbia, a historical name of the United States. [61][62] In Collins' 1976 book, he said Columbia was in reference to Christopher Columbus.[63]

    The astronauts had personal preference kits (PPKs), small bags containing personal items of significance that they wanted to take with them on the mission.[64] Five 0.5-pound (0.23 kg) PPKs were carried on Apollo 11: three (one for each astronaut) were stowed on Columbia before launch, and two on Eagle.[65]

    Neil Armstrong's LM PPK contained a piece of wood from the Wright brothers' 1903 Wright Flyer's left propeller and a piece of fabric from its wing,[66] along with a diamond-studded astronaut pin originally given to Slayton by the widows of the Apollo 1 crew. This pin had been intended to be flown on that mission and given to Slayton afterwards, but following the disastrous launch pad fire and subsequent funerals, the widows gave the pin to Slayton. Armstrong took it with him on Apollo 11.[67]

    NASA's Apollo Site Selection Board announced five potential landing sites on February 8, 1968. These were the result of two years' worth of studies based on high-resolution photography of the lunar surface by the five uncrewed probes of the Lunar Orbiter program and information about surface conditions provided by the Surveyor program.[68] The best Earth-bound telescopes could not resolve features with the resolution Project Apollo required.[69] The landing site had to be close to the lunar equator to minimize the amount of propellant required, clear of obstacles to minimize maneuvering, and flat to simplify the task of the landing radar. Scientific value was not a consideration.[70]

    Areas that appeared promising on photographs taken on Earth were often found to be totally unacceptable. The original requirement that the site be free of craters had to be relaxed, as no such site was found.[71] Five sites were considered: Sites 1 and 2 were in the Sea of Tranquility (Mare Tranquilitatis); Site 3 was in the Central Bay (Sinus Medii); and Sites 4 and 5 were in the Ocean of Storms (Oceanus Procellarum).[68] The final site selection was based on seven criteria:

    The site needed to be smooth, with relatively few craters;

    with approach paths free of large hills, tall cliffs or deep craters that might confuse the landing radar and cause it to issue incorrect readings;

    reachable with a minimum amount of propellant;

    allowing for delays in the launch countdown;

    providing the Apollo spacecraft with a free-return trajectory, one that would allow it to coast around the Moon and safely return to Earth without requiring any engine firings should a problem arise on the way to the Moon;

    with good visibility during the landing approach, meaning that the Sun would be between 7 and 20 degrees behind the LM; and a general slope of less than 2 degrees in the landing area.[68]

    The requirement for the Sun angle was particularly restrictive, limiting the launch date to one day per month.[68] A landing just after dawn was chosen to limit the temperature extremes the astronauts would experience.[72] The Apollo Site Selection Board selected Site 2, with Sites 3 and 5 as backups in the event of the launch being delayed. In May 1969, Apollo 10's lunar module flew to within 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) of Site 2, and reported that it was acceptable.[73][74]

    During the first press conference after the Apollo 11 crew was announced, the first question was, "Which one of you gentlemen will be the first man to step onto the lunar surface?"[75][76] Slayton told the reporter that it had not been decided, and Armstrong added that it was "not based on individual desire".[75]

    One of the first versions of the egress checklist had the lunar module pilot exit the spacecraft before the command module pilot, which matched what had been done in previous missions.[77] The commander had never performed the spacewalk.[78] Reporters wrote in early 1969 that Aldrin would be the first to walk on the Moon, and Associate Administrator George Mueller told reporters he would be the first as well. Aldrin heard that Armstrong would be the first to step on the Moon because Armstrong was a civilian, which made Aldrin livid. Aldrin attempted to persuade other lunar module pilots he should be first, but they responded cynically about what they perceived as a lobbying campaign. Attempting to stem interdepartmental conflict, Slayton told Aldrin that Armstrong would be first since he was the commander. The decision was announced in a press conference on April 14, 1969.[79]

    For decades, Aldrin believed the final decision was largely driven by the lunar module's hatch location. Because the astronauts had their spacesuits on and the spacecraft was so small, maneuvering to exit the spacecraft was difficult. The crew tried a simulation in which Aldrin left the spacecraft first, but he damaged the simulator while attempting to egress. While this was enough for mission planners to make their decision, Aldrin and Armstrong were left in the dark on the decision until late spring.[80] Slayton told Armstrong the plan was to have him leave the spacecraft first, if he agreed. Armstrong said, "Yes, that’s the way to do it."[81]

    The media accused Armstrong of exercising his commander's prerogative to exit the spacecraft first.[82] Chris Kraft revealed in his 2001 autobiography that a meeting occurred between Gilruth, Slayton, Low, and himself to make sure Aldrin would not be the first to walk on the Moon. They argued that the first person to walk on the Moon should be like Charles Lindbergh, a calm and quiet person. They made the decision to change the flight plan so the commander was the first to egress from the spacecraft.[83]

    The ascent stage of lunar module LM-5 arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on January 8, 1969, followed by the descent stage four days later, and Command and Service Module CM-107 on January 23.[1] There were several differences between LM-5 and Apollo 10's LM-4; LM-5 had a VHF radio antenna to facilitate communication with the astronauts during their EVA on the lunar surface; a lighter ascent engine; more thermal protection on the landing gear; and a package of scientific experiments known as the Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package (EASEP). The only change in the configuration of the command module was the removal of some insulation from the forward hatch.[84][85] The command and service modules were mated on January 29, and moved from the Operations and Checkout Building to the Vehicle Assembly Building on April 14.[1]

    The S-IVB third stage of Saturn V AS-506 had arrived on January 18, followed by the S-II second stage on February 6, S-IC first stage on February 20, and the Saturn V Instrument Unit on February 27. At 1230 on May 20, the 5,443-tonne (5,357-long-ton; 6,000-short-ton) assembly departed the Vehicle Assembly Building atop the crawler-transporter, bound for Launch Pad 39A, part of Launch Complex 39, while Apollo 10 was still on its way to the Moon. A countdown test commenced on June 26, and concluded on July 2. The launch complex was floodlit on the night of July 15, when the crawler-transporter carried the mobile service structure back to its parking area.[1] In the early hours of the morning, the fuel tanks of the S-II and S-IVB stages were filled with liquid hydrogen.[86] Fueling was completed by three hours before launch.[87] Launch operations were partly automated, with 43 programs written in the ATOLL programming language.[88]

    Slayton roused the crew shortly after 0400, and they showered, shaved, and had the traditional pre-flight breakfast of steak and eggs with Slayton and the backup crew. They then donned their space suits and began breathing pure oxygen. At 0630, they headed out to Launch Complex 39.[89] Haise entered Columbia about three hours and ten minutes before launch time. Along with a technician, he helped Armstrong into the left hand couch at 06:54. Five minutes later, Collins joined him, taking up his position on the right hand couch. Finally, Aldrin entered, taking the center couch.[87] Haise left around two hours and ten minutes before launch.[90] The closeout crew sealed the hatch, and the cabin was purged and pressurized. The closeout crew then left the launch complex about an hour before launch time. The countdown became automated at three minutes and twenty seconds before launch time.[87] Over 450 personnel were at the consoles in the firing room.[86]

    The Apollo 11 Saturn V space vehicle lifts off with Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. at 9:32 a.m. EDT July 16, 1969, from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A.

    An estimated one million spectators watched the launch of Apollo 11 from the highways and beaches in the vicinity of the launch site. Dignitaries included the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General William Westmoreland, four cabinet members, 19 state governors, 40 mayors, 60 ambassadors and 200 congressmen. Vice President Spiro Agnew viewed the launch with the former president, Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife Lady Bird Johnson.[86][91] Around 3,500 media representatives were present.[92] About two-thirds were from the United States; the rest came from 55 other countries. The launch was televised live in 33 countries, with an estimated 25 million viewers in the United States alone. Millions more around the world listened to radio broadcasts.[91][86] President Richard Nixon viewed the launch from his office in the White House with his NASA liaison officer, Apollo astronaut Frank Borman.[93]

    Saturn V AS-506 launched Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969, at 13:32:00 UTC (9:32:00 EDT).[1] At 13.2 seconds into the flight, the launch vehicle began to roll into its flight azimuth of 72.058°. Full shutdown of the first-stage engines occurred about 2 minutes and 42 seconds into the mission, followed by separation of the S-IC and ignition of the S-II engines. The second stage engines then cut-off and separated at about 9 minutes and 8 seconds, allowing the first ignition of the S-IVB engine a few seconds later.[3]

    Apollo 11 entered Earth orbit at an altitude of 100.4 nautical miles (185.9 km) by 98.9 nautical miles (183.2 km), twelve minutes into its flight. After one and a half orbits, a second ignition of the S-IVB engine pushed the spacecraft onto its trajectory toward the Moon with the trans-lunar injection (TLI) burn at 16:22:13 UTC. About 30 minutes later, with Collins in the left seat and at the controls, the transposition, docking, and extraction maneuver was performed. This involved separating Columbia from the spent S-IVB stage, turning around, and docking with Eagle still attached to the stage. After the LM was extracted, the combined spacecraft headed for the Moon, while the rocket stage flew on a trajectory past the Moon.[94][3] This was done to avoid the third stage colliding with the spacecraft, the Earth, or the Moon. A slingshot effect from passing around the Moon threw it into an orbit around the Sun.[95]

    On July 19 at 17:21:50 UTC, Apollo 11 passed behind the Moon and fired its service propulsion engine to enter lunar orbit.[3][96] In the thirty orbits that followed, the crew saw passing views of their landing site in the southern Sea of Tranquility about 12 miles (19 km) southwest of the crater Sabine D. The site was selected in part because it had been characterized as relatively flat and smooth by the automated Ranger 8 and Surveyor 5 landers and the Lunar Orbiter mapping spacecraft and unlikely to present major landing or EVA challenges.[97] It lay about 25 kilometers (16 mi) southeast of the Surveyor 5 landing site, and 68 kilometers (42 mi) southwest of Ranger 8's crash site.[98]

    At 12:52:00 UTC on July 20, Aldrin and Armstrong entered Eagle, and began the final preparations for lunar descent.[3] At 17:44:00 Eagle separated from Columbia.[7] Collins, alone aboard Columbia, inspected Eagle as it pirouetted before him to ensure the craft was not damaged, and that the landing gear was correctly deployed.[99][100] Armstrong exclaimed: "The Eagle has wings!"[100]

    As the descent began, Armstrong and Aldrin found that they were passing landmarks on the surface two or three seconds early, and reported that they were "long"; they would land miles west of their target point. Eagle was traveling too fast. The problem could have been mascons – concentrations of high mass that could have altered the trajectory. Flight Director Gene Kranz speculated that it could have resulted from extra air pressure in the docking tunnel. Or it could have been the result of Eagle's pirouette maneuver.[101][102]

    Five minutes into the descent burn, and 6,000 feet (1,800 m) above the surface of the Moon, the LM guidance computer (LGC) distracted the crew with the first of several unexpected 1201 and 1202 program alarms. Inside Mission Control Center, computer engineer Jack Garman told Guidance Officer Steve Bales it was safe to continue the descent, and this was relayed to the crew. The program alarms indicated "executive overflows", meaning the guidance computer could not complete all its tasks in real time and had to postpone some of them.[103][104] Margaret Hamilton, the Director of Apollo Flight Computer Programming at the MIT Charles Stark Draper Laboratory later recalled:

    To blame the computer for the Apollo 11 problems is like blaming the person who spots a fire and calls the fire department. Actually, the computer was programmed to do more than recognize error conditions. A complete set of recovery programs was incorporated into the software. The software's action, in this case, was to eliminate lower priority tasks and re-establish the more important ones. The computer, rather than almost forcing an abort, prevented an abort. If the computer hadn't recognized this problem and taken recovery action, I doubt if Apollo 11 would have been the successful Moon landing it was.[105]

    During the mission, the cause was diagnosed as the rendezvous radar switch being in the wrong position, causing the computer to process data from both the rendezvous and landing radars at the same time.[106][107] Software engineer Don Eyles concluded in a 2005 Guidance and Control Conference paper that the problem was due to a hardware design bug previously seen during testing of the first uncrewed LM in Apollo 5. Having the rendezvous radar on (so that it was warmed up in case of an emergency landing abort) should have been irrelevant to the computer, but an electrical phasing mismatch between two parts of the rendezvous radar system could cause the stationary antenna to appear to the computer as dithering back and forth between two positions, depending upon how the hardware randomly powered up. The extra spurious cycle stealing, as the rendezvous radar updated an involuntary counter, caused the computer alarms.[108]

    When Armstrong again looked outside, he saw that the computer's landing target was in a boulder-strewn area just north and east of a 300-foot (91 m) diameter crater (later determined to be West crater), so he took semi-automatic control.[109][110] Armstrong considered landing short of the boulder field so they could collect geological samples from it, but could not since their horizontal velocity was too fast. Throughout the descent, Aldrin called out navigation data to Armstrong, who was busy piloting Eagle. Now 107 feet (33 m) above the surface, Armstrong knew their propellant supply was dwindling and was determined to land at the first possible landing site.[111]

    Armstrong found a clear patch of ground and maneuvered the spacecraft towards it. As he got closer, now 250 feet (76 m) above the surface, he discovered his new landing site had a crater in it. He cleared the crater and found another patch of level ground. They were now 100 feet (30 m) from the surface, with only 90 seconds of propellant remaining. Lunar dust kicked up by the LM's engine began to obfuscate his ability to determine the spacecraft's motion. Some large rocks jutted out of the dust cloud, and Armstrong focused on them during his descent so he could determine the spacecraft's speed.[112]

    A few moments before the landing, a light informed Aldrin that at least one of the 67-inch (170 cm) probes hanging from Eagle's footpads had touched the surface, and he said: "Contact light!" Armstrong was supposed to immediately shut the engine down, as the engineers suspected the pressure caused by the engine's own exhaust reflecting off the lunar surface could make it explode, but he forgot. Three seconds later, Eagle landed and Armstrong shut the engine down.[113] Aldrin immediately said "Okay, engine stop. ACA – out of detent." Armstrong acknowledged: "Out of detent. Auto." Aldrin continued: "Mode control – both auto. Descent engine command override off. Engine arm – off. 413 is in."[114]

    ACA was the attitude control assembly, the LM's control stick. Output went to the LGC to command the reaction control system (RCS) jets to fire. "Out of Detent" meant that the stick had moved away from its centered position; it was spring-centered like the turn indicator in a car. LGC address 413 contained the variable that indicated the LM had landed.[5]

    Eagle landed at 20:17:40 UTC on Sunday July 20 with 216 pounds (98 kg) of usable fuel remaining. Information available to the crew and mission controllers during the landing showed that the LM had enough fuel for another 25 seconds of powered flight before an abort without touchdown would have become unsafe,[5][115] but post-mission analysis showed that the real figure was probably closer to 50 seconds.[116] Apollo 11 landed with less fuel than most subsequent missions, and the astronauts encountered a premature low fuel warning. This was later found to be the result of greater propellant 'slosh' than expected, uncovering a fuel sensor. On subsequent missions, extra anti-slosh baffles were added to the tanks to prevent this.[5]

    Armstrong acknowledged Aldrin's completion of the post landing checklist with "Engine arm is off", before responding to the CAPCOM, Charles Duke, with the words, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Armstrong's unrehearsed change of call sign from "Eagle" to "Tranquility Base" emphasized to listeners that landing was complete and successful.[117] Duke mispronounced his reply as he expressed the relief at Mission Control: "Roger, Twan– Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot."[5][118]

    Two and a half hours after landing, before preparations began for the EVA, Aldrin radioed to Earth:

    This is the LM pilot. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way.[119]

    He then took communion privately. At this time NASA was still fighting a lawsuit brought by atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair (who had objected to the Apollo 8 crew reading from the Book of Genesis) demanding that their astronauts refrain from broadcasting religious activities while in space. As such, Aldrin chose to refrain from directly mentioning taking communion on the Moon. Aldrin was an elder at the Webster Presbyterian Church, and his communion kit was prepared by the pastor of the church, Dean Woodruff. Webster Presbyterian possesses the chalice used on the Moon and commemorates the event each year on the Sunday closest to July 20.[120] The schedule for the mission called for the astronauts to follow the landing with a five-hour sleep period, but they chose to begin the preparations for the EVA early, thinking that they would be unable to sleep.[121]

    Preparations for the EVA began at 23:43.[7] These took longer than expected; three and a half hours instead of two.[122] During training on Earth, everything required had been neatly laid out in advance, but on the Moon the cabin contained a large number of other items as well, such as checklists, food packets and tools.[123] Once Armstrong and Aldrin were ready to go outside, Eagle was depressurized.[124] The hatch was opened at 02:39:33.[7] Armstrong initially had some difficulties squeezing through the hatch with his portable life support system (PLSS).[122] Some of the highest heart rates recorded from Apollo astronauts occurred during LM egress and ingress.[125] At 02:51 Armstrong began his descent to the lunar surface. The remote control unit controls on his chest kept him from seeing his feet. Climbing down the nine-rung ladder, Armstrong pulled a D-ring to deploy the modular equipment stowage assembly (MESA) folded against Eagle's side and activate the TV camera.[126][9]

    Apollo 11 used slow-scan television (TV) incompatible with broadcast TV, so it was displayed on a special monitor and a conventional TV camera viewed this monitor, significantly reducing the quality of the picture.[127] The signal was received at Goldstone in the United States, but with better fidelity by Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station near Canberra in Australia. Minutes later the feed was switched to the more sensitive Parkes radio telescope in Australia.[128] Despite some technical and weather difficulties, ghostly black and white images of the first lunar EVA were received and broadcast to at least 600 million people on Earth.[128] Copies of this video in broadcast format were saved and are widely available, but recordings of the original slow scan source transmission from the lunar surface were likely destroyed during routine magnetic tape re-use at NASA.[127]

    While still on the ladder, Armstrong uncovered a plaque mounted on the LM descent stage bearing two drawings of Earth (of the Western and Eastern Hemispheres), an inscription, and signatures of the astronauts and President Nixon. The inscription read:

    Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.[9]

    At the behest of the Nixon administration to add a reference to God, NASA "shrewdly" included the vague date as a reason to include A.D., which stands for "in the year of our Lord".[129][130]

    After describing the surface dust as "very fine-grained" and "almost like a powder",[9] at 02:56:15, six and a half hours after landing, Armstrong stepped off Eagle's footpad and declared: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."[8][131][132]

    Armstrong intended to say "That's one small step for a man", but the word "a" is not audible in the transmission, and thus was not initially reported by most observers of the live broadcast. When later asked about his quote, Armstrong said he believed he said "for a man", and subsequent printed versions of the quote included the "a" in square brackets. One explanation for the absence may be that his accent caused him to slur the words "for a" together; another is the intermittent nature of the audio and video links to Earth, partly because of storms near Parkes Observatory. More recent digital analysis of the tape claims to reveal the "a" may have been spoken but obscured by static.[133][134][135]

    About seven minutes after stepping onto the Moon's surface, Armstrong collected a contingency soil sample using a sample bag on a stick. He then folded the bag and tucked it into a pocket on his right thigh. This was to guarantee there would be some lunar soil brought back in case an emergency required the astronauts to abandon the EVA and return to the LM.[136] Twelve minutes after the sample was collected,[131] he removed the TV camera from the MESA and made a panoramic sweep, then mounted it on a tripod.[122] The TV camera cable remained partly coiled and presented a tripping hazard throughout the EVA. Still photography was accomplished with a Hasselblad camera which could be operated hand held or mounted on Armstrong's Apollo/Skylab A7L space suit.[137] Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface. He described the view with the simple phrase: "Magnificent desolation."[9]

    Armstrong said that moving in the lunar gravity, one-sixth of Earth's, was "even perhaps easier than the simulations ... It's absolutely no trouble to walk around."[9] Aldrin joined him on the surface and tested methods for moving around, including two-footed kangaroo hops. The PLSS backpack created a tendency to tip backward, but neither astronaut had serious problems maintaining balance. Loping became the preferred method of movement. The astronauts reported that they needed to plan their movements six or seven steps ahead. The fine soil was quite slippery. Aldrin remarked that moving from sunlight into Eagle's shadow produced no temperature change inside the suit, but the helmet was warmer in sunlight, so he felt cooler in shadow.[9] The MESA failed to provide a stable work platform and was in shadow, slowing work somewhat. As they worked, the moonwalkers kicked up gray dust which soiled the outer part of their suits.[137]

    The astronauts planted the Lunar Flag Assembly containing a flag of the United States on the lunar surface, in clear view of the TV camera. Aldrin remembered, "Of all the jobs I had to do on the Moon the one I wanted to go the smoothest was the flag raising."[138] But the astronauts struggled with the telescoping rod and could only jam the pole a couple of inches (5 cm) into the hard lunar surface. Aldrin was afraid it might topple in front of TV viewers. But he gave "a crisp West Point salute".[138] Before Aldrin could take a photo of Armstrong with the flag, President Richard Nixon spoke to them through a telephone-radio transmission which Nixon called "the most historic phone call ever made from the White House."[139] Nixon originally had a long speech prepared to read during the phone call, but Frank Borman, who was at the White House as a NASA liaison during Apollo 11, convinced Nixon to keep his words brief.[140]

    Nixon: Hello, Neil and Buzz. I'm talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House. And this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made. I just can't tell you how proud we all are of what you've done. For every American, this has to be the proudest day of our lives. And for people all over the world, I am sure they too join with Americans in recognizing what an immense feat this is. Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world. And as you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth. For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one: one in their pride in what you have done, and one in our prayers that you will return safely to Earth.

    Armstrong: Thank you, Mr. President. It's a great honor and privilege for us to be here, representing not only the United States, but men of peace of all nations, and with interest and curiosity, and men with a vision for the future. It's an honor for us to be able to participate here today.[141]

    They deployed the EASEP, which included a passive seismic experiment package used to measure moonquakes and a retroreflector array used for the lunar laser ranging experiment.[142] Then Armstrong walked 196 feet (60 m) from the LM to snap photos at the rim of Little West Crater while Aldrin collected two core samples. He used the geologist's hammer to pound in the tubes – the only time the hammer was used on Apollo 11, but was unable to penetrate more than 6 inches (15 cm) deep. The astronauts then collected rock samples using scoops and tongs on extension handles. Many of the surface activities took longer than expected, so they had to stop documenting sample collection halfway through the allotted 34 minutes. Aldrin shoveled 6 kilograms (13 lb) of soil into the box of rocks in order to pack them in tightly.[143] Two types of rocks were found in the geological samples: basalt and breccia.[144] Three new minerals were discovered in the rock samples collected by the astronauts: armalcolite, tranquillityite, and pyroxferroite. Armalcolite was named after Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins. All have subsequently been found on Earth.[145]

    Mission Control used a coded phrase to warn Armstrong that his metabolic rates were high, and that he should slow down. He was moving rapidly from task to task as time ran out. As metabolic rates remained generally lower than expected for both astronauts throughout the walk, Mission Control granted the astronauts a 15-minute extension.[142] In a 2010 interview, Armstrong explained that NASA limited the first moonwalk's time and distance because there was no empirical proof of how much cooling water the astronauts' PLSS backpacks would consume to handle their body heat generation while working on the Moon.[146]

    Aldrin entered Eagle first. With some difficulty the astronauts lifted film and two sample boxes containing 21.55 kilograms (47.5 lb) of lunar surface material to the LM hatch using a flat cable pulley device called the Lunar Equipment Conveyor (LEC). This proved to be an inefficient tool, and later missions preferred to carry equipment and samples up to the LM by hand.[122] Armstrong reminded Aldrin of a bag of memorial items in his sleeve pocket, and Aldrin tossed the bag down. Armstrong then jumped onto the ladder's third rung, and climbed into the LM. After transferring to LM life support, the explorers lightened the ascent stage for the return to lunar orbit by tossing out their PLSS backpacks, lunar overshoes, an empty Hasselblad camera, and other equipment. The hatch was closed again at 05:11:13. They then pressurized the LM and settled down to sleep.[147]

    Nixon's speech writer William Safire had prepared In Event of Moon Disaster for the President to read on television in the event the Apollo 11 astronauts were stranded on the Moon.[148] The contingency plan originated in a memo from Safire to Nixon's White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, in which Safire suggested a protocol the administration might follow in reaction to such a disaster.[149][150] According to the plan, Mission Control would "close down communications" with the LM, and a clergyman would "commend their souls to the deepest of the deep" in a public ritual likened to burial at sea. The last line of the prepared text contained an allusion to Rupert Brooke's First World War poem, "The Soldier".[150]

    While moving inside the cabin, Aldrin accidentally damaged the circuit breaker that would arm the main engine for lift off from the Moon. There was a concern this would prevent firing the engine, stranding them on the Moon. However, a felt-tip pen was sufficient to activate the switch; had this not worked, the LM circuitry could have been reconfigured to allow firing the ascent engine.[147]

    After more than ​21 1⁄2 hours on the lunar surface, in addition to the scientific instruments, the astronauts left behind: an Apollo 1 mission patch in memory of astronauts Roger Chaffee, Gus Grissom, and Edward White, who died when their command module caught fire during a test in January 1967; a memorial bag containing a gold replica of an olive branch as a traditional symbol of peace; and a silicon message disk carrying the goodwill statements by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon along with messages from leaders of 73 countries around the world. The disk also carries a listing of the leadership of the US Congress, a listing of members of the four committees of the House and Senate responsible for the NASA legislation, and the names of NASA's past and present top management.[151]

    After about seven hours of rest, the crew was awakened by Houston to prepare for the return flight. Two and a half hours later, at 17:54:00 UTC, they lifted off in Eagle's ascent stage to rejoin Collins aboard Columbia in lunar orbit.[131] Film taken from the LM ascent stage upon liftoff from the Moon reveals the American flag, planted some 25 feet (8 m) from the descent stage, whipping violently in the exhaust of the ascent stage engine. Aldrin looked up in time to witness the flag topple: "The ascent stage of the LM separated ... I was concentrating on the computers, and Neil was studying the attitude indicator, but I looked up long enough to see the flag fall over."[152] Subsequent Apollo missions usually planted the American flags further from the LM to prevent them being blown over by the ascent engine exhaust.[153]

    During his day flying solo around the Moon, Collins never felt lonely. Although it has been said "not since Adam has any human known such solitude",[154] Collins felt very much a part of the mission. In his autobiography he wrote: "this venture has been structured for three men, and I consider my third to be as necessary as either of the other two".[154] In the 48 minutes of each orbit when he was out of radio contact with the Earth while Columbia passed round the far side of the Moon, the feeling he reported was not fear or loneliness, but rather "awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation".[154]

    One of Collins' first tasks was to identify the lunar module on the ground. To give Collins an idea where to look, Mission Control radioed that they believed the lunar module landed about four miles off target. Each time he passed over the suspected lunar landing site, he tried in vain to find the module. On his first orbits on the back side of the Moon, Collins performed maintenance activities such as dumping excess water produced by the fuel cells and preparing the cabin for Armstrong and Aldrin to return.[155]

    Just before he reached the dark side on the third orbit, Mission Control informed Collins that there was a problem with the temperature of the coolant. If it became too cold, parts of Columbia might freeze. Mission Control advised him to assume manual control and implement Environmental Control System Malfunction Procedure 17. Instead, Collins flicked the switch on the offending system from automatic to manual and back to automatic again, and carried on with normal housekeeping chores, while keeping an eye on the temperature. When Columbia came back around to the near side of the Moon again, he was able to report that the problem had been resolved. For the next couple of orbits, he described his time on the back side of the Moon as "relaxing". After Aldrin and Armstrong completed their EVA, Collins slept so he could be rested for the rendezvous. While the flight plan called for Eagle to meet up with Columbia, Collins was prepared for certain contingencies in which he would fly Columbia down to meet Eagle.[156]


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    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11 Eagle rendezvoused with Columbia at 21:24 UTC on July 21, and the two docked at 21:35. Eagle's ascent stage was jettisoned into lunar orbit at 23:41.[4] Just before the Apollo 12 flight, it was noted that Eagle was still likely to be orbiting the Moon. Later NASA reports mentioned that Eagle's orbit had decayed, resulting in it impacting in an "uncertain location" on the lunar surface.[157]

    On July 23, the last night before splashdown, the three astronauts made a television broadcast in which Collins commented:

    ... The Saturn V rocket which put us in orbit is an incredibly complicated piece of machinery, every piece of which worked flawlessly ... We have always had confidence that this equipment will work properly. All this is possible only through the blood, sweat, and tears of a number of people ... All you see is the three of us, but beneath the surface are thousands and thousands of others, and to all of those, I would like to say, "Thank you very much."[158]

    Aldrin added:

    This has been far more than three men on a mission to the Moon; more, still, than the efforts of a government and industry team; more, even, than the efforts of one nation. We feel that this stands as a symbol of the insatiable curiosity of all mankind to explore the unknown ... Personally, in reflecting on the events of the past several days, a verse from Psalms comes to mind. "When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the Moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man that Thou art mindful of him?"[158][159]

    Armstrong concluded:

    The responsibility for this flight lies first with history and with the giants of science who have preceded this effort; next with the American people, who have, through their will, indicated their desire; next with four administrations and their Congresses, for implementing that will; and then, with the agency and industry teams that built our spacecraft, the Saturn, the Columbia, the Eagle, and the little EMU, the spacesuit and backpack that was our small spacecraft out on the lunar surface. We would like to give special thanks to all those Americans who built the spacecraft; who did the construction, design, the tests, and put their hearts and all their abilities into those craft. To those people tonight, we give a special thank you, and to all the other people that are listening and watching tonight, God bless you. Good night from Apollo 11."[158]

