Mirror, Mirror on the Wall – What is the Most Powerful Socal Network for Entrepreneurs of them all?

Well before I reveal the answer to that question, what is the real benefit of social networking anyway?

Why should any online marketer spend time on social networks?  Wouldn't time be better spent just blogging and communicating with prospects and customers using email and other more productive methods, instead of wasting time on social media?

I can understand that social media can sometimes seem like unproductive time, especially repeated posts on Facebook that few people will ever see.  

The answer, I think, boils down to one word, REACH!.  If only one hundred people read a post of mine on Pulse, the blogging platform on LinkedIn, (for example), then that is one hundred more people that have read something I have written, and might decide to reach out back to me. If they had never read my blog post they probably never would have had that chance to read something that I wrote, and possibly connect with me.

Admittedly, that is only 100 viewers out of a total of 8,000 of my first level connections, so the percentage is not particularly high.  Supposing instead of a hundred or so views, I could get a thousand views for the same post that I submitted to LinkedIn?  That would 10X better than posting on Pulse, right? And if I could get 10,000 views of the same post, now that would be something substantial, at that point, right?

Social Media has the possibility of magnifying the reach of my outreach efforts.  Posting is one, and sharing content on social media is another.  Where on social media can you get the greatest bang for your buck, or the greatest reach for time spent?  The answer is Markethive.  It is a new social network for entrepreneurs that is available by invitation.  Just click on this link —-> Markethive, to find out more.

I have a number of posts on Markethive with thousands of views already, despite the fact that it is a relatively new social network. I have no doubt that with the new tools Markethive has recently implemented, I will soon get over 10k views on a single post. 

So why do posts get so many views on Markethive?

1) You can share your blog posts on Markethive with your other social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn, Stumblupon, and others.

2) With your permission, other bloggers on Markethive can share your content on their blogs, as well as on their own social networks.  You can also reciprocate to do the same with their content on your own blogs, and social networks.

3) As an owner of a group, you can share your content as often as you want with your group members.  LinkedIn limits your ability to post to your group to one message per week.  There is no limit to group messaging on Markethive. If you have valuable and interesting content to share with your group members, you can message your group members every day.

I give LinkedIn Workshops two times each week using one of the Markethive webinar rooms.  I have great respect for LinkedIn, and use it extensively to prospect and find marketing automation customers for my local marketing business.  There are so many great things that I like about LinkedIn, not the least of which is it's enormous size.  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest, and other social networks all have their strengths and weaknesses.

When it comes to blogging and my attempts to reach as many people as possible, however, I have to say, I prefer Markethive, and not only for it's blogging and sharing capabilities.  So, when I ask the mirror on the wall what is the most powerful social marketing network for entrepreneurs of all, it tells me that Markethive is best one of all.  

I suggest you give it a try, and you may find the same answer to your question that i did.  See you on Markethive!

John Lombaerde – Goldfinch Digital Publishing LLC

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

The FREEDOM Celebration In LA

 

Harold Tells How He Is Working
For The FREEDOM Of Us ALL!

Sunday 17 April 2016

Take Your Place On The Golden Brick Wall

ACHIEVE THE RANK OF GOLD DIRECTOR IN 2016. HELP BUILD A GOLDEN FOUNDATION AND LEAVE A LEGACY!

* As a qualified Gold Director, you will have the option to purchase your own Gold Brick Box. Gold Brick Box includes 2 personalized and autographed Gold Brick cards & frame.

* One card is for you and the second gets donated to the GOLDEN BRICK WALL located at Corporate HQ in Stuttgart GERMANY

* First 1,000 Gold Directors to contribute to the Wall will earn “Legacy Leaders” benefits

* Benefits include: VIP Seating at RST and Freedom Celebration Events, invitation to the 2016 Elite Retreat in Germany, and are named Founding Members of the Karatbars International Foundation ©

The Karatbars Int. Foundation, on behalf of it’s Legacy Leaders will donate the Wall (and 1,000 grams of Gold) to a preferred Charity.

Congratulations to all of The Golden Brick Wall qualifiers. Thank you for leading the charge. There is a place waiting for the rest of us. Now let’s go claim it, and join our brothers and sisters!

 

A Large "GOLD" Angel Seen Over LA…

History was made in Los Angeles on Saturday as Lou Engle, Mike Bickle, Cindy Jacobs, Jack Hayford and other generals of the faith gathered at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for Azusa Now.

Jeff Jansen, founder of Global Fire Ministries, told Charisma News he believes it was one of the most significant events of the past few decades.

"As we were driving on Interstate 5 to the Azusa Now event on April 9, I saw a large gold angel standing over LA," Jansen says. "The Lord said, ’Just as the 1849 gold rush drew people to California…So 4/9 2016 will mark a new gold rush of divine proportion that will once again draw the nations into revival."

Here is what we know. The scripture says,"…For everything there is a sign.." What other sign could the large Gold angel refer to?

Isn’t it interesting that one of the largest spiritual gatherings in LA took place on the same day of the birth of the Founder of The Greatest International Movement to bring GOLD to the Masses?

Also, isn’t it interesting that the spiritual man of God saw a Large Angel standing over LA. And here at the Marriott, a man with the heart of a very large angel was standing, revealing to his helpers, the new developments in his work, to help the unfortunate do better, and for the masses of the human family to be able to acquire Gold.

That large angel that God gave that spiritual man the vision of, was none other than Harold Seiz of Stuttgart Germany.

Please read this Historic article here:

http://www.charismamag.com/spirit/prophecy/26103-jeff-jansen-sees-huge-gold-angel-at-azusa-now

 

HERE IS WHAT WE KNOW..

In 2008, before the financial meltdown, Harold was in the financial services industry. He was in that industry for 16 years. He saw what was coming in the economy, and put all of his client’s portfolios into Gold.

At that time, he had what we call "walk away" money, meaning he could have retired and lived very well for the rest of his life. However he had a Vision. If he helped his clients, why could he not help the world of humanity? That Vision, my friends, became what we know, today, as Karatbars.

Our Own Payment System, WorldWide!

It was almost like a child feels on Christmas day with all of new pieces to our Karatbars portfolio. One by one Harold uncovered the new additions.

*We have our own payment system, with both our grams and our cash gold for change.

We have the roll out of our K-Exchanges here in the U.S.

We even have an app that will allow the transfer of gold from one account to another seamlessly for easy transactions.

And as a Powerful safety precaution we have Karabars facilities in several regions of the world. My friends, we have a leader who has Great VISION.

 

Love Your Skeptics

Doc’s and my business partner, Rashard, is the biggest skeptic I have ever met. When Doc and I presented Karatbars to him and his sweet little wife 2 1/2 years ago, they did not want to hear any kind of karatbars.

His attitude was so bad, that before I walked out of his door, I put my hand on his shoulder, and looked him in his eyes and said," I love you like a brother, but you are WRONG!" And he will tell you, he had trouble sleeping that night.

Love your skeptics. But stand your ground and know what you got. Because you could be talking to Your Rashard, the "biggest champion" of your team. You could, also, be talking to the individual that will, single handed, take your business around the globe. Below is Rashard’s visit at the Kings Palace in Nigeria

http://www.thegoldservants.info

Also, I want to give a big shout out to our team members, who made the long journey from Nigeria & Ireland to join us at this historical event. You made it happen. We love you, and we applaud you. You are Leading by example!

 

"Successful People Do, What Unsuccessful People, Are Not Willing To Do!"

When my friend, and sponsor, Lourens Haasbroek from South Africa, introduced me to Karatbars, July 27, 2013, little did I know that my 41 year search for the business that I could experience some significant success was over. Yes, i have been searching since my first homebased business in 1972. I could have said forget it, and resign myself to just a J.O.B., but thank GOD I didn’t. Because I didn’t give up, I have been blessed with a business that spans around the globe with an organization of 20,000 Plus people. Successful people do, what unsuccessful people, are not willing to do.

This pic was taken at the Top Incentive Winners dinner at the home Harold was hosted in by Jeff Blue, one of the prominent Music Producers here in Beverly Hills. I did not win one of the Top Incentives, but helped Rashard win it. Love your skeptics, because your Biggest Skeptic just might be your team’s Biggest Champion. His mom and I call him OB, which means "Our Baby"…that’s her in the mirror taking my picture, lol.

Karatbars is the Greatest business that I have ever been a part of, and I will work it, to some degree, as long as GOD gives me breath. And Harold keeps making it better and better. I like what Mike Wiersma said Saturday, "…we haven’t even scratched the flee’s butt on the back of an elephant yet!"

