Archive for the ‘Ten Tribes – Ancient History’ Category

Newly-found Column May Date to King David and Solomon’s Time

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013
A Jewish media source has broken the story that an intact ancient column with a capital was accidentally found in an underground area in the southern Jerusalem region. The story indicates that this column may date to the reigns of Kings David and Solomon, but that it is in danger of being destroyed if it is placed in the area designated for control by the Palestinian Authority (PA).
 
This link cites a strange reluctance by Israeli Antiquities officials to investigate this remarkable find, and that Israeli officials knew about this find over a year and a half ago but tried to hush it up. However, the final portion of the article indicates that the Israeli Antiquities Authority will be excavating the site after all. They better hurry. As the article notes, if this remarkable column does date to the time of King David and Solomon, it is likely to be destroyed by PA officials if they get control of this site as the Palestinians would prefer not to have such a finding affirmed.
 
I think readers will find this article well worth reading, and I thank the reader who brought this to my attention.
 
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/king-david-era-find-buried-by-authorities-for-political-reasons/2013/04/19/

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Why is Dan’s Tribe Not Mentioned in Revelation 7?

Sunday, February 10th, 2013
When I was traveling and speaking to live audiences about my books for many years, there was one question which came up in almost every Q&A session. Because it was such a common question, many readers of this blog may be wondering about this same biblical enigma. It stumped me for a time as well, but I think there is now a clear answer to the question that will satisfy many and relieve all those today who are descended from the tribe of Dan.
 
In Revelation 7:5-8, the famous “144,000″ are discussed who are “sealed” from the tribes of Israel in the latter days with a seal of some kind that indicates that they belong to God and/or will be spared and protected by him in the perilous times at the end of this age [Proving also that all 12 tribes will be present on earth at the end of the age—they never died out.] This passage lists all the tribes of Israel except the tribe of Dan. This has led some to conclude that God was excluding the Danites from his sealing because of some sin that was unique to that tribe. In support of that interpretation, Genesis 49:18 was often cited. This prophecy of Jacob/Israel for the latter days says of Dan: “I have waited for thy salvation O Lord” which some have assumed is an explanation of the omission of Dan in Revelation 7′s listing of the tribes.
 
However, a much better answer is, I think, available, and it should comfort anyone with a Danite ancestry.
 
As a brief sidebar on the history of the tribe of Dan, it was originally given a territory along the southern coast of the Promised Land. It was too small for the tribe’s population, and a portion of the tribe made a raiding party to the far north of the Promised Land and conquered the city of Laish (Judges 18) and re-named it “Dan” (Dan tended to re-name many geographical features after their tribal name in all their migrations). This subdivision of the tribe of Dan meant that it had two geographically-separated homelands in the Promised Land. When the Israelites went into exile, the two portions of Dan took separate migration paths and were separate from each other from about 721 BC throughout history and even into the modern world This meant the two subdivisions of the tribe of Dan intermarried with different tribes and groups and took on two distinct temperaments. The Danites on the seacoast of the Promised Land were a maritime tribe during the time of the Judges (Judges 5:17), and secular history records the “Danaan” were a known part of the Sea Peoples of the Mediterranean region at that time. The Danaan were, undoubtedly, the tribe of Dan. At the time of the exile of all Israelite tribes (circa 740-721 BC), the Danites on the seacoast migrated in fleets of ships (along with many from the tribe of Simeon) and sailed to the Israelite/Phoenician colonies in ancient Ireland and the British Isles (secular history records their arrival in that region by the names: Tuatha de Danaan and the Simonii. The landlocked portion of the tribe of Dan escaped the Assyrian captivity by migrating with several other Israelite tribes to the region north of the Black Sea where they were afterwards among the people called “Sacae” by the Greeks, “Saka” by the Persians, and “Goths” (and later, “Germans” and “Saxons”) by the Romans. The Danites by the Black Sea re-named all the major rivers emptying into the Black Sea with Danite/Israelite names (the Danube, the Don, the Dniester, the Dniepr). When the Israelites (called Goths, Germans and Saxons by the Romans) migrated into Europe after the collapse of the Parthian Empire, the Danites migrated into Europe as well and, very predictably, kept their tribal name and were known as the ”Danes.” They now live in Danmark (Denmark in the English language). The Irish are the descendants of the Danites who sailed to ancient Ireland. Both the Irish and Danes have a strong maritime history, as one would expect of Danites (Judges 5:17).
 
Now back to Revelation 7′s enigma. Whenever we are confronted with a scriptural enigma, it is always wise to place the issue in its proper context, examining the verses that precede or follow the questionable verses to try and find an explanation for the enigma or apparent conflict. When we do this in Revelation 7, I think the answer leaps right out at us. Before the listing of the tribes in Revelation 7:5-8, please read verses 3-4 which sets the stage for the listing of the tribes. The King James Version states: “Hurt not the earth…till we have sealed the servants of our God…And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of Israel (emphasis added).” The Amplified Version of the Bible records the number sealed as 144,000 “out of every tribe of the sons of Israel (emphasis added).” Notice that the Bible itself says all or every one of the tribes of Israel were to be included in the list that followed.The Bible did not say any tribe would be excluded from the tribal listing. The listing itself indicates a scribe in the distant past got confused about how to list the Israelite tribes in a way where the math would work out to 144,000. As anyone knows, there are 13 tribes of Israel listed in the Bible. But the math of Revelation 7 will only work out if 12 tribes are listed. You cannot list all 13 tribes and have the math work out. There is good evidence this confused an ancient scribe who was translating an ancient manuscript of the Bible, and, having to leave out one of the 13 tribes to make the math work out properly, he arbitrarily left out the tribe of Dan. The language of the listing of the tribes supports this viewpoint.
 