    On the return to Earth, a bearing at the Guam tracking station failed, potentially preventing communication on the last segment of the Earth return. A regular repair was not possible in the available time but the station director, Charles Force, had his ten-year-old son Greg use his small hands to reach into the housing and pack it with grease. Greg was later thanked by Armstrong.[160]

    The aircraft carrier USS Hornet, under the command of Captain Carl J. Seiberlich,[161] was selected as the primary recovery ship (PRS) for Apollo 11 on June 5, replacing its sister ship, the LPH USS Princeton, which had recovered Apollo 10 on May 26. Hornet was then at her home port of Long Beach, California.[162] On reaching Pearl Harbor on July 5, Hornet embarked the Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King helicopters of HS-4, a unit which specialized in recovery of Apollo spacecraft, specialized divers of UDT Detachment Apollo, a 35-man NASA recovery team, and about 120 media representatives. To make room, most of Hornet's air wing was left behind in Long Beach. Special recovery equipment was also loaded, including a boilerplate command module used for training.[163]

    On July 12, with Apollo 11 still on the launch pad, Hornet departed Pearl Harbor for the recovery area in the central Pacific,[164] in the vicinity of 10°36′N 172°24′E.[165] A presidential party consisting of Nixon, Borman, Secretary of State William P. Rogers and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger flew to Johnston Atoll on Air Force One, then to the command ship USS Arlington in Marine One. After a night on board, they would fly to Hornet in Marine One for a few hours of ceremonies. On arrival aboard Hornet, the party was greeted by the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Command (CINCPAC), Admiral John S. McCain Jr., and NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine, who flew to Hornet from Pago Pago in one of Hornet's carrier onboard delivery aircraft.[166]

    Weather satellites were not yet common, but US Air Force Captain Hank Brandli had access to top secret spy satellite images. He realized that a storm front was headed for the Apollo recovery area. Poor visibility was a serious threat to the mission; if the helicopters could not locate Columbia, the spacecraft, its crew, and its priceless cargo of Moon rocks might be lost. Brandli alerted Navy Captain Willard S. Houston Jr., the commander of the Fleet Weather Center at Pearl Harbor, who had the required security clearance. On their recommendation, Rear Admiral Donald C. Davis, the commander of Manned Spaceflight Recovery Forces, Pacific, advised NASA to change the recovery area. This was done; a new one was designated,[167] 215 nautical miles (398 km) northeast of the original.[168]

    This altered the flight plan. A different sequence of computer programs was used, one never before attempted. In a conventional entry, P64 was followed by P67. For a skip-out re-entry, P65 and P66 were employed to handle the exit and entry parts of the skip. In this case, because they were extending the re-entry but not actually skipping out, P66 was not invoked and instead P65 led directly to P67. The crew were also warned that they would not be in a full-lift (heads-down) attitude when they entered P67.[168] The first program's acceleration subjected the astronauts to 6.5 standard gravities (64 m/s2); the second, to 6.0 standard gravities (59 m/s2).[169]

    Before dawn on July 24, Hornet launched four Sea King helicopters and three Grumman E-1 Tracers. Two of the E-1s were designated as "air boss" while the third acted as a communications relay aircraft. Two of the Sea Kings carried divers and recovery equipment. The third carried photographic equipment, and the fourth carried the decontamination swimmer and the flight surgeon.[170] At 16:44 UTC (05:44 local time) Columbia's drogue parachutes were deployed. This was observed by the helicopters. Seven minutes later Columbia struck the water forcefully 2,660 km (1,440 nmi) east of Wake Island, 380 km (210 nmi) south of Johnston Atoll, and 24 km (13 nmi) from Hornet,[4][168] at 13°19′N 169°9′W.[171] During splashdown, Columbia landed upside down but was righted within ten minutes by flotation bags activated by the astronauts.[172] A diver from the Navy helicopter hovering above attached a sea anchor to prevent it from drifting.[173] More divers attached flotation collars to stabilize the module and positioned rafts for astronaut extraction.[174]

    The divers then passed biological isolation garments (BIGs) to the astronauts, and assisted them into the life raft. The possibility of bringing back pathogens from the lunar surface was considered remote, but NASA took precautions at the recovery site. The astronauts were rubbed down with a sodium hypochlorite solution and Columbia wiped with Betadine to remove any lunar dust that might be present. The astronauts were winched on board the recovery helicopter. BIGs were worn until they reached isolation facilities on board Hornet. The raft containing decontamination materials was intentionally sunk.[172]

    After touchdown on Hornet at 17:53 UTC, the helicopter was lowered by the elevator into the hangar bay, where the astronauts walked the 30 feet (9.1 m) to the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF), where they would begin the Earth-based portion of their 21 days of quarantine.[175] This practice would continue for two more Apollo missions, Apollo 12 and Apollo 14, before the Moon was proven to be barren of life, and the quarantine process dropped.[176] Nixon welcomed the astronauts back to Earth. He told them: "As a result of what you've done, the world has never been closer together before."[177]

    After Nixon departed, Hornet was brought alongside the 5-short-ton (4.5 t) Columbia, which was lifted aboard by the ship's crane, placed on a dolly and moved next to the MQF. It was then attached to the MQF with a flexible tunnel, allowing the lunar samples, film, data tapes and other items to be removed. Hornet returned to Pearl Harbor, where the MQF was loaded onto a Lockheed C-141 Starlifter and airlifted to the Manned Spacecraft Center. The astronauts arrived at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at 10:00 UTC on July 28. Columbia was taken to Ford Island for deactivation, and its pyrotechnics made safe. It was then taken to Hickham Air Force Base, from whence it was flown to Houston in a Douglas C-133 Cargomaster, reaching the Lunar Receiving Laboratory on July 30.[178]

    In accordance with the Extra-Terrestrial Exposure Law, a set of regulations promulgated by NASA on July 16 to codify its quarantine protocol,[179] the astronauts continued in quarantine. After three weeks in confinement (first in the Apollo spacecraft, then in their trailer on Hornet, and finally in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory), the astronauts were given a clean bill of health.[180] On August 10, 1969, the Interagency Committee on Back Contamination met in Atlanta and lifted the quarantine on the astronauts, on those who had joined them in quarantine (NASA physician William Carpentier and MQF project engineer John Hirasaki),[181] and on Columbia itself. Loose equipment from the spacecraft remained in isolation until the lunar samples were released for study.[182]

    On August 13, the three astronauts rode in ticker-tape parades in their honor in New York and Chicago, with an estimated six million attendees.[183][184] On the same evening in Los Angeles there was an official state dinner to celebrate the flight, attended by members of Congress, 44 governors, the Chief Justice of the United States, and ambassadors from 83 nations at the Century Plaza Hotel. Nixon and Agnew honored each astronaut with a presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[183][185]

    The three astronauts spoke before a joint session of Congress on September 16, 1969. They presented two US flags, one to the House of Representatives and the other to the Senate, that had been carried to the surface of the Moon with them.[186] The flag of American Samoa on Apollo 11 is on display at the Jean P. Haydon Museum in Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa.[187]

    This celebration was the beginning of a 38-day world tour that brought the astronauts to 22 foreign countries and included visits with the leaders of many countries.[188] The crew toured from September 29 to November 5.[188][189][190] Many nations honored the first human Moon landing with special features in magazines or by issuing Apollo 11 commemorative postage stamps or coins.[191]

    Humans walking on the Moon and returning safely to Earth accomplished Kennedy's goal set eight years earlier. In Mission Control during the Apollo 11 landing, Kennedy's speech flashed on the screen, followed by the words "TASK ACCOMPLISHED, July 1969".[192] The success of Apollo 11 demonstrated the United States' technological superiority over other nations.[192] With the success of Apollo 11, America had won the Space Race.[193][194]

    New phrases permeated into the English language. "If they can send a man to the Moon, why can't they..." became a common saying following Apollo 11.[195] Armstrong's famous words on the lunar surface also spun off countless parodies.[193]

    While most celebrated the accomplishment, disenfranchised Americans saw it as a symbol of the divide in America, evidenced by protesters outside of Kennedy Space Center the day before Apollo 11 launched.[196] This is not to say that they were not awed by it. Ralph Abernathy, leading a protest march, was so captivated by the spectacle of the Apollo 11 launch that he forgot what he was going to say.[92] Racial and financial inequalities frustrated citizens who wondered why money spent on the Apollo program was not spent taking care of humans on Earth. A poem by Gil Scott-Heron called "Whitey on the Moon" illustrated the racial inequality in the United States that was highlighted by the Space Race.[193][197][198] The poem starts with:

    A rat done bit my sister Nell.
    (with Whitey on the moon)
    Her face and arms began to swell.
    (and Whitey’s on the moon)
    I can’t pay no doctor bill.
    (but Whitey’s on the moon)
    Ten years from now I’ll be paying still.
    (while Whitey’s on the moon)[198]

    Twenty percent of the world's population watched humans walk on the Moon for the first time. While Apollo 11 sparked the interest of the world, the follow-on Apollo missions did not hold the interest of the nation.[192] One possible explanation was the shift in complexity. Landing someone on the Moon was an easy goal to understand; lunar geology was too abstract for the average person. Another is that Kennedy's goal of landing humans on the Moon had already been accomplished.[199] A well-defined objective helped Project Apollo accomplish its goal, but after it was completed it was hard to justify continuing the lunar missions.[200][201]

    While most Americans were proud of their nation's achievements in space exploration, only once during the late 1960s did the Gallup Poll indicate that a majority of Americans favored "doing more" in space as opposed to "doing less". By 1973, 59 percent of those polled favored cutting spending on space exploration. The Space Race had ended, and Cold War tensions were easing as the US and Soviet Union entered the era of détente. This was also a time when inflation was rising, which put pressure on the government to reduce spending. What saved the space program was that it was one of the few government programs that had achieved something great. Drastic cuts, warned Caspar Weinberger, the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, might send a signal that "our best years are behind us".[202]

    After the Apollo 11 mission, officials from the Soviet Union said that landing humans on the Moon was dangerous and unnecessary. At the time the Soviet Union was attempting to retrieve lunar samples robotically. The Soviets publicly denied there was a race to the Moon, and indicated that they were not making an attempt.[203] Mstislav Keldysh said in July 1969, "We are concentrating wholly on the creation of large satellite systems". It was revealed in 1989 that the Soviets had tried to send people to the Moon, but were unable due to technological difficulties.[204] The public's reaction in the Soviet Union was mixed. The Soviet government limited the release of information about the lunar landing, which affected the reaction. A portion of the populace did not give it any attention, and another portion was angered by it.[205]

    The Command Module Columbia went on a tour of the United States, visiting 49 state capitals, the District of Columbia, and Anchorage, Alaska.[206] In 1971, it was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution, and was displayed at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, DC.[207] It was in the central Milestones of Flight exhibition hall in front of the Jefferson Drive entrance, sharing the main hall with other pioneering flight vehicles such as the Wright Flyer, Spirit of St. Louis, Bell X-1, North American X-15 and Friendship 7.[208]

    Columbia was moved in 2017 to the NASM Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, to be readied for a four-city tour titled Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission. This included Space Center Houston from October 14, 2017 to March 18, 2018, the Saint Louis Science Center from April 14 to September 3, 2018, the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh from September 29, 2018 to February 18, 2019, and its current location at the Seattle Museum of Flight from March 16 to September 2, 2019.[209][210]

    For 40 years Armstrong's and Aldrin's space suits were displayed in the museum's Apollo to the Moon exhibit,[211] until it closed for good on December 3, 2018, to be replaced by a new gallery which was scheduled to open in 2022. A special display of Armstrong's suit is planned for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 in July 2019.[212] The quarantine trailer, the flotation collar and the flotation bags are in the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center annex near Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, where they are on display along with a test lunar module.[213][214][215]

    The descent stage of the LM Eagle remains on the Moon. In 2009, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) imaged the various Apollo landing sites on the surface of the Moon, for the first time with sufficient resolution to see the descent stages of the lunar modules, scientific instruments, and foot trails made by the astronauts.[216] The remains of the ascent stage lie at an unknown location on the lunar surface, after being abandoned and impacting the Moon. The location is uncertain because Eagle ascent stage was not tracked after it was jettisoned, and the lunar gravity field is sufficiently non-uniform to make the orbit of the spacecraft unpredictable after a short time.[217]

    In March 2012 a team of specialists financed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos located the F-1 engines from the S-IC stage that launched Apollo 11 into space. They were found on the Atlantic seabed using advanced sonar scanning.[218] His team brought parts of two of the five engines to the surface. In July 2013, a conservator discovered a serial number under the rust on one of the engines raised from the Atlantic, which NASA confirmed was from Apollo 11.[219][220] The S-IVB third stage which performed Apollo 11's trans-lunar injection remains in a solar orbit near to that of Earth.[221]

    The main repository for the Apollo Moon rocks is the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. For safekeeping, there is also a smaller collection stored at White Sands Test Facility near Las Cruces, New Mexico. Most of the rocks are stored in nitrogen to keep them free of moisture. They are handled only indirectly, using special tools. Over 100 research laboratories around the world conduct studies of the samples, and approximately 500 samples are prepared and sent to investigators every year.[222][223]

    In November 1969, Nixon asked NASA to make up about 250 presentation Apollo 11 lunar sample displays for 135 nations, the fifty states of the United States and its possessions, and the United Nations. Each display included Moon dust from Apollo 11. The rice-sized particles were four small pieces of Moon soil weighing about 50 mg and were enveloped in a clear acrylic button about as big as a United States half dollar coin. This acrylic button magnified the grains of lunar dust. The Apollo 11 lunar sample displays were given out as goodwill gifts by Nixon in 1970.[224][225]

    The Passive Seismic Experiment ran until the command uplink failed on August 25, 1969. The downlink failed on December 14, 1969.[226] As of 2018, the Lunar Laser Ranging experiment remains operational.[227]

    On July 15, 2009, Life.com released a photo gallery of previously unpublished photos of the astronauts taken by Life photographer Ralph Morse prior to the Apollo 11 launch.[228] From July 16 to 24, 2009, NASA streamed the original mission audio on its website in real time 40 years to the minute after the events occurred.[229] It is in the process of restoring the video footage and has released a preview of key moments.[230] In July 2010, air-to-ground voice recordings and film footage shot in Mission Control during the Apollo 11 powered descent and landing was re-synchronized and released for the first time.[231] The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum set up an Adobe Flash website that rebroadcasts the transmissions of Apollo 11 from launch to landing on the Moon.[232]

    On July 20, 2009, Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins met with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House.[233] "We expect that there is, as we speak, another generation of kids out there who are looking up at the sky and are going to be the next Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin", Obama said. "We want to make sure that NASA is going to be there for them when they want to take their journey."[234] On August 7, 2009, an act of Congress awarded the three astronauts a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award in the United States. The bill was sponsored by Florida Senator Bill Nelson and Florida Representative Alan Grayson.[235][236]

    A group of British scientists interviewed as part of the anniversary events reflected on the significance of the Moon landing:

    It was carried out in a technically brilliant way with risks taken ... that would be inconceivable in the risk-averse world of today ... The Apollo programme is arguably the greatest technical achievement of mankind to date ... nothing since Apollo has come close [to] the excitement that was generated by those astronauts – Armstrong, Aldrin and the 10 others who followed them.[237]

    On June 10, 2015, Congressman Bill Posey introduced resolution H.R. 2726 to the 114th session of the United States House of Representatives directing the United States Mint to design and sell commemorative coins in gold, silver and clad for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. On January 24, 2019, the Mint released the Apollo 11 Fiftieth Anniversary commemorative coins to the public on its website.[238][239]

    A documentary film, Apollo 11, with restored footage of the 1969 event, premiered in IMAX on March 1, 2019, and broadly in theaters on March 8.[240][241]

    Beginning July 9, 2019, PBS aired a three-night, six-hour documentary, called Chasing the Moon, which examined the events leading up to Apollo 11. An accompanying book of the same name was also released.[242]

    Notes

    In some of the following sources, times are shown in the format hours:minutes:seconds (e.g. 109:24:15), referring to the mission's Ground Elapsed Time (GET),[243] based on the official launch time of July 16, 1969, 13:32:00 UTC (000:00:00 GET).[90][1]

    ^
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    a b c d e f Loff, Sarah (April 17, 2015). "Apollo 11 Mission Overview". NASA. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
    ^
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    a b c d e "Apollo 11 Mission Summary". The Apollo Program. National Air and Space Museum. Archived from the original on August 29, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
    ^
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    a b c d e f Orloff 2000, p. 106.
    ^
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    a b c d e f Orloff 2000, p. 109.
    ^
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    a b c d e Jones, Eric M., ed. (1995). "The First Lunar Landing". Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal. NASA. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
    ^ Williams, David R. (December 11, 2003). "Apollo Landing Site Coordinates". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. NASA. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
    ^
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    a b c d Orloff 2000, p. 107.
    ^
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    a b A NASA transcript explains that the "a" article was intended, whether or not it was said; the intention was to contrast a man (an individual's action) and mankind (as a species). [1]
    ^
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    a b c d e f g Jones, Eric M., ed. (1995). "One Small Step". Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal. NASA. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
    ^ Stenger, Richard (May 25, 2001). "Man on the Moon: Kennedy speech ignited the dream". CNN. Archived from the original on June 6, 2010. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
    ^
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    a b Logsdon 1976, p. 134.
    ^ Logsdon 1976, pp. 13–15.
    ^ Brooks, Grimwood & Swenson 1979, p. 1.
    ^ Swenson, Grimwood & Alexander 1966, pp. 101–106.
    ^ Swenson, Grimwood & Alexander 1966, p. 134.
    ^ Swenson, Grimwood & Alexander 1966, pp. 332–333.
    ^ Swenson, Grimwood & Alexander 1966, p. 342.
    ^ Fishman, Charles. "What You Didn't Know About the Apollo 11 Mission". Smithsonian. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
    ^ Madrigal, Alexis C. (September 12, 2012). "Moondoggle: The Forgotten Opposition to the Apollo Program". The Atlantic. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
    ^ Logsdon 1976, p. 121.
    ^ Logsdon 1976, pp. 112–117.
    ^ "Excerpt: 'Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs'". NASA. May 25, 1961. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
    ^ Brooks, Grimwood & Swenson 1979, p. 15.
    ^ "The Rendezvous That Was Almost Missed: Lunar Orbit Rendezvous and the Apollo Program". NASA Langley Research Center Office of Public Affairs. NASA. December 1992. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
    ^ Swenson, Grimwood & Alexander 1966, pp. 85–86.
    ^ Brooks, Grimwood & Swenson 1979, pp. 72–77.
    ^ Brooks, Grimwood & Swenson 1979, pp. 48–49.
    ^ Brooks, Grimwood & Swenson 1979, pp. 181–182, 205–208.
    ^ Brooks, Grimwood & Swenson 1979, pp. 214–218.
    ^ Brooks, Grimwood & Swenson 1979, pp. 265–272.
    ^ Brooks, Grimwood & Swenson 1979, pp. 274–284.
    ^ Brooks, Grimwood & Swenson 1979, pp. 292–300.
    ^ Brooks, Grimwood & Swenson 1979, pp. 303–312.
    ^ Lindroos, Marcus. "The Soviet Manned Lunar Program" (PDF). MIT OpenCourseWare. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
    ^ Brown, Jonathan (July 3, 2009). "Recording tracks Russia's Moon gatecrash attempt". The Independent. London. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
    ^ Brooks, Grimwood & Swenson 1979, p. 374.
    ^ Hansen 2005, pp. 312–313.
    ^ Collins 2001, pp. 288–289.
    ^ Cunningham 2010, p. 109.
    ^
    Jump up to:
    a b c Orloff 2000, p. 90.
    ^ Orloff 2000, p. 72.
    ^ Hansen 2005, pp. 338–339.
    ^ Collins 2001, pp. 434–435.
    ^
    Jump up to:
    a b Hansen 2005, p. 359.
    ^ Slayton & Cassutt 1994, p. 237.
    ^ Brooks, Grimwood & Swenson 1979, p. 261.
    ^
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    a b Brooks, Grimwood & Swenson 1979, p. 375.
    ^ Kranz 2000, p. 27.
    ^ Orloff 2000, p. 272.
    ^ Kranz 2000, pp. 230, 236, 273, 320.
    ^ Glen E. Swanson, ed. (August 5, 2004). "SP-4223: Before This Decade is Out – Personal Reflections on the Apollo Program – Chapter 9 – Glynn S. Lunney". NASA. p. 211. ISBN 0160501393. Apollo 11 flight directors pose for a group photo in the Mission Control Center. Pictured left to right, and the shifts that they served during the mission, are (in front and sitting) Clifford E. Charlesworth (Shift 1), Gerald D. Griffin (Shift 1), Eugene F. Kranz (Shift 2), Milton L. Windler (Shift 4), and Glynn S. Lunney (Shift 3). (NASA Photo S-69-39192.)
    ^ Murray, Charles A.; Cox, Catherine Bly (July 1989). Apollo, the race to the moon. Simon & Schuster. pp. 356, 403, 437. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
    ^ Woods, David; MacTaggart, Ken; O'Brien, Frank (May 18, 2019). "Day 4, part 4: Checking Out Eagle". Apollo Flight Journal – via NASA.
    ^ Woods, David; MacTaggart, Ken; O'Brien, Frank (May 18, 2019). "Day 3, part 1: Viewing Africa and Breakfast". Apollo Flight Journal – via NASA.
    ^
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    a b Collins 2001, pp. 332–334.
    ^ Collins 2001, p. 332.
    ^
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    a b Collins 2001, p. 333.
    ^ "1971–78 Dollar Eisenhower". CoinSite. ROKO Design Group, Inc. 1994. Retrieved July 20, 2009.
    ^ "Susan B. Anthony Dollar – 1979–1999". United States Mint. Archived from the original on August 11, 2014. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
    ^ Marshall Space Flight Center 1969, p. 8.
    ^ Collins 2001, pp. 334–335.
    ^ Brooks, Grimwood & Swenson 1979, p. 331.
    ^ Collins 1994, p. 116.
    ^ "Kit, Pilot's Personal Preference, Apollo 11". National Air and Space Museum. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
    ^ "Personal Preference Kits (PPKs)". Space flown collectible artifacts. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
    ^ Hansen 2005, p. 527.
    ^ Slayton & Cassutt 1994, pp. 191–192.
    ^
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    a b c d "50 Years Ago: Lunar Landing Sites Selected". NASA. February 8, 2018. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
    ^ Cortright 1975, p. 79.
    ^ Harland 1999, p. 19.
    ^ Cortright 1975, pp. 98–99.
    ^ Collins 1994, p. 7.
    ^ Cappellari 1972, p. 976.
    ^ "Apollo 10". National Air and Space Museum. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
    ^
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    a b Chaikin 1994, p. 148.
    ^ Hansen 2005, p. 360.
    ^ Collins 2001, p. 347.
    ^ Aldrin & Abraham 2016, pp. 57–58.
    ^ Hansen 2005, pp. 363–365.
    ^ Chaikin 1994, p. 149.
    ^ Chaikin 1994, p. 150.
    ^ Schefter 1999, p. 281.
    ^ Hansen 2005, pp. 371–372.
    ^ Benson & Faherty 1978, p. 472.
    ^ "Scientific Experiments". National Air and Space Museum. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
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    External links

    Wikimedia Commons has media related to Apollo 11.
    Wikiquote has quotations related to: Apollo 11
    Wikisource has original text related to this article:
    In Event of Moon Disaster
    "Apollo 11 transcripts" at Spacelog
    "Magnificent Desolation: The Apollo 11 Moonwalk Pictures" by Apollo Lunar Surface Journal contributor Joseph O'Dea. Complete gallery of Apollo 11 EVA pictures.
    "Apollo 11" Detailed mission information by Dr. David R. Williams, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
    "Apollo 11" Photographer Blaise Thirard's presentation of Apollo 11 photographs
    Sylvester, Rachel; Coates, Sam. "Men on the Moon". The Times. London. Archived from the original on May 31, 2010. Retrieved May 24, 2013. Original reports from The Times (London)
    "Apollo 40th Anniversary". NASA. July 2009. Archived from the original on July 18, 2009. Retrieved July 18, 2009. NASA website honoring the mission
    "The untold story: how one small silicon disc delivered a giant message to the Moon" at collectSPACE.com
    "Coverage of the Flight of Apollo 11 – (1969)" provided by Todd Kosovich for RadioTapes.com. Radio station recordings (airchecks) covering the flight of Apollo 11.
    "Space Missions" at Buzz Aldrin's official website
    What You Didn’t Know About the Apollo 11 Mission, Smithsonian.
    Apollo 11 in real time

    NASA reports

    "Apollo Program Summary Report" (PDF). NASA History Program Office. April 1975. Retrieved September 23, 2018. – 200+ pages
    "Apollo 11 Mission Report" (PDF). NASA. 1971. – 230 pages

    Multimedia

    "'To the Moon and Back': LIFE Covers the Apollo 11 Mission". Time. Archived from the original on July 20, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2013. – Life magazine Special Edition, August 11, 1969
    "Apollo 11: Scenes From the Moon". Archived from the original on July 17, 2009. Retrieved June 13, 2013. – slideshow by Life magazine
    Garner, Robert (ed.). "Apollo 11 Partial Restoration HD Videos (Downloads)". NASA. Retrieved June 13, 2013. – Remastered videos of the original landing.
    Dynamic timeline of lunar excursion. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera
    Real-time audiovisual recreation of the lunar module landing with audio feeds from the crew of Apollo 11 and Ground Control
    The short film Moonwalk One is available for free download at the Internet Archive
    The short film The Eagle Has Landed: The Flight of Apollo 11 is available for free download at the Internet Archive
    Apollo 11 Restored EVA Part 1 (1h of restored footage)

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    "Just What Do You Think You're Doing Dave??"
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    Post  orthodoxymoron Fri Jul 19, 2019 6:34 am

    Consider Epistemology. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology/ Wed Dec 14, 2005

    Defined narrowly, epistemology is the study of knowledge and justified belief. As the study of knowledge, epistemology is concerned with the following questions: What are the necessary and sufficient conditions of knowledge? What are its sources? What is its structure, and what are its limits? As the study of justified belief, epistemology aims to answer questions such as: How we are to understand the concept of justification? What makes justified beliefs justified? Is justification internal or external to one's own mind? Understood more broadly, epistemology is about issues having to do with the creation and dissemination of knowledge in particular areas of inquiry. This article will provide a systematic overview of the problems that the questions above raise and focus in some depth on issues relating to the structure and the limits of knowledge and justification.
    •1. What is Knowledge? ◦1.1 Knowledge as Justified True Belief
    ◦1.2 The Gettier Problem

    •2. What is Justification? ◦2.1 Deontological and Non-Deontological justification
    ◦2.2 Evidence vs. Reliability
    ◦2.3 Internal vs. External
    ◦2.4 Why Internalism?
    ◦2.5 Why Externalism?

    •3. The Structure of Knowledge and Justification ◦3.1 Foundationalism
    ◦3.2 Coherentism
    ◦3.3 Why Foundationalism?
    ◦3.4 Why Coherentism?

    •4. Sources of Knowledge and Justification ◦4.1 Perception
    ◦4.2 Introspection
    ◦4.3 Memory
    ◦4.5 Reason
    ◦4.6 Testimony

    •5. The Limits of Knowledge and Justification ◦5.1 The Case for Skepticism
    ◦5.2 Skepticism and Closure
    ◦5.3 Relevant Alternatives and Denying Closure
    ◦5.4 The Moorean Response
    ◦5.5 The Contextualist Response
    ◦5.6 The Ambiguity Response
    ◦5.7 Knowing One Isn't a BIV

    •6. Additional Issues ◦6.1 Virtue Epistemology
    ◦6.2 Naturalistic Epistemology
    ◦6.3 Religious Epistemology
    ◦6.4 Moral Epistemology
    ◦6.5 Social Epistemology
    ◦6.6 Feminist Epistemology

    •Bibliography
    •Other Internet Resources
    •Related Entries

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    1. What is Knowledge?

    1.1 Knowledge as Justified True Belief

    There are various kinds of knowledge: knowing how to do something (for example, how to ride a bicycle), knowing someone in person, and knowing a place or a city. Although such knowledge is of epistemological interest as well, we shall focus on knowledge of propositions and refer to such knowledge using the schema ‘S knows that p’, where ‘S’ stands for the subject who has knowledge and ‘p’ for the proposition that is known.[1] Our question will be: What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for S to know that p? We may distinguish, broadly, between a traditional and a non-traditional approach to answering this question. We shall refer to them as ‘TK’ and ‘NTK’.

