A vantage point for inquiring minds and those who’ve lived faith shy of geographical or historical context. Biblical maps are enlightening for tethering us to what was and what is and understanding how small our world has become, bringing Israel and the Middle East today into sharper focus.

The rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire caused people to start questioning what they thought they knew. By 392 A.D. it was the official religion of the region. As it spread across the Mediterranaen, Christianity connected with larger themes in Roman history.

Reading Historical Dates

Without going into all of the science, emporer and political changes to calendars over time – and there were a lot of them – this keeps understanding date abbreviations simple. For more information see the “More Reading” resources below:

There is no Year 0.

There is no difference between “A.D.” & “CE.” They are the same.

There is no difference between “B.C.” & “BCE.” They are the same.

B.C. – means ‘Before Christ’ and starts with Year 1

A.D.- means ‘Anno Domini’ or ‘Year of our Lord.’ This is the year of Christ’s birth and also starts with Year 1. (Commonly referred to as ‘After Death,’ obviously not correct.)

CE – a more recent term meaning ‘Common Era,’ used in place of A.D.

BCE – a more recent term meaning ‘Before Common Era,’ used in place of B.C.

Jesus in Judae (Israel) & the Roman Empire

It’s widely accepted that Jesus Christ was born 4-6 B.C., two years before the death of the Roman Empire’s Herod the Great. Scientific calculations suggest Christ was born in the month of September or October.

Christianity began in Judea about 2,000 years ago with the birth and teachings of Jesus and the disciples who followed Him. Judea was a cultural hub of cities and farms. Click the map to view the area in what we now know as current day Israel.

When Jesus taught the “new covenant” (New Testament) in Judea, Rome was under its first emperor rule. Jesus is known by Christians as the Son of God and of Man, conceived by God by immaculate conception with the virgin Mary, who married Joseph.

The Jews hated Roman rule because it was a pagan reminder of their historical oppression and it violated their faith under the Torah* (Old Testament). The Romans worshiped a number of gods and superficial idols they‘d built to those gods. That was in direct conflict with the Jewish faith, which recognized the one and only God of the Bible.

*”Torah” refers to the Five [Biblical] Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. But the word “torah” can also be used to refer to the entire Jewish bible (the body of scripture known to non-Jews as the Old Testament and to Jews as the Tanakh or Written Torah), or in its broadest sense, to the whole body of Jewish law and teachings.

The start of Christianity is recorded in accounts of the New Testament but its history began with Old Testament prophecy. There are over 300 predictions of the coming of a Jewish Messiah that are recorded in the Old Testament, spanning more than 1000 years.

Click this map to see the Jews’ exodus from Egypt through the Wilderness and into Cannan (current day Israel), their Promised Land.

Some Jews saw conforming to the Roman Empire as their only hope. Others became religious zealots developing warlike guerilla resistances against Rome. Still others withdrew into the Judean wilderness to study Jewish law and wait for the coming of their Messiah, or savior, as promised in the Old Testament.

Isa 7:14 [OT] Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Immanuel means “God with us”. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, had come to dwell with, or tabernacle on earth with, His people.

John 1:14 [NT] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.

Jesus was a Jew. He observed Jewish faith and was well studied in its law. Said to be a carpenter by trade (though that is questioned today), by His early thirties Jesus traveled between villages teaching in synagogues, healing people and performing miracles. His news traveled swiftly. From a young age He challenged religious leaders to repent from their self-righteous and hypocritical ways and to realize that the Kingdom of God is rooted in service and love.

Jesus taught during the Roman rule of Augustus, their first emperor from 27 B.C. through 14 A.D. He urged purification of the Jewish religion with a moral code of love, charity and humility. Christ’s teachings stirred the hearts of people and His healings grew in influence and ever-increasingly high demand as word of His message and acts spread.

These things and Jesus’ growing popularity because of them created an instability that Jewish authorities feared. The disciples were faithful men who followed Him and Jesus taught them about the “new covenant” that God was bringing to humanity, because men had fallen into so much sin they’d lost the personal relationship with God that they had in Old Testament days.

