![Graffiti on a Roman wall dated to the first century. It depicts a man worshipping a crucified donkey. The words read "Alexamenos worships [his] god." It is believed Roman soldiers were mocking a Christian solder. Wikipedia](https://openthewordblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/jesus-wall-graffiti-rome-crucified-donkey.jpg?w=266)
The Daily Mail has an article on what many believe is one of the earliest depictions of the Christian cross that was actually slanderous graffiti scratched into the outside wall of a building used to train slaves for battle.
There is a popular argument going around these days “Jesus never existed and we can prove it.” At the time of Jesus, a Jewish writer named Philo lived in Alexandria, a large city on the coast of Egypt. Philo tried to integrate the Jewish religion with Greek philosophy, to make the Jews more Greek and Roman. Historically, he was not popular with his fellow Jews. We know about him now because Christians liked his writings. It is interesting that Philo never once mentioned Jesus in his writings. This man lived when the New Testament tells us Jesus preached and did miracles, and Philo is silent about Jesus. Today, some critics are saying Christians believe in a made up character, the “Christ Myth.” You can search for “Philo” and the other terms on the Internet, but I don’t want to give links because most of the discussions are aggressive and offensive. Today, Philo’s silence encourages some people to believe that Jesus never existed. So what should we do with Philo? The argument of silence is always …
[Earl Blacklock] The Colosseum in Rome is one of the most visited tourist sites in the world. Millions come each year to view with awe its remnants. And little wonder. Designed to seat 50 thousand people, it was an architectural masterpiece. But it had a bloody history. The arena was the place where the idle gathered to amuse themselves, and Roman society had many idle, to the extent that the state had to placate them with free food and amusement to keep them out of trouble. By the reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54 A.D.), 159 days of public holidays were in place, of which Claudius devoted 93 days to spectacles in the arenas of the empire, of which the Colosseum was chief. Juvenal, a writer of the day, said of his fellow Romans that they “now long eagerly for just two things: bread and circuses”.
[by Dean Smith] For now I will call it a coincidence, but this past Wednesday, Israel announced the finding of a huge cache of gold coins by amateur divers off the coast of Caesarea. At first they thought the coins were fake because they were in such good condition. But the divers turned them over to a specialist for examination who discovered these were actually gold coins dated to the 10th and 11th century. But here is where it gets interesting, the coins were part of a Muslim caliphate that ruled North Africa during the tenth century. A caliphate is an Islamic state ruled by a political/religious leader called a caliph with either spiritual or hereditary connections to the prophet Muhammad. A Caliph’s power is absolute and the state is under Sharia law.
[by Dean Smith] Arutz Sheva — an Israeli news site — reports the Islamic State (which go by a variety of acronyms IS, ISIS, ISIL) has just declared Christians as its number one enemy. This news was broadcast loudly on the most recent cover of the organization’s propaganda magazine called Dabiq. In its fourth edition, the cover of the English version featured a photo-shopped picture of the Black ISIS flag on top of the Egyptian obelisk in the Vatican’s St Peter’s square. The magazine — titled “The Failed Crusade” — compared the West’s efforts to stop IS to the Roman Catholic crusades.
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