    According to TK, knowledge that p is, at least approximately, justified true belief (JTB). False propositions cannot be known. Therefore, knowledge requires truth. A proposition S doesn't even believe can't be a proposition that S knows. Therefore, knowledge requires belief. Finally, S's being correct in believing that p might merely be a matter of luck.[2] Therefore, knowledge requires a third element, traditionally identified as justification. Thus we arrive at a tripartite analysis of knowledge as JTB: S knows that p if and only if p is true and S is justified in believing that p. According to this analysis, the three conditions — truth, belief, and justification — are individually necessary and jointly sufficient for knowledge.[3]

    Initially, we may say that the role of justification is to ensure that S's belief is not true merely because of luck. On that, TK and NTK are in agreement. They diverge, however, as soon as we proceed to be more specific about exactly how justification is to fulfill this role. According to TK, S's belief that p is true not merely because of luck when it is reasonable or rational, from S's own point of view, to take p to be true. According to evidentialism, what makes a belief justified in this sense is the possession of evidence. The basic idea is that a belief is justified to the degree it fits S's evidence. NTK, on the other hand, conceives of the role of justification differently. Its job is to ensure that S's belief has a high objective probability of truth and therefore, if true, is not true merely because of luck. One prominent idea is that this is accomplished if, and only if, a belief originates in reliable cognitive processes or faculties. This view is known as reliabilism.[4]

    1.2 The Gettier Problem

    The tripartite analysis of knowledge as JTB has been shown to be incomplete. There are cases of JTB that do not qualify as cases of knowledge. JTB, therefore, is not sufficient for knowledge. Cases like that — known as Gettier-cases[5]— arise because neither the possession of evidence nor origination in reliable faculties is sufficient for ensuring that a belief is not true merely because of luck. Consider the well-known case of barn-facades: Henry drives through a rural area in which what appear to be barns are, with the exception of just one, mere barn facades. From the road Henry is driving on, these facades look exactly like real barns. Henry happens to be looking at the one and only real barn in the area and believes that there's a barn over there. Henry's belief is justified, according to TK, because Henry's visual experience justifies his belief. According to NTK, his belief is justified because Henry's belief originates in a reliable cognitive process: vision. Yet Henry's belief is plausibly viewed as being true merely because of luck. Had Henry noticed one of the barn-facades instead, he would also have believed that there's a barn over there. There is, therefore, broad agreement among epistemologists that Henry's belief does not qualify as knowledge.[6]

    To state conditions that are jointly sufficient for knowledge, what further element must be added to JTB? This is known as the Gettier problem. According to TK, solving the problem requires a fourth condition. According to some NTK theorists, it calls for refining the concept of reliability. For example, if reliability could suitably be indexed to the subject's environment, reliabilists could say that Henry's belief is not justified because in his environment, vision is not reliable when it comes to discerning barns from barn-facades.[7]

    Some NTK theorists bypass the justification condition altogether. They would say that, if we conceive of knowledge as reliably produced true belief, there is no need for justification. Reliabilism, then, comes in two forms: as a theory of justification or as a theory of knowledge. As the former, it views justification to be an important ingredient of knowledge but, unlike TK, grounds justification solely in reliability. As a theory of knowledge, reliabilism asserts that justification is not necessary for knowledge; rather, reliably produced true belief (provided the notion of reliability is suitably refined to rule out Gettier cases) is sufficient for it.[8]

    2. What is Justification?

    When we discuss the nature of justification, we must distinguish between two different issues: First, what do we mean when we use the word ‘justification’? Second, what makes beliefs justified? It is important to keep these issues apart because a disagreement on how to answer the second question will be a mere verbal dispute, if the disagreeing parties have different concepts of justification in mind. So let us first consider what we might mean by ‘justification’ and then move on to the non-definitional issues.[9]

    2.1 Deontological and Non-Deontological Justification

    How is the term ‘justification’ used in ordinary language? Here is an example: Tom asked Martha a question, and Martha responded with a lie. Was she justified in lying? Jane thinks she was, for Tom's question was an inappropriate one, the answer to which was none of Tom's business. What might Jane mean when she thinks that Martha was justified in responding with a lie? A natural answer is this: She means that Martha was under no obligation to refrain from lying. Due the inappropriateness of Tom's question, it wasn't Martha's duty to tell the truth. This understanding of justification, commonly labeled deontological, may be defined as follows: S is justified in doing x if and only if S is not obliged to refrain from doing x.[10]

    Suppose, when we apply the word justification not to actions but to beliefs, we mean something analogous. In that case, the term ‘justification’ as used in epistemology would have to be defined this way:

    Deontological Justification (DJ)
    S is justified in believing that p if and only if S believes that p while it is not the case that S is obliged to refrain from believing that p.[11]

    What kind of obligations are relevant when we wish to assess whether a belief, rather than an action, is justified or unjustified? Whereas when we evaluate an action, we are interested in assessing the action from either a moral or a prudential point of view, when it comes to beliefs, what matters is the pursuit of truth. The relevant kinds of obligations, then, are those that arise when we aim at having true beliefs. Exactly what, though, must we do in the pursuit of this aim? According to one answer, the one favored by evidentialists, we ought to believe in accord with our evidence. For this answer to be helpful, we need an account of what our evidence consists of. According to another answer, we ought to follow the correct epistemic norms. If this answer is going to help us figure out what obligations the truth-aim imposes on us, we need to be given an account of what the correct epistemic norms are.[12]

    The deontological understanding of the concept of justification is common to the way philosophers such as Descartes, Locke, Moore and Chisholm have thought about justification. Today, however, the dominant view is that the deontological understanding of justification is unsuitable for the purposes of epistemology. Two chief objections have been raised against conceiving of justification deontologically. First, it has been argued that DJ presupposes that we can have a sufficiently high degree of control over our beliefs. But beliefs are akin not to actions but rather things such as digestive processes, sneezes, or involuntary blinkings of the eye. The idea is that beliefs simply arise in or happen to us. Therefore, beliefs are not suitable for deontological evaluation.[13] To this objection, some advocates of DJ have replied that lack of control over our beliefs is no obstacle to using the term ‘justification’ in its deontological sense.[14] Others have argued that it's a mistake to think that we can control our beliefs any less than our actions.[15]

    According to the second objection to DJ, deontological justification does not tend to ‘epistemize’ true beliefs: it does not tend to make them non-accidentally true. This claim is typically supported by describing cases involving either a benighted, culturally isolated society or subjects who are cognitively deficient. Such cases involve beliefs that are claimed to be epistemically defective even though it would not seem that the subjects in these cases are under any obligation to refrain from believing as they do. What makes the beliefs in question epistemically defective is that they are formed using unreliable and intellectually faulty methods. The reason why the subjects, from their own point of view, are not obliged to believe otherwise is that they are either cognitively deficient or live in a benighted and isolated community. DJ says that such beliefs are justified. If they meet the remaining necessary conditions, DJ-theorists would have to count them as knowledge. According to the objection, however, the beliefs in question, even if true, could not possibly qualify as knowledge, due to the epistemically defective way they were formed. Consequently, DJ must be rejected.[16]

    Those who reject DJ use the term ‘justification’ in a technical sense that deviates from how the word is ordinarily used. The technical sense is meant to make the term suitable for the needs of epistemology.[17] But how are we then to conceive of justification? What does it mean for a belief to be justified in a non-deontological sense? Recall that the role assigned to justification is that of ensuring that a true belief isn't true merely by accident. Let us say that this is accomplished when a true belief instantiates the property of proper probabilification. We may, then, define non-deontological justification as follows:

    Non-Deontological Justification (NDJ)
    S is justified in believing that p if and only if S believes that p on a basis that properly probabilifies S's belief that p.

    If we wish to pin down exactly what probabilification amounts to, we will have to deal with a variety of tricky issues.[18] For now, let us just focus on the main point. Those who prefer NDJ to DJ would say that probabilification and deontological justification can diverge: it's possible for a belief to be deontologically justified without being properly probabilified. This is just what cases involving benighted cultures or cognitively deficient subjects are supposed to show.[19]

    2.2 Evidence vs. Reliability

    What makes justified beliefs justified? According to evidentialists, it is the possession of evidence. What is it, though, to possess evidence for believing that p? Some evidentialists would say it is to be in a mental state that represents p as being true. For example, if the coffee in your cup tastes sweet to you, then you have evidence for believing that the coffee is sweet. If you feel a throbbing pain in your head, you have evidence for believing that you have a headache. If you have a memory of having had cereal for breakfast, then you have evidence for a belief about the past: a belief about what you ate when you had breakfast. And when you clearly "see" or "intuit" that the proposition "If Jack had more than four cups of coffee, then Jack had more than three cups of coffee" is true, then you have evidence for believing that proposition. In this view, evidence consists of perceptual, introspective, memorial, and intuitional experiences, and to possess evidence is to have an experience of that kind. So according to this evidentialism, what makes you justified in believing that p is your having an experience that represents p as being true.

    Many reliabilists, too, would say that the experiences mentioned in the previous paragraph matter. However, they would deny that justification is solely a matter of having suitable experiences. Rather, they hold that a belief is justified if, and only if, it results from cognitive origin that is reliable: an origin that tends to produce true beliefs and therefore properly probabilifies the belief. Reliabilists, then, would agree that the beliefs mentioned in the previous paragraph are justified. But according to a standard form of reliabilism, what makes them justified is not the possession of evidence, but the fact that the types of processes in which they originate — perception, introspection, memory, and rational intuition — are reliable.

    2.3 Internal vs. External

    In contemporary epistemology, there has been an extensive debate on whether justification is internal or external. Internalists claim that it is internal; externalists deny it. How are we to understand these claims?

    To understand what the internal-external distinction amounts to, we need to bear in mind that, when a belief is justified, there is something that makes it justified. Likewise, if a belief is unjustified, there is something that makes it unjustified. Let's call the things that make a belief justified or unjustified J-factors. The dispute over whether justification is internal or external is a dispute about what the J-factors are.

    Among those who think that justification is internal, there is no unanimity on how to understand the concept of internality. We can distinguish between two approaches. According to the first, justification is internal because we enjoy a special kind of access to J-factors: they are always recognizable on reflection.[20] Hence, assuming certain further premises (which will be mentioned momentarily), justification itself is always recognizable on reflection.[21] According to the second approach, justification is internal because J-factors are always mental states.[22] Let's call the former accessibility internalism and the latter mentalist internalism. Externalists deny that J-factors meet either one of these conditions.

    Evidentialism is typically associated with internalism, and reliabilism with externalism.[23] Let us see why. Evidentialism says, at a minimum, two things:

    E1 Whether one is justified in believing p depends on one's evidence regarding p.

    E2 One's evidence consists of one's mental states.

    By virtue of E2, evidentialism is obviously an instance of mentalist internalism.

    Whether evidentialism is also an instance of accessibility internalism is a more complicated issue. The conjunction of E1 and E2 by itself implies nothing about the recognizability of justification. Recall, however, that in Section 1.1 we distinguished between TK and NTK: the traditional and the nontraditional approach to the analysis of knowledge and justification. TK advocates, among which evidentialism enjoys widespread sympathy, tend to endorse the following two claims:

    Luminosity
    One's own mind is cognitively luminous: Relying on introspection, one can always recognize on reflection what mental states one is in.[24]
    Necessity
    a priori recognizable, necessary principles say what is evidence for what.[25] Relying on a priori insight, one can therefore always recognize on reflection whether one's mental states are evidence for p.[26]

    Although E1 and E2 by themselves do not imply access internalism, it is quite plausible to maintain that evidentialism, when embellished with Luminosity and Necessity, becomes an instance of access internalism.[27]

    Next, let us consider why reliabilism is an externalist theory. Reliabilism says that the justification of one's beliefs is a function of, not one's evidence, but the reliability of one's belief sources such as memorial, perceptual and introspective states and processes. Whereas the sources might qualify as mental, their reliability does not. Therefore, reliabilists reject mentalist internalism. Moreover, if the justification of one's beliefs is determined by the reliability of one's belief sources, justification will not always be recognizable on reflection. Hence reliabilists reject access internalism as well.[28]

    Let's use an example of radical deception to illustrate the difference between evidentialism as an internalist theory and reliabilism as an externalist theory. If evidentialism is true, a subject who is radically deceived will be mislead about what is actually the case, but not about what he is justified in believing. If, on the other hand, reliabilism is true, then such a subject will be misled about both what is actually the case and what he is justified in believing. Let us see why.

    Distinguish between Tim and Tim*: one and the same person whom we imagine in two altogether different situations. Tim's situation is normal, like yours or mine. Tim*, however, is a brain in a vat. Suppose a mad scientist abducted and "envatted" Tim* by removing his brain from his skull and putting it in a vat in which his brain is kept alive. Next, the mad scientist connects the nerve endings of Tim*'s brain with wires to a machine that, controlled by a powerful computer, starts stimulating Tim*'s brain in such a way that Tim* does not notice what actually happened to him. He is going to have perfectly ordinary experiences, just like Tim. Indeed, let's assume that the mental states of Tim and the mental states of Tim* are alike. But, since Tim* is a brain in a vat, he is, unlike Tim, radically deceived about his actual situation. For example, when Tim believes he has hands, he is right. When Tim* believes he has hands, he is mistaken. (His hands were discarded, along with the rest of his limbs and torso.) When Tim believes he is drinking coffee, he is right. When Tim* believes he is drinking coffee, he is mistaken. (Brains don't drink coffee.) Now suppose Tim* asks himself whether he is justified in believing that he has hands. Since Tim* is just like Tim, Tim* will say that his belief is justified, just as Tim would if he were to ask himself whether he is justified in believing that he has hands. Evidentialism implies that Tim*'s answer is correct. For even though he is deceived about his external situation, he is not deceived about his evidence: the way things appear to him in his experiences. This illustrates the internality of evidentialist justification. Reliabilism, on the other hand, suggests that Tim*'s answer is incorrect. Tim*'s belief that he has hands originates in cognitive processes — "seeing" and "feeling" his (nonexisting) hands — that now yield virtually no true beliefs. To the extent that this implies their unreliability, the resulting beliefs are unjustified. Consequently, he is deceived not only about his external situation (his not having hands), but also about the justificational status of his belief that he has hands. This illustrates the externality of reliabilist justification.

    The example of Tim and Tim* may serve as well to illustrate a further way in which we may conceive of the difference between internalism and externalism. Some internalists take the following principle to be characteristic of the internalist point of view:

    Mentalism
    If two subjects, S and S*, are alike mentally, then the justificational status of their beliefs is alike as well: the same beliefs are justified or unjustified for them to the same extent.[29]

    When we apply this principle to the Tim/Tim* example, it tells us that evidentialism is an internalist and reliabilism an externalist theory. Even though there are significant physical differences between Tim and Tim*, mentally they are alike. Evidentialism implies that, since Tim and Tim* are mentally alike, they have the same evidence, and thus are justificationally alike as well. For example, they are both justified in believing that they have hands. This makes evidentialism an internalist theory. Reliabilism, on the other hand, allows that, even though Tim and Tim* are mentally alike, they differ justificationally, since Tim's beliefs are (by and large) produced by reliable cognitive faculties, whereas the faculties that produce Tim*'s beliefs may count as unreliable. For example, some versions of reliabilism imply that Tim is justified in believing that he has hands, whereas Tim* is not. This makes reliabilism an externalist theory.[30]

    2.4 Why Internalism?

    Why think that justification is internal? One argument for the internality of justification goes as follows: "Justification is deontological: it is a matter of duty-fulfillment. But duty-fulfillment is internal. Therefore, justification is internal." Another argument appeals to the brain-in-the-vat scenario we considered above: "Tim*'s belief that he has hands is justified in the way that Tim's is justifed. Tim* is internally the same as Tim and externally quite different. Therefore, internal factors are what justify beliefs." Finally, since justification resulting from the possession of evidence is internal justification, internalism can be supported by way of making a case for evidentialism. What, then, can be said in support of evidentialism? Evidentialists would appeal to cases in which a belief is reliably formed but not accompanied by any experiences that would qualify as evidence. They would say that it's not plausible to claim that, in cases like that, the subject's belief is justified. Hence such cases show, according to evidentialists, that a belief can't be justified unless it's supported by evidence.[31]

    2.5 Why Externalism?

    Why think that justification is external? To begin with, externalists about justification would point to the fact that animals and small children have knowledge and thus have justified beliefs. But their beliefs can't be justified in the way evidentialists conceive of justification. Therefore, we must conclude that the justification their beliefs enjoy is external: resulting not from the possession of evidence but from origination in reliable processes. And second, externalists would say that what we want from justification is the kind of objective probability needed for knowledge, and only external conditions on justification imply this probability. So justification has external conditions.[32]

    3. The Structure of Knowledge and Justification

    The debate over the structure of knowledge and justification is primarily one among those who hold that knowledge requires justification. From this point of view, the structure of knowledge derives from the structure of justification. We will, therefore, focus on the latter.

    3.1 Foundationalism

    According to foundationalism, our justified beliefs are structured like a building: they are divided into a foundation and a superstructure, the latter resting upon the former. Beliefs belonging to the foundation are basic. Beliefs belonging to the superstructure are nonbasic and receive justification from the justified beliefs in the foundation.[33]

    For a foundationalist account of justification to be plausible, it must solve two problems. First, by virtue of exactly what are basic beliefs justified? Second, how do basic beliefs justify nonbasic beliefs? Before we address these questions, let us first consider the question of what it is that makes a justified belief basic in the first place. Once we have done that, we can then move on to discuss by virtue of what a basic belief might be justified, and how such a belief might justify a nonbasic belief.

    According to one approach, what makes a justified belief basic is that it doesn't receive its justification from any other beliefs. The following definition captures this thought:

    Doxastic Basicality (DB)
    S's justified belief that p is basic if and only if S's belief that p is justified without owing its justification to any of S's other beliefs.

    Let's consider what would, according to DB, qualify as an example of a basic belief. Suppose you notice (for whatever reason) someone's hat, and you also notice that that hat looks blue to you. So you believe

    (B) It appears to me that that hat is blue.

    Unless something very strange is going on, (B) is an example of a justified belief. DB tells us that (B) is basic if and only if it does not owe its justification to any other beliefs of yours. So if (B) is indeed basic, there might be some item or other to which (B) owes its justification, but that item would not be another belief of yours. We call this kind of basicality ‘doxastic’ because it makes basicality a function of how your doxastic system (your belief system) is structured.

    Let us turn to the question of where the justification that attaches to (B) might come from, if we think of basicality as defined by DB. Note that DB merely tells us how (B) is not justified. It says nothing about how (B) is justified. DB, therefore, does not answer that question. What we need, in addition to DB, is an account of what it is that justifies a belief such as (B). According to one strand of foundationalist thought, (B) is justified because it can't be false, doubted, or corrected by others. So (B) is justified because (B) carries with it an epistemic privilege such as infallibility, indubitability, or incorrigibility.[34] The idea is that (B) is justified by virtue of its intrinsic nature, which makes it possess some kind of an epistemic privilege.

    Note that (B) is not a belief about the hat. Rather, it's a belief about how the hat appears to you. So (B) is an introspective belief about a perceptual experience of yours. According to the thought we are considering here, a subject's basic beliefs are made up of introspective beliefs about the subject's own mental states, of which perceptual experiences make up one subset. Other mental states about which a subject can have basic beliefs include such things as having a headache, being tired, feeling pleasure, or having a desire for a cup of coffee. Beliefs about external objects do not and indeed cannot qualify as basic, for it is impossible for such beliefs to own the kind of epistemic privilege needed for the status of being basic.

    According to a different version of foundationalism, (B) is justified not by virtue of possessing some kind of privileged status, but by some further mental state of yours. That mental state, however, is not a further belief of yours. Rather, it is the very perceptual experience that (B) is about: the hat's looking blue to you. Let ‘(E)’ represent that experience. According to this alternative proposal, (B) and (E) are distinct mental states. The idea is that what justifies (B) is (E). Since (E) is an experience, not a belief of yours, (B) is, according to DB, basic.

    Let's call the two versions of foundationalism we have distinguished privilege foundationalism and experiential foundationalism. Privilege foundationalism restricts basic beliefs to beliefs about one's own mental states. Experiential foundationalism is less restrictive. According to it, beliefs about external objects can be basic as well. Suppose instead of (B), you believe

    (H) That hat is blue.

    Unlike (B), (H) is about the hat itself, and not the way the hat appears to you. Such a belief is not one about which we are infallible or otherwise epistemically privileged. Privilege foundationalism would, therefore, classify (H) as nonbasic. It is, however, quite plausible to think that (E) justifies not only (B) but (H) as well. If (E) is indeed what justifies (H), and (H) does not receive any additional justification from any further beliefs of yours, then (H) qualifies, according to DB, as basic.

    Experiential Foundationalism, then, combines to two crucial ideas: (i) when a justified belief is basic, its justification is not owed to any other belief; (ii) what in fact justifies basic beliefs are experiences.

    Under ordinary circumstances, perceptual beliefs such as (H) are not based on any further beliefs about one's own perceptual experiences. It is unclear, therefore, how privilege foundationalism can account for the justification of ordinary perceptual beliefs like (H). Experiential foundationalism, on the other hand, has no trouble at all explaining how ordinary perceptual beliefs are justified: they are justified by the perceptual experiences that give rise to them. This could be viewed as a reason for preferring experiential foundationalism to privilege foundationalism.

    Above, we noted that how to think of basicality is not uncontroversial. DB defines just one kind of basicality. Here's an alternative conception of it:

    Epistemic Basicality (EB)
    S's justified belief that p is basic if and only if S's justification for believing that p does not depend on any justification S possesses for believing a further proposition, q.[35]

    EB makes it more difficult for a belief to be basic than DB does. To see why, we turn to the chief question (let's call it the ‘J-question’) that advocates of experiential foundationalism face:

    The J-Question
    Why are perceptual experiences a source of justification?

    One way of answering the J-question can be viewed as a compromise position, since it is meant to be a compromise between foundationalism and its competitor, coherentism. The compromise position will be of interest to us because it illustrates how DB and EB differ. For if we adopt the compromise position, beliefs such as (H) will qualify as basic according to DB, but according to EB as nonbasic. So let's see what the compromise position says.

    From a coherentist point of view, we might answer the J-question as follows: Perceptual experiences are a source of justification because we are justified in believing them to be reliable. As we will see below, making perceptual justification dependent on the existence of reliability-attributing beliefs is quite problematic. There is, however, an alternative answer to the J-question that appeals to reliability without making perceptual justification dependent upon beliefs that attribute reliability to perceptual experiences. According to this second answer to the J-question, perceptual experiences are a source of justification because we have justification for taking them to be reliable. That's the view we shall call the compromise position.[36]

    Note that your having justification for believing that p doesn't entail that you actually believe p. For example, if you believe that the person next to you wears a blue hat, you have justification for believing that the person next to you wears a blue hat or a red hat. But of course you are unlikely to believe the latter even though you have justification for it. Likewise, your having justification for attributing reliability to your perceptual experiences doesn't entail that you have given thought to the matter and actually formed the belief that they are reliable. According to the kind of coherentism we considered above, if your perceptual experiences are a source of justification for you, it must be the case that you have considered the matter and believe them to be reliable. The compromise position says no such thing. It says merely that, if your perceptual experiences are a source of justification for you, you must have justification for believing them to be reliable.

    What might give us justification for thinking that our perceptual experiences are reliable? That's a complicated issue. For our present purposes, let's consider the following answer: We remember that they have served us well in the past. We are supposing, then, that justification for attributing reliability to your perceptual experiences consists of memories of perceptual success. According to the compromise position, it is never a perceptual experience (E) by itself that justifies a perceptual belief, but only (E) in conjunction with suitable track-record memories that give you justification for considering (E) reliable. Let ‘(E)’ again stand for the hat's looking blue to you, and ‘(H)’ for your belief that that hat is blue. According to the compromise position, (E) justifies (H) only if (E) is accompanied by track-record memories (M) that give you justification for attributing reliability to your visual experiences. So what, according to the compromise position as we have described it, justifies (H) is the conjunction of (E) and (M).

    We can now see how DB and EB differ. According to the compromise position, your having justification for (H) depends on your having justification for believing something else in addition to (H), namely that your visual experiences are reliable. As a result (H) is not basic in the sense defined by EB. However, (H) might still be basic in the sense defined by DB. As long as your justification for (H) is owed solely to (E) and (M), neither of which includes any beliefs, DB tells us that (H) is basic. It follows that an experiential foundationalist who wishes to classify beliefs such as (H) as basic cannot adopt the compromise position. Such a foundationalist would have to say that (E) by itself is sufficient for making (H) a justified belief.

    How do experiential foundationalists who prefer EB to DB answer the J-question? Because of the way they conceive of basicality, they cannot say that perceptual experiences are a source of justification for you because you have a reason, R, for believing that they do. For R would be justification for believing something else — the very thing that, according to EB, is an obstacle to basicality. One option for EB-foundationalists would be to endorse externalism. If they do, they could say that perceptual experiences are a source of justification if, and only if, they are of types that are reliably associated with true resulting beliefs. On that view, it would be the fact of reliability, not evidence of reliability, that makes perceptual experiences a source of justification.[37] Another internalist option would be to say that perceptual experiences are a source of justification because it couldn't be otherwise: it's a necessary truth that certain perceptual experiences can justify certain perceptual beliefs. This would be an internalist answer to the J-question because perceptual experiences would be a source of justification whether or not they are reliable.[38]

    To conclude this section, let us briefly consider how justification is supposed to be transferred from basic to nonbasic beliefs. There are two options: the justificatory relation between basic and nonbasic beliefs could be deductive or non-deductive. If we take the relation to be deductive, each of one's nonbasic beliefs would have to be such that it can be deduced from one's basic beliefs. This seems excessively demanding. If we consider a random selection of typical beliefs we hold, it is not easy to see from which basic beliefs they could be deduced. Foundationalists, therefore, typically conceive of the link between the foundation and the superstructure in non-deductive terms. They would say that, for a basic belief, B, to justify a nonbasic belief, B*, it isn't necessary that B entails B*. Rather, it is sufficient that, given B, it is likely that B* is true.

    3.2 Coherentism

    Foundationalism says that knowledge and justification are structured like a building, consisting of a superstructure that rests upon a foundation. According to coherentism, this metaphor gets things wrong. Knowledge and justification are structured like a web where the strength of any given area depends on the strength of the surrounding areas. Coherentists, then, deny that there are any basic beliefs. As we saw in the previous section, there are two different ways of conceiving of basicality. Consequently, there are two corresponding ways of construing coherentism: as the denial of doxastic basicality or as the denial of epistemic basicality. Consider first coherentism as the denial of doxastic basicality:

    Doxastic Coherentism
    Every justified belief receives its justification from other beliefs in its epistemic neighborhood.

    Let us apply this thought to the hat example we considered in Section 3.1. Suppose again you notice someone's hat and believe

    (H) That hat is blue.

    Let's agree that (H) is justified. According to coherentism, (H) receives its justification from other beliefs in the epistemic vicinity of (H). They constitute your evidence or your reasons for taking (H) to be true. Which beliefs might make up this set of justification-conferring neighborhood beliefs?

    We will consider two approaches to answering this question. The first is known as inference to the best explanation. Such inferences generate what is called explanatory coherence.[39] According to this approach, we must suppose you form a belief about the way the hat appears to you in your perceptual experiences, and a second belief to the effect that your perceptual experience, the hat's looking blue to you, is best explained by the assumption that (H) is true. So the relevant set of beliefs is the following:

    (1) I am having a visual experience (E): the hat looks blue to me.
    (2) My having (E) is best explained by assuming that (H) is true.

    There are of course alternative explanations of why you have (E). Perhaps you are hallucinating that the hat is blue. Perhaps an evil demon makes the hat look blue to you when in fact it is red. Perhaps you are the sort of person to whom hats always look blue. An explanatory coherentist would say that, compared with these, the hat's actual blueness is a superior explanation. That's why your are justified in believing (H). Note that an explanatory coherentist can also explain the lack of justification. Suppose you remember that you just took a hallucinatory drug that makes things look blue to you. That would prevent you from being justified in believing (H). The explanatory coherentist can account for this by pointing out that, in the case we are considering now, the truth of (H) would not be the best explanation of why you are having experience (E). Rather, your having taken the hallucinatory drug would be an explanation at least as good as the assumption as (H) is true. That's why, according to the explanatory coherentist, in this variation of our original case you wouldn't be justified in be believing (H).

    One problem for explanatory coherentists is to make us understand, in nonepistemic terms, why the favored explanation is really better than the competing explanations. Let's use the evil demon hypothesis to illustrate that difficulty. What we need is an explanation of why you are having (E). According to the evil demon hypothesis, you are having (E) because the evil demon is tricking you. The explanatory coherentist would say that this is a bad explanation of why you are having (E). But why would it be bad? What we need to answer this question is a general and principled account of what makes one explanation better than another. Suppose we appeal to the fact that you are not justified in believing in the existence of evil demons. The general idea would be this: If there are two competing explanations, E1 and E2, and E1 consists of or includes a proposition that you are not justified in believing whereas E2 does not, then E2 is better than E1. The problem with this idea is that it puts the cart before the horse. Explanatory coherentism is supposed to make us understand where justification comes from. It doesn't do that if it accounts for the difference between better and worse explanations by making use of the difference between justified and unjustified belief. If explanatory coherentism were to proceed in this way, it would be a circular, and thus uninformative, account of justification. So the challenge to which explanatory coherentism must rise is to give an account, without using the concept of justification, of what makes one explanation better than another.

    Let us move on to the second way in which the coherentist approach might be carried out. Recall what a subject's justification for believing p is all about: possessing a link between the belief that p and p's truth. Suppose the subject knows that the origin of her belief that p is reliable. So she knows that beliefs coming from this source tend to be true. Such knowledge would give her an excellent link between the belief and its truth. So we might say that the neighborhood beliefs which confer justification on (H) are the following:

    (1) I am having a visual experience (E): the hat looks blue to me.
    (3) Experiences like (E) are reliable.

    Call coherentism of this kind reliability coherentism. If you believe (1) and (3), you are in possession of a good reason for thinking that the hat is indeed blue. So you are in possession of a good reason for thinking that the belief in question, (H), is true. That's why, according to reliability coherentism, you are justified in believing (H).

    Like explanatory coherentism, this view faces a circularity problem. If (H) receives its justification in part because you also believe (3), (3) itself must be justified. But where would your justification for (3) come from? One answer would be: from your memory of perceptual success in the past. You remember that your visual experiences have had a good track record. They have rarely led you astray. The problem is that you can't justifiably attribute a good track record to your perceptual faculties without using your perceptual faculties. So if reliability coherentism is going to work, it would have to be legitimate to use a faculty for the very purpose of establishing the reliability of that faculty itself. Some epistemologists think that would not be legitimate.[40]

    We have seen that explanatory coherentism and reliability coherentism each face its own distinctive circularity problem. Since both are versions of doxastic coherentism, they both face a further difficulty: Do people, under normal circumstances, really form beliefs like (1), (2), and (3)? It would seem they do not. It could be objected, therefore, that these two versions of coherentism make excessive intellectual demands of ordinary subjects who are unlikely to have the background beliefs that, according to these versions of coherentism, are needed for justification. This objection could be avoided by stripping coherentism of its doxastic element. The result would be the following version of coherentism, which results from rejecting EB (the epistemic conception of basicality):

    Dependence Coherentism
    Whenever one is justified in believing a proposition p1, one's justification for believing p1 depends on justification one has for believing some further propositions, p1, p2, … pn.

