ancestry Archives | God TV News

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do NOT see.This is what the ancients were commended for.” (Hebrews 11:1-2)

Stop right here. The ancients (our ancestors) were celebrated and remembered because of their faith? Wow. Not bank accounts or fame or trends or likes. Just Faith. Simple hard core faith.

“By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. These were all commended for their faith, yet NONE of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for US so that only together with us would THEY be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:3,39,40)

Saints of God

All those saints of God (so many) gone before us? The world was NOT worthy of them – their faith, their tenacity, their fight, their sacrifices, their bravery, their willingness to give their lives. The Bible heroes! All the beloved people in YOUR bloodline! ALL the ancients!

But even after ALL that, they can NOT be made perfect without US in this present day.

What? This is SO deep and noteworthy!

God prepared something better for US? Like, they need US to step up on their behalf? They need US to finish their race? THIS is mind blowing to me. And the WHY of why we cannot erase our history nor cancel out our future. It is WHY today matters so much. The three are intertwined – there really can not be one without the other two.

Thus why you see chaos escalating and evil abounding because our past is being erased, our present day is being jeopardized by ignorance and our future is being canceled. I don’t think I ever understood how much I was connected to my ancestors and how much MY life will matter to those yet to be born.

It is so sobering when you finally grasp that everything you do or say MATTERS. We are not islands unto ourselves – we are not just here for our own pleasure and intents. We are here to carry on a legacy given to us from those who came before us, and then for US to pass on to those ahead of us. It is HUGELY important to remember how connected we really are.

It makes sense then for Satan to want to erase history. Just think about that for a minute. No history – no experiences – no lessons learned – no battles won – no memories or remembrances – a blank sheet of nothingness. If we forget who we are, and where we came from, we can NOT find out where we are going. It just doesn’t play out like that. For the future, you need history.

We need to hold ourselves responsible to be good stewards of time and history. Those who have gone before us, are waiting for us to finish the race. THIS is HUGE. Without us it is as if nothing they did or survived or conquered, mattered. Run to finish and run to win. History will tell all.

Your Ancestors

Here is a good mathematical equation for you to ponder – If you have a doubt as to whether or not your place in this life journey matters, here ya go:

Here is a look at a family tree:

2 parents
4 grandparents
8 great-grandparents
16 second great-grandparents
32 third great-grandparents
64 fourth great-grandparents
128 fifth great-grandparents
256 sixth great-grandparents
512 seventh great-grandparents
1.024 eighth great-grandparents
2,048 eighth great-grandparents

In order for YOU to be born, you needed 12 previous generations; a total of 4,094 ancestors over a 400 year period. SO, You mattered then – you matter now – you’ll still matter another 400 years from now.

Make YOUR life count “to a thousand generations”. “March on, my soul; be strong!” (Judges 5:21)

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I was surprised when my son’s DNA ancestry test came back 1% north African. We thought our roots were northern European. We may be wrong.

The out-of-Africa theory of modern human origins has been around for many decades. It’s the idea that Homo sapiensoriginated somewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa. The theory is commonly held by population geneticists who tell us that our ancestors (that means all of us) made one or more migrations out of the African continent thousands of years ago. Scientists think those early modern humans traveled east through the Middle East and Asia, as well as north into Europe. Eventually, they populated the entire globe. For possible migration routes, go to https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/human-journey/

Why do scientists believe this? It comes back to our genes, specifically the genes of people living and dead from all over the world. The greater the diversity in the genes or alleles of a population, the longer it’s likely they have been in that geographic location. If you read Is Race Real? Part 1, you may recall that alleles are the two versions of the same gene, one inherited from each parent, such as eye color. Link to Is Race Real Part 1

But, so what if a group of people have been in the same sizable geographic region for a long time? It’s significant because the larger the population due to people mating over the generations, the more genetic diversity will accumulate or grow. So those populations with the greatest diversity in their genes have been around the longest. This is what scientists have discovered about Sub-Saharan African populations – their genes say they are old. Older than Europeans, Asians, Australians or people on any other continent. In fact, scientists think that modern humans have spent the majority of their time on earth in Africa.

This has strong implications for the race question. Scientists Lynn B. Jorde and Stephen P. Wooding stated, “Of special importance to discussions of race, our species has a recent, common origin.”

For more info, go to http://comenius.susqu.edu/biol/201/01/geneticvariationclassificationandrace.pdf.

A recent common origin means we all have the same beginnings. We are not as separate as we thought, but connected by ancient ancestors. Differences in appearance and size make sense considering our ancestors migrated out of Africa and went to a variety of places, putting down roots and forming populations with their own culture over many generations.

But even as Homo sapiens branched out into the world, we did not become isolated. From the American Association of Physical Anthropologists position statement: “Humanity cannot be classified into discrete geographic categories with absolute boundaries.” See http://physanth.org/about/position-statements/biological-aspects-race/

In other words, even if your ancestors came from one country or geographic region, mating with other populations took place at some point in the past, creating genetic diversity over the generations. There are no genetic islands, so to speak. But there is “humanity” as the physical anthropologists pointed out, one big human family related to each other by common origins.

When you look at people who are different from you, do you think white, black, brown, or perhaps short or tall, or maybe dark, blonde or red hair?

Or do you think fellow human being, a distant genetic family member?

If we are all distantly related, should that affect how you view people, especially those who don’t look like you or hold similar opinions?

More on that point in Is Race Real? Part 3.

ancestry

Your Ancestors Are Cheering You On!

Saints of God

Your Ancestors

Is Race Real? Part 2