Keith on Biblical Truth versus Popular Myth

One of the problems I come across when I write sermons myself is that the sermon writer is is often so much more theologically literate than the hearer. This is a generalisation of course, but like all generalisations I think it's true most of the time. The problem is that there has been a massive amount of historical work done on the Bible in the last 50 years and the question is how much of that do you include. There are two problems: Some of it requires a bit of education, which not all the listeners have, and it can also be discomforting for people to see their sacred cows shot down.

An example of the first problem: I wanted to preach a sermon on how the USA's policy on Israel is predicated on a false view of Revelation. My rector vetoed it on the grounds that it was too hard.

Another example: The proof texting against women in leadership is easy to understand but it falls to bits when confronted with a careful analysis of Scripture and a careful examination of the historical circumstances surrounding the texts. But are listeners able/willing to hear?

A simple example of the second problem is the birthplace of Jesus. The common wisdom that everyone knows is that Jesus was born in a stable because there was no room in the inn. That is almost certainly not the case. Joseph would have stayed with his family (the hospitality customs would have ensured that) in a house with a mezzanine. You ate/lived/slept on the mezzanine and the animals lived on the groung floor. This is where Mary would have had the baby: In the little privacy afforded in the house, down with the animals because the mezzanine was full.

That seems to be the best take on it according to the historical evidence. So all this stuff about Jesus being unwanted now as he was unwanted during his birth is false. He was embedded in his family. The carol No room only a manger of hay is historically inaccurate. But if you preach that, you will probably be howled down. So what? you may say. Perhaps a fair point in that instance, does it really matter? Well, yes, if you're interested in Biblical truth.

Dave's recent Sermon on Jesus, Justice and Jubilee is another example of the second problem. Dave tells me that Moore College at that time was not interested. I preached on the same text at my ex-church, reaching similar conclusions to Dave but also concluding that it meant Jesus was more Left Wing thean Right Wing. It was the last Sermon I was asked to preach. Biblically, the point is obvious, but no-one wanted to hear it.

How far do you push people, both in terms of how much you expect them to take in, and in terms of how much change you expect? How true are you willing to be to Scripture when it may offend people? Hard questions. I really admire the balance that Dave achieves.

Dan's complete history of everthing (up to 1916)

• Alpha and Omega -- Immanentizing of the Eschaton.
  
• 20,000,000 BC -- Recent Epoch of geeology begins; Ice Age ends; human beings spread to all parts of the world.
  
• 30,000 -- First Illuminatus, Gruad, rules in Atlantis. 20,000 -- Mythical Lloigor inhabit continent of Mu.
  
• 10,000 -- Approximate beginning of agriculture. Estimated date of inscriptions on stone disks by the Dropa tribe, a diminuative people of the Bayan-Kara-Ula Mountains on the border of China and Tibet; disks describe how the tribe came to earth in flying machines; ancient Dropa graves contain human remains with huge heads and small bodies. Earliest estimated date of carving of the Crystal Skull found at Lubaantun in the Yucatan. Hyborian Age in Europe.
  
• 9,000 to 10,000 -- Date of Plato's Atlantis.
  
• 6,000 -- Picture writing develops.
  
• 5,000 -- First alphabet begins to develop.
  
• 4,000 -- Approximate date of discovery of metals, beginning of cities, constellations of stars first recorded. Egyptians begin placing small pieces of crystal on the forehead of deceased prior to mummification.
  
• 3,000 -- Approximate date of building of the Sphinx and Great Pyramid at Giza and other pyramids elsewhere in Egypt. Indus Valley civilization develops complex government, writing and well planned cities. Minoan civilization flourishes in Crete. Earliest parts of the Bible written. Beginning date of Olmec calendar from Central America: 3113 BC. Trephination (cutting a hole in the skull) practiced by people all over the world.
  
• 2,500 -- Sarmoung Brotherhood of Babylonia flourish according to Gurdjieff. 2,100 -- Egyptians record star configurations on which the 24 hour day is based.
  
• 2,000 -- Stonehenge and other stone circles built in England.
  
• 1,800 -- Huge Silbury Mound constructed near Stonehenge.
  
• 1,700 -- Babylonian Enuma Anu Enlil, early roots of astrology based on celestial phenomena.
  
• 1,500 -- Approximate date of the destruction of Thera, on which Atlantis legends are probably based. Early references to Mithraism on cuneform astronomical tests. Quadrants of the moon recorded in China.
  
• 1,360 -- Akhenaton's monotheistic sun worship in Egypt.
  
• 1,344 -- Tutankhamun, Akhenaton's successor who revived polytheism, buried at Thebes; curse reading "Death comes on swift wings to he who opens this tomb," written on tomb doorway.
  
• 1,300 -- Approximate date "I Ching" written in China.
  
• 1,184 -- End of the Trojan War, Illium falls to the Greeks.
  
• 1,000 to 2,000 -- Legendary Thule civilization in the Gobi region destroyed by a catastrophe, "possibly of an atomic nature," survivors migrating to Agarthi and Schamballah.
  
• 1,000 -- Huge Sacrificial Table built at Mystery Hill near North Salem, New Hampshire.
  