And as Ty Best told us, "freedom is everything." And the 4 Steps he shared with us are,

1. You got to decide exactly what it is you want, and decide to be free.

2. Decide to pay the price. It is non-negotiable.

3.You got to change. Personal development. Read books.

4. You got to believe in this business. You got to believe in this company. You got to believe in yourself.

Successful people do, what unsuccessful people, are not willing to do. I wish you much success. Peace Out!

 

L Basheer Hasan
+1515-991-3999
servantsofbaha@gmail.com
http://www.talkfusion.com/1809026

 


   




 

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Here’s Why The GOP Wants to Stop Trump by Cancelling Elections

Republican Elite

Here’s Why The GOP Wants to Stop Trump by Cancelling Elections

The truth about the cancelled Colo. caucus

The GOP establishment sees themselves as part of the “specialized class” responsible for making political decisions because they believe the public’s “too stupid” to make decisions for themselves.

This “spectator democracy,” first described by political insider Walter Lippmann in the 1920s, reduces voters into mere spectators – not participants – in public policy managed by a tiny elite, in this case the GOP establishment.

“The compelling moral principle [behind it] is that the mass of the public are just too stupid to be able to understand things,” Noam Chomsky wrote in describing Lippmann’s views.

This is the core principle of the GOP establishment: to them, only the elite have the intellect and rationality to decide the public’s best interests.

The public at large, on the other hand, cannot manage their own affairs and therefore must be lead like cattle towards the future world envisioned by those in control.

Not considered the decision-makers, the American people are meant to be mere bystanders in society, only participating on occasion during political “elections” to decide which one of the elites will “represent” them, such as Hillary Clinton or Ted Cruz.

Populist candidates like Donald Trump are not allowed because they’re not compromised and controlled by the establishment.

The mainstream media serves the elite by fueling racial tensions, such as using straw man arguments to declare Trump “racist,” which encourages in-fighting amongst the public while the establishment gains more power without adversity.

And the media and the elite both want to keep the public locked into the false left-right paradigm which oversimplifies the public’s perception of the world so that they falsely believe that everything is simply black and white, one extreme against the other, conservative vs. liberal, red vs. blue.

While stuck in the paradigm, people are led to believe their opponents only exist on the opposite side of this two-dimensional spectrum and are completely unaware of the real power towering above.

But during this presidential race, Trump has successfully exposed the real power behind the throne – and that’s why the establishment wants to stop him.

FOLLOW for more BREAKING news: https://www.facebook.com/RealKitDaniels

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

It is all about Integrity

Facebook Image

Integrity often touted and claimed, rarely do many people really have a deep understanding how deep it goes and how important it really is in every aspect of our lives. Integrity is something you build, it builds in the fires of adversity, it reveals itself in your walk with the Lord, it becomes your foundation as you seek righteousness, it protects you when you are falsely and unjustly accused, it is tested when you experience prosperity. You can not measure it, nor can you hold it in your hand. There is no amount of Gold or money that can buy it. When you ask a crowd of 1000 people, who has integrity, everyone will raise their hands, but you know only a few truly do.

My Mom always said actions speak louder than words. And that is a fundamental truth. Let me explain or ask you a question. Are you willing to sacrifice everything to stand up for the truth, to stand for the oppressed?  To stand for what is fundamentally right? To call out incompetence, deception, corruption, lies, cheats and thieves? Perhaps that is a hard question, but let me ask you the same question from a different perspective. Would you put your life in the hands of a person you knew was willing to lie, cheat or steal if the stakes were high enough? At what point would you draw the line? Now most of us rarely give this much thought and often our good nature prism make others that are corrupt look and seem to be on the up and up.

Actions speak louder than words, and walking that narrow path assures you will have less drama in your life. Less friends too, but they never were friends, they were fair weather friends.

What is my point? I am guilty! I have been that person I want nothing to do with. I have been that liar, that cheat, that thief. I was that person decades ago. Something has changed along the way. The process of learning to surf huge waves contributed to this change. Seeking and serving the Lord is the primary source that has slowly built character and integrity in me. It has been my constant companion now for several decades, yet I still pursue even greater integrity. Why? Because I want to serve the Lord, I want my life to have less drama. I do not want to be a slave to the deception. And I seek to serve others and how can I do that as a practicing liar, thief and cheat and in rebellion with the Lord? I cannot.

I have integrity. I can boldly make this claim because I have reached that point where being tested, I cling to integrity willing to sacrifice everything else, even my life. I have reached that level when I am confronted with a lack of integrity (corruption), where I discover deception, lying, thievery, greed, idolatry, and narcissism and sociopathy, I am repulsed, it is repelled and I have no tolerance for it. None!

I have nothing if I do not have integrity. It is the foundation of my repentance and obedience to the Lord. It is the main and only ingredient required to conduct business based on trust. It is what makes partnerships, marriages and business flourish. Without, all that ensues is disaster, destruction and death.

If you want to be successful, if you want to build a solid business, if you want a solid marriage, you will need this rare element called integrity. Be ready to look in the mirror and to thy own self, be true.

There is a test you can take that asks a ton of offish questions, it will be difficult to game the outcome the first time you take the test. Right off I knew the only way for me to take this test was to be 100% honest in my answers. Why not, you do want to know the level of your integrity right?

It is called the "Integrity and Work Ethics Test", by Psytests.com.  So who is Psytests.com?

http://testyourself.psychtests.com/testid/3090

History

Psychtests.com originally appeared on the internet scene in 1997 and is a subsidiary of Plumeus Inc., a privately owned high-tech company specializing in psychological test development and related products and services. While Plumeus is responsible for research and development of high-quality products and services centered on an extensive battery of psychological assessments, Psychtests was conceived as the delivery system of those same solutions. Since its inception, Psychtests has become a pre-eminent provider of psychological assessment products and services to human resource personnel, therapists, academics, researchers and a host of other professionals around the world.

Management and staff

Psychtests staff is comprised of a dedicated team of psychologists, test developers, researchers, statisticians, writers, and artificial intelligence experts. Psychtests was founded and is led by Dr. Ilona Jerabek, a specialist in the field of psychometric assessments and Vrat Jerabek Ph. D., a researcher and authority in the field of artificial intelligence.

– See more at: http://corporate.psychtests.com/about/company#sthash.Ny2OBc1f.dpuf

History

Psychtests.com originally appeared on the internet scene in 1997 and is a subsidiary of Plumeus Inc., a privately owned high-tech company specializing in psychological test development and related products and services. While Plumeus is responsible for research and development of high-quality products and services centered on an extensive battery of psychological assessments, Psychtests was conceived as the delivery system of those same solutions. Since its inception, Psychtests has become a pre-eminent provider of psychological assessment products and services to human resource personnel, therapists, academics, researchers and a host of other professionals around the world.

Management and staff

Psychtests staff is comprised of a dedicated team of psychologists, test developers, researchers, statisticians, writers, and artificial intelligence experts. Psychtests was founded and is led by Dr. Ilona Jerabek, a specialist in the field of psychometric assessments and Vrat Jerabek Ph. D., a researcher and authority in the field of artificial intelligence.

– See more at: http://corporate.psychtests.com/about/company#sthash.Ny2OBc1f.dpuf

History

Psychtests.com originally appeared on the internet scene in 1997 and is a subsidiary of Plumeus Inc., a privately owned high-tech company specializing in psychological test development and related products and services. While Plumeus is responsible for research and development of high-quality products and services centered on an extensive battery of psychological assessments, Psychtests was conceived as the delivery system of those same solutions. Since its inception, Psychtests has become a pre-eminent provider of psychological assessment products and services to human resource personnel, therapists, academics, researchers and a host of other professionals around the world.

Management and staff

Psychtests staff is comprised of a dedicated team of psychologists, test developers, researchers, statisticians, writers, and artificial intelligence experts. Psychtests was founded and is led by Dr. Ilona Jerabek, a specialist in the field of psychometric assessments and Vrat Jerabek Ph. D., a researcher and authority in the field of artificial intelligence.

So I took the test. I want you to take it as well. Be honest, I am. But of course we already know if you fail miserably and have no Integrity, you will lie about the results. Bottom line though? You know the results.

I scored 100%. I wasn't surprised. If I have a fault, it is I am brutally honest, I will sacrifice it all to be honest and in being this way, many people, even partners and friends of 20 years terminate their relationships with me because of this.

 

My Score:

So there you have it, the final ingrediant to true success in life!

Post your score and comments below. Go ahead, let's have some fun.

