Below is how the website look when I used to do a booktable with different people between 99'- 02'. I became busy with other outreaches, which my time doing the booktable ended. Now, I'm using this website more of an outreach tool.
"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." -Mark 16:15"
"Basics of Archaeology. The Basics of Archaeology. Randall Niles goes on a journey from Treasure Hunting to Soft Science. Visit http://www.allaboutthejourney.org/biblical-archaeology.htm to dig further into the basics of archaeology and what the latest finds are revealing about the Bible. Also, go to www.RandallNiles.com/videos.htm to watch more videos surrounding the basics of biblical archaeology!"
Many still don't believe the facts behind the Bible, so I tell them about the archaeological findings:
Historical Time Lining of Biblical Phenomena: Part Two
"Historical lining up the Bible with historical and scientific events and studies may be crucial to keeping the next generation focused on the Word of Truth, after all the Bible could be accurate, but if taught poorly could lead people astray. We align the events for the first time ever"
*see Solomon Series
-Arc of the Covenant
Arc of the Covenant - Tabernacle - Holy of Holies - BVM 1/3
"The Tabernacle is known in Hebrew as the Mishkan ( משכן "Place of [Divine] dwelling"). It was to be a portable central place of worship for the Hebrews from the time they left ancient Egypt following the Exodus, through the time of the Book of Judges when they were engaged in conquering the land of Canaan, until the time its elements were made part of the final Temple in Jerusalem about the 10th century BC."
Related Links:
Ethiopian Orthodox church has Ark of Covenant PART 1.
"Must see this documentary video if you want to know how the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo church has the Ark of Covenant and Ten Commandments. The Digging for the truth shows the search for the Arc of the Covenant and how history links the findings to Ethiopia. "
""The creators of JAWS and STAR WARS now bring you the ultimate hero in the ultimate adventure". The classic first adventure of Indiana Jones, directed by Steven Spielberg, executive-produced by George Lucas. Starring Harrison Ford and Karen Allen. [Downloaded from www.movie-list.com] "
Mountain Of Fire - The Search For The True Mount Sinai (Part 1)
"The exact location of Mount Sinai has eluded archaeologists and theologians for centuries. It is the mountain of legend chronicled in the book of Exodus; the mountain where Moses saw the glory of the God of the Hebrews, where he fell to his knees in fear before a burning bush, and where he received the stone tablets containing the Holy Law etched by the finger of God.
Tradition has placed this holy mountain squarely in the middle of the Egyptian Sinai peninsula, but two unlikely teams of adventurers believe differently.
MOUNTAIN OF FIRE: The Search For The True Mount Sinai is their remarkable story, a journey that leads them on a dangerous mission to the barren deserts of Saudi Arabia, and to a mysterious blackened peak, surrounded by high barbed wire fences, patrolled by armed guards. Their startling evidence, smuggled out of Saudi Arabia at great risk, will shock the world and rewrite history. "
*see GoodnewsEverybody.com Middle Eastern-Saudis of Saudi Arabia & GoodnewsEverybody.com African-Middle Eastern: Egyptian of Egypt Outreach
JERUSALEM -" Jerusalem's mayor has asked the Turkish government to return a 2,700-year-old tablet uncovered in an ancient subterranean passage in the city, sugggesting that it could be a "gesture of goodwill" between allies.
Known as the Siloam inscription, the tablet was found in a tunnel hewed to channel water from a spring outside Jerusalem's walls into the city around 700 B.C. � a project mentioned in the Old Testament's Book of Chronicles. It was discovered in 1880 and taken by the Holy Land's Ottoman rulers to Istanbul, where it is now in the collection of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.
Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski made the request in a Thursday meeting with Turkey's ambassador to Israel, Namik Tan, Lupolianski spokesman Gidi Schmerling said Friday. Lupolianski suggested the tablet's return could be a "gesture of goodwill" from Turkey, Schmerling said Friday.
Turkey and Israel are close regional allies.
An official at Turkey's embassy in Israel said the request would be passed on to the Turkish government. A transfer of ownership was unlikely, the official said, but Turkey would look into lending the tablet to Israel or creating a replica. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as required by embassy regulations.
In the Bible's account, the Siloam water tunnel was constructed by King Hezekiah to solve one of ancient Jerusalem's most pressing problems � its most important water source, the Siloam spring, was outside the city walls and vulnerable to the kingdom's Assyrian enemies.
The tunnel, around 500 yards long, was hollowed out of the bedrock by two teams of diggers starting from each end, according to the tablet, which was installed to celebrate the moment the two teams met underground, "pickax to pickax."
"When there were only three cubits more to cut through, the men were heard calling from one side to the other," the Hebrew inscription recounts.
The tunnel and spring are located in what is today the east Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Silwan, controlled by Israel since 1967.
Alien Skulls - Giant Skeletons and Megaliths
"Documentary on strange archealogical finds and alleged large skeletons that have been found around the world. Some of the skulls can be explained by a binding of the head or various skeletal bone diseases, but others like the starchild skull and the horned skulls certainly can not. This docu is more evidence for advanced civilizations or ancient aliens than giants, but its an interesting perspective none-the-less."
*see GoodnewsEverybody: Science-Astronomy
"..The fallen walls
The citizens of Jericho were well prepared for a siege. A copious spring which provided water for ancient, as well as modern, Jericho lay inside the city walls. At the time of the attack, the harvest had just been taken in (Joshua 3:15), so the citizens had an abundant supply of food. This has been borne out by many large jars full of grain found in the Canaanite homes by John Garstang in his excavation in the 1930s and also by Kenyon. With a plentiful food supply and ample water, the inhabitants of Jericho could have held out for perhaps several years.