• 950 -- Approximate date of building of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, traditional origin of the Masonic fraternity; alleged assassination of Temple master-mason Hiram for refusing to reveal masonic secrets.
  
• 900 -- Approximate time settlers from Europe and the Middle East established colonies in North America.
  
• 800 -- Twenty-two "moon stations" in monthly lunar cycle recognized in Babylonia, India and China.
  
• 753 -- Legendary founding of Rome by Romulus.
  
• 700 -- Jordanian city of Petra is carved out of sandstone by unknown culture. 600 -- Approximate beginning of money with first coins in Lydia.
  
• 575 -- Nebuchadnezzar completes building Tower of Babel in Babylon.
  
• 500 to 600 -- Time of Buddha, Lao Tse, Confucius, Zarathustra, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Zachariah and Daniel--an Illuminated century.
  
• 500 -- Sun-Tse's "Treatise on the Art of War," first intelligence manual.
  
• 485 -- Execution of Spurius Cassius in Rome.
  
• 450 -- Development of the 12 constellations of the zodiac in Mesopotamia, recognizing the importance of the plane of the elliptic through which the sun, moon and planets move.
  
• 440 -- Assassination of Spurius Maelius.
  
• 400 -- Druidism in England. Astrological ideas from Enuma Anu Enlil transmitted to India.
  
• 390 -- Approximate date Plato's "The Republic" written, featuring such Illuminoid images as the Philosopher Kings, the Divided Line and the parable of the Cave.
  
• 355 -- Plato's "Timaios" and "Kritias," earliest accounts of Atlantis.
  
• 300 -- Invention of Mayan calendar in Yucatan, based on advanced astronomy. Fabius family of Rome reaches its greatest heights.
  
• 275 -- Approximate date Greek poet Aratus makes first sytematic record of star constellations in "Phaenomena."
  
• 273 to 232 -- Rule of Asoka, king of India who allegedly founded the Nine Unknown.
  
• 212 -- Archimedes uses burning-glass to set fire to Roman fleet at Syracuse, early use of lens as weapon.
  
• 133 -- Land reformer Tiberius Gracchus murdered and hundreds of his followers killed by followers of powerful Roman patricians; death of Scripio Africanus a few years later.
  
• 121 -- Gaius Gracchus and 3000 of his followers massacred by patricians.
  
• 100 -- The Great Teacher of the Essenes. Essentials of modern astrology worked out.
  
• 95 -- Approximate date of assassination of Saturninus and Glaucia. 92 -- Assassination of Rutilius Rufus.
  
• 91 -- Assassination of Livius Drufus.
  
• 73 -- Revolt of gladiators led by Spartacus.
  
• 44 -- Assassination of Julius Caesar.
  
• 4 -- Birth of Jesus of Nazareth, accompanied by various Illuminoid trappings: three early Men-In-Black disguised as the Wise Men; strange lights in the sky; miracles such as visits from angels, prohpecy and suspension of time are reported.
  
• 0 -- Carnation-Painted Eyebrows Society, Copper Horses, Iron Shins and other secret societies active in China.
  
• AD 30 -- Assassination of the radical Jesus, allegedly on Illuminati orders; more Illuminoid trappings; an eclipse; an earthquake; visitorsfrom the sky roll away the stone from the sepulcher and liberate the crucified Jesus.
  
• 100 -- Hero of Alexandria devises primitive steam-engine.
  
• 125 to 150 -- Simon Magus, Menander, Valentinus and others develop Gnostic religious doctrines of esoteric knowledge (illumination).
  
• 135 -- Approximate date Ptolemy records 1,022 stars in "Almagest"; also recorded astrological ideas from Enuma Anu Enlil in his "Apotelesmatika."
  
• 150 -- Roman Mithraism competes with Christianity. Yellow Turban Society subdues northern China, Triad cult formed in opposition.
  
• 200 -- First book of the cabala, "Sepher Yetzirah," compiled.
  
• 216 to 276 -- Life of Mani, the Illuminator, who founded Manicheism, based on ideas from Judaism, Christianity, Zoroasterism, Gnosticism, etc.
  
• 325 -- Council of Nicaea in which Christian begins to rigidify.
  
• 400 -- Estimated date of carving of stone statues found on Easter Island.
  
• 500 -- Chinese use of gunpowder.
  
• 570 to 632 -- Life of Muhammad, founder of Islam.
  
• 670 -- Callinicus invents Greek Fire, primitive incendiary bomb.
  
• 673 to 735 -- Life of the Venerable Bede, the greatest scholar of Saxon England whose "Ecclesiastical History of England" (731) contained many occult and unexplained occurances.
  
• 700 -- Sufi mysticism begins.
  
• 730 -- "Al Azif" written in Damascus by Abdul Alhazred.
  
• 772 -- Charlemagne allegedly established Holy Secret Tribunal which becomes the Holy Vehm.
  
• 850 -- Ismaili and Fatimid missionaries throughout Islamic Empire preach revolution against the ruling Sunni order and Abbasid state.
  
• 900 -- Beginning of the Bogomils of Bulgaria, a Manicheian sect, roots of Cathari. 909 -- First Fatimid caliph in Egypt.
  
• 920 to 1003 -- Life of Pope Sylvester II who allegedly visited the Nine Unknown in India.
  
