Israel

Israel Makes Bible Prophecy Come Alive

By Dr. David R. Reagan 

www.worldviewtimes.com

 

I am very passionate about going to Israel and leading others on tours of the Holy Land. Gary Fisher, founder and director of Lion of Judah Ministries out of Franklin, Tennessee, asked me a series of questions to understand the reasons behind my passion.

Q1) What is the number one reason you believe we're living in the season of the Lord's return?

There's so many that I could give, but the number one reason has to be the re-establishment of the nation of Israel.

The Bible says over and over and over that in the end times the Jewish people are going to be regathered from the four corners of the earth and their nation will be reestablished. They'll be put back in the city of Jerusalem and the whole world will come against them over one issue - the control of Jerusalem. And that's where we are.

And, I'll tell you what I saw when that began to happen in 1948. Of course, I was only a youngster at that time and in fact I was 10 years old at that time, so it was of no significance to me, but when it became significant to me was in 1967. I began to really study Bible prophecy and begin to see prophecy after prophecy being fulfilled before my very eyes that had been there 2,000 years.

End time Bible prophecy focuses on the nation of Israel. It is God's prophetic time-clock. God says when these things start happening Jesus is going to be at the very gates of Heaven.

Q2) In Israel's Independence Hall in Tel Aviv there is a newspaper clip of 1948 that says "The State of Israel is Born." Is there any Bible prophecies that come to your mind?

Yes, first of all, let me just say that's one of the most moving places that I take people to in Israel. There are a number of places but that one, and most groups never go there as they completely bypass Tel Aviv, but to go to that place where Bible prophecy was literally fulfilled, where David Ben-Gurion stood up and he spoke those words reestablishing the nation of Israel...

There are so many prophecies about the recreation of the Israeli state in the end times, but the one that I love the most because it's symbolic (and I love the symbolism) is in Isaiah 66:7. "Before she travailed she brought forth," talks about a pregnant woman giving birth. It continues,

"before the birth pains came she gives birth. Before her pain came upon her she gave birth to a boy. Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once?"

That's exactly what happened on May 14, 1948 - the nation of Israel was born. The next day the labor pains began with the war of 1948-49, the War of Independence, The Suez War of 1956, the Six-Day War of 1967, the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the Lebanese War of 1982, the Gulf War of 1991, the Arab Intifada from 2000-2004, the Hezbollah War and the Gaza Conflict. It's just war after war after war. The birth pains continue.

Q3) Now, you have led many tours to Israel, and there are lots of prophetic implications about traveling all over the Land of Israel. Would you like to comment on some of those?

We like to begin in Tel Aviv at the Hall of Independence to talk about that. And then we start out through the land and what we try to do is give people a survey of the life of Christ and the fulfillment not only of Second Coming prophecies but the fulfillment of First Coming prophecies.

So, we show a lot of prophetic places. One place, for example, and I love to take people to it (I don't get to every trip) is up to Caesarea Philippi which is the northern most point of Israel. It's only two or three miles from the Lebanese border and about five miles from Syria. It's where a great Roman city existed at the time of Christ called Caesarea Philippi. Jesus never went to Roman cities, but for some reason He took His disciples up there one day and in that city He said to them,

"Who do men say that I am?" And they said, "Well, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah." And He said, "But who do you say that I am?" And Peter said, "I say you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." And then He said to him, "God has revealed that to you," and He said, "Upon that confession I'm going to build my Church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it."

And right there is a cave right where He said that. And that cave, by Roman legend, was the gate to Hades. And the Bible comes alive when you see those things!

You come back and when you read "Capernaum" on a page and it's no longer a name on a page. It's a place where you walked, you saw it, you smelled it, you feel it, you experience it. And, I love to see the Bible come alive for people as we take them over there.

Q4) There are lots of prophecies that ought to be clicking in our brains, but do you want to comment on the Mount of Olives?

One thing about the Mount of Olives is that when you stand there and you look out over the city of Jerusalem, if you have any sense of the Bible whatsoever, you will sense that you are standing at the center of the world. Because Ezekiel says this is the center of the world, the center of the earth, this is where Jesus spilled His blood and this is where He is returning.

