Deuteronomy 26-28

Aramean/Syrian; Up In Heaven; The Jordan; Amen; Who did Cain marry?; incest; bestiality

BIBLE IN FIVEPastor Dave KooyersValley Bible FellowshipBox 433Boonville CA 95415http://www.slideshare.net/dkooyers www.ValleyBibleFellowship.org

(707) 895-2325God bless you as you examine His Word,Your servant in Christ, 2Cor. 4:5

These Microsoft PowerPoint presentations are provided "for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12-15). To help Christians to "to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ." So that "we are no longer...tossed here and there...by every wind of doctrine." They may be downloaded and modified free of charge.

Matthew 10:8 …Freely you received, freely give.

Deuteronomy 26

Deuteronomy 26:5Aramean/Syrian

• NAU Deuteronomy 26:5 "You shall answer and say before the LORD your God, 'My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; but there he became a great, mighty and populous nation.

• All of the modern translations that I checked rendered this word “Aramean”, however all of the translations from the KJV family translate it “Syrian.” <0761…Arammi… Meaning: …Aram (Syria)

• NAU Genesis 11:31 Terah took Abram his son,…and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans…and they went as far as Haran, and settled there.

• NAU Joshua 24:2 Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.

Deuteronomy 26:5, Syria Syrian

• The KJV uses “Syria” 75 X’s and “Syrian” 12 X’s. Whereas NAU uses “Syria” 8 X’s and “Syrian” 1 X’s. It is used nowhere in the NAU Old Testament.

Deuteronomy 26:12Tithe To The Orphan And Widow• NAU Deuteronomy 26:12 "When you have

finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.

• The following article by CNN is included in full after the “THE END” slide;

Rethinking the Widow's Mite, By John Blake, CNN

How passing the plate becomes the 'Sunday morning stickup'

• “Churches have devised all sorts of ingenious ways to use guilt and distort scripture to compel people to give, some say. They call it the "Sunday morning stickup.” Pastors and churches routinely manipulate people to give, some say one church leader calls offerings the "Sunday morning stickup” …(CNN)David Lee had just opened his wallet for two successive offerings at a church one Sunday morning when a pastor walked onto the pulpit to pass on a request …If a pastor or church leader has ever told you that the Bible commands Christians to tithe or give 10% of their income; hit you up for multiple offerings during one service; made you march up front to give; asked you to donate to a mysterious "building fund" or give a "first-fruit" offering; or even given special recognition to big givers in your congregation, Lee and other pastors have a message for you:

• You are getting played….” http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/14/us/sunday-stickup/index.html

Creflo Dollar, an Atlanta-based televangelist, persuaded his congregation to buy him a private jet.

Deuteronomy 26:12Tithe To The Orphan And Widow

• DLK adds; “I’d like to think that his statement that “You are getting played” is not indicative of all churches using some of those practices. There are some good churches that ask for a “tithe or give 10% of their income” out of habit from what they've been taught. This reveals an ignorance of what the NT teaches concerning Christian giving, and also a failure to discern between Israel and the church.

• More teaching about this is available at;• http://www.slideshare.net/dkooyers/christian-giving-tith

ing-tithes-tithe-gifts-2015

Deuteronomy 26:12Tithes To The Needy

• NAU Deuteronomy 26:12…the tithe…to the orphan and to the widow…

• Jerusalem Inspiration, “If you come to Jerusalem’s open market very early in the morning, you may be greeted by an unusual sight. As the fresh fruits and vegetables arrive, they are first tithed before being offered for sale, in fulfillment of the Biblical commandment, which continues in effect from Temple times until today! The commandment to tithe all the produce of the Land ensures the poor are cared for. An organization called “Karmey Chesed” ("Vineyards of Kindness") has warmly embraced this ideal and provides many services for the poor of Israel. From food baskets to stipends for vital medicine, Karmey Chesed is the address of hope, care and concern for the needy.”

Deuteronomy 26:12Tithes To The Needy

• Jerusalem Photo Trivia, Today’s photo by Ilan Rosen shows the fresh array of produce available at one of Jerusalem’s most popular open markets…

Deuteronomy 26:14 Be A Good Listener To The Word Of God

NAU Deuteronomy 26:14 'I have not eaten of it while mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of the LORD my God; I have done according to all that You have commanded me.

NAU John 17:17 "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

NAU Proverbs 21:28 A false witness will perish, But the man who listens to the truth will speak forever.

God Reveals Himself Through His People And Word

• Charles L. Allen said, “God reveals Himself through people. Through Moses we glimpse God’s law, Amos showed us His justice, Hosea His love, and Micah His ethical standards. Someone was kind when we were sick, helped in time of trouble, was friendly when we were lonely. Someone we had wronged forgave in a spirit of love. In all such acts a little bit of God is revealed unto us.”

Deuteronomy 26:15Your People Israel

• NAU Deuteronomy 26:15 'Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.'

• Jerusalem Inspiration, “The name “Israel” refers to both the Land and the People and has a deeper meaning as well. The smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet is the - י - yod. The largest letter is the lamed - ישראל ,The very name of the Jewish people .ל -Yisrael, alludes to both its humble beginnings as well as its glorious destiny…”

Deuteronomy 26:15God’s Abode Is Above, In Heaven

• NAU Deuteronomy 26:15 'Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven…

• I once argued that my dad's spirit was in heaven, and the liberal pastor argued “where is heaven?”

• NAU Lamentations 3:41 We lift up our heart and hands Toward God in heaven;

• NAU Proverbs 30:4 Who has ascended into heaven and descended?…Who has established…earth? What is His name or His son's name? Surely you know!

• NAU Matthew 14:19…He [Jesus] looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food…

• NAU Mark 16:19 …Jesus…was received up into heaven…• NAU Acts 1:11 …Jesus…taken up from you into heaven…• NAU 2 Corinthians 12:2…a man was caught up to the third

heaven… [Matthew 6:9…Our Father who is in heaven, Psalm 20:6, 119:89, 136:26, 144:5]

Deuteronomy 27

Moses/God gives specific instructions for after they are in the Holy Land

The Jordan, Amen, Who did Cain marry, incest, bestiality

Deuteronomy 27:1

• NAU Deuteronomy 27:1 Then Moses and the elders of Israel charged the people, saying, "Keep all the commandments which I command you today.

• God has delegated to his servants, “Moses and the elders”

• NAU Deuteronomy 2:18 'Today you shall cross over Ar, the border of Moab.

• I believe the entire book of Deuteronomy was one oral sermon given by Moses on one day. [Deuteronomy 4:4,

Deuteronomy 8:1, “today”• NAS Deuteronomy 8:1 "All the commandments that I am

commanding you today you shall be careful to do… (Deuteronomy 8:1, 11, 19, 9:1, 3)

• Most commentaries say that Deuteronomy consists of three or more sermons that Moses gave. Only a few say that it was three points of one sermon delivered at one time.

• Deuteronomy uses the word “today” more than any other book of the Bible. Four times more than any other book of the Bible (58 NAU). More than 1/4 of all the uses of the word are in Deuteronomy. It sure seems to me that Moses would have us understand that he delivered the entire sermon in one day. The day they would “cross over.”

• Deuteronomy uses the phrase “this day” another 15 times.• NAU Deuteronomy 2:18 'Today you shall cross over Ar, the border of

Moab. Samsung most first of the month and got paid.

Deuteronomy 27:2, The Jordan

• NAU Deuteronomy 27:2 "So it shall be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which the LORD your God gives you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime

• Jerusalem Daily Photo, Yehoshua Halevi took this picture of the "Mighty River Jordan" in full flow!

Deuteronomy 27:2, The Jordan

• Jerusalem Inspiration, “The Hebrew name for Jordan is 'Yarden.' The word 'yarden' is made up of the Hebrew words 'yorayd Dan' ( דן which ,(יורדmeans “it descends from [the territory of] Dan.” The territory of Dan is the northern most territory in the Land of Israel, and the Jordan River flows the length of the country from north to south, starting at the foot of Mount Hermon and ending at the Dead Sea. In its course, it falls about a thousand meters and is the river with the lowest elevation in the world…”

Deuteronomy 27:2, “cross the Jordan” Is Used 3X’s Here

• NAU Deuteronomy 27:2… when you cross the Jordan…set up for yourself large stones…

• NAU Deuteronomy 27:4 …when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up on Mount Ebal, these stones…

• NAU Deuteronomy 27:12 "When you cross the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people…

• 9 of the 12 uses of “cross the Jordan” are in Deuteronomy and it’s used 3X’s here

Deuteronomy 27:4= Joshua 8:30

• NAU Deuteronomy 27:4 "So it shall be when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up on Mount Ebal, these stones, as I am commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime.

• NAU Joshua 8:30 Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal, 31 just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones, on which no man had wielded an iron tool; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings. 32 And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written, in the presence of the sons of Israel.

Deuteronomy 27:10Whose Commandments?

• NAU Deuteronomy 27:10 "You shall therefore obey the LORD your God, and do His commandments and His statutes which I command you today.”

• NAU Deuteronomy 27:1 Then Moses and the elders of Israel charged the people, saying, "Keep all the commandments which I command you today.

• Whose commandments are they, Moses’ or God?

Deuteronomy 27:12, When=future

• NAU Deuteronomy 27:12 "When you cross the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 13 "And for the curse, these shall stand on Mount Ebal…

• Moses here commands that there shall be a unified, verbal, assent by every Israelite, to every major point in chapter 28.

• Talk about commitment!

Deuteronomy 27:15, “Amen”

• NAU Deuteronomy 27:15 'Cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.' And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.'

• This is only the 2nd use of the 59 uses of the word “amen” in the NAU Bible. Deuteronomy uses this word more than any other book. And every one of those uses is in this chapter.

Deuteronomy 27:15, Amen

Let's Read Deuteronomy 27:19-21

Deuteronomy 27:21Animal Sex Legal in 20 States

• “Who knew? A Washington legislator has proposed legislation to make sex with animals illegal in her state. Shockingly, only 30 states currently have laws criminalizing sex with animals. In Texas, it violates the "public lewdness" statute if it is done in a public place, but, if you have sex with an animal in the privacy of your own home, you are free to go--unless prosecutors can allege that your conduct caused injury, serious injury, or constituted "torture". In that case, you could be charged under the general animal cruelty statute. Meanwhile, although it has been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, the statute criminalizing consensual sex between members of the same sex is still on the books.”

• http://injusticeanywhere.blogspot.com/2005/07/animal-sex-legal-in-20-states.html

• NAU Exodus 22:19 "Whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death. [ Leviticus 18:23, 20:15-16, Deuteronomy 27:21]

Deuteronomy 27:22 Who Did Cain And Abel Marry?

• NAU Deuteronomy 27:22 'Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or of his mother.' And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.' [also Leviticus 18:9]

• NAU Genesis 4:17 Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth…

• NAU Genesis 5:4 Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters.

• God created Eve from the flesh of Adam's side, and their children had no choice but to marry each other. There was no other option. Genetic mutations had not multiplied in the human race as yet. Consequently God did not put a prohibition against incest until much later.

Bill Perkins says, “In the United States, the Bible can no longer be used to define sin”

• “…France is set to ban the words "mother" and "father" from all official documents under new plans to legalize gay marriage and give equal adoption rights to homosexual and heterosexual couples.

• A notary in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo has sparked controversy by accepting a civil union between three people saying that the idea of a "family" has changed.

• In Canada, a 12-year-old girl sued her parents, and won, the right to go on a school trip that her dad had forbidden because she was grounded. Attorneys were supplied to the child under provisions of the "UN Rights of a Child" that Canada passed.

• In the United States, since the Bible can no longer be used as the definer of sin, the slippery slope continues to get even worse. What the Bible calls "perversion" is protected by law in the United States. Homosexuality is not only allowed, it is mandated.

Bill Perkins says, “In the United States, the Bible can no longer be used to define sin”

• We've murdered over 50 million innocent babies in the womb over the last 50 years and the carnage continues by the minute. The most dangerous place for a black female to be is in her mother's womb!With homosexuals and abortions legally secure, the green light is on for worse perversions... without a hint of public outrage. It's a slippery slope.A new movie, Yellow, has been released that promotes sex/marriage between blood brothers and sisters.

• 20 states have now removed or watered down laws forbidding sex with animals. Well why not? Who is to say it's wrong? If you can't use the Bible to define what's good and bad, then you're back to "it's only wrong if you think it's wrong." Or, "Just because it's wrong for you doesn't mean it's wrong for me." All from the pit of hell.

• It's only a matter of time until the "I Love To Have Sex with Pigs on Fridays" high school group is afforded equal protection and given Federal Funds to protect and promote their unbiblical lifestyles. …”

Deuteronomy 27:26All Inclusive Rap Up

• NKJ Deuteronomy 27:26 `Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law by observing them.' And all the people shall say,`Amen!'

• NAU Deuteronomy 27:26 'Cursed is he who does not confirm [LXX adds “all”] the words of this law by doing them.' And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.'

Deuteronomy 28

The big “IF”

In my lifetime America has gone

from being the biggest lending

nation the world has ever seen, to most indebted that the

world has ever seen. I wonder if we

should consider being obedient to

God's word

Deuteronomy 28:27, Tumor

• Deuteronomy 28:27 "The LORD will smite you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scab and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed.

• First NASU use of “tumor”• So I’ll give you the Redneck Definition….• “One plus one more”• As in “two more”

Deuteronomy 28:49

• Video clip “Introduction to Ancient Hebrew Part 3 of 7” by Jeff Benner· says, near the end, that “all alphabets in all languages descend from ancient Hebrew.”

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=d4gy8EB-UUI&NR=1

Let's read Deuteronomy 28:64-68

Deuteronomy 28:64-68

• Clearly this is a prophecy of the 70 A.D. diaspora. Scattered from one end of the Earth to the other they would engage in idolatry. Daniel and his companions refused idolatry. The Jews returned from Babylon had been faithful to the Lord. The wandering Jew after 70 A.D. found no “rest for his foot”. But God commanded the Babylonian exile's to plant trees and enjoy the land, for 70 years. The “dread of your heart” of 28:67 was fulfilled in WW2, not Babylon.

Deuteronomy 4:27The Diaspora Predicted

• NAU Deuteronomy 4:27 "The LORD will scatter you among the peoples [plural in Heb, Grk LXX], and you will be left few in number among the nations [plural in Heb, Grk LXX] where the LORD drives you.

• goy, …every nation, Gentiles גֹּוי 01471• It was only in the 70 A.D. diaspora that God scattered

His people to all the nations of the world. It has continued for 2000 years but is reversing now.

• The LXX Grk. has διασπερεῖ, from which we get the English word “diaspora” (De 28:64 also plural)

Acts 18:2, Claudius’ Anti-semitism

• Acts 18:2…because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,

• NET Notes say, “Claudius refers to the Roman emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus, known as Claudius, who ruled from A.D. 41–54. The edict expelling the Jews from Rome was issued in A.D. 49 (Suetonius, Claudius 25.4).”

• Anti-semitism

gracethrufaith.comWas Deut. 28:68 Fulfilled?

• Q. I have a question about Deuteronomy 28:68 which says : “And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.” I was wondering if this was ever fulfilled and if so when.

• A. Several commentators believe this prophecy was fulfilled beginning in the time of the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus in 70AD and ending with the complete expulsion of Jews from the remains of the city by Hadrian in 135AD. One Bible commentary explained it this way. “Numbers of the captives were sent by sea into Egypt (as well as into other countries), and sold for slaves at a vile price, and for the meanest offices; and many thousands were left to perish from want; for the multitude was so great that purchasers could not be found for them all at any price!”