• 950 -- "Al Azif" translated into Greek as "Necronomicon."
  
• 1000 -- Approximate founding of Yezidi cult by Sufi Sheikh Adi in Iraq. Abode of Learning active in Cairo. Spread of Cathari Manicheism throughout Europe. Leif Ericson explores North America.
  
• 1034 to 1124 -- Life of Hasan-e Sabbah, founder of the Assassins of Persia. Member of the Ismaili sect, Hasan seized fortress of Alamut in Daylam in 1090; split with Fatimid dynasty in 1094; Assassins flourished for next several centuries.
  
• 1050 -- Approximate date of founding of the Order of Hospitallers in Jerusalem.
  
• 1058 -- Member of the Abode of Learning sect gains temporary control of Bagdad.
  
• 1092 -- Assassins murder Persian minister Nizam al-Mulk.
  
• 1095 -- First Crusade.
  
• 1100 -- Approximate date Sufi Gilani founds Arabic school of Illuminati, Kadiri Order of Sebil-el-ward, in Bagdad. Assassins infiltrate Thug cult of India. Bogomil leader Basil burned in Constantinople. Albigensian Cathari sect flourishes near Albi, France. Avengers and Beati Paoli active in Italy. Joachim of Floris founds primitive Christian sect, Illuminated Ones. Robin Hood active in England.
  
• 1119 -- Knights Templar founded in Palestine.
  
• 1123 -- Abode of Learning suppressed by Turkish Vizier Afdal.
  
• 1140 -- Rapid growth of Cathari sect begins.
  
• 1149 -- First Cathari bishop established.
  
• 1162 to 1227 -- Life of Genghis Khan, conquerer of China and Russia, invader of Europe and Islamic Empire, destroyer of Assassin power. Approximate beginnings of the wandering of the Gypsies of North India.
  
• 1167 -- Cathari council near Toulouse.
  
• 1170 -- Assassination of Thomas a Becket.
  
• 1171 -- Last Fatimid caliph dies.
  
• 1176 -- Peter Waldo founds the Poor Men of Lyons. Sultan Saladin invades Assassin territory, gains truce.
  
• 1184 -- Waldenses excommunicated, suppressed.
  
• 1200 to 1300 -- House of Wisdom in Cairo, roots of the Afghan Roshaniya. Origin of the Mafia in Sicily.
  
• 1208 -- Albigensian Crusade begins suppression of Cathari heresy.
  
• 1212 -- The Children's Crusade. Genghis Khan invades China.
  
• 1233 -- Founding of the Inquisition to suppress Cathari and other heresies.
  
• 1235 to 1315 -- Life of Dr. Illuminatus, Ramon Llull (Raymond Lully) in Spain.
  
• 1241 -- Mongols invade Europe through wise use of intelligence information and strategy, introduce gunpowder from Asia.
  
• 1244 -- Massacre of Cathari at Montsegur, France.
  
• 1250s -- Approximate beginning of Holy Vehm in Westphalia. Approximate time of Hulagu Khan's defeat of the Assassins.
  
• 1254 to 1324 (?) -- Life of Marco Polo, early European traveler in China, Persia.
  
• 1258 -- Hulagu Khan destroys Bagdad; Mongols destroy Mesopotamia, the mother of civilization.
  
• 1260 -- Mongol invasion of Islamic Empire turned back.
  
• 1270s -- Cathari hierarchy fades.
  
• 1275 -- Assembly of traveling mason guilds in Frankfort. "Zohar," second book of the cabala, compiled by Moses de Leon in Spain.
  
• 1280 -- Roger Bacon, deviser of early eyeglasses, independently invents gunpowder.
  
• 1291 -- Hospitallers retreat to Cyprus.
  
• 1300 -- White Lotus Society founded in China. Inquisition begins suppression of witches and other pagan groups.
  
• 1307 -- Philip IV of France suppresses Knights Templar for witchcraft and heresies; de Molay imprisoned in the Temple in Paris.
  
• 1308 -- Assassination of Holy Roman Emperor Albert I.
  
• 1309 -- Hospitallers acquire the isle of Rhodes. 1313 -- Knights Templar dissolved by papal decree.
  
• 1314 -- De Molay and others burned in Paris.
  
• 1327 -- Assassination of King Edward II in England. 1329 -- First appearance of the Tarot in Germany.
  
• 1360 -- Approximate date of the earliest known Satanic cults; black masses celebrated in France.
  
• 1369 -- Timurlane becomes Great Khan.
  
• 1375 -- Another assembly of traveling mason guilds in Frankfort.
  
• 1379 to 1482 -- Alleged life of Christian Rosenkreuz, fictitious founder of Rosicrucianism.
  
• 1390 -- Gypsies begin to appear in Europe.
  
• 1400s -- Cathari sect dies out. Concave lenses developed.
  
• 1404 -- King Robert revises code of Holy Vehm.
  
• 1410 -- Secret society formed in Italy which eventually joins with Rosicrucianism.
  
• 1437 -- Assassination of King James I of Scotland.
  
• 1456 -- Gutenberg Bible begins modern printing.
  
• 1458 -- Abramelin's "Book of Sacred Magic" translated from Hebrew to french according to followers of the cult of the Guardian Angel.
  