Thomas Prendergast
CMO Markethive.com

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Trump Owes Soros 160 Million Dollars?

Trump Owes Soros 160 Million Dollars?

Well the meme above says he does.  Let me tell you how this lie was fabricated.

“Donald Trump has lined up three New York hedge funds, including money from billionaire George Soros, to invest $160 million in his Chicago skyscraper, a key piece in perhaps the largest construction financing in the city’s history, according to real estate sources and public documents.”?

That was back in October 28, 2004, 12 years ago. It says that the $160 million including money from Soros, not the whole amount. That money, from whomever it came from, was a business loan, not a campaign donation. Nobody knew 12 years ago that Trump would be whipping the socks off of all the Establishment Repubs today. It is in desperation that they are going back so far to dig up shit like this

Even if trump had got some of that money from a Soros hedge fund it would have been repaid long ago. Dig through his financials, which he made public, and prove me wrong.  Let me repeat, even if true, it was a business loan, not a campaigner donation.

Here is the source of the above meme, you can see that justlittleoleme, who ever the hell that may be, dug up an artical from October 28, 2004 reposted on 1/18/2016, 1:17:20 PM.

Big names back Trump tower – Soros, Deutsche Bank said to be in on 90-story building (2004)
Chicago Tribune  | Thomas A. Corfman | October 28, 2004
Posted on 1/18/2016, 1:17:20 PM by justlittleoleme.  He looked up a story from 12 years ago and the meme creator took it and run with it.

Donald Trump has lined up three New York hedge funds, including money from billionaire George Soros, to invest $160 million in his Chicago skyscraper, a key piece in perhaps the largest construction financing in the city’s history, according to real estate sources and public documents.

Despite reports about the project’s record-breaking sales, most of them from Trump himself, many Chicago real estate developers and lenders have expressed doubts about whether the 90-story tower would ever be built.

“It is such a huge project, and the prices he said he was getting were so outside the norm,” said Robert Glickman, president and chief executive of Chicago-based Corus Bank.

“It was reasonable to say, `Is this real?'” he said.

Much of the skepticism springs from Trump’s own hype. “Chicago developers are much less flamboyant,” said Glickman.

The massive financing, which sources say also will include a $650 million construction loan from Deutsche Bank, should quell those doubts.

-snip-

The document does not identify the other participants, but a key member is Grove Capital LLP, according to sources familiar with the transaction.

The firm manages most of the multibillion-dollar real estate portfolio of the $13 billion Soros Fund Management, from which Grove Capital was spun off last month.

Oh, justlittleoleme is a Senator Ted Cruz supporter, that explains the lie.   CRUZ OR LOSE

Update: 1/21/2016

If Trumps owes Soros so much money why does he not call it in?

Hedge Fund Billionaire George Soros:
‘Donald Trump Is Doing The Work Of ISIS’

On Thursday evening at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Soros used a 45-minute interview with Bloomberg TV’s Francine Lacqua to create an explosion of headlines on both the political and economic front. “Donald Trump is doing the work of ISIS,” Soros said, citing the anti-immigrant vitriol that’s been a hallmark of the Trump campaign as he’s risen in Republican primary polls. He levied a similar critique against candidates such as Ted Cruz, and said Hillary Clinton would win the general election in a landslide.

Ideas like closing U.S. borders to Muslims, Soros said, might “convince the Muslim community that there is no alternative but terrorism.” He also said ISIS’s “days are numbered” as both the Iraqi and Syrian governments win back territory the terrorist group gained.

The rise of ISIS and the crumbling of the Middle East has created a refugee crisis for Europe, and Soros said German Chancellor Angela Merkel may have erred in opening the country to refugees. “She risked her political capital and lost,” Soros said. Nonetheless, he expressed optimism that Germany and other European powers could successfully integrate migrants.

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Andrew Carnegie – Visionary Businesman and Philanthropist

 

Andrew Carnegie was one of the most famous and wealthy industrialists of his day. His Carnegie Steel Company was one of the businesses that formed US Steel.  Carnegie sold is company to US Steel which was formed as a partnership on March 2, 1901 (incorporated on February 25) between Elbert Henry Gary's Federal Steel Company and William Henry "Judge" Moore's National Steel Company.  J.P. Morgan and Charles M. Schwab were also members of this ownership group.

US Steel went on to become the world's first billion dollar per year corporation. He sold Carnegie Steel for 500 million dollars, and he was nearly a 50% owner of the company.  It is the money from this sale that he used to fund a vast array of philanthropic efforts for the remainder of his life. By the time he died in 1919, it is estimated that he had given away more than 350 million dollars. 

Andrew Carnegie: The Early Years

Andrew Carnegie was born in Scotland and emigrated to the United States with his parents in the year 1848. He got his start as a telegrapher and by the middle of the 1860's, he had a variety of investments in  railroad sleeping cars, railroads, bridges, and oil derricks. 

His parents were extremely poor, although his uncle, a Scottish political leader by the name of George Lauder, Sr., influenced him as a young boy, introducing him to a variety of authors, and Scottish heroes. His uncle George had a son also by the name of George, and he grew up with Andrew. Later, they would become business partners. 

Growing up, his father was a weaver and when his father grew ill his mother had to become the main breadwinner. Trying to make ends meet, the family decided to move to Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Money was borrowed from the Lauders to help with the migration.

Andrew Carnegie's first job was working as a “bobbin boy” in a cotton mill for a weekly salary of $1.20.
It was his uncle that recommended he become a telegrapher. It wasn’t long before he was promoted to operator, and his education and passion for reading helped him to become a self-made man. 

His passion for reading was boosted by Col. James Anderson, who owned a personal library of 400 volumes, which he opened to working boys every Saturday night. Carnegie made the promise that if he were ever to become a wealthy man, he wanted to provide a similar opportunity to poor boys. This led to a significant amount of perseverance and hard work. This effort brought about a great number of opportunities. Within five years’ time, he had more than tripled his weekly salary. He took a job working for Thomas A Scott in 1853 at the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and became a manager there. 

Young Andrew made a variety of connections by working with various railroad related businesses.Scott was the one that helped him with his investments.  Later his investments began to accumulate, and broaden. Through the multiplication of these investments Andrew Carnegie began to grow his wealth.  

Accomplishments

Andrew Carnegie has had a number of significant accomplishments in his lifetime. Much of this had to do with the relationships he formed, as well as his ability to keep a clear and level-headed perspective about his investments. During the Civil War, Scott was promoted to Assistant Secretary of War, and he named Carnegie the Superintendent of the Military Railways.

After the war, Keystone Bridge Company was developed, which included an investment of $40,000 in Story Farm. Carnegie left the railroads as a way of devoting his energy to the Ironworks trade. He formed the Keystone Bridge Company and used his connections to acquire a variety of contracts. He also provided stock to both Scott and Thomson (the President of the Pennsylvania Railroad  Company).  He was able to learn a great deal from both men. Pennsylvania Railroad ultimately became one of his best customers.

By 1892 Andrew Carnegie had launched the Carnegie Steel Company, and this later helped the US output more steel than that of the UK – and Carnegie is greatly thanked for his contribution in this effort. Carnegie’s fortune came as a result of his ownership of the most extensive iron and steel operations any single individual in the U.S. has ever owned. He was responsible for several important innovations, including the mass production of steel using the Bessemer process. The second innovation was the vertical integration of raw material suppliers.

Challenges and Victories

Andrew Carnegie faced many challenges as well as victories throughout his lifetime. He can truly be identified as one of the rags to riches stories because he was challenged by not having parents from a high social status upon arriving in America. However, with the urging of his uncle, he took to becoming a telegrapher and used those relationships as a way of boosting his own social status. 

He was smart, and he was known for being charming in social situations. His literary knowledge also helped him to be invited to a variety of important social functions, which Carnegie often exploited for his own benefit.

There were significant victories along the way as well. At the age of 66, in 1901, Andrew Carnegie was considering retirement. It is at this time that he decided to reform his enterprises. John Pierpont Morgan was a critical financial dealmaker, and he wanted to buy out not only Carnegie, but several other companies. This would help to cut costs and lower consumer prices as well as allow steel to be produced in greater quantities. Various negotiations took place, and the United States Steel Corporation was formed, becoming the first Corporation across the entire globe with a market capitalization totaling more than $1 billion.

He let his political views be known as well, including opposing American colonies. In one work, he also went as far as criticizing the British monarchy and explaining how the American Republic system was far superior.

