7 - Opening Revelations
BIBLICAL PROPHECY (Feb., 2017)
Judaism and Islam are mutually exclusive. The heart of the history of the Jews is that Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac, the son promised by God, on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22) while the heart of Islam is that Abraham was to sacrifice Ishmael, Abraham's son by Hagar, the Egyptian handmaid of Sarah, on the Kaaba in Mecca. They could both be false, but there is no way they could both be true, which, of course, is the heart of the conflict for these sons of Abraham. This is why peace is impossible in the Middle East. Someone must give up his religion. Islam reveres six prophets to include Adam, Noah, Abraham (father of Isaac and also Ishmael, who fathered the Arabs), Moses (a Levite), Jesus (a Jew), and Muhammad. Their religious teachings include the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) of Moses, the Psalms of David, the gospel of Christ, and the Koran with the Koran having authority because the others were perverted in some way. They do not believe that Christ was divine, that He was born by virgin birth, that He was crucified, or that His blood sacrifice did away with the sin of those who worshiped and obeyed Him. According to Islam, it appeared that He was crucified, but actually it was Judas Iscariot, who was crucified. Islam's faith is in works rather than the grace (unmerited favor of God) of Christianity. The Jewish and Christian (Matthew 23:23) God required a tithe, while Islam only required 2.5%.
The god of Islam is all-powerful, i.e. he has no bounds. He is capricious. He can lie. The Judeo-Christian God cannot lie per Numbers 23:19, and He delights in keeping his covenants. Keeping a covenant would limit the Islamic god. When a Muslim dies, while participating in jihad or holy war, his religion states he goes immediately to a carnal delight of 72 virgins, the 100th and highest level of heaven where he is fed the finest food off gold plates. The first great genocide of the 20th century was called by the Caliph of the Ottoman Turkish Empire against the Armenians. One to one-and-a-half million Armenians were slaughtered- men, women, and children. The Muslim’s heaven is under the shadow of swords. Allah is a god of war. YHWH, the Judeo-Christian God, is a God of peace, and His religion is one of peace. Islam is not a religion of peace, though we hear that often. Islam is a religion of war whose symbol is the scimitar, a broad bladed sword for cutting off heads. Christianity's symbol is the cross, one of sacrifice, God's sacrifice for His people. The perfect man in Islam is Muhammed, a man of war who slaughtered many, a slaver. Christianity’s perfect man is Jesus Christ, a man of peace. The Judeo-Christian God and Allah are not the same.
Prophecies on Islam are found in the Bible. For a long time, I looked for prophecies on Ishmael, but I now believe these prophecies are found with regard to Esau, Jacob’s brother and Ishmael’s son-in-law per Genesis 28:9, but also under Edom, Esau’s land, and Mount Seir, located in Edom. These prophecies include Obadiah, Amos 1- 2:3; Isaiah 17:1, Zephaniah 2:4-15 (Is Assyria ISIS?), and particularly Ezekiel 25, 28:20-32, 35-36:7, and 38 & 39.
In 2 Kings 20:12-19, Hezekiah, ruler of Judah is entertaining a Babylonian envoy and shows him all his wealth. This was a little before the Assyrian army, the superpower of the day, came against Judah in 701 B.C. Hezekiah showed the Babylonian all he possessed in his pride. The prophet Isaiah came in thereafter and told Hezekiah that all he possessed would be carried to Babylon including his offspring who would be eunuchs (Daniel 1:3) in the Babylonian court. But then came Assyria with a great army against Jerusalem. Hezekiah could not possibly defeat them, so he prayed to God. Then one night an angel of the Lord slew 185,000 decimating the Assyrian army in about 701 B.C. saving Jerusalem. 1 Kings 19:35.
But what is curious is the next part. In the year 690 B.C., the province of Babylon rose against their Assyrian conquerors. For this rebellion, the king of Assyria wiped Babylon off the face of the earth. He utterly destroyed it. This must have been devastating to the Jewish believers of the day. How could Isaiah's prophecy already given possibly be fulfilled? Babylon was no more. But YHWH is the God of the impossible. In 681 B.C. the king of Assyria mused that Babylon was one of his most prosperous cities, and he decided to rebuild it. After its rebuilding, Babylon went up like a skyrocket to become the golden head of the statue seen in a dream by Nebuchadnezzar in the second chapter of Daniel. Circa 612 B.C., Babylon breaks the power of Assyria (and subsequently Egypt) forever and the Assyrian capital, Nineveh, is wiped off the map, not to be rediscovered till the mid-1800s. An astounding prophecy comes true.
The prophet Micah during the reigns of Jotham (750- 735 B.C.), Ahaz (735-715 B.C.), and Hezekiah (715-686 B.C.) predicted that Zion would be taken to Babylon, which must have seemed strange since Assyria was the major power of the day per Micah 4:10. Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 B.C. by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar.
Now according to Herodotus, Babylon was a fabulous city. Its walls were 56 miles long, or 14 miles on each side. The walls were 87 feet thick (By some accounts wide enough for 4 to 8 chariots to race on the wall, and by other accounts chariot races were held on the walls) and over 300 feet high. The Babylonians could not be starved out because of huge granaries within, nor was water a problem. The Euphrates River flowed through the city and also formed a moat around the walls. The city was connected during the day by bridges that were removed at night with protective gates along the course of the river. In the year 539 B.C., the Medes and the Persians under Cyrus lay siege to Babylon. The Babylonians were so unconcerned that they held their typical rousing New Year's celebration which is described in the fifth chapter of Daniel. While the Babylonians reveled drunkenly (Jeremiah 51:57 ) and blasphemed YAHWEH (YHWH), the God of Israel, by drinking from the gold utensils of Solomon's temple, the handwriting on the wall occurred. That night the party ended forever for these Babylonians. The Medes and Persians had diverted the course of the Euphrates River into a swamp and then gone up the lowered watercourse at mid-thigh level to the watergates along the Euphrates River within the city. These water gates were unguarded. The Medes and Persians took them, and with these gates secured, they took the city.