After the seventh trip around the city on the seventh day, Scripture tells us that the wall ‘fell down flat’ (Joshua 6:20). The Hebrew here carries the suggestion that it ‘fell beneath itself.’5 Is there evidence for such an event at Jericho? It turns out that there is ample evidence that the mudbrick city wall collapsed and was deposited at the base of the stone retaining wall at the time the city met its end.
Kenyon’s work was the most detailed. On the west side of the tell, at the base of the retaining, or revetment, wall, she found,
‘fallen red bricks piling nearly to the top of the revetment. These probably came from the wall on the summit of the bank [and/or] … the brickwork above the revetment.’6
In other words, she found a heap of bricks from the fallen city walls! An Italian team excavating at the southern end of the mound in 1997 found exactly the same thing.
Artist reconstruction of the north side of Jericho
Artist's reconstruction of the north side of ancient Jericho, based on the German excavations of 1907-1909. Note the houses built against the mud brick city wall, which rests on top of the stone retaining wall. The Bible says that Rahab's house was built against the city wall (Joshua 2:15).
According to the Bible, Rahab’s house was incorporated into the fortification system (Joshua 2:15). If the walls fell, how was her house spared? As you recall, the spies had instructed Rahab to bring her family into her house and they would be rescued. When the Israelites stormed the city, Rahab and her family were saved as promised (Joshua 2:12–21; 6:17, 22–23). At the north end of the tell of Jericho, archaeologists made some astounding discoveries that seem to relate to Rahab.
The German excavation of 1907–1909 found that on the north a short stretch of the lower city wall did not fall as everywhere else. A portion of that mudbrick wall was still standing to a height of over two meters (eight feet).4 What is more, there were houses built against the wall! It is quite possible that this is where Rahab’s house was.7 Since the city wall formed the back wall of the houses, the spies could have readily escaped. From this location on the north side of the city it was only a short distance to the hills of the Judean wilderness where the spies hid for three days (Joshua 2:16, 22). Real estate values must have been low here, since the houses were positioned on the embankment between the upper and lower city walls. Not the best place to live in time of war! This area was no doubt the overflow from the upper city and the poor part of town, perhaps even a slum district.
After the city walls fell, how did the Israelites surmount the four to five meter (12–15 foot) high retaining wall at the base of the tell? Excavations have shown that the bricks from the collapsed walls formed a ramp against the retaining wall so that the Israelites could merely climb up over the top. The Bible is very precise in its description of how the Israelites entered the city: ‘the people went up into the city, every man straight before him [i.e., straight up and over],’ (Joshua 6:20). The Israelites had to go up, and that is what archaeology has revealed. They had to go from ground level at the base of the tell to the top of the rampart in order to enter the city."
Destruction by fire
The Israelites burned the city and everything in it (Joshua 6:24). Once again, the discoveries of archaeology have verified the truth of this record. A portion of the city destroyed by the Israelites was excavated on the east side of the tell. Wherever the archaeologists reached this level they found a layer of burned ash and debris about one meter (three feet) thick. Kenyon described the massive devastation as follows.
‘The destruction was complete. Walls and floors were blackened or reddened by fire, and every room was filled with fallen bricks, timbers, and household utensils; in most rooms the fallen debris was heavily burnt, but the collapse of the walls of the eastern rooms seems to have taken place before they were affected by the fire.’8
Both Garstang and Kenyon found many storage jars full of grain that had been caught in the fiery destruction. This is a unique find in the annals of archaeology. Grain was valuable, not only as a source of food, but also as a commodity which could be bartered. Under normal circumstances, valuables such as grain would have been plundered by the conquerors. Why was the grain left at Jericho? The Bible provides the answer. Joshua commanded the Israelites that the city and all that is in it were to be dedicated to the Lord (Joshua 6:17, lit. Heb.).
Dr Wood at southern end of Jericho
Dr Wood stands at the base of the stone retaining wall uncovered by Italian archaeologists at the southern end of Jericho in 1997. The Israelites marched around this wall when they attacked the city as described in Joshua 6.
The grain left at Jericho and found by archaeologists in modern times gives graphic testimony to the obedience of the Israelites nearly three-and-a-half millennia ago. Only Achan disobeyed, leading to the debacle at Ai described in Joshua 7.
Such a large quantity of grain left untouched gives silent testimony to the truth of yet another aspect of the biblical account. A heavily fortified city with an abundant supply of food and water would normally take many months, even years, to subdue. The Bible says that Jericho fell after only seven days. The jars found in the ruins of Jericho were full, showing that the siege was short since the people inside the walls consumed very little of the grain.
Lessons of Jericho
Jericho was once thought to be a ‘Bible problem’ because of the seeming disagreement between archaeology and the Bible. When the archaeology is correctly interpreted, however, just the opposite is the case. The archaeological evidence supports the historical accuracy of the biblical account in every detail. Every aspect of the story that could possibly be verified by the findings of archaeology is, in fact, verified.
There are many ideas as to how the walls of Jericho came down. Both Garstang and Kenyon found evidence of earthquake activity at the time the city met its end. If God did use an earthquake to accomplish His purposes that day, it was still a miracle since it happened at precisely the right moment, and was manifested in such a way as to protect Rahab’s house. No matter what agency God used, it was ultimately He who, through the faith of the Israelites, brought the walls down. After the people had marched around them for seven days, it was ‘by faith the walls of Jericho fell down’ (Hebrews 11:30).
As well as showing us how vital it is not to discount the Bible because of some apparent conflict with secular scholarship, Jericho is a wonderful spiritual lesson for God’s people yet today. There are times when we find ourselves facing enormous ‘walls’ that are impossible to break down by human strength. If we put our faith in God and follow His commandments, He will perform ‘great and mighty things’ (Jeremiah 33:3) and give us the victory.