• 1471 -- Assassination of King Henry VI of England.
  
• 1472 -- University of Ingolstadt founded. Fernando Poo discovers Fernando Poo.
  
• 1483 -- Assassination of King Edward V of England.
  
• 1492 -- Rodrigo Borgia, head of the powerful Borgia family, becomes Pope Alexander VI. Columbus sails the ocean blue.
  
• 1493 to 1541 -- Life of Paracelsus, possible founder of Roscrucianism; discover of zinc around 1530; model of the Faust legend.
  
• 1500 -- Approximate date of Roshaiya, Illuminated Ones, in Afganistan. Beginning of Alumbrados in Spain and Charcoal- Burners in Scotland. Cesare Borgia has his brother-in-law assassinated.
  
• 1502 -- Cesare Borgia arrests and executes enemies who have conspired against him.
  
• 1503 to 1566 -- Life of Nostradamus, visionary prophet.
  
• 1507 -- Fra Dolcino's version of Joachim's Illuminism suppressed by the Bishop of Vercueil.
  
• 1510 -- Beginning of systematic importation of African slaves into the West Indies.
  
• 1513 -- Machiavelli's "The Prince" published.
  
• 1519 -- Spanish conquest of Mexico, enslavement of Amerindians.
  
• 1522 -- Hospitallers lose Rhodes to the Turks.
  
• 1530 -- Hospitallers given Isle of Malta by Charles V, become Knights of Malta.
  
• 1537 -- Assassination of Alessandro de Medici, Duke of Florence.
  
• 1568 -- First Inquisition edict against the Alumbrados.
  
• 1574 -- Second edict against Alumbrados.
  
• 1575 -- Approximate date of founding of British Intelligence services.
  
• 1575 to 1624 -- Life of Jakob Bohme, visionary mystic, illuminated one.
  
• 1584 -- Assassination of William I of Orange in England.
  
• 1587 -- English colony established at Roanoke Island, Virginia; no trace of the "lost colony" was found when supply ships returned three years later.
  
• 1589 -- Assassination of King Henry III of France.
  
• 1590 -- Janssen makes first compound microscope in Europe.
  
• 1597 -- Anonymous alchemist seeks to start Rosicrucian-like society in Europe. 1605 -- Rosicrucian constitution published.
  
• 1607 -- Italian secrect society headed by Count Bernard of Germany merges with Rosicrucianism. First permanent English settlement in America, Jamestown, Virgina.
  
• 1608 -- Apprentice to Dutch spectacle-maker Lippershey discovers principle of focusing lenses; Lippershey builds first telescope.
  
• 1609 -- Galileo independently builds telescope, begins study of astonomy. Spanish settlement at Santa Fe, New Mexico, founded.
  
• 1610 -- Assassination of King Henty IV of France.
  
• 1614 -- "Fama Fraternitatis" published, fictional story of Rosenkreuz by Johann Valentin Andrea.
  
• 1619 -- First slave ship in America, Jamestown, Virginia.
  
• 1620 -- Plymouth Colony, second English settlement, arrives on Mayflower.
  
• 1622 -- Posters appear in Paris warning that the Rosicrucians are "amongst you...visibly and invisibly."
  
• 1623 -- Final papal edict against Alumbrados; Guerinets appear in France. First submarine built by Cornelius van Drebbel in England.
  
• 1638 -- Milton meets Galileo.
  
• 1640 -- Beginning of subliminal persuasion when Rembrandt imbeds the word "sex" in a painting. 1642 -- Civil War in England between King Charles and Parliament.
  
• 1646 -- Earliest known Masonic Lodge to allow non-professional or "free" masons, in Warrington, England.
  
• 1647 -- Alleged correspondence between Cromwell and Ebeneezer Pratt plotting the overthrow of King Charles.
  
• 1649 -- King Charles convicted and beheaded by Parliament.
  
• 1654 -- Illuminated Guerinets come to public notice in France. 1667 -- Milton's "Paradise Lost" published.
  
• 1675 -- Leeuwenhoek discovers "animalcules" through the microscope.
  
• 1676 -- Sperm discovered by Leeuwenhoek's student Ham.
  
• 1680 -- Madame Le Voisin, innovator of modern Satanism, executed in Paris.
  
• 1682 -- Tamanend, sachem and chief of the Lenni-Lenape tribe, welcomes William Penn to America, traditionally considered the beginning of the Tammany Society.
  
• 1689 -- William III of Orange becomes king of England, allegedly through the plotting of the Illuminati.
  
• 1694 -- Bank of England founded.
  
• 1700 -- Quietism of Fenelon and others.
  
• 1701 -- Earliest record of "operative" or professional Masonic Lodge in Alnwick, England.
  
• 1702 -- First daily newspaper in England.
  
• 1717 -- Founding of modern Freemasonry with the Grand Lodge of London by Desaguliers. Voltaire imprisoned in the Bastille.
  
• 1721 -- British King George I cracks down on the flourishing Hell Fire Clubs, popular Satanistic cults.
  
• 1723 -- Anderson's "Constitutions of the Freemasons" published. "Ebrietatis Enconium" and other early anti-Masonic works published.
  