What is really curious are the prophecies on Babylon in Isaiah verse 27 in chapter 44: Who (God) says to the deep "Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers." Isaiah is supposed to have died in 680 B.C. or almost 140 years before the taking of Babylon. Jeremiah who was a prophet to Judah for 40 years ending with the fall of Jerusalem in 586 or 7 B.C. gave this prophecy regarding Babylon in 50:38 "A drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up." And again in 51:36 "I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry." These prophecies must have been felt to have been incredulous at the the time, but they accurately describe the fall of the city. How utterly ridiculous they must have seemed when given!
Isaiah, prophet to Judah from 740 to 680 B.C., makes the prediction that Cyrus will restore the Jews in Isaiah 44:28. Cyrus the Persian captures Babylon with its bronze gates (Isaiah 45:2) in 539 B.C. The city was so large that it took 3 days before the entire city knew that Cyrus had replaced the Babylonian crown prince, Belshazzar. Cyrus must have been immensely pleased with himself gaining the city by stealth without a battle. Cyrus was met in Babylon by the prophet Daniel who read the passages on Cyrus in Isaiah to him. Cyrus must have been astonished to have been called by his name at the end of Isaiah 44 and the beginning of Isaiah 45. The LORD drives this point home further by Isaiah 45:4-
For Jacob My servant's sake,
And Israel My elect,
I have even called you by your name (Cyrus);
I have named you, though you have not known Me.
I am the LORD, and there is none other;
There is no God besides Me.
I will gird you though you have not known Me.
In any event Cyrus sends the Jews home with a proclamation noted in Ezra 1:2 to build God a temple in Jerusalem (Isaiah 44:28 and 45:13 predicted). In Isaiah 45:1, God says that for Cyrus, He will loose the armor of kings. In Daniel 5:6, we are told that the King of Babylon was so frightened by the disembodied hand writing on the wall of his banquet room that the joints of his hips were loosened. Translation: He lost control of his bowels.
Cyrus treated Babylon well. Other than Crown Prince Belshazzar, few were killed. The city was protected by Cyrus. Less than 60 years later, one of the Persian rulers, Xerxes, pillaged Babylon. Alexander the Great also predicted by Daniel in chapter 8 came upon the reduced city of Babylon as he conquered Persia around 330 B.C.. He was amazed by the colossal ruins and the enormous walls. He decided to rejuvenate Babylon thereafter, and he issued 600,000 rations to begin the restoration only to die shortly thereafter in drunken revelry or perhaps through poison. Thereafter Babylon slowly withered and lost its population.
There are verses in Jeremiah (51:58 and 50:15) that say the enormous walls of Babylon will be totally destroyed. This was accomplished by the Roman Emperor, Julian the Apostate, who ruled shortly after Constantine. Julian tore the walls down when he was fighting the Persians around 360-3 A.D. He did not want the Persians to be afforded protection by the remnants of these huge walls. Why in the world would anyone tear down walls 56 miles in length, over 300 feet high, and 87 feet thick? But the Bible said these walls would be utterly broken. Julian fulfilled these prophecies. Curiously, Julian was trying to bring Rome back from Christianity first embraced by Constantine in the early 4th century to the old Gods, but was simply an unwitting instrument used in fulfilling God's prophecy. He did not succeed in restoring Zeus and the early gods of Rome.
In Jeremiah 51:11, God raised up the spirit of the Medes against the Babylonians. Jeremiah passed from history in 586 B.C. Babylon was taken in 539 B.C. by the Medes and Persians.
Though many of the prophecies of the Bible have been fulfilled regarding Babylon, it may yet have a role to play in the future. I have read several prophecy experts write that Babylon will be desolate forever, because the LORD has written per Jeremiah 50:40 that Babylon will be:
"As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
And their neighbors," says the LORD,
"So no one will reside there,
Nor son of man dwell in it."
And further in Jeremiah 51:24
"And I will repay Babylon
And all the inhabitants of Chaldea
For all the evil they have done
In Zion in your sight," says the LORD.
25. "Behold I am against you, O destroying mountain
Who destroys all the earth," says the LORD.
"And I will stretch out My hand against you,
Roll you down from the rocks,
And make you a burnt mountain.
They shall not take from you a stone for a corner,
Nor a stone for a foundation,
But you shall be desolate forever," says the LORD.
In other words, the building materials would never be used again. Some authorities have written that this has already occurred, and that Babylon has been desolate for centuries, but I have also read that in the 196 square miles of old Babylon, a village still exists and bricks are still taken from old Babylon for building materials. Saddam Hussein had also rebuilt some of the walls and the banqueting hall of the last king from Daniel 5. The Shiites who are 60% of the population of Iraq want to rebuild Babylon as their capital in place of Baghdad. And Babylon has never been destroyed as Sodom and Gomorrah were.
In Zechariah 5:5, we are given the vision of the woman in the basket:
Then the angel who talked with me (Zechariah) came out and said to me, "Lift your eyes, now, and see what this is that goes forth."
So I asked, "What is it?" And he said, "It is a basket that is going forth."