The Christ in Prophecy JournalThe Reclamation of the Land of Israel: Prophetic Fulfillment

• By Dr. David R. Reagan, “Before the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, God spoke a series of stern warnings to them through Moses, their leader and prophet. The warnings are recorded in Deuteronomy 28 and 29. These chapters constitute God's Land Covenant with the Jewish people. In this covenant, God made it clear that although He had given the Jewish people an everlasting title to the land, their enjoyment of it would depend on their obedience to the laws He had given them in the Mosaic Covenant…” [Full article after THE END slide]

DOES ISRAEL HAVE A FUTURE? Part one, Johannas Pflaum, Deut. 28, 30, Romans 11

[Full article after THE END slide]NEWS FROM ISRAELJune 2013, pg 7-13

Does Israel have a future? Part one, Johannas Pflaum, Deuteronomy 28, 30 Romans 11

Does Israel have a future? Part one, Johannas Pflaum, Deuteronomy 28, 30 Romans 11

Scattering And Re-Gathering

• We will take a closer look at the diaspora and regathering when we get to chapter 30.

In conclusion;

THE END

The Christ in Prophecy JournalThe Reclamation of the Land of Israel: Prophetic Fulfillment

• The Christ in Prophecy Journal• The Reclamation of the Land of Israel: Prophetic Fulfillment• Posted: 03 Sep 2013 06:00 AM PDT• By Dr. David R. Reagan• Before the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, God spoke a series of stern warnings to them through Moses, their leader and prophet. The warnings are recorded in Deuteronomy 28 and 29.• These chapters constitute God's Land Covenant with the Jewish people. In this covenant, God made it clear that although He had given the Jewish people an everlasting title to the land, their enjoyment of it would depend on

their obedience to the laws He had given them in the Mosaic Covenant.•

The Hope of Blessings• The Land Covenant begins with promises of blessings if they are obedient (Deuteronomy 28:1-2):• Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come

upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God...Moses then proceeded to enumerate the blessing in detail. They included such things as agricultural abundance, defeat of enemies, financial prosperity and abundant rain (Deuteronomy 1:3-13).

•The Warning of Curses

• But then, Moses started issuing warnings about curses that would come upon them if they were disobedient to the Lord (Deuteronomy 1:15ff). The variety of these curses was breathtaking — cities in chaos, youth in rebellion, an epidemic of divorce, confusing governmental policies, defeats by their enemies, rampant disease, drought leading to crop failures, foreign domination and even exile to a foreign land.

• Moses concluded the list with a detailed explanation of what would be the ultimate judgment of God should they become entrenched in rebellion and refuse to repent (Deuteronomy 28: 64-67):• Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known. Among those

nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life. In the morning you shall say, "Would that it were evening!" And at evening you shall say, "Would that it were morning!" because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and for the sight of your eyes which you will see. In summary, the ultimate punishment the Jewish people would receive for willful and unrepentant rebellion against God's Word would be ejection from their land, their scattering worldwide and their persecution wherever they went.

•The Curse on the Land

• Nor would that be all. Moses further stated that God would put a curse on their land, and as a result of that curse, the land would become filled with diseases and plagues (Deuteronomy 29:22), and the land itself would become "a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass [growing] in it..." (Deuteronomy 29:23).

• The curse would be so terrible that when foreigners came to visit the land, they would cry out,"Why has the LORD done this to the land? Why this great outburst of anger?" (Deuteronomy 29:24). And the answer will be: "Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers...[and] they went and served other gods and worshiped them...Therefore, the anger of the LORD burned against that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; and the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath..." (Deuteronomy 29:25-28).

•The Promise of Hope

• Fortunately for the Jewish people, Moses did not leave it there. He continued on to speak some words of hope. He assured them that if they were ever scattered all over the world, a day would come when God in His compassion would "restore them from captivity" by regathering them to their homeland (Deuteronomy 30:3). "If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back" (Deuteronomy 30:4 ).

• The prophet Ezekiel picked it up from there, prophesying what would happen to the land when the Jewish people were regathered to it (Ezekiel 36:34-35):• The desolate land will be cultivated instead of being a desolation in the sight of everyone who passes by. They will say, "This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste, desolate and ruined cities are fortified

and inhabited.Prophetic Fulfillment

• What an incredible panorama of future events that have been fulfilled precisely in detail!• After the Jewish people occupied their Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua, they immediately began to stray from God's Word. They violated God's command not to intermarry with the pagan peoples of the land. As

they did so, they began to worship the false gods of these peoples.• God responded by sending prophets to call them to repentance. When they refused to repent, God began to afflict them with the very curses that Moses had outlined in his warnings. Finally, just as Moses had prophesied, they

were taken into exile. After God allowed them to return, they persisted in their rebellion, consummating with the rejection of the Messiah God sent to them.• It was at that point that God allowed the Romans to destroy Jerusalem in 70 AD, including the Jewish Temple. This began the process of their ejection from the land and their worldwide scattering, a process that was accelerated

after the Second Jewish Revolt in 132-136 AD.• Over the next 1800 years the Jews were literally scattered to the four corners of the earth, in fulfillment of Moses' prophecy. And in further fulfillment of prophecy, they were persecuted wherever they went, and their homeland

became utterly desolate.•

In the second part of this series on the restoration of the land of Israel, we'll look at some first-person historical accounts demonstrating just how horrific the Deuteronomy 29 curse found fulfillment.

DOES ISRAEL HAVE A FUTURE? Part one, Johannas Pflaum, Deut. 28, 30, Romans 11

[Full article after THE END slide]NEWS FROM ISRAELJune 2013, pg 7-13

Does Israel have a future? Part one, Johannas Pflaum, Deuteronomy 28, 30 Romans 11

Does Israel have a future? Part one, Johannas Pflaum, Deuteronomy 28, 30 Romans 11

Does Israel have a future? Part one, Johannas Pflaum, Deuteronomy 28, 30 Romans 11

Kauai’s silent nights (the crickets have gone quiet), http://creation.com/kauai-silent-crickets

• http://creation.com/kauai-silent-crickets

• Kauai’s silent nights (the crickets have gone quiet)• by David Catchpoole• Crickets, renowned for their distinctively loud chirping song penetrating the night, feature prominently in Polynesian folklore and traditions. But on the Hawaian island of Kauai, the crickets have fallen silent.• The reason?• The larvae burrow into the cricket and devour it—a week later, the cricket is dead.• In the 1990s, a deadly parasitic fly arrived from North America. This “acoustically orienting” fly tracks down male crickets calling for mates (only male crickets chirp) and deposits its eggs on them.1 The larvae burrow into the cricket and devour it—a week later, the

cricket is dead.• The impact of the fly was dramatic, as the cricket population on Kauai plummeted. By 2001, the island was “virtually silent”—a university research team heard only one cricket call.2

• In 2003, Kauai was still silent. But researchers were surprised to discover that crickets hadn’t been wiped out.3 They found plenty of crickets in fact.4 But they didn’t chirp.5

• On closer examination, “virtually all” of Kauai’s male crickets were found to have wings more like female wings than normal male wings, i.e. “lacking the normal stridulatory apparatus of file and scraper required for sound production”—hence why they couldn’t chirp.4 In normal males, the wings have a prominent toothy vein that is scraped to make sound. But now, in most males the vein was smaller and in a different position. Females don’t have the toothed vein at all.

• Not surprisingly, this discovery was heralded by many media organizations and the researchers themselves as ‘evolution’.2,3,6 “This is seeing evolution at work,” lead researcher Marlene Zuk said.5But the information they themselves provided about the observed facts of the case (as opposed to evolutionary interpretation) was sufficient to show that it is not ‘evolution’ at all, in the chemicals-to-cells-to-crickets sense, which requires an increase in complexity and genetic information. Rather, there has been a loss of information (the ability to chirp) because ofdegradation of the genome.

• The silent males were mutants, with the ‘flatwing’ trait being caused by “a mutation to a single gene located on the crickets’ X chromosome.”2Researchers made it clear that the silence-conferring mutation was “not part of the quantitative genetic background of song itself but, instead, a morphological mutation that eliminates males’ ability to produce this sexual signal.”7

• This is not evidence for an evolutionary process said to have produced chirping crickets from chancy chaos, no matter how much time is claimed …• So, despite the ‘fogging’ of the facts by evolutionary-paradigm jargon, the story is quite simple—and anything but evolutionary. A loss-of-information flatwing mutation which would presumably normally be a disadvantage (rendering male crickets unable to call

acoustically for a mate) became highly advantageous once the acoustically-navigating parasitic fly came to Kauai.8 This is not evidence for an evolutionary process said to have produced chirping crickets from chancy chaos, no matter how much time is claimed for it to have happened. The Kauai change is in the wrong direction to be evidence of microbes-to-man evolution. Instead, it fits with the biblical description of a created world now in “bondage to decay” (Romans 8:19–22).

• And other things fit, too. The Hawaiian cricket populations had “extremely low genetic variation” compared to crickets in Australia, with Pacific Islands populations being intermediate.9 This hints at the crickets’ likely island-hopping colonization route to Hawaii (perhaps partially matching that of Polynesian settlers—who seem to have had an affinity with crickets10), with the progressive reduction in gene pool variation consistent with an original higher-level creation, not evolution. A cricket subset of the gene pool, once isolated from its parent population, cannot of itself regain the starting level of genetic information. ‘Evolution’ can’t do it.

• Note that there is no doubt here that natural selection is operating, and powerfully. But natural selection is not evolution, as it can onlyremove individuals (in this case, chirping ones), and thus the genetic information they carry (coding for chirp-capable wings),11 from a population; it cannot provide new genetic information. And it is not the trumpeted ‘rapid evolution’ that is being observed here,12 but the rapid culling of cricket songsters under the deadly selection pressure of being fresh food for fly maggots—natural selection does not need long periods of time to achieve outcomes as dramatic as this—the virtual silencing of a population.13,14

• If only more people knew that examples of natural selection such as the Kauai crickets were in no way evidence for evolution but rather evidence for the Creator God of the Bible—now that would be something to chirp about.• Related Articles• Ear Now …• Rapid tomcod ‘evolution by pollution’? Yeah, right … and wrong• Brisk biters• References and notes• The tiny parasitoid fly is Ormia ochracea and its amazing ability to directionally track sound despite its ears being only 0.5mm apart (meaning the inter-aural time difference is only 1½ microseconds) has inspired engineers to try to improve hearing aids by giving

them some directional capacity. Sarfati, J., Ear now An incredible design in a tiny fly is inspiring engineers, Creation 23(4):55, 2001; creation.com/ear-now. As for how such design fits with the biblical account of the Fall and no death before sin, insects are probably not nephesh life, so their ‘death’ is biblically different from that of humans or vertebrate animals. Alternatively, God, who foreknew the Fall, could have predesigned the machinery needed for a post-Fall world, with it switching on at the Fall. Seecreation.com/cab6. Return to text.

• Understanding evolution: Quick evolution leads to quiet crickets, evolution.berkeley.edu, December 2006, updates added June 2008 and June 2011. Return to text.• Le Page, M., Evolution in the fast lane, New Scientist 210(2806):32–36, 2 April 2011. Return to text.• Zuk, M., Rotenberry, J. and Tinghitella, R., Silent night: adaptive disappearance of a sexual signal in a parasitized population of field crickets, BiologyLetters2:521–524, 2006. Return to text.• Crickets on Hawaiian island develop silent wings in response to parasitic attack, University of California–Riverside Newsroom, newsroom.ucr.edu, 22 September 2006. Return to text.• Norris, S., Hawaii crickets evolved ‘silent’ wings to evade parasites, study finds, National Geographic News, news.nationalgeographic.com, 3 October 2006.Return to text.• Tinghitella, R., Rapid evolutionary change in a sexual signal: genetic control of the mutation ‘flatwing’ that renders male field crickets (Teleogryllus oceanicus) mute, Heredity 100:261–267, 2008. Return to text.• It’s not known for sure how female crickets manage to find silent males (in order to mate and thus have offspring), but researchers found some support for the idea that the mutant mute males would cluster closely around the few remaining chirpers, intercepting

females attracted by the normal male’s song. Ref. 4. Return to text.• Tinghitella, R., Zuk, M., Beveridge, M. and Simmons, L., Island hopping introduces Polynesian field crickets to novel environments, genetic bottlenecks and rapid evolution, Journal of Evolutionary Biology 24:1199–1211, 2001. Return to text.• Crickets are spoken of in some Polynesian communities as being a form of protective presence. Clerk, C., “That isn’t really a pig”: Spirit traditions in the Southern Cook Islands, Oral Tradition 5(2/3):316–333, 1990. Return to text.• For another example of mutant wings being advantageous in an extreme environment, see Wieland, C., Beetle bloopers, Creation 19(3):30, 1997; creation.com/beetle. Return to text.• E.g. refs 3,7,9. Ref. 2 referred to the 20 generations between the arrival of the parasitic fly and the rise of the silent ‘flatwing’ mutant male crickets as being “the blink of an eye in evolutionary terms”. Return to text.• Wieland, C., Brisk biters fast changes in mosquitoes astonish evolutionists, delight creationists, Creation 21(2):41, 1999; creation.com/brisk-biters. Return to text.• Wieland, C., Rapid tomcod evolution by pollution ? Yeah, right and wrong, Creation 33(4):22–33, 2011. Return to text.

• Israel as Proof of God's Existence: Dispersion and Persecution• Posted: 03 Feb 2014 06:00 AM PST• By Dr. David R. Reagan

• The Persecution of the Jews• The second prophecy I would point to is one that said that after their dispersion, the Jews would be persecuted wherever they

went. Let's return to Deuteronomy and pick up reading where we left off:• Deuteronomy 28:65-67• 65) Among those nations [where the Jews will be scattered] you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole

of your foot; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul.

66) So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life.

67) In the morning you shall say, "Would that it were evening!" And at evening you shall say, "Would that it were morning!" because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and for the sight of your eyes which you will see.This is a graphic description of exactly what happened to the Jewish people after they were dispersed from their homeland. Everywhere they went, they were harassed, persecuted and targeted for annihilation — a process that climaxed with the Holocaust during World War II when 6 million Jews were exterminated.

• Again, we have a precise prophecy with a precise fulfillment.

Jeremiah 3:14, Regathering• I shall take you one from a city and two from a family and I will bring you to

Zion.• Jeremiah 3:14• Jerusalem Inspiration• God’s promise to return the People of Israel to the Land of Israel is described

in vivid detail by Jeremiah. When the Jews ultimately return to Israel, it won’t simply be to survive there amidst great animosity and turmoil; the prophet assures us that we will thrive and celebrate life and closeness to God and to each other (Jeremiah 33:11). 'Israel Returns' is a lifeline to new immigrants to Israel, fulfilling Jeremiah's words that the People will return to the Land.

• Jerusalem Daily Photo• Last week, new arrivals to Israel from India had a heartwarming reunion with

family members who have previously settled here in Israel. This young man from the Bnei Menashe community is already serving in the Israel Defense Forces, and excited to welcome his grandmother home.

Diaspora, Scatter, Scattering, Anti-Semitism

• Jerusalem Inspiration• At 10 am this morning, a heartrending siren was heard all across

Israel for a moment of prayer in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. In the nation that rose up from the ashes of those dark days, we recall God's lesson to Cain in today's verse that yes, we are all our brother's keepers with moral responsibility for one another. Experience first hand the significance and lessons of the Holocaust with Rabbi Tuly Weisz on a special trip for Jews and Christians to Poland this summer.

