Reviews by Hubie Goode

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Chronological Bible

2012-01-02T09:48:00.000-08:00

The Daily Bible
Chronological Edition

Well, Happy New Year everyone! I'm looking forward to a brand new year full of blessing and I wish the same for all of you as well. Let's start it off with an exercise in daily Bible reading, spending time in God's word and keeping him in front of us. This is the Daily Bible put in chronological order, or the order in which things happened (as best as can be expected). I started this last year and was very blessed by the way this issue was done.

The compiler, F. LaGard Smith, has put together a Bible you may have never seen put together quite like this before and I found it to be a great way to go through the word. I highly recommend it. However, it starts now, with the beginning of the year so you had best get cracking on getting your issue. I don't have much more to say on this other than that it is one of the best Bibles I have ever read. Get one for yourself!

Happy New Year, Hubie

Reviews by Hubie Goode: The Life and Times of King David part 5

2011-11-11T11:54:00.000-08:00

The Life and

Times of King

David

part 5

When king David finally learned about his son’s insurrection, it was almost too late. His court had become divided over his leadership and the people had formed a social movement in favor of Absalom. Now aged and an unlikely competitor for the younger man, David was forced to flee his capital, across the Jordan to Mahanaim. Several hundred of his loyal followers went with him as he made his way east. These consisted of his servants, his runners, his soldiers and his household. However, his priests Abiathar and Zadok remained behind to report on Absalom’s actions.

Absalom's Pillar, which he built to himself, still exists.

Once outside the capital, David could then see the mood of the people. An old man assaulted him with rocks and curses. But to many of the people it looked as if David had given up the throne to Absalom. Many of them wept as he passed by, but in Jerusalem, Absalom took the capital without a struggle.

The chief adviser to Absalom recommended an immediate attack on Mahanaim, before David could gather his armies. He had about 12,000 men under his command, more than enough to claim victory if he did indeed act swiftly. But a second adviser told Absalom to mobilize all of Israel against his father. This man, Hushai, had pledged allegiance to Absalom but in reality he was a double agent for David. His suggestion was a play for time as David gathered his forces.

Absalom

“You know that your father and his men are mighty men, and your father is expert in war.” Hushai told Absalom. There was enough truth in that statement to deter the young king long enough, and when he did finally attack, David was ready for him.

The battle was a rout, as the conscripted rookies of Absalom went up against the battle tested veterans of David’s troops. Thousands died in the battle and even though David had requested Absalom be spared, Joab took Absalom out as he hung from a tree by his own hair.

When notified, David went into mourning over his son. He had a great love for his children no matter what they had done to him, and he sequestered himself away in his bedroom. Joab knew that David risked losing his supporter by isolating himself and he confronted the King. “You shame those who love you today,” he told the king. “You make it clear that commanders and servants mean nothing to you as you love those who hate you and hate those who love you. If you don’t go out and speak to your men, then by morning there will be no one left!”

Joab was probably right and when David felt shame by his general’s accusation, he did indeed go out to the people. But before he could return to his capital a new cry of insurrection erupted. A man named Sheba, a Benjaminite, made one last effort to split the kingdom that was now under one rule. Joab, loyal to a fault, followed Sheba to the town of Abel, and the people of the town , in an effort to save their own hides, cut off Sheba’s head an threw it over the wall to Joab. Both insurrections and Sheba were now dead.

Adonija, David’s eldest surviving son, was now heir apparent. But at this time there was no precedent for succession to the throne. He was deeply concerned about the influence of Bathsheba, mother to his half brother Solomon. She had the powerful palace clique behind her and David was old and on his last legs. Adonijah had both Joab and the high priest Abiathar on his team, and he decided the time was ripe to strike. He took it upon himself to declare his King ship of Israel, and performed all the required activities for doing so. His supporters gathered for a festive banquet to celebrate.

When Bathsheba heard of this from the prophet Nathan, she went directly to the bedridden King. She told him of his son’s treacherous actions and reminded him of his promise to make Solomon king.

David immediately ordered the appointment of Solomon as King of Israel and gathered all of Solomon’s supporters for his own inauguration. When Adonijah’s followers heard the news, they quickly abandoned him. Adonijah sought sanctuary in the temple and was spared by Solomon.

Bathsheba presents Solomon to his father the King

By this time, David, former shepherd, had reigned in Jerusalem 33 years. The about the year 960 B.C., he died in a good old age, full of years, riches and honor. He had broadened the borders of Israel, and made her richer with the spoils of war. He left a golden age for his son Solomon who would succeed him in a time of unprecedented peace. To the world he left the city of Jerusalem, and of course, his beloved psalms.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: The Life and Times of King David part 4

2011-11-03T14:06:00.000-07:00

The procession of a King's Death

The Life and Times of

King David

part 4

Saul had created the first standing army in Israel’s history. David then took it and expanded it. The cream of the armed forces were known as the “thirty”. These were the men who had fought by David’s side in his outlaw days. They formed his honorary army council and served as sort of the “congress” of the army. Under Joab they commanded the two separate branches of David’s regular military army. One branch was recruited from the Sea people, Cretans and Aegeans, among others. The second branch was formed entirely from the assimilated Philistines.

Bodyguards for the King and the palace were formed from the men of Gath, or Gittites. These were men who also ran with David during the exile.

The army had some 2,000 well trained regulars, and there were also territorial contingents who could be called upon as were needed. These men came from the Israelite tribes and came in groups of 10, 50, 100 and 1,000 each and were lead by their own commanders.

The tools of defense were swords, javelins and spears. Armor was a helmet, a breast plate, leg guards and a leather covered wooden shield. Territorial accompaniments had to buy their own equipment. One of which, the two edged sword, was a tool of the wealthy. The rest used Ox goads, rough lances, wooden bows and arrows. Also included: bludgeons, axes and the sling.

With such a force at hand, and the elimination of the Philistine threat, David moved east toward the Jordan river. He launched wars of expansion which took advantage of the crumbling Babylonian empire. The Hittites were no longer a power in the Near East, and the Hurrians had been destroyed by the Hittites and Assyrians. The Assyrians themselves at this time were not in a position for further military aggression. Internal strife in the Egyptian administration had weakened them to the point that David would have to be ignored no matter whose toes he stepped on. David’s intel had notified him of all of these advantages for a free hand in the area and he took swift action to capitalize on the situation.

David’s forces rolled in he area. He defeated one after another, the peoples who were living there: the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Moabites, and then he took out the last of the Amelikites. The latter, for those who do not know, are considered the remaining vestige of the Nephilhelm, those mixed of human and demon descent.

He stretched his kingdom south from Edom, rich in copper mines, to the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea. This gave Israel a potential port. Eventually, Solomon would trade from there with Arabia and Africa. When David conquered the Arameans of eastern Syria, he gained control of all trade routes to the Euphrates river.

David took part in may of those campaigns, but usually it was the brilliant commander Joab who lead the troops while David stayed at the capital. On one such an occasion, when he should have been out leading the troops in battle, David allowed his idleness to get the best of him and create gateway for other problems. Above the city, on his palace roof, he looked down and saw Bathsheba bathing.

Bathsheba enticingly bathed in the open, but for most women
of her day, this was done indoors. Unscented oil was used like cold
cream to remove dirt, then scented oil would follow.