Careful readers of this tribal listing will also notice that the tribe of Ephraim is also named nowhere in this tribal listing. However, the tribe of Joseph is listed in verse 8. It was the tribe of Joseph which was subdivided into two tribes (Ephraim and Manasseh) to boost the total of Israelite tribes to 13. Therefore, in this listing of tribes in Revelation 7:5-8, Ephraim is directly mentioned nowhere, but is included indirectly in the word “Joseph” in verse 8. Manasseh is also referred to indirectly in the word “Joseph” in verse 8, but Manasseh is also listed directly in verse 6. Dan is mentioned neither directly or indirectly. The result is that Manasseh is actually included twice in this tribal listing and Dan got left out. I believe a confused scribe very long ago who did not understand Israelite history very well inadvertently mentioned Manasseh twice and forgot to include Dan. Since Revelation 7:4 clearly states it was God’s inspired intent that “all” the “sons” (KJV) or ”children” (Amplified) of Israel”  were to be included in the list, this is the only logical conclusion. Clearly, if Revelation 7:4 is inspired and correct, then the tribal listing that follows that verse didn’t faithfully list all the twelve sons of Jacob/Israel who gave birth to the eventual 12 (and later the 13) tribes of Israel.
 
It is well-known that a very few translational errors have crept into the Bible. For example, Acts 12:4 in the King James Version was incorrectly translated as “Easter” (most likely because the translators knew King James of England didn’t want to “Judaize” the text). Some KJV Bibles do have a marginal reference that the word was literally “Passover.” This translation error was corrected in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible (and other later versions) which correctly translated the word as “Passover.” I’m sure many readers are also familiar with Bibles which put some phrases in italics because it is not certain whether those phrases should be in the Bible or not as some ancient manuscripts include them and others don’t include them. So, in conclusion, I think a confused ancient scribe accidentally included Manasseh twice and deleted Dan in the listing which was clearly supposed to list all twelve of the sons of Israel. The use of the word “Joseph” in the tribal listing makes it clear the scribe should simply have listed all of the original twelve sons of Jacob/Israel and then the terminology and the math would have worked out perfectly.
 
So, all of you with Irish and Danish ancestries can relax. God did not mean to exclude you from anything.

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History Channel Program Recommended! – New

Monday, January 21st, 2013
This post is to pass on to readers news about a very interesting and enlightening program that is being aired weekly on the History2 (H2) channel. It is called “America Unearthed” and it examines and documents the generally-suppressed, pre-Columbian history of North America. I only recently learned about the program by channel-flipping on my own.
 
Last week the program documented the presence of ancient Irish ogam inscriptions in western Oklahoma, and showed that the cave in which they were found illuminated certain sun-worship scenes inside the cave during either an equinox or solstice sun-setting event. The program interviewed an Irish linguist which indicated that ogam inscriptions were used by the ancient Irish Celts about a millennium before Columbus. The cave also included a depiction of the Egyptian deity, Anubis. The program concluded that the makers of the ogam inscription were devotees of Mithraism.
 
Previous programs have examined apparent evidence of ancient Norse presences in North America long before Columbus and a detailed examination of the ancient copper mines of Isle Royale in the Lake Superior region. These copper mines are mentioned and analyzed in my books and, based on radiocarbon dating that some of the mines were worked to exhaustion around 1000 BC (the approximate time of King David’s alliance with King Hiram of the Phoenicians), my books conclude that the vast amounts of copper ores amassed by King David for the temple his son, Solomon would build, originated in the Lake Superior region. I Chronicles 22:3 refers to the iron and brass (a copper alloy) accumulated by David for the future Temple as being “beyond calculation” (marginal note, KJV) These vast copper ores and alloys accumulated by King David for the Temple were not mined in the Holy Land and since the copper mines In Lake Superior generated vast amounts of copper ores that were not used in ancient North America, it is clear to me that the missing ancient copper ores from Lake Superior were mined by the Israelites/Phoenicians and shipped to the Holy Land as the radiocarbon dates match the biblical narrative.The History Channel program opines that the missing ancient Lake Superior cooper mines were used in ancient Europe, but even that conclusion would establish that trading routes existed between the Old and New World in the time of King David.  
 
I urge you to watch the channel if your cable or satellite system receives it. It airs on Friday nights at 9 PM (Central Time). Times may vary in your area. Future programs may examine more ancient North American artifacts that are discussed in my books.