    An explanatory coherentist might say that, for you to be justified in believing (H), it's not necessary that you actually believe (1) and (2). However, it is necessary that you have justification for believing (1) and (2). It is your having justification for (1) and (2) that gives you justification for believing (H). A reliability coherentist might make an analogous point. She might say that, to be justified in believing (H), you need not believe anything about the reliability of your belief's origin. You must, however, have justification for believing that your belief's origin is reliable; that is, you must have justification for (1) and (3). Both versions of dependence coherentism, then, rest on the supposition that it is possible to have justification for a proposition without actually believing that proposition.

    Dependence coherentism is a significant departure from the way coherentism has typically been construed by its advocates. According to the typical construal of coherentism, the view says that a given belief is justified, the subject must have certain further beliefs that constitute reasons for the given belief. Dependence coherentism rejects this. According to it, justification need not come in the form of beliefs. It can come in the form of introspective and memorial evidence that gives a subject justification for beliefs about either reliability or explanatory coherence. In fact, dependence coherentism allows for the possibility that a belief is justified, not by receiving any of its justification from other beliefs, but solely by suitable perceptual experiences and memory content. Above, we called this view the "compromise position". The compromise position, then, may be characterized as follows:
    i.it allows for doxastic basicality;
    ii.it does not allow for epistemic basicality;
    iii.it is inconsistent with doxastic coherentism;
    iv.it qualifies as a version of coherentism, namely dependence coherentism.

    Note that (iii) follows from (i), and (iv) from (ii). An uncompromising foundationalist would reject dependence coherentism. A foundationalist of that kind views a basic belief that p as a belief whose justification does not depend on having any justification for believing another proposition q. Foundationalism of this sort could be called independence foundationalism, since it asserts that a basic belief's justification is completely independent of having justification for any other beliefs. The logic of the conflict between foundationalism and coherentism seems to suggest that, ultimately, the conflict between the two views boils down to that between dependence coherentism and independence foundationalism.[41]

    Next, let us examine the reasons for and against in the debate over foundationalism and coherentism.

    3.3 Why Foundationalism?

    The main argument for foundationalism is called the regress argument. It's an argument from elimination. With regard to every justified belief, B1, the question arises of where B1's justification comes from. If B1 is not basic, it would have to come from another belief, B2. But B2 can justify B1 only if B2 is justified itself. If B2 is basic, the justificatory chain would end with B2. But if B2 is not basic, we need a further belief, B3. If B3 is not basic, we need a fourth belief, and so forth. Unless the ensuing regress terminates in a basic belief, we get two possibilities: the regress will either loop back to B1 or continue ad infinitum. According to the regress argument, both of these possibilities are unacceptable. Therefore, if there are justified beliefs, there must be basic beliefs.[42]

    This argument suffers from various weaknesses. First, we may wonder whether the alternatives to foundationalism are really unacceptable. In the recent literature on this subject, we actually find an elaborate defense of the position that infinitism is the correct solution to the regress problem.[43] Nor should circularity be dismissed too quickly. The issue is not whether a simple argument of the form p therefore p is acceptable. Of course it is not. Rather, the issue is ultimately whether, in the attempt to show that trust in our faculties is reasonable, we may make use of the input our faculties deliver. Whether such circularity is as unacceptable as a p-therefore-p inference is an open question. Moreover, the avoidance of circularity does not come cheap. Experiential foundationalists claim that perception is a source of justification. Hence they need to answer the J-question: Why is perception a source of justification? As we saw above, if we wish to answer this question without committing ourselves to the kind of circularity dependence coherentism involves, we must choose between externalism and an appeal to brute necessity. Neither choice is unproblematic.

    The second weakness of the regress argument is that its conclusion merely says this: If there are justified beliefs, there must be justified beliefs that do not receive their justification from other beliefs. Its conclusion does not say that, if there are justified beliefs, there must be beliefs whose justification is independent of any justification for further beliefs. So the regress argument, if it were sound, would merely show that there must be doxastic basicality. Dependence coherentism, however, allows for doxastic basicality. So the regress argument merely defends experiential foundationalism against doxastic coherentism. It does not tell us why we should prefer independence foundationalism to dependence coherentism.

    Experiential foundationalism can be supported by citing cases like the blue hat example. Such examples make it plausible to assume that perceptual experiences are a source of justification. But they do not arbitrate between dependence coherentism and independence foundationalism, since either one of these views appeals to perceptual experiences to explain why perceptual beliefs are justified.

    Finally, foundationalism can be supported by advancing objections to coherentism. One prominent objection is that coherentism somehow fails to ensure that a justified belief system is in contact with reality. This objection derives its force from the fact that fiction can be perfectly coherent. Why think, therefore, that a belief system's coherence is a reason for thinking that the belief in that system tend to be true? Coherentists could respond to this objection by saying that, if a belief system contains beliefs such as "Many of my beliefs have their origin in perceptual experiences" and "My perceptual experiences are reliable", it is reasonable for the subject to think that her belief system brings her into contact with external reality. This looks like an effective response to the no-contact-with-reality objection. Moreover, it is not easy to see why foundationalism itself should be better positioned than coherentism when contact with reality is the issue. What is meant by "ensuring" contact with reality? If foundationalists expect a logical guarantee of such contact, basic beliefs must be infallible. That would make contact with reality a rather expensive commodity. Given its price, foundationalists might want to lower their expectations. According to an alternative construal, we expect merely the likelihood of contact with reality. But if coherentists account for the importance of perception in one way or another, they can meet that expectation as well as foundationalists.

    Since coherentism can be construed in different ways, it is unlikely that there is one single objection that succeeds in refuting all possible versions of coherentism. Doxastic coherentism, however, seems particularly vulnerable to criticism coming from the foundationalist camp. One of these we considered already: It would seem that doxastic coherentism makes excessive intellectual demands on believers. When dealing with the mundane tasks of everyday life, we don't normally bother to form beliefs about the explanatory coherence of our beliefs or the reliability of our belief sources. According to a second objection, doxastic coherentism fails by being insensitive to the epistemic relevance of perceptual experiences. Foundationalists could argue as follows. Suppose Kim is observing a chameleon that rapidly changes its colors. A moment ago it was blue, now it's purple. Kim still believes it's blue. Her belief is now unjustified because she believes the chameleon is blue even though it looks purple to her. Then the chameleon changes its color back to blue. Now Kim's belief that the chameleon is blue is justified again because the chameleon once again looks blue to her. The point would be that what's responsible for the changing justificatory status of Kim's belief is solely the way the chameleon looks to her. Since doxastic coherentism does not attribute epistemic relevance to perceptual experiences by themselves, it cannot explain why Kim's belief is first justified, then unjustified, and eventually justified again.[44]

    3.4 Why Coherentism?

    Coherentism is typically defended by attacking foundationalism as a viable alternative. To argue against privilege foundationalism, coherentists pick an epistemic privilege they think is essential to foundationalism, and then argue that either no beliefs, or too few beliefs, enjoy such a privilege. Against experiential foundationalism, different objections have been advanced. One line of criticism is that perceptual experiences don't have propositional content. Therefore, the relation between a perceptual belief and the perceptual experience that gives rise to it can only be causal. Consider again, however, the hat example from above. When you see the hat and it looks blue to you, doesn't your visual experience — its looking blue to you — have the propositional content that the hat is blue? It would seem it does. If it does, there seems to be no reason to deny that your perceptual experience can play a justificatory role.[45]

    Another line of thought is that, if perceptual experiences have propositional content, they cannot stop the justificatory regress because they would then be in need of justification themselves. That, however, appears to be a strange thought. In our actual epistemic practice, we never demand of others to justify the way things appear to them in their perceptual experiences. Indeed, such a demand would seem absurd. Suppose I ask you: "Why do you think that the hat is blue?" You answer: "Because it looks blue to me." There are sensible further questions I might ask at that point. For instance, I might ask: "Why do you think its looking blue to you gives you a reason for thinking it is blue?" Or I might ask: "Couldn't you be mistaken in believing it looks blue to you?" The latter question might irritate you, but it would not be illegitimate. After all, we can reasonably doubt that introspective beliefs about how things appear to us are infallible. But now suppose I ask you: "Why do you suppose the perceptual experience in which the hat looks blue to you is justified?" In response to that question, you should accuse me of misusing the word ‘justification’. I might as well ask you what it is that justifies your headache when you have one, or what justifies the itch in your nose when you have one. The latter questions, you should reply, would be as absurd as my request for stating a justifying reason for your perceptual experience.[46]

    Experiential foundationalism, then, is not easily dislodged. On what grounds could coherentists object to it? To raise problems for experiential foundationalism, coherentists could press the J-question: Why are perceptual experiences a source of justification? If foundationalists answer the J-question appealing to evidence that warrants the attribution of reliability to perceptual experiences, experiential foundationalism morphs into dependence coherentism, or, as we have called it, the compromise position. To avoid this outcome, foundationalists would have to give an alternative answer. One way of doing this would be to advocate independence foundationalism, which adopts the epistemic conception of basicality and views it as a matter of brute necessity that perception is a source of justification. So ultimately, the task of defending coherentism might come down to the task of showing that dependence coherentism as a compromise position is preferable to independence foundationalism. To back up such a preference, it might be argued that dependence coherentism gives us a more satisfying answer to the J-question than independence foundationalism does. But is that really so?

    Suppose we ask "Why is the sum of two and two four?" Isn't the answer "It couldn't be any other way" perfectly satisfactory? So sometimes, at least, a request for explaining the truth of p is met in a satisfying way by pointing out that p is necessarily true. Why, then, should we not be satisfied when independence foundationalists answer the J-question by saying that perceptual experiences are necessarily a source of justification? To find out whether we should be satisfied, we might employ thought experiments. We might try to describe a possible world in which, to use our example again, someone sees an object that looks blue to her, but the object's looking blue to her does not give her any justification at all for believing that the object is actually blue. If we can conceive of such a possible world, then we have reason to think that independence foundationalists are mistaken when they say that perceptual experience is necessarily a source of justification.
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    Epistemology Continued. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology/

    4. Sources of Knowledge and Justification

    Beliefs arise in people for a wide variety of causes. Among them, we must list psychological factors such as desires, emotional needs, prejudice, and biases of various kinds. Obviously, when beliefs originate in sources like these, they don't qualify as knowledge even if true. For true beliefs to count as knowledge, it is necessary that they originate in sources we have good reason to consider reliable. These are perception, introspection, memory, reason, and testimony. Let us briefly consider each of these.

    4.1 Perception

    Our perceptual faculties are our five senses: sight, touch, hearing, smelling, and tasting. We must distinguish between an experience that can be classified as perceiving that p (for example, seeing that there is coffee in the cup and tasting that it is sweet), which entails that p is true, and a perceptual experience in which it seems to us as though p, but where p might be false. Let us refer to this latter kind of experience as perceptual seemings. The reason for making this distinction lies in the fact that perceptual experience is fallible. The world is not always as it appears to us in our perceptual experiences. We need, therefore, a way of referring to perceptual experiences in which p seems to be the case that allows for the possibility of p being false. That's the role assigned to perceptual seemings. So some perceptual seemings that p are cases of perceiving that p, others are not. When it looks to you as though there is a cup of coffee on the table and in fact there is, the two states coincide. If, however, you hallucinate that there is a cup on the table, you have perceptual seeming that p without perceiving that p.

    One family of epistemological issues about perception arises when we concern ourselves with the psychological nature of the perceptual processes through which we acquire knowledge of external objects. According to direct realism, we can acquire such knowledge because we can directly perceive such objects. For example, when you see a tomato on the table, what you perceive is the tomato itself. According to indirect realism, we acquire knowledge of external objects by virtue of perceiving something else, namely appearances or sense-data. An indirect realist would say that, when you see and thus know that there is a tomato on the table, what you really see is not the tomato itself but a tomato-like sense-datum or some such entity.

    Direct and indirect realists hold different views about the structure of perceptual knowledge. Indirect realists would say that we acquire perceptual knowledge of external objects by virtue of perceiving sense data that represent external objects. Sense data, a species of mental states, enjoy a special status: we know directly what they are like. So indirect realists think that, when perceptual knowledge is foundational, it is knowledge of sense data and other mental states. Knowledge of external objects is indirect: derived from our knowledge of sense data. The basic idea is that we have indirect knowledge of the external world because we can have foundational knowledge of our own mind. Direct realists can be more liberal about the foundation of our knowledge of external objects. Since they hold that perceptual experiences get you in direct contact with external objects, they can say that such experiences can give you foundational knowledge of external objects.

    We take our perceptual faculties to be reliable. But how can we know that they are reliable? For externalists, this might not be much of a challenge. If the use of reliable faculties is sufficient for knowledge, and if by using reliable faculties we acquire the belief that our faculties are reliable, then we come to know that our faculties are reliable. But even externalists might wonder how they can, via argument, show that our perceptual faculties are reliable. The problem is this. It would seem the only way of acquiring knowledge about the reliability of our perceptual faculties is through memory, through remembering whether they served us well in the past. But should I trust my memory, and should I think that the episodes of perceptual success that I seem to recall were in fact episodes of perceptual success? If I am entitled to answer these questions with ‘yes', then I need to have, to begin with, reason to view my memory and my perceptual experiences as reliable. It would seem, therefore, that there is no non-circular way of arguing for the reliability of one's perceptual faculties.[47]

    4.2 Introspection

    Introspection is the capacity to inspect the, metaphorically speaking, "inside" of one's mind. Through introspection, one knows what mental states one is in: whether one is thirsty, tired, excited, or depressed. Compared with perception, introspection appears to have a special status. It is easy to see how a perceptual seeming can go wrong: what looks like a cup of coffee on the table might be just be a clever hologram that's visually indistinguishable from an actual cup of coffee. But could it be possible that it introspectively seems to me that I have a headache when in fact I do not? It is not easy to see how it could be. Thus we come to think that introspection has a special status. Compared with perception, introspection seems to be privileged by virtue of being less error prone. How can we account for the special status of introspection?

    First, it could be argued that, when it comes to introspection, there is no difference between appearance and reality; therefore, introspective seemings are necessarily successful introspections. According to this approach, introspection is infallible. Alternatively, one could view introspection as a source of certainty. Here the idea is that an introspective experience of p eliminates all possible doubt as to whether p is true. Finally, one could attempt to explain the specialness of introspection by examining the way we respond to first-person reports: typically, we attribute a special authority to such reports. According to this approach, introspection is incorrigible. Others are not, or at least not typically, in a position to correct first-person reports of one's own mental states.

    Introspection reveals how the world appears to us in our perceptual experiences. For that reason, introspection has been of special interest to foundationalists. Perception is not immune to error. If certainty consists in the absence of all possible doubt, perception fails to yield certainty. Hence beliefs based on perceptual experiences cannot be foundational. Introspection, however, might deliver what we need to find a firm foundation for our beliefs about external objects: at best outright immunity to error or all possible doubt, or perhaps more modestly, an epistemic kind of directness that cannot be found in perception.

    Is it really true, however, that, compared with perception, introspection is in some way special? Critics of foundationalism have argued that introspection is certainly not infallible. Might one not confuse an unpleasant itch for a pain? Might I not think that the shape before me appears circular to me when in fact it appears slightly elliptical to me? If it is indeed possible for introspection to mislead, then it is hard to see why introspection should eliminate all possible doubt. Yet it isn't easy to see either how, if one clearly and distinctly feels a throbbing headache, one could be mistaken about that. Introspection, then, turns out to be a mysterious faculty. On the one hand, it does not seem to be in general an infallible faculty; on the other hand, when looking at appropriately described specific cases, error does seem impossible.[48]

    4.3 Memory

    Memory is the capacity to retain knowledge acquired in the past. What one remembers, though, need not be a past event. It may be a present fact, such as one's telephone number, or a future event, such as the date of the next elections. Memory is, of course, fallible. Not every instance of taking oneself to remember that p is an instance of actually remembering that p. We should distinguish, therefore, between remembering that p (which entails the truth of p) and seeming to remember that p (which does not entail the truth of p).

    One issue about memory concerns the question of what distinguishes memorial seemings from perceptual seemings or mere imagination. Some philosophers have thought that having an image in one's mind is essential to memory, but that would appear to be mistaken. When one remembers one's telephone number, one is unlikely to have an image of one's number in one's mind. The distinctively epistemological questions about memory are these: First, what makes memorial seemings a source of justification? Is it a necessary truth that, if one has a memorial seeming that p, one has thereby prima facie justification for p? Or is memory a source of justification only if, as coherentists might say, one has reason to think that one's memory is reliable? Or is memory a source of justification only if, as externalists would say, it is in fact reliable? Second, how can we respond to skepticism about knowledge of the past? Memorial seemings of the past do not guarantee that the past is what we take it to be. We think that we are a bit older than just five minutes, but it is logically possible that the world sprang into existence just five minutes ago, complete with our dispositions to have memorial seemings of a more distant past and items such as apparent fossils that suggest a past going back millions of years. Our seeming to remember that the world is older than a mere five minutes does not entail, therefore, that it really is. Why, then, should we think that memory is a source of knowledge about the past?[49]

    4.4 Reason

    Some beliefs would appear to be justified solely by the use of reason. Justification of that kind is said to be a priori: prior to any kind of experience. A standard way of defining a priori justification goes as follows:

    A Priori Justification
    S is justified a priori in believing that p if and only if S's justification for believing that p does not depend on any experience.

    Beliefs that are true and justified in this way (and not somehow "gettiered") would count as instances of a priori knowledge.[50]

    What exactly counts as experience? If by ‘experience’ we mean just perceptual experiences, justification deriving from introspective or memorial experiences would count as a priori. For example, I could then know a priori that I'm thirsty, or what I ate for breakfast this morning. While the term ‘a priori’ is sometimes used in this way, the strict use of the term restricts a priori justification to justification derived solely from the use of reason. According to this usage, the word ‘experiences' in the definition above includes perceptual, introspective, and memorial experiences alike. On this narrower understanding, paradigm examples of what I can know on the basis of a priori justification are conceptual truths (such as "All bachelors are unmarried"), and truths of mathematics, geometry and logic.

    Justification and knowledge that is not a priori is called ‘a posteriori’ or ‘empirical’. For example, in the narrow sense of ‘a priori’, whether I'm thirsty or not is something I know empirically (on the basis of introspective experiences), whereas I know a priori that 12 divided by 3 is 4.

    Several important issues arise about a priori knowledge. First, does it exist at all? Skeptics about apriority deny its existence. They don't mean to say that we have no knowledge of mathematics, geometry, logic, and conceptual truths. Rather, what they claim is that all such knowledge is empirical.

    Second, if a priori justification is possible, exactly how does it come about? What makes a belief such as "All bachelors are unmarried" justified solely on the basis of reason? Is it an unmediated grasp of the truth of this proposition? Or does it consist of grasping that the proposition is necessarily true? Or is it the purely intellectual experience of "seeing" (with they "eye of reason") or "intuiting" that this proposition is true (or necessarily true)? Or is it, as externalists would suggest, the reliability of the cognitive process by which we come to recognize the truth of such a proposition?

    Third, if a priori knowledge exists, what is its extent? Empiricists have argued that a priori knowledge is limited to the realm of the analytic, consisting of propositions of a somehow inferior status because they are not really "about the world". Propositions of a superior status, which convey genuine information about world, are labeled synthetic. a priori knowledge of synthetic propositions, empiricists would say, is not possible. Rationalists deny this. They would say that a proposition such as "If a ball is green all over, then it doesn't have black spots" is synthetic and knowable a priori.

    A fourth question about the nature of a priori knowledge concerns the distinction between necessary and contingent truths. The received view is that whatever is known a priori is necessarily true, but there are epistemologists who disagree with that.[51]

    4.5 Testimony

    Testimony differs from the sources we considered above because it isn't distinguished by having its own cognitive faculty. Rather, to acquire knowledge of p through testimony is to come to know that p on the basis of someone's saying that p. "Saying that p" must be understood broadly, as including ordinary utterances in daily life, postings by bloggers on their web-logs, articles by journalists, delivery of information on television, radio, tapes, books, and other media. So, when you ask the person next to you what time it is, and she tells you, and you thereby come to know what time it is, that's an example of coming to know something on the basis of testimony. And when you learn by reading the Washington Post that the terrorist attack in Sharm el-Sheikh of July 22, 2005 killed at least 88 people, that, too, is an example of acquiring knowledge on the basis of testimony.

    The epistemological puzzle testimony raises is this: Why is testimony a source of knowledge? An externalist might say that testimony is a source of knowledge if and only if it comes from a reliable source. But here, even more so than in the case of our faculties, internalists will not find that answer satisfactory. Suppose you hear someone saying ‘p’. Suppose further that person is in fact utterly reliable with regard to the question of whether p is the case or not. Finally, suppose you have no evidential clue whatever as to that person's reliability. Wouldn't it be plausible to conclude that, since that person's reliability is unknown to you, that person's saying ‘p’ does not put you in a position to know that p? But if the reliability of a testimonial source is not sufficient for making it a source of knowledge, what else is needed? Thomas Reid suggested that, by our very nature, we accept testimonial sources as reliable and tend to attribute credibility to them unless we encounter special contrary reasons. But that's merely a statement of the attitude we in fact take toward testimony. What is it that makes that attitude reasonable? It could be argued that, in one's own personal experiences with testimonial sources, one has accumulated a long track record that can be taken as a sign of reliability. However, when we think of the sheer breadth of the knowledge we derive from testimony, one wonders whether one's personal experiences constitute an evidence base rich enough to justify the attribution of reliability to the totality of the testimonial sources one tends to trust. An alternative to the track record approach would be to declare it a necessary truth that trust in testimonial sources is justified. This suggestion, alas, encounters the same difficulty as the externalist approach to testimony: it does not seem we can acquire knowledge from sources the reliability of which is utterly unknown to us.[52]

    5. The Limits of Knowledge and Justification

    5.1 The Case for Skepticism

    According to skeptics, the limits of what you know are narrower than you would like to think. There are many things that you think you know but actually fail to know. For example, you think you know that you have hands, but in fact you don't. How can the skeptics expect you to take such a strange conclusion seriously? Here's how. As a first step, the skeptics will focus on another proposition, about which you are likely to agree that you don't know it. As a second step, they will get you to agree that, since you don't know that second proposition, you don't know the first one either: the proposition that you have hands.

    When the skeptics get their argument started with some other proposition about which you are likely to agree you don't know it, what do they have in mind? They direct your attention to what is called a skeptical hypothesis. According to a skeptical hypothesis, things are radically different from what you take them to be. Here are several examples:
    •I'm lying in my bed dreaming.
    •I'm deceived by an evil demon.
    •I'm a mere brain-in-a-vat (a BIV).
    •I'm in the matrix world.

    What the skeptics will point out, and what they think you will easily agree with, is this: For any particular hypothesis on the list, you don't know that it is false. This works better for some than for others. It works really well for the BIV hypothesis, which we discussed already in section 2.2. The idea is that, if you are a BIV, you are reduced to a mere brain which is stimulated in such a way that the delusion of a normal life results. So the experiences you have as a BIV and the experiences you have as a normal person are perfectly alike, indistinguishable, so to speak, "from the inside." It doesn't look to you as though you are a BIV. After all, you can see that you have a body, and you can freely move about in your environment. The problem is that it looks that way to a BIV, too. As a result, the evidence you have as a normal person and the evidence you have as a BIV do not relevantly differ. Consequently, your evidence can't settle the question of whether or not you are a BIV. Based on this thought, the skeptics claim you don't know that you are not a BIV. That's the first step of the case for skepticism.

    Let us now focus on the second step. The basic thought is that, if you don't know you're not a BIV, you don't know you have hands. That thought is extremely plausible. After all, if you are a BIV, you don't have any hands. So if you can't distinguish between being and not being a BIV, you can't distinguish either between having and not having hands. But if you can't distinguish between having and not having hands, surely you don't know that you have hands. Putting the two steps of the skeptic's reasoning together, we get the following argument:

    The BIV Argument

    (1) I don't know that I'm not a BIV.

    (2) If I don't know that I'm not a BIV, then I don't know that I have hands.

    Therefore:

    (3) I don't know that I have hands.

    As we have just seen, (1) and (2) are very plausible premises. It would seem, therefore, that the BIV Argument is sound. If it is, we must conclude we don't know we have hands. But surely that conclusion can't be right. So we are confronted with a difficult challenge: On what grounds can we reject the conclusion of this seemingly sound argument?[53]

    5.2 Skepticism and Closure

    The second premise is closely connected to the principle that knowledge is closed under known entailment, for short, the closure principle. Setting complications aside, it says the following:

    The Closure Principle
    If I know that p, and I know that p entails q, then I know that q.[54]

    This principle is exceedingly plausible. Here's an example to illustrate it. Suppose you had exactly two beers. Your having had exactly two beers entails that you had less than three beers. If you know both of these things, then you know that you had less than three beers. This much, certainly, seems beyond dispute.

    How is the closure principle related to the skeptical argument? The connection can be seen when you replace ‘p’ and ‘q’ with the relevant propositions:

    p: I have hands.
    q: I'm not a BIV.

    Making these replacements, we get the following application of the closure principle to the BIV argument:

    BIV Closure
    If I know that I have hands, and I know that my having hands entails my not being a BIV, then I know that I'm not a BIV.

    According to the skeptical argument, you can't know that you are not a BIV. So the consequent of BIV closure is false. Therefore, the antecedent of BIV closure must be false. The antecedent of BIV closure is a conjunction. The second conjunct can't be argued with. If you understand what is meant by the BIV hypothesis, then you know that you don't have hands if you are a BIV. If follows that the antecedent of BIV Closure is false because its first conjunct is false. So starting out with the closure principle, we arrive at the skeptical conclusion: You don't know that you have hands.[55]

    5.3 Relevant Alternatives and Closure Denial

    Next, we will examine various responses to the BIV argument. According to the first, we should distinguish between relevant and irrelevant alternatives. An alternative to a state of affairs or proposition p is any state of affairs or proposition that is incompatible with p. Your having hands and your being a BIV are alternatives: if the former is true, the latter is false, and vice versa. According to the thought that motivates the second premise of the BIV argument, you know that you have hands only if you can discriminate between your actually having hands and the alternative of being a (handless) BIV. But you can't discriminate between these two states of affairs. That's why you don't know that you have hands. In response to such reasoning, a relevant alternatives theorist would say that your inability to discriminate between these two states of affairs is not an obstacle to your knowing that you have hands because your being a BIV is not a relevant alternative to your having hands. What would be a relevant alternative? This, for example: your arms ending in stumps rather than hands, or your having hooks instead of hands, or your having prosthetic hands. But these alternatives don't prevent you from knowing that you have hands — not because they are irrelevant, but rather because you can discriminate between these alternatives and your having hands. The relevant alternative theorist holds, therefore, that you do know that you have hands.

    The BIV argument is valid. Relevant alternative theorists must therefore deny one of its premises. Since they agree that you don't know that your are not a BIV, so they accept the first premise. Consequently, they reject the second premise. You know that you have hands even though you don't know that you are not a BIV. This means, in effect, that relevant alternative theorists deny the closure principle. Let's consider the details of this point. Relevant alternative theorists say:
    i.You know you have hands.
    ii.You know that your having hands entails your not being a BIV.
    iii.You don't know that you are not a BIV.

    Relevant alternative theorists, then, assert the antecedent and deny the consequent of BIV closure, as stated in the previous section. They are, therefore, committed to the claim that the closure principle is false.[56]

    There are two chief problems for this approach. The first is that denouncing the BIV alternative as irrelevant is ad hoc unless it is supplemented with a principled account of what makes one alternative relevant and another irrelevant. The second is that the closure principle enjoys a high degree of intrinsic plausibility. Denying it generates so-called abominable conjunctions. Here is one:

    An Abominable Conjunction
    I know that I have hands but I do not know that I am not a (handless) BIV.

    Many epistemologists would agree that this conjunction is indeed abominable because it blatantly violates the basic and extremely plausible intuition that you can't know you have hands without knowing that you are not a BIV.[57]

    5.4 The Moorean Response

    Next, let us consider a response to the BIV argument according to which it's not the second but the first premise that must be rejected. G. E. Moore has pointed out that an argument succeeds only to the extent that its premises are more plausible than the conclusion. So if we encounter an argument whose conclusion we don't like, and notice that the denial of the conclusion is actually quite plausible, in fact more plausible than the assertion of the premises, then we can turn the argument on its head. According to this approach, we can respond to the BIV argument as follows:

    Counter BIV

    (1) I know that I have hands.

    (2) If I don't know that I'm not a BIV, then I don't know that I have hands.

    Therefore:

    (3) I know that I am not a BIV.

    Unless we are skeptics or opponents of closure, we would have to concede that this argument is sound. It is valid, and its premises are true. Yet few philosophers would agree that Counter BIV amounts to a satisfying response to the BIV argument. What needs to be accomplished is more than a mere assertion of (3), based on knowledge of one's hands. What we need to have explained to us is how one can know that one is not a BIV. The observation that the premises of the BIV argument are less plausible than the denial of its conclusion doesn't help us understand how such knowledge is possible. That's why the Moorean response falls short of being a successful rebuttal of the skeptical argument.[58]

    5.5 The Contextualist Response

    We have looked at two responses to the BIV argument. The relevant alternatives response denies the second premise. Because of the plausibility of the second premise, this might strike us as a desperation move. The Moorean response denies the first premise. The problem with that move is this: Unless we are provided with a convincing explanation of how one can know that one isn't a BIV, it's not more than just digging in one's non-skeptical heels. According to contextualism, it's possible to articulate a more satisfying reply to the BIV argument. The trick is to focus on how we actually use the word ‘know’. If we do that, we'll notice that our use of that word varies from one situation — from one context — to another. What so varies is what we mean by that word.