She was the wife of a Hittite soldier named Uriah. At the time he was with Joab battling the Ammonites. David, feeling that he was King after all, sent for Bathsheba and they tripped the light fantastic. She did, however, become pregnant by the king.

David immediately called Uriah home to his wife, no doubt believing that the lines between his child and Uriah’s child needed to be blurred as soon as possible for the up and coming date. Uriah, however, refused to return home. Instead he slept with his buddies at the door of the King’s house. A soldier in battle, kept himself sacramentally clean, and this meant no slap and tickle during war time. David then had to resort to legal murder in order to cover up the impending results of his dalliance. This meant legal murder. David had Joab send Uriah up front in the upcoming battle and then pull back behind him in order that he may be killed in action.

A clay figurine of the period

Uriah was of course killed, and Bathsheba went into mourning. When the time was over, David married her, and soon after she gave birth to a son. But the Lord was displeased with David’s soap opera movements, and he sent Nathan the prophet, to David.

The story was now well known throughout the country and Nathan addressed the King and said, “ Thus says the God of Israel, I anointed you King over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul; and I gave you your master’s house... and also that of Israel and Judah... and if this were too little I would add to you much more. Why have you done evil in the Lord’s sight?”

David accepted his guilt and confessed to his sin against God. He probably expected Nathan to pronounce a death sentence, but Nathan assured him that he was not to die. However, the child to be born would indeed die, and Nathan left him with that.

The child lay ill for six days and David did all he could to entreat the Lord to change his mind about the fate of the boy. But on the seventh day, the child did die. David, revealing the thoughts of those at the time as to what happens when we die, stated that it was he who would go to the child but the child would never return to him. Thus David had to live with the results of caving in to his own lust, as a fine officer and his own son, met their ends at his own hands. Bathsehba, however, would be the one to bear his future son, the future King Solomon.

Israel had become rich and secure under David, but as time passed he had become less and less of a favored celebrity. Fat with prosperity, and military superiority, the Israelites resented the taxes they had to pay, and the conscription of troops. David’s third born son, Absalom, took full advantage of the disgruntled populace.

David’s daughter, Tamar, had been raped by Amnon, David’s oldest son, and Absalom had him killed for it two years later. This was, however, a political move more than an act of vengeance, as Absalom had now been placed in the position of heir apparent. Tamar, never recovered.

Absalom then ran from what he knew would be David’s anger toward him. With the help of Joab, he managed a reconciliation with David a few years later. Unsatisfied, he then began to plot a rebellion among the people, hoping to gain David’s kingdom.

Absalom started politicking in the public squares and speaking out against his father’s negligence as a judge and telling the people what they wanted to hear from their leadership. He showed off before them with pomp and circumstance and turned many toward him as they became sold on his campaign.

For four years he campaigned against David while showing himself to be both proud and humble to the populace. Then suddenly he left for Hebron, with 200 of his followers. He told his people, “As soon as you hear the trumpet say: Absalom is King at Hebron!”

The time for open rebellion had come.

.. and ever since David’s dalliance with Bathsheba, strife had never left his home.

more on this next time.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: The Life and Times of King David part 3

2011-10-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

The City of David

The Life and Times of King David

part 3

David, being a man of his word and convictions, would not strike Saul. He loathed the thought of civil war for Israel as well. Thus he left the country and headed for Philistine territory. He returned to Gath with 600 men in his tow. In an attempt to release himself from the pursuit of Saul he offered his services and those of his men to the king.

King Achish no doubt had some problems with the concept, but nevertheless established them in the town of Ziklag. David and his men were then expected to conduct raids on the southern border of Judah.

However, David and his men instead went after the semi nomadic enemies of Judah, and strengthened her borders. The spoils of victory were given to the people of Negeb. Covertly, David was enhancing his position with those he would one day rule.

King Achish knew nothing of David’s duplicity, and was instead concentrating on the plans of the five Philistine overlords of the north. They had come together for an all out assault on Israel. Their first movement was to take the plain of Jezreel. David was asked to join them, but the commanders had a basic lack of trust in David and his men, and he was kept out of it. David was en rout from Jezreel to Negeb when Saul confronted the Philistines at Mount Gilboa.

When David returned to Ziklag, he found that the Amalekites had raided the town. They had looted and pillaged, but had also taken everyone hostage. The Lord told David to head after them, for he would surely catch them and make rescue.

David headed south to the brook of Besor, where 200 of his men collapsed, too exhausted to continue. David and his 400 found the Amalekites spread out over the land. They were having a great feast in celebration of all the spoil they had taken. David attacked at dawn, and recovered all hostages and livestock. He then divided the spoil among those who had fought and those who had stayed behind.

Saul and his men, poised for battle at Mount Gilboa, were going into battle with an old king. A king who was no longer confident in the Lord’s involvement in his life. Before he went into battle he had consulted with the prophets of God about the coming battle, but the “phone rang off the hook.”

He then went to a witch, or medium for answers. He wanted to conjure up the spirit of Samuel. To everyone’s surprise, even the medium’s, Samuel showed up and predicted Saul’s death and the defeat of Israel.

Distraught and convinced he was headed for his last stand, he fought at Mount Gilboa. Jonathan and his two brothers, Abinadab and Malchishua, were all killed. Saul was seriously wounded by Philistine archers, and apparently when you lose to the Philistines you are subject to anal rape, so Saul fell on his own sword and perished also.

Until David came along, the state of Israelite music
was rather primitive. It typically consisted of instruments
like the "sistrum". This was little more than an elaborate rattle.
David imported skilled Phonecian musicians and added
to his nation's culture.

David received news of the defeat and the deaths of those he had come to know as family. Though he went into mourning he also realized that if he were to take Saul’s place as king, he would have to move quickly. He consulted of God as to where to go now, and was told to go to Hebron.

To Hebron they all went, and there David was anointed King over the house of Judah. The date was about 1000 years before Christ. David now ruled Judah, but Israel was now in division. A nation once unified under Saul, was now led by Ishbosheth, Saul’s youngest son. He ruled the ten tribes who lived in the central and northern areas of the kingdom: Benjamin, Dan, Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali, Gad and the remnant of Rueben which had escaped the Moabite and Ammonite pressure. David ruled over the tribes of Judah and Simeon. Abner, Saul’s chief general, lead bloody skirmishes against Joab and the armies of David for two years with little results.

Abner, however, began to move without the let of his king and took one of Saul’s concubines for his own. The king saw this as treason and a split developed between the two men. Abner then met with David secretly, no doubt feeling that Israel would have a better future under David’s rule, and he discussed the plans for turning over the northern kingdom.

As a show of good faith, Abner returned Michal to David from the town of Gibea. She had been married off to another when David had fled the country. There in David’s harem, she provided a link between Saul’s family and the Kingdom of Judah. This strengthened David’s position as future king of Israel.

Joab however, knowing nothing of the talks between Abner and David, sought revenge for a brother Abner had killed in battle. Abner, not realizing that Joab knew nothing of the secret talks, walked right up to Joab and was quickly disemboweled.

This was bad news for David and his political future, so David called a national day of mourning in respect for the fallen Abner, this in order to keep his people from retaliation. However, without Abner, his king began to lose courage and the people followed suit.

Two of Ishbosheth’s captains, seeking favor of David, for the future, killed the king in his sleep. Instead of promoting them, David had them executed for killing Saul’s son, not only their king. Only Jonathan’s five year old crippled son remained of the house of Saul. Now no one stood between David and the throne of Israel. All of the elders went to Hebron and anointed David their king. With this act, Samuel’s prophecy was fulfilled.