When I look out there I always see something that had a tremendous impact on my life and that's the Eastern Gate. In 1967 during the Six-Day War, I was following it very closely. I was a professor of international politics at that time and one day I read in the paper where the Israelis had broken into the Old City through the Lion's Gate and had won the city. They had recaptured it for the first time in 1,897 years.

And in that article, I read that they had originally proposed to blow open the Eastern Gate because they felt like that would catch the Jordanians by surprise, but an orthodox Jew had said, "You will do that over my dead body. Because that gate is not to be opened until the Messiah returns." I didn't know what he was talking about. I had never been taught Bible Prophecy. So, in 1967, I go to a concordance and I look up the word "gate," and to my astonishment I go to Ezekiel 44 and there is a statement where Ezekiel is taken on a tour and he basically says,

"This gate, the Eastern Gate, will be closed and it will not be opened until the Messiah returns."

Then, I go to history and discover that when the walls were rebuilt in the 1500s, that gate of all the eight gates of Jerusalem was closed. It was bricked up and nobody knows for sure why. But, the rumor and legend is that as they were rebuilding it as a rumor swept the city that the Messiah was coming. Suleiman the Magnificent called in the Rabbis and said, "Who is this? Who is this Messiah?" And they said, "He's going to come and run you out of town and He's coming through the Eastern Gate." So, he ordered them to brick up that gate and put a Muslim cemetery in front of it. He said, "No Jewish holy man will step in a Muslim cemetery and he can't walk through a gate." And I thought, "This is incredible!"

So, every time I go to Israel and I get on the Mount of Olives and I look at that Eastern Gate, I think there is Bible prophecy fulfilled before my very eyes. The Bible said that gate would be closed and it was closed. The Bible says it will not be open until Jesus returns. Many times people have tried to open it and every time they've been stopped.

Q5) Would it impact people's lives to go to Israel?

I have no doubt about it. It will impact your life and as I say, it brings the Bible alive. There was a pilgrim who went to Israel in the fourth century, about 1350 A.D. He wrote in his journal,

"I have toured the Holy Land, and I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that a tour of the Holy Land is like reading a fifth gospel, because it brings it all alive in your heart."

O Jerusalem! My beloved!

Leave Jerusalem Alone

This Week’s Feature Article by Jack Kelley

250 Israeli Rabbis Sign Letter to Obama: “Hands off Jerusalem”

In a reference to the upcoming “nine days” which culminate in Tisha B’Av, the rabbis tell US Pres. Obama that “during these days, in which the Jewish people mourn the destruction of Jerusalem and mark the disgraceful memory of its destroyers, we are certain that you, Mr. Barack Obama, do not want to enter that disreputable list of those who raise their hand to strike Jerusalem and those who live in it.”

The rabbinical letter ends with a clear request: “If you, Mr. Obama, wish to leave any chance at all for peace and quiet in the Middle East, take your hands off the Holy City of Jerusalem right now!”

Two hundred and fifty rabbis have signed the appeal, and efforts are being made to collect the signatures of every rabbi in Israel before the letter is sent to Washington. (Source: A7News)

Tisha B’Av is a particularly sad day for Jews. Both the first and Second Temples were destroyed on that day, and down through history a number of other religious and national catastrophes have occurred on the 9th of Av as well. The nine days mentioned above refer to the first nine days of Av, a time of national mourning for these events that culminates on the 9th, Tisha B’Av. This year Tisha B’Av falls on July 30 so the nine days of mourning began on July 22.

The chain of events that resulted in this letter began in 1948 when Jordan attacked the newly created state of Israel and captured the Eastern part of Jerusalem including the Temple Mount. All of the city had been given to Israel by the UN. 19 years later Israel got it back in the 6 Day War and annexed it, reuniting the city. Since then several hundred thousand Jews have made Eastern Jerusalem and its suburbs their home. But the international community has never accepted the legality of the annexation. It calls the neighborhoods they live in “settlements” and the so-called Road Map agreement forbids additional settlement construction until Jerusalem’s final status has been negotiated. Will it remain undivided as Israel’s capitol, or will it be divided again with the Eastern part becoming the capitol of a future Palestinian state?