• Jerusalem Daily Photo• The Hall of Names in Yad Vashem is a memorial to each and every

Jew who perished in the Holocaust – a place where they may be commemorated for generations to come.

Regathering, http://www.lamblion.us/2014/04/the-regathering-of-jewish-people_29.html?

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• The Regathering of the Jewish People: Opposition• Posted: 30 Apr 2014 06:00 AM PDT• By Dr. David R. Reagan• One of the greatest examples of God's continuing love for the Jewish people can be found in the most important prophetic development of this age — the regathering of the Jewish people back into the land of Israel per Jeremiah

16:14-15; Isaiah 11:11-12 and Ezekiel 37. Their return, though, didn't come without opposition.•

The Saga of Exodus 1947• After World War II, The British, who controlled Palestine, decided to stop Jewish immigration by sending ships loaded with Jewish refugees back to their ports of embarkation in Europe. The first ship to which this policy was

applied was the Exodus 1947.• The ship sailed from a port in France on July 11, 1947, with 4,515 immigrants, including 655 children, on board. On July 18, near the coast of Palestine a British destroyer rammed the ship and boarded it, while the immigrants put

up a desperate defense. Two immigrants and a crewman were killed in the battle, and 30 were wounded. The ship was towed to Haifa, where the immigrants were loaded onto deportation ships bound for France. The French government refused to force them off the boat. Eventually, the British decided to return the would-be immigrants to Germany!

• World public opinion was outraged, and the British changed their policy. Instead of sending immigrants back to Europe, they started re-settling them in detention camps in Cyprus.• The majority of the passengers on the Exodus 1947 ultimately settled in Israel, though some had to wait until after the establishment of the State of Israel.• This incident was the basis of the 1958 novel by Leon Uris and the 1968 movie directed by Otto Preminger, both titled, Exodus.•

The Purpose• Why is God regathering the Jewish people after a dispersion lasting almost 2,000 years?• It's because He has promised that He will bring a remnant of the Jews to salvation before the consummation of history (Zech 12:10, Isaiah 10:20-23 and Romans 9:27).• The prophetic scriptures reveal that God has a specific plan for achieving that goal. He will regather them, and then He will bring all the nations of the world against them, allowing them to be hammered until they come to the

end of themselves and turn to Him in repentance, accepting His Son as their Messiah. What a glorious day that will be!• The Regathering of the Jewish People: Operation Solomon• Posted: 29 Apr 2014 06:00 AM PDT• By Dr. David R. Reagan• One of the greatest examples of God's continuing love for the Jewish people can be found in the most important prophetic development of this age — the regathering of the Jewish people back into the land of Israel per Jeremiah

16:14-15; Isaiah 11:11-12 and Ezekiel 37.• The largest Jewish population to the south of Jerusalem in the mid-20th Century consisted of the Black Jews of Ethiopia. No one knows for sure the origin of these Jews. The most common speculation is that they resulted from a

union between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (2 Chronicles 9), but there is no biblical evidence of this. All we know for certain is that they existed in New Testament times because Acts chapter 8 contains the story of an Ethiopian Jew who came to Jerusalem to observe the feasts and who was converted to Christianity on his way back home to Africa by an evangelist named Philip.

• In the late 1980s the Jews of Ethiopia began to feel a tug on their hearts to return to the Jewish homeland. In response, they started migrating to Addis Ababa by the thousands where they camped out around the international airport, demanding transportation to Israel. The government adamantly refused to let them leave, in fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 43:6 which states that the Jews in the south will be held back.

• But in 1991, as the government began to crumble in the midst of a civil war, the United States and Israel intervened, providing bribes to military leaders. The government then relented and provided a 48 hour window of time for the refugees to depart.

• The resulting airlift in May was amazing. In just under 36 hours, 14,500 Ethiopian Jews — nearly the entire Jewish population — was flown to Tel Aviv in 40 flights involving 35 aircraft. At one point there were 28 planes in the air at one time. And a world record was set when one El Al Boeing 747, designed to carry about 350 people, was loaded up with 1,086 passengers. This was possible because all the seats had been stripped out of the plane, the Ethiopians weighed very little, and they had no luggage. When that particular plane reached Tel Aviv, there was a total of 1,088 on board because two babies had been born en route! 12

• When I read about that development in the newspapers at the time, I immediately thought of a prophecy in Jeremiah 31:8 which reads as follows: "Behold, I am bringing them from the north country, and I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and she who is in labor with child, together; a great company, they will return here."

• Today, over 6 million Jews — as many as were killed in the Holocaust — have been gathered back to their homeland, and they are still coming.•

In the fifth and last segment of our series on the prophetic fulfillment of the regathering of the Jewish people, we'll be look at the resistance to the Jewish return to their homeland.•

Notes• 12) Joel Brinkley, "Ethiopian Jews and Israelis Exult as Airlift Is Completed," The New York Times, May 26, 1991, www.nytimes.com/1991/05/26/world/ethiopian-jews-and-israelis-exult-as-airlift-is-completed.html .• http://www.lamblion.us/2014/04/the-regathering-of-jewish-people_30.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheChristInProphecyJournal+%28The+Christ+in+Prophecy+Journal%29

• http://www.lamblion.us/2014/04/the-regathering-of-jewish-people_29.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheChristInProphecyJournal+%28The+Christ+in+Prophecy+Journal%29

Mold, molds•

THE COWBOY LASSO MOLD• in Plants• Listen• Ezekiel 18:23• “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?”• Did you know that there is a mold that captures and eats animals? Those scientists who reject evolution in favor of creation often stress that there are no

simple forms of life. Each kind of life is both specialized and very complex. While evolutionary scientists try to arrange living things from simple to complex, creation scientists ask them to let us know when they finally find a “simple” form of life.

• At first glance, mold would seem to be a simple form of life. It doesn’t sing, dance or write plays. But neither do a lot of people. However, mold – like every other life form – is still perfectly suited for its needs.

• Several forms of mold actually capture and eat animals – in this case, a small worm known as a nematode. Some molds grow sticky knobs that trap the worms. But one, known as the “cowboy lasso” mold, grows tiny loops or lassos. Should an unwary worm try to crawl through the loop, the loop swells shut, strangling the nematode. The worm is then digested at the mold’s leisure. This is much too complex and specialized for a “simple mold” to have engineered. It is too filled with purpose to be the result of purposeless natural laws.

• God does not operate without purpose - not when He created mold, nor when He deals with us. His most earnest desire is for a relationship with you and me through Jesus Christ.

• Prayer: • I thank You Father, that while there is no simple form of life, the way back to You through the forgiveness of sins in Your Son Jesus Christ is simple and

already accomplished for us. Help me to better appreciate both Your complexity and Your simplicity. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.• Notes: • Photo: Low-temperature scanning electron micrograph of soybean cyst nematode and its egg.

Isaiah 10:20, Zechariah 2:8, 8:22-23, 12:10, Romans 11:28-29 Psalm 129:5-8, Anti-Semitism

• The Christ in Prophecy Journal• The Evil of Replacement Theology: Response of Scripture• Posted: 30 Dec 2013 06:00 AM PST• By Dr. David R. Reagan• What does the Word of God have to say about the relationship between Israel and the Church?• Anti-Semitism — To begin with, it strongly repudiates anti-Semitism. Consider these words from Psalm 129:• 5) May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward.

6) Let them be like grass upon the housetops which withers before it grows up,

7) with which the reaper does not fill his hand...

8) Nor do those who pass by say, "The blessing of the Lord be upon you..."Deicide — With regard to the allegation that the Jews are "Christ killers," the Word clearly identifies who murdered Jesus and makes it plain that the Jews were not exclusively responsible. You will find the identity of those responsible in Acts 4:27:

• For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant, Jesus, whom You did anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel. Notice who is listed here as those responsible for the death of Jesus: Romans, Jews and Gentiles. And someone else not named — You and Me! Yes, all of us are responsible for the death of Jesus, for all of us are sinners (Romans 3:23), and Jesus died for all sinners (1 Corinthians 15:3).

• Land Promise — Regarding the idea that God has already fulfilled the land promises to the Jews during the time of Joshua, it is interesting to note that long after Joshua, King David wrote in Psalm 105 that the land promise is everlasting in nature and is yet to be fulfilled. The fact of the matter is that the Jews have never occupied all the land that was promised to them in the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 15:18-21). Under Joshua, they were given only the land that was promised to Moses.

• Rejection — Concerning the claim that the Jews have been rejected by God, there are a couple of biblical principles that need to be kept in mind. First, the Bible affirms that the Jews were called as God's Chosen People to be witnesses of what it means to have a relationship with Him (Isaiah 43:10-12). And the Bible makes it clear that this calling is "irrevocable" (Romans 11:29).

• You can find the calling in Isaiah 43, beginning with verse 10:• 10) "You are My witnesses," declares the LORD, "and My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me.

11) "I, even I, am the Lord, And there is no savior besides Me.

12) "...So you are My witnesses," declares the Lord...The everlasting nature of this call is emphasized in Romans 11 beginning with verse 28:• 28) From the standpoint of the gospel they [the Jews] are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers;

29) for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.Replacement — In direct contradiction of Replacement Theology, the Bible teaches that the Jews have never been replaced with the Church by God because of their unbelief. In Romans 3 Paul asserts point blank that their rejection of Jesus has not nullified God's faithfulness to the promises He has made to them:

• 1) What advantage has the Jew? [The Church: "None!"]

2) Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.

3) What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? [The Church: "Yes!"]

4) May it never be! Rather, let God be found true though every man be found a liar...Paul makes the same point again in Romans 11:1 where he asks: "God has not rejected His people, has He?" The Church's response for 2,000 years has been "Yes!" But Paul's response is exactly the opposite: "May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew..."

• Discipline — It is true that the Jewish people are currently under discipline because of their rejection of their Messiah. Over and over in their Scriptures the prophets said they would be disciplined if they were unfaithful, but always the promise was made that they would be preserved. An example of this type of prophetic statement can be found in Jeremiah 30:11 —

• "For I am with you," declares the Lord, "to save you; for I will destroy completely all the nations where I have scattered you, only I will not destroy you completely. But I will chasten you justly, and will by no means leave you unpunished."Preservation — God has preserved them in His grace because He loves them. In Zechariah 2:8 God proclaims that the Jewish people are "the apple of His eye," and He warns against anyone trying to harm them.

• Salvation — Another reason they have been preserved is because God is determined to bring a great remnant to salvation (Isaiah 10:20-22). This promise is made repeatedly throughout the Hebrew Scriptures and is confirmed by Paul in the New Testament in Romans 9-11. The salvation of this remnant is described in detail in Zechariah 12:10 where it says that at the end of the Tribulation the remaining Jews will come to the end of themselves and will turn their hearts to God in repentance and accept Yeshua as their Messiah.

• Primacy — That believing remnant will go into the Millennium in the flesh and will comprise the nation of Israel to whom God will fulfill all the promises He has made to the Jews (Isaiah 60-62). During the Millennium the nation of Israel will be the prime nation in the world through whom God will bless all the other nations (Zechariah 8:22-23).

• In summary, the Word of God makes it clear that Israel definitely has a role and a future in the end times.•

In the eighth and last part of this study on how Replacement Theology has resulted in the historical abuse of the Jews by the Church, we'll look to the Bible to learn at what the future holds in store for the Jews.

Lambert Dolphin on The Destruction of the Second Temple, Psalm 129 http://www.ldolphin.org/destruct2.html

• Lambert Dolphin lambert@ldolphin.org Lambert Dolphin's Library The Temple Mount Web Site The Destruction of the Second Temple

• "Sorely have they afflicted me from my youth," let Israel now say - "Sorely have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me. The plowers plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows." The LORD is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked. May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward! Let them be like the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up, with which the reaper does not fill his hand or the binder of sheaves his bosom, while those who pass by do not say, "The blessing of the LORD be upon you! We bless you in the name of the LORD!" (Psalm 129. A Psalm of Ascents)

• Prelude to the Second Desolation of Jerusalem• Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, as well as most every one of the prophets of Israel, give us copious amounts of information telling us why it was that Israel was taken into exile in Babylon and why the magnificent First Temple should be destroyed. The terrible loss of life and all the associated suffering which took place especially on the 9th of Av, 586 B.C.E. were followed by a slow restoration. By the time of Yeshua (Jesus), 600 years later, Israel enjoyed a modest place among the nations of

the Middle East. Gone was the great military prowess she had enjoyed under King David. Gone was the King - Israel had been a vassal state under foreign dominion for centuries. However, a respectable Temple stood in Jerusalem. Sacrifices and offerings and the externals of her religion were in place. The priesthood was corrupted and the number of the godly who were faithful to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was very few. There was little evidence of real spiritual life from God. Demonic activity and occult practices were at an all time high, as the Christian gospels reveal, and the Jews were not highly regarded by the Greeks and Romans for their religion, or for their exemplary lifestyles. The internal politics of a once unified people was divided into factions of Herodians, Hellenists, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Scribes. Thankfully, a tiny believing remnant remained faithful to the Holy One of Israel.

The four Christian gospels say very little about the Temple in the days of Jesus. Except for a few brief words from Jesus there was no extensive public warning that the Second Temple was to be destroyed. The analysis of why this happened would be explained afterward, after resurrection of Jesus. It was then that the Apostles (all Jews) confronted the nation with her grievous sins.

The life of Jesus seemed unimportant to the Romans and to many of the Jewish people at the time Jesus the Christ taught and walked among his own people. The resurrection of this same Jesus and His ascension after a number of public appearances was followed 50 days later by the birth of church on Pentecost Sunday. This took place on the Temple Mount. However, it was not long before persecution drove the apostles and church leaders North to Antioch. The Jewish people were accustomed to outspoken sect leaders and false messiah so Jesus was soon forgotten and his qualifications as a true prophet of God were ignored. The hundreds of new followers of Jesus after the Day of Pentecost were of course originally all Jews.

• Caligula• Shortly after the death and resurrection of Jesus, the mad Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus - nicknamed Caligula ("little boots") - attempted to desecrate the Temple. Everywhere else in the Roman empire subjugated peoples had been forced to conform to the cult of Rome and acknowledge not only Caesar as Lord but also fall into line by adopting the Roman pantheon of gods. The Jews had been left alone and it was time they began to conform. Caligula gave an order to set up his

statue in the Holy of Holies in the Temple:• Now Caius Caesar did so grossly abuse the fortune he had arrived at, as to take himself to be a god, and to desire to be so called also, and to cut off those of the greatest nobility out of his country. He also extended his impiety as far as the Jews. Accordingly he sent Petronius with an army to Jerusalem to place his statues in the temple, and commanded him that, in case the Jews would not admit of them, he should slay those that opposed it, and carry all the rest into captivity. (Ref. 1)• The Roman writer Tacitus adds that Caius commanded the Jews to place his effigies in the Temple. Josephus records that the Jews pleaded with Petronius not to do this. The Jews in their stubborn monotheism were willing to sacrifice their whole nation before they would allow the Temple to be defiled. Petronius marveled at their courage and ceased with the process so confrontation was temporarily averted. An enraged Caligula commanded that Petronius be put to death. Josephus

records that Caligula himself died soon thereafter and due to bad weather at sea, the letter ordering Petronius' death arrived three weeks after the news arrived of Caligula's death. Petronius was not executed and the Temple was spared this particular abomination.• Revolt and Turmoil• To enforce their rule the Romans were forced to brutally repress the rebellions led by various "messiahs" - Theudas, James and Simon. One Jewish group, the Zealots, in existence since the turn of the century, gained enough strength by 50 A.D. that they were able to raid Jerusalem. The Roman procurator Gessius Florius (62-64), whose headquarters were in Sebaste (Samaria), had taken advantage of the instability by taxing the Temple treasury for his own benefit. He was the most cruel of

all Roman leaders to date. Florius met the Zealots in Jerusalem by killing 3600 Jews as he pillaged the upper market place. The Zealots in response destroyed the northern portico of the temple adjacent to the Antonia fortress thus preventing Florius from reaching the Temple where he wanted to seize the temple treasures.