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Book Review: Grey Wolf—The Escape of Adolph Hitler

Tuesday, November 27th, 2012
Book Name: Grey Wolf–The Escape of Adolph Hitler
Authors: Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Williams
Year Released: 2011
 
Some of you are thinking: “Everyone ‘knows’ Hitler and Eva Braun died in a Berlin bunker at the end of the war.” That is exactly what we were all led to believe. That is what not only the Nazis but also the allies wanted the world to believe. However, the bodies of “Hitler and Eva Braun” proved to be the bodies of their real-life doubles and a portion of Hitler’s supposed skull, taken from the Berlin bunker but stored in Russia, was proven to be the skull of a woman when it was forensically tested long after the war ended. This book notes that Stalin never believed Hitler died in the bunker and that US General Eisenhower stated after the war: “There is every assumption that Hitler is dead, but not a bit of conclusive proof that he is dead” (emphasis not added). Russian Marshall Zhukov stated after the war was over: “We found no corpse that could be Hitler’s.” I’ll bet you didn’t hear any of those quotes in your history books.
 
I’m putting this post in the ten tribes blog as the life of Adolph Hitler affected virtually all the tribes of Israel in a very damaging way. The most damaged of all was the tribe of Judah, millions of whose members perished or endured the Nazi Holocaust. Since Genesis 49:5-7 prophesies that the tribes of Levi and Simeon will be scattered among the other tribes in the latter days, some of their members had to perish with the Jews in the death camps. The tribe of Levi would be especially intermingled with the tribe of Judah due to the prominence of the names Levi, Levine, Levinson, etc. and Cohen, Kahn, Kahane, etc. (which derive from the Hebrew word, Kohan, which means “priest”) among Jewish names. However, the modern nations of Ephraim and Manasseh (the British nations and the USA, respectively), were heavily involved in fighting Adolph Hitler’s Nazi regime, and Reuben (France), Zebulon (Holland), Benjamin (Norway), part of Dan (Denmark), etc. were occupied by the Germans in World War II. Issachar (Finland) was caught between Germany and Russia in the fighting; however, Naphtali (neutral Sweden) actually profited from its extensive iron ore trade with the Nazis throughout the war, as the book reveals. Since my own books identify the tribe of Gad as being part of the overall German nation, its members were also devastated by the Nazi rule of Germany.
 
This recently-released book has received almost no publicity. I’m not surprised as its revelations are most uncomfortable to just about everyone in the leadership of the modern western world. It is fascinating in many ways. It details, with very copious documentation, a secret deal that was made between the allies (particularly the USA) and the top Nazis as World War II neared its end. This ultra-secret deal resulted in the Nazis giving to the USA full lists of all the stolen artwork and where it was stored all over Europe, examples and blueprints of advanced German “wonder weapons,” the state-of-the-art rocketry crew led by SS Major Werner von Braun which had sent a missile into outer space before the war ended and invented the V-2 ballistic missiles, the Nazi’s only nuclear reactor, its heavy water supplies, and 1,100 tons of uranium ore that has been part of Germany’s nuclear development program. The Nazis greatly feared the communists and (accurately) saw Russia as the next enemy to be faced by the western world, and they wanted the USA, the strongest western nation, to have everything the Germans could give them to confront the threat of Soviet Communism after the war. The USA (and allies) in return, had to turn a blind eye to the escape of Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun, Martin Bormann, Klaus Barbie, Dr. Josef Mengele, and thousands of other top- and middle-ranking Nazis and SS men. This book makes the case that this deal was arranged via neutral Switzerland through the office of Allen Dulles, the local OSS leader. To facilitate these top-secret deals, Allen Dulles even had a direct radiotelephone link installed between himself and SS German General Kaltenbrunner and Reichsleiter Martin Bormann as the war neared its end. General Eisenhower set up top-secret detachments with personal letters from him to override the orders of any allied commander so these special detachments could go at breakneck speed to each location provided by Martin Bormann to recapture all the Nazi loot, technological secrets, etc. before the Soviets did. Since many sites, including the one holding most of the German uranium ore, were located in the Soviet zone, Eisenhower sent these teams deep into the Soviet zone to seize and extract these critical items before the duped Russians could locate them.
 
The exact air and sea escape route of Hitler, Eva Braun and Martin Bormann out of Europe and into Argentina is detailed in the book. Indeed, Martin Bormann felt so safe in post-war Europe that he didn’t leave for Argentina until 1947, two years after the war ended. Spain’s Fascist dictator, Francisco Franco, and Argentina’s leader Juan Peron, were indispensable to the escape of many Nazis, as were some Vatican leaders.  
 
Martin Bormann saw the war was lost as early as 1943 and began to prepare a hiding place in remote Patagonia for the escaping Fuhrer and many top Nazis. The plundered wealth, artwork and gold bullion of occupied Europe made this possible. It was laundered, stored and routed to front companies in neutral nations via very-willing Swiss banks. The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) is particularly singled out in the book as the bank most helpful to the Nazis. The book has an entire chapter on what happened to European nations’ central bank gold reserves during the war. The routing and custody trail of the Belgian central bank gold is so bizarre that it would warrant a movie. This book offers historical evidence regarding how the global bankers dominated nations and profited from their ruin and bloodshed. It presents the global banking fraternity as being just as corrupt as Revelation 17-18 prophesies the end-time leaders of Babylon the Great to be just before their prophesied “hard fall” during the latter days. Indeed, it presents England’s and Germany’s top bankers as remaining best chums during the war whenever they met in neutral Switzerland to work jointly on matters being conducted by the Bank of International Settlements.
 