The Philistines, hearing these events, became alarmed. As long as Israel fought amongst itself, they knew that all of Canaan would eventually be theirs to take. A united Israel, however, with warrior King David at its command, was big, big trouble.

They therefore attacked before David would be able to get any help from the northern tribes. They amassed in the valley of Rephaim, hoping to drive a wedge between Israel and Judah before any solidarity could take place. David proved more than a match for them however, and defeated them twice. In fact, David kept rolling until the armies of the Philistines were destroyed. The Philistines were never heard from again.

Jerusalem, the last city in central Israel was still controlled by the Canaanites. It was built on a high ridge bordered on the east, west and south by steep valleys. It had high walls and lofty springs. David considered this to be the best place for a capitol. It was also on the border between the two nations of Israel and Judah and would also be a great place for political rule.

David then set out to capture the city, only to be mocked by its inhabitants. The Jebusites told him, “The blind and the lame will defend this city against the likes of you.” David told his men that the first one to smite them would be chief and commander.

Joab led his men through a water tunnel that ran under the city, no doubt a lesson learned from the fall of Babylon. They emerged inside the city and threw the Jebusites into confusion. He then threw open the city gates for the rest of his forces and soon the victory was done.

David would live there. He would call it the City of David. It belonged neither to Israel or to Judah. It was the sole property of David himself. Pretty good for a little shepherd boy from Bethlehem!

David centralized the power of the state in the king, with Jerusalem as the seat of government. Tribal allegiance was forgotten once inside the walls of Jerusalem, one now belonged to the king, not just a confederacy.

David also had the ark of the covenant brought there with the prophet Nathan. David danced before God as the ark was brought into the city. Jerusalem was now not only the City of David, but with the seat of God there, it was also the City of the Lord. Michal, his wife, thinking David silly for his exuberance, rendered herself barren with derisive comments. R.E.S.P.E.C.T.!

Now the whole of political, civil, religious and all other administrations were concentrated in one place with David as its ruler. David then surrounded himself with officers and clerics and created an administration of some of the most famous names in the Old Testament: Joab, Jehoshaphat, Seraiah, Benaiah, Zadok and Abiathar, to name a few.

It was then that he commissioned the collection of the book of Psalms. These hymns were sung by priests and celebrants at the Tent of the Covenant. We still have these books and records of these events to this day, including the existence of Israel, and her people who are historically connected to all of this. The flag of Israel is decorated with the Star of David. Remind your atheist and agnostic friends and co-workers, that it is one thing to disregard an invisible creator, but quite another to ignore Israel and the Jews.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: The Life and Times of King David part 2

2011-10-13T16:35:00.000-07:00

"The Lord gave you into my hand in the cave...but I spared you." 1 Samuel 24.10
In an En-gedi cave like this, David spared Saul's life, even though Saul was trying
to kill him. He and his men also hid out in these caves, whose cool recesses
offered shelter not only from men but from the blazing heat of the desert

The Life and Times of King David

part 2

With his great victory, David was now a sports hero so to speak. Now a full fledged leader in the army of the king, his victories mounted and grew. He had sudden fame and glory and all the women came out of the city singing his praises.

“Saul has slain his thousands, David his tens of thousands!”

Saul had promoted David due to his prowess in battle, and the obvious advantage of having someone with God’s hand on him didn’t hurt either. The public adoration for David didn’t help him in the eyes of the king. Naturally, he began to distrust David’s inner motives. Suspicion of a threat to his throne grew within Saul.

Still suffering from the fits of madness, he twice throws his javelin at David, attempting to impale him. David was younger and more agile and thus able to avoid the javelin. Saul, however, couldn’t admit this advantage over himself and saw it as obvious help from God in David’s ability to avoid certain death. This only added to his suspicions of a threat to the throne. No matter how many times he sent him out to meet the Philistines in battle, they failed to kill the boy. David’s popularity, and obvious favor of God over Saul, began to steam roll in the constituency.

Saul then offered his eldest daughter to David in marriage, if he won even more victories. David never married her however, since Saul abruptly gives her to another. But he tries again with his younger daughter Michal, who had a bad jones for the young hero. The price of marriage? 100 Philistine foreskins. A task I cannot imagine: circumcising 100 dead men and collecting their penis skin. Oh my!

Saul must have thought this impossible if not repulsive and surely David would get himself killed trying such a stunt. Please make sure they are all dead first, or you’ll have quite the fight on your hands! But David brought back 200 foreskins instead. Michal was his, and seemingly David was invincible.

Saul then called on Jonathan to kill David. But Jonathan pleaded David’s case siting his service and record, and Saul relented. They even reconciled for a time, but it was only a temporary respite.

Even Michal got into the act of going against he father for the sake of David. Upon hearing of Saul’s plan to have soldiers bring him to the palace to be slain, she warned him to save his life. She tried to fool the soldiers when they arrived with the phoney “pillow under the covers routine” and claims that David was ill and couldn’t be moved, but the soldiers didn’t fall for it and discovered the ruse.

"And the servants of David went out and met the servants
of the son of Saul at the pool of Gibeon.... and the battle
was very fierce that day" 2 Samuel 2.13, 17
The probable scene of this encounter a stair well that leads
down to the water table. This was discovered in 1956 by archeaologists.
It was a circular pit , 37 feet across, cut from solid rock to a depth of 82 feet.
Almost 3,000 tons of limestone had to be removed. Village women would have
to descend the stair and then climb back up with water pots on their heads.
The 79 step climb must have made for some well toned ladies.

David had fled in the night, and ended up in Ramah, a few miles away, in the safety of Samuel the prophet. Saul pursued him there, but God intervened and had the soldiers and Saul himself become overwhelmed with a type of religious dancing in praise of God.

David then secretly met with Jonathan to discuss the problem and asked him just what it was he had done to deserve the wrath of Saul. Jonathan assured David that Saul would have no success at killing him and the two men renewed their friendship.

The feast of the new moon was the next night, and as tradition would have it, David was obligated to be at table with Saul. When he wasn’t there Saul was furious, and Jonathan had to lie to Saul with the excuse that David had been given leave to visit his brothers in Bethlehem.

In the morning, after an evening of near death from his own father’s javelin tossing, Jonathan met with David secretly in the field, and the two said farewell for the time being. They both knew that David would now be a wandering outlaw in the wilderness until Saul’s death.

David then moved on to Nob, where he received the sword of Goliath which had been left in the care of Ahimelech the priest. No doubt thinking that he would not be found in the Philistine town of Gath, he fled there, only to be seized by the King’s soldiers. When brought to King Achish, David faked madness like a man in a rubber room.

Achish of course, tossed David out, as David had expected. In his day, the insane were thought to be touched by the divine, and therefore inviolable. The Philistines released him and he fled to a cave in Adullam, near the border between the two territories of Judah and the Philistines.

In this area all those who were the outcast, the indebted, the receivers of Saul’s ire, and those considered a rebel, gathered around David. They survived off of the kindness of local shepherds and farmers and kept one step ahead of Saul’s pursuit. In time, the followers of David grew, and became a small army of rebels unto themselves.