• 1724 -- Publication of the anti-Masonic "Grand Mysteries of the Freemasons Discovered."
  
• 1731 -- Benjamin Franklin initiated into Freemasonry.
  
• 1734 -- Franklin elected Grand Master of Pennsylvania.
  
• 1736 -- Death of the last leader of the Afghan Illuminated Ones.
  
• 1749 -- Rousseau's spontaneous "enlightenment" launches the Romantic Movement.
  
• 1750 -- Hell Fire Clubs continue to flourish in Dublin and London. Fictional alchemist Joseph Curwen writes letter stating "I laste Nighte strucke on ye Wordes that bringe up Yooge-Sothothe," perhaps the real power behind the Illuminati.
  
• 1754 -- Six year old Adam Weishaupt is orphaned and goes to live with the Jesuits.
  
• 1757 -- First year of Swedenborg's "New Era."
  
• 1759 -- Voltaire's "Candide" published.
  
• 1760 -- St. Germain founds chemical dye factory in Holland, fore- runner of I.G. Farben; disappears with 100,000 guilders. Franklin invents bifocals.
  
• 1761 -- St. Germain discovered living in Russia. Chinese Emporer issues edict against secret societies.
  
• 1762 -- Illumines of France founded. Sandwich invented.
  
• 1763 -- Swedenborg's "Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem" published.
  
• 1764 -- Voltaire's "Philosophical Dictionary" published; he begins a prodigious attack on dogmas of church and state.
  
• 1765 -- British Stamp Act imposed to help pay for the French and Indian War debt. Sons of Liberty clubs formed to resist the tax.
  
• 1767 -- Townshend Revenue Act, another British tax on the colonies. Kunta Kinte kidnapped into American slavery.
  
• 1768 -- Virginia's legislature dissolved for its opposition to the Townshend Act. Weishaupt graduates from the University of Ingolstadt, becomes tutor and catechist. Macfarguhar, Ball and Smelie begin compiling the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." Mesmer commissions 12 year old Mozart's first opera, "Bastien and Bastienne."
  
• 1770 -- Boston Massacre: British troops fire into a crowd. Townshend Act repealed.
  
• 1771 -- "Encyclopaedia Britannica" published.
  
• 1772 -- Weishaupt becomes professor at University of Ingolstadt.
  
• 1773 -- British Tea Tax on colonies. Boston Tea Party in protest. Weishaupt marries. Alleged meeting of Meyer Rothschild and others to plan a world revolution. Suppression of the Jesuits. Franklin's "Rule by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One" published.
  
• 1774 -- Britain's "Intolerable Acts" designed to punish rebellious colonies. First Continental Congress. Washington begins training troops. Louis XVI becomes king of France. Casanova becomes secret agent for the Inquisitors of Venice. Catherine II shuts down satiric journals in Russia. Jefferson's "Summary View of the Rights of British Americans" published.
  
• 1775 -- Second Continental Congress authorizes naval warships, sets up secret committee to procure weapons, names Washington commander-in-chief of the new American Army. George III proclaims America in open rebellion. Initial battles of the Revolutionary War: Lexington, Bunker Hill, Toconderoga. Bushnell's first experimental submarine and torpedo tested. Prince Hall lodges (for blacks) chartered by Grand Lodge of London, rejected by American lodges.
  
• 1776 -- Illuminati founded by Weishaupt. American Declaration of Independence, written by Jefferson, adopted by Continental Congress. Battles of Long Island, White Plains and Trenton. Nathan Hale executed as spy by British. Franklin becomes ambassador to France, is affiliated with French Masonic lodges. Opening of Freemasons' Hall, permanent headquarters of English Masonry. Cagliostro initiated into Masonry. Saigon captured by Tay Son brothers. Aaron Burr serves as assistant to Benedict Arnold. Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" and "The Crisis" widely read. Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" published.
  
• 1777 -- Weishaupt joins Munich Lodge of the Order of Good Council. Articles of Confederation adopted by Continental Congress. Battles of Bennington, Brandywine, Germantown, Princeton and Saratoga. Washington has his mystical vision of the future of the United States while at Valley Forge. War of Bavarian Secession begins.
  
• 1778 -- France recognizes American independence, signs treaty and provides aid. Franklin assists in initiation of Voltaire into Masonic Lodge of Paris. Masonic Convention in Lyons organizes Knights of Benficience.
  
• 1779 -- John Paul Jones says "Damn the torpedos!" Benedict Arnold becomes a traitor and spy for the British. War of Bavarian Secession ends.
  
• 1780 -- John Andre, British agent, captured with secret documents from Arnold; Arnold escapes to join British; Andre hanged as spy. Weishaupt's wife dies. Illuminati begins rapid growth. First use of the title Odd Fellows. Order of the Brotherhood of Asia, Rosicrucian off-shoot, founded.
  
• 1781 -- Battle of Guilford Court House, surrended of Cornwallis at Yorktown. John Hanson becomes first President of the United States in Congress Assembled. Weishaupt seeks abortion for his sister-in-law while awaiting dispensation to marry her. United Masonic Lodges of Hamburg headed by Fraximus, a secret Rosicrucian. Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" published.
  