Carnegie was a scholar throughout his entire life. He also used a significant amount of his money and investments to become an activist. Commodious swimming baths were constructed in his hometown in Scotland. He gave money to a library in his hometown as well. He contributed to the Bellevue Hospital Medical College and various others as well. 

He paid for over 7,500 organs that were donated to churches around the world.  He wisely agreed to construct over 3,000 libraries across the United States and Europe, but wisely, only after having received a commitment from the local community to buy books and provide an administrative staff.  

In 1904, he founded the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, now known as Carnegie-Mellon University in 1904. In 1905 he created the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 1910.

Lessons learned

One of Andrew Carnegie's famous quotes reads,

"To try to make the world in some way better than you found it is to have a noble motive in life.” 
Andrew Carnegie – The Empire of Business

I actually admire Andrew Carnegie more for his philanthropy than his business acumen.  He has inspired successful entrepreneurs for more than a generation to support educational and humanitarian causes to help build a world of peace and prosperity for all. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet can be included in a long list of successful entrepreneurs that have learned from the standard of philanthropy that Andrew Carnegie set.

I aspire to become a small Andrew Carnegie.  I don't ever expect to accumulate the kind of wealth that Andrew Carngie amassed in his lifetime, but I do want to become a millionaire.  I would also like to fund a school in perpetuity, so that children of all nations, races, and religious backgrounds could study in peace.

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Fearless Truth Teller Sarah Palin Tells Gobsmacked Wisconsin GOP Audience About Ted Cruz Giving “Gift Baskets” To Illegal Aliens

Fearless Truth Teller Sarah Palin Tells Gobsmacked Wisconsin GOP Audience About Ted Cruz Giving “Gift Baskets” To Illegal Aliens…

Speaking on behalf of Donald Trump, Sarah Palin gave a speech last night to a Wisconsin Republican audience.   Standing firmly on a platform of truth, Palin warned the mostly party (establishment) audience their decision to stand with deception in order to win an election also means placing themselves in a very precarious position.

The response from the audience to Sarah’s brutal honesty was what’s customarily known as “the collective nervousness of deceivers“.

Sarah Palin wisconsin

Whenever anyone dares to tell the collective: ‘the emperor stands naked’; there’s a particular kind of autonomic group nervousness immediately evident.  A group discomfort.

Such was the discomfort when Sarah Palin mentioned Senator Ted Cruz’s weak and opportunistic immigration position, and then contrast a real-life example of Cruz going to McAllen Texas (Saturday, July 19th 2014) to hand out “gift baskets” and welcome illegal alien families.

You could hear a pin-drop as an entire audience sat jaw-agape in disbelief.

When a fearless truth-teller stares down a room – the collective immediately need each other to retain their guise.  Here’s an example of their initial response:

Perhaps the reason the entire Professional Republican audience reacted that way was because they preferred NOT to know.  Or, then again, it could be because the example Sarah Palin was giving was widely hidden by the media.

Regardless of the reasoning for their disbelief, Sarah was simply telling the truth.  Here’s some photographic evidence of the freebies as they were being passed out by Ted Cruz in 2014:

ted cruz soccer ballsbeck 5

On the left that’s Senator Ted Cruz unloading the boxes of goodies.  On the right is the illegal alien families who received the goodies (toys, stuffed animals, soccer balls etc).

Here’s more pictures of the same event:

beck 4beck 2beck 1beck 3beck 6

 

“Humanitarian Crisis”? The entire event was essentially based on fraud.  The fraud was the Obama administration claiming that hundreds of thousands of “Unaccompanied Alien Children” (UAC) were arriving on the southern border en masse, and needed to be cared for.

The entire administration talking point was complete nonsense, but the media helped sell the ridiculous story as if it were real; and Ted Cruz and Glenn Beck helped perpetrate the fraud by claiming there was an urgent “humanitarian crisis”.  There was neither.

The reality was the influx of illegal border crossers were factually entire families, mostly from Mexico but also from Honduras, Guatemala and Panama.

The Obama administration had specifically kick-started the South American migration approximately a year earlier, and the families were showing up as an outcome of the State Department coordinating the exodus.

Almost everything about the crisis was a sham, including DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson going before an emergency congressional committee and demanding $4 billion (that’s billion) to deal with the “humanitarian crisis”.  These were not “children”, they were entire families – and, as you can see from the pictures, these were entire family units.

We have tens of thousands of American kids in inner-city areas in as much of a crisis as the illegals we allowed to pour across the border; but we don’t see Jeh Johnson demanding $4 billion for the American children.  Charity begins at home; at least it should.

So Sarah Palin brings some BIG TRUTH to those GOP insiders who gathered in Wisconsin; and, if we are to give benefit-of-the-doubt to those who heard it, apparently it’s the first time they became aware of Senator Cruz’s forked tongue on an issue.  Hence, a gob smacked response.

Palin also pointed out another lie, when she reminded everyone that Senator Cruz never stopped the senate Gang-of-Eight amnesty bill.  Despite Lyin’ Ted claiming on the campaign trail that he killed the bill, the reality is that bill passed the Senate in 2013, and it would have passed the House were it not for Dave Brat’s primary defeat of Eric Cantor in June of 2014 shortly before Sentor Cruz took off to the border with his gift baskets.

But Sarah didn’t stop there.  She also fearlessly told the audience that Senator Ted Cruz was also lying about another policy aspect, his advocacy for the Trans-Pacific Trade Deal.  And, more specifically, to the Trade Promotion Authority bill Senator Ted Cruz co-authored, co-planned and co-constructed, along with Paul Ryan in the House of Representatives.  Again, Sarah was loaded with the truth.

The Republican disbelievers didn’t want to hear about that inconvenient reality either.  Then again, when you stand boldly in sunlight the cockroaches never approach; they can only comfortably co-exist when they remain cloistered in the dark shadows of deception.

The media’s response to Palin’s speech?  Well, initially (and immediately) they began accusing her of lying about the “gift baskets”.  Then, after they realized everything she was saying was factual, they started spinning.  Eventually, they dropped the subject – and that’s probably how it will remain today.

It’s easier to hide those uncomfortable truths that way.  Well, at least until after the Tuesday election I guess.

Here’s Sarah’s bold and truthful speech:

Palin at RGA 2

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

Profile Pages: Online Branding and Building Authority

Profile Pages: “Online Branding and Building Authority”

What is the difference between online branding and building authority? Some would consider it the same thing, but in reality it can be two completely different processes. Online branding is a way to get more exposure for your brand on all levels of online marketing, especially search and social.

Building authority takes online branding to the next level by making each online presence for a brand authoritative. It goes beyond just about creating a blog or social media account. The following are ways you can build your online brand as well as your authority.

Everyone wants to be an authority.  READ: How to be an authority (Know Your Why First)
https://markethive.com/group/marketingdept/blog/how-to-be-an-authority

Start a Blog with Awesome Content

Blogs are beneficial for brands for three reasons. First of all, blogs help you rank well in search engines – Google loves fresh, unique content on websites that are constantly updated. If you’re looking to meet this goal, be sure to use Markethive’s blog platform and build a blog team in a Markethive group to assist in greater content and curation.

RE: WordPress Markethive’s technology super charges WordPress campaigns.

Next, blogs provide for great content to share on social media networks. It’s hard to get traction if your just sharing product and sales pages. But if you’re sharing informative blog posts about your industry, you’re likely to get a lot of traffic and social shares.

Markethive provides plugins and widgets and tech that allows visitors to subscribe to your blog from their Social Networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, thereby allowing your new Markethive posts to publish to their news feed automatically.

Finally, great blogs can help your brand build authority in your niche. This is where you go above and beyond cookie cutter posts that talk about your product to creating awesome content in the form of:

  •     Tutorials
  •     Infographics
  •     Videos
  •     Industry Interviews

Awesome content will show fans of your industry that you know your stuff and therefore are the brand to go with for their business needs. A great example of this is the blog you are reading right now – Markethive has Inbound Marketing technologies, the go to Social Network and infographics  that have been tweeted and liked over 10,000 times and posts that have been viewed on Facebook, LinkedIn and Stumbleupon over 100,000 times.

There are two great fears that brands have when it comes to blogging. One is that they won’t have anything to blog about, and this is a complete myth. Everyone can find something to blog about. You just have to expand your definition of the target audience. Imagine you had a body shop. You probably won’t get a lot of attention if you’re writing about paint booths and sanding tools all the time, but you will if you think about broader topics that would interest the people likely to visit an auto body shop. You can blog about the latest coolest Hot Rods at the coming Hot Rod Nationals show or the latest NASCAR winner to grab fans of those programs. Or you can blog about environmental issues and the Prious to grab environmentalists. Just think bigger!