David’s army soon encountered the philistines in battle and overran a force at Keliah. With 400 men under his command, he soon demanded tribute from the settlements in the hills. Nabal from Carmel, a rich man who owed David tribute, refused to pay and David planned to march against the town. Abigail, Nabal’s wife moved quickly however, and brought David tribute on the way from town. Nabal was so incensed that he had a cardiac arrest and died.

Due to the days in which he lived, a King’s power was often measured by how many wives he had in his harem. (That would make someone I know very, very weak!) And David married Abigail in recognition for saving him from something called “blood guilt”. He was loath to avenge himself by his own hand.

Saul, however, had continued his pursuit of David and had killed Ahimelech and his family for the kindness he had shone to David. The priest's son had escaped Saul and warned David to run from the enclosed town of Keilah, and David once again avoided Saul.

David and his men led the life of guerilla fighters in Judah. They offered protection to those who fed them and wrentched provisions from the uncooperative rich. Like Robin Hood, they shared with the poor, all the while harassing king Saul's men. In this rendering, the meal would be lentils and figs with goat's milk. Weapons and water flasks were enough of a burden to carry without the cares of food maintainence. Living on the run required a light travel bag.

Saul followed David and his men to the edge of the Dead Sea. He stopped to “drain the dragon” in a cave that held David and his men in the back, where they were hiding. David got close enough to have killed Saul, but refused to think of such a thing as he still held the King in his position. Instead, he cut off part of Saul’s garment and then when Saul was a good distance away, he called to him, waving the garment piece, and displaying his innocence of any claim to the throne.

Saul was tearfully repentant upon the realization of what he had done, but still could not rid himself of his hatred for David. Such is the result of physical addiction to internal emotions. Later on David would again sneak into camp where Saul was sleeping, and took his spear. Easily the young King could have killed his tormentor, but instead he continued to hold him in honor.

Once again, David had spared the life of his aggressor.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: The Life and Times of King David

2011-10-07T19:40:00.000-07:00

The Life and Times

Of King David

David, Israel’s greatest leader, defeated the Philistines and subdued them, breaking their power forever. His gifts as a poet, soldier and statesman make him, of all Israel’s kings, the most beloved by his people and the most respected by his enemies.

A brilliant leader, decisive and just, David transformed Israel from a weak and divided kingdom into a formidable empire. This transformation paralleled his own progress from shepherd to king. Throughout his life he was loyal to the Lord and the prophets, a fact that brought him victory against his foes and forgiveness for every human weakness, His colorful court history, written by a close friend, makes him better known to us than any other Old Testament person.

David was indeed, the Lord’s anointed one.

Toward the end of the eleventh century B.C., Israel was finally getting a leg up on its hated enemies, the Philistines. Under the direction of King Saul, several victories had given them the advantage in the foothills and valleys of central Canaan. Saul, however, butted heads with the prophet Samuel more and more. Samuel felt that all too often the King had ignored the special privileges of the prophet’s position. Samuel was soon told to anoint a new monarch for the young kingdom of Israel.

“I repent that I have made Saul king,” said the Lord to Samuel, “for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commands.” He ordered Samuel to go to the land of Judah “to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”

Samuel feared that Saul would kill him if he learned of the selection of a new king. The Lord reassured him and Samuel then headed for Judah. When he arrived the people were alarmed to see him. The elders came to him asking if he did indeed come in peace. He told them he had come in peace to sacrifice to the Lord, and requested that Jesse and his sons be present.

But when he saw the seven boys that Jesse brought with him, he told them that the Lord had not chosen any of them.

“Are all of your sons here?” Asked Samuel.

“There remains yet the youngest,” responded Jesse, “but he is keeping the sheep.”

“Send and fetch him,” ordered the prophet and David, who was “ruddy... had beautiful eyes, and was handsome,” was brought in.

“Arise, anoint him... this is he,” said the Lord to Samuel. The prophet did as he was commanded and... “the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.”

The Negeb landscape where David hid from Saul

David was then sent back to the hills, where he wandered with the flock of sheep and goats during the day seeking good pasture. The wells in the hills provided the water the animals needed. In the summer he would sleep with his animals under the sky, curled up in a sheepskin coat. The winter months were guarded against with a tent, cave or stone sheepfold. He ate lots of bread, cheese and olives. The hours were long and lonely and David used this time to play his lyre and write songs. He also gained a widespread knowledge of the territory and rugged terrain of Judea.

As a shepherd he carried a studded club, almost three feet long to protect the flock from predators, and humans alike. He also carried a leather sling which he had made himself. He could throw stones for a considerable distance with it, and developed a great accuracy. With it he could warn an errant sheep of going astray or fell a wolf, bear and even a lion. In his day this is a close as one came to missile defense systems, but it was accurate nonetheless.

David continued his life as a shepherd even after his anointing by Samuel, while at Gibeah, only seven miles away, Saul, unaware of David, continued to war with the Philistines. Breaking with Samuel he fell into deep depression. At times, he approached madness, for the Spirit of God had left him and an evil spirit tormented his mind. His servants suggested that music may indeed clam his mind.

“Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me,” ordered Saul.

One of his men answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse who is skillful in playing and the Lord is with him.”

David was sent for and brought to the castle at Gibeah. It was more of a fort than a royal palace in design and was only two stories tall and rather plain in decor. David played his lyre and sang for the king, and, as his servants had hoped, “Saul was refreshed and the evil spirit departed from him.”

Saul came to love the young musician, in a way of admiration and gratitude, not philio. He then appointed the young boy armor bearer. But David never forsook his families’s duties and traveled back and forth from the palace to his father’s home to care for his sheep at Bethlehem.

Valley of Elah

David was then attending to the flock while Saul was arrayed for battle against the Philistines at the Valley of Elah, in the foothills of the Judean mountains. Three of David’s brothers were in the army of Saul. David’s father sent him to them with some parched grain and ten loaves of bread as well as 10 cheeses for their commander. “See how your brothers fare,” charged Jesse.

As David arrived he could hear the clamor of the Philistines as they lined up for battle. He left his gifts with the keeper of the baggage and searched out his brothers. He ignored their commands to leave and when Goliath stepped out to challenge the army, David was in its ranks.

Goliath challenged them to send their best man out to go mano a mano with him. The bet was for the victor of the fight to the death to lead his people into mastery of the populace.

These sorts of duels between warriors, to decide the victory between two armies were common place. Sometimes the duels were only between two men, as the term duel would suggest, but at other times they involved groups of elite fighting men who would face each other. The soon to be King David would himself have a group of three men who were such a team. They were known as his greatest warriors. Commanders often loved this sort of thing for it cut way down on military attrition of soldiers. When one considers that an army may have only 12,000 soldiers, it is easy to see why this was the case. The Israelites however, rarely practiced this custom.

David and the slingshot

Goliath was about nine feet eight inches tall. He had the best armor, a bronze helmet and had chain mail that weighed 150 pounds. Greaves of bronze adorned his legs and a huge spear was slung between his shoulders. The spear was so large that its head weighed 20 pounds or so. Just image how long and thick this rod had to be in order to be effective.

No one answered Goliath’s challenge. But David, standing close by, wondered aloud who the hell this Philistine with a foreskin was who dared to challenge the armies of the living God! Saul himself warned him to check his mouth and get back to daddy, but David instead ran out to meet the giant.

Using his field tested missile defense system to the amazement of the armies surrounding him and the giant, he actually felled the Philistine. He then ran over and beheaded the giant. In the time it takes to throw a stone, the Philistines had lost the battle and a hero was born.