Jericho and Archaeology, by Dr. Bryant Wood
"..http://www.biblearchaeology.org/
Uploaded with explicit permission of Dr. Bryan Wood, who was doing a lecture tour in the Salt Lake Valley.
See more professionally done video on the subject of Jericho here:
http://mormonchallenge.com/jerichoune.....
*see GoodnewsEverybody.com Science: Geology
Walls of Jericho, The Walls of Jericho
Non-Technical - Jun 09, 2008 - by Bryant G. Wood PhD
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from biblearchaeology.org
"...
Excerpt Jericho was once thought to be a "Bible problem" because of the seeming disagreement between archaeology and the Bible. When the archaeology is correctly interpreted, however, the opposite is the case. The archaeological evidence supports the historical accuracy of the Biblical account in every detail. Every aspect of the story that could possibly be verified by the findings of archaeology is, in fact, verified... Continue reading...
"..After the city walls fell, how could the Israelites surmount the 12–15 foot high retaining wall at the base of the tell? Excavations have shown that the bricks from the collapsed walls fell in such a way as to form a ramp against the retaining wall. The Israelites could merely climb up over the pile of rubble, up the embankment, and enter the city. The Bible is very precise in its description of how the Israelites entered the city: "The people went up into the city, every man straight before him" (Jos 6:20, KJV). The Israelites had to go up, and that is what archaeology has revealed. They had to go from ground level at the base of the tell to the top of the rampart in order to enter the city.
..
"TEL EL-SAFI, Israel (AP) — At the remains of an ancient metropolis in southern Israel, archaeologists are piecing together the history of a people remembered chiefly as the bad guys of the Hebrew Bible.
The city of Gath, where the annual digging season began this week, is helping scholars paint a more nuanced portrait of the Philistines, who appear in the biblical story as the perennial enemies of the Israelites.
Close to three millennia ago, Gath was on the frontier between the Philistines, who occupied the Mediterranean coastal plain, and the Israelites, who controlled the inland hills. The city's most famous resident, according to the Book of Samuel, was Goliath — the giant warrior improbably felled by the young shepherd David and his sling.
The Philistines "are the ultimate other, almost, in the biblical story," said Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University, the archaeologist in charge of the excavation.
The latest summer excavation season began this past week, with 100 diggers from Canada, South Korea, the United States and elsewhere, adding to the wealth of relics found at the site since Maier's project began in 1996.
In a square hole, several Philistine jugs nearly 3,000 years old were emerging from the soil. One painted shard just unearthed had a rust-red frame and a black spiral: a decoration common in ancient Greek art and a hint to the Philistines' origins in the Aegean.
The Philistines arrived by sea from the area of modern-day Greece around 1200 B.C. They went on to rule major ports at Ashkelon and Ashdod, now cities in Israel, and at Gaza, now part of the Palestinian territory known as the Gaza Strip.
At Gath, they settled on a site that had been inhabited since prehistoric times. Digs like this one have shown that though they adopted aspects of local culture, they did not forget their roots. Even five centuries after their arrival, for example, they were still worshipping gods with Greek names.
Archaeologists have found that the Philistine diet leaned heavily on grass pea lentils, an Aegean staple. Ancient bones discarded at the site show that they also ate pigs and dogs, unlike the neighboring Israelites, who deemed those animals unclean — restrictions that still exist in Jewish dietary law.
Diggers at Gath have also uncovered traces of a destruction of the city in the 9th century B.C., including a ditch and embankment built around the city by a besieging army — still visible as a dark line running across the surrounding hills.
The razing of Gath at that time appears to have been the work of the Aramean king Hazael in 830 B.C., an incident mentioned in the Book of Kings.
Gath's importance is that the "wonderful assemblage of material culture" uncovered there sheds light on how the Philistines lived in the 10th and 9th centuries B.C., said Seymour Gitin, director of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem and an expert on the Philistines.
That would include the era of the kingdom ruled from Jerusalem by David and Solomon, if such a kingdom existed as described in the Bible. Other Philistine sites have provided archaeologists with information about earlier and later times but not much from that key period.
"Gath fills a very important gap in our understanding of Philistine history," Gitin said.
In 604 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded and put the Philistines' cities to the sword. There is no remnant of them after that.
Crusaders arriving from Europe in 1099 built a fortress on the remains of Gath, and later the site became home to an Arab village, Tel el-Safi, which emptied during the war surrounding Israel's creation in 1948. Today Gath is in a national park.
An Israeli town founded in 1955 several miles to the south, Kiryat Gat, was named after Gath based on a misidentification of a different ruin as the Philistine city.
The memory of the Philistines — or a somewhat one-sided version — was preserved in the Hebrew Bible.
The hero Samson, who married a Philistine woman, skirmished with them repeatedly before being betrayed and taken, blinded and bound, to their temple at Gaza. There, the story goes, he broke free and shattered two support pillars, bringing the temple down and killing everyone inside, including himself.
One intriguing find at Gath is the remains of a large structure, possibly a temple, with two pillars. Maeir has suggested that this might have been a known design element in Philistine temple architecture when it was written into the Samson story.
Diggers at Gath have also found shards preserving names similar to Goliath — an Indo-European name, not a Semitic one of the kind that would have been used by the local Canaanites or Israelites. These finds show the Philistines indeed used such names and suggest that this detail, too, might be drawn from an accurate picture of their society.
The findings at the site support the idea that the Goliath story faithfully reflects something of the geopolitical reality of the period, Maeir said — the often violent interaction of the powerful Philistines of Gath with the kings of Jerusalem in the frontier zone between them.
"It doesn't mean that we're one day going to find a skull with a hole in its head from the stone that David slung at him, but it nevertheless tells that this reflects a cultural milieu that was actually there at the time," Maeir said.