Florius was driven from the city eventually and the high priest Eliezer ben-Hananiah persuades the priests to cease offerings to the health of the Emperor. This gave Rome even more reason to crack down.

At the outset of the revolt Herod Agrippa II (grandson of Herod the Great) gained control of the Upper City but the high priest Eliezer took over the Lower City and a civil war began. Agrippa gathered the people in the Chamber of Hewn Stone in a futile effort to restore peace. The rebels set fire to the palaces of the king, his sister Bernice, and to the house of the high priest. Agrippa fled from Jerusalem allowing the Zealots to capture Fortress Antonia and Herod's palace. The former was set on fire and burned.

As the civil war raging in Jerusalem intensified Cestius Gallius, procurator of Syria attacked Jerusalem in 66 A.D. from Mt. Scopus and the ascent of Beth-Horon, but a Jewish group led by Simon Bar-Giora harassed the soldiers of Gallius from the rear and captured all their arms. The rebels had a respite for four years during which time they were able to complete the third wall.

The struggles between the Zealots and the Roman soldiers from Syria destroyed the food stocks of the Zealots who then robbed the homes of the local Jewish population. The inhabitants of Jerusalem died in great numbers by famine as had happened when Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem centuries earlier (Jer. 52:6,7). Greater disaster was soon to come.• The Second Temple Destroyed - As Predicted• During the last days of his life Jesus had assembled his disciples together on the Mt. of Olives overlooking the Temple. The disciples were uncertain and anxious about the future especially in light of Jesus' cleansing of the Temple and stopping the sacrifices, and his astonishing statements delivered in holy anger denouncing the Pharisees. The disciples opened the conversation by talking about the beauty of the temple and its courts. Jesus opened his amazing and detailed reply by

predicting the soon-coming destruction of that magnificent building:• Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, "You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down." As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?" (Matthew 24:1-3)• Both the Temple and the City of Jerusalem were indeed about to be destroyed. With four Legions, Titus the Roman General, later to become Caesar, began the siege of Jerusalem in April, A.D. 70. He posted his 10th legion on the Mount of Olives, directly east of and overlooking the Temple Mount. The 12th and 15th legions were stationed on Mount Scopus, further to the east and commanding all ways to Jerusalem from east to north. The 5th legion was held in reserve.

• The Second 9th of Av - 70 C.E.• On the 10th of August, in A.D. 70 -- the 9th of Av -- in Jewish reckoning, the very day when the King of Babylon burned the Temple in 586 B.C., the Temple was burned again. Titus took the city and put it to the torch, burning the Temple.

Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus was present in Jerusalem when the city was captured and the Temple was burnt. He described the event in this manner:• The Romans, though it was a terrible struggle to collect the timber, raised their platforms in twenty-one days, having as described before stripped the whole area in a circle round the town to a distance of ten miles. The countryside like the City was a pitiful sight; for where once there had been a lovely vista of woods and parks there was nothing but desert and stumps of trees. No one - not even a foreigner - who had seen the Old Judea and the glorious suburbs of the City, and now set

eyes on her present desolation, could have helped sighing and groaning at so terrible a change; for every trace of beauty had been blotted out by war, and nobody who had known it in the past and came upon it suddenly would have recognized the place: when he was already there he would still have been looking for the City. (Ref. 3)• Josephus speaks of the house to house fighting that occurred:• These Romans put the Jews to flight, and proceeded as far as the holy house itself. At which time one of the soldiers, without staying for any orders, and without any concern or dread upon him at so great an undertaking, and being hurried on by a certain divine fury, snatched some what out of the materials that were on fire, and being lifted up by another soldier, he set fire to a golden window, through which there was a passage to the rooms that were round about the holy house, on

the north side of it. As the flames went upward, the Jews made a great clamour, such as so mighty an affliction required, and ran together to prevent it; and now they spared not their lives any longer, nor suffered anything to restrain their force, since that holy house was perishing . . . thus it was the holy house burnt down . . . Nor can one imagine any thing greater or more terrible than this noise; for there was at once a shout of the Roman Legions, who were marching all together, and a sad clamour of the seditious, who were now surrounded with fire and sword . . . the people under a great consternation, made sad moans at the calamity they were under . . . Yet was the misery itself more terrible than this disorder; for one would have thought that the hill itself, on which the Temple stood, was seething hot, as full of fire on every part of it. (Ref. 4)

• And Josephus lists the horrendous outcome:• To give a detailed account of their outrageous conduct is impossible, but we may sum it up by saying that no other city has ever endured such horrors, and no generation in history has fathered such wickedness. In the end they brought the whole Hebrew race into contempt in order to make their own impiety seem less outrageous in foreign eyes, and confessed the painful truth that they were slaves, the dregs of humanity, bastards, and outcasts of their nation.

....It is certain that when from the upper city they watched the Temple burning they did not turn a hair, though many Romans were moved to tears. (Ref. 5)• The prediction of Jesus with regard to the city and the Temple were now fulfilled:• As the flames shot into the air the Jews sent up a cry that matched the calamity and dashed to the rescue, with no thought now of saving their lives or husbanding their strength; for that which hitherto they had guarded so devotedly was disappearing before their eyes. (Ref. 6)• Jerusalem was totally destroyed and as Jesus had predicted - not one stone was left upon another. When the Temple was set on fire the Roman soldiers tore apart the stone to get the melted gold. The Menorah and vessels were carried to Rome and the treasury was robbed.

As Daniel had predicted the Temple was destroyed after the Messiah had come, not before.• Bible scholar Ray C. Stedman comments on the predictions of Jesus and their fulfillment in history a few years later,• In Luke 21:20 we have other details of this predicted overthrow of the city and the Temple. There Jesus adds, "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near." Forty years later the Roman armies under Titus came in and fulfilled the prediction to the very letter. With Titus was a Jewish historian named Josephus who recorded the terrible story in minute detail. It was one of the most ghastly sieges in all history. When the Romans came the

city was divided among three warring factions of Jews who were so at each others' throats that they paid no heed to the approach of the Romans. Thus Titus came up and surrounded the city while it was distracted by its own internecine warfare. The Romans assaulted the walls again and again, and gave every opportunity to the Jews to surrender and save their capital from destruction.•

During the long siege a terrible famine raged in the city and the bodies of the inhabitants were literally stacked like cordwood in the streets. Mothers ate their children to preserve their own strength. The toll of Jewish suffering was horrible but they would not surrender the city. Again and again they attempted to trick the Romans through guile and perfidy. When at last the walls were breached Titus tried to preserve the Temple by giving orders to his soldiers not to destroy or burn it. But the anger of the soldiers against the Jews was so intense that, maddened by the resistance they encountered, they disobeyed the order of their general and set fire to the Temple. There were great quantities of gold and silver there which had been placed in the Temple for safekeeping. This melted and ran down between the rocks and into the cracks of the stones. When the soldiers captured the Temple area, in their greed to obtain this gold and silver they took long bars and pried apart the massive stones. Thus, quite literally, not one stone was left standing upon another. The Temple itself was totally destroyed, though the wall supporting the area upon which the Temple was built was left partially intact and a portion of it remains to this day, called the Western Wall. (Ref. 2)

• A Temple Legend• Flavius Josephus also recorded a legend that sprung up about the Temple. While the Temple was on fire and there was tremendous looting, killing and rape many rushed to the Temple to die rather than become Roman slaves. When the flames leaped through the roof and the smoke had risen in thick columns one of the priests supposedly climbed to the top of the main tower. He had in his hand the key to the sanctuary. When he reached the top he cried out, "If you, Lord, no longer judge

us to be worthy to administer Your house, take back the key until You deem us worthy again." As the legend goes, a hand appeared from heaven and took the key from the priest.• A Second Exile for Israel• When the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70 the period of the second exile began. The Jewish people were soon to be scattered throughout the earth. For the next 1900 years the Jews would have no authority in the land God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. However during most of the period of this Second Exile there have always been some Jews living in Jerusalem. Although most of the nation was in exile from their land, the Jews did not forget Jerusalem or the Temple Mount. Their

daily prayer was for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. The traditional Jewish prayer book contains the following passage:• Because of our sins we were exiled from our country and banished from our land. We cannot go up as pilgrims to worship Thee, to perform our duties in Thy chosen house, the great and Holy Temple which was called by Thy name, on account of the hand that was let loose on Thy sanctuary. May it be Thy will, Lord our God and God of our fathers, merciful King, in Thy abundant love again to have mercy on us and on Thy sanctuary; rebuild it speedily and magnify its glory.• For the next two thousand years, the Temple Mount would lack any Jewish presence. The destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70 caused the beginning of the scattering of the Jews throughout the world. During this period, the Temple Mount was for the most part neglected and profaned. Though this time constituted a period of neglect some significant events concerning Jerusalem and the Temple Mount did occur. More information on this time period of Temple Mount history is given in

Tuvia Sagiv's writings.• Hadrian• In the first hundred years after the city and Temple were destroyed, there was high expectation among the Jews that they would once again return to their land and rebuild that which was devastated. The Court of 70 Elders, the Sanhedrin, was intact and many Jews still lived in small communities in Israel. Their hopes were dashed by the Emperor Hadrian when he decided to establish a new city on the ruins of Jerusalem. The Old City was plowed up to make way for the new Roman city to

be named Colonia Aelia Capitolina.• Second Jewish Revolt• Hadrian's actions, particularly his attempted to eradicate all traces of a Jewish city named Jerusalem, caused ongoing rebellion among the Jews. In response, there were large scale mass murders of Jews in Caesarea and other communities by the Romans. These murders sparked a larger rebellion led by a man named Simon Bar Kochba (A.D. 132-135). Bar Kochba rallied the people and massacred the famous 12th legion of the Roman army. Jerusalem was liberated for three years and

Rabbi Akiva proclaimed Bar Kochba as the Messiah who was to deliver the Jewish people.

The Jews proceeded to set up an independent government. Coins were struck that commemorated the "First Year of the Deliverance of Israel." One coin showed the facade of the Temple. It is possible that Bar Kochba attempted to rebuild the Temple. One later historical work (Chronicon Paschale) describes Hadrian as the one who destroyed the Temple of the Jews. The Roman historian Dio Cassius also said that Hadrian built his Temple to replace the one of the God of Israel. Some, therefore, assume that the Chronicon is not referring to the destruction of the original Temple by Titus in A.D. 70 but to a later destruction by Hadrian of a partially restored Temple built by Bar Kochba.

Within three years of Jerusalem's liberation under the Bar Kochba revolt, Rome marched against the rebels and killed Bar Kochba. The Sanhedrin officially labeled him a false Messiah and Jerusalem was again in Roman hands. Jewish Jerusalem was once again blotted out and Aelia Capitolina was built on its site as had been planned. Because the war had cost the lives of Roman heroes, the Jews were thenceforth forbidden to enter Jerusalem upon penalty of death. Hadrian attempted to destroy every connection Jerusalem had with the Jewish people. Christians of Jewish background were also excluded from the city, but gentile Christians were able to remain.

In an effort to leave no trace of the Second Temple, Hadrian erected a Temple to Jupiter Capitolinus on the site. An equestrian statue of Hadrian was also built on the site. The next Emperor, Antonius Pius (A.D. 138-161), added another statue. The Jews were only allowed to enter the city on special occasions to mourn on the Temple Mount.• Constantine and the "Christian" Roman Empire• In A.D. 324 Emperor Constantine and his mother Queen Helena were converted to Christianity. Aelia Capitolina was renamed Jerusalem and the title of "Holy City" was restored to her. It was now, however, considered the Holy City of Christianity, not the national capital of the Jews. The pagan temple Hadrian was destroyed and the church of Holy Zion was built on the Temple Mount. These conditions lasted under A.D. 362 when the Roman emperor Julian the Apostate permitted the Jews

to return.• A Plan to Rebuild• There was one occasion after the destruction of the Second Temple when the Jews were able to formulate plans to rebuild their temple. The man behind this project was the Roman Emperor, Flavius Claudius Julianus, a nephew of Constantine - also known as Julian the Apostate because of his opposition to Christianity. Julian planned the project in the last year of his reign in A.D. 363. Julian rescinded all the anti-Jewish laws that his uncle Constantine had instituted. He issued an edict that

the Temple be rebuilt in Jerusalem. This caused a great deal of excitement among the Jews. From far and wide, Jews came to Jerusalem to help in the rebuilding work. Julian supplied the necessary funds and appointed Alypius of Antioch, the Roman Governor of Great Britain, to carry out the project. Jews from all over gave from their wealth upon the projected work of rebuilding the Temple. The roads to Jerusalem were filled with multitudes of Jewish men and women who had hopes of seeing a Third Temple built.

Then sudden tragedy struck. The foundations of the Second Temple were barely uncovered when flames of fire burst forth from under the ground. The flames were accompanied by large explosions. The cause for the flames were probably the result of noxious gas in the subterranean passages catching fire. The workmen fled and the building was stopped, never again to be restarted. Many believed that the explosion and fire were a demonstration of the anger of God.

With their hopes dashed, the Jews were then driven into Exile and became wanderers in foreign lands. They were people without a homeland. For some eighteen centuries they would be dispersed and persecuted. Throughout time their thoughts were of the Temple which once stood in Jerusalem and prayers for its restoration.• Visible Remains of the Temple• From ancient records we can glean some information about visible remains of the Temple after its destruction. Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea (A.D. 260-340) testified that he could still see the remains of the sanctuary. He said that the large stone blocks were hauled away to build sanctuaries and theaters. During this period of exile the city was visited by a pilgrim known as the traveler of Bordeaux. He gave the following testimony in A.D. 333:• At the side of the Sanctuary, there is a pierced stone. Jews visit there once a year, pour oil over it, lament and weep over it, and tear their garments in token of mourning. Then they return home.• The once-a-year visit was probably on the 9th of Av, the Jewish date of the destruction of both Temples. The pierced stone, or a rock with a hollow in it, is not identified. It is assumed by some to have been the foundation stone upon which the Holy of Holies was built. In the Talmud we find a reference to the "Foundation Rock" which the Holy of Holies had rested (Yoma 5:2).