The other fear is that they will be giving away “trade secrets” and lose their business. This one is especially common within industries like SEO, where a brand might feel like giving out ten steps to link building will give their customers the info they need to just do it themselves. But this just isn’t true. I have found that most of the time, if you give a complex, in-depth tutorial, a potential customer will see that your brand has the knowledge to do the service, but they won’t have the time or resources to do it for themselves. Hence, they’ll go with you because they feel confident that your brand has the expertise demonstrated in the content provided on the blog.

The key with your brand’s blog is to make sure that it is apparent who is behind the content. Whether you have your blog on your domain (yourbrand.com/blog), as a subdomain (blog.yourbrand.com), or as a separate site (yourbrandblog.com), be sure that it is matched to your brand. Check out Markethive’s site, blog, and subscribers profile pages, logged in dashboard and display variances on hand held devices. All are unique yet all are well branded and follow a conventional identity protocol (all on separate domains and different devices) as an example of great branding.

Guest Blog for Others (This is a major component in Markethive)

When it comes to blogging, you don’t want to keep the good stuff all to yourself. Guest blogging (join a Markethive Group to share content is that easy) is a great way to build your online brand presence and authority. The basic goal is to find a (GROUP) blog whose audience will be interested in your brand, and create a great piece of content for that blog.

Notice I said great piece of content. I would go so far as to say that the content you create for another (GROUP) site’s blog should be even better than the content you create for your own site. You want the content you create for another blog (GROUP) to rock. You want that content to generate additional social shares, comments, and traffic for the blog owner.

As you create GROUP posts for others, be sure to save the links to those guest posts for future reference. As you approach new GROUPs that you would like to guest post upon, you will want to include those links as examples of your successful guest posts in other Markethive GROUPS. If you can convince the GROUP owner that your post will be a perfect fit for their audience and will drive significant traffic and response, the GROUP blog owner will have a hard time resisting.

My main tips for GROUP blogging for your brand include:

1. Find the best GROUPs to guest post on.

When it comes to blogs you want to get a guest post on, your goal is to find those whose audience would be interested in your brand. The blog should get a significant amount of traffic and social shares as well – there’s no reason to post on a blog that has no visitors just because it has high PageRank or any other criteria – you want to get some brand exposure out of this! Use the Markethive GROUPs directory to start your search for blogs in your niche or industry.

2. Find the GROUPs blogging policy.

If you see that a GROUP allows guest bloggers or outside contributors, the GROUP should have some page or post posted that describes their post policy. If they do have a policy page or post, then be sure to note any and all criteria.

3. Start building a relationship with the GROUP owner first. (Markethive Groups is excellent for this)

Now that you’ve found the blog you want to pitch an idea to, don’t just jump in and pitch them yet. Start by getting to know the GROUP owner first by following their Markethive blog posts, their Twitter and their Facebook fan page. Comment on some of their latest posts – make those comments valuable to enhance discussion and demonstrate your writing skills and expertise in the industry. CoPromote their posts using Broadcasting tools and widgets. Do this for at least a week or two before pitching content to them.

4. Research and pitch great topic ideas. (Join others in our live Markethive Work Shops)

Don’t create the content first and then try to find it a home. Once you’ve found the right blogs and started engaging with the blogs themselves, you’ll get a feel for the type of content they publish.

To get an even better idea of what content is successful for each blog, subscribe to them in your Markethive back office blog platform. Then you will be able to see the site’s latest traffic scores. The higher score, the more comments, tweets, Facebook likes, and other social shares the post received. Use these high-scoring posts as an indicator as to what content does well on each blog.

Now you can message via the Markethive message system or request to join their group saying that you have recently enjoyed reading their blog (as evidenced by your commenting & social sharing) and would like to contribute to their site as a GROUP member. After reading their guidelines, you would like to see if they would be interested in the following topics. Then add three to four great post ideas that you believe will fit their audience to choose from. And of course, if you’ve done guest posts elsewhere, include some of your best links. If not, just include some great links from your own brand’s blog.

5. Create Awesome Content.

Once you get approval from a GROUP, your next job is to create an awesome piece of content. Make sure it fits the theme of that blogging GROUP and that it has the overall feel / tone of the GROUP blog you are submitting to. Also be sure to add in relevant links throughout your blog post – not to your own properties, but internal links to the blog itself. This shows the blog owner you’re really giving it 100% for them and their audience and not just trying to promote yourself.

The self-promotion piece should come at the end with your guest bio. Check out other author bios on the blogs and create yours to match. This is where you can say you are John Smith, an industry enthusiast from ABC Company.

Again, be sure to consider the blog’s guidelines and previous guest author bios when deciding to add one or more links back to your brand. The blog owner ultimately reserves the right to edit it as they feel is necessary.

6. Support your GROUP post once it goes live.

It’s not over yet. After that guest post goes live, you should give it your unconditional love in the form of social sharing with your brand’s audience on Twitter, Facebook, etc. as well as coming by to respond to comments. That kind of response on your guest post will further boost your brand’s reputation as a great guest blogger as well as a confident authority in your niche.

Don’t Forget Blog Commenting

Blog commenting is a great branding and authority building exercise you can do on any blog in your niche. I would suggest subscribing to the top blogs in your industry in Google Reader, and each time there is a new post, be sure to read it thoroughly and add a valuable comment. Remember this isn’t about link building – this is about building your brand’s presence online as an authority in your industry.

Get a Disqus account as well as it is a sort of social network of people that comment.

You can use the blog’s previous comments as a guide as to how you should format yours. Some blogs require you to only use your real name, while others are a little more lenient in using your name – your company. I would suggest linking your comments to your blog as people are more willing to click through to a brand’s blog than their main website.

Your Online Branding & Authority Building Strategy Using Blogs

What is your brand’s strategy when it comes to building your brand’s authority using blogs? Be sure to share what you find brings your brand the best results in the comments!

Create a Consistent Brand Image for Each Profile

Have you ever visited a company’s social profile, and you were not sure that it belonged to the company? One of the most important parts of branding is keeping a consistent image across all of your online properties so that no matter what path a person takes from one property to the next, they will always know it is your brand. For example, someone might:

Find your fan page through a friend’s activity stream and then follow it to your blog, then website

See a tweet from someone they are following, visit your Twitter profile, and then continue onto your website.

Start at your website, then go to check out your social profiles to see if your company is engaging with fans. Engaging is fuel and grows awareness, authority and respect. Comment, recommend. Just drive by liking and endorsing does no one any good and makes you look like a tire kicking couch potato.

Just like you wouldn’t want pages on your website to be different themes, you will want your social profiles to do the same. Markethive also leads the way in doing it right as well:

MARKETHIVE

Markethive probably does the best with branding between their website, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube accounts as shown above. All five are branded with the honey comb logo, color theme and climbers ascending Mt. Everest in representation of the entrepreneurial social community of entrepreneurs helping each other achieve their agendas, so you can feel the consistency moving from one property to the next.

BMW

The above shows BMW’s branding between their website, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube profiles. Each online property uses the same color scheme and is currently focused on automotive technology. The logos are all consistent, and the auto focused in the pages is different perspectives, the coloring and themes are consistent as well

BOLTHOUSE

Bolthouse’s (organic farm fresh juices) branding between their website, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube profiles as shown above uses the same color scheme, logo, and focus on their primary product, carrots and selections of juices. Excellent example of branding and consistency!

Help People Find Your Profiles

I do a lot of competitive analysis in my line of work, and one of the most frustrating things I have to do is search for a brand’s social profiles. Don’t hide your social media presence – flaunt them! Be sure to:

  • Put Social Icons on Your Website – Let visitors to your website know that you are engaging with your audience on social media as well by adding social icons to your website design. The most common places to place them include the header / menu bar, sidebar, and footer. They don’t have to be large and in charge – BMW’s are none existent on their main page and Bolthouse are right up top left of center where they should be and get the job done..
     
  • Put Social Links in Your Communications – Do you send emails regularly? Add social links to your email signature. Do you send newsletters? Add social icons to them.
     
  • Make Your Profiles Search Friendly – If I Google your brand name + Twitter, I should get your Twitter handle in the search results. To make this happen, be sure that the name of your social profile (and the username if possible) matches your brand name. You might be tempted to keyword optimize your profiles instead of optimizing them for your brand name – this is something you need to resist. You can learn more about social media SEO on how to optimize for both effectively for search engines.