(This version CORRECTS in paragraph 3 that it was a 'sling,' not 'slingshot' used by David.)"
-400 Years between Old and New
*inspired to search more after attending a Men's Retreat in Dec. 3rd-4th 10'
"At the close of the book of Malachi in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel is back again in the land of Palestine after the Babylonian captivity, but they are under the domination of the great world power of that day, Persia and the Medio-Persian empire. In Jerusalem, the temple had been restored, although it was a much smaller building man the one that Solomon had built and decorated in such marvelous glory.
Within the temple the line of Aaronic priests was still worshiping and carrying on the sacred rites as they had been ordered to do by the law of Moses. There was a direct line of descendancy in the priesthood that could be traced back to Aaron.
But the royal line of David had fallen on evil days. The people knew who the rightful successor to David was, and in the book of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, his name is given to us. It was Zerubbabel, the royal prince, yet there was no king on the throne of Israel, they were a puppet nation, under the domination of Persia. Nevertheless, although they were beset with weakness and formalism as the prophets have shown us, the people were united. There were no political schisms or factions among them, nor were they divided into groups or parties.
Now when you open the New Testament to the book of Matthew, you discover an entirely different atmosphere—almost a different world. Rome is now the dominant power of the earth. The Roman legions have spread throughout the length and breadth of the civilized world. The center of power has shifted from the East to the West, to Rome.
Palestine is still a puppet state—the Jews never did regain their own sovereignty—but now there is a king on the throne. But this king is the descendant of Esau instead of Jacob, and his name is Herod the Great. Furthermore, the high priests who now sit in the seat of religious authority in the nation are no longer from the line of Aaron. They cannot trace their descendancy back, rather, they are hired priests to whom the office is sold as political patronage.
The temple is still the center of Jewish worship, although the building has been partially destroyed and rebuilt about a half-dozen times since the close of the Old Testament. But now me synagogues that have sprung up in every Jewish city seem to be the center of Jewish life even more than the temple.
At this time the people of Israel were split into three major parties. Two of them, the Pharisees and Sadducees, were much more prominent than the third. The smaller group, the Essenes ,could hardly be designated as a party. Not long ago, however, they came into great prominence in our time and took on new significance because they had stowed away some documents in caves overlooking the Dead Sea ---documents which were brought to light again by the accidental discovery of an Arab shepherd boy and are known as the Dead Sea scrolls.
..
"..We now have dramatic evidence that the key prophecies contained in todays Old Testament are the same prophecies that existed prior to the time Jesus walked this earth. There was no contrivance after-the-fact There was no conspiracy of religious zealots Simply, Jesus Christ fulfilled the requirements of the Jewish Messiah!
The Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem is displaying the Great Isaiah Scroll as its central artifact. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Israel, please go to the Shrine of the Book.
Visit http://www.AllAboutTheJourney.org/wha... to understand why the Dead Sea Scrolls have been called the greatest manuscript discovery of modern times.
Also, go to http://www.RandallNiles.com/videos.htm to watch more videos about the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls!..
"..The original exhibtion included nearly 100 objects: scroll fragments, artifacts from the Qumran site, and books and illustrations from the Library of Congress' collections. The online exhibit includes images of 12 scroll fragments and 29 other objects lo aned by the Israel Antiquities Authority for this exhibition...
Israel Unveils Part of Dead Sea Scrolls
"Visitors to the Jerusalem conference had the privilege of being able to look at a segment of a unique ancient Dead Sea scroll of Psalms. Historians believe the document was written or copied in Israel between 250 BC and 68 AD. (May 14)"
"The Shrine of the Book, at the Israel Museum, hosts one of the most valued treasures of the Jewish People: the Dead Sea Scrolls. These texts, the most ancient Hebrew scripts ever found, include books of the Bible and writings that shed light on Jewish life back to the times of the destruction of the Second Temple and the Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans. Two thousand years after they were written by members of the sect of the Essenes, the Dead Sea Scrolls were found here in Qumran, located in the Judean Desert, north of the Dead Sea. Infolive.tv visited Qumran and brings you the story.12/16/08"
Judaism, Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls
"The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has revolutionized our picture of the early history of Judaism and of the Jewish background of early Christianity. With the completion of the publication of the entire scrolls collection, it is now possible to draw significant conclusions from this treasure trove of ancient documents. This illustrated lecture by Professor Lawrence Schiffman will discuss the discovery of the scrolls, the archaeology of Qumran where the scrolls were unearthed, the nature of the library, and its significance for the study of Judaism, Christianity and their common destiny. Series: Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies [1/2003] [Humanities] [Show ID: 7032]"
1.The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in eleven caves along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea between the years 1947 and 1956. The area is 13 miles east of Jerusalem and is 1300 feet below sea level. The mostly fragmented texts, are numbered according to the cave that they came out of. They have been called the greatest manuscript discovery of modern times. See a Dead Sea Scroll Jar.
...
"25. The Dead Sea Scrolls enhance our knowledge of both Judaism and Christianity. They represent a non-rabbinic form of Judaism and provide a wealth of comparative material for New Testament scholars, including many important parallels to the Jesus movement. They show Christianity to be rooted in Judaism and have been called the evolutionary link between the two."
"Rare inscriptions on a 2,000-year-old burial box may provide fresh insight to the death of Jesus Christ, researchers said.
Called an ossuary, the limestone box could reveal the home of Caiaphas, the high priest involved in the crucifixion of Jesus. The Israel Antiquities Authority, which confiscated the ossuary from looters three years ago, passed it along to Prof. Yuval Goren of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Archaeology who led the authentication effort.
"Beyond any reasonable doubt, the inscription is authentic," Goren said, after conducting a thorough examination of the limestone box, which boasts decorative rosettes in addition to the inscription.