Early church father John Chrysostom wrote:• The Jews began uncovering the foundations by removing masses of earth, intending to go ahead and build ...You can see the bared foundations if you visit Jerusalem now...Some of its parts (sanctuary) are razed to the ground.• The Jews were allowed to enter the city only one day a year during this period of exile. In A.D. 392 the Christian leader Jerome wrote concerning this day:• On the anniversary of the day when the city fell and was destroyed by the Romans, there are crowds who mourn, old women and old men dressed in tatters and rags, and from the Top of the Mount of Olives this throng laments over the destruction of its Sanctuary. Still their eyes flow with tears, still their hands tremble and their hair is disheveled, but already the guards demand pay for their right to weep. (Ref. 7)• In the sixth century the Pilgrim of Piacenze mentions the ruins of the Temple of Solomon. From these accounts we can deduce that there were at least some visible remains of the Temple foundation through the sixth century.• Cursed of God?• In the early years, the Christians looked upon the Temple Mount as a place that God had cursed. As Christianity gained foothold in the Roman world the Temple Mount was left to become a desolate rubble heap. In A.D. 534, over the site of Solomon's elaborate palace, the Emperor Justinian built mighty substructures as foundations for the New Church of St. Mary. While other holy sites in Jerusalem were explored and identified, the Temple Mount was neglected.• The Scourge of Anti-Semitism• One of the tragedies of this period was the anti-Semitism that arose among the "Christians." Concerning the Jews, early Christian leader John Chrysostom falsely wrote:• They sacrificed their sons and daughters to devils: they outraged nature and overthrew their foundations the laws of relationship. They are become worse than the wild beasts, and for no reason at all, with their own hands, they murder their offspring, to worship the avenging devils who are foes of our life...They know only one thing, to satisfy their gullets, get drunk, to kill and maim one another. (Ref. 8)• Chrysostom delivered eight sermons which expressed intense hatred of the Jews. His accusations were nothing but outright lies. The purpose of these falsehoods was to keep the Christians in Antioch from having any contact with the Jews. In another act of anti-Semitism, Bishop Ambrose of Milan ordered a synagogue to be set on fire. When Emperor Theodosius demanded an explanation the Bishop wrote him back:• I declare that I have set fire to the synagogue, or at least that those who did acted on my orders, so that there would be no place where Christ is rejected . . . Moreover, the synagogue was in fact destroyed by the judgment of God. (Ref. 8)• This desecration even angered the Romans. The bishop was required to rebuild the synagogue and those who had participated in its destruction were punished.

These, and others, failed to realize that it was God who had scattered the Jewish people and that He had ultimate purposes in doing so. The Jews would be a blessing to each city in which they were scattered to be regathered by God at the right time.

• End Notes:• Special thanks to John G. Yimin (jyimin@earthlink.net) for permission to reproduce his rare David Roberts lithographs.• The abbreviations B.C. and B.C.E. and also A.D. and C.E. are used synonymously in these articles.

1. Flavius Josephus, Antiquities, 15, 403 ff.

2. Ray C. Stedman, What's This World Coming To? (An expository study of Matthew 24-26, the Olivet Discourse). Discovery Publications, 3505 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94306. 1970

3. Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, p. 303

4. Josephus, Antiquities xi. 1.2

5. Josephus, The Jewish War, p. 292

6. Josephus, ibid. p 323

7. Chrysostom's Sermons, cited J. Parkes, The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue, pp. 105-106

8. Bishop Ambrose, Eleventh letter to Theodosius as quoted by Parkes, ibid. pp. 163-164

• The Wars Of The Jews, Or The History Of The Destruction Of Jerusalem, Book V, CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF NEAR SIX MONTHS. FROM THE COMING OF TITUS TO BESIEGE JERUSALEM, TO THE GREAT EXTREMITY TO WHICH THE JEWS WERE REDUCED. (Josephus)• The Wars Of The Jews, Or The History Of The Destruction Of Jerusalem, Book VI, CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ABOUT ONE MONTH. FROM THE GREAT EXTREMITY TO WHICH THE JEWS WERE REDUCED TO THE TAKING OF JERUSALEM BY TITUS. (Josephus)• 9. Summary, Jerusalem History, from ISBE:• James the Bishop of Jerusalem (Acts 15:13; Gal. 2:9; cf. Jas. 1:1; Jude 1). The leadership of James in the Jerusalem church is indicated by his position in the Jerusalem Conference (Acts 15) and by his priority over Peter and John (Gal. 2:9). He came to be known as "James the Just," and his death in A.D. 62 by stoning is recorded in Josephus (Ant. xx.9.1 [2001). Both Josephus and Paul (Gal. 1:19) refer to him as "James the brother of Jesus" (cf. Mt. 13:55; see BROTHERS OF THE LORD).

Ananus, the high priest responsible for James's death, was deposed after a tenure of only three months (Ant. xx.9.1 [203]). According to Hegesippus (quoted in Eusebius, HE ii.23.11-18), James was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple. stoned. and clubbed to death with a fuller's club.• Population of Jerusalem. Estimates of the population of Jerusalem in the 1st cent. A.D. vary. The extreme figure, taken from Talmudic sources, is about twelve million (cf. Jeremias, p. 78). Josephus gave three million (BJ 6.14.3 [2801) or 2,700,000 (vi.9.3 [425]). These figures are based on the number of sacrificial animals at the time of Passover, averaging ten persons per animal. Josephus also gave the figures of those taken prisoner (97,000) and those killed (1,100,000) during the siege

(vi.9.3 [4201). Jeremias, working from the available area in the temple for those offering sacrifices, arrived at a figure of 180,000, of which about 55,000 were inhabitants of Jerusalem and 125,000 were pilgrims (pp. 79-83). Or again, working from the area of the city and a density of 160 persons per acre, he arrived at a figure of 55,000 to 95,000 for the population of Jerusalem, and believed that even the lower figure may be too high (p. 83 n. 24). In an additional note dated 1966 Jeremias arrived at a figure of "about 20,000 inside the city walls at the time of Jesus, and 5,000 to 10,000 outside" (p. 84). T. W. Manson, The Servant-Messiah (1953), p. 11. estimated 30,000 to 35,000.

• Destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70). After A.D. 6 Jerusalem was under Roman procurators, with the exception of the years 41-44 under Herod Agrippa 1. Judea was apparently the least desirable post in government service, and the province's procurators were among the worst Roman officials. The Jews were increasingly restive under Roman control and the procurators were increasingly violent, cruel, and dishonest. Open rebellion broke out in A.D. 66. Two years earlier Gessius Florus, the procurator, had sent his troops on a mad rampage in Jerusalem, and the extreme Zealot faction of the Jews had reacted violently. The war began when the Zealots seized Masada and then. under Menahem, marched on Jerusalem. Simultaneously Jews in the gubernatorial city of Caesarea were massacred, and news of this atrocity spread throughout the country. New coins were marked Year I through Year 5 of the revolt (A.D. 66-70). The emperor Nero dispatched Vespasian to Judea to put down the revolution; in 68 Vespasian had isolated Jerusalem and was ready to begin a siege. The empire, however, was in turmoil, with unrest in the east and revolt in the west. Nero committed suicide. Vespasian, who was acclaimed emperor in 69, left for Rome to secure his throne and gave his son Titus responsibility for ending the Jewish war.

• Titus had four legions. The Tenth had moved from Jericho to the Mt. of Olives, destroying the Qumran community on its way. The Twelfth had come from Caesarea and was encamped W of the city, along with the Fifth and Fifteenth that had come from the north. In the spring of 70 the offensive was launched. The Jewish forces were under Simon bar-Giora and Yohanan of Gush-Halab (John of Gischala), The Romans breached the third wall on the west and then the second wall, but their attempt to take Antonia failed. Titus thereupon decided on a siege, and a circumvallation was thrown up, according to Josephus almost 8 km. (5 mi.) long, built in three days (BJ v.12. If. 1491-5111). According to some scholars, the "third wall" of Sukenik and Mayer was part of this circumvallation (but see S. Ben-Arich, "The 'Third Wall' of Jerusalem," in Jerusalem Revealed, pp. 60-62). The horrors of the six-month siege are graphically told by Josephus (BJ v.12.3 [512-18]). Antonia was taken, and the Jews barricaded themselves in the temple. On 9 Ab (Aug. 5, A.D. 70) the temple was burned and the Roman soldiers carried out a campaign of slaughter along the entire east ridge. The Jews made their last stand in Herod's palace but the end was inevitable. Titus ordered the entire city razed to the ground except for the three large towers at the northwest comer. Many Jews were executed, others were carried off as slaves, the Tenth Legion was quartered in Jerusalem, and Titus held a triumphal procession in Rome in which he displayed the golden candelabra from the temple. The Arch of Titus in Rome was built to commemorate the triumph and on one of its panels is carved in high relief the scene of his soldiers carrying the candle stand.

• J. Destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 135). The Christians had fled from Jerusalem in 66, basing their action, it is said, on the Lord's words in Mt. 24:15f. They located at Pella and returned to Jerusalem later. A Jewish center of learning was established at Yavneh (Jamnia) under the leadership of Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai. The next sixty years were rather uneventful, but when the emperor Hadrian visited the province in A.D. 130 and sensed the feeling of revolt still strong in the hearts of the Jews, he decided to crush it once for all. The rigid demands he imposed touched off the War of Freedom led by Ben-Koziba (Bar Cochba) in 132. Once again Jewish coinage was minted, with years 1, 2, and 3 of the Liberation appearing on the coins. The Roman troops, led by Julius Severus, triumphed in 135. This time Hadrian made good his plan to wipe out Jewish resistance in Jerusalem by destroying the city completely, pulling down every wall and plowing the entire area. Then he built a new city named Aelia Capitolina, with a main north-south street from the location of the Damascus Gate southward, a main east-west street about where David Street is today, and a forum at the intersection of the two. Streets were laid out on a grid, not following contours as previously. Walls were built, approximately where they are located today. A temple of Jupiter was built on the site of the temple and a temple of Venus on the site of Golgotha. The city had the usual Roman structures such as a theater, a hippodrome, public baths, and an aqueduct. No Jews were allowed in the city, or even within sight of it--a condition that prevailed until the 4th century, and even then they were allowed to visit the city only on 9 Ab to bewail the destruction of the temple. Jesus' prophecy had become stark reality: Jerusalem was trodden down by the Gentiles (Lk. 21:22-24).

• K. Subsequent History of Jerusalem. 1. Byzantine Period (A.D. 324-638). Constantine made Christianity the religion of the empire. His mother Queen Helena visited Jerusalem, located many sites, and erected buildings, including the Anastasia (later the Church of the Holy Sepulcher). The Madeba Map of Jerusalem was made toward the end of the 6th century. A brief Persian conquest lasted from 614 to 629.• 2. Moslem Period (A. D. 638-1099). Caliph Omar entered Jerusalem in 638. The Dome of the Rock ("Mosque of Omar") was built by Caliph Abd el-Malik, 687-705, using Byzantine architects and craftsmen. The walls of the city had been rebuilt, following the earlier line along the Hinnorn in the south. In 975 Caliph el-Aziz rebuilt the walls, reverting to the lines of Aelia Capitolina, approximately where they are today.• 3. Crusader Period (A. D. 1099-1187). When Caliph Hakim ordered the destruction of Christian shrines in 1010, particularly when the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was destroyed, a major incentive for the Crusades was provided. This curious kind of Christianity left a mark on the religious world that has never been completely erased. Jews in the Holy Land suffered more from Crusaders than they had in 450 years of Moslem rule. Christian Arabs were slaughtered by Christian Crusaders as

"infidels." The Latin (Christian) Kingdom of Jerusalem came to an end with the conquest by Salah ed-Din (Saladin) in 1197. The unbelievable number of crusader fortresses, walls, and towers that spread across the Middle East is mute evidence of the power and wealth that was poured into this effort to wrest the Holy Land from the "infidels."• 4. Mameluke Period (A. D. 1250-1517). Jerusalem was in Christian hands for brief periods (1229-1239 and 12431244). In 1244 Jerusalem was sacked by Khwarizmian Tatars, and in 1247 the city fell to Egypt under the Ayyubids. But in 1249, Aybak, a marnluk ("owned," i.e., a former slave), began a rule that was to last for nearly three centuries. The Mamelukes were peoples brought from Russia, the Caucasus, and central Asia by the caliphs of Baghdad to serve as soldier-slaves. They had

gained great power, and Jerusalem came under that power. They rebuilt the walls, built madrasas (school-mosque compounds), and beautified the Dome of the Rock, the Haram esh-Sherif, and the city. Christians and Jews were tolerated, but taxation was excessive.• J. Ottoman-Turk Period (A.D. 1517-1917). In 1517 Selim I took Jerusalem. Suleiman I (the Magnificent) ruled from Constantinople (1520-1566) and established a well-organized empire. He erected the present walls of Jerusalem. The Damascus Gate was the pride of his structures in Jerusalem. He built or repaired aqueducts, pools, and fountains. Christians and Jews were given full freedom but had to pay a high head tax imposed on all non-Moslems, in return for which they were exempt

from military service.• 6. British Mandate (A.D. 1917-1948). When the Turks became allies of Germany in World War 1, the British, under Allenby, occupied Palestine and it became a British Mandate. Constant strife between Jews and Arabs, aggravated by the influx of Jews driven from Europe by persecution and finally by the Nazi efforts at a "final solution" (the Holocaust), caused Britain to terminate the Mandate. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations established two separate states, one Jewish and the

other Arab. When the Mandate ended on May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed and Arab opposition broke out in a war in which Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Transjordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia were allied against Israel. Armistice agreements were signed in the early months of 1949, leaving Jerusalem divided between the Jews and the Arabs, with the newly formed Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan controlling the Old City and Israel controlling the western part of the city outside the walls.

• 7 State of Israel (A.D. 1948- ). The State of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948, and on Dec. 13, 1949, Jerusalem was declared its capital -- a claim not recognized by a number of nations. On June 5, 1967, Jordan shelled the new city and the Six Day War began. When it ended, all of Jerusalem was in Israeli control. The area in front of the Western Wall (the Wailing Wall) was cleared and excavated to create a worship area. The old Jewish Quarter in the Old City was cleared of rubble and reconstruction began. Archaeological excavations were conducted in and around the Old City. The Dome of the Rock and the Haram are open to all, including Arabs of all Arab states, but pilgrims from Arab nations are rarely present, due to political and emotional forces. Christian antiquities, particularly the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, are undergoing extensive repair and beautification.

• IV. Jerusalem in Eschatology. ESCHATOLOGY is a complex subject, beset with many difficulties of interpretation that are best considered elsewhere, Here the concern is simply to note certain truths in the main outline, without attempting to fit them into a system or to use them to preview history.• A. Location of the Throne of God's Great King. From the time that it was taken by David for his throne, Jerusalem has been both a reality and an ideal. As a reality, it can be sinful, apostate, abominable, subject to God's wrath, besieged by enemies, and finally destroyed. "I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem," says the Lord (Am. 2:5). "Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded

height" (Mic. 4:1; cf. Isa. 2:2). "And when your people say, 'Why has the Lord our God done a these things to us, you shall say to them, 'As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours"' (Jer. 5:19). "They will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled" (Lk. 21:24).• Nevertheless, Jerusalem remains the hope of the world. "I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill," says the Lord (Ps. 2:6). "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King" (48: If.). "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go

forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isa. 2:3; cf. Mic. 4:1-3). Jerusalem is to be the seat of government of the wonderful counselor, the prince of peace, of whom alone it could be said, "Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and for evermore" (Isa. 9:7). "Rejoice greatly, 0 daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, 0 daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he" (Zec. 9:9).