In case you are unconvinced yet, the book has a photo of Dr. Megele taken in a Brazlian restaurant in the 1970s, a photo of Hitler’s luxurious Patagonia chalet, and even redacted internal FBI documents about Hitler sightings in Argentina until 1962 when he died. As some small comfort to readers, Hitler died in ignominy and great pain.
 
The book also documents that many top German leaders (Himmler, Bormann, Kaltenbrunner, etc.) tried to arrange a deal with the Allies up to two years before the war ended, offering to kill Hitler and his top loyalists and join the Allies in fighting Russia’s communists. According to the book, Churchill, Eisenhower, Patton and others were receptive to the German offer, but FDR, ever-loyal to Joe Stalin, refused to consider it. Oddly, if the Allies had accepted this offer, the war in the West would have been reached far earlier and the death camps would have been exposed and shut down perhaps during the last 18 months of their operations. If the Allies had agreed to an early deal that would have had German and SS leaders kill Hitler, perhaps two million Jews who died in the last two years of the war would have lived. This book is full of surprises. One is that Allen Dulles caught US Vice-President Wallace with incriminating evidence of his involvement with US secrets being given to the enemy which required FDR to remove him from the Democratic ticket and replace him with Harry Truman. The post World-War II world would have been very different if the leftist Henry Wallace had become president of the USA after FDR’s death instead of Harry Truman. There are many more secrets revelaed in this book. You’ll have to read it to learn them all. I highly recommend this book!
 
I bought my copy on Amazon.com. It is also sold via Edward R. Hamilton Bookseller Co., PO Box 15, Falls Village, CT  06031-0015.

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Rahab’s “White Lie”

Sunday, November 11th, 2012
This post is about an event that happened during the ancient history of the ten tribes of Israel, but it could potentially have vital importance to readers of this blog now or in the future. The incident involves Rahab, a woman who sheltered two Israelite spies who had entered the city of Jericho which was targeted for attack by the Israelites who were about to enter the Promised Land under their warrior-leader, Joshua.
 
Rahab was a harlot, so she was not someone of pristine character at the time this event happened. Joshua 2 tells us about this episode. The two Israelites spies “lodged” at Rahab’s place (a brothel?), and this would have been a logical “cover” for the Israelite spies as unknown travelers could, no doubt, be expected to stay at a harlot’s place without arousing much suspicion from the locals. However, it was then a time of imminent warfare, and the local Jericho security apparatus was on top of the situation. The king of Jericho was told about the Israelite spies and their whereabouts. The king of Jericho sent his agents to talk to Rahab about them to determine the Israelite spies’ location. Rahab decided to risk her life by lying to the king’s agents and hid the two spies. She told the king’s agents that the two spies had left her place and likely left the city at the time the city’s gates were closed for the evening. She essentially said “they went that-a-way” and pointed the king’s agents in the wrong direction.
 
Obviously, since Rahab was knowingly hiding the two spies, she told a lie (a “whopper”) to the king’s agents. This brings us to the question of “Is there such a thing as a “white lie?” The biblical account of this event clearly shows the answer to be “yes.” Indeed, the Bible shows God so approved of Rahab’s white lie that it landed her in the Hebrews 11 ”faith chapter’s” hall of fame (verse 31)! It is also worth noting that in spite of the instruction in Romans 13:1-7 that local authorities are to be obeyed, Rahab deliberately disobeyed her local authorities and was highly commended by God for doing so. However, this was an exceptional situation in which Rahab took this action.
 
Let’s examine Rahab’s action to see what we can learn from it today.
 
To begin with, the Bible is full of many strong injunctions against lying. One of the Ten Commandments forbids “bearing false witness.” However, even as the fourth commandment that requires resting on the Sabbath has the biblically-permitted “ox-in-the-ditch” exception (Luke 14:5), the account of Rahab confirms that the commandment against bearing false witness also has exceptions. However, we must realize that these exceptions apply only to very exceptional circumstances.
 
In Rahab’s case, she deliberately lied to save the lives of two Israelites (the good guys) from the murderous intent of the agents of the king of Jericho (the bad guys). If she had told the truth, she would have been an accomplice to the murder of the “good guys” (a far greater sin than telling a white lie). She told her lie in an espionage situation during wartime conditions (the invasion of the Israelites was imminent). This was an exceptional circumstance, and it gives people the right to tell a white lie to save the lives or safety of good people from bad people. In the well-known book, The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom, there is an account of a very devout Dutch woman (Corrie’s sister I think) who felt that the command to not lie was so absolute that she even told the truth to the Nazi Gestapo when asked if a particular blue-eyed, blond woman was a Jew. By telling the truth, she put the Jewess into captivity and put her life in grave jeopardy. This incident took place in a situation where the Gestapo was searching for the good people (the Jews) so they could kill them and it occurred in wartime conditions. This incident paralleled the circumstances in the account of Rahab. Corrie Ten Boom’s sister could have said, with a totally clear conscience: “Are you kidding? This woman is blue-eyed and blond-haired. You can see she can’t be a Jew!”
 