Jesus was crucified on a cross about 30 A.D., believed to be in Golgotha or “The place of a skull” just outside of Jerusalem. His followers believe he rose three days later, proving that He was the Son of God. The Christian faith, unlike any other religion, hinges on historical events. An example can be seen in the eye-witness accounts evidenced by Paul in I Corinthians 15:3-6.

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.”

Manuscript studies point to this scripture being written within a few years after Christ’s death. Paul, born Greek, ends this passage with “most of whom are still living,” inviting people to confirm the facts for themselves. He wouldn’t have if he was trying to perpetrate a myth or fraud. It is the historical validity that gives Christians their belief and a genuine and eternal hope.

Roman Mythology & Christianity

Before the coming of Christ and Christianity the Roman Empire was “embroiled in myth,” having archeological traces of early settlements dating back to 750 B.C. The myths were based on both fiction and history in stories passed down through the ages.

Roman mythology was an emphatic state religion consisting of rituals and ceremonies. Their myths were more practical than the Greek’s but they adopted most of the Greek deities.

Every Roman god served a purpose and had an office to fill. There were “divisions of labor” between them, some presiding over births; some over bakers and some over the bakers’ ovens. Every vocation and household function had presiding gods and goddesses. This picture depicts a god tending to the wound of a solider with a Greek goddess looking on.

The rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire caused people to start questioning what they thought they knew. By 392 A.D., Christianity was the official religion. As Chrsitianity spread it connected with larger themes in Roman history.

Christianity comforted social grievances in an empire marked by inequality and among the poor. Slaves, dispossessed farmers and impoverished city dwellers found hope in a religion that encouraged a goodness of morals and after-life rewards for living morally.

The Christian faith also answered cultural needs that Roman values, which stressed political goals and ethics about living in the world, did not. It brought political benefits to the Romans as their empire grew and consolidated, as well. The new faith was seen as universal, open to all, whether people followed the Jewish faith or not.

Click to enlarge this map showing the growth of the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean area; and Israel’s place within it (boxed).

Belief in Jesus spread among Jewish communities in the Middle East, the Roman Empire and beyond. When His disciples realized that Jesus was not returning to earth to set up the Kingdom of God, they fanned out to spread the news, particularly around the eastern Mediterranean area.

The predominant language of the day was Greek. Paul’s Greco-Roman culture helped to explain Christian beliefs in Greece and in Italy as well as in the Middle East. Paul essentially created Christian theology as a set of intellectual principles; and some speculate that he emphasized women’s more subordinate role to men and the dangers of sexuality in the books of the New Testament.

By the 4th Century A.D. Christian writings were the only creative cultural expression of the Roman Empire. Theologians sought to explain issues brought up by the new religion; and to relate it to ethics and Greek philosophy. Just as the Roman Empire was in decline Christianity produced complex thought and elegant language, redirecting its culture and preserving its earlier literary and philosophical achievements.

Christianity goes well beyond Rome and had more to do with opening a new era of history of the Mediterranean region than in shaping the Roman Empire.

Today’s Conflicts between the Middle East and Israel & The West

In the Bible’s Old Testament book of Genesis, chapter 17, God promised Abraham that he would become “the father of many nations.” Many today aren’t familiar with the divisions hinged on that promise.

Abraham’s wife, Sarah, could not bear children so she gave to her husband her Egyptian maiden, Hagar. Hagar birthed Abraham’s son, Ishmael. Many years later Sarah gave Abraham a son named Isaac (described in the scripture below).

When dissention in the houshold grew, Hagar returned with her son to her homeland of Egpyt. By then Abraham and Sarah had located to Cannan (Israel), where they remained. Today Sarah’s descendants are Christian and Hagar’s are Muslim. Indeed Abraham was “the father of many nations.”

Genesis 17 (OT, KJV excerpted): And when Abram was ninety years old and nine the LORD appeared and said, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect and I will make my covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee and I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house [and] which is not of thy seed. And God said unto Abraham, as for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. And he left off talking with him.

Coming: What was Constantine the Great’s role in Christianity?