He also said, "This is their resemblance throughout the earth; Here is a lead disc lifted up, and this is a woman sitting inside the basket;" then he said, "This is Wickedness!" And he thrust her down into the basket, and threw the lead cover over its mouth. Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were two women, coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.
So I said to the angel who talked with me, "Where are they carrying the basket?"
And he said to me, "To build a house for it in the land of Shinar; when it is ready, this basket will be set there on its base."
Babylon was in the land of Shinar. The two women had the wings of storks which were unclean birds in the Bible. It seems that Babylon has a role to play in the future of the world yet. Some authors have written the story of the world could be summed up by the two cities of Jerusalem and Babylon. Jerusalem is the city of God. Babylon is where paganism began under Nimrod, whose name means "we shall rebel," In chapter 11 of Genesis at the Tower of Babel. Likely this is where the zodiac was perverted. Initially, the zodiac gave God's plan of redemption from the Virgin to the Lion of Judah to the pre-flood world. Nimrod tried to bring the whole world under his control, as Nebuchadnezzar tried to bring the entire ancient world under his control. The anti-Christ of Europe will try to bring the entire world under his control. Likely Babylon has one final act before eternal desolation descends upon her like Sodom and Gomorrah.
It has recently been pointed out that the U.S. government is building a huge complex of an embassy in Baghdad, consisting of 21 buildings on 104 acres the size of Vatican City, but curiously a new communication hub of the fiber optics of Asia united with those of Europe is being developed at Babylon, paid for by U.S. funds. This makes little sense to me with the huge embassy being built in Baghdad, but it does appear to fit prophetic projections.
Assyria was one of the great empires of the ancient world. It was noted for its cruelty. According to the Bible, God sent 2 prophets to Assyria. Jonah was sent during the reign of Jeroboam II (782-753 B.C.) to its capital Nineveh per 2 Kings 14:23-28. (Several months ago, his grave was desecrated by ISIS which had occupied Mosul, the second city of Iraq, as its second city for over a year. News reports indicate that Mosul is presently being retaken by the Iraqi Army with help from the Iranians and the Americans. ISIS currently occupies much of what was Assyria, a terrorist nation. Likewise, ISIS is known for terror.) The Assyrians repented at Jonah’s prediction that Nineveh would be overthrown in 40 days, but it did not last. Nahum was sent likely between 660 and 630 B.C. In an oracle regarding Nineveh, in Nahum, verse 1:8, But with an overwhelming flood, He (God) will make a complete end of the adversaries. In verse 2:6, The river gates are opened; the palace melts away.
Historically, Nineveh was besieged in 612 B.C. by the Babylonians and the Medes (the modern-day Kurds). The hated Assyrians were safe behind their wall until a flood destroyed part of the city’s wall just as the prophet predicted, and their enemies poured in.
There have been in the recent news reports that a dam on the Tigris River, above Mosul which is above Baghdad, should never have been built. American engineers have reported that it was built on unstable ground, and without constant upkeep, it could send a wall of water against both Mosul and Baghdad. Many of the Bible prophecies are double prophecies, i.e. they happened once, but they will also happen again. I believe that Babylon will be rebuilt in the Last Days as a major city of this planet. For that to happen, I suspect something must happen to Baghdad. Nineveh was taken because of a flood. Nineveh was on the east bank of the Tigris River. Mosul is directly across from the ruins of the Assyrian capital on the opposite bank. I am curious to see what happens in the near future. Mosul appears to be ready to fall to the Iraqis. Will ISIS destroy the dam in a fit of rage over this? Will God intervene via earthquake? We shall see.
Alexander the Great also figured into the prophecy against Tyre in Ezekiel 26. In verse 3, Therefore thus says the LORD God: "Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up." In verse 7, it states God will bring Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar against Tyre and take their mainland city. Nebuchadnezzar did take the mainland city of Tyre around 572 B.C. after a 13 year siege. The people of Tyre simply evacuated the mainland city and left for an island a half mile offshore where they built a new Tyre. But in Ezekiel 26 comes verse 12. They will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the midst of the water. This doesn't make a lot of sense unless you know of Alexander the Great. When he initially defeated the Persians, he came to Tyre and demanded their surrender. They laughed at him. With their good navy (they were the Phoenecians after all), they could not imagine anyone attacking them successfully. Alexander's engineers took the remains of the nearby ruined mainland city and threw them into the sea building a causeway or land bridge to the island of Tyre, nullifying their navy and taking the city circa 332 B.C. It was one of the greatest engineering feats of the ancient world, fulfilling more of the prophecy already noted.
The Bible is truly an amazing book. Read 1 Kings 10:23 to 11:2. I had always thought of this as praise for Solomon and his God. But then read Deuteronomy 17:16-7 or better 14-20. Specifically the king was commanded to read the law all the days of his life. The Old Testament was perhaps a third of its present size, but Solomon's actions make it unlikely that he followed God's principles concerning kings. 1 Kings 10:23 to 11:2 is not praise, but a condemnation of Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, besides Jesus.
Try Jeremiah 25:11 The LORD Speaking:
"And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." God is referring to Judah and the surrounding nations. History records that Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem 3 times and took captives each time, first in 605 B.C. (Daniel and his friends were in this group of exiles), then in 597 B.C. (Ezekiel was in this group). He finally destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C. In 539 B.C., Babylon was taken by the Medes and Persians. The Jews laid the altar of the temple in Jerusalem signifying the rebirth of their nation in 536 B.C. and the temple itself was rebuilt and finished on either 516 or 515 B.C., again each being about 70 years from 605 B.C., and 70 years from 586 B.C. Coincidence? The rabbis say coincidence is not a kosher word.
