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History of Venice

Venice was founded by refugees fleeing the Germanic tribe, the Lombards, after they invaded Italy in 568 AD. The refugees came from the town of Aquileia, traditionally believed to have been founded by St. Mark. At that time the Christian Byzantine empire spread across that area of Italy, and the islands that make up Venice were part of a defensive agreement between the Byzantine’s and the Lombard’s, and came under Byzantine control. However, as the Byzantine empire’s grip of power in the west loosened, the early Venetians found themselves largely independent. Through their skills as merchants they grew in power and wealth, and by 726 they elected their first Doge (like a Duke). The first Doge, failed in his attempt to become independent from the Byzantines.

Through time the Venetian’s ruthless diplomacy and ability to play one power against another eventually secured her independence; and Venice’s excellent location between the powers of western Europe and the east gave her the opportunity to grow increasingly wealthy via trade, and became a popular navigational route to the eastern countries from Europe.

In the early 9th century, Venice needed to improve her status, and in the Christian Middle Ages, that required a patron saint and relics. Since Venice was founded by the refugees of Aquileia they adopted St. Mark as their Saint. Legend has it that two Venetian merchants stole St. Mark’s body from a tomb in Alexandria and brought his remains back to the Basilica in Venice. Throughout the city there are depictions of winged lions, symbols of St. Mark.

In the 11th century the power of the Norman invasion in Europe threatened the Byzantines in Italy. The Venetians agreed to help the Byzantines against the Normans. In return for their help the Byzantines allowed the Venetians to trade freely with them, and not pay the same duties and customs as other nations. The start of the Crusades began to open up trading routes with the east, which Venice was uniquely placed to exploit.

However, by the 12 century the pride and wealth of the Venetians bred hostility in Constantinople (the centre of the Byzantine empire). As a result the Byzantines made new trade deals with Pisa and Genoa and they began to tax Venetian traders. Hostility between the old allies grew.

With internal power struggles in the Byzantine empire and the Fourth Crusade looming, Venice had a chance of revenge. The Catholic Church looked for financial support in the launching of a new crusade- this time against wealthily Egypt and Cairo. The Venetians offered their military support and use of their naval power and infrastructure; in return for half of any lands conquered and 85,000 silver marks. The church agreed and the fleet was due to depart June 1202. However, the Venetian diplomats immediately brokered a deal with the Sultan in Egypt, assuring him the fleet would never reach his shores, and the Doge negotiated with the deposed Byzantine emperor.

When the day of departure arrived, the church was unable to pay the full amount of money, so the Venetians offered a compromise. They would accept part payment, if the army would help them deal with a small dispute they had with the King of Hungary. This was agreed and the fleet set sail for the city of Zara, which they laid siege to and conquered. By this time it was nearly winter, so the fleet camped at Zara for the season. In the meantime, the deposed emperor of the Byzantines agreed to pay the remainder of the 85,000 silver marks to regain his throne in Constantinople. So the fleet headed off to Constantinople, where they laid siege and defeated the city. However, the emperor was unable to pay so the Venetians looted the city of her treasures in retaliation. Many of the finest treasures of Venice today, were those stolen from Constantinople.

Throughout the 15th and 16th century, Venice continued to grow in power and wealth through her trade and maritime dominance. However, tensions grew between Venice and the Papal states of Italy; as well as with France and Spain. Ceaseless war began to take its toll on the power and wealth of the republic. The Vatican believed Venice and France were the greatest threat to the power of the Papal states in central Italy. Consequently the Pope began a ruthless plan to usurp Venetian power. The political turmoil that ensued resulted in the long decline of Venice as a place of political significance, and in 1866, became part of the newly independent Kingdom of Italy.

Today, Venice’s place as a center for the arts continues; a place of pleasure and decadence, famous for it’s masked balls and the world’s first opera house and plays a major role on the world stage as a center for film, and tourism as one of the world’s most beautiful cities.

 

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News

Rioting Throughout England

Recently the UK has seen successive nights of violent throughout the cities of England. There has been widespread looting, arson attacks, mugging, wreckless acts of vandalism, and a sustained attack on police and innocent members of the public.

The unrest started on the Saturday night after a peaceful protest turned into violence. Protesters were angry after a young black man, Mark Duggan, was shot dead by police, after police thought he opened fire on them. It now appears, Duggan did not fire a gun at police, and some in the black community saw his death as evidence of institutional racism within the police force. The fact that Duggan was a notorious local criminal, with a history of violence and gun crime seems to be incidental, as he has now been painted as a “good father and respected member of the community”, who just happened to “live by the gun!”

What then happened no one could have foreseen. After a night of rioting, supposedly, because of this man death, riots broke out all over London on Sunday night, then again on Monday night.