David beheads Goliath

Jonathan, the prince of Israel, was deeply impressed and gave David his best sword, girdle and bow. They made a covenant of friendship that day which would stand the test of time.

more on David and his lifetime in the next segment.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Everyday Conversations Eternal Impact, Lloyd Pulley, Witness for Christ, Evangelism, Salvation

2011-09-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

Book Discussion

Everyday Conversations, Eternal Impact

by Lloyd Pulley

What few people fail to understand about our daily existence, is the sobering reality that we all exist in a world that has been rendered redundant. Nothing is what it was supposed to be, and this includes each and every one of us. Each day we go through life, getting older, and supposedly wiser, and yet the intrinsic monotonies and repetitive nature of our lives becomes a “throw away” fact as we wonder what we do this for? Why do we live each day to get up, go to work (perhaps), go to the rest room, eat two or three times a day, if indeed we are fortunate to be able to, and then spend one third of our lives in sleep.

We do this until we are taken from this Earthly reality in something that seems like a cruel joke at the end of a boring story, eventually we do all die. Once we are dead, no matter what we have done in life, be we a great hero who spent his life in the service of others, or a maniac who created horror wherever he went, time moves on, and we are soon little more than the grave stone that marks our final resting place; at least that is the case in our perceived reality.

Little does the average man and woman realize the great lengths that atheistic thinking has gone to in filling our heads with a godless reality. Common school teachings from early grades have seen to it that a reality of millions of years of Earth existence is firmly entrenched in our minds as how things really are. Having taken college classes on dinosaurs and archeology, I can attest that the existence of a Paleolithic period is considered scientific fact. And yet, in a reality where one includes Christ, nothing could be further from the truth. (Don’t ask them why the earth is named Earth and not one of the gods like Pluto or Saturn.)

Ideas such as the Garden of Eden, and a "talking snake" seem preposterous and little more than something from a fairy tale, or perhaps a very old lesson in morality. One would, in some circles, be considered intellectually inferior to consider that such a reality ever existed in fact; even more so only something like 6,000-11,000 years ago. Surely we’re much too sophisticated and gripped in a real world to believe such fanciful propositions. Didn’t we all come to grips with Santa Clause at one point or another?

Curiously, it is this very statement of reality that Christ stands for. Indeed, everything that he has brought to this reality stands upon the events in the Garden of Eden. Without it, nothing that Christ is about has any merit. Nothing he did counts for anything. One of the things he did do, was give his life as the atoning sacrifice for ALL mankind past, present and future, as the remedy for those events in the Garden.

Those events, rendering our reality redundant and useless, are what Christ is most concerned with. The sin that occurred there, that of disobedience and believing that there could be a reality where we could do things our own way, whether God liked it or not, is what separated us from God, and continues to do so to this day. Things would have been vastly different had this never happened, and the reasons for our existence would never be questioned, as the monotony of every day life would be the “fairy tail existence”.

In a universe that includes Christ, Jesus is the heart of the reality. Just as you cannot remove your own heart from your chest, or even the kidneys from your back and place them on the table in front of you and expect them to function as they should, or to continue in their present existence, then you also cannot remove Christ from the universe of our reality. Doing so makes the whole thing redundant. Useless.

But not only is Jesus not one who would make an fool out of you by having you believe in insane fairy tales and seemingly impossible reality, but he would not be one to stop loving you because you are a retroactive victim of a cursed reality, and a cursed and fallen populace. His main purpose now is to return all mankind to the incredible reality that Adam and Eve once knew, the physical part of the garden being only a smallest infinitesimal part of that reality.

But how do you show love to a blind and deaf people who are born into a condition set against you. A condition of rejection and unbelief in the smallest, simplest realities that you have to offer them?

In Lloyd Pulleys book, Everyday Conversations Eternal Impact, the writer endeavors to make clear just how Jesus himself went about this action with the fallen state of humanity that surrounded him. A well written and finely articulated book, the author tells stories of his own life and those he has known, which incorporate how the love of Jesus can be brought to a deaf, dumb and blind humanity without hitting them over the head with a Bible.

Pastor Pulley reminds all those who are indeed accepting of Christ, not just the religion and goodness, but also the immense responsibility, that rubbing shoulders with an unbelieving world is not just something we do, but is also an extension of who we are. In the book of Kings, there are many Kings of Israel who are indicted for “throwing God behind their backs”, and this is something that always leads to Godlessness and a false reality; no matter whether you agree with this or not. If you are one who accepts Christ, then you know there is no such thing as not having Jesus, and what he cares most about, right in front of you on a daily basis. And what he cares about are the millions of souls around you that believe the great lie. A random universe where you can call your own shots is a universe without God.

Concentrating on the story of the woman at the well, Pastor Pulley studies the conversation that Jesus has with her and how he deals with her position as one of those for whom reality may include God, or even some other god, but for whom, as most men and women on the planet believe, God is what conveniences you.

In his 107 page booklet, Lloyd Pulley breaks down and analyzes perhaps the greatest lesson ever displayed in the recounting of the life of Christ. Considering that it is the longest conversation Jesus has with anyone in scripture, there must be something mighty going on here. If only those who have ears will listen!

Though there are many national outreach ministries, and world wide ministries, each man and woman of Christ has his or her own individual ministry right there in their own backyard. And the numbers of those individual ministers are endless, and all too often invisible. This book is geared toward those men and women in the trenches who don’t have the finances and equipment to fall back on for the opportunities to reach the "Christ blind".

There are no slick formulas, or even perspective tricks involved, just the lesson learned from Jesus’ discussion with the woman at the well. You’ll notice in this discussion that not once does the woman at the well tell Jesus to “just keep it to himself”, which is a response many get in today’s secular society. This kind of response would never show up if someone where just showing love to his fellow man. I can’t imagine that a homeless person would tell you to just keep your money to yourself, or for that matter, anyone who was effected by a tragedy like the 9-11 New York terrorism disaster, would have told those giving aid and help, to just “keep it to themselves”.

Learning from the master, Lloyd Pulley shows how we can S.H.A.R.E, that love for the Christ blind, brought about by the disconnect with our creator in the garden which is the root of all of the problems of mankind. The “S” is being sensitive to the spirit and the leading we receive as we are to show the love of Christ. This can’t be done if we are stooped in our own private pet sins which “toss God behind our backs”, and leave the world wondering when we will just all go away and leave them alone. We must ourselves believe that Jesus at the well is with us every step of the way as the prompting of the Holy Spirit, who knows the hearts and minds of all men and women around us, gives us the words to say and the tone and approach to take. But do we believe that this can happen? Do we make ourselves spiritually available to be lead?

The “H” in share, is for humbly building bridges to those who are already set against the word one brings to them about the truth of reality. Keeping a position of love and respect for a person, keeps them open to whatever you might say to them while being spiritually lead. One of the worst things one can do is try to shove food down the mouth of a starving, malnourished street mutt. You will have your hand bitten no matter how much the poor puppy may need what you are giving him. And in reality, you and I both know you would never attempt such a thing, if only for the case of your own safety. This is not to say that the fellow humans around you are analogous to a starving street mutt, for they are far above that. But the starving mutt knows he needs food in his stomach, the starving humanity around you has no clue what it is searching for, and it searches everywhere. Often they run into those who know that a search is going on and will give false “food” to them as long as the money train rolls in their direction. With a humble, and loving respect for the position of starving humanity, the case for Christ can be gently tilled in the soil of those around us, without “digging up God’s little acre”. Pastor Pulley does a fine job of articulating the way this can be done.