Israelis are united in their view that all of Jerusalem is legally theirs and it must never be divided again. That’s why PM Netanyahu has flatly rejected the world’s demand that he deny permission for an empty building in East Jerusalem already under Jewish ownership to be converted into apartments. This construction project, financed by Miami Beach philanthropist Irving Moskowitz, is located mere yards from Israel’s national police headquarters and other government ministries, and only a few blocks from the country’s prestigious Hebrew University.

Here’s How It All Began

The Jewish claim to Jerusalem is over 3,000 years old. While the Jews were still in the wilderness, God told them he was going to name a place for them to worship Him after they entered the Promised Land. (Deut. 12:5) But it wasn’t until David was King, several hundred years later, that God chose Jerusalem to be that place.

“Since the day I brought my people out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a temple built for my Name to be there, nor have I chosen anyone to be the leader over my people Israel. But now I have chosen Jerusalem for my Name to be there, and I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.” (2 chronicles 6:5-6)

Once God had selected a location, Satan wanted it as well. He had already duped Adam and Eve into forfeiting their dominion over earth to him. But unless he has possession of Jerusalem, he doesn’t really have possession of Earth. Three times the Lord Himself called Satan the prince of this world (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11). And Paul said he’s the god of this age (2 Cor. 4:4). Satan needs Jerusalem to perfect his claim to planet Earth. This is why the final battle for control of Earth will be fought over Jerusalem.

Jerusalem has no natural harbor. It isn’t situated astride any major trade route. Nor is it a gateway city. It’s not a banking or industrial or commercial or medical or hi-tech center. It has no natural resources. While it’s too hilly for an airport it doesn’t command any strategic high ground. It has nothing at all to commend it except for the fact the God chose it for Himself. And to Satan that makes it the most desirable piece of real estate on the planet.

Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians as part of God’s judgment against them for their idolatry, but even as He was sending them away He promised He’d bring them back.

This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:10-11)

He fulfilled this promise in what came to be known as the first regathering of Israel. But even before the first one, God had Isaiah promise there would also be a second regathering, because once more Israel would be scattered and again Jerusalem would be destroyed. The second destruction began in 69-70 AD when Jerusalem was burned to the ground and by 135AD the nation had ceased to exist altogether.

This time there was no predetermined date known to man when Israel would rise again and as the centuries passed most Gentiles assumed that God had abandoned His people and transferred His blessings to the Church, even though the prophets had said otherwise. But at the end of the 19th Century the hearts of Jews around the world were stirred and the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy began to look like a real possibility after all.

In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea. He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth. (Isaiah 11:11-12)

Even though the Zionist movement began on the eve of the 20th Century, and the Balfor Declaration laid the ground work for a Jewish homeland in 1917, this second regathering officially began in 1948 and continues to this day. Immediately Satan called his troops to battle and before the ink was dry on the UN declaration that made Israel a nation again, they were at war. By the time it was over, half the Holy City had been captured. 19 years later in June of 1967 Israel reunited Jerusalem in the Six Day War.

Who’s Behind This?

As you can see, the fight for Jerusalem isn’t really between Arab and Israeli, or even between Molsem and Jew. Satan has simply stirred Israel’s enemies up for his own purposes, and as the Jews inch closer and closer to renewing their covenant with God and making Jerusalem the one place on Earth to worship Him again, Satan will make Israel’s enemies become more and more determined to stop them. He won’t give up until he has the whole world united against Jerusalem. But as we’ll see, it’s a losing strategy.

“I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.” (Zechariah 12:2-3)

Zechariah saw Israel’s victory over its neighbors happening in 2 stages. First, the nations surrounding Jerusalem will rise up against it, but they’ll be sent reeling. This will be accomplished in two fierce battles, one foretold in Psalm 83 and the other in Ezekiel 38-39. God will deliver a supernatural victory in Ezekiel’s battle to open Israel’s eyes and draw them back to Him and the land He gave them.

Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. (Ezekiel 39:28)

Then at the very end of the age, the anti-Christ will mobilize all the nations of Earth and gather them against Jerusalem for one final push. It too will end in failure.

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh. (Rev. 19:11-16,19-21)

But In The Mean Time

The world is already pushing against Israel in a way never seen before. The US has demanded that this building in East Jerusalem not be renovated. The EU has condemned all “settlement” construction. Javier Solana wants the UN to set a date for unilaterally imposing the two state solution, dividing Jerusalem again. All the world powers have united against Israel in this matter. And this is just the beginning. But here’s the Lord’s response.

Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor its animals enough for burnt offerings. Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing. (Isaiah 40:15-17)

The LORD foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations. (Psalm 33:10-11)

This is what the LORD says: I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain. (Zechariah 8:3)

No other city has been so clearly and so decisively claimed by God as His own, so this isn’t about religion and it isn’t about politics. It’s about whether we’re on God’s side or on Satan’s. Those who set about to divide the only city on Earth God has claimed for Himself are taking a stand against Him personally (Psalm 2:2). and aligning themselves with Satan. And it’s not like there’s the slightest chance of succeeding. These men with their great armies who think they can push God and His people around haven’t got a clue as to how outmatched they are.

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.” (Psalm 2:4-6)

From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth - He who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. (Psalm 33:13-16)

Nor is there any chance that God will change His mind or forget His promise to His people,

This is what the LORD says, He who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD Almighty is his name: “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the LORD, “will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me.” (Jeremiah 31:35-36) or give up and go away.

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow. (Isaiah 62:1-2)

“And the name of the city from that time on will be: The LORD is There .” (Jehovah Shammah) (Ezekiel 48:35)

From all this it seems pretty clear that Jerusalem belongs to God forever, and there’s no chance that anyone trying to say otherwise will prevail. Current indications are that the US may moderate its position where Israel is concerned, and may adopt the Bush Administration position that trying to forbid construction that only accommodates natural growth is not practical.

Some are saying that Mr. Obama is beginning to realize that his grand appeal to the Moslem world hasn’t changed anything, so he’s decided “to avoid a situation where he gets nothing from Arab leaders and yet is at odds with the Jews.” Time will tell, but if true, this is good news for America. After all, aren’t we in enough trouble with God already? 07-25-09

What about Jerusalem?

How Jewish is Jerusalem?

Rachel Ginsberg

www.inthedays.com

The world of archeology is rocked by evidence of King David’s palace unearthed in Jerusalem.

The Coming Temple

“And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.”
Revelation 11:1

You might think that’s a silly question, but in the world of academia, revisionist history and even biblical archaeology, scholars have cast the shadow of doubt over Judaism’s intrinsic connection to Jerusalem. The Moslem Waqf, the religious authority that administers the Temple Mount — the site of Judaism’s First and Second Temples — has been claiming for years that there was never a temple there. But the idea that Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and Jerusalem its holy capital has been under attack from far more reputable sources in recent decades as well.

For a growing number of academics and intellectuals, King David and his united kingdom of Judah and Israel, which has served for 3,000 years as an integral symbol of the Jewish nation, is simply a piece of fiction. The biblical account of history has been dismissed as unreliable by a cadre of scholars, some of whom have an overtly political agenda, arguing that the traditional account was resurrected by the Zionists to justify dispossessing Palestinian Arabs. The most outspoken of these is Keith Whitelam of the Copenhagen School which promotes an agenda of “biblical minimalism,” whose best-known work is The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History.

Even in Israel, this new school has found its voice. Israel Finkelstein, chairman of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Archaeology, began championing a theory several years ago that the biblical accounts of Jerusalem as the seat of a powerful, unified monarchy under the rule of David and Solomon are essentially false. The scientific methods for his assumptions, called a “lower dating” which essentially pushes archaeological evidence into a later century and thus erases all evidence of a Davidic monarchy, were laughed off by traditional archaeologists. But his book, The Bible Unearthed, wound up on the New York Times’ best-seller list and he became the darling of a sympathetic media. He concluded that David and Solomon, if they existed at all, were merely “hill-country chieftains” and Jerusalem a poor, small tribal village. He claims that the myth of King David was the creation of a cult of priests trying to create for themselves a glorious history.

Looking in the Wrong Place

But the debunkers of Jewish biblical history got some bad news recently, when a spunky, dedicated archaeologist began her latest dig. Dr. Eilat Mazar, world authority on Jerusalem’s past, has taken King David out of the pages of the Bible and put him back into living history. Mazar’s latest excavation in the City of David, in the southern shadow of the Temple Mount, has shaken up the archaeological world. For lying undisturbed for over 3,000 years is a massive building which Mazar believes is King David’s palace.