Does this have any application to readers today or in the future? It may, indeed. In any given month, my webstats show that readers from approximately 120 nations visit my website. In many nations, people do not enjoy the civil rights now taken for granted by Americans and citizens of western democracies. If there is a situation where persecuting authorities or roving militias are seeking to kill Christians, Jews or whoever is an innocent person, believers can tell white lies (as did Rahab) to save the lives of the innocent from evildoers.
 
A case in point is in this link, which reports that Sunni Moslem rebels in Syria’s current civil war include radical Jihadis who are now killing Christians. A Syrian person who wished to spare innocent lives would be permitted by the Bible to tell a white lie to save the lives of innocent Christians (i.e. “Is he a Christian? Of course not!”). Other nations may also have similar situations. An Afghan or a Pakistani may have to tell a white lie to spare an innocent Christian or Jew (if there are any Jews left in those nations). There are regular reports of Christians being persecuted in Islamic nations or in mixed Christian/Islamic nations. Christians can also be persecuted in China or other atheist nations. Also, none of us knows what may happen in our own nations in the future. Nations which take civil liberties for granted may not always have them in the future. The agents of the prophesied, future Beast authority will be seeking to persecute or kill Christians/believers (and possibly Jews) in the future (Matthew 24:9-12, Revelation 13:15). You now know that if you are in a position to save innocent people from evildoers, you can tell a white lie to save them.
 
There is one last lesson to be learned from the account of Rahab. Rahab was a non-Israelite “hooker” who no doubt did not observe Torah laws, but she feared the power of the God of Israel and acted to save people who were the servants of the true God. She and her family were spared alive as a result of her taking this action and telling her white lie. They were the only ones spared in the entire walled city of Jericho. This account shows that God will show favor to those who act to help and save his people, no matter what their nationality or condition of sinfulness may be.
 
http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/horror-in-syria-executing-christians/

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Lost Ten Tribes Book Now an Amazon/Kindle Book

Wednesday, November 7th, 2012
This post is to announce that my first book, The “Lost” Ten Tribes of Israel…Found!, has just been released in Kindle format on Amazon.com (see first link). The cost is $12.99, the same price for which this book sells at my my website as a downloadable e-book. However, with its release in Kindle format, it can now be downloaded to mobile electronic devices when ordered. Hopefully, this will make the book available to more people who wish to read it while they are traveling or moving about in some manner.
 
This book was originally released in print format in 1996 and has been out-of-print in book format after the fourth printing was sold out years ago. However, that book was then sold on Amazon.com and there are 21 “reader reviews” still available at Amazon.com describing reader’s reactions to my book’s content and point-of-view (see second link). For those who have been wondering whether to purchase this book at my website (or now in Kindle format at Amazon.com), I invite you to read these reader’s reviews to see how others have reacted and rated my book. The reader reviews are overwhelmingly positive, and I am pleased to see that my book is very highly-ranked in these reader reviews at Amazon’s website. I will acknowledge that two of the readers who posted reviews are known to me (one acknowledges that fact). The other 19 reviews are from strangers who posted their reviews without my awareness or knowledge so they are unbiased and unprompted reviews.
 
If you have not read my book, I invite you to order it in the format that best suits your lifestyle. It will permanently alter your views of world history and the Bible as you will see that a provable, Divine purpose has been worked out in human history over the millennia of mankind’s existence on this planet. My book merges secular and biblical history together in a way which makes it both interesting and much more personal to readers. I also wrote the book in a non-denominational perspective and it neither advocates or denigrates anyone’s denominational viewpoints. My book was intended to strengthen the faith of believers in any Christian denomination. There is no need for me to “plug” my book further. You can read the Amazon.com reader reviews and see how others have benefited from reading it. I hope that you will make a decision to do so as well.
 
http://goo.gl/DBabB
 
http://goo.gl/XCwxB

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Should Christians Vote?

Wednesday, October 24th, 2012
Upon reading the title of this post, I’m sure there are many readers who are reacting with thoughts like; “Why is this post necessary? Of course Christians should vote!” However, to such Christians, I will reply that I have known many Christians (including good friends) who think Christians should not vote. They fear that they may be too much a part of the system of “this world” if they vote and since Revelation 18:4 warns Christians to “come out” of Babylon the Great’s corrupt end-time system to avoid partaking in its plagues, they fear voting may be a failure to “come out” of this world’s system. Such believers also sometimes cite Daniel 4:17 which states that God puts on thrones whomsoever he wishes, and they are concerned that they may be resisting God’s will if they vote contrary to God’s will.
 
For this reason I am writing this post, which is very timely as the USA is about to hold a critically-important presidential election. Right at the start, I will state my opinion: I think that Christians should vote in every election in which they have a chance to do so. Here are my reasons.
 