• 1782 -- British cabinet agrees to recognize American independence, preliminary agreement signed in Paris. Hanson commissions the "Eye in the Pyramid" Great Seal, finishes term; Elias Boudinot elected second President of Congress Assembled. Illuminati dominate European Masonry. Casanova retires as secret agent.
  
• 1783 -- Treaty signed between America and England. Washington disbands army, resigns. Hanson dies. Thomas Mifflin third President of Congress Assembled. Ex-Illuminati Utschneider sends letter denouncing the Order to monarch of Bavaria. Rite of Swedenborg founded by Marquis de Throne. Eclectic Rite founded by Baron Knigge in Frankfort. Webster's "American Spelling Book" published.
  
• 1784 -- Treaty with England ratified by Congress. Richard Henry Lee fourth President of Congress Assembled. Bavarian Monarch Carl Theodore outlaws secret societies. Cagliostro moves to Lyons from Bordeaux to found the Mother Lodge of Egyptian Masonry. Royal Commission in Paris, including Franklin and Guillotine as members, investigates Mesmerism and returns a negative report.
  
• 1785 -- Weishaupt flees to Gotha; new edict outlaws Illuminati; High-ranking Illuminatus Lanz killed by lightning and Illuminati papers found on body by police. French "Diamond Necklace" affair. Napoleon graduates military school. Franklin returns to America; Jefferson becomes French ambassador. Rosicrucian Order suppressed in Austria. Anonymous pamphlet appears in Germany revealing secrets of ancient Egyptian ceremonies.
  
• 1786 -- Wisdom Lodge founded in Virginia. Secret congress in Frankfort where Louis XVI and Gustavus III of Sweden condemned to die by Illuminati. Italian Illuminatus Buonarroti's library of Masonic and subversive books confiscated by state authorities. Nathaniel Gorham fifth President of Congress Assembled. Napoleon writes pamphlete defending Rousseau.
  
• 1787 -- German authorities publish letter by Weishaupt admitting he sought abortion for his sister-in-law; Weishaupt replies, blaming "extenuating circumstances." German Union (extension of outlawed Bavarian Illuminati) founded by Bahrdt. Washington elected President of Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia; new constitution adopted by the convention. Arthur St. Clair sixth President of Congress Assembled. Jefferson meets secretly in Paris with Brazilian rebel to discuss American aid to revolution in Brazil. Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts to protest unfair taxes. Goethe visits Cagliostro's family in Palermo. Swedenborgian Church founded in London. Society for the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade founded in London.
  
• 1788 -- American Constitution ratified by the states. Individual American states begin to outlaw slavery. Cyrus Griffen seventh President of Congress Assembled. Paine visits London and Paris. "The Federalist" essays published by Hamilton, Madison and Jay.
  
• 1789 -- Washington elected President of the United States; first Congress under new Constitution. Jefferson returns to U.S. to become first Secretary of State; Hamilton becomes first Secretary of the Treasury. French Revolution begins.
  
• 1790 -- Rebellion and massacre throughout France. Cagliostro arrested by Inquisition of Rome. Bavarian edict against Reading Societies. Blake's "Marriage of Heaven and Hell" published.
  
• 1791 -- Napoleon joins the Jocobin Club. First Bank of the United States chartered. Burr begins converting Tammany Society into a political machine. The anonymous "Vie de Joseph Balsamo" (Joseph Basalmo was Cagliostro's name before he joined the Masons), first recorded link of the Illuminati and the French Revolution, appears in several European countries. Mozart's "The Magic Flute," containing Masonic elements, performed.
  
• 1792 -- Washington re-elected. War between France and Austria. Louis XVI imprisoned in the Templars Temple tower. Massacres of September, in which priests, bishops and others are killed. Elections for the National Convention, a triumph for Robespierre and his followers. France declared a Republic. First Swedenborgian church in America. Catherine II outlaws Masonry in Russia. "Life of Joseph Balsamo" translated into English in Dublin. Assassination of Gustav III at the Stockholm opera.
  
• 1793 -- Year One of the French Republic; the year of the Terror, Louis XVI found guilty of conspiracy, condemned to be executed. French government kills thousands of its citizens. France declares war on England and the Dutch United Provinces; war breaks out with Spain and Austria; Russia and Prussia begin partition of Poland. French food riots.
  
• 1794 -- Year Two; France passes laws distributing confiscated property to the poor, leads victorious battle against Austrians. Would-be assassin of Robespierre fires on Collot d'Herbois instead; the next day a young girl arrested as suspected assassin; she and 40 others sent to guillotine. Other attempts of Robespierre's life; his enemies accuse him of attempting to have himself declared divine by Catherine Theot, an old woman who preached a mystery religion; Robespierre guillotined. Monroe becomes minister to France. Whiskey rebellion in Pennsylvania to protest liquor taxes.
  
• 1795 -- France makes peace with Prussia and Spain, invades Holland. Napoleon suppresses revolt in Paris and goes to Italy as Commander-in-Chief. Yazoo land fraud: bribed Georgia legislators sell Mississippi.
  
• 1796 -- Adams elected President. Paine publishes letter critical of Washington.
  
• 1798 -- Illuminati scare in New England. Knights of Malta lose their island to Napoleon.
  
• 1800 -- Death of Thomas Waley, one of the last Hell Fire Club leaders. Napoleon comes to power, allegedly through Illuminati manipulation.
  