One of the things advertising does is this: it promotes products that really don’t exist. What you think you are paying good money for doesn’t exist, and they won’t take imaginary money for the product either. But they know that in order to make a sale one must arouse interest, no matter how flatly untrue the sale is.

Fortunately, those who believe Christ do not have this problem of promoting untruth in order to arouse interest. The unbelieving world around you is searching for the truth in something, somewhere and you, as a Christian, have this. The “A” in share, is all about arousing this interest on a street level, where each person lives. And each person will be different in their level of arouse-ability; but there is something there, in each one. There will be something to arouse an interest in the reality they live separated from God. There can’t help but be this vacuum, because it is the very reason for everything that has happened since the garden. But there are ways to reach this interest, without pre-arranged scripts and fake, stilted conversations. Sometimes all you get to do is sweep away the ground for the next person to plant a seed, but that is still an important point.

The “R” in share concerns the revealing of the disconnect in the persons life from the true reality of a universe subject to a real and active creator. This disconnect is, at its core, the whole subject of sin. It’s important to lead a person to understand that the whole of reality surrounding them is quite different from the perceived one they have perhaps grown up with, always believed was the only truth and accepted because their parents and grandparents accepted it. To reveal that someone is a sinner is often perceived to be about something, like “lust”, “greed”, “envy”, and while those things are indeed true to be sin in their own individual acts, they are more or less the results of this overall disconnect everyone has with the creator of the universe, their own creator. They are at the mercy of cursed and warped parts of their own person, which were never meant to be.

Were we to have the reality of the Garden of Eden right now, actions that we call sin would never be a problem. They are sin now because we seek to satisfy parts of our person that are like broken ropes on a semi truck hauling at a high speed down the freeway in a hurricane; the ropes twist and flap and are without the controls needed which a connection to almighty God would provide. Without this realization of each person’s sin reality before their creator, they are like an alcoholic who can’t admit his dependence.

The “E” in share, is for explaining the plan of salvation. Without the first steps I have outlined here, having the answer for a person’s lost position in the universe is of little use for the common person. Most people will tell you that it was great that Jesus did all that he did, but really, life is both good and bad for everyone, and that’s just the way it is. It’s too bad that this attitude comes around for so many. So few people realize the lengths and depths Christ will go to in order to reach you. To get you to a place where you will absolutely have to deal with your reality, and ultimately His reality.

I knew a young girl years ago who was only about 19 years old. She was going to college and had her whole life in front of her. One day a garbage truck changed all that and she was instantly killed in an accident. I can’t say that she was ever approached about the need for her re-connecting with the creator of the universe, by accepting Christ; I have no idea. However, I have also seen my share of older persons who have suffered long, debilitating health issues that ultimately brought about their deaths. Those persons, “saw the truck coming”. In a lot of ways, death is something that had to happen after the fall in the garden. This is God’s universe, and things are going to go his way, there will never be a time when ANYONE will not have the inconvenience of dealing with the position of God. You as creation, him as creator. Sometimes “seeing the truck coming” seems horrific to those of us who watch loved ones suffer, but for an eternal God who sees our lives like the passing of lawn grass, it may be his strongest moment to reach someone he really loves and wants to have with him in the final eternal reality. If not for death, would anyone ever turn to God?

Ultimately, when all is said and done, and the stone is planted in the yard, and all your friends and family have returned to their lives, our redundant reality ends in death. As persons who believe in what Christ has to say on this, and remember, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, you have the answer to this horrible, horrible thing called death. But delivering this answer to a cursed humanity must be done in a loving, heartfelt fashion. In this book, the way to go about this is rendered to you in an anointed way which speaks to the heart of every believer.

I highly recommend this book for its delineation of the manner and position Christ himself took in approaching the woman at the well about her need for understanding a reality she was completely blind to, and he opened doors in her heart and then an entire town for the spreading of the “Good News”.

Lloyd Pulley is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Old Bridge, New jersey. His transparent verse by verse teaching encourages believers to apply the rich truths in Scripture to their daily lives. His radio program, Bridging the Gap, can be heard world wide. Lloyd and his wife, Karen, have two children and three grand children and reside in central New Jersey.

www.everydayeternal.com

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Ignoring Israel Part 11

2011-09-08T11:33:00.000-07:00

Shining City on a Hill

Ignoring Israel

Part 11: Israel and the Rest

So what is the beginning of the process for the end of days? It would seem that the appearance of the two witnesses at the beginning of the tribulation is the key to seeing the future of all mankind, and when that happens we’ve got only seven years until life as we all know it is over with. So don’t look for comets, Mayan calendars or mathematical figures and dates. Once this happens, it’s last call, turn out the lights... the party’s over.

Enoch, like Elijah, never died, and this makes him the prime candidate for the second witness. Due to Moses having died and been buried, for the most part, this eliminates him from the position. When God “took” Enoch, he was translated alive into the presence of God. Enoch also gave the first prophecy about the second return of Christ!

Jude 14-15

And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, “Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgement upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him”.

Elijah and Enoch are the two olive trees in Zechariah 4. Neither one of them ever died, and yet God has appointed it to all men to die once and then to be present at judgement. Their death has been reserved for this very time of history, when they will appear in Israel and have all the power and ability that the world longs to see for itself, but will only strive against them. When you see someone calling down fire from heaven on the nightly news, it’s not a movie trailer for the next Spielburg film.

They are both instrumental in the final days of Israel, and as a result the whole world. In John the Baptist fashion they are preparing the way for the return of the Messiah. They will be the real voice of God in the Earth, and it will annoy the hell out of most of mankind. Clearly there will be a third temple of some type when the AntiChrist takes over in the half way mark of the tribulation, and it is these two men who will be promoting the building and protecting the progress of its construction while keeping those who would stop such a thing at an arms distance. It’s not hard to see who the major players in this event will be, if you just realize what has been going on for quite a long time in the history of mankind and its time here on Earth.

New Jerusalem

If anyone is familiar with Christian television, and more specifically for this purpose, the station called Daystar, you know that the preaching of the Gospel in Israel has finally, after much time and struggle, begun to happen. In the past there was strict resistance to hearing the Gospel of Christ in Israel, even to the point of having families split apart over acceptance of the Gospel message. It was simply and “un-Jewish” thing to do and accepting Christ as the Messiah was to give up on Yahweh and his promise of a Messiah to lead Israel into a great time of peace and rule. But there have been many changes, and stations like Daystar are now going full and strong in Jerusalem.

The Israeli Parliament has recently issued legislation which have changed the “Law of Return”. For those who wish to immigrate back to Israel from around the world, it is quite the adjustment. Rabbinical laws state that being Jewish relies upon the mother’s status. One cannot marry a “shiksa” and expect the children to be considered Jewish. They, therefore, cannot return to the land of Israel. Believing in Christ as the Messiah also disqualified one from returning. But the times are a changing, and these restrictions are being modified.

Matthew 10:22-23

And you shall be hated by all men for my namesake: but he that endures to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee into another: for truthfully I say to you, you shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man comes.

Isaiah 2:3

And many people shall go and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for out of Zion will the law go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

The Gospel must indeed go into all the world, much as the blog here has done, and that includes Israel. (Saying hello to those of you in Israel who have begun to read my blog, shalom to you all!)