    Three questions arise immediately. First, what are these various meanings of the word ‘know’? Second, why and how does what we mean by ‘know’ change from one context to another? Third, how does the context-sensitivity of ‘know’ help us respond to the BIV argument? Let us consider each question in turn.

    First, when what we mean by ‘know’ changes from one context to another, what changes is the standards that we think must be met if someone is to have knowledge of something. For the sake of keeping things simple, let's distinguish between just two sets of standards: very high and not so high. Let's refer to them as ‘high’ and ‘low’ standards. In some contexts, when we use the word ‘know’, we have low standards of knowledge in mind: standards that are easy to meet. We will then ascribe knowledge liberally. In other contexts, our use of the word ‘know’ is guided by more demanding high standards. Meeting these is very difficult. In such contexts, we will ascribe knowledge only reluctantly. Second, what effects such changes in what we mean by ‘know’? According to some contextualists, it is the salience of error-possibilities. In an ordinary, low-standard context, you don't worry about being a BIV. It's not an error possibility you ignore. As a result, your standards of knowledge remain low. In such a context, all it takes for you to know you have hands is that you can discriminate between having hands and having stumps, hooks, or prosthetic hands. That's a condition you easily meet. Hence you will not be reluctant at all to ascribe to yourself knowledge of your hands. But suppose you start thinking about the problem of skepticism. You're wondering how you could know that you are not a BIV. You come to note that it's very difficult to know that one isn't a BIV. The BIV alternative is now salient to you. This makes your standards of knowledge rise. Bearing in mind that BIVs don't have hands, you now think that, for you to know that you have hands, you must be able to eliminate the error possibility of being a BIV. Since you realize you can't eliminate that possibility, you are no longer willing to ascribe to yourself knowledge of your hands.

    Third, how does all of that help us find a reply to the BIV argument? Contextualists view the BIV argument as presenting us with a paradox. We think it's crazy to deny knowledge of our hands. At the same time, we don't think one can know that one isn't a BIV. How can the conflict between these thoughts be resolved? Contextualists propose to resolve it by saying this: In low standard contexts (when skeptical hypotheses are not salient), the first premise and the conclusion of the BIV argument are both false. In such contexts, a speaker who says "You don't know that you have hands" or "You don't know that you are not a BIV" is mistaken. The speaker is mistaken because we do in fact meet low standards of knowledge. So relative to what we mean by ‘know’ in such contexts, we know that we have hands and that we are not BIVs. However, in high standard contexts (when an error possibility such as being a BIV is salient), the first premise and the conclusion of the BIV argument are both true. Now, when speakers say "You don't know that you have hands" or "You don't know that you are not a BIV", they are correct, for with regard to having hands and being or not being a BIV, our epistemic position is not strong enough for us to meet high standards of knowledge. Therefore, relative to what we mean by ‘know’ when we are confronted with a salient error possibility such as being a BIV, we know neither that we have hands nor that we are not BIVs.

    Contextualism is intended as a closure preserving response to skepticism. The closure principle is true even relative to "knowledge" attributions that are subject to high standards. Hence, according to contextualism, things fall into place as follows:
    i.we know the closure principle whether the meaning of ‘know’ is fixed by high or low standards;
    ii.when the meaning of ‘know’ is fixed by low standards, we know both that we have hands and that we are not BIVs;
    iii.when the meaning of ‘know’ is fixed by high standards, we know neither that we have hands nor that we are not BIVs.

    As a result, closure is preserved. Contextualism is also meant to be an improvement over the Moorean response. According to that response, the first premise of the BIV argument is false. This conflicts with our intuition that we cannot know that we are not BIVs. Contextualism resolves this conflict by saying that the first premise is false only in low standards contexts. In high standards contexts, that premise is true.

    Naturally, contextualism has elicited many objections. According to one, what's wrong with contextualism is that it replaces our interest in knowledge itself with focus on the word ‘know’. This objection (let us call it the replacement objection) is based on a misunderstanding of contextualism. In the next section, we will see why.

    According to another objection, contextualism overemphasizes the importance of the context sensitivity of the word ‘know’. Let us distinguish between two elements of contextualism. The first is semantic ascent. If we endorse the semantic ascent element, we think that a satisfactory response to skepticism in general and the BIV argument in particular requires of us to distinguish between a high-standards and a low-standards meaning of "knowledge." The semantic ascent thesis remains squarely within the limits of traditional epistemology. Indeed, in any area of philosophy, it's always going to be a good idea to remain aware of the possibility that the problems in which one finds oneself entangled might, at least to some extent, be due to subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) shifts in meaning. The other element of contextualism could be called strict context-sensitivity, as opposed to loose context sensitivity. Consider the thesis that the meaning of the word ‘know’ varies with context. There is an innocuous interpretation of this thesis: people do not always mean the same when they use the word ‘know’. Sometimes they mean one thing by ‘know’, at other times they mean another thing by ‘know’. This is loose context sensitivity. It's hard to see on what grounds such a weak claim might be disputed. Contextualists, however, make a stronger claim. They assert that what one means by ‘know’ is determined, in a way that's very difficult to resist, by the salience or non-salience of error possibilities. That's strict context sensitivity. If we endorse strict context sensitivity, there's something important that drops out: how one intends to use the word ‘know’. An alternative semantics of the word ‘know’ will de-emphasize the importance of the salience or non-salience of error possibilities, and ascribe a much higher degree of semantic independence to the subjects who use the word ‘know’. Next, let's consider a response to the BIV argument that retains the semantic ascent element of contextualism, but rejects strong context sensitivity.[59]

    5.6 The Ambiguity Response

    What proposition a "knowledge"-attributing sentence expresses depends on what concept of knowledge the person who uses that sentence (in spoken or written form) has in mind when using the word ‘know’. Let's distinguish between two concepts: a high-standards and a low-standards concept. There are various ways of cashing out this distinction. We will understand it in terms of fallible and infallible evidence. High-standards or infallible knowledge of p requires p-entailing evidence. Low-standards of fallible knowledge of p requires adequate evidence for p, where evidence for p can be adequate without entailing p.

    According to the ambiguity response, a "knowledge"-attributing sentence is ambiguous unless we can tell whether the word ‘know’, as it occurs in that sentence, refers to fallible or infallible knowledge. Suppose we think that fallible knowledge of one's hands is possible, whereas infallible knowledge of one's hands is not. Suppose further we hear Jane say ‘Carl knows that he has hands.’ Finally, suppose we have no idea whether Jane uses the word ‘know’ in the fallible or infallible sense. In that case, we would have to say that Jane's utterance is true if interpreted as a claim about fallible knowledge, but false if interpreted as a claim about infallible knowledge. Now, with regard to the BIV argument, we are in a similar situation. We have not been instructed on whether the word ‘know’ in its premises and its conclusion is to be understood in the fallible or infallible sense. Consequently, when assessing the merits of the BIV argument, we must consider three versions of it:

    The Mixed Version
    In the premises, the word ‘know’ refers to infallible knowledge, whereas in the conclusion, it refers to fallible knowledge.
    The High-Standards Version
    The word ‘know’ refers to infallible knowledge in both the premises and the conclusion.

    The Low-Standards Version
    The word ‘know’ refers to fallible knowledge in both the premises and the conclusion.

    Distinguishing between these three versions, proponents of the ambiguity response can reply to the BIV argument as follows:
    i.The mixed version is an instance of equivocation and thus invalid.
    ii.The high-standards version is sound but uninteresting. Its conclusion asserts that we don't have infallible knowledge of our hands. That's nothing to worry about. What really matters to us is whether we have fallible knowledge of our hands. But that question simply isn't addressed by the high-standards version.
    iii.The low-standards version is interesting but unsound. Its conclusion — we do not even have fallible knowledge of our hands — is indeed disturbing. If this conclusion were true, then we would be in a radical way mistaken about what we think we know. However, we don't have to accept this conclusion because the argument's first premise is false. According to that premise, one cannot even have fallible knowledge of one's not being a BIV. That's false. There is, after all, good evidence for thinking that one's is not a BIV. This evidence is good enough for knowing that one isn't a BIV even though it does not entail that one isn't a BIV.

    Suppose an opponent of the ambiguity response were to employ the replacement objection, claiming that the response focuses on the word ‘know’ instead of knowledge itself. This objection would be misguided. The ambiguity response mentions the word ‘know’ only at the initial stage, and then immediately shifts its focus to non-linguistic entities such as concepts and propositions. So advocates of the ambiguity response would point out that, when we distinguish between versions (i) through (iii), we are concerned with which propositions the premises and the conclusion of the BIV argument express, and thus are ultimately concerned with knowledge itself. The upshot of their reply, then, is to distinguish between the following two propositions:

    (Kif) I knowif that I have hands.

    (Kf) I knowf that I have hands.

    where the term ‘knowif’ in (Kif) refers to infallible knowledge, whereas the term ‘knowf’ in Kf refers to fallible knowledge. Both of these proposition are about knowledge itself, or, more precisely, about different kinds of knowledge. The ambiguity response, therefore, is not vulnerable to the replacement objection. Neither is contextualism. For according to contextualism, what context determines is precisely which proposition the conclusion of the BIV argument expresses: (Kif) or (Kf).[60] Hence contextualism, is, notwithstanding initial appearance, just as much about knowledge itself as is the ambiguity response.

    How, then, do contextualism and the ambiguity response differ? Both share the semantic ascent element. A satisfactory response to skepticism requires of us to distinguish between various meanings of the word ‘know’. Beyond that, they proceed in different directions. Whereas according to contextualism, whether we reject or endorse the conclusion of the BIV argument is a function of which context we are in, the ambiguity response makes context irrelevant. It makes context irrelevant because, no matter which context we are in, we can always disambiguate. So, when we are thinking about or discussing the BIV argument and are thus confronted with a salient error possibility, we need not adopt a high-standards meaning of ‘know’. Rather, we can respond to the argument by saying that, if it is about infallible knowledge its conclusion is true but unremarkable, whereas if it is about fallible knowledge its conclusion is remarkable but false.[61]

    5.6 Knowing One Isn't a BIV

    Contextualism and the ambiguity response, as discussed in the previous two sections, leave out one important detail. Contextualists say that, relative to the standards of knowledge operational in low-standards contexts, one can know that one isn't a BIV. Ambiguity theorists say that, in the fallibilist sense of ‘know’, one can know that one isn't a BIV. It might be objected that this is a bit optimistic. Let us look at the issue from the evidentialist point of view. An evidentialist who employs the ambiguity response would have to say that one's evidence for thinking one isn't a BIV is good enough for knowledge. But when the BIV hypothesis was introduced, we noted that part of the hypothesis is the following point: whehter you are a normal person or a BIV makes no difference with regard to your evidence: it's the same in either case. Call this the identical evidence thesis. This thesis is simply part of the hypothesis in question and must therefore be granted. How, then, could one possibly know, even in the fallibilist sense of ‘know’, that one isn't a BIV?

    It would be a mistake to think the identical evidence thesis entails that, as a normal person, one doesn't have good evidence for thinking that one isn't a BIV. Nor does it entail that, as a BIV, one doesn't have good evidence for thinking that one isn't a BIV. What it entails is merely this: Whatever evidence one has, as a normal person regarding the question of whether one is a BIV, one would have that very same evidence if one were a BIV. This leaves open the possibility that in either case, as a BIV or as a normal person, one has excellent evidence for thinking that one is not a BIV.

    What might evidence for thinking that one isn't a BIV consist of? For reasons of space, we will merely hint, by way of analogy, at how this question might be answered. Note that the BIV hypothesis entails various rather problematic propositions:

    (a) At least one BIV exists.

    (b) The know-how needed for envatting people exists.

    (c) The technology needed for envatting people exists.


    Compare:

    (d) At least one spaceship exists that can be used for traveling to another galaxy and coming back within a couple of months.

    (e) The know-how needed for building such a spaceship exists.

    (f) The technology needed for building such a spaceship exists.

    According to the evidentialist anti-skepticism under consideration here, you know, on the basis of your knowledge of how the world works, that (d)–(f) are all false.[62] In the very least, you can come to know this by consulting suitable experts. But what about (a) through (c)? Well, if you know or can come to know that (d)–(f) are all false, isn't it plausible to claim that you also know or can come to know that (a)–(c) are all false? If a skeptic were to argue that you know that (d)–(f) are all false, while you do not know that any proposition in (a)–(c) is false, that skeptic would incur the burden of having to dislodge the analogy, of having to explain why, whereas knowledge that (d)–(f) are all false is easily obtainable, knowledge of the falsehood of each (a)–(c) is beyond our reach. This might not be easily accomplished.

    Suppose you do know that (a)–(c) are all false. Then you know that any proposition that entails (a)–(c) is false. The BIV hypothesis entails (a)–(c). Hence you know that the BIV hypothesis, is false. But if you know that you are not a BIV, then premise (1) of the BIV argument is false.[63]
    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


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    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Empty Re: United States AI Solar System (9)

    Post  orthodoxymoron Fri Jul 19, 2019 6:42 am

    Swanny wrote:If you were 20.000 years old you would hopefully be very wise and would have seen hundreds of religions come and go, why would you think one of the current ones to be true??
    If one were attempting to build a civilization, the absolute-truth might be the end of said civilization, and a cover-story might be absolutely-necessary. Who Knows?? How do we really know anything-significant (especially relative to antiquity and the otherworldly) with a significant degree of certainty?? What if this particular civilization requires a Matrix of Conflicting-Delusions to survive and thrive?? What if a Single Religion Consisting of the Absolute-Truth (with zero-tolerance for heresy) might work in Heaven, but NOT in Purgatory and/or Hell (figuratively and/or literally)?? I've constructed a Crazy-Laboratory of Conflicting-Concepts and Scary-Stories in a Science-Fictional Context of Politics and Religion (mostly), and this has seemingly made me the most unpopular soul in the solar-system. Understanding and Exploiting the Matrix of Deception works SO Much Better. Perhaps I'll get it right in my next life (if I even have one). Honesty is the Best Policy Until It Works Better to be Dishonest (without admitting this, of course). Perhaps I should focus on Gardening and Manual-Labor. It might be easier that way.

    I once spoke with a bright college-freshman who said they were completely 'lost' regarding life, the universe, and everything. For all they knew "they might be in some giant's stomach'!! I'm sure they were using that as a figure of speech, but I understood their frustration completely. I felt their pain. A couple of years later, at this same college, I overheard a student crying to a Minister that "The Bible is NOT the Word of God!" She was weeping profusely. Decades later, a Harvard Divinity School Graduate spoke with me privately, mockingly referring to "God's Word" as we stood looking at a row of Bibles in a bookcase. As I keep saying, "I Believe, But I Don't Know What I Believe." I'm presently partial to Unorthodox Science-Fictional Biblical-Egyptology as a launching-pad for Religious and Political Science-Fiction. It's probably impossible to adequately describe my amalgamation of faith and doubt. I don't have a 'Monopoly on God' but I understand the dynamics of churches who claim to be the One True Church with the Absolute-Truth and God On Their Side. It's certainly easier to run a religious-organization and collect-tithe with that Fundamental Working Assumption. Epistemology Continued. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epistemology/

    6. Additional Issues

    6.1 Virtue Epistemology

    Epistemology, as commonly practiced, focuses on the subject's beliefs. Are they justified? Are they instances of knowledge? When it comes to assessing how the subject herself is doing with regard to the pursuit of truth and the seeking of knowledge, this assessment is carried out by looking at the epistemic quality of her beliefs. According to virtue epistemology, the order of analysis ought to be reversed. We need to begin with the subject herself and assess her epistemic virtues and vices: her "good" and her "bad" ways of forming beliefs. Careful and attentive reasoning would be an example of an epistemic virtue; jumping to conclusions would be an example of an epistemic vice. It is only after we have determined which ways of forming beliefs count as epistemic virtues that we can, as a second step, determine the epistemic quality of particular beliefs. Its proponents construe virtue epistemology more or less stringently. According to pure virtue epistemology, epistemic virtues and vices are sui generis. They cannot be analyzed in terms of more fundamental epistemic or nonepistemic concepts. Proponents of a less stringent approach disagree with this; they would say that epistemic virtues and vices can fruitfully be analyzed by employing other concepts. Indeed, according to an externalist strand of virtue epistemology, it is the very notion of reliability that we should employ to capture the difference between epistemic virtues and vices. Stable ways of forming beliefs are epistemic virtues if and only if they tend to result in true beliefs, epistemic vices if and only if they tend to result in false beliefs. Virtue epistemology, thus conceived, is a form of reliabilism.[64]

    6.2 Naturalistic Epistemology

    According to an extreme version of naturalistic epistemology, the project of traditional epistemology, pursued in an a priori fashion from the philosopher's armchair, is completely misguided. The "fruits" of such activity are demonstrably false theories such as foundationalism, as well as endless and arcane debates in the attempt to tackle questions to which there are no answers. To bring epistemology on the right path, it must be made a part of the natural sciences and become cognitive psychology. The aim of naturalistic epistemology thus understood is to replace traditional epistemology with an altogether new and redefined project. According to a moderate version of naturalistic epistemology, one primary task of epistemology is to identify how knowledge and justification are anchored in the natural world, just as it is the purpose of physics to explain phenomena like heat and cold, or thunder and lightning in terms of properties of the natural world. The pursuit of this task does not require of its proponents to replace traditional epistemology. Rather, this moderate approach accepts the need for cooperation between traditional conceptual analysis and empirical methods. The former is needed for the purpose of establishing a conceptual link between knowledge and reliability, the latter for figuring out which cognitive processes are reliable and which are not.[65]

    6.3 Religious Epistemology

    In the history of philosophy, there are several famous arguments for the existence of God: the ontological argument, the cosmological argument, and the argument from design. From an epistemological point of view, the question is whether such arguments can constitute a rational foundation of faith, or even give us knowledge of God. A further question is whether, if God exists, knowledge of God might not also be possible in other ways, for example, on the basis of perception or perhaps mystical experiences. There is also a famous problem casting doubt on the existence of God: Why, if God is an omniscient, omnipotent, and benevolent being, is there evil in the world? Here, the epistemological question is whether, based on this problem, we can know that God (thus conceived) does not exist. Another, central issue for religious epistemology is raised by evidentialism. According to evidentialism, knowledge requires adequate evidence. However, there does not seem to be any adequate evidence of God's existence. Is it possible, then, for theists to endorse evidentialism?[66]

    6.4 Moral Epistemology

    The basic moral categories are those of right and wrong action. When we do theoretical ethics, we wish to find out what it is that makes a right action right and a wrong action wrong. When we do practical or applied ethics, we attempt to find out which actions are right and which are wrong. The epistemological question these areas of philosophy raise is this: How can we know any of that? Traditionally, philosophers have attempted to answer the questions of ethics via intuition, a priori reasoning, and the consideration of hypothetical cases. Some philosophers who belong to the naturalistic camp consider this approach misguided because they think that it is unreliable and liable to produce results that merely reflect our own cultural and social biases. Among those who think that moral knowledge can be acquired via intuition and a priori reasoning, a primary question is whether the kind of justification such methods can generate is coherentist or foundationalist. Finally, a further important question is whether moral knowledge is at all possible. Knowledge requires truth and thus objective reality. According to anti-realists, there is no objective reality of, and thus no truth about, moral matters. Since what is known must be true, it is not easy to see how, if anti-realism were correct, there could be knowledge of moral matters.[67]

    6.5 Social Epistemology

    When we conceive of epistemology as including knowledge and justified belief as they are positioned within a particular social and historical context, epistemology becomes social epistemology. How to pursue social epistemology is a matter of controversy. According to some, it is an extension and reorientation of traditional epistemology with the aim of correcting its overly individualistic orientation. According to others, social epistemology ought to amount to a radical departure from traditional epistemology, which they see, like the advocates of radical naturalization, as a futile endeavor. Those who favor the former approach retain the thought that knowledge and justified belief are essentially linked to truth as the goal of our cognitive practices. They hold that there are objective norms of rationality that social epistemologists should aspire to articulate. Those who prefer the more radical approach would reject the existence of objective norms of rationality. Moreover, since many view scientific facts as social constructions, they would deny that the goal of our intellectual and scientific activities is to find facts. Such constructivism, if weak, asserts the epistemological claim that scientific theories are laden with social, cultural, and historical presuppositions and biases; if strong, it asserts the metaphysical claim that truth and reality are themselves socially constructed.[68]

    6.5 Feminist Epistemology

    When construed in a non-controversial way, the subject matter of feminist epistemology consists of issues having to do with fair and equal access of women to, and their participation in, the institutions and processes through which knowledge is generated and transmitted. Viewed this way, feminist epistemology can be seen as a branch of social epistemology. When we move beyond this initial characterization, what feminist epistemology is will become a matter of controversy. According to some, it includes the project of studying and legitimizing special ways in which only women can acquire knowledge. According to others, feminist epistemology should be understood as aiming at the political goal of opposing and rectifying oppression in general and the oppression of women in particular. At the extreme end, feminist epistemology is closely associated with postmodernism and its radical attack on truth and the notion of objective reality.[69]

    Bibliography
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    Other Internet Resources
    •Epistemology Page, maintained by Keith De Rose (Yale University).
    •The Epistemology Research Guide, maintained by Keith Korcz (University of Lousiana/Lafayette).
    •"Direct Warrant Realism", an online manuscript, by Keith De Rose (Yale University).

    Related Entries

    contextualism, epistemic | epistemic closure principle | epistemology: naturalized | epistemology: social | epistemology: virtue | feminist (interventions): epistemology and philosophy of science | justification, epistemic: coherentist theories of | justification, epistemic: foundationalist theories of | justification, epistemic: internalist vs. externalist conceptions of | knowledge: analysis of | knowledge: by acquaintance vs. description | memory: epistemological problems of | perception: epistemological problems of | perception: the problem of | religion: epistemology of | self-knowledge

    Acknowledgments

    The author would like to thank Earl Conee for his help, both philosophical and editorial. The editors would like to thank Michael Beaton and Harry McCauley for suggesting improvements to the wording of some of the above sentences.

    Copyright © 2005 by Matthias Steup <steup@purdue.edu>

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    Last edited by orthodoxymoron on Fri Jul 19, 2019 8:43 am; edited 1 time in total
    orthodoxymoron
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    I'm attempting to nurture an environment which is conducive to thinking constructively about all of the crazy solar system and galactic madness. What scares me is the suspicion that the Real-Truth about Life, the Universe, and Everything is Much, Much Worse Than We Can Possibly Comprehend or Handle -- and that the Galactic Powers That Be Might be More Harsh and Strange (to our thinking) Than We Can Possibly Comprehend or Handle. Further, WE Might've Been Much Worse Than the Historical Bad Guys and Gals if WE Had Been in Their Shoes. Finally, I worry that I Might've Been One of the Worst of the Worst Historically BUT That Most of the Hypothetical Reprehensible Behavior Might've Been Absolutely Necessary Under the Circumstances. I honestly have not made up my mind about much of anything significant. I have zero animosity. Honestly. Consider the Following:

    1. Responsibility, Response-Ability, and Positive Response Ability.

    2. Nature, Human-Nature, Soul-Nature, Natural-Law, and the Perfect Law of the Lord.

    3. The Ten-Commandments in the Contexts of Deuteronomy and Modernity.

    4. International and Interplanetary Law.

    5. Ethics, Law, Law-Enforcement, and the Military.

    6. Purgatory Incorporated v Paradise Incorporated.

    7. [Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy] v [Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon] v [Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts] v [The Pauline Epistles] v [The Book of Enoch, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation].

    8. Israel and the Nations by F.F. Bruce -- Daniel by Desmond Ford -- Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen -- and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

    9. The Federalist Papers (with the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights) -- and the Charter for the United Nations.

    10. Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Gothic Architecture.

    11. Sacred Classical Music.

    12. Supreme Courts Worldwide.

    13. The Comparative Analysis and Possible Integration of Some (or All) of the Above.

    I am NOT a Charlatan with All the Answers. I Merely Provide a Study-Guide with a Helluva Lot of Questions. The Rest is Up to YOU. Once again, studying this thread will help place you in a frame of mind wherein YOU might be able to interact with the Powers That Be (Human and Otherwise) in a constructive manner. The irreverence and questionable links and images are intended to provide provocative contrasts and challenges -- to break the tension -- and to make YOU Think. If you really want to have smoke pour out of your ears, consider reading the entire text of 'The Quest of the Historical Jesus' by Dr. Albert Schweitzer. http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/schweitzer/ But really, the first and last chapters should be required reading for those who are serious about theology and philosophy, regardless of their biases and convictions. As I have stated previously, someone got into my computer, and made certain portions of the Schweitzer text appear in Bold Print. But not as shown below. This was really strange. I like Albert Schweitzer, and I like his organ teacher, Charles Marie Widor. St. Sulpice in Paris (where Schweitzer was instructed by Widor), is sort of a Personal Mecca for me.



    THE PROBLEM: WHEN, AT SOME FUTURE DAY, OUR PERIOD OF CIVILISATION SHALL LIE, closed and completed, before the eyes of later generations, German theology will stand out as a great, a unique phenomenon in the mental and spiritual life of our time. For nowhere save in the German temperament can there be found in the same perfection the living complex of conditions and factors — of philosophic thought, critical acumen, historical insight, and religious feeling — without which no deep theology is possible.

    And the greatest achievement of German theology is the critical investigation of the life of Jesus. What it has accomplished here has laid down the conditions and determined the course of the religious thinking of the future.

    In the history of doctrine its work has been negative; it has, so to speak, cleared the site for a new edifice of religious thought. In describing how the ideas of Jesus were taken possession of by the Greek spirit, it was tracing the growth of that which must necessarily become strange to us, and, as a matter of fact, has become strange to us.

    Of its efforts to create a new dogmatic we scarcely need to have the history written; it is alive within us. It is no doubt interesting to trace how modern thoughts have found their way into the ancient dogmatic system, there to combine with eternal ideas to form new constructions; it is interesting to penetrate into the mind of the thinker in which this process is at work; but the real truth of that which here meets us as history we experience within ourselves. As in the monad of Leibnitz the whole universe is reflected, so we intuitively experience within us, even apart from any clear historical knowledge, the successive stages of the progress of modern dogma, from rationalism to Ritschl. This experience is true knowledge, all the truer because we are conscious of the whole as something indefinite, a slow and difficult movement towards a goal which is still shrouded in obscurity. We have not yet arrived at any reconciliation between history and modern thought — only between half-way history and half-way thought. What the ultimate goal towards which we are moving will be, what this something is which shall bring new life and new regulative principles to coming centuries, we do not know. We can only dimly divine that it will be the mighty deed of some mighty original genius, whose truth and rightness will be proved by the fact that we, working at our poor half thing, will oppose him might and main — we who imagine we long for nothing more eagerly than a genius powerful enough to open up with authority a new path for the world, seeing that we cannot succeed in moving it forward along the track which we have so laboriously prepared.

    For this reason the history of the critical study of the life of Jesus is of higher intrinsic value than the history of the study of ancient dogma or of the attempts to create a new one. It has to describe the most tremendous thing which the religious consciousness has ever dared and done. In the study of the history of dogma German theology settled its account with the past; in its attempt to create a new dogmatic, it was endeavouring to keep a place for the religious life in the thought of the present; in the study of the life of Jesus it was working for the future — in pure faith in the truth, not seeing whereunto it wrought.

    Moreover, we are here dealing with the most vital thing in the world's history. There came a Man to rule over the world; He ruled it for good and for ill, as history testifies; He destroyed the world into which He was born; the spiritual life of our own time seems like to perish at His hands, for He leads to battle against our thought a host of dead ideas, a ghostly army upon which death has no power, and Himself destroys again the truth and goodness which His Spirit creates in us, so that it cannot rule the world. That He continues, notwithstanding, to reign as the alone Great and alone True in a world of which He denied the continuance, is the prime example of that antithesis between spiritual and natural truth which underlies all life and all events, and in Him emerges into the field of history.

    It is only at first sight that the absolute indifference of early Christianity towards the life of the historical Jesus is disconcerting. When Paul, representing those who recognise the signs of the times, did not desire to know Christ after the flesh, that was the first expression of the impulse of self-preservation by which Christianity continued to be guided for centuries. It felt that with the introduction of the historic Jesus into its faith, there would arise something new, something which had not been foreseen in the thoughts of the Master Himself, and that thereby a contradiction would be brought to light, the solution of which would constitute one of the great problems of the world.

    Primitive Christianity was therefore right to live wholly in the future with the Christ who was to come, and to preserve of the historic Jesus only detached sayings, a few miracles, His death and resurrection. By abolishing both the world and the historical Jesus it escaped the inner division described above, and remained consistent in its point of view. We, on our part, have reason to be grateful to the early Christians that, in consequence of this attitude they have handed down to us, not biographies of Jesus but only Gospels, and that therefore we possess the Idea and the Person with the minimum of historical and contemporary limitations.

    But the world continued to exist, and its continuance brought this one-sided view to an end. The supra-mundane Christ and the historical Jesus of Nazareth had to be brought together into a single personality at once historical and raised above time. That was accomplished by Gnosticism and the Logos Christology. Both, from opposite standpoints, because they were seeking the same goal, agreed in sublimating the his- torical Jesus into the supra-mundane Idea. The result of this development, which followed on the discrediting of eschatology, was that the historical Jesus was again introduced into the field of view of Christianity, but in such a way that all justification for, and interest in, the investigation of His life and historical personality were done away with.