Daniel 4:17 is entirely true, but it has no application to our modern voting process. Ancient kingdoms had no elections and kings came into power via dynastic succession, wars, assassinations, etc. God decided the overall outcome of royal dynasties or the accession of kings as he needed to do so to fulfill his prophecies about nations. The early apostolic church had no right to vote for any Roman Caesar or any local Roman leader. However, we can learn something instructive by looking at the life of Paul. He was a Roman citizen and he asserted his Roman citizenship rights in order to be released from prison on trumped-up charges (Romans 16:36-39). Paul also asserted his Roman citizenship rights to avoid a scourging in Acts 22:25-29. Paul also was rescued by a detachment of Roman cavalry from a band of Jews seeking to kill him because he was a Roman citizen (Acts 23:12-17). While we tend to overlook it, Paul’s ability to travel all over the Roman Empire, using its roads and maritime transportation system unimpeded by anyone, was due to the fact that he was a Roman citizen. Paul also asserted another Roman citizenship right by appealing directly to Caesar to avoid death or the punishment of a kangaroo court (Acts 25:1-12, 25). The book of Acts makes it clear that Paul asserted his Roman citizenship rights and used them! Doing so in no way made him part of “the world” in God’s eyes.
 
When the United States was founded, our rights were given to us by the US Constitution, which I firmly believe was given to us by God as a system of government that would be a blessing to our nation. The provisions of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (voting, bearing arms, freedoms of speech, assembly and religion) protect Americans from despotism. The Constitution was written and ratified by Christians…for an educated Christian nation.
 
Just as Paul asserted whatever citizenship rights he had as a Roman citizen, Americans (or citizens of other nations) should likewise feel free to assert their citizenship rights as well. For Americans, the right to vote will be available to us on November 6, 2012 (or earlier if you are in a state allowing early voting). Paul had no right to vote for Roman leaders, but given his willingness to assert whatever Roman citizenship rights he did have, I have no doubt he would have voted if that had also been a Roman citizenship right.
 
There is a latter-day prophecy that strongly indicates that it was God’s will that the latter-day nations of the tribes of Israel would all be democracies (which is exactly what has happened). Jeremiah 30 is a prophecy to both Judah and the ten tribes of Israel in the latter days (verse 24) and verses 1-8 about “Jacob’s Trouble” clearly are for the latter days. This means that Judah (the Israelis/Jews) and the modern nations descended from the ancient ten tribes of Israel (the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, all Scandinavian and many European nations) are being addressed in this prophecy. Verse 21 states that, in the latter days, “their nobles shall be of themselves and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them” (emphasis added). This is a vitally-important prophecy, and I mention it in several of my books about the history and locations of the modern Israelite tribes. It prophesies that the ruling officials of the latter-day nations of Judah (the Israelis) and the nations of the ten tribes of Israel shall come forth not from royal appointments or decrees, but from the midst of the people! In other words, commoners can be governors and government officials. How can this happen? Only via a process which allows elections!
 
I think it is clear that Christians not only can vote with clear consciences, but they should vote! Indeed, the higher the percentage of Christians that vote in an election campaign, the more righteous should be the outcomes. Proverbs 28:4 adds: “They that forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law contend with them” (emphasis added). God expects the righteous to “contend” against the wicked in a society! How do you do that in our modern democracies? By participating in the electoral process! Christians, in order to obey Proverbs 28:4, should vote, make phone calls or post yard signs for Godly candidates, contact elected representatives regarding important issues that come before legislatures and Congress for votes, etc. Have Christians considered that in the Judgment, God may ask them: “I gave you the right to participate in your nation’s selection of leaders and influence the course of legislative actions: To what extent did you obey me and exercise these rights I gave you so you could ‘contend’ against the wicked one who tried to corrupt your society?”
 
I’d like to state that I have voted in every presidential election that I had a legal right to do so, and this year I have already voted for Mitt Romney in the presidential election as my state, South Dakota, allows early voting. Given the choice between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, I can’t imagine that any Christian would vote for the latter candidate. Since my website is not a 501(3)C entity, I am free to openly urge readers to vote for Mitt Romney and I do so!
 
In conclusion, I have one last thing to say to believers who feel they should not vote. There is one being who is thrilled with your decision not to vote. That being is Satan. The more that Christians neglect to exercise their right to vote in an election, the more the unrighteous voters will be the ones determining the outcome of national and local elections. Christians choosing not to vote ought to ponder this fact for a while…and then go vote for the candidates that have the closest to Christian values in each electoral race.

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Israeli-Greek Alliance Grows Stronger

Friday, July 27th, 2012
Several months ago I posted that Israel and Greece were forming a new military alliance. Today’s links confirm that this alliance is growing steadily stronger. The first link reports that Greece has permitted the Israeli navy to hold live-fire Israeli naval exercises in Greek waters. When a nation allows another nation to hold live-fire military exercise in its own territorial waters, that is a very strong sign of major military cooperation between the two nations.
 
The second link reports that the top Greek admiral visited the Israeli nation and received red-carpet treatment. The Greek admiral cited the “strong cooperation” between Greece and the Israelis. Both Greece and Turkey are NATO members, but Turkey and Greece are historic rivals. Turkey had been building a good relationship with the Israelis, but Turkey’s current leader is very anti-Israeli and Turkish-Israeli relations are in the deep-freeze. Greece has gladly moved into a military alliance with the Israelis to fill the void created by Turkey’s exit. That the Israelis are a strong regional nuclear power makes this alliance even more valuable to Greece. Israel benefits by having an ally in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea as it gives the Israeli military alternate ports and airbases and strategic depth in the event of a future Mideast war.
 
