Alexander

Hi! and happy good opening day of the week; and, it's just 39 days to go before Christmas, GUYS.  Our first-thing-first this Monday:

THE GOOD NEWS (16 November 2015)

Alexander, The Great

"Everything began with the conquests of Alexander the first, son of Philip, the Macedonian.  Setting out from Greece, he killed Darius, king of the Persians and the Medes.  Being already King of Greece, he took the throne of Darius.  After fighting many battles, conquering strongholds and putting to death the kings of those nations, he reached the ends of the earth and plundered several nations.  And when the world became quiet and subject to his power, he became proud.  He gathered a strong army, ruled over provinces and nations, and rulers paid him taxes.  But he fell sick, and knowing he was going to die, he summoned his generals and the noblemen who had been brought up with him from his youth; and while still alive, he divided his kingdom among them.  Alexander had reigned for twelve years when he died.

Antiochus Epiphanes

His generals assumed power, each one in the region assigned to him.  And immediately after Alexander's death, they made themselves kings and their sons after them, filling the earth with evil for many years.  From their descendants there came a godless offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of King Antiochus, who had been held as hostage in Rome.  He became king in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of the Greek era (175 B.C.)." - 1 Maccabees 1:1-10

(The paragraphs summarize the period of history from Alexander until Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, a godless offshoot, where the moral crisis in Judah began.)