    Greek theology was as indifferent in regard to the historical Jesus who lives concealed in the Gospels as was the early eschatological theology. More than that, it was dangerous to Him; for it created a new supernatural-historical Gospel, and we may consider it fortunate that the Synoptics were already so firmly established that the Fourth Gospel could not oust them; instead, the Church, as though from the inner necessity of the antitheses which now began to be a constructive element in her thought, was obliged to set up two antithetic Gospels alongside of one another.

    When at Chalcedon the West overcame the East, its doctrine of the two natures dissolved the unity of the Person, and thereby cut off the last possibility of a return to the historical Jesus. The self-contradiction was elevated into a law. But the Manhood was so far admitted as to preserve, in appearance, the rights of history. Thus by a deception the formula kept the life prisoner and prevented the leading spirits of the Reformation from grasping the idea of a return to the historical Jesus.

    This dogma had first to be shattered before men could once more go out in quest of the historical Jesus, before they could even grasp the thought of His existence. That the historic Jesus is something different from the Jesus Christ of the doctrine of the Two Natures seems to us now self-evident. We can, at the present day, scarcely imagine the long agony in which the historical view of the life of Jesus came to birth. And even when He was once more recalled to life. He was still, like Lazarus of old, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes — the grave-clothes of the dogma of the Dual Nature. Hase relates, in the preface to his first Life of Jesus (1829), that a worthy old gentleman, hearing of his project, advised him to treat in the first part of the human, in the second of the divine Nature. There was a fine simplicity about that. But does not the simplicity cover a presentiment of the revolution of thought for which the historical method of study was preparing the way — a presentiment which those who were engaged in the work did not share in the same measure? It was fortunate that they did not; for otherwise how could they have had the courage to go on?

    The historical investigation of the life of Jesus did not take its rise from a purely historical interest; it turned to the Jesus of history as an ally in the struggle against the tyranny of dogma. Afterwards when it was freed from this paqoV it sought to present the historic Jesus in a form intelligible to its own time. For Bahrdt and Venturini He was the tool of a secret order. They wrote under the impression of the immense influence exercised by the Order of the Illuminati[1] at the end of the eighteenth century. For Reinhard, Hess, Paulus, and the rest of the rationalistic writers He is the admirable revealer of true virtue, which is coincident with right reason. Thus each successive epoch of theology found its own thoughts in Jesus; that was, indeed, the only way in which it could make Him live.

    But it was not only each epoch that found its reflection in Jesus; each individual created Him in accordance with his own character. There is no historical task which so reveals a man's true self as the writing of a Life of Jesus. No vital force comes into the figure unless a man breathes into it all the hate or all the love of which he is capable. The stronger the love, or the stronger the hate, the more life-like is the figure which is produced. For hate as well as love can write a Life of Jesus, and the greatest of them are written with hate: that of Reimarus, the Wolfenbiittel Fragmentist, and that of David Friedrich Strauss. It was not so much hate of the Person of Jesus as of the supernatural nimbus with which it was so easy to surround Him, and with which He had in fact been surrounded. They were eager to picture Him as truly and purely human, to strip from Him the robes of splendour with which He had been apparelled, and clothe Him once more with the coarse garments in which He had walked in Galilee.

    And their hate sharpened their historical insight. They advanced the study of the subject more than all the others put together. But for the offence which they gave, the science of historical theology would not have stood where it does to-day. "It must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh." Reimarus evaded that woe by keeping the offence to himself and preserving silence during his lifetime — his work, "The Aims of Jesus and His Disciples," was only published after his death, by Lessing. But in the case of Strauss, who, as a young man of twenty-seven, cast the offence openly in the face of the world, the woe fulfilled itself. His "Life of Jesus" was his ruin. But he did not cease to be proud of it in spite of all the misfortune that it brought him. "I might well bear a grudge against my book," he writes twenty-five years later in the preface to the "Conversations of Ulrich von Hutten," [1] "for it has done me much evil ('And rightly so!' the pious will exclaim). It has excluded me from public teaching in which I took pleasure and for which I had perhaps some talent; it has torn me from natural relationships and driven me into unnatural ones; it has made my life a lonely one. And yet when I consider what it would have meant if I had refused to utter the word which lay upon my soul, if I had suppressed the doubts which were at work in my mind — then I bless the book which has doubtless done me grievous harm outwardly, but which preserved the inward health of my mind and heart, and, I doubt not, has done the same for many others also."

    Before him, Bahrdt had his career broken in consequence of revealing his beliefs concerning the Life of Jesus; and after him, Bruno Bauer.

    It was easy for them, resolved as they were to open the way even with seeming blasphemy. But the others, those who tried to bring Jesus to life at the call of love, found it a cruel task to be honest. The critical study of the life of Jesus has been for theology a school of honesty. The world had never seen before, and will never see again, a struggle for truth so full of pain and renunciation as that of which the Lives of Jesus of the last hundred years contain the cryptic record. One must lead the successive Lives of Jesus with which Hase followed the course of the study from the 'twenties to the 'seventies of the nineteenth century to get an inkling of what it must have cost the men who lived through that decisive period really to maintain that "courageous freedom of investigation" which the great Jena professor, in the preface to his first Life of Jesus, claims for his researches. One sees in him the marks of the struggle with which he gives up, bit by bit, things which, when he wrote that preface, he never dreamed he would have to surrender. It was fortunate for these men that their sympathies sometimes obscured their critical vision, so that, without becoming insincere, they were able to take white clouds for distant mountains. That was the kindly fate of Hase and Beyschlag. The personal character of the study is not only due, however, to the fact that a personality can only be awakened to life by the touch of a personality; it lies in the essential nature of the problem itself. For the problem of the life of Jesus has no analogue in the field of history. No historical school has ever laid down canons for the investigation of this problem, no professional historian has ever lent his aid to theology in dealing with it. Every ordinary method of historical investigation proves inadequate to the complexity of the conditions. The standards of ordinary historical science are here inadequate, its methods not immediately applicable. The historical study of the life of Jesus has had to create its own methods for itself. In the constant succession of unsuccessful attempts, five or six problems have emerged side by side which together constitute the fundamental problem. There is, however, no direct method of solving the problem in its complexity; all that can be done is to experiment continuously, starting from definite assumptions; and in this experimentation the guiding principle must ultimately rest upon historical intuition.

    The cause of this lies in the nature of the sources of the life of Jesus, and in the character of our knowledge of the contemporary religious world of thought. It is not that the sources are in themselves bad. When we have once made up our minds that we have not the materials for a complete Life of Jesus, but only for a picture of His public ministry, it must be admitted that there are few characters of antiquity about whom we possess so much indubitably historical information, of whom we have so many authentic, discourses. The position is much more favourable, for instance, than in the case of Socrates; for he is pictured to us by literary men who exercised their creative ability upon the portrait. Jesus stands much more immediately before us, because He was depicted by simple Christians without literary gift.

    But at this point there arises a twofold difficulty. There is first the fact that what has just been said applies only to the first three Gospels, while the fourth, as regards its character, historical data, and discourse material, forms a world of its own. It is written from the Greek standpoint, while the first three are written from the Jewish. And even if one could get over this, and regard, as has often been done, the Synoptics and the Fourth Gospel as standing in something of the same relation to one another as Xenophon does to Plato as sources for the life of Socrates, yet the complete irreconcilability of the historical data would compel the critical investigator to decide from the first in favour of one source or the other. Once more it is found true that "No man can serve two masters." This stringent dilemma was not recognised from the beginning; its emergence is one of the results of the whole course of experiment.

    The second difficulty regarding the sources is the want of any thread of connexion in the material which they offer us. While the Synoptics are only collections of anecdotes (in the best, historical sense of the word), the Gospel of John — as stands on record in its closing words — only professes to give a selection of the events and discourses.

    From these materials we can only get a Life of Jesus with yawning gaps. How are these gaps to be filled? At the worst with phrases, at the best with historical imagination. There is really no other means of arriving at the order and inner connexion of the facts of the life of Jesus than the making and testing of hypotheses. If the tradition preserved by the Synoptists really includes all that happened during the time that Jesus was with his disciples, the attempt to discover the connexion must succeed sooner or later. It becomes more and more clear that this presupposition is indispensable to the investigation. If it is merely a fortuitous series of episodes that the Evangelists have handed down to us, we may give up the attempt to arrive at a critical reconstruction of the life of Jesus as hopeless.

    But it is not only the events which lack historical connexion, we are without any indication of a thread of connexion in the actions and discourses of Jesus, because the sources give no hint of the character of His self-consciousness. They confine themselves to outward facts. We only begin to understand these historically when we can mentally place them in an intelligible connexion and conceive them as the acts of a clearly defined personality. All that we know of the development of Jesus and of His Messianic self-consciousness has been arrived at by a series of working hypotheses. Our conclusions can only be considered valid so long as they are not found incompatible with the recorded facts as a whole.

    It may be maintained by the aid of arguments drawn from the sources that the self-consciousness of Jesus underwent a development during the course of His public ministry; it may, with equally good grounds, be denied. For in both cases the arguments are based upon little details in the narrative in regard to which we do not know whether they are purely accidental, or whether they belong to the essence of the facts. In each case, moreover, the experimental working out of the hypothesis leads to a conclusion which compels the rejection of some of the actual data of the sources. Each view equally involves a violent treatment of the text.

    Furthermore, the sources exhibit, each within itself, a striking contradiction. They assert that Jesus felt Himself to be the Messiah; and yet from their presentation of His life it does not appear that He ever publicly claimed to be so. They attribute to Him, that is, an attitude which has absolutely no connexion with the consciousness which they assume that He possessed. But once admit that the outward acts are not the natural expression of the self-consciousness and all exact historical knowledge is at an end; we have to do with an isolated fact which is not referable to any law.

    This being so, the only way of arriving at a conclusion of any value is to experiment, to test, by working them out, the two hypotheses — that Jesus felt Himself to be the Messiah, as the sources assert, or that He did not feel Himself to be so, as His conduct implies; or else to try to conjecture what kind of Messianic consciousness His must have been, if it left His conduct and His discourses unaffected. For one thing is certain; the whole account of the last days at Jerusalem would be unintelligible, if we had to suppose that the mass of the people had a shadow of a suspicion that Jesus held Himself to be the Messiah.

    Again, whereas in general a personality is to some extent defined by the world of thought which it shares with its contemporaries, in the case of Jesus this source of information is as unsatisfactory as the documents.

    What was the nature of the contemporary Jewish world of thought? To that question no clear answer can be given. We do not know whether the expectation of the Messiah was generally current or whether it was the faith of a mere sect. With the Mosaic religion as such it had nothing to do. There was no organic connexion between the religion of legal observance and the future hope. Further, if the eschatological hope was generally current, was it the prophetic or the apocalyptic form of that hope? We know the Messianic expectations of the prophets; we know the apocalyptic picture as drawn by Daniel, and, following him, by Enoch and the Psalms of Solomon before the coming of Jesus, and by the Apocalypses of Ezra and Baruch about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. But we do not know which was the popular form; nor, supposing that both were combined into one picture, what this picture really looked like. We know only the form of eschatology which meets us in the Gospels and in the Pauline epistles; that is to say, the form which it took in the Christian community in consequence of the coming of Jesus. And to combine these three — the prophetic, the Late-Jewish apocalyptic, and the Christian — has not proved possible.

    Even supposing we could obtain more exact information regarding the popular Messianic expectations at the time of Jesus, we should still not know what form they assumed in the self-consciousness of One who knew Himself to be the Messiah but held that the time was not yet come for Him to reveal Himself as such. We only know their aspect from without, as a waiting for the Messiah and the Messianic Age; we have no clue to their aspect from within as factors in the Messianic self-consciousness. We possess no psychology of the Messiah. The Evangelists have nothing to tell us about it, because Jesus told them nothing about it; the sources for the contemporary spiritual life inform us only concerning the eschatological expectation. For the form of the Messianic self-consciousness of Jesus we have to fall back upon conjecture.

    Such is the character of the problem, and, as a consequence, historical experiment must here take the place of historical research. That being so, it is easy to understand that to take a survey of the study of the life of Jesus is to be confronted, at first sight, with a scene of the most boundless confusion. A series of experiments are repeated with constantly varying modifications suggested by the results furnished by the subsidiary sciences. Most of the writers, however, have no suspicion that they are merely repeating an experiment which has often been made before. Some of them discover this in the course of their work to their own great astonishment — it is so, for instance, with Wrede, who recognises that he is working out, though doubtless with a clearer consciousness of his aim, an idea of Bruno Bauer's.[1] If old Reimarus were to come back again, he might confidently give himself out to be the latest of the moderns, for his work rests upon a recognition of the exclusive importance of eschatology, such as only recurs again in Johannes Weiss.

    Progress, too, is curiously fitful, with long intervals of marking time between the advances. From Strauss down to the 'nineties there was no real progress, if one takes into consideration only the complete Lives of Jesus which appeared. But a number of separate problems took a more clearly defined form, so that in the end the general problem suddenly moved forward, as it seemed, with a jerk.

    There is really no common standard by which to judge the works with which we have to do. It is not the most orderly narratives, those which weave in conscientiously every detail of the text, which have advanced the study of the subject, but precisely the eccentric ones, those that take the greatest liberties with the text. It is not by the mass of facts that a writer sets down alongside of one another as possible — because he writes easily and there is no one there to contradict him, and because facts on paper do not come into collision so sharply as they do in reality — it is not in that way that he shows his power of reconstructing history, but by that which he recognises as impossible. The constructions of Reimarus and Bruno Bauer have no solidity; they are mere products of the imagination. But there is much more historical power in their clear grasp of a single definite problem, which has blinded them to all else, than there is in the circumstantial works of Beyschlag and Bernard Weiss.

    But once one has accustomed oneself to look for certain definite landmarks amid this apparent welter of contusion one begins at last to discover in vague outline the course followed, and the progress made, by the critical study of the life of Jesus.

    It falls, immediately, into two periods, that before Strauss and that after Strauss. The dominant interest in the first is the question of miracle. What terms are possible between a historical treatment and the acceptance of supernatural events? With the advent of Strauss this problem found a solution, viz., that these events have no rightful place in the history, but are simply mythical elements in the sources. The way was thus thrown open. Meanwhile, alongside of the problem of the supernatural, other problems had been dimly apprehended. Reimarus had drawn attention to the contemporary eschatological views; Hase, in his first Life of Jesus (1829), had sought to trace a development in the self-consciousness of Jesus.

    But on this point a clear view was impossible, because all the students of the subject were still basing their operations upon the harmony of the Synoptics and the Fourth Gospel; which means that they had not so far felt the need of a historically intelligible outline of the life of Jesus. Here, too, Strauss, was the lightbringer. But the transient illumination was destined to be obscured by the Marcan hypothesis,[1] which now came to the front. The necessity of choosing between John and the Synoptists was first fully established by the Tubingen school; and the right relation of this question to the Marcan hypothesis was subsequently shown by Holtzmann.

    While these discussions of the preliminary literary questions were in progress the main historical problem of the life of Jesus was slowly rising into view. The question began to be mooted: what was the significance of eschatology for the mind of Jesus? With this problem was associated, in virtue of an inner connexion which was not at first suspected, the problem of the self-consciousness of Jesus. At the beginning of the 'nineties it was generally felt that, in the solution given to this dual problem, and in some measure assured knowledge of the outward and inward course of the life of Jesus had been reached. At this point Johannes Weiss revived the comprehensive claim of Reimarus on behalf of eschatology; and scarcely had criticism adjusted its attitude to this question when Wrede renewed the attempt of Bauer and Volkmar to eliminate altogether the Messianic element from the life of Jesus.

    We are now once more in the midst of a period of great activity in the study of the subject. On the one side we are offered a historical solution, on the other a literary. The question at issue is: Is it possible to explain the contradiction between the Messianic consciousness of Jesus and His non-Messianic discourses and actions by means of a conception of His Messianic consciousness which will make it appear that He could not have acted otherwise than as the Evangelists describe; or must we endeavour to explain the contradiction by taking the non-Messianic discourses and actions as our fixed point, denying the reality of His Messianic self-consciousness and regarding it as a later interpolation of the beliefs of the Christian community into the life of Jesus? In the latter case the Evangelists are supposed to have attributed these Messianic claims to Jesus because the early Church held Him to be the Messiah, but to have contradicted themselves by describing His life as it actually was, viz., as the life of a prophet, not of one who held Himself to be the Messiah. To put it briefly: Does the difficulty of explaining the historical personality of Jesus lie in the history itself, or only in the way in which it is represented in the sources?

    This alternative will be discussed in all the critical studies of the next few years. Once clearly posed it compels a decision. But no one can really understand the problem who has not a clear notion of the way in which it has shaped itself in the course of the investigation; no one can justly criticise, or appraise the value of, new contributions to the study of this subject unless he knows in what forms they have been presented before.

    The history of the study of the life of Jesus has hitherto received surprisingly little attention. Hase, in his Life of Jesus of 1829, briefly records the previous attempts to deal with the subject. Friedrich von Ammon, himself one of the most distinguished students in this department, in his "Progress of Christianity," [l] gives some information regarding "the most notable biographies of Jesus of the last fifty years." In the year 1865 Uhlhorn treated together the Lives of Jesus of Renan, Schenkel, and Strauss; in 1876 Hase, in his "History of Jesus," gave the only complete literary history of the subject; [2] in 1892 Uhlhorn extended his former lecture to include the works of Keim, Deiff, Beyschlag, and Weiss; [3] in 1898 Frentzen described, in a short essay, the progress of the study since Strauss; [4] in 1899 and 1900 Baldensperger gave, in the Theologische Rundschau, a survey of the most recent publications; [5] Weinel's book, "Jesus in the Nineteenth Century," naturally only gives an analysis of a few classical works; Otto Schmiedel's lecture on the "Main Problems of the Critical Study of the Life of Jesus" (1902) merely sketches the history of the subject in broad outline.[1]

    Apart from scattered notices in histories of theology this is practically all the literature of the subject. There is room for an attempt to bring order into the chaos of the Lives of Jesus. Hase made ingenious comparisons between them, but he was unable to group them according to inner principles, or to judge them justly. Weiss is for him a feebler descendant of Strauss, Bruno Bauer is the victim of a fantastic imagination. It would indeed have been difficult for Hase to discover in the works of his time any principle of division. But now, when the literary and eschatological methods of solution have led to complementary results, when the post-Straussian period of investigation seems to have reached a provisional close, and the goal to which it has been tending has become clear, the time seems ripe for the attempt to trace genetically in the successive works the shaping of the problem as it now confronts us, and to give a systematic historical account of the critical study of the life of Jesus. Our endeavour will be to furnish a graphic description of all the attempts to deal with the subject; and not to dismiss them with stock phrases or traditional labels, but to show clearly what they really did to advance the formulation of the problem, whether their contemporaries recognised it or not. In accordance with this principle many famous Lives of Jesus which have prolonged an honoured existence through many successive editions, will make but a poor figure, while others, which have received scant notice, will appear great. Behind Success comes Truth, and her reward is with her.

    THE RESULTS: THOSE WHO ARE FOND OF TALKING ABOUT NEGATIVE THEOLOGY CAN FIND their account here. There is nothing more negative than the result of the critical study of the Life of Jesus.

    The Jesus of Nazareth who came forward publicly as the Messiah, who preached the ethic of the Kingdom of God, who founded the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth, and died to give His work its final consecration, never had any existence. He is a figure designed by rationalism, endowed with life by liberalism, and clothed by modern theology in an historical garb.

    This image has not been destroyed from without, it has fallen to pieces, cleft and disintegrated by the concrete historical problems which came to the surface one after another, and in spite of all the artifice, art, artificiality, and violence which was applied to them, refused to be planed down to fit the design on which the Jesus of the theology of the last hundred and thirty years had been constructed, and were no sooner covered over than they appeared again in a new form. The thoroughgoing sceptical and the thoroughgoing eschatological school have only completed the work of destruction by linking the problems into a system and so making an end of the Divide et impera of modern theology, which undertook to solve each of them separately, that is, in a less difficult form. Henceforth it is no longer permissible to take one problem out of the series and dispose of it by itself, since the weight of the whole hangs upon each.

    Whatever the ultimate solution may be, the historical Jesus of whom the criticism of the future, taking as its starting-point the problems which have been recognised and admitted, will draw the portrait, can never render modern theology the services which it claimed from its own half-historical, half-modern, Jesus. He will be a Jesus, who was Messiah, and lived as such, either on the ground of a literary fiction of the earliest Evangelist, or on the ground of a purely eschatological Messianic conception.

    In either case, He will not be a Jesus Christ to whom the religion of the present can ascribe, according to its long-cherished custom, its own thoughts and ideas, as it did with the Jesus of its own making. Nor will He be a figure which can be made by a popular historical treatment so sympathetic and universally intelligible to the multitude. The historical Jesus will be to our time a stranger and an enigma.

    The study of the Life of Jesus has had a curious history. It set out in quest of the historical Jesus, believing that when it had found Him it could bring Him straight into our time as a Teacher and Saviour. It loosed the bands by which He had been riveted for centuries to the stony rocks of ecclesiastical doctrine, and rejoiced to see life and movement coming into the figure once more, and the historical Jesus advancing, as it seemed, to meet it. But He does not stay; He passes by our time and returns to His own. What surprised and dismayed the theology of the last forty years was that, despite all forced and arbitrary interpretations, it could not keep Him in our time, but had to let Him go. He returned to His own time, not owing to the application of any historical ingenuity, but by the same inevitable necessity by which the liberated pendulum returns to its original position.

    The historical foundation of Christianity as built up by rationalistic, by liberal, and by modern theology no longer exists; but that does not mean that Christianity has lost its historical foundation. The work which historical theology thought itself bound to carry out, and which fell to pieces just as it was nearing completion, was only the brick facing of the real immovable historical foundation which is independent of any historical comfirmation or justification.

    Jesus means something to our world because a mighty spiritual force streams forth from Him and flows through our time also. This fact can neither be shaken nor confirmed by any historical discovery. It is the solid foundation of Christianity.

    The mistake was to suppose that Jesus could come to mean more to our time by entering into it as a man like ourselves. That is not possible. First because such a Jesus never existed. Secondly because, although historical knowledge can no doubt introduce greater clearness into an existing spiritual life, it cannot call spiritual life into existence. History can destroy the present; it can reconcile the present with the past; can even to a certain extent transport the present into the past; but to contribute to the making of the present is not given unto it.

    But it is impossible to over-estimate the value of what German research upon the Life of Jesus has accomplished. It is a uniquely great expression of sincerity, one of the most significant events in the whole mental and spiritual life of humanity. What has been done for the religious life of the present and the immediate future by scholars such as P. W. Schmidt, Bousset, Jiilicher, Weinel, Wernle—and their pupil Frenssen—and the others who have been called to the task of bringing to the knowledge of wider circles, in a form which is popular without being superficial, the results of religious-historical study, only becomes evident when one examines the literature and social culture of the Latin nations, who have been scarcely if at all touched by the influence of these thinkers.

    And yet the time of doubt was bound to come. We modern theologians are too proud of our historical method, too proud of our historical Jesus, too confident in our belief in the spiritual gains which our historical theology can bring to the world. The thought that we could build up by the increase of historical knowledge a new and vigorous Christianity and set free new spiritual forces, rules us like a fixed idea, and prevents us from seeing that the task which we have grappled with and in some measure discharged is only one of the intellectual preliminaries of the great religious task. We thought that it was for us to lead our time by a roundabout way through the historical Jesus, as we understood Him, in order to bring it to the Jesus who is a spiritual power in the present. This roundabout way has now been closed by genuine history.

    There was a danger of our thrusting ourselves between men and the Gospels, and refusing to leave the individual man alone with the sayings of Jesus.

    There was a danger that we should offer them a Jesus who was too small, because we had forced Him into conformity with our human standards and human psychology. To see that, one need only read the Lives of Jesus written since the 'sixties, and notice what they have made of the great imperious sayings of the Lord, how they have weakened down His imperative world-contemning demands upon individuals, that He might not come into conflict with our ethical ideals, and might tune His denial of the world to our acceptance of it. Many of the greatest sayings are found lying in a corner like explosive shells from which the charges have been removed. No small portion of elemental religious power needed to be drawn off from His sayings to prevent them from conflicting with our system of religious world-acceptance. We have made Jesus hold another language with our time from that which He really held.

    In the process we ourselves have been enfeebled, and have robbed our own thoughts of their vigour in order to project them back into history and make them speak to us out of the past. It is nothing less than a misfortune for modern theology that it mixes history with everything and ends by being proud of the skill with which it finds its own thoughts— even to its beggarly pseudo-metaphysic with which it has banished genuine speculative metaphysic from the sphere of religion—in Jesus, and represents Him as expressing them. It had almost deserved the reproach: "he who putteth his hand to the plough, and looketh back, is not fit for the Kingdom of God."

    It was no small matter, therefore, that in the course of the critical study of the Life of Jesus, after a resistance lasting for two generations, during which first one expedient was tried and then another, theology was forced by genuine history to begin to doubt the artificial history with which it had thought to give new life to our Christianity, and to yield to the facts, which, as Wrede strikingly said, are sometimes the most radical critics of all. History will force it to find a way to transcend history, and to fight for the lordship and rule of Jesus over this world with weapons tempered in a different forge.

    We are experiencing what Paul experienced. In the very moment when we were coming nearer to the historical Jesus than men had ever come before, and were already stretching out our hands to draw Him into our own time, we have been obliged to give up the attempt and acknowledge our failure in that paradoxical saying: "If we have known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth know we Him no more." And further we must be prepared to find that the historical knowledge of the personality and life of Jesus will not be a help, but perhaps even an offence to religion.

    But the truth is, it is not Jesus as historically known, but Jesus as spiritually arisen within men, who is significant for our time and can help it. Not the historical Jesus, but the spirit which goes forth from Him and in the spirits of men strives for new influence and rule, is that which overcomes the world.

    It is not given to history to disengage that which is abiding and eternal in the being of Jesus from the historical forms in which it worked itself out, and to introduce it into our world as a living influence. It has toiled in vain at this undertaking. As a water-plant is beautiful so long as it is growing in the water, but once torn from its roots, withers and becomes unrecognisable, so it is with the historical Jesus when He is wrenched loose from the soil of eschatology, and the attempt is made to conceive Him "historically" as a Being not subject to temporal conditions. The abiding and eternal in Jesus is absolutely independent of historical knowledge and can only be understood by contact with His spirit which is still at work in the world. In proportion as we have the Spirit of Jesus we have the true knowledge of Jesus.

    Jesus as a concrete historical personality remains a stranger to our time, but His spirit, which lies hidden in His words, is known in simplicity, and its influence is direct. Every saying contains in its own way the whole Jesus. The very strangeness and unconditionedness in which He stands before us makes it easier for individuals to find their own personal standpoint in regard to Him.

    Men feared that to admit the claims of eschatology would abolish the significance of His words for our time; and hence there was a feverish eagerness to discover in them any elements that might be considered not eschatologically conditioned. When any sayings were found of which the wording did not absolutely imply an eschatological connexion there was a great jubilation—these at least had been saved uninjured from the coming debacle.

    But in reality that which is eternal in the words of Jesus is due to the very fact that they are based on an eschatological worldview, and contain the expression of a mind for which the contemporary world with its historical and social circumstances no longer had any existence. They are appropriate, therefore, to any world, for in every world they raise the man who dares to meet their challenge, and does not turn and twist them into meaninglessness, above his world and his time, making him inwardly free, so that he is fitted to be, in his own world and in his own time, a simple channel of the power of Jesus.

    Modern Lives of Jesus are too general in their scope. They aim at influencing, by giving a complete impression of the life of Jesus, a whole community. But the historical Jesus, as He is depicted in the Gospels, influenced individuals by the individual word. They understood Him so far as it was necessary for them to understand, without forming any conception of His life as a whole, since this in its ultimate aims remained a mystery even for the disciples.

    Because it is thus preoccupied with the general, the universal, modern theology is determined to find its world-accepting ethic in the teaching of Jesus. Therein lies its weakness. The world affirms itself automatically; the modern spirit cannot but affirm it. But why on that account abolish the conflict between modern life, with the world-affirming spirit which inspires it as a whole, and the world-negating spirit of Jesus? Why spare the spirit of the individual man its appointed task of fighting its way through the world-negation of Jesus, of contending with Him at every step over the value of material and intellectual goods—a conflict in which it may never rest? For the general, for the institutions of society, the rule is: affirmation of the world, in conscious opposition to the view of Jesus, on the ground that the world has affirmed itself! This general affirmation of the world, however, if it is to be Christian, must in the individual spirit be Christianised and transfigured by the personal rejection of the world which is preached in the sayings of Jesus. It is only by means of the tension thus set up that religious energy can be communicated to our time. There was a danger that modern theology, for the sake of peace, would deny the world-negation in the sayings of Jesus, with which Protestantism was out of sympathy, and thus unstring the bow and make Protestantism a mere sociological instead of a religious force. There was perhaps also a danger of inward insincerity in the fact that it refused to admit to itself and others that it maintained its affirmation of the world in opposition to the sayings of Jesus, simply because it could not do otherwise.

    For that reason it is a good thing that the true historical Jesus should overthrow the modern Jesus, should rise up against the modern spirit and send upon earth, not peace, but a sword. He was not teacher, not a casuist; He was an imperious ruler. It was because He was so in His inmost being that He could think of Himself as the Son of Man. That was only the temporally conditioned expression of the fact that He was an authoritative ruler. The names in which men expressed their recognition of Him as such, Messiah, Son of Man, Son of God, have become for us historical parables. We can find no designation which expresses what He is for us.