• No matter how evil the king, no matter how sinful the people, the word of the Lord to His prophets was never a word of despair, never a message that He had given up His original plan. Through His chosen people He will work out His redemptive plan. Through His chosen king He will rule the nations in righteousness and peace.• B. Center of a Cosmic Struggle. Jerusalem is not simply the capital of a kingdom that must fight against other kingdoms of the world for survival. It is the city of God, and there is a cosmic, satanic opposition against God and against His redemptive purpose. A clear doctrine about the satanic is rarely expressed although greatly needed in the present age. Paul said it well: "For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world

rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12). Ezekiel foretold the days when the Lord will restore His people to their own land (Ezk. 36:28), when by His spirit lie will make His dead people live again (37: 11), take them from the nations and bring them to the mountains of Israel, and place one king, His servant David, over them (vv. 21f., 24).• But these restorations will not ultimately solve the problem, for opposition to God's plan and His people remains. Ezekiel portrays the opposition as Gog of the land of Magog (Ezk. 38: 1) who will go against these regathered people on the mountains of Israel (v. 8). Ezekiel makes clear that this will be no ordinary war, for this time God will not call upon Egyptians or Assyrians or Babylonians to do His work. He Himself will destroy Gog and his satanic forces (vv. 21-23). "1 will set my glory

among the nations; and all the nations shall see my judgment which I have executed, and my hand which I have laid on them," says the Lord (39:21). The author of the book of Revelation uses the same figure. After portraying war in heaven (Rev. 12:7) and the defeat of the deceiver of the whole world (v. 9), the Revelator sees a struggle on earth (v. 13), but on Mt. Zion stands the Lamb with myriads of His own (14: 1). Even after the song of triumph (19: 1- 10), however, there is still a satanic opponent to be destroyed. Satan is loosed from prison and enlists by deception the forces of Gog and Magog (20:7f.). "But fire came down from heaven and consumed them" (v. 9), and the devil and Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire (vv. 10, 14).

• C. Perfect and Eternal Dwelling Place of God. In Ezekiel's temple vision, which he carefully dated, 10 Nisan of the fourteenth year after Jerusalem was captured (= Apr. 28, 575 B.C.), the prophet saw the new temple (cf. Ezk. 40:1-4). Much of the imagery is difficult to understand, but the message is clear: "The name of the city henceforth shall be, The Lord is there" (48:35).• The book of Revelation closes with a vision of the new Jerusalem, set in the new heaven and the new earth, "coming down out of heaven from God" (Rev. 21:2). The writer heard a great voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling of God is with men" (v. 3). Death, sorrow, and pain are no more, as the prophets of old foretold, "for the former things have passed away" (v. 4). The holy city hanging down from heaven like a splendid satellite has the glory of God, which is radiant like a

rare jasper, clear as crystal (vv. 10f.). It has walls and gates; the gates bear the names of the twelve tribes of Israel and the foundations bear the names of the twelve apostles, for there is no longer any division of the people of God (vv. 22, 24). The gates shall never be shut (21:25; 22:5), either to keep out the enemy -- for the last enemy has been destroyed and nothing unclean shall enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood (21:23-27) - or to keep in the citizens, for the Ruler is not of this world. John saw no temple in the new Jerusalem, "for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb" (21:22). The temple made with hands was only a symbol of God's presence and could not, as Solomon recognized from the beginning, contain the eternal God (I K. 8:27). What need is there for a symbol when God Himself dwells in the city? There is no need of the light of the sun or the moon, for the glory of the One who created the luminaries is the light and in that light shall the nations walk. "The river of the water of life flows from the throne of God, and the tree of life grows on its banks, "and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations"

• Tisha B'Av Notes• Tuesday, July 27, 2004 is Tisha B'Av on the Jewish calendar, a day of mourning over great tragedies that befell the Jewish people on the 9th of Av throughout history. On this day, the Jews fast to commemorate five disasters that occurred in the history of the Jewish people, and with this fast end the Three Weeks of mourning between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av.• Amazingly, both the First and Second Temples were destroyed on same day on the Jewish Calendar, 656 years apart.• In 586 B.C., Solomon's Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians.• The Second Temple was razed by the Romans in A.D. 70. The destruction of the Second Temple fulfilled prophecies in Luke 19:43-44; 21:5,6 and Daniel 9:26.• Also on the 9th of Av:• The spies brought back a negative report from the Promised Land, prompting the Israelites to respond in fear rather than in faith. Because they would not trust God to take them safely into the land, they wandered in the desert for 40 years.• In A.D.130 Emperor Hadrian ordered Jerusalem to be plowed in preparation for building new pagan city, "Aelia Capitolina," on the location, fulfilling Micah 3:12 and Jeremiah 26:18. Hadrian changed the name of Judea to "Palaestina."• In A.D. 135 the Romans crushed the revolt under Shimon Bar-Kokhba at the city of Betar, the Jews' last stand against the Romans. Over 100,000 Jews were slaughtered.• Aside from these five disasters, many tragedies continued to happen to the Jewish people on the 9th of Av throughout the centuries.• On Tisha B'Av in:• 1290, King Edward I signed an edict to have all the Jews expelled from England.• 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain. (Columbus set sail that same day.)• 1555, Pope Paul IV forced the Jews in Rome into a ghetto.• 1648, The Chielminicki Massacre began, in which Cossacks killed over a quarter million Polish and Ukrainian Jews.• 1914, World War I started when Russia declared War on Germany. Germany's losses in the war set the stage for WWII and the Holocaust.• 1941, "The Final Solution" to exterminate the Jews was put into effect under SS general Reinhard Heydrich.• 1942, Jews began being deported from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp.• Tisha B'Av is observed by fasting from both food and water from sundown to sundown. The book of Lamentations is read during the day. In the morning on Tisha B'Av, Deuteronomy 4:25-40 and Jeremiah 8:13, 9:1-23 are read describing Israel's iniquity and exile and desolation, and in the afternoon the Jews read Exodus 32:11-14 and Isaiah 55-56. However, even in a time of mourning, these passages offer words of hope and future comfort.• According to tradition, while the Temple was destroyed on Tisha B'Av it will also be rebuilt on Tisha B'Av, causing the day of great mourning to be turned into a day of feasting and rejoicing (Zechariah 8:19).• Related Links:• • Tisha B'Av - Adat HaTikvat Tzion

• Tisha B'Av - The Ninth of Av - AISH.com • Fast of Tammuz 17/Tisha B'Av - Philolologos

• The Jewish Month of Av• This is the communication for the occasion of the Hebrew (lunar) month of Av (30th July-28th Aug 03).• The name "Av" means "Father", and the events associated with this momentous month all have to do with questions of parenthood, tradition and legacy. It is, as said, a momentous month, full of calamities and calamity prone -- especially on the 9th of Av - both the First and Second Temple are considered to have been destroyed on that day, and then history added the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain and key dates of the Holocaust. The 9th of Av is, and has been for centuries, a

national-religious day of mourning. If you come to Jerusalem on the night of 9th Av (6th Aug. 03) and go to her hundreds of synagogues and the magnificent promenade overlooking the Old City, you will see many groups sitting on the floor barefoot and reading the Biblical Book of Lamentation. One would think that these should be enough to make us flee from the Jewish destiny and to seek assimilation with whatever culture that has no such dire memories.• Yet Av is also a month of hope. Jewish tradition insists that the Messiah is/will be born on that day. So whoever was born on that date (including a good friend of mine and my own dear wife Tirtsah) is sure to have contended with our characteristic "Messiah Complex" (see http://www.thehope.org/mescompl.htm). Then a week later, on the full moon holiday of 15th Av is "The Feast of Love". In Biblical days the unmarried girls would borrow white dresses from each other (so not to shame

the poorer ones) and dance in the vineyards, enticing the boys. This ancient holiday has been resurrected in Israel, and is tried in many forms.• On this occasion, let me then discuss some issues of Temple Restoration, Fatherhood, and Renewed Tradition from the perspective of our ongoing work:• A New Vision of Realizing the Temple Virtually• We are developing the most innovative, yet most practical, approach to the Restoration of the Temple through the medium of "Virtual Reality". VR can allow, of course, the presentation of just any vision. But what we envision is the conversion of the entire Old City of Jerusalem into a new type of a universal "Temple of Reconciliation" that operates via computer games, and brings the many existing shrines of Jerusalem, crowned by the Dome of the Rock, to operate as coherent interfaith

interface, and supreme terrain for playing a host of spiritual development procedures. The point is that this is an entirely conflict-free course for promoting the Temple. Once the games are played and up to millions of people worldwide, of all religions, will see the benefits of this approach, it will become self-evident how to realize this vision on the ground.• Report on recent visit to the Temple Mount--Children of Abraham or "Bani Isra'il"?• The Temple Mount has been closed for visits of non-Moslems for over two years. One indication for the improvement and possible movement towards peace making is the gradual renewal of such visits. Last week I had the privilege of being the tour guide to the visit to the Temple Mount of a mixed group of peace activists (and yesterday, going on business to Tel Aviv, I missed still another one). The group I guided was made of 9 Jews and one Moslem, and that Minyan was then

completed into a sacred Dozen by two Australians (apparently Christians) who joined us on the request of the police. The initiative was by Eyal Davidoff, the leader of "The Drummers' Circle", which has been working for years (and quite successfully) to bring different groups--even conflict groups in the Balkan and Africa--into common synch by drumming together (see their website at http://www.kingdaviddrummers.com. It so happens that my article on the Dome of the Rock, published in Hebrew in Hayim Aherim Sept, 2000 [1] became a decisive event in his life, helping him to realize that his peace-making life mission is bound to the Dome of the Rock. He is now seeking the support of all concerned religious leaders to organize a gathering of a few hundreds of children of all religions, who are ill or with disabilities, right at the Dome of the Rock, representing a universal quest for healing right at the place where, traditions agree, Adam was fashioned.

• As a tour guide, I showed them the three alternative sites of the old temple and the overall structure of the Temple Mount according to our findings how the Dome of the Rock completes the pattern of the 7-walls-with-gates that characterizes the Heavenly/New Jerusalem in the Zohar[2]. We were not permitted (yet) to enter the Dome of the Rock itself, but I could show the 2nd set--gates in the walls of the Temple Mount compound that have at last opened for us and the 3rd set--the �decorative gates to the podium of the Dome of the Rock. Altogether, this was a very good visit and brought much "good energies" for additional future sacred work at the Temple Mount.

• An interesting and instructive event happened as we were about to descend from the podium and the 3rd set of gates: Eliyahu Maclain and I saw that dignified Arab, dressed like a devout Moslem with white Gallabiyeh and cap, who seemed very friendly. Eliyahu approached him, saying his regular statement that "we are all the Children of Abraham". The Moslem smiled and said: "No we are not", and then added emphatically: "We are all asses!" Seeing Eliyahu's surprise he said, "In truth, we are all Jews, the Arabs and the Israelis", implying that our mutual fighting is simply idiotic. I regret that, being so happy with his statement, I have not inquired what exactly did he mean. Going around with the statement on the "A New Vision of Peace/Reconciliation for Israel" (which I sent you last month), I countered "You actually mean we are all Bani Isra'il (Children of Israel)?" to which he responded "Exactly".

• So far, I have convinced only a couple of young Moslem Arabs in "my" theory, and had the pleasure of seeing one Sufi Sheikh arriving spontaneously to this in my presence. This was the first time that a Moslem Arab approached me with this idea without any clue on my part. So I saw this as a very good omen that the time may be arriving for the belief that we are not two people (Palestinians and Israelis) but one people (made probably of several distinct "tribes", yet joined by one identity and destiny.

• (Interestingly, some years ago I wrote a short story about former Israeli Prime Minister Begin discovering the claim that some of the "Palestinians" are descendants of the Jews who preferred to stay in this land at all costs (this story available at http://www.thehope.org/Dramapages/HEJEPLO1.htm). Now, the evidence of the most up-to-date genetic research is that the majority of the Palestinians are of Jewish origin -- 2/3 of Jewish males worldwide and 2/3 of the "Palestinian" Arabs have the same unique gene.)

• Progress on writing a play on "(Un)binding Yitzhak Rabin" (Im tirtzu en zu Agaddah)• Theater artist-director Shosh Mutsafi and I have been busy for several years now and are now approaching completion of writing the draft play. This is a theater play about the preparation of the soul of assassinated Israeli premier Yitzhaq Rabin (1922-1995) for her passage to The Other World. It is a play about passages and transitions, and in the case of Yitzhaq Rabin, of the transition from being a child of Israel to a national Father Figure. In this play, Rabin's soul meets three great

Fatherly figures: of the Patriarch Yitzhaq-Isaac, of Jesus Christ, and of the Prophet Mohammad, along with a multi-faced Mother Figure, who guide Rabin, the embodiment of the dutiful "Second Generation" children of the Founding Fathers of Israel, to become himself a father figure for a renewed Israel, for Jews and Arabs alike.• One of the passages in the play deals with the rivalry, even enmity between Rabin and Shim'on Peres, which eventually turned into trust and cooperation. This, we posit in the play, prepared Rabin for making peace even with the Arabs he used to fight with. We wanted to interview Peres about their relations, but he could not find the time. However yesterday I met the man of "Peres' Camp" who won the trust of the suspicious Rabin, and hope to learn from him and receive help for the

completion of the play and its experimental enactment.[3]• One task that was already completed is an article that is in fact a summary of my "New Israeli Genesis Exegesis" (exhibited on the site at http://www.thehope.org/newgenesis.htm). It shows the main issue of the Book of Genesis being the problematic relations between brothers, and how these problematic issue is resolved by a series of 7 stages or transitions that mirrors the structure of the 7 Days of Creation -- and how this is the Biblical "blueprint" for forming a new (and multi-faith

multi-tribe) Israel, while approached such as "We are all Human" or "We are all the Children of Abraham" are at best inadequate. This article will appear in a forthcoming (Oct 03) Hebrew book on Judaism and Psychology in the series on Contemporary Judaism of the big publisher Yedi'ot Aharonot, and will include articles of such notables as Eli Wiesel, Rabbi Adin Steinsalz, professors Giora Shoham, Moshe Idel, Mordekhay Rotenberg, Spero and a host of other social scientists. The series editors, I was told, found it to be as good as any article in this collection.

• Echoes of the "Vision of Peace/Reconciliation for Israel"• There were a fair number of comments on the Vision article sent last month, though especially when it was sent to specific additional people with a personal letter. I hope to make a report about the comments and questions. Here I shall bring just one point -- that several commentators thought that the proposal must be equivalent to the old notion of "A democratic Palestinian State" and be presented as such, or that its Jewish/Biblical style will make it unattractive for "modern" readers.

They failed to see that this is a "one state" peace plan that is specifically formulated to cohere with the images of those who control the agenda - the religious right of Jews -- and Moslems -- who are certain to block the "Two States for Two People" type drive, and whom no former peace plan could have appealed. It begins to appear that he vision may have to be formulated in several different styles and images - that are still ultimately consistent with each other -- perhaps as many as our ceremonial 12 different statements for the 12 pertinent "tribes".

