Friday News.

 

Providentially, it is the right time to write about the reason for the season. Over 2,000 years ago, the Roman Empire (which spread from Iraq to Great Britian) occupied much of the Middle East from Iraq to Israel. They dominated civilization and utilized an oppressive system of imperialism and Empire. In Israel, the Jewish people (Arabic people and other human beings) were subjugated in a vicious manner. Their religious liberty rights were restricted, and they paid taxes to the Roman Empire too. The Edomite Herod Antipas was involved in the murder of John the Baptist in a conspiracy. This was in the time of the Emperors of Augustus and Tiberius. Faithful religious Jewish people refused to worship Greco-Roman gods, and many of them experienced harsh oppression. Later, a star was in the night sky, and wise men came to see a child that would change history forever. Yeshua was a person who condemned materialism, shown compassion to the poor, prevented a mob from killing a woman accused of adultery, and promoted the Gospel of love and righteousness. His followers, the apostles, risked their lives to spread the Gospel. Many of the apostles would be murdered, the Apostle John was in exile in Patmos, and other followers of Jesus Christ would be murdered back then and to this very day today in Nigeria, in India, Indonesia, and in other parts of the world. His existence has been mentioned in the New Testament, by Thallus, by Josephus, by Tactius, the Talmud, Mar bar Serapion, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, and other human beings like early Christians themselves. In the Christian faith, Yeshua died on the cross, resurrected 3 days later, and ascended into Heaven to ascend to the right hand of God the Father. Yeshua was a rabbi, a carpenter, a leader, a prophet, and whose sacrifice saved the sins of the whole world as the Son of living God. 

The messages of salvation, freedom, and the priesthood of all believers were very revolutionary back then. From the Virgin Birth to the Crucifixion and Resurrection, the Christian faith has grown over the course over 2,000 years. Now, we live in a crossroads of our existence with human rights being on the line. Yet, we still have that transcendent hope and faith, because resiliency is part and parcel of human history. Yeshua was a revolutionary. He said that the Kingdom of God is within you, I and my Father are one, Blessed are the poor, love your neighbors, and disagreed with the hypocritical religious schools of that time (among the Pharisees, Sadducees, etc.). Many centuries ago, people couldn't read the Bible in their own language. William Tyndale was a heroic man who translated the Bible into English, and he was murdered by the governing authorities back then unjustly for doing legitimate work. Many Baptists and Anabaptists people were imprisoned and murdered for refusing to baptize infants. 

So, the faith we embrace has been influenced by the suffering of the martyrs who risked their lives for us.  It took faith and action to end overt legalized slavery, to defeat the Nazis during WWII, and to get civil rights legislation passed. We honor the story of Jesus Christ to see that miracles can happen. Being born is a miracle, having the opportunity to read these words today is a miracle, and charities saving tons of lives via the ages of time are miracles too. We live in unique times. There has been an increase of xenophobia in America when some people want mass deportations, even splitting families if necessary. You have some people who love book bans, want no regulations of guns, desire no regulations of environmental issues, and seek political divisions to be the order of the day. We reject bigotry and intolerance of our neighbors, and we want real solutions to complicated issues. From chariots to Iphone, our technological development has been awe inspiring, but we have to have a sense of integrity and morality in our lives too. You have to promote love and justice. Love and justice go hand in hand. After the Roman Empire is gone, after the 2nd Temple is gone, and after many changes, we are still here to express our faith and to believe in the power of the Messiah of the Universe.

People who know about genetics and do research into family history talk about maternal and paternal haplogroups all of the time. What does this mean? Men and women (who are relatives) inherit mitochondrial DNA from their biological mothers spanning thousands of years. This mtDNA is found among individuals who share a mother having the same maternal haplogroup. The mitochondrial DNA (that has mtDNA) is found outside of the nucleus. mtDNA doesn't recombine with other types of DNA. So, your mother, you, your brother, your sister, etc. would share the same maternal haplogroup as you. All sons inherit their Y chromosomes form their biological fathers, so a father and his son share a Y chromosome or paternal haplogroup. 

The Y chromosome does recombination with the X chromosome but only does at the ends. The Y chromosome is a reflection of our ancient paternal ancestry. What is a haplogroup? Haplogroups are genetic classifications or ancestral groups within a population. They are defined by shared, inherited genetic markers or mutations that are passed down from a common ancestor. Scientists use haplogroups to trace human beings' migrations throughout the Earth. Genetic tests can help people to define their own haplogroups. There is autosomal DNA too. So, haplogroups are like imprints of our ancestry that we can trace thousands of years in the past to our generation.

By Timothy