Another frustration is the direct sales industry.

Even though the size of this industry is huge by any comparison with a market measured in the trillions, even the top 100 fail miserable branding with social media. Do not be like them, rather show them a good example with your efforts. After several days of research I was able to find one such company that at least had the top 5 Social Medias registered with a similar array (not the same name) of usernames.  The super majorities only have a token Facebook page, even less with Youtube and Twitter and nearly nonexistent with a Google+ and for that almost none of them are engaged.

BEACHBODY

Team Beach Body with a yearly market of 250 million, struggles with social media but has managed to set up the top 5 social medias, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin and Google+, albeit, the account usernames vary, and across the media branding is seriously lacking. It becomes painfully clear this industry needs Markethive or at least their distributors seriously do.

Get Engaged with Your Followers, Fans, and Subscribers

You probably know that it is important to maintain an active account by posting lots of updates, and that it is best to do something other than blasting advertisements non-stop about your brand. So the question is, what should you be doing to stay active in your social networks? Get engaged with your audience, of course. Here are the top networks to get socially engaged in for your brand.

Twitter Engagement

If you’re goal is to build a strong presence on Twitter and demonstrate your brand’s authority in your industry, you need get involved with your following. Some ways to do so include:

Monitoring Brand Mentions – If you use Twitter itself, just do a search for your brand and save the search for future reference. If you use a Twitter management tool like HootSuite, create a keyword search column that will constantly update you with brand mentions. Anytime someone says something about your brand, whether it is good or bad, you should be responding to it if at all possible. This may mean adding some extra team members to your social media GROUP as a response staff. But over time, if people see that you are always on top of any discussion of your brand, you will gain trust and receive lots of great word of mouth marketing. People will tell their followers what a great response they’ve received from you and likely recommend you based on their satisfaction level.

Monitoring Industry Conversation – One of the best parts of Twitter is that you can jump into any conversation, anytime. So if you are a company providing Inbound Marketing services and technologies like Markethive, you can monitor anyone who talks about Inbound Marketing, SEO, linking, Entrepreneurial interests, and other related topics and just answer simple questions that anyone asks about those topics demonstrating your expertise.

Curate the Best Content – Even if you are the best content creator in your industry, people often like to see a second opinion. Find out who other authorities are in your industry and share their opinion on industry topics with your following. You will gain more relevant followers simply for sharing the best news.

Facebook Fan Page Engagement

There are several different ways you can engage with your fans using your fan page that will keep your current fans active and bring new fans to your brand. These include:

Updating Your Fan Page on Facebook – It’s tempting to use HootSuite and other automated programs to update your fan page. But it’s becoming more and more obvious that if you want your updates to show up in fan’s news feeds that the updates must be organic, or originating from your fan page itself. So take the extra time to disable all of your autofeeds and start updating your fan page manually on Facebook. And when people start engaging with your posts or posting directly on your wall, be sure to respond to them. If they know they’re getting response, they’re more likely to return. No one likes a one-way broadcast.

Try Out Different Types of Updates – Don’t just post links or ask questions. Spice it up – add some video updates and photos. Different types of people like different types of content – be sure to try to cater to everyone by mixing your content up!

Thanks to the last major update to Facebook fan pages, you are able to use Facebook as your fan page. This means you can like pages as your fan page instead of your personal profile and then comment on them as your fan page. If you can find pages that are not direct competitors but whose audience will be interested in your brand, you will want to get active on them. For example, social media consultants should be living on Social Media Examiner’s fan page to connect with other individuals and businesses looking for social media help.

LinkedIn Engagement

If your brand isn’t on LinkedIn, you are missing out. LinkedIn allows you to add a company page where you can post your products, services, job openings, and even send status updates to your company followers including your latest blog posts. But some of the best branding and authority building activities for this network lie in the activity of the professional profiles including:

Participating in Groups – There are lots of great, active groups on LinkedIn in a wide variety of industries. Find the groups that have your potential client base within them and start getting active in discussions and posting useful content. Just be sure not to do anything that the group moderator would consider as spamming!

Answering Questions – The next best area to build a great professional reputation and strong authority in your industry is in LinkedIn Answers. There are questions asked every day in topics ranging from administration to technology. The people who answer the most questions are also featured on the answers’ home page as the week’s top experts!

Gaining Recommendations – Last, but not least, is recommendations. You can get recommendations on both the company pages and the professional profiles of your employees. Imagine if someone is browsing your company’s page and sees that the top employees have a ton of recommendations. It will show that you have a lot of experts in the industry which will make potential clients even more confident in your brand!

David https://markethive.com/david-ogden

CYRUS: GOD’S ANOINTED SHEPHERD

CYRUS: GOD'S ANOINTED SHEPHERD

Nearly 150 years before Cyrus was born, the prophet Isaiah foretold his birth, his name, and the tasks that the Creator God had predetermined for him to accomplish. The Bible records that certain people are foreordained to be born and carry out specific tasks for God during their lifetime and a few of these individuals are even named before their birth. Cyrus the Great was one of these individuals whom God had predestined to play a pivotal roll in his awesome plan for humanity.

King Cyrus was an extremely important person, because God destroyed the Babylonian empire through him, and brought a close to a seventy-year punishment of the Jews that God imposed on them for their rebellion against him. Also through King Cyrus, God set into motion his seventy-week prophecy that fixed the year for the Messiah's death and resurrection, and reveals the sequence of events and dates for the Messiah's return which will bring to an end human rule of the earth, and usher in the government of God to rule over the entire earth.

Although historians have slightly differing interpretations and views of the historical record concerning the dates of Cyrus' birth and death and his various accomplishments, there is ample historical documentation that Cyrus the Great was indeed a real person whose name is mentioned over 22 times in the Bible and whose tomb in Iran can be visited today.

Cyrus' Protection

In Volume 1 of his historical works, The Greek historian Herodotus records that, before Cyrus' birth, King Astyages dreamed that out of his daughter Mandane flowed a stream of water that filled his capital and flooded all of Asia. When he asked the interpreters of dreams what this meant, they told him that his pregnant daughter would have a son who would overthrow his rule.

In order to stop this perceived threat to his rule, King Astyages sent for his trusted servant Harpagus and told him to kill and bury his daughter's child as soon as it was born; however, Harpagus could not bring himself to kill the newborn child and instead gave him to a shepherd and his wife to kill. But, they were also unwilling to kill the child and instead reared Cyrus as their own.

Harpagus' reluctance to kill the infant Cyrus and the emotional attachment to the newborn child by the married couple shows the Creator God's hand at work to fulfill his plan for Cyrus. See Isa.45:10-13.

The Bible is full of accounts of individuals in whom God had a special interest being protected and guided through their life; this was the case with Cyrus. God had foreordained this man to be his anointed servant (Isa.45:1) and protected and guided the events of his life in order for him to fulfill his destiny.

Cyrus the Man

Cyrus was the grandson of Astyages, King of the Medes. He was born in the province of Persis, in southwest Iran in 590 BC and died in battle in 530 B.C.. He founded the Archaemenian dynasty and the Persian Empire. He overthrew three great empires: the Medes, Lydians, and Babylonians. He also united most of the ancient Middle East into a single state stretching from India to the Mediterranean Sea, which meant that he possessed the largest empire in the world at that time.

Cyrus was a leader of tremendous military ability and high moral and ethical values; he was not inclined to extreme brutality, cruelty, and the perpetual conquest for new territories as were many other conquerors. Cyrus was also extremely tolerant of the customs and the religions of the nations he conquered.

The Greeks considered the Persian Empire to be the greatest threat to their own independence, but they highly regarded Cyrus because of his character and ethical rule.

The Cyrus Cylinder

One important source for the history of Cyrus is the so-called Cyrus cylinder discovered in 1879 by Hormonz Rassam during excavations at Babylon. Although the cylinder is not totally intact and there is some controversy concerning the exact translation of the cuneiform script, it is clear that this ancient document substantiates the biblical record concerning the destruction of the Babylonian empire and the Jews' return to Palestine from their Babylonian captivity.

The following is a partial translation of cuneiform script on the Cyrus cylinder which is dated 538-529 B.C. and housed in the British Museum:

"I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king, mighty king, king of Babylon, king of the land of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters, son of Cambyses, great king, king of Anshan, grandson of Cyrus, great king, king of Anshan, descendant of Teispes, great king, king of Anshan, progeny of an unending royal line, whose rule Bel and Nabu cherish, whose kingship they desire for their hearts' pleasures.'