For Mazar, 48, one of the world’s leading authorities on the archaeology of ancient Jerusalem and head archaeologist of the Shalem Center Institute of Archaeology, the discovery was the culmination of years of effort and solid speculation. From the time she was a teenager, she had her nose in archaeology literature, and worked closely with her grandfather, renowned archaeologist Benjamin Mazar, who conducted the southern wall excavations next to the Western Wall. She holds a doctorate in archaeology from Hebrew University, is author of The Complete Guide to the Temple Mount Excavations, and in the 1970s and ’80s worked on the digs supervised by Yigal Shilo in the City of David. The significant discoveries made then, including a huge wall called the “stepped-stone structure” — which Shilo believed was a retaining wall for David’s royal palace or part of the Jebusite fortress he conquered — ignited Mazar to continue to look for the prize: David’s palace itself.

Some biblical scholars gave up looking for the palace because, according to Mazar, they were looking in the wrong place. Scholars searched for remains of the palace within the walls of the ancient Jebusite city that David conquered and called Ir David (City of David). This city, while heavily fortified with both natural and man-made boundaries, was also very small, just nine acres in size. When no evidence of such a majestic palace as the Bible describes was found there, the next step was to claim that David’s monarchy never really existed.

But Mazar always suspected that the palace was outside the original city, and cites the Bible to prove it. When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed, they went on the attack to apprehend him. This occurred after he conquered the Fortress of Zion, which was the actual nucleus of the city, and built his palace. The Bible says that David heard about it and “descended to the fortress,” (2-Samuel 5:17), implying that he went down from his palace, which was higher up on the mountain than the citadel/city.

Mazar told Aish.com: “I always asked myself: Down from where? It must have been from his palace on top of the hill, outside the original Jebusite city.”

Mazar says she was confident in her assessment of where the palace would be. What she discovered was a section of massive wall running about 100 feet from west to east along the length of the excavation (underneath what until this summer was the Ir David Visitors Center), and ending with a right-angle corner that turns south and implies a very large building.

Scientist, Not Philosopher

Within the dirt fill between the stones were found pottery shards dating to the 11th century BCE, the time when David established his monarchy. Based on biblical text and historic evidence, Mazar assumed that David would have built his palace outside the walls of the fortified but cramped Jebusite city which existed up to 2,000 years before; and in fact, the structure is built on the summit of the mountain, directly on bedrock along the city’s northern edge, with no archaeological layers beneath it — a sign that the structure constituted a new, northward expansion of the city’s northern limit.

What most amazed Mazar was how close the building is to the surface — just one to two meters underground. “The cynics kept saying, ‘there will be so many layers, so many remnants of other cultures, it’s not worth digging, it’s too far down.’ I was shocked at how easy it was to uncover it, and how well-preserved it was, as if it were just waiting 3,000 years for us to find it,” Mazar said

Mazar snickers at the idea that she is some sort of divine emissary revealing the eternity of David’s kingdom. “I am a scientist, not a philosopher. My focus is on how magnificent and enduring these complex structures are, that they were preserved and protected for so many generations. In truth, when I began to excavate, I had to be prepared for any result. I even had to be prepared to accept Finkelstein’s hypothesis if that’s what the facts indicated. Still, I am a Jew and an Israeli, and I feel great joy when the details on the ground match the descriptions in the Bible. Today it’s become fashionable to say there was no David, no Solomon, no Temple, no prophets. But suddenly the facts on the ground are speaking, and those outspoken voices are stammering.”

Biblical References

The City of David is essentially the ancient nucleus of Jerusalem, located just south of the mountain on which the Holy Temples stood. From here the rest of the city as we know it grew and developed over the course of history. According to tradition, the first significant event that occurred there was the meeting between Abraham and Malki-tzedek, King of Shalem. King David, divinely directed, chose this city as the capital of his united kingdom. And the more archaeologists uncover and identify, the easier it is becoming to form a complete picture of the people who lived there — with the pivotal Jewish history of the First Temple period, described in the Prophets, played out in its structures and installations.

The Bible says that King David brought God’s Tabernacle to its final home in this original Jerusalem, expanded the city, and made it the spiritual and economic capital of the world at that time. According to Jewish tradition, he fulfilled God’s master plan for a spiritual monarchy that would endure until the final Redemption.