• 1805 to 1881 -- Life of Auguste Blanqui, French socialist, founder of numerous secret societies modeled after Buonarroti.
  
• 1815 -- Napoleon's Waterloo. Secret societies which eventually become the Decembrist Movement formed in Russian Masonic lodges.
  
• 1817 -- Suppression of the Lodge of Jupiter the Thunderer begins. Irish immigrants force entry into Tammany Society, changing its direction.
  
• 1818 -- Mar Shelley's "Frankenstein" published.
  
• 1819 -- American Independent Order of Odd Fellows founded. Founding of National Freemasonry, the most important of several Polish secret societies devoted to ousting the Russians from Poland. Liberation of Columbia by Bolivar.
  
• 1822 -- Russian government suppresses Masonry. Equador liberated by Bolivar.
  
• 1825 -- Decembrist movement suppressed in Russia after brief uprising. Bolivar liberates Bolivia. Founding of Vienna bank by Solmon Rothschild and Naples bank by Carl Rothschild.
  
• 1828 -- Tammany Society backs Andrew Jackson for President. Anti- Masonic Party founded, first third-party in America. Attempted assassination of Bolivar.
  
• 1829 -- Alleged Illuminati meeting in New York decides to unite Atheists and Nihilists into Communist movement.
  
• 1830 -- Anti-Masonic conventions in Massachusetts and Vermont find evidence linking Masonry with Illuminism. Book of Mormon published. Weishaupt and Bolivar die. 1831 -- Anti-Masonic Party runs Wirt for President, assuring that Mason Andrew Jackson would be re-elected. Poe dismissed from West Point.
  
• 1833 -- Jackson orders U.S. funds withdrawn from Bank of the United States, effectively killing the institution.
  
• 1835 -- The socialist League of the Just founded in Paris, later becoming the Marxist Communist League. Attempted assassination of Jackson with two single shot pistols, both of which jammed. Revolver invented.
  
• 1844 -- Morse builds first practical telegraph. Bahai religion begins when the Bab proclaims his mission in Persia.
  
• 1848 -- Fall of monarchy in France. Republic established in Rome. Abdication of Ferdinand I in Austria. Revolts in Denmark, Ireland, Lombardy, Schleswig-Holstein and Venice. Germany briefly united in a parliament at Frankfort; unity destroyed by the King of Prussia. Marx and Engles publish the "Communist Manifesto" (allegedly commissioned by the Illuminati) and travel in France and Germany encouraging discontent with the Establishment. Woman's Suffrage Movement gets underway in Seneca Falls, New York. Spiritualism born in Wayne County, New York, when the teenaged Fox sisters communicate with poltergeists. Fortean tidbits: moon turns "blood-red" during total eclipse; a great comet fails to return at the time predicted; visions and "phantom soldiers" seen in the skies of France and Scotland; Captain M'Quahae of H.M.S. Daedalus reports seeing a "huge, unknown creature" in the ocean. Gold discovered in California.
  
• 1849 to 1936 -- Life of Sir Basil Zaharoff, "mystery man of Europe," who made a fortune as an armaments dealer and financier, selling weapons to both sides in World War I and other conflicts.
  
• 1852 -- Benjamin becomes first professed Jew elected to Congress.
  
• 1859 -- Oil wells invented. Darwin's "Origin of Species" published.
  
• 1860 -- Lincoln elected. Electric storage battery invented.
  
• 1860s -- Attempts to suppress the Mafia in Sicily are unsuccessful.
  
• 1861 -- Confederate states secede; elect Jefferson Davis president; Benjamin appointed Confederate Attorney General, later Secretary of War. American Civil War begins. Emancipation of serfs in Russia. Jacolliot writes about the Nine Unknown in Calcutta. Gatling gun patented.
  
• 1862 -- Benjamin appointed Confederate Secretary of State.
  
• 1863 -- Rockfeller builds his first refinery.
  
• 1865 -- Assassination of Lincoln; Andrew Johnson becomes president; "Booth" killed; coded message found among his effects; the code key later found in possession of Benjamin, alleged Rothschild agent. Civil War ends. Thirteenth amendment abolishes slavery.
  
• 1866 -- Ku Klux Klan founded as a social club in Pulaski, Tennessee. Benjamin flees to England. Death of Phineas Quimby, magnetic healer, founder of Free Thought movement, teacher of Mary Baker Eddy.
  
• 1867 -- Ku Klux Klan reorganized along political and racial lines near Nashville, Tennessee.
  
• 1868 -- Assassination of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, first Canadian political assassination.
  
• 1869 -- St. Germain allegedly completes 85 years in the Himalayas after his "death." Mendeleev composes first periodic table of the elements in Russia. U.S. transcontinental railroad completed.
  
• 1870 -- Standard Oil Company incorporated.
  
• 1875 -- "Whiskey Ring" conspiracy of distillery owners revealed. Madam Blavatsky founds Theosophy Society. Mary Baker Eddy's "Science and Health" published.
  
• 1875 to 1947 -- Life of Aleister Crowley, the Great Beast, Golden Dawn leader and occult figure.
  