"When I, well-disposed, entered Babylon, I established the seat of government in the royal palace amidst jubilation and rejoicing. Marduk, the great God, caused the big-hearted inhabitants of Babylon to love me. I sought daily to worship him. My numerous troops moved about undisturbed in the midst of Babylon.'

"I did not allow any to terrorize the land of Sumer and Akkad. I kept in view the needs of Babylon and all its sanctuaries to promote their well-being. The citizens of Babylon. . .I lifted their unbecoming yoke. Their dilapidated dwellings I restored. I put an end to their misfortunes.'

"At my deeds Marduk, the great Lord, rejoiced, and to me, Cyrus, the king who worshiped, and to Cambyses, my son, the offspring of my loins, and to all my troops, he graciously gave his blessing, and in good spirit is before him we glorified exceedingly his high divinity.

"All the kings who sat in the throne rooms, throughout the four quarters, from the Upper to the Lower Sea, those who dwelt in. . .all the kings of the West Country who dwelt in tents, brought me their heavy tribute and kissed my feet in Babylon. From. . .to the cities of Ashur and Susa, Agade, Eshnuna, the cities of Zamban, Meurnu, Der, as far as the region of the land of Gutium, the holy cities beyond the Tigris whose sanctuaries had been in ruins over a long period, the Gods whose abode is in the midst of them. I returned to the places and housed them in lasting abodes.

"I gathered together all their inhabitants and restored to them their dwellings. The Gods of Sumer and Akkad whom Nabonidus had, to the anger of the Lord of the Gods, brought into Babylon, I at the bidding of Marduk, the great Lord made to dwell in peace in their habitations, delightful abodes.

"May all the gods whom I have placed within their sanctuaries address a daily prayer in my favor before Bel and Nabu, that my days may be long."

The above text shows that King Cyrus did indeed allow many of the nations he conquered to not only practice their various religions. Moreover, he rebuilt their temples, restored their articles of worship, and allowed several ethnic groups (including the Jews) who were captive in Babylon to return to their homeland.

Cyrus Invades Babylon

The follow excerpt from the cylinder text tells about the ease with which Cyrus' army entered the city of Babylon. This also substantiates Isaiah's prophecy and the events in the Book of Daniel:

"His widespread troops-their number, like that of the water of a river, which could not be counted, strolled along, their weapons packed away. Without any battle, he made him enter his city Babylon, sparing Babylon any damage. He delivered into my hands Nabonidus, the king who did not worship him."

The Book of Daniel only reveals that the same night in which the king of Babylon was having a great feast, the city was invaded and the king was killed. The biblical account seems to support the text on the Cyrus cylinder; in that, the invasion of Babylon was swift and that there was little or no resistance from its defenders.

In Volume 1 of his historical works, The Greek historian Herodotus records the following about the invasion of Babylon by King Cyrus:

"On the top, along the edges of the wall, they constructed buildings of a single chamber facing one to another, leaving between them room for a four-horse chariot to turn. In the circuit of the wall are a hundred gates, all of brass, with bronze lintels and side-posts. . .The city is divided into two portions by the river, which runs through the midst of it. This river is the Euphrates, a broad, deep, swift stream, which rises in Armenia, and empties itself into the Erythraean Sea.

"At the rivers end of these cross streets are low gates in the fence that skirts the stream, which are, like the great gates in the outer wall, all of brass, and open towards the water. . .Cyrus on his way to Babylon came to the banks of the Gyndes, a stream which, rising in the Matienian mountains, runs through the country of the Dardanians, and empties itself into the river Tigris. The Tigris, after receiving the Gyndes, flows on by the city of Opis, and discharges its waters into the Erythraean sea.

"When Cyrus reached this stream, which could only be passed in boats, one of the sacred white horses accompanying his march, full of spirit and high mettle, walked into the water, and tried to cross by himself; but the current seized him, swept him along with it, and drowned him in its depths. Cyrus, became enraged at the river, and threatened to break its strength so that in the future even women should cross it easily without wetting their knees.

"Accordingly he put off for a time his attack on Babylon, and, dividing his army into two parts, he marked out by ropes one hundred and eighty trenches on each side of the Gyndes, leading off from it in all directions, and making his army dig, some on one side of the river, some on the other, he accomplished his threat by the aid of a great a number of hands, but not without losing the whole summer season. Having defeated the river Gyndes by dispersing it through three hundred and sixty channels, Cyrus, with Spring approaching, marched forward against Babylon. The Babylonians, encamped without their walls, awaited his coming.

"A battle was fought at a short distance from the city, in which the Babylonians were defeated by the Persian king, whereupon they withdrew within their defenses. Here they shut themselves and made fun of his siege, having laid in a store of provisions for many years in preparation against this attack; for when they saw Cyrus conquering nation after nation, they were convinced that he would never stop, and that their turn would come at last. Now Cyrus did not know how to proceed, for as time went on he made no progress in conquering the city.

"In his distress either someone made a suggestion to him, or he himself came up with a plan, which he proceeded to follow. He placed a portion of his army at the point where the river enters the city, and another body at the back of the place where it comes out, with orders to march into the town by the bed of the stream, as soon as the water became shallow enough: he and his army then withdrew, and went to the place where Nitocris dug the basin for the river, where he did exactly what he had done in the past: he turned the Euphrates by a canal into the basin, which was then a marsh, on which the river sank to such a low level that the natural bed of the stream became crossable.

"Hereupon the Persians who had been left at Babylon by the riverside, entered the stream, which had now sunk so as to reach about midway up to a man's thigh, and entered into the city.

"Had the Babylonians been aware of what Cyrus was up to, or had they noticed their danger, they would have never allowed the Persians to enter the city, but would have destroyed them; for they would have closed all the street-gates which opened to the river, and mounting upon the walls along both sides of the stream, would have caught the enemy, as it were, in a trap. But, as it was, the Persians came upon them by surprise and took the city.

"Owing to the great size of the place, the inhabitants of the central part of Babylon, long after the outer portions of the town were taken, knew nothing of what had taken place, for they were engaged in a festival of dancing and reveling. Such, then, were the circumstances of the first taking of Babylon." See Daniel chapter 5.

Nearly 150 years before Cyrus' birth, God declared through the prophet Isaiah that a man named Cyrus would be the anointed shepherd of his people and rebuild Jerusalem. At the time of the prophecy of Isaiah, Jerusalem was a prosperous city that would not be destroyed for more than 100 years by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar.

Isaiah 44:24, 26-28

"This the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, who makes all things, stretching out the heavens; I alone spread out the earth . . . He confirms the word of his servant and completes the counsel of his messengers. He says to Jerusalem, You will be peopled; and to the cities of Judah, you shall be built; and I will raise up its ruins" (vs.24, 26 Para.).

In verse 24, God reminds national Israel that he is the Creator of all things and their Redeemer. In verse 26 he says that he has the power to carry out the things that are said by his servants and messengers and promises to repopulate Jerusalem and rebuild the cities of Judah.

"He says to the deep, be a waste! And I will dry up your rivers! He says, To Cyrus my shepherd; he will fulfil all my will, even to say to Jerusalem, you shall be built; and to the temple, you shall be set up" (vs.27-28 Para.).

Some feel that the reference to the deep and the drying up of the rivers in verse 27 refers to the method by which the Euphrates River was diverted in order for Cyrus' army to enter the city of Babylon. Although this seems like a plausible explanation given the historical account of the invasion of the city, there may be other interpretations, which are beyond the scope of this study. However, verse 27 is very clear; God names Cyrus as the man who will shepherd his people and carry out his plan to return the Jews to their homeland and rebuild the cities and the temple.

Isaiah 45:1-13

"This says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whom I have seized by the right, to subdue nations before him. Yes, I will open the loins of kings, to open the two-leaved doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut. I will go before you and make hills level; I will tear apart the bronze doors and cut the iron bars in two. And I will give you the treasures of darkness, even treasures in secret places, that you may know that I am the Lord who calls you by your name, I the God of Israel" (vs.1-3 Para.).

In verses 1-3, we see that Cyrus is called the Lord's anointed (Heb. mashiyach [maw-shee'-akh]). which denotes a person specifically chosen and set apart for a specific task. Notice also that God promised to intervene and help Cyrus conquer many nations (i.e., make hills level).

The opening of the two-leaved doors, the tearing apart of the bronze doors, and the cutting of the iron bars seem to picture God's intervention to open the hundred copper-alloy gates of Babylon to King Cyrus and his army.