“The construction that we found was a complicated and intricate engineering operation that must have required immense resources, and the dating matches,” says Mazar. “This is the kind of step one would expect of a new ruler who wants to turn the city he conquered into his permanent residence, and who has an exceptional vision of the future development of the city.”

According to the Bible, David’s palace was constructed by Hiram, King of Tyre, the contemporary Phoenician ruler and his ally against the Philistines. Mazar, an expert in Phoenician construction from her excavations at Achziv on Israel’s northern coast, attests that this building bears the mark of Phoenician construction, not likely to be found otherwise in the Judean hills.

In fact, quite a bit about David’s palace is known from the Bible itself. It was a “house of cedars” built by Phoenician builders (2-Samuel 5:11 and 1-Chronicles 14:1) who used the cedars of Lebanon and developed a distinct style of stone masonry. Remains of pillars and decorative stone capitals in this particular style were discovered at the site years before, which was one clue Mazar used to look for the palace.

THE CLAY DISC

Mazar believes that the palace was used for Jewish monarchs until the destruction of the First Temple 450 years later. To indicate this, she speaks excitedly about a tiny clay item she found at the site (found on the 17th of Tammuz, the fast day commemorating the siege of Jerusalem before its destruction). It is called a “bulla,” a clay disc, inscribed in ancient Hebrew script with the name of the sender as a “return address,” used to seal papyrus scroll “mail.” The bulla bears the name of Yehuchal Ben Shelemiah,* who is mentioned in Chapters 37 and 38 of the Book of Jeremiah. Yehuchal was one of two emissaries dispatched by King Tzidkiyahu to Jeremiah, asking him to pray for the people during the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. In an about-face, Chapter 38 tells that Yehuchal was one of four ministers who asked the king to kill Jeremiah, claiming that he was demoralizing the besieged nation with his prophecies of doom and destruction.

The bulla found on the site of the palace indicates that the building was used by the king, or at least by his ministers, until the destruction of Jerusalem soon afterwards. (In fact, a nearby cistern uncovered in what might have been a king’s courtyard is speculated to perhaps be the pit Jeremiah was lowered into, as recorded in Jeremiah 38:6). “For me, finding the bulla was tremendous,” says Mazar. “Yehuchal was no longer just some name in a biblical account that I might not even have been sure was true. He was a real person. We now have his business card. The account is a real account. It is very rare to find such precise evidence for a narrative in the Bible.”

Mazar took the bulla home to examine and decipher. With the help of a needle and magnifying glass, she cleaned off the grains of dust until the ancient inscription was revealed. Together with her boys, aged 14, 13, and 11, they managed to decipher the ancient Hebrew script. Mazar’s late husband, also an archaeologist, had published material on bullas, and the boys made use of their father’s articles which explained how to properly examine and decipher the clay.

Mazar is heady, not with personal glory or the fame that has followed her since the discovery, but with what she considers validation of the Bible she so loves and respects. “Today the scholarly approach to Tanach [the Bible] is that it’s not true unless you can prove it true. Maybe we should do a little reverse. Why don’t we say it’s true unless we can prove otherwise?”

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End Time Technologies

India to issue all 1.2 billion citizens with biometric ID cards

Ben leach

www.telegraph.co.uk

The Indian government has announced that it is to issue all of its 1.2 billion citizens with biometric identity cards.

The operation will be run by the Unique Identification Authority, a new government department created specifically for the task of assigning every living Indian an exclusive number and gathering and electronically storing their personal details.

It is hoped that the operation, which is expected to cost at least £3 billion, will fight corruption but it could also be used to identify illegal immigrants and tackle terrorism.

Nandan Nilekani, who is in charge of the operation, called it a "humongous, mind-boggling challenge."

"But we have the opportunity to give every Indian citizen, for the first time, a unique identity. We can transform the country," he told The Times.

At present Indian citizens can be issued with up to 20 proofs of identity, including birth certificates, driving licenses and ration cards, although none is accepted universally.

A computer chip in each card will contain personal data and proof of identity, such as fingerprint or iris scans. Criminal records and credit histories may also be included.

Mr Nilekani, who left Infosys, the outsourcing giant that he co-founded, to take up his new job, wants the cards to be linked to a “ubiquitous online database” accessible from anywhere.