Some Christians look at Zechariah 12:3 and form an opinion that biblical prophecy foretells all nations will turn against the Israelis (who are called “Judah” in biblical prophecy). The scripture does not actually foretell such a thing. It states: “…all that burden themselves with it [Jerusalem--the Israeli capital] shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.”  While this is a promise that God will not abandon the Israelis (the Israelite tribe of “Judah”) in the latter days even if all the other nations of the earth do so, the prophecy does not actually include a declarative statement saying “all nations of the earth shall forsake Judah in the latter days.” God is stressing his faithfulness to Judah during the latter days in this prophecy and the phrase “though all the other nations of the earth” is more of a rhetorical “if” statement instead of a straightforward prophecy that every other nation will forsake the Israelis. The Israelis have allies in the world. The American people (if not the Obama administration) are overwhelmingly pro-Israeli. The Germans build the top quality submarines for the Israeli navy, many European nation enjoy good relations with the Israelis and Greece has become a very strong ally recently. Behind the scenes, the Saudis, Jordanians and other Sunni Arab nations have been drawing closer to the Israelis in a de-facto anti-Iranian alliance as were the Egyptians before the radicals overthrew the Mubarak administration in that nation.  
 
I fully expect that the Israelis will be part of the western alliance at the end of our age, and I expect they will have a goodly number of allies.
 
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/157892#.UARVypFhKYI
 

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“The Harbinger”

Wednesday, July 4th, 2012
This post will be different than most of my posts as it is a review of a book which has very important relevance for modern America’s destiny and also documents the reasons why the ancient kingdom of Israel (which consisted of the ten tribes of Israel) fell and went into exile. The book is entitled The Harbinger and it is authored by Jonathan Cahn. It has been on the New York Times best-seller list.
 
While the book is a fictional story, it presents solid, biblical warnings (“harbingers”) to modern America within the framework of its fictional narrative. The book sees many parallels between the downfall of the ancient kingdom of Israel ruled by the ten tribes of Israel and the current decline of the Untied States of America. It also sees parallels between the ancient capital of the kingdom of Israel, Samaria, and the modern capital of the United States of America, Washington, DC. It is set in modern, post 9/11 times and sees the events of 9/11 as the beginning of a final series of warnings to the modern United States of America, a nation with a Christian heritage that is abandoning God and his laws.
 
I don’t want to give away the content of the book, but I will mention one of its primary points. In the aftermath of 9/11 the highest American officials cited an obscure verse from the book of Isaiah (9:10) as they expressed the defiance of the USA and its determination to rebuild better than ever after the attack of 9/11. The officials are not named in the book, but it does name their high federal governmental positions. Based on the context of the book, I believe it identified President Obama, Vice-President Biden and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle as some of the national leaders who have cited this verse in post-9/11 declarations. As the book makes clear, these leaders had no idea of the proper biblical context in which this verse was located in the Bible. That verse contains the statements of the leaders of the ancient biblical kingdom of Israel, who, after an initial invasion of Assyria in 732 BC, defiantly declared that they would rely on their own human strength to rebuild the nation and that they would not repent to God for their sins as the prophets had called them to do. Unknowingly, America’s leaders have been repeating a defiant and arrogant declaration of ancient Israel’s unrepentant leaders in the aftermath of 9/11. The book documents many other geographic and near-miraculous parallels between the events of 9/11 and the wordings cited in Isaiah 9:10.
 
I’ll mention just one other point. The date of the initial Assyrian invasion which struck at and weakened ancient Israel but did not yet destroy or defeat it is cited as being in 732 BC. While biblical histories and commentaries disagree on the final date of the fall of Samaria and the collapse of the kingdom of ancient Israel, one date often cited for that final collapse is 721 BC. Do the math and you will see that there were 11 years between 732 BC and 721 BC. If we can apply the parallels cited in the book to modern America, eleven years after 9/11 brings us to the year 2012, our current year. Most specifically, it would bring us to the time of September, 2012 for a major crisis if these parallels prove to have divinely-ordained significance. It would not necessarily be on September 11th as the dates on the biblical Hebrew calendar do not coincide with out modern secular calendar. The collapse may also not take the form of a complete national collapse of the USA, but it could be a “harbinger” re: the fall of Babylon the Great, the modern system of monetary and financial rulership of the USA, which is prophesied in Revelation 17-18.
 
This book will be especially interesting to long-time readers of this blog who know that the USA is the primary nation in the modern world which is actually composed of the descendants of the ancient ten-tribed kingdom of ancient Israel. If the author of the book, a self-professed Messianic Jew, had realized that the people of the USA actually are the descendants of the ancient kingdom of Israel, his biblical parallels would be many times more riveting and applicable. For irrefutable evidence that modern America is descended from the ancient ten tribes of Israel (most specifically the tribe of Manasseh), I urge you to order my 4-book set on the Israelite migrations throughout history or download the E-book on the same subject, The “Lost” Ten Tribes of Israel…Found! which is available at this website’s homepage for a mere $12.99. You may also access my free article, USA in Biblical Prophecy, or listen to any of my audio messages available for free at the “speeches” tab at the website’s homepage. They will give you a strong presentation about the main points documented extensively in the texts, the bibliographies and the chapter endnotes of my books.
 