Imagine Cyrus' amazement and sober contemplation as he became aware of Isaiah's prophecy and realized that almost 150 years before his birth he had been named and ordained by the God of the Israelites to become a mighty conquering king and perform a task for this God whom he neither knew nor worshiped.

Today, we view Isaiah's prophecy in the dim light of ancient history, which makes it difficult to fully comprehend Cyrus' perspective on the prophecy. Cyrus viewed the prophecy from the perspective of his many victorious battles and how easily he had conquered many nations, including the mighty Babylonian empire and its capital city.

"For Jacob my servant's sake, and for Israel my elect, I have called you by your name. I named you but you do not know me. I am God, and there is no other, there is no God except me, I will clothe you, even though you do not know me, that they may know from sunrise to sunset that there is none except me; I am God and there is no other who creates light and forms darkness; makes peace and creates evil. I God do all these things" (vs.4-7 Para.).

The Creator God states in verse 6 that one of the reasons for this prophecy is so that people will have a continual witness the he is God. The prophecy concerning Cyrus and its fulfillment is a continual witness of the Creator God's power and authority over his creation. See Jn.1:1-3; Eph.3:8-9; Heb.2:10.

"Woe to him that fights with his Maker! A potsherd among the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him that fashions it, What are you making? Or does the work say, He has no hands? Woe to him that says to his father, What are you fathering? Or to the woman, What are you laboring over? This says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker. Do you ask me the things to come? Do you give me commands to me about my sons, and about the works of my hands? I have made the earth, and created man on it. I stretched out the heavens with my hands; and I have set all of them in order" (vs.9-12 Para.).

Verses 9-12 seems to be a warning to King Cyrus to carefully consider and respect the awesome power of the God who claims to have the ultimate power to create and destroy and recorded the words concerning him and what he was to accomplish almost 150 years before his birth.

"I have raised him [Cyrus] up to be ethical and have made all his ways direct. He shall build my city [Jerusalem], and he will release my captives; not for price, nor reward, says the Lord of hosts" (v.13 Para.).

Here, we see the task that Cyrus was brought into existence to accomplish for the Creator God of Israel. History records that Cyrus did accomplish the task for which he was foreordained.

Cyrus' Proclamation

In 2.Chronicles chapter 36 and in Ezra chapter 1, we are told that King Cyrus was motivated by God to write a decree to allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple:

"Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to accomplish the word of the Lord spoken through the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king the of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, This says Cyrus king of Persia, The God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up" (2.Chron.36:22-23 Para.).

"Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, This says Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem" (Ezra 1:1-3 KJV).

We are not told how King Cyrus became aware of Isaiah's prophecy concerning his life; however, it is entirely possible that Cyrus was told about the prophecy by Daniel who eventually held one of the Persian Empires' highest offices as chief of the three presidents over Persia (Dan.6:1-3). He may have been told by Ezra the priest or by Nehemiah who was another high ranking Jew in the Persian government (Neh.2:2; 8:9; 10:1). Another possibility is that Cyrus could have discovered the prophecy himself as he studied the religions of his captives. However he came to understand Isaiah's prophecy, he understood that he was the one named in it and that he had been chosen before his birth to perform a service to the God of the Jews who claimed to be the Sovereign God and Creator of all things.

Jeremiah's Prophecy

Chapter 36 of 2.Chronicles and in Ezra chapter 1 shows that the Creator God made King Cyrus aware of the prophecy in Isaiah and motivated him to allow the Jews to return to their homeland in order for the prophetic words he had spoken through Jeremiah's to be fulfilled.

The prophet Jeremiah primarily records the progression of world events throughout history and their culmination in the return of the Messiah and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. The holy scriptures reveal that, within the Sovereign Father's plan for humanity, there is a specific time frame within which this plan will be completed and that there are specific times when certain events within this plan must occur. It seems that the only prophecy recorded by Jeremiah that speaks to Babylonian captivity for the House of Judah and their repatriation to their homeland from this captivity is in Jeremiah, chapters 25 and 29.

Jeremiah 25:8-13 KJV

"Therefore this says the Lord of hosts; Because you have not heard my words, Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations" (vs.8-9).

Because of their persistent rebellion against him and their refusal to repent of their sins, God said that he would cause the House of Judah to go into Babylonian captivity.

"Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years" (vs.10-11). See also Jer.29:1-10.

Verse 11 tells us that the land shall be a desolation and that the House of Judah will be in captivity 70 years. But, why 70 years of punishment? One of the reasons for this captivity was the refusal of the Jews to obey God's laws. One of these laws concerns allowing the land to rest every 7 years (i.e., the land Sabbath):

"But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest to the land, a Sabbath for the Lord: you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard. That which grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, neither gather the grapes of your vineyard undressed: for it is a year of rest to the land" (Lev.25:4-5 KJV).

"But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, if, instead, you reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all my commandments, and so break my covenant, I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror, consumption and fever that shall waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away; also, you shall sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies shall eat it up. 'And I will set my face against you so that you shall be struck down before your enemies; and those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when no one is pursuing you. 'If also after these things, you do not obey me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. . . . 'If then, you act with hostility against me and are unwilling to obey me, I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins" (Lev 26:14-18, 21 NAS).

"I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it" (Lev.26:33-35 KJV).

What is revealed about the 70 years of punishment in 2.Chronicles may indicate that the Jews were breaking the law of the land rest:

"And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years (70 years)" (2.Chron,36:20-21 KJV).

While the majority of the population of the House of Judah were in Babylonian captivity, the land rested because there were very few people left in Palestine to work the land.

"And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, says the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations" (Jer.25:12-13).

Although Jeremiah foretells the end of the Jews' captivity after 70 years, he says nothing about when the Jews will be sent back to their homeland.

Daniel, Haggai, and Zechariah

The prophets Daniel, Haggai, and Zechariah were all captives of the Babylonian and Persian empires and all three were given various insights by God into the reasons for Cyrus' proclamation concerning the Jews and each recorded certain understandings concerning the seventy- year prophecy. Daniel was given insight in the first year of King Darius' reign and Haggai and Zechariah were given insight in the second year of his reign. See Hag.1:1-15; Zech 1:1-16.

Daniel Given Understanding

"In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years [the 70 years of captivity and land rest] in the desolations of Jerusalem"(Dan.9:1-2 KJV).

Not only did God reveal details concerning the seventy-year captivity of the Jews in Babylon (foretold by the prophet Jeremiah), he also revealed the date of the Messiah's death, resurrection, and return to establish the government of God on earth through a seventy-week prophecy:

"And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give you skill and understanding. . . Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy" (Dan.9:22, 24 KJV).

Daniel is told that this mysterious seventy-week prophecy begins with a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem:

"Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate" (Dan.9:25-27 KJV).

The plan of God for the salvation of humanity was laid out before the world began. Within this plan are events and dates on which these events must occur in a specific sequence in order for the plan to be completed within its allotted time. Therefore, the timing of the prophecy concerning Cyrus was critical in order for the seventy-week prophecy, which was revealed to Daniel, to begin and end exactly on schedule.

The first part of the seventy-week prophecy, which began with a decree to restore Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, was completed with the death and resurrection of the Messiah in 30 A.D.; only the second part remains to be fulfilled at the end of this age. See our study concerning the year of Christ's death and the seventy-week prophecy for dates and more details concerning this prophecy.

The Jews Return to Palestine

After the initial proclamation by King Cyrus to allow the Jews to return to Palestine, it took many years and the departure of four large groups of Jews from the land of their captivity for them to accomplish the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple.

The first group was lead by Sheshbazzar, a descendant of the Davidic line, with whom came a group of heads of families who settled in the ruins of the city and began to rebuild it.

The second group was lead by Zerubbabel who was the appointed governor of Jerusalem and Joshua, a son of Josedech the high priest.

The third group was lead by Ezra who was authorized to appoint judges in the Land of Israel and apply the laws of the Torah.

The fourth group was lead by Nehemiah in 445 B.C.. They came to rebuild the broken walls of the city and its gates which had been destroyed by fire. Nehemiah created a new political reality in Judah, making it an autonomous region within the Persian Empire.

With the accomplishments of Ezra and Nehemiah, the return of tens of thousands of Jews from exile in Babylon to Palestine, the restoration of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple, the prophecy concerning Cyrus and the 70 years of Jewish punishment was complete.

The fulfillment of prophecy is a major proof that the Sovereign God does exist and that he has the power and authority to control the destiny of humanity. Moreover, the fulfillment of prophecy tells us that God's plan for humanity is right on schedule.

 

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