It is also interesting to note how things worked out. In 612 B.C., the Assyrians, the greatest threat to the kingdom of Judah for centuries, were destroyed. How the Jews must have rejoiced at the destruction of their mortal enemy! And yet by God's plan, 7 years later, the Babylonians were at the gates of Jerusalem, and about 2 decades later, they destroyed the city. But God already had everything worked out. Daniel was sent to Babylon with the first deportation of Jews in 605 B.C. He rose to be just under Nebuchadnezzar in the Babylonian court, i.e. the number 2 man in all Babylon. Then Ezekiel was sent with the next deportation circa 597 B.C. to be God's messenger to His exiled people. And Jeremiah was still the prophet left to the Jews in Judah until after the destruction of Jerusalem. The LORD had all bases covered for this great uprooting of His people during the Babylonian captivity. I wonder if the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 A.D. can be like the demise of the Assyrians and the rise of Islam like the Babylonians to the U.S.
Now let us consider Ezekiel's prophecy given to the Jewish captives in Babylon in the 4th chapter in which the prophet is told to give a sign to the house of Israel. Verse 4. Lie also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of days that you lie on it, you shall bear the iniquity. 5. For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, 390 days so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6. And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days. I have laid on you a day for each year.
This has been a mysterious prophecy for a long time. After Israel was carried off by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. Subtracting 390 years from this, yields 332 B.C., but I know of know significant event that occurred to lost Israel at that time. Indeed Israel has been lost to history from 722 B.C. And remember there are 430 days (years) on Israel and Judah combined.
It is curious how God works. Had Assyria taken Babylon, there would have been bodies everywhere. The Assyrians loved to flay (skin) people alive and hoist their living bodies impaled on stakes in the air to watch them die. But Cyrus was an "enlightened" conqueror. The king of Babylon in the "handwriting on the wall" episode in chapter 5 was actually the crown prince, Belshazzar (the actual king appears to have been in Arabia when Babylon was captured) which is why in the 5th chapter of Daniel, the 16th verse, Daniel is offered the third position in the kingdom. Belshazzar, the crown prince, possessed the second position, and the king (Nabonidus) the first. Hence, only the third position was open. Belshazzar was killed on the Babylonian New Year's Day when the Medes and the Persians took Babylon. Few others were killed. It was a rather bloodless victory.
And Cyrus gave the Jews permission to return. But history records that the bulk of the Jews stayed in Babylon. According to one estimate only 5% of the exiled remnants returned to Jerusalem. Only a few went, about 50,000, but they did not repent of their sins, which is why they were sent away in the first place. To their credit, the worship of idols passed. But they didn't worship YHWH in the way He required. Now suppose you couple the 430 years total from Ezekiel's prophecy less the Babylonian exile of 70 years making a total of 360 Biblical years left to account for. But per the 26th chapter of Leviticus, God promises in verse 18: "And after all this if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for you disobedience." 7 X 360 Biblical years = 2520 years,or since Biblical years of 360 days per year are used, then 360 X 2520 = 907,200 days divided by 365.2422 days per calendar year = 2,483.8 calendar years.
First deportation to Babylon - 605 B.C.
less 70 Biblical years
End of Babylonian captivity = 536.4 B.C.
Add 2,483.8 calendar years 2,483.8
. 1,947.4 A.D.
Adjust for no year zero 1,948.4 A.D.
Historically, the nation of Israel began again on the 15th of May, 1948. The Biblical year of 12 months of 30 days is cited during the Flood per Genesis 7:11 & 8: 3-4 and is the common unit for the year in Revelation 11:2,3; 12;6; 13:5, and Daniel 12;7. Lucky guess? I leave that to you.
On to Daniel and the prophecy of the 70 weeks beginning 9:24, given about 539 B.C.,
Seventy weeks (or sevens) are determined
For your people and your holy city
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.
25. Know therefore and understand
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street shall be built again and the wall
Even in troublesome times.
26. And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off. (He will be killed just as Christ was)
First, a note about this prophecy. There are many prophecies in the latter portion of Daniel. The author Daniel was a young Jew taken from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in the first deportation by the Babylonians in 605 B.C. He rose to be Nebuchadnezzar's # 1 government official. He was still a prominent official in Persia in the 530s B.C. He gave precise prophecies which have been poohpoohed as uncannily accurate because they were written after the fact, i.e. the event occurred, and then the prophecy was written to validate what happened. He predicted the rise of Medo-Persia, then Greece, then Rome. In Daniel 7, he predicted a goat (symbol for Greece) with a great horn (Alexander the Great) would die young and his empire would be divided into four portions (by his four leading generals), which is historically accurate. We know the Old Testament was translated into Greek in Egypt around 285 to 270 B.C. as the Septuagint. Hence, these prophecies could not have been written after the fact. The Jews stay away from Daniel because they don't understand it, and likely because of Who it validates.
A curious prophecy is this 69 weeks prophecy on the coming of Messiah. The Jews had what seems to us a peculiar way of measuring time. In the Bible, the number 7 is often thought to indicate divinity. It instead indicates completeness. After seven 7 years or seven weeks of years, the Jews had a Jubilee year, the 50th year, and started again, with 2 Jubilees per century. A week is generally taken to mean 7 years. For a long time by most scholars, it has been taken to mean 7 years. Let us assume it means 7 years. But where do we start? Answer: With the decree to rebuild Jerusalem. There were 4 decrees regarding Persia and the Jews. The first was Cyrus in 538 B.C., but this first return of the Jews was to rebuild the temple (2 Chron 36:23-3; Ezra 1:1-4, 5:13). There is also the decree of Darius I in 520 B.C., but this merely confirmed the first decree regarding the rebuilding of the temple (Ezra 6:1, 6-12). There was a decree allowing Ezra to go home to Jerusalem in 458 B.C. (Ezra 7:11-26)
The fourth decree was given by Artaxerxes on 14 March 445 B.C. (Nehemiah 2:1). In Nehemiah 2:5, Nehemiah specifically requests to rebuild Jerusalem, and the Persian king sends him to do so. Hence, I believe this to be the starting point of the prophecy.