Goren’s findings mean the unusually descriptive inscription sheds light on one of the men behind Jesus’ death. The full inscription reads: "Miriam daughter of Yeshua son of Caiaphus, priest of Maaziah from Beth Imri," naming the deceased within the context of three generations and a potential location.
The Maaziah refers to a clan that was the last mentioned order of 24 orders of high priests during the second temple period, Goren explained. While there are some records of the clan in Talmudic sources that detail their lives after they spread into the Galilee in 70 AD, the reference to Beit Imri gives new insight into the family's location prior to their migration.
Though it is possible that Beit Imri refers to another priestly order, the researchers said, it more probably refers to a geographical location, likely that of Caiaphus' family's village of origin.
The ossuary is thought to come from a burial site in the Valley of Elah, southwest of Jerusalem, the legendary location of the battle between David and Goliath. Beit Imri was probably located on the slopes of Mount Hebron.
It’s not the first time ossuaries have made the news. An inscription discovered recently claiming an ossuary's inhabitant to be James son of Joseph, the brother of Jesus. That revelation made headlines in 2002 -- only to be revealed to be a hoax.
Goren is convinced this one is real -- and he has science on his side.
"When a rock is deposited in the ground for millennia, it is affected by the surrounding environment and affects the surrounding environment," he noted.
Processes such as erosion by acidic ground water and the accumulation of calcareous or siliceous coatings, biological activity such as the development of bacteria, algae, lichens, and the nearby activity of flora and fauna lead to a coating of the stone. Most of these features are impossible to replicate in the lab.
Prof. Goren's finding is reported in the Israel Exploration Journal.
"
"BEIT SAHOUR, West Bank (Reuters) – An Israeli archaeologist said on Wednesday he had unearthed what he believed were the 2,000-year-old remains of two tombs which had held a wife and daughter-in-law of the biblical King Herod....
The Gospel of Matthew says Herod ordered the "Massacre of the Innocents," the killing of male infants in Jesus' birthplace of Bethlehem, out of fear of losing his throne."
*see GoodnewsEverybody: Issues-Abortion
"PAMUKKALE, TURKEY (ANS) -- A team of Italian archaeologists has announced the discovery here of what they believe to be the tomb of Philip, one of Jesus' 12 apostles, at the ancient Asia Minor city of Hierapolis in Turkey's Aegean province of Denizli, and are planning to excavate the unopened grave soon.
The discovery of the grave of the New Testament saint, who came to Hierapolis - known today as Pamukkale - nearly 2,000 years ago to spread the Gospel and was crucified upside down by the Romans, will attract immense attention around the world, said excavator Francesco D'Andria, director of the Institute of Archaeological Heritage, Monuments and Sites at Italy's National Research Council in Lecce.
Philip's tomb has traditionally been associated with the martyrium church built at the site, though no evidence of the ancient burial was ever found. In July, however, D'Andria and his team located a smaller church less than 150 feet away from the martyrium that appears to contain the grave of the apostle. ...
"BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY FOR KIDS. THIS IS 1 OF 4 WAYS TO PROVE THAT THE BIBLE IS REAL HISTORY, IE: ARCHAEOLOGY.....EXPLORE THE EVIDENCE TO PROVES THE BIBLE IS REAL THROUGH THE MANY INFALLIABLE PROOFS IN THIS GOOD KIDS VIDEO......"
I've been wondering about recent Christian movements or "revivals", so I decided to do some research (Tuesday, October 12th of 2004):
-Jesus Movement in the 1970's
I first heard of this from folks at my local church when I was growing in my early stages as a Christian (personal story) in college (95'-99'). I had a recent (summer of 04') conversation with Wayne, who was part of this movement in the 1970's in Duluth, MN as a graduate student. This conversation came about after he shared with me after a weekly Tuesday morning prayer. Wayne just came back from a weekend vacation in Duluth celebrating a reunion of peers/friends/classmates of the Jesus Movement at UMD in the 1970's. Here are some links I found:
"Why did the Republic of Both Nations fall? The answer can be found right now and right here: in Washington D.C. It is hard to overlook corruption of the rich, legalized bribery, (nicknamed "lobbying"), demoralization of politicians shamelessly selling American secrets to foreign governments as soon as they resign from their office. Anyone can see growing divisions between poor and rich, white and black, native and alien... as well as growing national debt, inadequacy and incompetence of politicians, loss of influence and power on the world arena, decline in quality of life of an average citizen, social unrest. The list can go on and on... That is only one side of the coin. The Republic had also one important legal flaw, that turned against its' creators. "Liberum veto" - a constitutional amendment that was designed originally to protect democracy and individual freedom. It was supposed to assure that no law could be passed in the parliament unless there is total consensus, i.e. each representative had a power of veto. As a result, there was no laws passed in the last two hundred years ofthe Republic..." Dollar's Fall Collapses the American Empire; Bring Those 737 Overseas Military Bases Home!
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS November 7, 2007 (counterpunch.com) "..Meanwhile, American economists continue to preach that offshoring is good for the US economy and that Bush's war spending is keeping the economy going. The practitioners of supply and demand have yet to figure out that the dollar's supply is sinking the dollar's price and along with it American power...
Perhaps the answer lies in those 737 overseas bases. If those bases were brought home and shared among the 50 states, each state would gain 15 new military bases.
Imagine what this would mean: The end of the housing slump. A reduction in the trade deficit..." Mao and Fidel on the Fall of the American Empire, 1966-1998 "The American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq in 2002/2003 is a remarkable fulfillment of Mao's predictions. There is no reason to think that the Americans will fare any better in that region than the Soviet Union did (see US military analysis), and it seems likely that it will contribute, as Mao predicted, to the fall of the American empire. ...