I do understand that Yehoshua can be a tough thing for the strict Hebrew, seeing as his first coming was Messiah ben Joseph, and not the Messiah ben David, that has been awaited for since then beginning, but just consider how many times we all get just what we want, especially when dealing with a divine creator whose ways are not our ways.

It would have been quite impossible for Christ to return for his people and establish his throne in Israel before the date of May, 1948. We have, however, witnessed the restoration of the land, the city of Jerusalem also, and the return of the people to the Holy City, since then. The Message of Yehoshua is also taking root there as it never has before. Collectively, these things tell of a “time of restoration of all things”, which is headed our way like it never could have in the past.

There will be more and more political upheaval throughout the world. The Middle east will become a literal hotbed and the news networks will being to cover these events with nauseating frequency. Israel will literally become a pain in the butt to the whole world, and this is because of the real and active enemy that wants to see them wiped from history once and for all, and I am not talking about Iran, or any Arab nation, although they may be a tool toward this end.

EVERYONE, both corporeal and incorporeal sees the changes in Israel, and if you are up on the information involved here, as the enemy surely is, then all attempts to destroy Israel will be taken, even if it means turning all of mankind against this tiny little slip of land in the middle east.

God has promised Israel that she will see her King of Kings.

You will arise and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favor her, the set time has come. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and the dust thereof. The heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the Kings of the Earth thy glory. When the Lord builds up Zion, he shall appear in His glory.

Psalm 102:13-16

Jesus Rules

The Future..... is NOW

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Ignoring Israel Part 10

2011-09-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

Ignoring Israel

Part 10: Israel and Temple

How indeed does the new temple get built on the Dome of the Rock? The Golden Mosque of Omar could perhaps be destroyed by an earthquake. The area is known for seismic activity over the centuries, and this would be no surprise. Its been injured by quake activity before, and has always been repaired. If that did happen again, and even if the mosque were destroyed, then the Muslims would of course rebuild the dome. Mosque land is Muslim land forever. Something strong enough to level the whole building would have Israel occupied with the surrounding territory.

Could the Dome of the Rock be moved? Would such a project as dismantling the building and moving it to a location within Muslim territory be even wise monetarily? This would clear the way for a new temple, but its highly unlikely that the logistics would be surmountable, not to mention the politics.

Could the two buildings coexist? Could the temple be located next to the mosque? In the Great tribulation, there is indeed a temple, for its’ measurements are so ordered.

Revelation 11:1-2

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. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the gentiles: and the holy city they shall tread under foot for forty two months.

So you see there is definitely a temple by this time in the Revelation record. The area not measured, that given to the Gentiles, may indeed be the area of the Dome of the Rock. And what about the Anti-Christ?

2 Thessalonians 2:4

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Therefore, if the Anti-Christ is in the temple during the Tribulation, then definitely there is a temple there on the Temple Mount. Is the Anti-Christ a Muslim? Some say so, and his preventing the worship of God and the temple services that have been re-instituted, would seem to lend credence to the concept. Further study shows that the Anti-Christ will set up something in the temple, probably an image of the Beast, which makes the temple desolate. Having run roughshod over the temple and changed the ceremony, those Jewish leaders and followers would have fled the temple in protest, or perhaps abject fear.

There are those who say that scripture referring to this time has to do with the Roman occupation and war with the Jews that occurred before the year 70 A.D.. However, there is no record of the “abomination that made desolate”. Not only that, but the Revelation record is written about 25 years after the temple is destroyed, and John is told to rise and measure the temple, and those that worship in it. This is about 95 A.D..

Considering the work that it would take to re-build the temple, and the holidays that must be observed during the process, it is conceivable that the temple will take about 42 months to re-build. Now, pay attention here! If the first half of the tribulation is 42 months, and the temple will take that period of time, then it is quite conceivable that we can know when we ARE in the tribulation, by the degree of progress that is made in the rebuilding. In Daniel 9:27, it says that the dedication will coincide with the midst of the week. That is also when the Anti-Christ will kill the two witnesses, and take control of the temple, interrupting the dedication process. He will then demand that the image of the beast be worshiped there instead of God himself. One can see how ignoring Israel can be a blind walk in the park, if you are not careful. If the above is true, and it makes good political and religious sense, therefore keeping an eye on the rebuilding of the temple will let you in on the end of the world, not the Mayan calendar.

The first and second temples were situated north of where the Dome of the Rock is located, and it is also quite possible that the third temple could be built there, sharing Mount Moriah for a time with the Muslim temple. The Temple institute in Israel is already in the middle of planning a new temple, with furniture and clothes and they are not far from the spot where the future temple will stand. Keep your eyes peeled, people!

They have also prepared the gold, silver and brass items that were researched for use in the new temple, and these are not just museum pieces. These are the actual items to be used. Using the Torah, ancient carvings and also some historical references, they have created that exact items as described for temple worship.

There is another group that is pushing for the rebuilding of the temple, they are known as the Temple Mount Faithful. Check out their website, and it explains how their main purpose is to liberate the temple mount from Islamic occupation so that it can be consecrated to the name of G-d.

templeinstitute.org
templemountfaithful.org

It is clear from these websites and some other videos that can also be found on You Tube, that the Israeli mind set is very ordered toward a rebuilt temple. If so, then the return of the Messiah cannot be far behind. According to scripture, there will be a temple during the tribulation. It will come at one of the worst times and be met with fierce opposition.

Many of those of you who know the Bible know who the Sanhedrin were. They go back to the time when Moses was ordered to gather seventy men together in order to have the same spirit of God placed upon them as Moses possessed. They all went to the top of the mountain to meet God. They were commissioned with assisting Moses in the governing of the 1.4 million or so Israelites who wandered the desert. They became the Sanhedrin in the second century B. C..

This was the Jewish “Supreme Court”. They also had a Nasi or high priest who led the committee, and this was also the case during the time of Jesus. They got together and debated matters of the law. Once majority was arrived at, the rule became law, and many of those same laws exist with the Jewish people even today!

Their final decision coming in 358 A.D., when the new Jewish math calendar was proffered, instead of the moon sighting calendar, the Sanhedrin dispersed and have not convened until our current day. It has been about 1600 years now since their last meeting, and they are only now in our day coming back to the practice of meeting. In 2004, they were re-formed, believed by some as invalid until the Messiah returns, but never the less, there is a building mental framework of Israelis returning to a once great national position which includes the original position of great nations like the ones ruled by King David and King Solomon.

But who will rebuild this temple? Will Elijah reappear before the great and terrible day of the Lord? Moses? Enoch? They will be able to prevent anyone from holding up the building of the temple. ANYONE.

more on this next time

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Ignoring Israel Part 9

2011-08-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

Ignoring Israel

Part 9: Israel and Land

It’s nothing new to tell of the controversy surrounding the land of Israel. The conflict over this is a major sticking point in every political center on Earth. Which, if you consider it, says something about the place Israel takes world wide; is there any nation like this, anywhere? People like Osama Bin Laden and other terrorists have made a point of keeping the struggle for land in the public eye in a way that doesn’t exist on the national stage in any other area of the world. According to the Bible, the land we’re talking about begins at the river of Egypt and goes all the way to the Euphrates. This is the land promised the seed of Abraham. It was reaffirmed time and again with Isaac, then Jacob and his twelve sons, the patriarchs of Israel.