Now there were 69 weeks or 483 years before Messiah the Prince would come. 483 years X 360 days per Biblical year (NOTE: Until the year 701 B.C., calendars of various peoples to include Roman, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldean, Chinese, and Mayan used a calendar of 360 days per year, 12 months of 30 days each. Around 701 B.C. they converted to 365.2422 days per year probably because of some cosmic event they did not understand. Biblical years are confirmed in Revelation, Daniel, and Genesis 7:24 and 8:3,4 as being 360 days per year. Where did we get 360 degrees in a circle? Probably before the change. When Mohammed took Mecca in 630 A.D., he destroyed all the idols around the Kaaba stone. Guess how many there were? Answer: 360 idols, or one for every day of the year in the old system.) = 173,880 days divided by 365.2422 days per calendar year and adusting for the year zero gives us the date of 6 April 32 A.D. This would be the tenth of Nisan, when the Passover lamb was presented to the priests to make sure it was perfect for the meal on 14 Nisan. I believe this was when Christ rode the donkey's colt into Jerusalem. Historians have traditionally told us that Christ was crucified in the year 30, or 32, or 33 A.D. For some reason, they do not like 31 A.D. This date of 6 April is supposed to be 10 Nisan when the man called Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey's colt as predicted by Zechariah the prophet (Matthew 21:5 and Zechariah 9:9). Before in the Bible, Christ would not allow Himself to be proclaimed the Messiah, but on this tenth of Nisan He did, stating the very stones would cry out if He was not proclaimed by the people (Luke 20:5). This date cited has been purported to fulfill the prophecy to the day. I do not profess to know this date is precisely 10 Nisan of 32 A.D. but it is very close if not. I place it to the day by my math. I leave the math to you. Quite a guess for a prophecy given in 539 B.C. or at least 570 years earlier! Mark Biltz’s 2014 book Blood Moons notes a total lunar eclipse at the time of Passover in 32 AD and a partial lunar eclipse on the next Passover in 33 AD.
In years past, 483 calendar years did not fit with the known information on Christ. Using 445 B.C. as the starting point and adding 483 gives the year 39 A.D., too late for what was known about Christ. Keep in mind this would likely have been the date that the Jews expected the Messiah to come. They were probably looking forward to this date with great expectation and joy. The Messianic Age, when the Jews would cast off Rome and recapture the glory of David and Solomon, was almost upon them! But then it came and passed, but no Messiah. How dejected they must have been! Curiously, a prophecy was given at the end of Genesis 49:10 by Israel to his sons: "The scepter will not depart from Judah till Shiloh comes." From Judah came David, who began the reign of Judean kings. Shiloh referred to Messiah. Per Josephus, the rabbis believed the tribe of Judah would be under its own law till Messiah came. Even during the Babylonian captivity, the Jews had the right to administer the death penalty among their own people. In 6 A.D., the Romans took away this right as seen decades later when the Jews could not execute Christ without the permission of the Roman authority. In 6 A.D., when the rabbis realized that their law had been take from them, they dressed in sackcloth and ashes and mourned greatly for the scepter had departed from Judah, and Shiloh had not come. Ergo, the Holy Scriptures were broken. They never guessed that Christ was growing up in Nazareth, and the answer to their hopes and prayers would soon step forth in about 2 decades to begin His ministry.
Some have used the 483 calendar years adding them to Ezra's return in 458 B.C. giving a date of about 27 A.D. when Jesus was supposed to have started His ministry and died 3 years later in 30 A.D. If you have 2 dates as the starting point and are using Biblical and calendar years, then you have 4 possiblilites, the other being 19 A.D. to go along with 27, 32, and 39 A.D. Who was the major man of history that came during this window of 19 and 39 A.D.? Many have a Roman emperor in mind. I have a Jewish peasant in mind. Funny thing about that peasant. He took 12 men, none of them very learned (until Saul came into the fold as Paul) and none that the learned of the world would have chosen, and He built a religion like none other, a religion of the heart, of the golden rule. The golden rule of the world had been "He who has the gold makes the rules." Christ's golden rule was different. Most of the other religions of the world profess "Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you" - the silver rule. But He said "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" a vast difference in meaning. You might say that this religion is dying now (Voltaire of the Enlightenment said this in the late 1700s before the Godless French Revolution, but God has a sense of humor. At his death, a Bible society bought his house, and printed Bibles in it thereafter.) And certainly Christendom had died. But the Christian Scriptures said this would happen in the end times, i.e. there would be a great falling away (2 Thes 2:3).
In Luke 20:41, Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you to the ground; and they will not leave one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."