    He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lake-side, He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same word: "Follow thou me!" and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfil for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.

    Perhaps there is an original Michael/Horus/Mithras/Jesus story - which was a mixture of reality and fantasy - which then was repeated and embellished. Perhaps someone should write 'The Quest for the Historical Horus' as a companion to 'The Quest of the Historical Jesus'. What would Albert Schweitzer say? BTW - Dr. Schweitzer doubted the Historical Jesus, but highly valued the Teachings of Jesus. My present view is that the Four Gospels should be studied as a mental and spiritual exercise, and that people should then think and do whatever makes sense - under the influence of the words attributed to Jesus Christ. I struggle with probably 5% of the Red-Letters, and I sometimes ask 'Jesus! What were you thinking?' Perhaps someday, someone will write 'The Quest of the Historical Orthodoxymoron', 'The Demythologized Orthodoxymoron', 'The Moron Who Never Was', 'More On Orthodoxymoron', or 'Orthodoxymoron Never Existed'. I should stop.


    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Schweitzer
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Scan10016
    The United States of America is sometimes called a 'Christian Nation' and it is often implied or stated that the Founders intended it to be such. But what is the truth of the matter? As many of you know, I have been testing the concept of a Responsibility-Based United States of the Solar System. I consider myself to be a Christian, but I no longer attend church, and my views don't seem to match those of any churches or religious leaders. I continue to think we should look very closely at Psychology, Ethics, Politics, and Religion -- in an idealistic manner -- but no one really seems to wish to have anything to do with me or my views.


    Consider studying the Teachings of Jesus in a Red-Letter King James Version of the Holy Bible. I support the Teachings of Jesus, yet there are some hard sayings contained therein. Should the most problematic of these sayings be expunged -- or are we faced with an all or nothing situation? How about underlining your favorite Teachings of Christ in one color, and underlining the problematic or hard sayings in another color -- and then focusing upon your favorites? Can we use common sense in this matter?

    Are we dealing with Three Archangelic New World Order Factions of a Babylonian and/or Egyptian Old World Order? Are we dealing primarily with Egypt, Italy, Germany, and France? Whatever the case may be, I think this thing is really nasty and complex. I also think that most of us are not up to the task of properly sorting all of this out. If you think that you are an exception, try going through this entire thread, including all of the references and links, and REALLY internalize all of this, and see what YOU come up with. As far as I can tell, NO ONE has done this, other than perhaps the Queen of Heaven and God of This World. Or perhaps their minions have furnished them with periodic reports...

    So, where do I go from here? Where would I end up if I overdosed on the following?

    1. Nature.
    2. The Four Gospels.
    3. Sacred Classical Music.
    4. The Federalist Papers.
    5. The Anti-Federalist Papers.
    6. The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

    I feel as though I need some resolution to all of my delving into this, and delving into that. Or perhaps I should delve into Zoroastrianism, and meditate upon the Zoroastrian Jesus, flying high above the altar of the Cathedral of St. John, the Divine...


    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Founding-Fathers-Rap-Independece-Day
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Founding-Fathers-Faith_thumb%5B1%5D

    Within this thread, I feel as though I am in the process of confronting pilot and co-pilot hijackers on a commercial airliner, with the original pilot and co-pilot drugged, unconscious, and handcuffed in a locked lavatory at the back of the plane. I know what the culprits are up to, but how do I overpower them? And even if I were successful, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FLY THE DAMN PLANE!!! Should I ask the hijackers to give me flying lessons??? Does anyone understand what I'm hinting at? I might have to learn how to think like the hijackers, but without becoming evil and corrupt. Is this even possible? Is it possible to be so heavenly-minded, that one is of no earthly good? How would one begin to interact with the existing Pawns That Be in an effective and constructive manner, and to begin righting the wrongs, without being a puritanical and self-righteous completely ignorant fool??? Obviously, this is just more imaginary role-playing, but this hypothetical situation is worth reflecting upon. I feel like I need to start reading about the Alphabet Agencies, the Jesuits, the Vatican, the Secret Space Program, JPL, the Masons, the Nazis, and all manner of political and religious corruption and intrigue -- in order to not just be some completely useless goody-goody two shoes -- in a very screwed-up and corrupt world. I'm reading about Watergate right now, and I think I'll re-watch the original French movie 'Nikita'. Does anyone have a clue what I'm talking about?? Anyone?? Nice Kitty!? Don't laugh. They might have cats like these in Deep Underground Military Bases -- just waiting to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting general public. Ever heard of Project SCATology -- under the direction of Pinky and the Brain? They use a CAT Scanner for quality control. Is it possible to think deeply about all of this crap -- without going nuts?? I'm not going irrational nuts -- but I am somewhat despondent and demoralized -- and it's getting worse. Solving our immediate problems might just be the beginning. Our long-term galactic problems might be infinitely worse. I wish I were kidding, but my view of the universe is not a happy one, and I'm trying to imagine worst case scenarios. What would Robert Harold Schuller and Norman Vincent Peale say?

    Is there anyone in the solar system who has taken an approach similar to the one I have taken within this thread? I'm not doing well personally, but I think I've covered significant territory over the past couple of years. I continue to be amazed at how the evil, corrupt, and filthy-rich people just keep going and going and going -- like the Energizer Bunny. I'm also amazed at the energy of people like Alex Jones, who I generally agree with conceptually, but who I couldn't even begin to keep up with. Should I try to be a hard-hitting dynamo like him? Should I stop pulling my punches? Should I start studying the thousand richest individuals in the solar system? Who are the thousand most significant individuals in the solar system -- on a soul-level? Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of God? Should I even ask some of these questions? How should I best proceed with the concept of a Responsibility-Based United States of the Solar System? How should I best proceed with a University of Solar System Studies and Governance? Should I just keep doing what I'm doing, and let others deal with the details and logistics? Should I promote this thread like Alex Jones? Should I try to hob-nob with the PTB to promote my biases? Should I write books? Should I write science fiction scripts? There continues to be very little interest generated by my efforts on this site, especially when one considers that I keep this thread at the top of the list by commenting on my own thread -- several times a day. If I didn't do that, there would be very few views. On the other hand, the 'Amen Ra' thread on the original Project Avalon site has received around 160,000 views -- most of those AFTER the shut-down.  

    What do you think about the efforts of Alex Jones? Is he making a constructive contribution to our world -- or is he just stirring up a lot of trouble, and unleashing anger and a spirit of anarchy in the general public? He seems to be doing a lot better than I am, and he seems to be a lot smarter than I am -- yet I hesitate to emulate his approach. Is he a genuine thinker, or is he a spokesman for a research group? What is the net worth of someone like Alex? He seems to be doing very well investing in gold, and he seems to be well prepared for the trouble which so many seem to be pointing toward. I listened to Rush Limbaugh in the 1990's -- but I became disillusioned with his approach around the time of Y2K. I generally agreed with him -- yet I always felt uneasy with his bombastic and nasty broadcasting style. Did Rush really make things better -- or did he simply conjure-up trouble? Both Rush and Alex tend to make people angry -- regardless of their editorial views. Is this a good thing? If a lot of my speculation is correct, we could REALLY be in trouble. A lot more trouble than even Alex thinks we're in. Who is the biggest threat to the dark-side? Might the biggest threat to the Hidden Dark PTB be relatively unknown? I wonder. Are people like Rush and Alex really 'White-Knights'? I don't know. All I know is that they are a helluva lot more successful and popular than I will ever be. Should I be jealous, or should I be happy for them?

    I think I should probably thank them for presenting the Conservative Perspective in such a forceful and articulate manner -- but I should probably not try to be like them -- even if my approach keeps me in the poor-house -- or in no-house -- as a completely broke, completely broken, completely ignorant fool, with no self-governance -- and as a sinner in the hands of the vengeful deities who I refuse to play ball with. I wish to make it clear that I am not in bed with anyone, other than my dog, and I am not racist or factional. I am embracing the Teachings of Jesus, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights -- because of their Universality, and not because of their Exclusivity. However, I do keep an open mind regarding the possibility that both the Teachings of Jesus and the U.S. Constitution might've been corrupted with various additions and deletions. There are the hard-sayings of Jesus. There is Article 6 and the 16th Amendment. I understand this, and there is probably a lot more which I do not understand. But I desire that this Solar System become a Responsibility-Based United States of the Solar System, with an uncorrupted and properly adapted form of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, with 10,000 U.S.S.S. Representatives with PhD's in Solar System Studies and Governance, obtained from a University of Solar System Studies and Governance, with scores of campuses located throughout the Solar System. This basic concept can be refined over time, in an evolutionary, rather than a revolutionary, manner. I want the corruption and wars to cease and desist. I want all wrongs righted. This is not a complicated concept.

    Just let the various Eric Jon Phelps videos play, for a real education. I don't share his white-bias, even though I'm white. I don't share his Baptist-bias, even though I am a non church-going follower of the Teachings of Jesus. I appreciate his vast grasp of history, and his ability to connect dots. Tell me what you think. I continue to wish to understand, rather than condemn. So, really, I'm a lot softer than Eric Jon Phelps. I really wish for things to work out well for virtually EVERYONE, with some notable exceptions perhaps, which I'm not prepared to name, at this point in time...



    I continue to think that science fiction is an important part of this thread. Most of us don't have Cosmic Clearance - so we have to make due with the scraps of information we get fed in the mass media. The higher ups don't want us simple cattle to stampede! But really - I mean absolutely no harm. Not yet. Here is Part 2 of a cool-interview with Robert Wood and William Tompkins!!

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    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 2_two_km_spacecraft_carrier_drawing


    Last edited by orthodoxymoron on Sat Jul 20, 2019 2:03 pm; edited 3 times in total
    orthodoxymoron
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    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Empty Re: United States AI Solar System (9)

    Post  orthodoxymoron Fri Jul 19, 2019 9:06 am

    Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

    I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

    I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

    For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

    For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

    And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

    We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him— these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

    What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

    Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

    If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

    This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God. Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.

    For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

    I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church. Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit?

    It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

    I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

    If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church? I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers! The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

    “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

    Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all of you were as I am.

    But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife. To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or the sister is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

    Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts. Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them. Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings. Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.

    Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God. So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.

    Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. Don’t we have the right to food and drink? Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? Or is it only I and Barnabas who lack the right to not work for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk? Do I say this merely on human authority? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because whoever plows and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?

    If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me, for I would rather die than allow anyone to deprive me of this boast. For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel.

    Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

    For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

    Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf. Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

    “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.  

    Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.  

    Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is. Are you pledged to a woman? Do not seek to be released. Are you free from such a commitment? Do not look for a wife. But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this. What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away. I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord.

    But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. If anyone is worried that he might not be acting honorably toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if his passions are too strong and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married. But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin—this man also does the right thing. So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does better. A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord. In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is—and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

    Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you. But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head. A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels. Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God. Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.

    In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter! For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

    For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world. So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment. And when I come I will give further directions.

    Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

    Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.

    And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

    If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

    Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified. Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction? Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the pipe or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes? Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?

    So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker is a foreigner to me. So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church. For this reason the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret what they say. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.

    So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying? You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue. Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.

    In the Law it is written: “With other tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is not for unbelievers but for believers. So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”

    What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God. Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.

    Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? If anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. But if anyone ignores this, they will themselves be ignored. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.

    Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

    But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

    Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.

    But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.

    And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

    Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me. After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you—for I will be going through Macedonia. Perhaps I will stay with you for a while, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me. When Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on the work of the Lord, just as I am. No one, then, should treat him with contempt. Send him on his way in peace so that he may return to me.

    I am expecting him along with the brothers. Now about our brother Apollos: I strongly urged him to go to you with the brothers. He was quite unwilling to go now, but he will go when he has the opportunity. Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love. You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the Lord’s people. I urge you, brothers and sisters, to submit to such people and to everyone who joins in the work and labors at it. I was glad when Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus arrived, because they have supplied what was lacking from you. For they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition. The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house. All the brothers and sisters here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. If anyone does not love the Lord, let that person be cursed! Come, Lord! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen.
    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


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    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Empty Re: United States AI Solar System (9)

    Post  orthodoxymoron Fri Jul 19, 2019 9:10 am

    Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all his holy people throughout Achaia: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

    Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace. For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that, as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus. Because I was confident of this, I wanted to visit you first so that you might benefit twice. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia, and then to have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I fickle when I intended to do this? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say both “Yes, yes” and “No, no”? But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. I call God as my witness—and I stake my life on it—that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.

    So I made up my mind that I would not make another painful visit to you. For if I grieve you, who is left to make me glad but you whom I have grieved? I wrote as I did, so that when I came I would not be distressed by those who should have made me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would all share my joy. For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.

    If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

    Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.

    Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

    Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

    Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

    We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

    For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

    Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

    As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.”I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything. We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also.

    Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

    Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one. I do not say this to condemn you; I have said before that you have such a place in our hearts that we would live or die with you. I have spoken to you with great frankness; I take great pride in you. I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds. For when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort you had given him. He told us about your longing for me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me, so that my joy was greater than ever. Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while— yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

    See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. So even though I wrote to you, it was neither on account of the one who did the wrong nor on account of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are. By all this we are encouraged. In addition to our own encouragement, we were especially delighted to see how happy Titus was, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you. I had boasted to him about you, and you have not embarrassed me. But just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting about you to Titus has proved to be true as well. And his affection for you is all the greater when he remembers that you were all obedient, receiving him with fear and trembling. I am glad I can have complete confidence in you.

    And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you —see that you also excel in this grace of giving. I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

    And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”

    Thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same concern I have for you. For Titus not only welcomed our appeal, but he is coming to you with much enthusiasm and on his own initiative. And we are sending along with him the brother who is praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel. What is more, he was chosen by the churches to accompany us as we carry the offering, which we administer in order to honor the Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help. We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift. For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man. In addition, we are sending with them our brother who has often proved to us in many ways that he is zealous, and now even more so because of his great confidence in you. As for Titus, he is my partner and co-worker among you; as for our brothers, they are representatives of the churches and an honor to Christ. Therefore show these men the proof of your love and the reason for our pride in you, so that the churches can see it.

    There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the Lord’s people. For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say anything about you—would be ashamed of having been so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.

    Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

    By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. You are judging by appearances. If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do. So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it.

    I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.” Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present. We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you. We are not going too far in our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ. Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else’s territory. But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

    I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me! I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.” I may indeed be untrained as a speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way. Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge?

    I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you. And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so. As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do! And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

    I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then tolerate me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face. To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that! Whatever anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more.

    I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.

    I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

    I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing. I persevered in demonstrating among you the marks of a true apostle, including signs, wonders and miracles. How were you inferior to the other churches, except that I was never a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong! Now I am ready to visit you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you, because what I want is not your possessions but you. After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less? Be that as it may, I have not been a burden to you.

    Yet, crafty fellow that I am, I caught you by trickery! Did I exploit you through any of the men I sent to you? I urged Titus to go to you and I sent our brother with him. Titus did not exploit you, did he? Did we not walk in the same footsteps by the same Spirit? Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? We have been speaking in the sight of God as those in Christ; and everything we do, dear friends, is for your strengthening. For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.

    This will be my third visit to you. “Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” I already gave you a warning when I was with you the second time. I now repeat it while absent: On my return I will not spare those who sinned earlier or any of the others, since you are demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him in our dealing with you. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong—not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is that you may be fully restored. This is why I write these things when I am absent, that when I come I may not have to be harsh in my use of authority—the authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down.

    Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All God’s people here send their greetings. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
    orthodoxymoron
    orthodoxymoron


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    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Empty Re: United States AI Solar System (9)

    Post  orthodoxymoron Fri Jul 19, 2019 9:16 am

    However one puts things together, it always seems to be ultimately wrong. There's always another way to do things. There's always discontent and rebellion. Perhaps that's why we seem to live in Purgatory Incorporated. Perhaps when we rebelled against God and Heaven we were damned to a Godless Purgatory for All Eternity. I have no agenda at this point. This is honestly a fact-finding mission. I'm suspecting that I'm NOT supposed to take sides. I'm probably supposed to not talk, and just silently observe this thing play-out. I think I've posted on the internet out of frustration regarding the state of church and state (or something to that effect). I can cut the hatred with a knife (online and in real-life). I wish to remind everyone that I've been told that we need to start over (in an eschatological sense).

    Some of us need to read the following sources carefully and prayerfully, regardless of any difficulties and inconsistencies: 1. Prophets and Kings. 2. Job through Daniel. 3. The Desire of Ages. What REALLY emerges from a VERY careful study?? This is extremely complex and intricate material, in rather profound ways. But is a lot of it historical-fiction and wishful-thinking?? How do we REALLY know anything of significance regarding Antiquity and the Other-Worldly?? Privately studying this stuff is one thing, but making everyone study and follow it is quite another (to say the least)!! Consider the Royal-Model Queen-Theme!! What Would Delenn Say?? What Would Vala Mal Doran Say?? What Would Daniel Jackson Say?? There might be more to what I just said than you think!! This whole thing is really a war, and I don't think things are going to improve anytime soon. Just try to be "nice". Can't we all just get along?? I didn't think so. I almost don't care about responses or notice, at this point. I simply wish to place certain things on the record.


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    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Strugnell John Strugnell (May 25, 1930 – November 30, 2007) was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire, UK. At the age of 23 he became the youngest member of the team of scholars led by Roland de Vaux, formed in 1954 to edit the Dead Sea Scrolls in Jerusalem. He was studying Oriental languages at Jesus College, Oxford when Sir Godfrey Rolles Driver, a lecturer in Semitic philology, nominated him to join the Scrolls editorial team. Although Strugnell had no previous experience in palaeography he learned very quickly to read the scrolls. He would be involved in the Dead Sea Scrolls project for more than forty years.[1] John Strugnell died in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 30, 2007. Strugnell was educated at St. Paul's School in London. He took a double first in Classics and Semitics at Oxford but never finished his dissertation and only held a master's degree. Despite not having completed his doctorate, Strugnell was given a position at the Oriental Institute of Chicago in 1956-1957, where he met his future wife, Cecile Pierlot, whose father had been Prime Minister of Belgium during the Second World War.

    He was away from his scrolls again from 1960 to 1967, this time at Duke University, though he returned in summers to continue his efforts in Jerusalem. Still without his doctorate, as he would be for the rest of his life, Strugnell served from 1966-1991 as Professor of Christian Origins at Harvard.[2] He succeeded Pierre Benoit as editor-in-chief of the scrolls in 1984, a position he held until 1990. During this period he was responsible for bringing Elisha Qimron and Emanuel Tov to work on the scrolls, breaking the longstanding exclusion of Israeli scholars.[1] At the same time, he kept notable scholars such as Theodor Gaster and Robert Eisenman from having access to the scrolls, a situation that was rectified when Strugnell was removed from his post and the scrolls (such as those at the Huntington Library in California) were opened to the wider scholarly community for the first time.[3][4]

    His production of editions of texts was not large, but the texts which he did publish were all exceptionally important, including "The Angelic Liturgy", later published as Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifices (Shirot 'olat ha-Shabbat), and "An Unpublished halakhic Letter from Qumran", later known as MMT [or 4QMMT] from the Hebrew (Miqtsat Ma'asei ha-Torah), this latter text being edited with Elisha Qimron, who did much of the work. These texts helped to enrich scholarly knowledge of the cultus of the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Nevertheless, he was a slow worker and the times had changed since it was acceptable to keep the scrolls protected from what was once considered misuse and hasty publication.

    For many years, scholars had accepted the lack of access to unpublished texts and the slow publication of the texts. This changed during Strugnell's editorship, for there came a growing movement of scholars calling for access to the Scrolls. By this time his health had deteriorated. Only one volume was produced under his general editorship, The Greek Minor Prophets Scroll from Nahal Hever, by Emanuel Tov.

    In 1990, Strugnell gave an interview to Ha'aretz in which he said that Judaism was a "horrible religion" which "should not exist". He also said that Judaism was "a Christian heresy, and we deal with our heretics in different ways. You are a phenomenon that we haven't managed to convert — and we should have managed."[5][not in citation given]

    There was immediate condemnation of his comments, including an editorial in the New York Times. As a result of the interview, Strugnell was forced to take early retirement on medical grounds at Harvard,[2] and he was finally removed from his editorial post on the scrolls project, the Antiquities Authority citing his deteriorating health as reason for his removal.[5]

    Strugnell later said that he was suffering from stress-induced alcoholism and manic depression when he gave the interview. He insisted that his remarks were taken out of context, and he only meant "horrible" in the Miltonian sense of "deplored in antiquity". In a 2007 interview in Biblical Archaeology Review, Frank Moore Cross said that despite Strugnell's comments, which were based on a theological argument of the early Church Fathers that Christianity superseded Judaism, Strugnell had very friendly relationships with a number of Jewish scholars, some of whom signed a letter of support for him which was published in the Chicago Tribune, January 4, 1991, pg. N20.

    Strugnell had come increasingly under controversy for his slow progress in publishing the scrolls, and his refusal to give scholars free access to the unpublished scrolls. Some[who?] argue the removal of Strugnell from his editorial post ended the more than three-decade blockade that he and other Harvard-educated scholars, such as Notre Dame's Eugene Ulrich, had maintained to keep other scholars from accessing the scrolls.[6] The blockade on the publication of the scrolls effected by Strugnell and other members of Harvard's academic community was broken by the combined efforts of Hershel Shanks of the Biblical Archaeology Review (who had personally waged a 15-year campaign to release the scrolls) and Ben Zion Wacholder of Hebrew Union College, along with his student, Martin Abegg, who published the first facsimile of the suppressed scrolls in 1991.[7] Strugnell insisted that he tried to publish the scrolls as quickly as he could but that his team was the limiting factor.

    Shortly after Strugnell was dismissed from his post, he was institutionalized in McLean Hospital for a period. At the time of his death, he was Professor Emeritus at the Harvard Divinity School.

    In 2003, City Seminary of Sacramento acquired Strugnell's library of over 4,000 volumes, including texts on Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Ethiopic — as well as works on Greek and Latin, and large sections on classical studies, Patristics (Early Church writings), apocryphal and pseudepigraphal (falsely attributed) literature, and books on Judaism, Christianity, Hebrew Bible and New Testament studies. A highlight of the collection is Strugnell’s personal copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls concordance. The early scrolls team made a concordance of the words in the unpublished texts to assist their own work.[8][9]

    References

    1.^ Jump up to: a b Sidnie White Crawford, "John Strugnell (1930–2007)" Obituary, Bible History Daily, Biblical Archaeology Society (11 December 2007). Retrieved 22-11-2013.
    2.^ Jump up to: a b The Times obituary December 29, 2007
    3.Jump up ^ John Noble Wilford, "John Strugnell, Scholar Undone by His Slur, Dies at 77," The New York Times (December 9 2007). Retrieved 22-11-2013.
    4.Jump up ^ John Noble Wilford, "Open, Dead Sea Scrolls Stir Up New Disputes," The New York Times (April 19 1992). Retrieved 22-11-2013.
    5.^ Jump up to: a b "Scrolls' Editor Is Formally Dismissed," The New York Times (January 1, 1991). Retrieved 22-11-2013.
    6.Jump up ^ 'Copies Of Dead Sea Scrolls To Go Public -- Release Would End Scholars' Dispute' - The Seattle Times 22 September 1991
    7.Jump up ^ James R. Adair, Jr, "Old and New in Textual Criticism: Similarities, Differences, and Prospects for Cooperation," A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism (1996)]
    8.Jump up ^ Strugnell Collection in the City Seminary of Sacramento[dead link]
    9.Jump up ^ Detroit Jewish News
    Article by John J. Collins on John Strugnell, in The Encyclopaedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. Lawrence Schiffman and James VanderKam, Oxford, 2000.
    The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls, James VanderKam and Peter Flint, HarperSanFransisco, 2002.
    "Headliners: Fallen Scholar", New York Times, Week in Review, December 16, 1990
    Ron Rosenbaum, "The Riddle of the Scrolls", Vanity Fair, reprinted in The Secret Parts of Fortune


    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Re16


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Eisenman Robert Eisenman is an American biblical scholar, theoretical writer, historian, archaeologist, and "road" poet. He is currently Professor of Middle East Religions, Archaeology, and Islamic Law and director of the Institute for the Study of Judaeo-Christian Origins at California State University Long Beach.

    Eisenman led the campaign to free up access to the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1980s and 90s, and, as a result of this campaign, is associated with the theory that combines Essenes with Palestinian messianism (or what some might refer to as "Palestinian Christianity") — a theory opposed to establishment or consensus scholarship. His views in the field of Christian origins are highly controversial, with critics accusing Eisenman of backing up his allegations with "dubious circumstantial evidence and insinuations".[1]

    Before this, Eisenman spent five years "on the road" in the USA, Europe, and the Middle East as far as India, encapsulating all these things in his poetic travel Diario (1959–62), published in 2007 by North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California and called The New Jerusalem, in which he describes the San Francisco "Beat" scene in 1958–59, Paris when still a "moveable feast", working on kibbutzim in Israel, the Peace Corps, and several voyages on the overland route to India.

    Eisenman is from New Jersey. His brother is deconstructionist architect Peter Eisenman — best known for his design of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, the Visitor’s Center at Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and the Arizona Cardinal Football Stadium.

    Eisenman (like Thomas Pynchon[2]) majored for two and a half years in Engineering Physics (a course which was intended to prepare students to enter nuclear physics), graduated B.A. from Cornell University in Physics and Philosophy in 1958. He received an M.A. Degree in Hebrew and Near Eastern Studies with Abraham Katsh from New York University in 1966.[3] He received a Ph.D. Degree from Columbia University in Middle East Languages and Cultures in 1971 with a Minor in Jewish Studies and a Major in Islamic Law where he studied with Joseph Schacht. He was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the American Schools of Oriental Research, Jerusalem, Israel, 1985–86 and, in 1986–87, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Oxford, England.

    He is Professor of Middle East Religions, Archaeology, and Islamic Law and the Director of the Institute for the Study of Judeo-Christian and Islamic Origins at California State University Long Beach. He is also a Visiting Senior Member of Linacre College, Oxford University, and was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (American Schools of Oriental Research) in Jerusalem.

    Eisenman grew up in South Orange, New Jersey and went to Columbia High School in Maplewood, but skipped his senior year to take up an acceptance in the Engineering Physics Department at Cornell University. In his junior year Eisenman moved, first to Philosophy to study with Max Black, then on to Comparative Literature (John Senior), and then back to Philosophy to graduate in 1958 with a major in Aesthetics and a minor in Physics.

    Eisenman left college and immediately took to the road (it was the time of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road published the previous year 1957), but now not nationally, internationally. People who knew him then say he was the first to introduce American tennis shoes — substitutes for his college "white bucks" — as white walking shoes to Europe (see the picture at right)[4] and the first American “backpacker” they ever saw (Australians, New Zealanders, and assorted Europeans had been doing it earlier).[5]

    Stopping in Paris, he spent the Fall in Alt Aussee in Austria; and from there down to Vienna, Greece, Athens, and ultimately Hydra Island, where he was entertained by the Norwegian writer and poet Axel Jensen and his wife Marianne (later immortalized by Leonard Cohen in his song “So Long, Marianne”).

    Having been accepted for graduate study in Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley, Eisenman returned to the U.S. via Paris and Cape Cod and ultimately went across the country by Greyhound Bus to San Francisco where he found a room on Russian Hill and tested the scene at North Beach. When he finally went across the Bay to register at UC Berkeley, what he saw reminded him so much of Cornell (Bermuda shorts, bobby socks, fraternities/sororities, etc. – this was a decade before the Free Speech Movement there) that he ripped up his computer punch cards right on the Registration line in the Armory and tossed them into a wastepaper basket.[6]

    He then hitchhiked back across the country[7] and returned to Paris. From 1959 to 1960, Eisenman stayed at “the Beat Hotel” where he encountered the likes of William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, et al.,[8] but he was not really interested in these sorts of persons or their scene. All this he documents in The New Jerusalem: A Millennium Poetic/Prophetic Travel Diario, 1959–62,[9] published in 2007 and taken directly from the Free verse notebooks he kept during this period, which he in his "Introduction" and his publishers on the back cover both call "an Anti-Beat Manifesto".[10]

    He then went on to Israel and Jerusalem, where he had the epiphany of encountering members of his family of whom he had previously never heard (his great grandfather had gone to Jerusalem at the time of the Turks and was one of the founders of the Bikur Holim Hospital there, while his two oldest sons left him in Istanbul and came directly to America[11]), worked on Kibbutzim in the Galilee (1960–61 — he had previously worked on John F. Kennedy’s 1960 Campaign,[12]) and finally went back to join the first Peace Corps Group to go into the field. This, curiously enough, trained at the International House at UC Berkeley, so he was back to where he had started out; but while they went on to meet Kennedy on the White House lawn and to Ghana, he was flown back to New York because, as he saw it, he was on his way to India and the East not Africa.[13]

    Resuming his “Passage to India,” he returned to Paris, and then on to kibbutzim in the Galilee again.[14] The next Spring, after staying in monasteries throughout Israel, and a climactic fight with the future Israeli “Peace Pilot” at the California Café in Tel Aviv;[15] Eisenman made the last overland run from Cyprus, across Turkey, Iran, Beluchistan, and Pakistan by bus, train, and boat to India, where he ended his journey as a guest of, and sleeping in, the Jewish Synagogue of New Delhi,[16] most of whose members were up in the Simla Hill States because it was high summer and monsoon. He returned to Paris over the Indian Ocean, up the Red Sea, and across the Mediterranean.[17]

    From about 1986 onwards, Eisenman became the leading figure in the struggle to release and free the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Scrolls had been discovered from 1948 to 1956 in several waves, but after a suggestive article by literary critic Edmund Wilson in The New Yorker magazine,[18] editing more or less ground to a halt from about 1959 onwards.[19]

    This is not to say the Scrolls were not out. The Israelis had been very forthcoming with the first Scrolls that came into their possession from Cave I.[20] It was the Scrolls from later caves discovered like III-XI, which came in after 1948 and Partition and on-site excavations by persons like Dominican Father Roland de Vaux, which were the problem. In 1985–86, Eisenman, who had written his first book presenting, as he called it, “A New Theory of Qumran Origins” in 1983[21] and a follow-up on James as Righteous Teacher in 1985,[22] received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem (also known as “the American School") where Cave I Scrolls had first come in and been photographed in 1947–48.[23]

    Ostensibly he was to work on a project comparing the Jerusalem Community of James the Just to the Community at Qumran, but while at the American Schools of Oriental Research (then the Albright Institute) he found that there was nothing he could do – all paths being barred to him. Notwithstanding, he and a colleague, Philip Davies of Sheffield University, England, went in to see one of the curators of the Shrine of the Book and were told categorically, “You will not see the Scrolls in your lifetime.”[24] Subsequently he came into possession of the complete computer print-out of all the Scrolls in possession of the Israel Antiquities Authority, both those before 1967 and those afterwards at the Rockefeller Museum and, not three years later, a complete photographic archive of all previously unpublished materials from Cave IV all the way up to Cave XI.