Monday and Tuesday night saw rioting spread to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, and many other major towns and cities in central England. Every criminal and many young people jumped on the band wagon, and every political grievance the rioter may have felt they had, has been lost in complete abandon with lawlessness and looting- criminals and yobs who just looked to cause as much damage and steal as much as they could.

Areas worst affected were those with high ethnic populations, although race was not the only factor in these riots. We are witnessing the manifestation of many of the deep social problems in British society caused by the break down of family, poor educational achievement, and ingrained victim mentality, and generational welfare dependance. Sadly black families in impoverished areas have a high percentage of all these problems.

The socialist left in Britain has been quick to lay the blame on the Conservative government, for cuts the benefit system. However, their polices have facilitated generations of families to live on state benefits, to such an extent the world of work is beyond the comprehension of many young people in Britain today.

Looters told reporters, as they stole thousands of pounds worth of goods from electrical stores, “we’re entitled to this”.

What has happened to a society where people think they are “entitled” to a big flat screen television- like some kind of divine birth right? And if they are not supplied one, they should be allowed to steal one, and wreck the shop and destroy local businesses in the process!

The British government are trying to bring about change that will make work pay for everyone, so no longer will people make more money on benefits than they do going out to work.

Another problem with the British benefit system is it “pays” for a woman to have children with no father, leading to mass fatherlessness within the society. One truly shocking aspect for the riots has been the young age of those involved. The youngest so far to be charged was an eleven year old boy. Fatherlessness is an even greater problem within the black community. Where young boys lives are blighted by having no father figure around.

The consequences all to often are failure at school and rebellious behavior; when they grow up the chances are these boys too will father children they will never raise. And the fatherless daughters have a far greater chance of becoming teenage mothers, without qualifications, requiring state assistance.

To help such communities these deep social problems have to be addressed. Many changes have to happen from within the communities themselves. The black community needs to overcome the victim mentality – not helped by the liberal media, constantly feeding the perception to youths of these communities, that they are victims of racism and poverty. The welfare system needs to continue to be changed, to break the dependancy culture.

Finally, hardest of all, families need to be healed, and children need their fathers. All these problems are deeply rooted within these communities, and have been so for generations; it is naive to think the politicians can magic them away.

Many of the issues need spiritual answers, which requires the church to rise up in England and restore these communities, by demonstrating the love of our heavenly Father to bring honor and respect for property and people to the community.

 

Opinion

Prophetic Bulletin for Switzerland

The small European nation of Switzerland could easily be overlooked as an important player in the spiritual landscape of our world.

This small nation, famous for it’s global banking institutions, is repeatedly revealing itself as an important focus for our church intercession.

This month will see Prophet TV making the first missionary visit to Rome, to focus on Vatican City, and the dragon of religion that sits enthroned over the Catholic Church.

The Vatican has close links to Switzerland. For nearly 600 years the Pope’s official body guard, and the Vatican’s official army have been the Swiss Guard. During the Renaissance the Swiss Guard were no more than mercenaries, who travelled throughout Europe, hiring themselves to fight in the many battles which would break out in different nations of Europe.

The Swiss where famed throughout Europe for their superior skills as men of war, their courage, and tremendous loyalty. These traits led Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) to formally appoint them to be the official army of the Vatican, a position they have held to this day.

However, what is interesting to note, is that the Swiss nation for centuries was famed for producing the greatest warriors in all of Europe; and is now famous for it’s neutrality. Could the Swiss inheritance be as mighty spiritual warriors? And has the church in Switzerland failed to walk in her inheritance? Often the natural is a reflection of the spiritual.

Switzerland throughout World War I and II refused to be drawn into the wars, and choose a position of neutrality. How neutral the Swiss actually were is open to question. The Nazi’s used Switzerland to store their vast sums of money and treasures seized from Jews during the holocaust.

Switzerland is also home to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This particle accelerator is the largest in the world, and has the capability of creating black holes. The LHC has been built on the foundation of unproven physics, which relies heavily on assumption, which if untrue, challenges the safety of the entire project. Prophet TV have been educating the church about the LHC for a couple of years now, and seek the budget to go to the Hadron Collider site near Geneva on an intercessory prayer mission.

Switzerland also has extremely liberal euthanasia laws. Since 1941 in Switzerland the terminally ill, the mentally ill and the severely depressed can gain assistance to end their lives. These services are also open to foreigners. The charity “Dignitas”, which runs the assisted suicide clinics in Switzerland, say they have helped over 1,000 foreigners end their lives, with about 200 people a year committing suicide in Zurichs’ clinics.

One of the questions Prophet TV is seeking to answer is who is seated in heavenly places over Switzerland? It is doubtful the church is ruling and reigning over this nation, with so much government sponsored death in the region.