The book, The Harbinger, warns that the USA, like any covenant nation God has founded and blessed, is now in a phase of increasing judgments from God to wake us up to the need to national repentance before ultimate national judgment falls on it. Since the book was written, President Obama has openly declared he accepts “gay marriage,” and he is the first US president to ever do so. Since God labels homosexuality as an abomination to him in both the Old and New Testaments (Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, Romans 1:26-28) , this is an open slap in the face from the US president to God Himself. These kinds of actions indicate America is choosing national judgment instead of national repentance.
 
Please understand I am making no predictions about 2012 or any other year when God’s ultimate judgment will fall on the USA and many other nations as well. However, I recommend this book to all readers of this website. I think you will find it very inspiring and enlightening.

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Brother of Jesus Ossuary Proven Authentic!

Saturday, June 16th, 2012
Many readers are, no doubt, aware of the prolonged controversy in an Israeli courtroom about whether a now-famous ossuary from the 1st century was the actual ossuary box for the bones of James, the brother of Jesus Christ himself. In the recently-released July-August issue of Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR), there is an article entitled “Brother of Jesus Inscription is authentic!” 
 
The trial verdict in this case confirmed that the inscription on the ossuary box is authentic and the article further asserts that the inscription dates to the time period of 6-70 AD, lending further support to the belief that this is the burial box of the bones of James the Apostle. Herschel Shanks, the Editor of BAR, states frankly: “There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the inscription on the James Ossuary…”  Two of the most prominent paleography experts in the world also agree. The article does a thorough job of debunking the objections of those who tried to assert the inscription includes forged letters and the motives behind their actions, so I will let you examine that information in the article for yourself (link).
 
The article also examines the issue of whether the “James, the son of Joseph, the brother of Jesus” inscription on the ossuary box designates the very Apostle James of the Bible or whether it was someone else who coincidentally had all the same names and relationships in their own family. This issue has to be considered. A mathematical probability examination of this matter concluded that “with a confidence level of 95%, we can expect there to be 1.71 individuals in the relevant population named James with a father named Joseph and a brother Jesus.” That means there is a very good statistical chance that the ossuary box is, indeed, that of James the Apostle. The article also notes that it was very atypical for ossuary inscriptions of the time to include the name of a deceased brother unless the brother had “importance and fame.” This very much supports the case that this is the very ossuary box of James the Apostle as his brother, Jesus Christ, was the most famous “Jesus” of that time in Jerusalem and Judea.
 
A further point supports this conclusion. The article notes that the family of the occupant of the ossuary box had to be “fairly well-off to afford an ossuary (and a burial cave in which it would be placed).” As I note in my book, biblical evidence indicates that Jesus (and his family) were well-to-do, and that Jesus was not a poor carpenter at all. His uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, was a “rich man” (Matthew 27:57) who could purchase in advance a burial cave for a tomb (Matthew 27:60). Joseph of Arimathea was very prominent in Judean and Roman society of that time, as my books document, and the fact that he was granted instant access to Pilate himself at a very troubled and politically-charged time confirms his status (Matthew 27:57-58). Joseph of Arimathea’s money would very likely have been used to bury not only Jesus Christ, but James the Apostle in a expensive and honorable manner, as Joseph of Arimathea was a “rich uncle” to James as well as Jesus. Since the Bible clearly shows Joseph of Arimathea was closely involved with and funded the burial of Jesus’ body, it is logical to assume he took the same role in burying and funding the remains of James. However, Jesus himself was wealthy as he traveled for three and one-half years in a large band of either “the 70″ or “the 12″ which did not work at jobs and had no visible means of support the entire time. Indeed, they had so much money in their band that they periodically gave gifts to the poor (John 13:29) and Judas the Treasurer thought his embezzlements wouldn’t even be noticed (John 12:6). Jesus Christ would have been made very wealthy himself by the costly gifts of “gold, frankincense and myrrh” given to him by the Parthian “Wise Men” or “Magi” who gave him kingly gifts when Jesus was a small child (Matthew 2:1-12). I devote considerable time in my books to an examination of the visit of the Parthian Magi/Wise Men to the child Jesus as the Parthians were Senators and Priests of the vast Parthian Empire, an empire ruled by the ten tribes of Israel who had become ascendant over all the nations that had taken them into exile (fulfilling an explicit prophecy in Isaiah 14:2 that this would happen). The Bible does not limit their number to three, and it is my belief that they numbered either ten or twelve dignitaries (one for each of the ten tribes of Israel or all the tribes of Israel).
 
There are some who try and deny Jesus Christ ever lived, but I debunk that idea in my book as I cite specific references from the official annals of Rome as well as an account of Josephus that Jesus Christ both lived and performed miracles. The emergence of the ossuary box of James the Apostle, mentioning his famous brother, Jesus, is further evidence that Jesus Christ both lived and had the prominent life attributed to him in the Bible. I hope this boosts your faith!
 
I urge you to read the entire article in the link as I think you will find it most interesting.
 
http://www.bib-arch.org/bar/article.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=38&Issue=4&ArticleID=2

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