    He sent a copy of this computer-generated print-out to the Editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, Hershel Shanks, which created a huge stir in the office and the campaign to free the Scrolls really began in earnest.[25]

    During his stay at Oxford University as a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and a Visiting Senior Member of Linacre College in 1986–87, a colleague had also passed him a xerox copy of 4QMMT, a document which had been talked about but which no one outside the inner circle had ever been allowed to see. This, too, he freely shared with anyone who wanted to see it as part of the campaign,[26] and, thereafter, it made the rounds.[27]

    At this time, too, he brought James Robinson – a colleague of his at Claremont University and the Editor of the Nag Hammadi Codices (a dispute similar to the Qumran one)[28] – into the mix and together they took the decision to publish all the unpublished photographs. This amounted to 1785 plates. The original publication (in microfiche form) was supposed to occur in April, 1991 through EJ Brill in Leiden, the Netherlands.

    However, a few weeks before publication, Brill's representative had attended a Scrolls Conference in Madrid, Spain and mistook the uproar there over Kapera’s publication the year before in Poland of the samizdat copy of 4QMMT he had received from Davies for a dispute over freedom of access to the Scrolls generally. Following this, newly appointed Israeli representatives came to Leiden and talked the Brill publishers out of the Eisenman/Robinson microfiche project and into a newly conceived one of their own.[29] So Eisenman and Robinson had to fall back on the offices of Hershel Shanks and the Biblical Archaeology Society who were unwilling to go to press before October/November of that year.[30] The publication was contracted by public interest attorney William John Cox.[31]

    While all these things were going on, Eisenman had been invited to become a consultant to the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, which had become aware that it had in its archive a collection of photographs of all the Dead Sea Scrolls, donated to it by Elizabeth Bechtel. The late William Moffett, its Director, asked whether he thought the Library should open its archive to all scholars. He was projecting this for September, two months before Eisenman's and Robinson’s own projected B.A.S. Edition. Eisenman encouraged him to do so, though he knew the Library would get most of the credit for breaking the monopoly and Robinson and he very little.[32]

    Since 1988, Eisenman has led the Judean Desert Explorations/Excavations Project under the auspices of the Institute for the Study of Judeo-Christian Origins at CSULB he headed. These expeditions included students from CSULB and other institutions. Its aim was to search for possible new caves that might contain scrolls. It was his feeling that, though the Bedouins in their enthusiasm to find artifacts had clearly been in almost all accessible caves, there might have been others, inaccessible to them or hidden in some manner or cave-ins. These were the best possibilities of finding new Scrolls.

    In the first expedition, between 1988 and 1989, he and his students were involved in the excavation of a cave a kilometer or two south of Qumran, in which they found some Bronze Age artifacts, including an arrow that had evidently been shot into the cave, which still displayed its lacquer rings and feather marks, an oil jug, and the wooden remains possibly of a plough.

    From 1989 to 1992 Eisenman and his students conducted a walking survey of the entire Dead Sea shore and its environs from seven kilometers north of Qumran to thirty-five kilometers south, past Wadi Murabba'at, to the Northern limits of Ein Gedi, mapping the whole area. In this survey they went into some 485 caves and depressions.[33]

    In 1990–91, with the help of author Michael Baigent[34] and radar groundscan specialist Tony Wood, he conducted the first radar groundscan of the Qumran plateau, its ruins and, in particular, the top of the various marls, including Caves 4–6 where he felt there was the best chance of finding hidden pockets that previously might not have been visible. Ground-scanning on the marls and below Cave VI did point to several such pockets and seemingly empty areas in the marls adjourning Cave IV.[35]

    In 2001–03, his teams joined an expedition led by Hanan Eshel and Magen Broshi and sponsored by John Merrill and the B.A.S. In the course of this expedition, two of his students, Dennis Walker and Ron Dubay, excavated a small building on the eastern edge of the Qumran Cemetery. They found that it contained bones: two secondary burials (and the next year one primary burial was uncovered beneath this).[36] This was an extremely important find, as was the rare zinc sarcophagus found elsewhere in the graveyard, others of his students were involved in uncovering, cleaning, and unearthing. The next year everyone went back to do more work on the enclosure and the bones it contained and to further survey the graveyard at Qumran, which evolved into the first comprehensive map of the Qumran settlement and adjacent cemetery.[37]

    In 2004, they had the opportunity to return and investigate the empty areas in the marls of Cave IV, but with little result.[38]

    Eisenman claims that the preconceptions of the group of scholars around Father Roland De Vaux who first worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls led them to erroneously date the non-biblical, sectarian community documents to the Maccabean period, and to read them as the writings of a serene, retiring community of Essene monks exiled to the wilderness in the course of a dispute with the reigning priesthood of the day led by the "Wicked Priest"/"Spouter of Lying."[39]

    Eisenman reads the attitude of these documents as militant, nationalistic and zealous and places them not in the Maccabean period but the later, Herodian era (c. 35 BCE to 70 CE and beyond), which means the establishment priesthood that they opposed was the collaborating, compromising, corrupt Herodian priesthood. He sees parallels between the political, religious and ethical stance of these sectarian documents and that of James the brother of Jesus, whom he identifies as the scrolls' Teacher of Righteousness, and sees 'the Wicked Priest' and 'the Man of Lying' as two different adversaries of the scroll community, the Wicked Priest being the High Priest Ananus ben Ananus, James' executioner, and the Man of Lying, St. Paul.

    He is critical of the ways radiocarbon dating and paleography have been employed to date the Dead Sea Scrolls, and relies instead on his interpretation of the content of the scrolls despite this being at a clash with scientific consensus.[40] He claims to find parallels between the James-Jesus first century milieu and the scrolls' repeated allusion to "the Star Prophecy", the aggressiveness of the War Scroll and similar documents, the hiding of the Jerusalem Temple treasure as delineated in the Copper Scroll,[41] the description of foreign armies (the Kittim) invading on a much more massive scale than any Hellenistic invasion during the Maccabean period,[42] and the reference to themselves several times as "the Congregation," "Church of the Poor" and Ebionites (“the Poor”), the name of James’ community as described in Early Church literature and by Paul.[43] Eisenman lays particular emphasis on the scroll community's description of the Kittim's military and religious practices in their interpretation of Habakkuk 2:2–2:4 (the Habakkuk Commentary) as "sacrificing to their standards and worshiping their weapons of War", and their reference to Roman “tax-farming” across the whole of the civilized world.[44]

    The recourse to an interpretation of Habakkuk 2:4 (“the Righteous shall live by his Faith”), the center piece and real building block of all Christian theology both in the Pauline corpus (Romans, Galatians, et al.) and in the Epistle of James he sees as proof positive that these documents were written more or less contemporaneously and at a time when this prophecy or proof-text was in play.[45]

    In addition, he sees the interpretation in the Habakkuk Commentary at Qumran, seemingly written in the latter part of the Community’s history and witnessing its fall and the fall of the Jerusalem Temple (c. 70 CE), as ‘Jamesian’ as opposed to ‘Pauline’.[46] That is, first of all it is confined to “Jews” or, in the language of the Commentary, “the House of Judah,” and second of all, it applies only to “Torah-doing” Jews (“doing” here, the basis of the Hebrew word for “works” throughout the Qumran corpus and also being an extremely important usage in the Epistle of James), that is, it does not apply to “non-Torah-doing Jews” and certainly not "non-Torah-doing Gentiles."[47]

    For Eisenman this is a direct riposte and a rejection of the Pauline interpretation of this prophecy, and the basis of the Pauline theology one finds in Galatians and Romans and actually, in fact, seemingly argued against in the extant Epistle of James whether seen as authentic, not authentic, or just part of ‘the Jamesian School’; and, therefore, Eisenman claims, a chronological indicator for the document as a whole.[48]

    Finally, he points to the fact that there are even collections of messianic proof-texts at Qumran which include, for instance, the Star Prophecy of Numbers 24:17 which Josephus, at the end of the Jewish War, singles out as the reason for the outbreak of the revolt, and even one dedicated to “the Promises to the Seed” or “House of David.”[49] For Eisenman the Dead Sea Scrolls are Messianic, it being not properly appreciated just how messianic the Scrolls actually are. They represent "the literature of the Messianic Movement in Palestine" which he prefers to the usage “Christianity in Palestine".

    Though, one might call them “Essene”, one must take the definition for this from what the Scrolls themselves say, not necessarily what others think or say the Essenes were. Hippolytus, for instance, possibly preserving an alternate version of Josephus, thinks there are two or even three groups of “Essenes”, “Zealot” or “Sicarii Essenes”, and for Eisenman, this is a better definition of what the Essenes were than the more normative ones people are familiar with.[50] For him the Essenes are what Christians were in Palestine before ‘the Movement’ went overseas and was Paulinized, turning it into the mirror opposite of what it was in Palestine before the fall of the Temple.

    For him, Acts confirms this, averring that “Christians were first called Christians” in Antioch in Syria in the mid-Fifties AD.[51] As opposed to this, he considers the more historically-oriented sectarian or later documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls to be the messianically inspired literature of a pietist, Law-oriented, and nationalistic Party in opposition to Roman/Herodian rule in Palestine which uses the language as “Sons of Zadok” (in some vocabularies, “Sadducees”) or “Zaddikim (??????),” a derivate usage, in referring to itself or even “Messianic Sadducees”, as opposed to “Herodian Sadducees” pictured in both the New Testament and Josephus.

    With his attempts to get free access to the Scrolls, Eisenman claims he was the first to call for AMS Carbon dating the Dead Sea Scrolls[52] (although one of the earliest carbon dating tests was performed November 14, 1950 on a piece of linen from Qumran Cave 1, producing a date range being 167 BCE - 233 CE.)[53] Libby had first started using the dating method in 1946 and early testing required relatively large samples that were destroyed, so testing on scrolls only became feasible when methods used in the dating process were improved upon.[54] F. E. Zeuner carried out tests on date palm wood from the Qumran site yielding a date range of 70 BCE - 90 CE.[55] In 1963 Libby tested a sample from the Isaiah Scroll, which gave a range between 200 BCE - 1 CE.[56] This proposal was contained in a series of letters to John Strugnell, Eisenman wrote with Philip R. Davies of Sheffield University in England and copied to Amir Drori, the Head of the Israel Antiquities Authority.[57]

    Not two months after he and Davies made this request to the Antiquities Authority, to which they attached a recent article about AMS radiocarbon techniques, it announced its intention to run just such tests. Eisenmann was not mentioned as having initiated the tests. He and Davies had included in their letter to the IAA a caveat, that "Opposition Scholars" be included in process because they claimed it was they who felt the most need for the tests and they who could identify which documents should be tested.[58] Nevertheless, Eisenman and Davies were not included in the testing process. Eisenmann disputes the findings of these tests [59] despite their 2-sigma accuracy, which amounts to an accuracy of around 99%.

    As far as Eisenman is concerned, James the Just, the individual Paul actually refers to as either "brother of Jesus" or “the brother of the Lord,”[60] is the historical character who exhibits the most in common with “the Teacher of Righteousness" pictured at Qumran and he considers that these events are the ones vividly portrayed in the Habakkuk Commentary. Historically speaking, it is this character who led the “Opposition Movement,” including Essenes, Zealots, Sicarii, and/or Nazoreans — even Ebionites — and who, as “Zaddik" (????), i. e., “the Zaddik of the Opposition Movement,” about whom all these groups revolved until his death at the hands of the High Priest Ananus ben Ananus in 62 CE as described both in Josephus and Early Church literature.[61] For him, the popularity of James and the illegality of the manner of his death at the hands of the Herodians, establishment High Priesthood, and Pharisees in 62 CE set the stage for and possibly even triggered the First Jewish Revolt against the Rome in 66–73 CE — to say nothing of the fire in Rome, not long afterwards which, aside from his probably having set it himself,[dubious – discuss][citation needed] Nero was reported to have blamed on “Christians.”

    For his part, the Jewish historian Josephus makes it clear that those he is calling “Essenes” (as opposed to these same Herodians, Sadducees, and Pharisees) participated in the uprising, willing to undergo any torture or any form of death rather than "eat things sacrificed to idols" or "break the Law."[62] For Eisenman, these “Nazoreans,” (?????) “Zealots,” (?????) “Zaddikim” (??????) or “Ebionim” (???????) were marginalized by a Herodian named Saul (Paul of Tarsus) and the gentile Christians who followed him. This version of Christianity, as it later emerged from a gentile milieu as led by Paul, transformed the apocalyptic militancy of the Ebionite/Essene Zaddikim into a universalist peaceful doctrine. In this manner, Eisenman sees the doctrine of Christianity as largely the product of Pauline dialectic and apologetics. In so doing, Eisenman attempts to recover the authentic teaching of Jesus and/or James from the obscurity into which it seems to have been intentionally cast by resultant orthodoxy. As he puts it at the end of James the Brother of Jesus, once you have found the Historical James, you have found the Historical Jesus or alternatively, “who and whatever James was so too was Jesus”.[63]

    Eisenman identifies Paul as a Herodian, calling attention to Paul's peculiar version of Judaism. A presentation seeming to represent the interests of the Herodian Dynasty in Palestine, as well as the intention to extend its influence into Asia Minor and further East into Northern Syria and Mesopotamia. He covered this in a series of papers and books beginning in 1984.[64] Offered as proof is Paul’s salutation (if authentic), at the end of the Letter to the Romans, where he sends greetings to his “kinsman Herodion” (i. e., “the Littlest Herod”) and “all those in the Household of Aristobulus” (the putative son of Herod of Chalcis and the ultimate husband of the infamous Salome – in fact, their son was “the Littlest Herod”).[65]

    Proof is also found in Josephus’ picture of a curious member of the Herodian family, an individual he also calls “Saulos” who shares many characteristics in common with “Paul” in New Testament portraiture. Not only was this “Saulos” involved in an appeal of sorts to “Caesar,” he was also involved in violent behaviour in Jerusalem (although on the surface, at a somewhat later time); and it was he who made the final report to Nero in Corinth about the Roman reverses in Jerusalem which resulted in the dispatch of his best general Vespasian from Britain.[66]

    Finally he found Herodian traces in Paul’s own outlook, his philosophy of “winning“ or being a “Jew to the Jews, a Law-keeper to the Law-keeper and a Law-breaker to the Law-breaker” also expressed in I Corinthians 9:19–27. In his own identification of himself as of “the Tribe of Benjamin” (Romans 11:1 and Philippians 3:5), a claim he might have felt Herodians, as Edomites, were making for themselves, and his founding “a Community where Greeks and Jews could live in harmony, etc.,” where there were “no foreign visitors,” as well as in the easy access he seems to have had to positions of power, and his own Roman citizenship.

    Rounding out his arguments, Eisenman cites the matter of an unidentified “nephew” of Paul—seemingly the son of Paul’s sister, resident in Jerusalem (Cypros married to the Temple Treasurer Helcias? – see the genealogies [67]). This “nephew” has unfettered entrée to the Commander of the Roman garrison in the Tower of Antonia who, in turn, saves Paul from “Nazirite oath-taking” “Zealot”-like Jewish extremists who take an oath “not to eat or drink till they have killed Paul” (Acts 23:12–35). Eisenman identifies this individual as Julius Archelaus the son of Saulos’ sister, Cypros. Finally, consider Paul's Roman citizenship; the philosophy of paying the Roman tax to Caesar; and placing the Roman Law above the Jewish Law as an expression of “the Righteousness Commandment” of “loving your neighbor as yourself” (Romans 13:1–10).

    Eisenman was the first to publicly claim that the James Ossuary was fraudulent when it originally surfaced in October, 2002 and he did this on the first day it appeared in news articles from AP and op-ed pieces as in the Los Angeles Times[68] on the basis of what the inscription actually said and not on the basis of ‘scientific’ or ‘pseudo-scientific aids like those of palaeography or patina analysis.[69]

    In the first place, when he actually saw the ossuary at the AAR/SBL Conference in Toronto three weeks later, it was clear there were two separate hands on the inscription, the second patently more cursive. Secondly, even if the “Jacob the Son of Joseph” part were authentic (there being plenty of ossuaries of this kind available around Jerusalem), the second “Brother of Jesus” part would have to have been added a substantial amount of time later, either in antiquity by a pious pilgrim or in modern times, by a not-very-sophisticated forger because at the time (62 CE), Jesus – if he existed as such — would have been no more well known in Jerusalem than his putative brother James, and probably far less so; so there would have been no need to add such a rare cognomen except to please believers.

    Moreover, as he said in his Los Angeles Times op ed of 10/29/02, he would have been much more impressed if the first part of the inscription had said “son of Clopas’/‘Cleophas’/‘Cephas’ or some such thing, which is how individuals connected to this family were known in Palestine in this period and not the more pat or theologically-consistent “Joseph”; or if the second part had simply added the cognomen “the Zaddik” (??????) or “Just One,” which was also how James was known by everyone in Palestine at this time according to Eusebius.[70]

    Works

    Islamic Law in Palestine and Israel E. J. Brill, Leiden (1976).
    Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran: A New Hypothesis of Qumran Origins E. J. Brill, Leiden (1984).
    James the Just in the Habakkuk Pesher E. J. Brill Leiden (1986).
    A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls (with James Robinson), Biblical Archaeology Society (1991).
    The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered (with Michael Wise), Penguin USA (1992) ISBN 1-85230-368-9.
    James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1997) ISBN 1-84293-026-5.
    The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians (1996) ISBN 1-85230-785-4.
    The New Testament Code: The Cup of the Lord, the Damascus Covenant, and the Blood of Christ (2006) ISBN 1-84293-186-5.
    The New Jerusalem: A Millennium Poetic/Prophetic Travel Diario 1959–1962 (2007) ISBN 1-55643-637-8.
    James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls I, Grave Distractions Pub. (2012) ISBN 978-09855991-3-3
    James the Brother of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls II, Grave Distractions Pub. (2012) ISBN 978-09855991-6-4

    References

    1.Jump up ^ Miller, Glenn, "Good Question......how well-respected are the theories of Eisenman, Allegro, Thiering, and Baigent & Leigh concerning the Dead Sea Scrolls?"http://christianthinktank.com/iceman.html 12.April 2012
    2.Jump up ^ Ron Rosenbaum, "The Riddle of the Scrolls, “ Vanity Fair , November, 1992, pp. 224–28 and Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, pp. xvii–xvii
    3.Jump up ^ California State University Website http://www.csulb.edu/centers/sjco/aboutpre.html
    4.Jump up ^ Eisenman sitting before the Parthenon, December, 1958. Statement is from Dieter Buhl, former Political Editor of Die Zeit. See also The New Jerusalem back cover and p. 242.
    5.Jump up ^ See The New Jerusalem, pp. 138, 399, and variously
    6.Jump up ^ The New Jerusalem, p. xi.
    7.Jump up ^ See The New Jerusalem, pp. 4–5
    8.Jump up ^ See The New Jerusalem, pictures, pp. 242ff.
    9.Jump up ^ See The New Jerusalem, pp. 7–17, 70–81, 294, etc.
    10.Jump up ^ See The New Jerusalem, pp. xi–xiii and back cover description. For his anti-Beat sentiments and statements generally, see pp. 129, 321, 452, etc.
    11.Jump up ^ See The New Jerusalem, p. 67; also see pp. 41–44, 112–16, etc. and obituary for Morris Eisenman, New York Times, 1/20/1948, who came to U.S. in 1888, age 14, along with his older brother, Eisenman's grandfather, and was President and co-founder with David Sarnoff in 1897 of The Metropolitan News Company, an early Zionist, great philanthropist, patron of the arts, and close personal friend of Chaim Weizmann (cf. letter dated 7/10/1942, C.W. to M.E., St. Regis Hotel, NYC), helped found the Abendblatt Yiddush Newspaper, The Jewish Forward, and Chaim Nahman Bialik and Shmaryahu Levin's Dvir Publishing Company in then Tel Aviv, Palestine, friend of Shalom Asch, and funded childhood "newsie" friend Samuel Roth's first U.S. publication attempt of James Joyce's Ulysses in 1927 and, through the Morris Eisenman Literary Fund, Yiddush writer Osip Dymow in 1942, the Second Avenue Yiddush Theater, etc.
    12.Jump up ^ See “America, I Call upon You,” The New Jerusalem, pp. 49, 52–59, and 63–68
    13.Jump up ^ See The New Jerusalem, pp. 98–104. Curiously this poem, “America, I Call upon You,” became something of "an anthem" for this group, ibid., pp. xi–xii
    14.Jump up ^ See The New Jerusalem, pp. 107–32
    15.Jump up ^ See The New Jerusalem, pp. 224–59
    16.Jump up ^ See The New Jerusalem, pp. 344–446
    17.Jump up ^ See The New Jerusalem, pp. 446–53
    18.Jump up ^ “The Scrolls from the Dead Sea,” The New Yorker, 5/14/55.
    19.Jump up ^ Baigent and Leigh, The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, London and New York, 1991, pp. 26–66; Eisenman, "The Desecration of the Scrolls," Midstream, December, 1991, pp. 13–17.
    20.Jump up ^ Neil Asher Silberman, The Hidden Scrolls, New York, 1994, pp. 39–67.
    21.Jump up ^ See Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran, Leiden, 1983.
    22.Jump up ^ James the Just in the Habakkuk Pesher, Leiden, 1986.
    23.Jump up ^ See J. C. Trever, Scrolls from Qumran Cave 1, Jerusalem, 1974.
    24.Jump up ^ Eisenman, The Desecration of the Scrolls, Midstream, December, 1991, p.13.
    25.Jump up ^ The Dead Seas Scrolls Deception, pp. 73–83.
    26.Jump up ^ This included Prof. Davies who fatefully shared it with Prof. Zdzslaw Kapera in Poland; see The Dead Seas Scrolls Deception, pp. 85–89.
    27.Jump up ^ The Hidden Scrolls, pp. 39–67 and 233–245.
    28.Jump up ^ J. R. Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Library in English, San Francisco, 1977.
    29.Jump up ^ The Dead Sea Scrolls on Microfiche, Leiden, 1992.
    30.Jump up ^ A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls, B.A.S., Washington D. C., 1991
    31.Jump up ^ Silberman, Neil Asher, The Hidden Scrolls, p. 236.
    32.Jump up ^ See "The Riddle of the Scrolls", Vanity Fair, November, 1992, pp. 224–28.
    33.Jump up ^ “The 1988–92 California State University Dead Sea Walking Cave Survey and Radar Groundscan of the Qumran Cliffs,” The Quman Chronicle, 9/2-4, December, 2000, p. 125; also see “The British had it all Wrong when Naming the Dead Sea,” Nick Tatro, AP, 2/2/90
    34.Jump up ^ Holy Blood, Holy Grail, London and New York, 1982 and The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, London and New York, 1992.
    35.Jump up ^ Michael Baigent and Robert Eisenman, “A Ground-Penetrating Radar Survey at Khirbat Qumran,” The Quman Chronicle, 9/2-4, December, 2000, pp. 131–38
    36.Jump up ^ "Bones of Contention," Time Magazine 8/6/01, p. 49.
    37.Jump up ^ M. Broshi and H. Eshel, "Three Seasons of Excavations at Qumran," Journal of Roman Archaeology, 17/1, 2004, pp. 321–332.
    38.Jump up ^ Bill Kurtus, Investigating History: The Dead Sea Scrolls, May, 2004.
    39.Jump up ^ See F. M. Cross, The Ancient Library of Qumran, New York, 1961 and Eisenman, The New Testament Code, pp. 3–196.
    40.Jump up ^ Miller, Glenn. "Good Question......how well-respected are the theories of Eisenman, Allegro, Thiering, and Baigent & Leigh concerning the Dead Sea Scrolls?" http://christianthinktank.com/iceman.html 12.April 2013
    41.Jump up ^ The New Testament Code
    42.Jump up ^ Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran, Leiden, 1984, pp. 24, 70, and 80 and James the Just in the Habakkuk Pesher, Leiden, 1986, pp. 14–30 and 75–78.
    43.Jump up ^ 4QpPs 37ii.11 and iii.10
    44.Jump up ^ James the Just in the Habakkuk Pesher, pp. 21–74.
    45.Jump up ^ The New Testament Code, pp. 51–6.
    46.Jump up ^ James the Just in the Habakkuk Pesher, Leiden, 1996, pp. vii–x, 32–42, and 99
    47.Jump up ^ Ibid.
    48.Jump up ^ The New Testament Code, pp. 551–638 and 848–938.
    49.Jump up ^ 4QTest i.9–13 and 4QFlor i.7–14.
    50.Jump up ^ Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, 9,14–9.22 and The New Testament Code, pp. 939–97.
    51.Jump up ^ Acts 11:26.
    52.Jump up ^ Cf. M. Baigent and R. Leigh, The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, London/New York, 1991, pp. 80–83.
    53.Jump up ^ VanderKam, James C. & Flint, Peter (2002). The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: HarperSanFrancisco. p. 27.
    54.Jump up ^ Doudna, G. "Carbon-14 Dating", in Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Schiffman, Lawrence, & VanderKam, James, eds., Vol.1 (Oxford: 2000)
    55.Jump up ^ VanderKam, James C. & Flint, Peter (2002). The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: HarperSanFrancisco. p. 28.
    56.Jump up ^ Carmi, Israel, "Radiocarbon Dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls" in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Fifty Years after their Discovery. 1947-1997, Schiffman, Lawrence, Tov, Emanuel, & VanderKam, James, eds., (Jerusalem: IES, 2000) p.881.
    57.Jump up ^ Baigent and Leigh, Ibid., 5/2/89.
    58.Jump up ^ The New Testament Code, pp. 44–51.
    59.Jump up ^ See Atwill, Braunheim, and Eisenman, Redating the Radio-Carbon Dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Dead Sea Discoveries, 11/2/04, pp. 143–55.
    60.Jump up ^ James the Brother of Jesus, Penguin, 1997–98, pp. 51–153 and 647–816.
    61.Jump up ^ Ibid. and Josephus, Antiquities 20.200 and Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.23 and 4.22
    62.Jump up ^ Josephus, War 2.151–3 and Hippolytus, Refutation, 9.21
    63.Jump up ^ James the Brother of Jesus, Penguin, 1998, p. 963.
    64.Jump up ^ Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran, E. J. Brill, 1984, pp. 62–3 and 90–1 and “Paul as Herodian,” SBL, 1984, published in Journal of Higher Criticism, iii, 1996, pp. 110–22 and The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians, 1996, pp. 226–46.
    65.Jump up ^ The New Testament Code, pp. 500–7 and cf. Romans 16:10–11.
    66.Jump up ^ Josephus, The Jewish War 2.418, 556–58, and The Antiquities, 20.214.
    67.Jump up ^ The New Testament Code, pp. 1010–11 and James the Brother of Jesus, pp. 968–69.
    68.Jump up ^ ”A Discovery That’s Just too Perfect,” Los Angeles Times, October 29th, 2002.
    69.Jump up ^ Eisenman, The New Testament Code, London/New York, 2006, pp. 56–64.
    70.Jump up ^ Eusebius quoting Hegesippus, Ecclesiastical History, 2.23.4–21.

    magamud wrote:Really good post Ortho my compliments.  

    "What is the Absolute Legal Standard for This Solar System?"

    Gods wisdom on goodness.  This is constant but depending on how strong lucifers light is, the tangibility loses its integrity.  Its like the Devil's bubble is going to burst.  He can only go so far.  So we are at a time during his death throws.

    "Does Might Make Right?"

    No not at all, but how does a parent take care of its children?  So in how we individuate from our parents physically.  We do the same consciously to the world.

    "Should I fight the good fight -- or should I just go along to get along??"

    This depends on your boundaries of self, that only you can make.  Your identity.  Once you have your membrane you can know where and what is neutral space.

    "Are the Teachings of Jesus too idealistic for this Sick Solar System?"

    Not at all.  Its a perfect straight line that connects the dots.  This memory is in everyone, in your innate being.  I can tell you that.

    "Am I from somewhere else??"

    It does not matter as you are from the creator.  Same idea as soul and incarnations.  The creator is the idea of goodness, wholesomeness oneness.  Everything extends from it.  I would compare it to where we are in the galaxy.  On the tip of one of those octopus limbs trying to get back to the center or head of it.
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 James_brother_of_jesus-scaled1000
    United States AI Solar System (9) - Page 17 Robert_eisenman-scaled1000
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    "Enough Theology, Oxy!! We've Got Reservations at the Ritz-Carlton!!"

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