The LORD held them accountable to know Daniel's 70 week prophecy based on Biblical years, but they missed it. He likewise holds us accountable to know the signs of the times, or as one wag put it, the time of the signs. Thirty-eight years after the crucifixion, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and Herod's temple as Christ had predicted. Mosaic Judaism required temple sacrifice, and without the temple this was impossible. Rather than reflecting on why this happened, the Jews invented Talmudic Judaism which did not require temple sacrifice. Hence, at Passover today, the lamb is not eaten but represented as a shank bone of a lamb. The Jews still look forward to the rebuilding of the temple so that temple sacrifice can begin again. But why did God allow the Jewish temple to be destroyed with no provision to fulfill their obligations unless they missed their Messiah the first time? Per Zechariah 12:10: And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me Whom they pierced."
When did the Jews pierce Christ? At the crucifixion of course. And Hosea 5:15: "I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offense." Again refers to the first coming of Christ.
When did God come to the Jews the first time?
I read in a newspaper a few years ago that there was one thing that unified American Jews. The paper had done a survey. I thought it would have something to do with the Jewish religion, i.e. with the Old Testament. To my surprise, the one thing that unified American Jews is that Jesus was not the Messiah. No wonder they avoid Daniel and his prophecies.
We think of prophecy as prediction and fulfillment. The rabbis think of it as pattern. Let us take Genesis 22:
Now it came to pass after these things that the LORD tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!"
And he said, "Here I am."
Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you."
So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose, and went to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you."
So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!"
And He said, "Here I am, my son."
Then he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
And Abraham said, My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together.
Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!"
So he said, "Here I am."
And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."
Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the Place, The-LORD-Will-Provide, as it is said to this day, "In the mount of the LORD it shall be provided."
Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said; "By Myself I have sworn," says the LORD, "because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son-- blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed My voice." 22:19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
Pattern? Try this. The rabbis say that from the time God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, Abraham regarded his son as dead. The trip was 3 days, the time Christ was in the tomb. Abraham took two young men with him as Christ was between two thieves. He laid the wood for the offering on his only son Isaac to the place of offering as Christ carried His cross. Abraham said the LORD would provide for himself an offering- Christ. When the wood was placed, then Isaac was placed upon it as Christ was placed upon the wood of the cross. Although it has been written that the temple mount in Jerusalem is where this sacrifice occurred with the Arabs saying it was Ishmael (In the above narrative, twice, Isaac is referred to as Abraham's only son, though Ishmael was older), I believe it was nearby but outside the walls of the city in a place called Calvary or Golgotha, where both Isaac was almost and Christ was sacrificed (See Robert Cornuke’s recently published Temple and Golgotha. Finally, Abraham returned to his two young men, but there is no further mention of Isaac till Genesis 24:62 when Isaac meets Rebekah, his bride. Though Christ returned after His crucifixion for forty days, He too has been gone from the earth for now almost two thousand years, but will soon return for His bride, the church.
Great was the faith of Abraham who concluded per Hebrews 11:19 that even if he sacrificed Isaac, God would raise him up, for by him, God had promised Abraham seed in Genesis 21:12. Abraham also told his two traveling companions, that he and the lad would return to them after offering their sacrifice.
Some Bible verses always puzzled me. For example, Exodus 12:40-41:
Now the sojourn or the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was 430 years. And it came to pass at the end of the 430 years- on that very same day- it came to pass that all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
Israel left Egypt on Passover on 14 Nisan, but I don’t recall anything about them entering Egypt on Passover. The Greek Septuagint Bible finished around 270 BC is a little different. Verse 40: Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt and Canaan was 430 years
This means the starting 14 Nisan was in Canaan, but what event could it be?
Galatians 3:16: Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ,
17: And this I say, that the law which was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.
Again 430 years, with the end being the year of the Exodus, but Christ was crucified about 1500 years later, not 430 years earlier. What happened 430 years earlier that was somewhat comparable to Christ on the cross, at least in God’s eyes, on Passover. To me it could only be Isaac on the altar. In his 2014 book, Blood Moons, Mark Biltz noted that by Jewish tradition, Isaac was also born on Passover per Genesis 22. It is interesting to note by Jewish tradition, King David was born and died on the Feast of Weeks, the fourth or the middle of the seven Mosaic feasts. Likewise, David’s kingdom was in the middle of the Bible’s first 6,000 years with Christ’s millenium being the Sabbath of this Biblical week. Enoch was also born on what would become the Feast of Weeks over 2,000 years earlier. Likewise God took him (he never died) on this same month and day at the age of 365 per Genesis 5:23.
Of course, this means the children of Israel were not in Egypt 430 years. In Genesis 15:16, it is noted that Israel will return in the 4th generation. In Genesis 41:50, it is noted 2 sons were born to him during the 7 years of abundant harvests. In Genesis 41:46 Joseph was 30 when he became the second ruler in Egypt. Hence, Ephraim the youngest child was born when Joseph was about 31 to 37. In Genesis 50:23, Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation, but Joseph lived to 110 per Genesis 50:22 meaning Ephraim was another generation, so Joseph saw his 4th generation in no more than 79 years. Jacob came into Egypt with the other 11 sons, i.e. the bulk of Israel, when Joseph was about 39 per Genesis 45:6, or about 9 years after Joseph became the second ruler of Egypt. It seems unlikely to me that Israel was in Egypt 430 years. The first century author Josephus noted Israel was in Egypt 215 years.
Let us look now at the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 11:29.
But he (a lawyer), wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
Then Jesus answered and said, "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jerico, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay.' So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?"
And he said, "He who showed mercy on him."
Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
Obviously this is a tale of compassion, but is there a deeper meaning? Try this, the certain man is Adam who went from Eden, the garden of God (Jerusalem), down to the world (Jericho). Satan stripped him of his communion with God and left him naked and half dead. The certain priest was Moses with the Torah and the Ten Commandments and the law who could do nothing for the victim. Likewise the Levite with his sacrificial system could do nothing for this man. Christ was the Samaritan because a Samaritan was half Jew and half anything else as Christ was half Jew and half God, though fully God and man. He helped the man by pouring on him the Holy Spirit (the oil) and His own blood (the wine). He took him on the sacrificial system represented by the animal to the church (the inn) where the preacher (innkeeper) cared for him. Finally Christ gave the innkeeper two denarii or 2 days wages, saying He would pay more when He came again implying He would come again in two days (2 Peter 3:8, Psalm 90:4). What a tale!
Flavius Josephus was a Jew captured by the Romans during the war leading to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. He wrote about the earlier siege of Jerusalem when Solomon's temple was destroyed in 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar had invaded Judah for the second time, removed the reigning king, and had placed a vassal king of the House of David on the throne in 597 B.C. The vassal's name was changed to Zedekiah, and he swore an oath of loyalty to Nebuchadnezzar. Josephus wrote that Zedekiah, when he subsequently rebelled against Babylon, mocked the prophets of God, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, for what he took to be contradictory prophecies. Both agreed that he would be taken to Babylon as a prisoner, but Ezekiel related he would never see Babylon. How could this be?
Per Jeremiah 34: The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon and all his army, all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem and all its cities, saying "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, "Thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. And you shall not escape from his hand, but shall surely be taken and delivered into his hand; your eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babylon, he shall speak with you face to face, and you shall go to Babylon.'"'
Ezekiel 12:8- And in the morning the word of the LORD came to me saying, "Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, "What are you doing?" Say to them, 'Thus says the LORD God: "This burden concerns the prince (the appointed king Zedekiah) in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel who are among them."' Say, 'I am a sign to you. As I have done, so shall it be done to them; they shall be carried away into captivity.' And the prince who is among them shall bear his belongings on his shoulder at twilight and go out. They shall dig through the wall to carry them out through it. He shall cover his face, so that he cannot see the ground with his eyes. I will also spread My net over him, and he shall be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans; yet he shall not see it, though he shall die there..."
Per Josephus, Zedekiah mocked the prophets because they could not get their stories straight. Zedekiah had sworn an oath of loyalty to his heathen lord, Nebuchadnezzar. The LORD says it is wise not to take an oath, but if you do make one, then keep it even to a pagan. Zedekiah's fate
is told in 2 Kings 25:6 "So they (the Chaldeans) took the king (Zedekiah who had escaped from Jerusalem) and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they pronounced judgment on him. Then they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, put out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with bronze fetters, and took him to Babylon."
Per Chuck Missler, always check the fine print!
Finally, let me give you a few Biblical verses to ponder that obviously refer to Jesus Christ:
He is despised and rejected by men.
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him.
He was despised and we did not esteem Him.
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him.
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned every one to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Then I said to them, "If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain. So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter- that princely sum they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD for the potter."
They pierced My hands and My feet.
They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.
My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? Why are you so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning?
And they made his grave with the wicked- but with the rich at His death?
The LORD speaking "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they have pierced."
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
(In the Galilee of the nations) the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.
Now anyone who knows the New Testament knows these statements fit with the life of Jesus. My question is where did these statements come from?
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Answer: From the Old Testament which the Jews preserved for the world. Who else could they refer to?
He is despised and rejected by men
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him.
He was despised and we did not esteem Him.
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him.
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned every one to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:3 and on. Also John 19:1
Then I said to them, "If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not refrain." So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter- that princely sum they set on me" So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD for the potter. Zechariah 11:12-3, See also Matthew 26:14-15 and 27:3-10.
They pierced My hands and My feet. Psalm 22:16. Psalm 22 seems to have been spoken from the cross. Yet it is a Psalm of David, who died about 970 B.C., when the standard punishment for death in Israel was stoning. Crucifixion was invented by the Persians centuries later. How could David conceive of this Psalm save the Holy Spirit?
They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots. Psalm 22:18, Matthew 27:35.
My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning? Psalm 22:1, Matthew 27:46. This is the only time when Christ did not refer to God as His Father. He could not. He was in our place, as the Father poured His wrath on Him.
And they made his grave with the wicked- but with the rich at his death? Isaiah 53:9. See also Matthew 27:57-60.
The LORD speaking "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication: then they will look on Me Whom they have pierced? When was God pierced? Zechariah 12:10. John 19:34
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. Psalm 16:10.
(In the Galilee of the nations) the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. Isaiah 9:2.
Galilee was where Christ grew up. Matthew 2:22,23.
These were only a sample of the events in the Old Testament that foreshadowed the New Testament through prophecy.
ADDENDUM: We are told beginning Numbers 2:2 that Judah and 2 other of the 12 tribes are to camp east of the tabernacle while Israel was in the wilderness. Likewise Reuben and 2 other tribes were to camp south of the tabernacle, followed by Ephraim, his brother's tribe-Manasseh, and one west, and lastly Dan and 2 to the north of the tabernacle. Now the rabbis were not told to put anyone northeast or northwest or southeast or southwest, so they did not. The numbers for each of the 4 groups are as follows:
157,600
Dan (eagle with serpent in its beak)
108,100 Ephraim Tabernacle Judah 186,400
(Joseph- bull) (lion)
Reuben (man)
151,450
The number of persons north and south of the tabernacle are roughly equal. With the largest number east and the smallest number west. If you had viewed the camp of Israel around the tabernacle from the sky as from a helicopter form the east, it would have appeared as a giant cross. The flags of the nearest tribes to the tabernacle are in parentheses above. They correspond to the four faces on each of the living creatures in Ezekiel 1:10. The symbol of Dan was originally a serpent, but this was changed to an eagle with a serpent in its beak. The four gospels are Matthew (lion of Judah), Mark (suffering servant - ox), Luke (man), and John (eagle).