• May this month bring further signs of approaching peace and redemption.• In amity,• Yitzhaq Hayut-Man

Email: yrusalem@actcom.co.il• Bibliography• F M. Abel, Geographie de In Palestine, 1 (1933), 181-84;• W. F Albright, CAH, 11/2 (3rd ed. 1975), 98-116;• R. Antiran and A. Eitan, IEI, 20 (19170), 9-17;• N. Avigad, Archaeological Discoveries in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem - Second Temple Period (19176); IEJ, 20 (1970), 1-8,129-140; 22 (1972), 193-200;• M. Avi-Yonah, IEI, 4 (1954), 239-248; Madeba Mosaic Map (1954);• M. Ben-Dov, Christian News from Israel, 26 (1978), 138142; Biblisches Reallexikon, s.v. (K. Galling);• F. J. Bliss and A. C. Dickie, Excavations at Jerusalem, 1894-1897 (1898); M. Broshi, IFJ, 24 (19174), 20-26;• BA, 40 (19177), 11-17;• C. R. Conder, City of Jerusalem (1909);• J. W. Crowfoot and G. M. FitzGerald, Excavations in the Tyropoeon Valley, Jerusalem, 1927 (1929);• G. Dalman, Jerusalem und sein Geldnde (1930); Sacred Sites and Ways: Studies in the Topography of the Gospels (1935);• EAEHL, 11, s.v. (N. Avigad, et al.); J. Germer-Durand, Topographie de l'ancienne Jirusalem des origines a Titus (1912);• R. Grafman, IEJ, 20 (19170), 60-66; E. Hamrick, BA, 40 (1977), 18-23; E. Hoade, Guide to the Holy Land (7th ed. 19173);• 0. Holtzmann, Middoth: Text, Oberseizung, und Erkldrung (1913);• J. Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus (Eng. tr. 1969);• Jerusalem Revealed, see Y. Yadin;• C. Johns, Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities of Palestine, 14 (1950), 121-190;• K. M. Kenyon, Jerusalem: Excavating 3000 Years of History (1967);• Digging Up Jerusalem (1974);• PEQ, 94 (1962), 721T.; 95 (1963), 71T.; 96 (1964), 51T.; 97 (1965), 18-20;• T. Kollek and M. Pearlman, Jerusalem, Sacred City of Mankind: A History of Forty Centuries (2nd ed. 19174);• R. A. S. Macalister and J. G. Duncan, Excavations on the Hill of Ophel. Jerusalem, 1923-1925 (1926);• W. S. McBirnie, The Search for the Tomb of Jesus (1975);• R. M. Mackowski, Jerusalem: City of Jesus (1980);• A. Mazar, IEJ, 26 (1976), 1-8; B. Mazar, Mountain of the Lord (1975);• C. Schick, PEQ (1892), 120-24; N. Shaheen, PEQ, 109 (1977), 107-112;• J. Simons, Jerusalem in the OT (1952);• G. A. Smith, Jerusalem (2 vols., 1907-1908); E. L. Sukenik and L. A. Mayer, Third Wall of Jerusalem (1930);• R Thomsen, Palestina Literatur (5 vols., 1894-1934); Y. 11;afrir, RB, 82 (1975), 501-522;• A. D. Tushingham, PEQ, 100 (1968), 109-111;• L.-H. Vincent, Underground Jerusalem: Discoveries on the Hill of Ophel, 19091911 (Eng. tr. 1911);• Jerusalem antique (1912), 1;• L.-H. Vincent and F-M. Abel, Jerusalem nouvelle (3 vols., 1914-1926);• L.-H. Vincent and A. Steve, Jerusalem de l'Ancien Testament (3 vols., 1956):• C. Warren, Underground Jerusalem (1876); C. Warren and C. R. Conder, Survey of Western Palestine: Jerusalem (1884);• R. Weill, La CW de David (2 vols., 1920, 1947);• Y. Yadin, ed., Jerusalem Revealed: Archaeology in the Holy City, 1967-1974 (1976). --Excerpt, article on Jerusalem by W. S. LASOR International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "Jerusalem" 1982 Wm B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids.• Lambert Dolphin

lambert@ldolphin.org Lambert Dolphin's Library The Temple Mount Web Site

Anti-Semitism• The Christ in Prophecy Journal• Sermons From the Holy Land: Anti-Semitism (Part 1 of 2)• Posted: 22 Sep 2014 06:00 AM PDT• By Dr. David R. Reagan• I have been to Israel 45 times, and every time my spiritual life has been enriched. I recently took a video cameraman with me and had him shoot on the fly as I led a pilgrimage group to the land. We began in Tel Aviv, and went from there to

Tiberias in the north, and then back to Jerusalem.• I hope to share some of the sermons I presented from that trip with you. As I do so, I think you'll come to understand why a person once wrote, "A pilgrimage to the Holy Land converts the Bible from black and white into Technicolor."• My second message was presented in the massive Crusader fortress of Akko, located on Israel's northern border with Lebanon.•

Supernatural Reasons Behind Anti-Semitism• What I have to share with you here is something that is not very pleasant, but I think that it should be shared because most Christians are not aware of it. The reason I'm sharing it with you at a Crusader fortress is because it directly relates

to what I'm going to talk about. I want to talk to you about Anti-Semitism• Satan hates the Jews with a passion. He hates the Jews because it was through them that God gave us the Bible and through the them God gave us the Messiah.• The Jews are the chosen people of God, and are still to this day, in the sense that they're witnesses of God. God made a promise that in the end times He would bring a great remnant of the Jews to salvation. Satan knows this promise and he

hates it. Satan is determined to kill every Jew on planet earth so that not one could ever respond to the Messiah. That's what the Holocaust was all about, and there's a greater holocaust coming.• The Hebrew Scriptures themselves say in the book of Zechariah that during the Great Tribulation two-thirds of all Jews will die by the hand of the Antichrist.• Anti-Semitism has been around throughout history, most noticeably coming from the Arabs and Atheists. I think Anti-Semitism is supernatural. Satan puts it in people's hearts to hate the Jews. I remember a few years back reading a poll of

the top ten best-selling books in Japan and five of them were virulently Anti-Semitic. They blamed all the problems of Japan on the Jews. They're aren't even enough Jews in Japan to count on one hand, yet that's the nature of Anti-Semitism.•

Anti-Semitic Church Leaders• I've done a lot of research on the subject of Anti-Semitism, so let me read to you something from an article I wrote concerning the Anti-Semitism that came from notable Church leaders.• What most Christians are unaware of is the fact that the greatest source of Anti-Semitism has always come from Christianity. In the year 100, only 70 years after the Church was established, there were already Church leaders speaking out

vehemently against the Jews and forming the Anti-Semitism that soon came to represent Christianity. For example, Justin Martyr claimed that God's covenant with Israel was no longer valid and that the Gentiles had replaced the Jews. And folks, this happened in 100 AD.

• Irenaeus in 130 declared Jews were disinherited from the grace of God. Tertullian in 155 blamed the Jews for the death of Jesus and argued they had been rejected by God.• The greatest orator of the Church in the early years was a man by the name of John Chrysostom — John the Golden Voice. This man was made a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and to this day is a saint. In 400 AD he preached a series of

sermons against the Jews, a whole series in which he stated, now I'm quoting him, "The synagogue is not only a brothel and a theater, it is also a den of robbers and a lodging place for wild beasts. Jews are murderers possessed by the Devil. Their debauchery and drunkenness gives the manners of a pig." He denied that Jews could ever receive forgiveness. He claimed it was a Christian's duty to hate and persecute the Jews. He also claimed that Jews worshiped Satan. Most people don't know this, but this man was canonized as a saint.

• Another little knows fact was that St. Augustine, who was the greatest theologian of the Roman Catholic Church, was also vehemently anti-Semitic.• In the Middle Ages this Anti-Semitism was continually fueled in many different ways. First, it was fueled by the Crusades themselves. When the Crusaders left Europe and marched toward the Holy Land, they decided that in the process they

might as well kill every Jew along the way. That way when they arrived in the Holy Land, they would be good at killing and they'd have an easier time killing the "Mohammadines" as they put it. The Crusaders slaughtered Jews all across Europe as they made their way to the Holy Land.

• One of the things the Crusaders would do is they would herd all the Jews into a synagogue, block all the doors so no one would escape, and they would set it on fire and burn the Jews alive. While they stood outside they would sing, "Fairest Lord Jesus," which was their favorite hymn, by the way. They would sing this as they crucified and martyred these people.

• The only thing that I can say on behalf of the Crusaders is that the average Crusader could not read or write, so the only thing that he knew about the Bible was what the Church had told him. And, the Church had basically told him the story of Jesus death and how the Jews had killed Jesus and how and that it was his obligation and duty to hate Jewish people. But, nonetheless, the blood on their hands was unbelievable.

• Anti-Semetism was also fueled during the Middle Ages by the Passion Plays. All throughout Europe, they would put on these plays every year at Easter time. They would have the Jews come out on the stage with big hook noses around their heads, and when they would come out on the stage, people would boo and hiss and throw things at them. The whole design of the Passion Play was not to glorify Jesus Christ, but to teach people to hate the Jews.

• Another form of Anti-Semetism were terrible myths that were spread about the Jewish people. One of the greatest ones was called the Blood Libel. This myth came out every year at Passover. The Church would say to the people, "Do you know that the Jews are going to kidnap Christians, they are going to cut their throats for blood, and they are going to use that blood in the Passover feast?" And people believed this lie.

• Another myth that was spread was that Jews would sneak into the Catholic churches and steal the wafers. It was said they'd take a knife and stab the wafers. The wafers represented the living body of Christ, so they were figuratively killing Christ again and again and again. And still, people believed this nonsense.

• The Black Plague was also used against the Jews. What's interesting is the fact that during the Black Plague, millions and millions of Europeans died, yet hardly any Jews died. The reason the Jews didn't die was because they followed the sanitary regulations that had been given to them by the Law of Moses. But, the people looking at this not knowing that and not understanding it concluded, "We're dying and the Jews are not. Therefore, Jews must be poisoning our wells. Jews must be the cause of all of this." As a result, during the Black Plague the Jews were terribly persecuted, because Christians said, "They're the cause of the Black Plague."

•In the second and last part of this sermon from the Holy Land given at the Crusader fortress of Akko, you'll be surprised to learn how much Martin Luther's teachings greatly influenced the Nazis.

regather

• Israel a Beacon of Light for the World

• Israel is a beacon of light, a source of democracy and an example to the world, Canadian Foreign Minister Rob Nicholson, on his first visit to Jerusalem, told President Reuven Rivlin.

• He said he was delighted to be in Israel because he had been interested in the country since he was a kid and had always wanted to come.

• Canada has taken a strong stance in support of the coalition and there is a continued presence of Canadian peace-keeping forces in the region, he said.

• Canada has supported Israel in the past, does so in the present, and will continue to do so in the future, Nicholson assured Rivlin.

• -www.jpost.com, 3 June 2015

• Already now, Israel indeed “is a beacon of light, a source of democracy and an example to the world.” No other country can compare. Israel is not involved in subduing other nations but is quite busy building the world’s most successful defense force—and that, in reality, for only one purpose: defense.

• But there is more. Israel will one day become a praise among all the people of the earth, “At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the LORD” (Zephaniah 3:20).

• (For more on Israel’s future, read Messianic Psalms, Item 1074.)• 6040

“cross the Jordan”

• NAU Deuteronomy 27:2 "So it shall be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which the LORD your God gives you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime

• 2 SAMUEL (17:22) Then David arose, and all the people that were with him, and they passed over the Jordan; by the morning light there lacked not one of them that was not gone over the Jordan.

cross Jordan

• NAU Numbers 32:21 and all of you armed men cross over the Jordan before the LORD until He has driven His enemies out from before Him,

• NAU Numbers 32:29 Moses said to them, "If the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben, everyone who is armed for battle, will cross with you over the Jordan in the presence of the LORD, and the land is subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession;

• NAU Numbers 32:32 "We ourselves will cross over armed in the presence of the LORD into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us across the Jordan."

• NAU Numbers 33:51 "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

• NAU Numbers 35:10 "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,• NAU Deuteronomy 2:29 just as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I cross

over the Jordan into the land which the LORD our God is giving to us.'• NAU Deuteronomy 3:25 'Let me, I pray, cross over and see the fair land that is beyond the Jordan, that good hill country

and Lebanon.'• NAU Deuteronomy 3:27 'Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes to the west and north and south and east, and

see it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan.• NAU Deuteronomy 4:21 "Now the LORD was angry with me on your account, and swore that I would not cross the

Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.• NAU Deuteronomy 4:22 "For I will die in this land, I shall not cross the Jordan, but you shall cross and take possession of

this good land.• NAU Deuteronomy 11:31 "For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is

giving you, and you shall possess it and live in it,• NAU Deuteronomy 12:10 "When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to

inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security,• NAU Deuteronomy 27:2 "So it shall be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which the LORD your God gives

you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime• NAU Deuteronomy 27:4 "So it shall be when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up on Mount Ebal, these stones, as I am

commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime.• NAU Deuteronomy 27:12 "When you cross the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon,

Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.• NAU Deuteronomy 31:2 And he said to them, "I am a hundred and twenty years old today; I am no longer able to come

and go, and the LORD has said to me, 'You shall not cross this Jordan.'• NAU Deuteronomy 31:13 "Their children, who have not known, will hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as

you live on the land which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess."• NAU Deuteronomy 32:47 "For it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life. And by this word you will prolong your

days in the land, which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess."• NAU Joshua 1:2 "Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land

which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.• NAU Joshua 1:11 "Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, saying, 'Prepare provisions for

yourselves, for within three days you are to cross this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you, to possess it.'"

• NAU Joshua 1:14 "Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but you shall cross before your brothers in battle array, all your valiant warriors, and shall help them,

• NAU Joshua 3:14 So when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before the people,

• NAU Joshua 4:5 and Joshua said to them, "Cross again to the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel.

• NAU Judges 3:28 He said to them, "Pursue them, for the LORD has given your enemies the Moabites into your hands." So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan opposite Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross.

• NAU Judges 12:5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan opposite Ephraim. And it happened when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, "Let me cross over," the men of Gilead would say to him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he said, "No,"

• NAU 2 Samuel 19:18 Then they kept crossing the ford to bring over the king's household, and to do what was good in his sight. And Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king as he was about to cross the Jordan.

• NAU 2 Samuel 19:36 "Your servant would merely cross over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king compensate me with this reward?

Genesis 25:20 Deuteronomy 26:5, Syria Syrian

• “A Turkish newspaper published video footage which it said showed security forces discovering weapons parts being sent to Syria on trucks belonging to the MIT state intelligence agency.

• Witnesses and prosecutors have alleged that MIT helped deliver arms to parts of Syria under Islamist rebel control during late 2013 and early 2014, Reuters reported, quoting a prosecutor and court testimony from gendamerie officers.

• Syria and some of Turkey’s Western allies say Ankara, in its haste to see President Bashar Assad toppled, let fighters and arms go over the border to Islamist terrorist groups in Syria.

• Ankara has denied arming Syria’s rebels or assisting hard-line Islamists. Diplomats and Turkish officials say it has in recent months imposed tighter controls on its borders.”

• -Jerusalem Post, 31 May 2015

• Arno Froese says, “Turkey would like to see Syrian President Bashar al-Assad deposed. Thus, it seems logical that Ankara would supply weapons undercover to rebels fighting the al-Assad regime.

• Israel’s relationship to Syria is documented in Genesis 25:20, “And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.” The Syrian connection is also emphasized by Moses, “And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous” (Deuteronomy 26:5). Thus, Syria still has a future in God’s plan.”

Rethinking the Widow's Mite, By John Blake, CNN

How passing the plate becomes the 'Sunday morning stickup'

• Churches have devised all sorts of ingenious ways to use guilt and distort scripture to compel people to give, some say. They call it the “Sunday morning stickup.”

• Churches have devised all sorts of ingenious ways to use guilt and distort scripture to compel people to give, some say. They call it the "Sunday morning stickup."