“From the time of Constantine onward, the worship of the Roman Catholic Church, in its forms and ceremonies, has been more clearly identified with the paganism of Ancient Rome, than with the religion of the New Testament. The customs of pagan religion were only baptized with Christian names.”

More Reading:

Wise Geek, Bible Time, Got Questions, History of Religion, Judaism 101:Torah, BibleLight, Greek & Roman Religion, History of Christianity, Romans Empire, Cynric

The festering wound that too many people don’t want to see is the government, both political parties. This wound has been left by We the People to fester and get infected for far too long. It is time we began treating the wound. I have a plan laid out later in this article.

I just read about another government plan to “protect us”. Janet Napolitano is calling for a plan to control mass migration of “immigrants”.

The administration spins this plan as a national security measure, and uses the Presidential Policy Directive on National Preparedness for their justification. Napolitano and her enablers, in both parties, are being “humane”, thinking about those “poor Mexicans” who have it so tough in Mexico. Our government can’t take care of what they have now, can they? We have to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to survive now, yet the regime wants to add to the list? And in the name of “caring for those poor immigrants” they let American citizens do without, and threaten to make them do with less, all in the name of being “humane”.

This plan is another nail in the coffin of freedom yet I continually hear people dismiss these nails with, “it can’t happen here”, “it won’t happen here”, “I don’t think we really have much to worry about, the government cares about us”.  Anyone want to buy a bridge in NYC?

The festering wound I refer to is the tyranny being implemented now and planned for the future by the government, and the apathy of all too many citizens. The washing needed here is prayer; the disinfectant needed is knowledge of the real issues. The medication is letting elected officials know we are watching and we are knowledgeable. The wound dressing is voting almost all of those in Congress out of Congress. More on this later.

Having humanity and compassion as character traits is admirable. I may not sound “humane” or “compassionate” in some of my viewpoints, but I am actually more humane and compassionate than the liberals. I want everyone in this nation to prosper, to climb the economic ladder, not wallow in poverty and hopelessness. I desire to see a nation where anyone can succeed if they have the desire and the drive to succeed. I want to take care of those who truly can’t take care of themselves, physically or mentally, and I am totally in favor of helping those who just need a hand up. This isn’t what we are seeing today. We are seeing the systemic destruction of our nation, our lives, and our freedoms. We are seeing the government take more control of our society. We are seeing people subjugated because they feel “entitled” to the possessions of others and are being pandered to by both political parties. This isn‘t about fairness, it is about control.

Now back to my earlier medical reference. The “festering wound” is what has been done in the past, what is being done now, and what is “planned for” in this plan for mass movement of people, among other tyrannical moves by the federal government. They speak of “immigration” but is that their actual concern? Couldn’t that mass migration be any person or any group of people? What is to stop them from “migrating” non-Hispanic people to another area and turning the southwestern portion of the United States into another province of Mexico? Hitler started with Jews, then progressed to Gypsies, Homosexuals, and any non-Aryan person. Hitler murdered 11 million people in the name of “compassion”. The Israeli government, under appeasers they call “moderates”, have removed settlers from areas and turned those areas over to Muslims. The result seems to be that those areas are now missile launching pads, but what the heck, “fairness” was implemented.

Although there is denial from some politicians, Sections 1031 and 1032 of the National Defense Administration Act (SB 1867/HR 1540) seem to be aimed at American citizens, not aliens. We now have legislation that appears to allow the military to arrest any citizen, without just cause, without charges, without warrants, and hold them indefinitely inside or outside the United States.
Indefinitely means “until the war on terror is over”.  And when will that fine day occur? They are also actively planning an “internet kill switch” to give a China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. type of government control of the internet. I wrote about this a little over a year ago when Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn) introduced legislation for this purpose, “for national security reasons”. Last month we had the test of the National Emergency Alert System that gave government agencies complete control of all radio and television broadcast signals. We now know that it is possible for the Goebbels Commission (FCC) to seize control of all broadcast signals at one time. Isn’t that encouraging to freedom loving people?