Last year Switzerland welcomed the Dalai Lama to Zurich, where he met with the largest gathering of Swiss Buddhists ever seen. Is the Dalai Lama seated in heavenly places over Switzerland? Switzerland has the largest Tibetan Buddhist community in Europe. A new film being made about the Dalai Lama is to be funded by Swiss business – why would this be?

This is the hour the church needs a mighty spiritual army to be raised up in these key regions, to rule and reign with Christ, so there can be no place found for the devil in these regions; then the Kingdom of God can advance on earth.

 

News

Queen Elizabeth’s Visit to Ireland

May 17th saw the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth visit the Republic of Ireland. This is the first state visit by a British Monarch in over 100 years. The last was by George V in 1911, when Ireland was still part of Britain. In 1920 Ireland fought for their independence from Britain, since independence Irish Republicans have continued to use terrorism for many years to gain independence for Northern Ireland. The Queen’s husband’s, the Duke of Edinburgh’s, uncle, Earl Mountbatten, was murdered by the IRA (an Irish terrorist organisation) during the troubles, not far from Sligo. Prophet TV’s Northern Ireland gateway has dealt with much of the spilt blood from decades of conflict in the north.

 Britain’s history with Ireland has not been one to be proud of, and bitterness has lingered for generations, so the Queen’s visit was of great significance to the two nations.

The Queen toured different parts of the country and laid a  wreath of remembrance to those Irish soldiers killed during the Irish War of Independence; and during her visit the Queen gave a speech at Dublin Castle, in which she said: “We can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all.” She also spoke of being able to, “to bow to the past, but not be bound by it”.

This message has been greatly received and the dignity and heart-felt nature of her visit has touched the Irish people.

Over the last year, a Prophet.TV partner has spent considerable time in Ireland travelling routes taken by the Queen on this visit (although not known by her at the time!) Furthermore, due to a business trip, the Lord had this partner in Ireland travelling through the country, mirroring the Queen’s movements throughout her visit. When we partake of the mantle on Prophet TV we carry the anointing on the ministry wherever we go. God has blessed Ireland this May, and chains of bitterness to the past have been loosed.

Random Events, Free Will or Something Darker?

Three-Dimensional Mandala Created in Iowa

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Buddhists have a deep understanding of the spiritual realm; more so than most of the church. They use many different practises to evoke their gods to influence the world. The practises of Buddhism evoke water spirits, the same spirits evoked in VooDoo, and these spirits create destruction in the places they are evoked.

The spirit of the Dalai Lama was over Nazi Germany, after members of the SS visited Tibet, and brought back the rituals used in Tibetan Buddhism. The swastika and the skull and cross bone are both Nazi symbols taken from Tibetan Buddhism.

Tibetan Buddhism has now entered America and is gaining control over the nation. The Dalai Lama comes preaching “peace, peace” however destruction follows. When the Buddhist monks evoke their gods, they say bring peace, prosperity, healing and compassion we see deadly tornadoes, fires, stock market falling, hurricanes…

Now in Iowa on the Northern banks of the Mississippi River there is a three dimensional mandala being built. In Buddhist tradition there are “special monuments” they say possess “powerful energetic abilities” to remove “negativity”. One such monument it the three dimensional mandala. However, these wrathful deities have one objective: removing the Spirit of God, so they can control the region.

One of these deities, believed to be a “remover of obstacles” is a god named Vajrakilaya. This god although meant to bring peace and compassion is surrounded in fire and is filled with fury. The mandala in Iowa is a full scale Vajrakilaya mandala, similar to the only other such mandala in Bhutan. The Phurba Peace Mandala will be the first full scale three dimensional mandala in North America.

The location of the Phurba Peace Mandala has been very carefully chosen. In America’s past this location was sacred to the Native Americans, and as the Buddhist lamas state it is “geographically suited for the maximum energetic effect”!

Since the mandalas evoke water spirits they require to be located near water. The Mississippi river divides America, and is the longest river in the world. The location is also on a major migratory bird route, for 40% of all waterfowl and 60% of bird species in North America. In Buddhist tradition birds are very important and speaks of female ‘sky-movers,’ the dakinis, who are often depicted as birds, they are also believed to carry “messages”. Consider the level of demonic which such a project is to evoke, and these water spirits find their way the great Mississippi River, flowing across America, through the Bible Belt. These spirits want to destroy the church, consider the destruction this month has seen in the Midwest due the the deadly tornadoes?

The Dalai Lama has a planned strategy for taking over America. He comes with his message of peace, but what is the fruit? Where is the peace, health, compassion, and prosperity in nations like Tibet, Bhutan and India (Buddhism has it origins in Hinduism).

The Spirit of God can overcome these powerful deities. However the majority of the church is not walking in the Power of God, and fails to take dominion over the spirit realm. When will the Bible Belt wake up and begin to rule and reign with Christ, building a hedge of protection so the demonic cannot bring destruction in these regions?