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Christianity could have been destroyed in its cradle simply by the authorities producing the body of Christ. Yet they could not produce it. The Scriptures teach the authorities sought and got a Roman guard to make sure the body was not stolen. How many corpses are given a guard to make sure they stay dead? Excuse me! I meant so the disciples would not steal the body and claim that He was resurrected. At the last of Matthew's gospel we are told that on resurrection day, a great earthquake occurred followed by an angel rolling the stone away. The guards were so frightened they shook for fear and became like dead men. Later when they reported what happened to the chief priests, they were bribed to say the disciples stole the body away. At this time the disciples were frightened sheep. All their hopes died with the crucifixion. Certainly they were not going against well armed soldiers for a dead body. And yet something happened. The sheep became lions willing to die for the belief that Christ had been resurrected, and except for John, all were martyred for their faith in the years to come. What made the sheep into lions? Men often die for lies that they believe to be true. However, if they stole the body, they would have known they were martyred for a lie. Normal people do not do that. They believed He was resurrected. If the disciples did not steal the body, who did? Who rolled away the stone?
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Prophecy in the News had as a guest in early June, 2010, Arch Bonnema, a Texan who made a very unusual finding at 13,100 feet on Mount Suleiman, about 52 miles north of Tehran, Iran. He and his team found an enormous pile of debris that appeared to be wood, but felt like stone. Their guide related that this was Noah's ark. He had seen it about 50 years earlier at 15,000 feet, but it had been covered by snow ever since. but now the snow was melting as the years passed. Circa 2000 A.D., there was an enormous earthquake in the area killing 64,000 persons. It is felt that the ark plummeted down the side of the mountain to its present 13,100 foot level becoming this enormous pile of debris. They took 13 pieces, none very large, off the mountain and back to the States. They sent them to 5 different labs including one used by NASA and another by the Smithsonian. The labs reported they had fossilized wood with ocean growing creatures within the wood. The wood had to be in the ocean several months for this to occur at the depth the creatures penetrated the wood. There were also barnacles and impressions of sea anemones in the wood. There were linear areas in the wood what were pitch, according to the labs. Now, I wonder how a sea-going vessel got on Mt. Suleiman at a height of 13,000 to 15,000 feet?
They also had another piece that they assumed was also fossilized wood. On exam, it had the hairs of 4 large cats including a lion and a tiger. It also had the feather of a bird found only in Africa, a wing of a butterfly found only in South America, and a plant that supposedly grows only in the South Pacific. It was fossilized muck or animal waste from the bottom of the ark containing a large number of DNA from different animals.
In Genesis 8:4 we are told the ark rested in the montains of Ararat. Mount Ararat in Turkey is a mountain on a large plain with a single small mountain nearby. In the next verse we are told that as the Flood waters receded, the tops of the mountains were seen. Bonnema related that while climbing Mt. Suleiman they ran into a snow storm, but as the clouds went below, the mountain tops around began to be seen with 16 greater than 14,000 feet nearby. Bonnema related he and his team saw what Noah and his family had seen per Genesis 8:5. When his team climbed to 15,000 feet, they came upon an ancient altar, likely where Noah sacrificed the 7th of the clean animals leaving him with 3 breeding pairs.
In Genesis 11:2, we are told Noah's family came upon the plains of Shinar where Babylon, Iraq, is located, journeying from the east. If it were Turkey's Ararat, they would be coming from the northwest.
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In the early 4th century, Constantine became Emperor of Rome. Before the battle at the Milvian Bridge that made him Emperor, he said he saw a great cross in the sky with the words underneath "In this sign you will conquer." He made his troops put a cross on their shields and was victorious the next day. After his victory, he legalized Christianity. His Christian mother went to Jerusalem and asked to see Mount Sinai. She was taken to the mount which bears that name today and for which the Sinai peninsula was named. After the Six-Day War, Israeli archeologists scoured the land around Mount Sinai and stated there was no evidence that a large body of people (Per Exodus 12:37, 600,000 adult males with their families) had ever passed by there. Biblical critics rejoiced.
Questar has an excellent DVD, The Exodus Revealed: Search for the Red Sea Crossing. It details that Mount Sinai is not on the Sinai peninsula, but is in Arabia where Galatians 4:25 reported it was. The Red Sea crossing for Israel would then be in the Gulf of Aqaba on the eastern side of the Sinai peninsula. It is a fascinating DVD.
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Isaiah 60:10 "The sons of foreigners shall build up your walls," After the Ottoman Turks took over Jerusalem in 1517, their Caliph Suleiman the Magnificent had a dream that if he did not rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, he would be eaten by lions. He rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in 1538.
Robert Cornuke has written two recent books, Temple and Golgotha, in which he relates the 16th century wall builders left out a certain portion of land that had previously been within the city, a finger of land that would have greatly increased the cost of building the wall. He believes this was the original city of David. He also believes the so-called Temple Mount was not the location of the Jewish Temple, but instead the home of Jerusalem’s resident Roman legion, consisting of 6,000 troops plus several thousand auxiliaries.
Christ said that not one stone of the Temple would be left upon another in Luke 21:5-6. I presume this does not refer to its base if the Temple Mount is the correct site. If Cornuke is right, the location of the ancient Jewish Temple is outside the present walls of Jerusalem.
Thank you.