"For a moment, I try to imagine what would happen in the United States itself with the tens of million of owners of stocks with inflated value, with those families which deposited their savings in those stocks, if all of a sudden the stock markets collapse and with them those absurdly multiplied values. They cannot avoid that, it is congenital; it is in the genes of the system that begot it, in the laws that govern its development.".." "Over the centuries, Constantinian Christianity spread like a cancer. Christians became more militant and took up the sword to advance the Kingdom of God. Churches were no longer merely bodies of believers gathering together for worship and fellowship; they evolved into huge, elaborate cathedrals built on the backs of the poor. Popes, cardinals and bishops ruled as merciless tyrants, waging war, imposing burdensome taxes and executing those who dared to challenge their authority. Worst of all, the Bible was kept out of the hands of the layperson; only the clergy had the right to read and interpret scripture.....
*see GoodnewsEverybody: Religious-Catholic "It's as if our leader received a divine revelation and we are simply following along, thinking that we are doing God's will. As Constantine's armies rallied behind the cross, we hold aloft the American flag as our sacred symbol - and by this sign, we conquer.
Unfortunately, what Constantine claimed to have seen was not a sign from God. It goes against the words of Jesus, who said to Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world" (John 18:36)...
The Apostle Paul reinforced this when he wrote, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12). And yet American Christians today praise the holy crusade against terror as if the spiritual forces of evil can be defeated with troops, bombs and democracy...
*see GoodnewsUSA: Military "...Who knows? Future generations may one day read about the rise and fall of the American Empire. If that happens, let us hope and pray that they learn the lessons from history that we did not."
Related Sites: AMERICAN EMPIRE (THE - FALL) "JACOB'S TROUBLE" 9-29-08, from youtube.com "(A HISTORIC DAY 9-29-08)Dow (-777.68)
ALSO DON'T FOR GET ABOUT (the bombing of )IRAN!!..Our so called nation is already hanging by a thread..a Major event such as Bombing Iran/Terrorists/Collapse of The Finacial Market/Riots/..just a reminder if ANY of these events happen Bush has the Power to Cancel and Postpone the Elections due to a National Emergency &("MARTIAL LAW")!!!!"
-Miscellaneous The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse
by Dr. Krassimir Petrov
Global Research, January 20, 2006 "...Economically, the American Empire was born with Bretton Woods in 1945. The U.S. dollar was not fully convertible to gold, but was made convertible to gold only to foreign governments. This established the dollar as the reserve currency of the world. It was possible, because during WWII, the United States had supplied its allies with provisions, demanding gold as payment, thus accumulating significant portion of the world's gold. An Empire would not have been possible if, following the Bretton Woods arrangement, the dollar supply was kept limited and within the availability of gold, so as to fully exchange back dollars for gold. However, the guns-and-butter policy of the 1960's was an imperial one: the dollar supply was relentlessly increased to finance Vietnam and LBJ's Great Society. Most of those dollars were handed over to foreigners in exchange for economic goods, without the prospect of buying them back at the same value. The increase in dollar holdings of foreigners via persistent U.S. trade deficits was tantamount to a tax-the classical inflation tax that a country imposes on its own citizens, this time around an inflation tax that U.S. imposed on rest of the world.
When in 1970-1971 foreigners demanded payment for their dollars in gold, The U.S. Government defaulted on its payment on August 15, 1971. While the popular spin told the story of "severing the link between the dollar and gold", in reality the denial to pay back in gold was an act of bankruptcy by the U.S. Government. Essentially, the U.S. declared itself an Empire. It had extracted an enormous amount of economic goods from the rest of the world, with no intention or ability to return those goods, and the world was powerless to respond- the world was taxed and it could not do anything about it.
From that point on, to sustain the American Empire and to continue to tax the rest of the world, the United States had to force the world to continue to accept ever-depreciating dollars in exchange for economic goods and to have the world hold more and more of those depreciating dollars. It had to give the world an economic reason to hold them, and that reason was oil.
In 1971, as it became clearer and clearer that the U.S Government would not be able to buy back its dollars in gold, it made in 1972-73 an iron-clad arrangement with Saudi Arabia to support the power of the House of Saud in exchange for accepting only U.S. dollars for its oil. The rest of OPEC was to follow suit and also accept only dollars. Because the world had to buy oil from the Arab oil countries, it had the reason to hold dollars as payment for oil. Because the world needed ever increasing quantities of oil at ever increasing oil prices, the world's demand for dollars could only increase. Even though dollars could no longer be exchanged for gold, they were now exchangeable for oil.
The economic essence of this arrangement was that the dollar was now backed by oil. As long as that was the case, the world had to accumulate increasing amounts of dollars, because they needed those dollars to buy oil. As long as the dollar was the only acceptable payment for oil, its dominance in the world was assured, and the American Empire could continue to tax the rest of the world. If, for any reason, the dollar lost its oil backing, the American Empire would cease to exist. Thus, Imperial survival dictated that oil be sold only for dollars. It also dictated that oil reserves were spread around various sovereign states that weren't strong enough, politically or militarily, to demand payment for oil in something else. If someone demanded a different payment, he had to be convinced, either by political pressure or military means, to change his mind.
The man that actually did demand Euro for his oil was Saddam Hussein in 2000. At first, his demand was met with ridicule, later with neglect, but as it became clearer that he meant business, political pressure was exerted to change his mind. When other countries, like Iran, wanted payment in other currencies, most notably Euro and Yen, the danger to the dollar was clear and present, and a punitive action was in order. Bush's Shock-and-Awe in Iraq was not about Saddam's nuclear capabilities, about defending human rights, about spreading democracy, or even about seizing oil fields; it was about defending the dollar, ergo the American Empire. It was about setting an example that anyone who demanded payment in currencies other than U.S. Dollars would be likewise punished.