• Story highlights

• Pastors and churches routinely manipulate people to give, some say

• One church leader calls offerings the "Sunday morning stickup"

• Some religious leaders say tithing is not mandatory for Christians

• (CNN)David Lee had just opened his wallet for two successive offerings at a church one Sunday morning when a pastor walked onto the pulpit to pass on a request.

• "You all going to think I'm crazy, but God says give again," the pastor said.

• The congregation rose from their seats to march to the front as the church organist played a soothing melody. As they dropped off their offerings at the altar, the pastor urged them on with, "God says give everything; don't hold nothing back."

• The organist then picked up the tempo, and the pastor shouted, "God says run!" The offering ended with people surging toward the altar like music fans rushing a concert stage.

• "It was pandemonium. They weren't just giving money, but shoes, watches and diamond rings," Lee says. "There were people dropping alligator shoes on the altar."

• Were these people cheerful or gullible givers? For Lee, a church elder who spent 30 years marketing and selling church products, they were victims of the "Sunday morning stickup" -- his term for manipulative tactics pastors and churches use to get your money.

• "They bypassed their common sense," says Lee, author of "Sunday Morning Stickup," which examines church giving. "One lady took off her wedding ring and dropped it of on the altar. That's how charged the atmosphere was. People got caught up."

• People widely condemned an Atlanta megachurch pastor who asked his church to buy him a $65 million private jet. Yet there is no condemnation for countless church leaders across America who have turned the Sunday morning offering into a form of spiritual abuse, Lee and other church leader says

• Creflo Dollar, an Atlanta-based televangelist, persuaded his congregation to buy him a private jet.

• Creflo Dollar, an Atlanta-based televangelist, persuaded his congregation to buy him a private jet.

• If a pastor or church leader has ever told you that the Bible commands Christians to tithe or give 10% of their income; hit you up for multiple offerings during one service; made you march up front to give; asked you to donate to a mysterious "building fund" or give a "first-fruit" offering; or even given special recognition to big givers in your congregation, Lee and other pastors have a message for you:

• You are getting played.

• These rituals, they say, violate New Testament teachings about how and why people should give.

• Quibbling over how churches collect money may seem trivial. But the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century was sparked, in part, by outrage over how the Roman Catholic Church collected money.

• Church leaders sold everything from "indulgences" to people who wanted their sins pardoned to holy relics of dubious value. And researchers say that today's surge in "nones," or Americans who claim no religious affiliation, is driven by people who complain that religions organizations are too concerned with money and power.

• No wonder the Apostle Paul, who built the first Christian churches, refused to take money from his followers, one pastor noted. Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 9:15-18 that he would only "present the gospel free of charge." He supported himself as a tent maker.

• It was pandemonium -- they weren't' just giving money, but shoes, watches and diamond rings.

• David Lee, author of the "Sunday Morning Stickup"

• "Saint Paul refused to take money because he didn't want to be influenced by it. He wanted to be able to proclaim the gospel," says the Rev. Dave Albertson, pastor of Living Grace Lutheran Church in Maryland, who has written about the evolution of giving in the American church.

• Contemporary churches, though, are not just spiritual enterprises; they are businesses. They have budgets, staff, building repairs -- they need cash and converts. And when the cash gets tight, some go into Sunday stickup mode by deploying three tactics.

• No. 1: The myth of the mandatory tithe

• Here's a challenge for all the Bible sleuths out there: Find a New Testament passage that explicitly declares that all Christians must tithe, or give 10% of their income.

• You won't find it because it doesn't exist, says Lee.

• While Christians are commanded to be generous, there are "absolutely no references in the New Testament church of anyone ever paying tithes, '' he writes in his book "Sunday Morning Stickup."

• But mandatory tithing is the cornerstone of many churches' teaching on giving. It's not unusual for them to provide special offering slots or envelopes for tithers.

• What Lee says could virtually get him stoned in some churches.

• "That's ignorant; that's absolutely not true," says the Rev. Timothy McDonald, senior pastor of First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta.

• "Jesus never condemned tithing," says McDonald, who says he's a regular tither. "He supported tithing."

• A preacher could argue that Christians are commanded to give more than their tithes, McDonald says. He referred to the second chapter of Acts, verse 44-45, when the first Christians embraced what some might call communism by "selling their property and possessions and sharing them with all, as anyone might have need."

• "The early church, they did more than tithe," McDonald says. "They sold everything they had."

• Passing the plate, seen here in early church drawing, has become a church tradition rife with abuse, some say.

• Passing the plate, seen here in early church drawing, has become a church tradition rife with abuse, some say.

• Lee acknowledges that there are four references to tithing in the New Testament: Matthew 23:23, Luke 11:42, Luke 18:12 and Hebrews 7:4-9. But none of those passages suggest a predetermined percentage of giving for Christians, and no money exchanges hands in any of them, he says.

• Tithing is an Old Testament prescription for Jews, not a rule for Christians, he says.

• "Jesus came to release us from the law; we are no longer bound by it," Lee says. Tithing is "not required."

• It's has become such a sacred duty in some churches, though, that members can't enjoy certain benefits unless they do it, says Tyrone Jacques, a former Church of God in Christ pastor and founder of PimpPreacher.com, an online website devoted to exposing pastors who prey on congregations.

• The pastor of one church refused to eulogize a 93-year-old woman who was a member of his church for years because she had stopped tithing, Jacques says. When he called the pastor to ask why, he said the pastor replied: "Membership has its privileges." (That same pastor wouldn't return calls to CNN about the incident).

• Some churches deny nontithing members other privileges as well, Jacques says.

• "You have churches that if you cannot contribute financially you cannot be in church leadership or you can't be part of the choir," Jacques says.

• No. 2: Elevating the biggest givers

• There is no record of Jesus taking an offering. According to the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus was financially supported by a group of women who were among his earliest disciples. Yet he did prescribe rules for giving: quietly and anonymously.

• In the sixth chapter of Matthew, Jesus told his followers "do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets" when giving to the poor. He said that people should give "in secret" and should be careful "not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them."

• Go into many churches on a Sunday morning, though, and there's nothing quiet or secret about the way people give. The offering time has been transformed into theater.

• The choir stands to sing a rousing hymn. People participate in "wave offerings" by joyously wave their offering envelopes in the air. Preachers, barking out encouragement from the pulpit, exhort people to give back "God's money." The experience is communal and loud -- nothing secret about it.

• The pressure to give is enormous, Lee says. In many churches, smiling ushers beckon people to march up front to deposit their offerings. Someone who has no money to give is left to sit alone in the pew for all the church to see.

• It's give or be shamed, Lee says.

• You have churches that if you cannot contribute financially you cannot be in church leadership or you can't be part of the choir.

• Tyrone Jacques, pastor and founder of PimpPreacher.com

• "There's no scriptural model for it," he says of the ritual of marching up front. "It doesn't exist in the Bible. It's just another form of control and manipulation."

• Another form of manipulation is giving VIP treatment to a church's biggest givers.

• Jacques, founder of PreacherPimp.com, says he belonged to churches where the first rows were reserved for the biggest givers. He says he's even seen churches section off those front-row pews with velvet ropes. The message: Big givers have their privileges.

• "The most coveted area in the church is the circle around the pastor," Jacques says. "The way you get into that space, you pay to get into it. You have to pay to play."

• Paying for status is nothing new for American churches. In the 19th century, some American churches raised money by renting out pews or offering public subscription lists, says Albertson, the Lutheran pastor. Affluent people would pledge big sums to get on the lists.

• "That list would be publicized," Albertson says. "It gave you social standing."

• It still does. At one Southern California church where Albertson worked, he says, the senior pastor invited the biggest givers to stand before the church and explain how their generosity had strengthened their faith.

• "It irritated people in the congregation," Albertson says. "They picked people who were able to give a lot of money because they had decent jobs. It seemed like there was a comparison going on: We're going to value the bigger givers more than the smaller givers."

• Sometimes people are induced to give not by a person, but by a building.

• Lee says he's seen churches relentlessly goad members to donate to the construction of lavish buildings that become more of a monument to a pastor's ego than a place to worship and to serve the needy.

• "If you have a $40 million building that's filled with people who don't have life insurance and are struggling to make ends meet, the priorities are mixed up," he says.

• The Protestant Reformation was sparked, in part, by Martin Luther, the German monk pictured below, who was disgusted by the way the church handled money.

• The Protestant Reformation was sparked, in part, by Martin Luther, the German monk pictured below, who was disgusted by the way the church handled money.

• The pressure of conspicuous giving annoyed one pastor so much that he took a bold gamble. He stopped holding offerings.

• The Rev. Dennis Sawyer was pastoring a small church in the coastal town of Hammond, Oregon, when he persuaded church leaders to abandon the Sunday morning offering. He based his appeal on 1 Corinthians 16, where the Apostle Paul asked members of a church to "set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income," so that "when I come no collections will have to be made."

• Sawyer's church mounted offering boxes in the foyer and held services without offerings for six weeks. Initially, the offerings plummeted. Then something strange happened after about a month -- the offerings surged. The church membership grew as the collection plate disappeared, Sawyer says. Church members said visitors loved coming to the church, he says.

• "People wanted to come up and check out a church that didn't take the offering; it put us on the map," says Sawyer, who wrote about his experience in, "Why We Stopped Passing the Offering Plate."

• While he was successful, Sawyer hasn't been able to persuade other churches to follow his example. There are many churchgoers who prefer being pressured to give, he says.

• "There's a whole group of people who like authority and structure and people telling them what to do," Sawyer says. "They feel secure in that environment."

• No. 3: Distorting two popular scriptures

• In the language of sports, it's called a "go-to" move. Say a NBA player desperately needs to score in overtime. He will have a go-to move that always works when his team needs it.

• Pastors who are trying to raise money have two go-to scriptures: The "will a man rob God" passage from book of Malachi in the Old Testament; and the story of Jesus and the poor widow.

• But guess what? Most pastors completely distort the meaning of both stories, some say.

• Consider the "will a man rob God" from the third chapter in Malachi. The prophet declares that withholding tithes and offerings invites divine punishment because the stingy person is robbing God.

• But Jacques, editor of PimpPreacher.com, says Malachi declared that God was angry at Israel's priests, not ordinary people, for withholding offerings. The real thieves were greedy priests, but pastors have turned the scripture into a blanket condemnation of people who don't give enough, he says.

• "Unless they read the whole chapter, they won't know," Jacques says.

• Cunning pastors "scripture hop," he says, bombarding parishioners with isolated scriptures to induce them to give more.

• "If you're going to get money from people, you can't preach the whole chapter," Jacques says. "Never ever preach the whole chapter."

• Then there is the story of the Widow's Mite in Mark 12:41-44. In this story, Jesus is watching rich people throw large amounts of money into the Temple's treasury in Jerusalem when he spots a poor widow dropping "two mites," or a bronze or copper coin into the treasury. He praises the woman because he says the rich people "gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything -- all she had to live on."

• The late televangelist, Oral Roberts, once told followers that God would &quot;call him home&quot; if they didn&#39;t give more money.

• The late televangelist, Oral Roberts, once told followers that God would "call him home" if they didn't give more money.

• The message is clear right? Even if you can't pay your electric bill, God says give all you have. But Albertson, the Lutheran pastor, says that pastors often miss the story's meaning. Jesus wasn't telling people to give all they have to the church: He was condemning the financial corruption of the religious system of his day for exploiting the poor widow's generosity.

• Consider the context, he says.

• Just moments earlier in the story, Jesus had scolded religious leaders in Jerusalem for "devouring" widows' houses to maintain their social status. As he watches rich people ostentatiously drop money into the treasury, Jesus warns his disciples that the great temple would be torn down.

• "Now he watches a widow get devoured -- she is giving everything to a religious institution that he has already shown is not worthy of her," Albertson writes in an essay, "Rethinking the Widow's Mite.

• "This is not a heartwarming story of a generous giver," he says. "This is a heartbreaking story of exploitation."

• Some pastors don't just distort a scriptural passage. They misuse scriptural phrases -- such as the "first fruit offering."

• First fruit offerings were agricultural offerings that the Israelites gave to God in the Old Testament, says Lee, of "Sunday Morning Stickup." Yet some pastors invoke that phrase to tell people that God commands them to give the "first fruits" of their financial bounty, which could mean someone giving everything from the first check of the year to the first check one received after a job promotion.

• "It's a misapplication of scripture," Lee says. "They encourage individuals that before they pay their bills, before they buy their groceries or do anything with their finances, many of them say 'You have to take care of God first.' ''

• If pastors and churches are so cunning when asking for money, what can stop the manipulation? One pastor says technology may be the answer.

• The collection plate, the symbol of the offering, is going the way of VHS videos.

• The church is on the verge of a digital revolution in giving, says Albertson, the Lutheran pastor. More people are donating through online bank accounts and credit card swipes, he wrote in an essay, "What Will the End of the Offering Plate Mean for Christian Worship."

• "Nobody carries money in their wallets anymore," Albertson says. "There's a big movement up ahead of shifting over to various online giving platforms and digital platforms."

• Still, Albertson is not so sure that this digital revolution will end the practice of pastors shaking down congregations for money.

• "Religious leaders will find a way to use guilt somehow," he says.

• Some say that using guilt isn't bad. Shouldn't people be shamed if they're not generous? But how and why someone should be generous -- perhaps that's ultimately up to the person in the pew.

• So when the organist hits those celestial chords to signal offering time or a smiling usher beckons you out of your pew, ask yourself:

• Am I about to freely give -- or is this a Sunday morning stickup?

Creflo Dollar, an Atlanta-based televangelist, persuaded his congregation to buy him a private jet.

Who did Cain and Abel marry?compass.org

• Adam and Eve were created perfect and their off-spring would have had few, if any, genetic abnormalities. Problems with mutations in DNA or diseases would have been virtually non-existant. We also know that people were multiplying like rabbits on the earth in the first generations: "So the LORD said to him, "Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold." And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, lest anyone finding him should slay him." Gen 4:15"And Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city and called the name of the city Enoch" Gen 4:17

• Therefore marriage between the children of Adam and Eve, Cain and Able's brothers and sisters, would be normal, common and without genetic defects.

• Then the days of Adam after he became the • father of Seth were eight hundred years, and • he had other sons and daughters. Gen 5:4 • Marriage to a sister or brother in the first generations of the human race was not considered sinful. God's later

instructions to Moses forbid marriage to close relatives as time and sin marched onward."The nakedness of your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether born at home or born outside, their nakedness you shall not uncover." Lev 18:9

• "Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or of his mother." Deut. 27:2

Deuteronomy 27:22 Who Did Cain And Abel Marry?

• Who did

• Cain and Abel marry?

• Adam and Eve were created perfect and their off-spring would have had few, if any, genetic abnormalities. Problems with mutations in DNA or diseases would have been virtually non-existant.

• We also know that people were multiplying like rabbits on the earth in the first generations:

"So the LORD said to him, "Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold." And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, lest anyone finding him should slay him." Gen 4:15

•"And Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city and called the name of the city Enoch" Gen 4:17

• • Therefore marriage between the children of Adam and Eve, Cain and Able's brothers and sisters, would be normal, common and without genetic defects. • • Then the days of Adam after he became the • father of Seth were eight hundred years, and • he had other sons and daughters. Gen 5:4 •

Marriage to a sister or brother in the first generations of the human race was not considered sinful. God's later instructions to Moses forbid marriage to close relatives as time and sin marched onward.

"The nakedness of your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether born at home or born outside, their nakedness you shall not uncover." Lev 18:9

• • "Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the • daughter of his father or of his mother." • Deut. 27:2•

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