But experts have warned that the database, which will be one of the world’s largest stores of personal information, will prove an irresistible target for identity thieves.

Mr Nilekani will also have to persuade as many as 60 government departments to co-operate. The Government has said that the first cards will be issued within 18 months. Analysts feel that it will take at least four years for the project to reach “critical mass”.

End Time Deception

UFOs: record number of sightings forecast for 2009

www.telegraph.co.uk

A record number of UFOs are expected to be spotted this year in Britain after hundreds of sightings were reported in the first six months of 2009.

Strange floating orbs and unexplained hovering objects have all been recorded and reported to the Ministry of Defense in the last six months.

A total of 231 sightings of unidentified flying objects have been passed on to the MoD so far this year, according to The Sun.

This compares to 285 in 2008, 135 in 2007 and 97 in 2006.

The number of sightings is thought to have increased because many more people now carry digital cameras and are able to photograph strange objects.

Nick Pope, who used to run the Government's UFO project and is considered a leading authority on UFOs, told The Sun: "We are now on track for a record year.

"I thought the number of UFOs reported last year was high, but we now know they are being reported in increasing numbers."

Last year, the MoD released files detailing strange and unexplained sightings reported to them between 1986 and 1992.

In one instance, an Alitalia flight coming into land at Heathrow Airport reported a near miss with a UFO, which the pilot described as "similar to a missile - light brown or fawn, about three meters in length but without any exhaust flame''.

In the files, released by the National Archive, the military admitted the sighting in April 1991 could not be explained, having ruled out a British or American missile.

It concluded: "In the absence of any clear evidence which could identify the object, it is our intention to treat this sighting like that of any other Unidentified Flying Object.''

Two further near misses were reported in the summer of 1991, when one aircraft flying in to Gatwick Airport reported a "wingless projectile'' passing the left side of the plane, and another flight leaving Gatwick spotted a "small lozenge-shaped object'' speeding past the cockpit.

The files also went into detail about a US Air Force pilot who claims he was ordered to shoot down a UFO flying over southern England in 1957, and was later ordered never to speak about the incident.

The Messianic Jews

Jewish Revival Has Started!

By Sid Roth

Before our recent outreach, I had not held a Jewish evangelistic event in New York in over a decade. When Russian Jewish revival broke out close to 20 years ago, I started a Russian Jewish congregation in Brooklyn, New York. Every week, Jewish people were coming to the Lord. Although the congregation exists today, the Jewish evangelism stopped.

But April 19, 2009 marked the beginning of a new era in Jewish harvest. By faith, I rented the most popular theater in Brighton Beach, New York, an area that is home to 100,000 Russian Jews in a ten-block radius.

We passed out flyers announcing a lecture on the supernatural. We also advertised on Russian television and radio. We promised that many who attended the lecture would be healed.

I did not know if anyone would show up. We set up 350 seats and had over 400 people (mostly unsaved Russian Jews). After witnessing healing miracles, the majority of the people stood up to make professions of faith. The most dramatic miracle was a woman who was able to walk after at least five months of being wheelchair-bound.

Pastor Alana, who leads the congregation I started in that area years ago, said: “In all of my time of ministry in Brooklyn, I have never seen so many people stand up to receive the ‘prayer of salvation’ led by Sid. After this outreach, I feel even more determined to reach the Russian Jews in Brooklyn.”

It’s Supernatural! board member, Warren Marcus, was on hand to videotape the event. Days later, he wrote: “I am still overwhelmed by what happened…. Tears filled my eyes when the people stood to accept Jesus. I wished my own Russian grandparents could have been alive to experience this. As I traveled back home, I found myself weeping with joy. It continued the next day. Even now as I share this I am overcome with emotion.”

To my knowledge, this is the largest number of Jewish people who have accepted Jesus in a single meeting in the United States. We have entered the Jewish harvest!

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Sid Roth has spent over 35 years as a pioneer in Jewish evangelism, planting Messianic Jewish congregations, and investigating the supernatural. His television program, "It's Supernatural!" documents miracles and is internationally viewed. He is the author of The Incomplete Church, They Thought For Themselves, There Must Be More, and Supernatural Healing.

To read more about the Jewish outreach, click here.
To learn more about the ministries of Sid Roth at Messianic Vision, click here.

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