Many have criticized Bush for staging the war in Iraq in order to seize Iraqi oil fields. However, those critics can't explain why Bush would want to seize those fields-he could simply print dollars for nothing and use them to get all the oil in the world that he needs. He must have had some other reason to invade Iraq.
History teaches that an empire should go to war for one of two reasons: (1) to defend itself or (2) benefit from war; if not, as Paul Kennedy illustrates in his magisterial The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, a military overstretch will drain its economic resources and precipitate its collapse. Economically speaking, in order for an empire to initiate and conduct a war, its benefits must outweigh its military and social costs. Benefits from Iraqi oil fields are hardly worth the long-term, multi-year military cost. Instead, Bush must have gone into Iraq to defend his Empire. Indeed, this is the case: two months after the United States invaded Iraq, the Oil for Food Program was terminated, the Iraqi Euro accounts were switched back to dollars, and oil was sold once again only for U.S. dollars. No longer could the world buy oil from Iraq with Euro. Global dollar supremacy was once again restored. Bush descended victoriously from a fighter jet and declared the mission accomplished-he had successfully defended the U.S. dollar, and thus the American Empire..."
*see GoodnewsEverybody: Science-Environmental: Oil
-Prophecy
The Assyrian Empire
"It was by the Assyrian Empire that the kingdom of Israel was destroyed. Recent annals of Assyrian Kings have been found in which they themselves had their own exploits recorded. In these annals names of ten Hebrew Kings occur: Omri, Ahab, Jehu, Menahem, Pekah, Hoshea, Uzziah, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Manasseh. Many statements are found which confirm Biblical statements...
The Persian Empire "The Persian Empire, often called the Medo-Persian Empire, was the second great world empire represented in the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. In 549 B.C. a Persian named Cyrus conquered the area known as Babylonia in 539 B.C. as prophesied by Isaiah over 150 years before. (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1).
As the policy of Assyrian and Babylonian kings had been to deport conquered peoples, that is take them away out of their own lands, and scatter them in other lands; so, the policy of the Persian kings were more humane than Assyrian and Babylonian Kings.
One of the first acts of the first Persian king, Cyrus, who was a "singularly noble and just monarch," in his first year, was to authorize the Return of the Jews to their own land. Persia was the mountainous plateau east of the lower end of the Euphrates-Tigris Valley. The Persian Empire was vaster in extent than its predecessors had been. It extending eastward in India and reaching westward to Greece. Its capitals were Persepolis and Susa; its kings sometimes residing at Babylon. As a world empire, it lasted 200 years, 536 - 331 B.C.. "
*see GoodnewsEverybody: Iran
A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present by Howard Zinn
audiobooks555
"
A classic since its original landmark publication in 1980, Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States is the first scholarly work to tell America's story from the bottom up - from the point of view of, and in the words of, America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers.
From Columbus to the Revolution to slavery and the Civil War - from World War II to the election of George W. Bush and the "War on Terror" - A People's History of the United States is an important and necessary contribution to a complete and balanced understanding of American history"
*see GoodnewsEverybody.com Native Indian Americans
Chapter 1: Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress "...The information that Columbus wanted most was: Where is the gold? He had persuaded the king and queen of Spain to finance an expedition to the lands, the wealth, he expected would be on the other side of the Atlantic-the Indies and Asia, gold and spices. For, like other informed people of his time, he knew the world was round and he could sail west in order to get to the Far East. ...
...Because of Columbus's exaggerated report and promises, his second expedition was given seventeen ships and more than twelve hundred men. The aim was clear: slaves and gold. They went from island to island in the Caribbean, taking Indians as captives. But as word spread of the Europeans' intent they found more and more empty villages. On Haiti, they found that the sailors left behind at Fort Navidad had been killed in a battle with the Indians, after they had roamed the island in gangs looking for gold, taking women and children as slaves for sex and labor. ...
Trying to put together an army of resistance, the Arawaks faced Spaniards who had armor, muskets, swords, horses. When the Spaniards took prisoners they hanged them or burned them to death. Among the Arawaks, mass suicides began, with cassava poison. Infants were killed to save them from the Spaniards. In two years, through murder, mutilation, or suicide, half of the 250,000 Indians on Haiti were dead. ...
Las Casas tells how the Spaniards "grew more conceited every day" and after a while refused to walk any distance. They "rode the backs of Indians if they were in a hurry" or were carried on hammocks by Indians running in relays. "In this case they also had Indians carry large leaves to shade them from the sun and others to fan them with goose wings."
Total control led to total cruelty. The Spaniards "thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades." Las Casas tells how "two of these so-called Christians met two Indian boys one day, each carrying a parrot; they took the parrots and for fun beheaded the boys." ..
A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn
"..Uploaded by HenryHolt on Mar 28, 2008
Empire or Humanity?
What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me about the American Empire
by Howard Zinn
Narrated by Viggo Mortensen
Art by Mike Konopacki
Video editing by Eric Wold
To read more from Howard Zinn visit www.TomDispatch.com.
..
*see GoodnewsUSA.info: Military
Howard Zinn on A People's History of the United States - Part 1 (1995)
thefilmarchive
"My version of Night at the Museum trailer."
*just saw this movie this evening (Friday, October 26th of 2007) " Ben Stiller leads an all-star cast including Robin Williams and Dick Van Dyke in this hilarious blockbuster hit.
When good-hearted dreamer Larry Daley (Stiller) is hired as night watchman at the Museum of Natural History, he soon discovers that an ancient curse brings all the exhibits to life after the sun sets. Suddenly, Larry finds himself face-to-face with a frisky T. rex skeleton, tiny armies of Romans and cowboys and a mischievous monkey who taunts him to the breaking point. But with the help of President Teddy Roosevelt (Williams), Larry may just figure out a way to control the chaos and become a hero in his son's eyes. Boasting jaw-dropping special effects and laugh-out-loud moments, Night at the Museum is your ticket to nonstop fun!"