• 1876 -- Disraeli again warns about dangers of secret societies. Battle of the Little Big Horn. Bell patents telephone. Otto builds four-cycle gasoline engine.
  
• 1877 -- First of seven wills in which Cecil Rhodes leaves his money to establish a secret society to expand British rule throughout the world.
  
• 1878 to 1945 -- Life of Edgar Cayce, visionary, trance-channeler who spoke of reincarnation, Egyptian mysteries, and Atlantis.
  
• 1881 -- Garfield assassinated. Czar Alexander II assassinated by secret society. Disraeli publishes "Lothair," a novel about secret societies and European politics.
  
• 1884 -- Fabian Society founded in London by Sidney and Beatrice Webb and others.
  
• 1885 -- First practical horseless carriage built by Daimler.
  
• 1887 -- Golden Dawn founded in London by Mathers and others. Mitchelson-Morley experiement disproving ether theory.
  
• 1888 -- Unsolved murders of London prostitutes by "Jack the Ripper," suspected of being one of those implicated in the Cleveland Street Affair involving high-society Victorians and their patronage of a brothel staffed by messenger boys.
  
• 1889 -- Second Communist International organized.
  
• 1890 -- Biologist Yersin visits India, purportedly to recieve plague and cholera serum from the Nine Unknown. Wounded Knee massacre.
  
• 1891 -- Rhodes gains control of 90% of world's diamond supply. The Round Tables, a secret society allegedly funded by Rhodes and the Rothschilds to gain financial and political power, founded in the U.S., Canada, Australia, India, South Africa and New Zealand. Rockefeller grant founds University of Chicago. Nikola Tesla invents Tesla coil, becomes U.S. citizen.
  
• 1892 -- Rockefeller trust transferred to holding company: Standard Oil of New Jersey.
  
• 1893 -- Assassination of Chicago Mayor Harrison.
  
• 1894 -- Assassination of President Carnot of France.
  
• 1896 -- Maconi's patent No. 7777 for radio. First "flap year" for UFOs: wave of sightings of unidentified airships in U.S.
  
• 1897 -- Assassination of Premier Canovas of Spain. Zionism founded in Basil, Switzerland by Theodore Herzl. 1898 -- Assassination of Empress Elizabeth of Austria. Pavlov begins study of conditioned reflex in dogs.
  
• 1899 -- Tesla discovers terrestrial stationary waves which can produce electricity; reports receiving signals from another planet. Alleged meeting in England at which the Morgans, Rothschilds and Warburgs become affiliated.
  
• 1900 -- Assassination of King Umberto I of Italy and Kentucky Governor-elect William Goebel. Tesla suggests alien beings might be living "in the very midst of us." Boxer rebellion in China. Approximate date Adolf Lanz founded the Order of New Templars, a fore-runner of the Nazi mentality.
  
• 1901 -- Assassination of McKinley and Russian Education Minister Bogolepov. Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (Rockefeller University) founded in New York. First trans- Atlantic radio broadcast: Marconi sends the letter S.
  
• 1902 -- Assassination of Russian Minister of Interior Sipyagain. Paul and Felix Warburg immigrate from Germany to the U.S. Rockefeller General Education Board founded.
  
• 1903 -- Assassination of Bogdanovich, Governor of Ufa. "Protocols of Elders of Zion," alleged plan for Jewish world takeover, published in Russian newspaper.
  
• 1904 -- Assassination of Russian Premier Vischelev von Plehev.
  
• 1905 -- Assassination of Grand Duke Sergius and Idaho Governor Steunenberg. Abortive revolution in Russia. Expanded version of "Protocols of Zion" published.
  
• 1906 -- Assassination of Russian General Dubrassov.
  
• 1907 -- Financial panic and depression allegedly caused by J.P. Morgan to gain support for the central bank concept. 1908 -- Assassination of King Carl of Prussia and Crown Prince of Portugal. FBI founded. Founding of the Armanen Initiates, another proro-Nazi secret society.
  
• 1910 -- Attempted assassination of Mayor Gaynor of NYC. Secret meeting of bankers and politicians at Jekyll Island, Georgia, results in Federal Reserve Act.
  
• 1911 -- Assassination of Prime Minister Staliapin of Russia by police double agent. Standard Oil of New Jersey broken up as illegal monopoly.
  
• 1912 -- Assassination of Primier Canalegas of Spain. Attempted assassination of Teddy Roosevelt. Colonel E.M. House, adviser to Woodrow Wilson, publishes "Philip Dru: Administrator," a political romance which proposed modern social legislation. Founding of Germanen Order, another pre-Nazi secret society.
  
• 1913 -- Assassination of George I of Greece. Rockefeller Foundation founded.
  
• 1914 -- Attempted assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria by Masonic agents, followed an hour later by successful assassination; in Russia, Rasputin stabbed the same day. World War I begins.
  
• 1915 -- Sinking of the Lusitania by German submarine; allegedly carrying secret munitions for the Allies, the ship supposedly sacrificed by British and American authorities to drum up war hysteria in U.S. Alfred Wegener proposed theory of continental drift, receives ridicule and contempt from his fellow scientists. Ku Klux Klan revived.
  
• 1916 -- Assassination of Rasputin.

From "The Illuminoids" c. Neil Wilgus & various sources