The FEMA camps that people have laughed at or denied are now being brought into a usable state. The “conspiracy theory” that I wrote about over a year ago is now fact. The government is looking to companies like Halliburton to staff these camps. Remember Halliburton in Iraq? The government has solicited bids for personnel to staff the camps. Have you seen pictures of these camps? If not, you should. They are eerily similar to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. I suspect that these camps aren’t only for illegal immigrants. I could go on for days about what is being done by government, by both political parties, but if you don’t see the light now or still deny the facts then that would be wasted time and space.

Now, what to do about the festering wound. The first thing we need to do is wash the wound. We need to look at the damage and see what needs to be done. To see the damage clearly and to acknowledge the extent of that damage is the first step. We wash the wound with clear vision by asking God to open our eyes to truth, the truth of God and the truth of our situation. We need wisdom to properly treat the wound. We get the wisdom of how to treat the wound through prayer. Every religion I know of prays. What or who they pray to is not the issue here, so don’t get lost in dogma. I am a Christian so I pray to the God of Abraham, through Jesus Christ.

I pray for the vision of a clear heart and a clear mind to see the truth and to see the issues as they truly are. I pray that I will have the Wisdom of Solomon to work in the proper manner to solve the problems I see, the courage of David to actually deal with the problems, and the compassion and the practicality of Jesus in dealing with the problems. Jesus wasn’t all compassion, He had a practical side also. I pray for protection for my country, my family, my friends, and myself.

The next step is to take the vision and wisdom received through the prayers and treat the wound. We use the vision and wisdom to learn about what the government is doing in the name of these wonderful “utopian” plans to take care of everyone in the world. Study some recent history. Take a good look at the 20th Century. Look at where other nations have gone and how they got there. Use your vision and wisdom to find out exactly what is being done that you aren’t being told about or what has been done that you have ignored in the past.

We treat the wound by first washing and assessing damage, then disinfecting it. We disinfect the wound by learning what the Constitution says, what our founding fathers did, how they set this nation up. We disinfect the wound by learning what legislation is being passed, how the wording affects citizens, and what bureaucratic regulations are being created to implement said legislation. We don’t just listen to what politicians and bureaucrats say in sound bites, we look at what they are doing behind the talking points and rosy analogies, and look at what they are doing behind closed doors.

We disinfect the wound by keeping in contact with elected officials and let them know we are watching, what we expect of them, and what the results will be if they choose to ignore us. We use the antiseptic of our involvement to remove the infection that has been festering for much too long. Again wisdom comes into play as we need the wisdom to know how to go about said disinfection.

We can all disinfect at all levels of government, in various capacities. School board, City, and County elections have abysmal voter turnouts and we wonder why they don’t seem to care what we think. You can disinfect the government by keeping in contact with all levels of elected officials.

Let them know where you stand and that you will vote them out if they don’t represent you properly. Write, call, fax, or e-mail Congress members, and other elected officials at all levels, often. Let them know you are here and you vote.

Cleaning and disinfecting the wound doesn’t accomplish much if that is all we do. Next we must medicate and bandage the wound by standing up and volunteering to serve our communities. At the local level get involved by running for school board seats, city councils, county government, etc. Some can get more involved at the state level. Run for office if you can at any level of government. So far we still have government Of the People, By the People, and For the People. It is up to us to keep it that way.

Help heal the festering wound that is infecting America. Use prayer to gain the vision and the wisdom to know what the damage is, and the courage to do what is necessary to treat the wound. Be the medicine and dressing on the wound you just cleaned up and disinfected. Be a part of the healing of your nation, of the future of your children and grandchildren.

We can do this but it needs to be done as a team. The Medical-A Team is God, assisted by We the People. Just as doctors and nurses work together to heal bodily wounds and infections; We the People can work together, Under God, to heal our political wounds and infections.

First we look to God, we plead our case, and we ask for His forgiveness and mercy (2 Chronicles 7:14). Then we follow His wisdom, and act through that wisdom with courage to make the changes needed to survive as a free nation. This is the answer to our future, are you willing?

I submit this in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, in faith, with the responsibility given to me by Almighty God to honor His work and not let it die from neglect.

Bob Russell
Claremore, Oklahoma
December 19, 2011