-Documentaries
Sea-Monster or Shark: An Alleged Plesiosaur
Carcass, talkorigins.org
The Paluxy River ‘footprints’, badarchaeology.com "Since the 1930s, dinosaur tracks have been known from the bed of the Paluxy River, near Glen Rose, Texas. What makes these tracks so controversial are claims that as well as the footprints of dinosaurs, there are unmistakably human footprints in the same strata. Even creationists admit that some of them are fakes. In some of the ‘man tracks’, it is possible to make out traces of toes to the side of the ‘foot’, which suggests that they are nothing more mysterious than highly eroded three-toed dinosaur tracks. Some also show claw marks at the ‘heel’ of the print, which is another feature typical of a dinosaur footprint but not of a human footprint. In at least one footprint sequence, there is the inexplicable coincidence that dinosaur tracks and ‘human footprints’ alternate.
The Paluxy River ‘man prints’ may resemble human footprints superficially, but they lack the anatomy of real human footprints. Furthermore, dinosaurs and humans are of very different size and weight, but in the Paluxy River, tracks made by both dinosaurs and supposed humans are sunk to the same depth in the rock, which suggests that both types were made by creatures of the same general weight. In the same way, the distances between footfalls are spaced the same distance apart, showing that they were made by creatures with similar stride lengths." Ancient Mysteries - Puma Punku in Tiahuanaco, daveearley.hubpages.com "..They are arguably the oldest, and most baffling ruins on the face of the Earth. It is hard to imagine how they did not come to be known as one of the wonders of the world like the Great Pyramid. Spectacular in its own right, the Great Pyramid is, yet it pales in comparison to the ruins of Puma Punku in Tiahuanaco, in South America. .. Piri Reis map
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
-China beat Columbus to it, perhaps-
An ancient map that strongly suggests Chinese seamen were first round the world,
Jan 12th 2006 economist.com Hancock’s Antarctica
The continent that “dare not speak its name” "Graham Hancock’s ‘lost civilisation’ needs to be located somewhere that renders it more-or-less invisible to present day archaeologists. Why? Because if it were just about anywhere in the world as we know it, scholars would have debated the age and achievements of this incredibly early civilisation for many years. This is the advantage of ‘losing’ a civilisation: if it cannot be seen, it cannot be debated by orthodox archaeologists. Fortunately for Hancock and his followers, there is a candidate for the location of this civilisation that is not only inaccessible, but also possesses conditions that would have completely obliterated all traces of it: the place is Antarctica. Not only does the former land surface of Antarctica lie buried beneath thousands of metres of glacial ice, but also the movement of that ice over the millennia will have churned up and shattered any trace of what may once have existed on the surface. It is quite evident from the chronology he proposes that Hancock’s ‘lost civilisation’ is meant to be Atlantis, yet he stops short of naming it. In Fingerprints of the Gods, he mentions it only twice, once to dismiss a mid-Atlantic continent as a geophysical impossibility. He’s right, of course, but this doesn’t stop him from talking about an ice-free Antarctic and initially identifying this with the home of the supposedly missing civilisation...." Secrets of Antarctica's fossilised forests , archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com "..It may be hard to believe, but Antarctica was once covered in towering forests. One hundred million years ago, the Earth was in the grip of an extreme Greenhouse Effect. The polar ice caps had all but melted and rainforests inhabited by dinosaurs existed in their place."
"In a style all his own, Dave Stotts speeds through ancient worlds, Asia Minor, Rome, Greece, and Turkey, giving you a fast paced encounter with the people, places and events that have shaped our world. His adventures include on-location explorations, loads of animations and narration that's definitely "outside the classroom"
"...History has shown that among all powerful peoples, when the creation of real wealth and true economic power is neglected, when the belief that the status quo is pre-ordained and will last forever, when what happens today becomes more important than what will be the situation tomorrow and next year, and when enjoying life becomes more important than preserving values such as honesty, fairness and integrity, when those in power find that they have to deceive and defraud the man on the street in order to protect their own personal wealth and power - when all that happens, the peak has been passed and the end is not far off..."
"...In the late fourth century, the Western Roman Empire crumbled after a nearly 500-year run as the world’s greatest superpower. Historians have blamed the collapse on hundreds of different factors ranging from military failures and crippling taxation to natural disasters and even climate change. Still others argue that the Roman Empire didn’t really fall in 476 A.D., since its eastern half continued for another thousand years in the form of the Byzantine Empire. While just how—and when—the Empire fell remains a subject of ongoing debate, certain theories have emerged as the most popular explanations for Western Rome’s decline and disintegration. Read on to discover eight reasons why one of history’s most legendary empires finally came crashing down....
4. Overexpansion and military overspending
At its height, the Roman Empire stretched from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the Euphrates River in the Middle East, but its grandeur may have also been its downfall. With such a vast territory to govern, the empire faced an administrative and logistical nightmare. Even with their excellent road systems, the Romans were unable to communicate quickly or effectively enough to manage their holdings. Rome struggled to marshal enough troops and resources to defend its frontiers from local rebellions and outside attacks, and by the second century the Emperor Hadrian was forced to build his famous wall in Britain just to keep the enemy at bay. As more and more funds were funneled into the military upkeep of the empire, technological advancement slowed and Rome’s civil infrastructure fell into disrepair.
5. Government corruption and political instability
If Rome’s sheer size made it difficult to govern, ineffective and inconsistent leadership only served to magnify the problem. Being the Roman emperor had always been a particularly dangerous job, but during the tumultuous second and third centuries it nearly became a death sentence.
...
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