However, if you don’t have any respect for the Bible, if you don’t take it to be the Word of God, then for you this isn’t the case. There are a great many people all over the world who want to see the spiritual situation solved with political moves. The Muslim world believes that Israel is an occupier of their land. “Occupier” being used here in the sense that Hitler “occupied” France and Poland.

Their position is that ever since 1948, their land has been given to those with whom they have struggled for centuries, by a “cow towing” and sympathetic western world. Extremists make sure that the world is aware of the Temple Mount, Jerusalem and Israel in a way that goes contrary to much of everything else in the world. If you are not a person who watches the world news, you would know little of much of the politics of inland China, or perhaps what goes on in the every day streets of Australia, and certainly the Polynesian world of island people don’t come up until there is a destructive storm or some such thing. But EVERYONE knows about the middle east and the struggles that go on there.

In most Muslim mosques around the world, and there are increasing numbers if you pay attention to the world news, it is common to speak of Israel as enemy occupiers of Arab lands. And not just any Muslim lands, but HOLY lands. Israel is an invader who is squatting in the lap of the almighty as far as they are concerned. Quite the situation when one considers that it is the western world’s involvement with Israel that helps to maintain this situation and yet it is the Arab world that feeds the fuel supplies of the western world with it’s over dependence on oil from the UAE.

But here’s the thing, even in the Koran there are verses that teach that the Jews would come back into their land, and that they are also entitled to it.

Sura 5:20-21

"‘O my people, call in remembrance the favor of God unto you, when he produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave to you what He had not given to any other among the people. O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has assigned unto you, and then turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin.”

According to the Koran, the speaker here is Moses.

If the Koran is inspired by Allah, then why ignore Israel? Why look past what is in their own book? Could it be that they don’t even read their own book? Could it be that they instead listen to the selective preachings in their own mosques at the risk of being mislead by their own radical leaders? It would seem that if the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock were not in Jerusalem, this little slip of land would be of little interest to the comparatively huge land of the oil rich Arab world. So how did this happen?

In 638 A.D., the Islamic caliph, Omar, entered Jerusalem on a white camel in order to accept the surrender of Aelia, the name it had at this time. His chief magistrate, Sophronius, read from the prophecy of Christ, “When you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel....”. Omar cleared the area and built a modest mosque on the Temple Mount. He did, however, build this on the southern part of the mount, over what he believed to be a Christian church foundation. Until this day that mosque still stands.

The golden Dome of the Rock was built in 691 A. D. , and was copied from the plans of a 4th century Christian shrine that stood on the Mount of Olives. It is believed that the Dome sits upon the Foundation Stone, where the Temple of God once stood. And yet it is still taught in the Muslim world that the Jews NEVER had control of the mount and the temple never existed. The name of Jerusalem is never even mentioned in the Koran, but the story of Muhammad’s night journey to the farthest mosque on his winged horse, Barak, (who left an impression in the mosque from one of his hooves) guided by the angel Gabriel, is always included in teachings.

The journey from Mecca to the mosque is said to have brought Mohammed in touch with Moses, Jesus and other prophets before his return to Mecca. Despite his dying in 632 A.D., and the Al-Aqsa mosque being built in 638 A.D., this is held as truth. Of course, the interpretation is bantered about by those who scholar such things. Did the “farthest mosque” really mean the one built on the site in Jerusalem? Scholars say the mosque being mentioned is near the city of Medina, in the time of Muhammad, of course. But if that is true, then Jerusalem is NOT the third holiest site in all of Islam. Neither is Israel, Islamic land. Why is their still an argument over all of this? Perhaps it has more to do with deep generational family feuding, more so than anyone realizes.

In the Biblical record, King David purchased the mountain from Araunah the Jebusite, making payment in Gold and Silver. Solomon later built the First Temple on the mountain, with complete descriptions in the Bible record of the measurements and how it was built and how much it cost to build it. Some nine hundred years later Jesus was at the site with his Jewish apostles and even the historian Josephus describes the building and its destruction by the Romans.

Muslim authorities to this date refuse to allow excavations that would prove the existence of the temple on this site. It would seem that when they took care of excavations themselves, they were very careful to remove any evidence found. This, despite photos that were taken of remnants of the temple in 1967.

Was there a Jewish Temple or was it all a lie? With all this conflict it is obvious that the Muslim world is worried that the Jews will seize the Mountain once again and rebuilt their Temple over the site where the Muslim mosque now stands. Considering the turmoil in the Muslim world in just this year alone, with all the rebellion and dismounting of the leadership throughout the region, it’s hard to see how things won’t develop in the direction of a single leadership in the Arab world. Once that single leadership is established, it will be easy to surround Jerusalem with the combined might of the Muslim military, and what would motivate them to attack in this way? This is, of course, conjecture at this point, but that concept of Israel being surrounded is directly related in prophecy.

Since the destruction of the Temple, Mount Moriah has become a hot spot for warring factions. The Romans ran rough shod over it twice, and the Byzantines built churches there, then the Muslims, the Crusaders, and so on and so forth over and over again. Muslims under the Ottoman Turks ruled the area for 400 years or so until World War I when the British pushed them out, and they began three decades of British rule.

Today there is even a publicized planning for an attempt to rebuilt the Temple of Solomon. If you do an internet search, you can see the plans coming to realization, even with designs of the clothing and such. This has the Muslim world worried, and big time. Though many don’t want Jews in Jerusalem, or even in Israel, the Muslim world may have to live with the fact. But a Jewish temple built on the “noble sanctuary” is out of the question for the majority. Scripture, however, says something quite different about the third Temple, and its future place directly in the spot of the last two temples. Considering that Islam would never permit its mosques to be removed, or that a Jewish presence would be allowed to take root there... how would another temple be built on this spot? How indeed.

More to come on this, unless you are a schlemiel. ;-)

http://islamic-intelligence.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Ignoring Israel Part 8

2011-08-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

Ignoring Israel

Part 8: Israel and America

There is a fence, a large concrete fence, that runs along the 1948 boundaries between the Israeli peoples and the Palestinians. It has caused an uproar around the world. It is there because of the many terrorist attacks and acts of violence that come from the West Bank and Gaza. Since the inception of Israel as a state, most American Presidents have been supportive of Israel, but they have all, in one way or another urged Israel not to build any kind of wall that would inhibit Palestinian traffic.

Many members of the American government and also some Israeli citizens, have taken offense at the Israeli action of inhibiting Palestinian traffic in and out of the country. Palestinian Authority flags were obvious in the many protests filmed by the news media during the wall’s construction. Their claim, as was also the claim of their supporters, was that they have a right to be able to come in and out of the country to find work and support for their own families and communities.

Many Israeli companies have no problem with the egress of Palestinians, as they are known to be hard workers, and often fill necessary jobs that Israeli citizens refuse to take. The problem, as is all too often the case, is that enemies of the state often use the same reasoning for entrance into Israel in order to launch terror attacks upon the citizenry.

As a person who lives in Southern California, this issue is all too real, and fascinatingly congruent. America also finds herself embroiled in debates about immigration, notably in relation to the building of fences and barriers along the Mexican border. Once again, this is a problem due to the millions of Mexicans who have crossed over into America illegally. They too take jobs many Americans would rather let them have, and many take them, but they also take the non taxed wages earned and send much of it back to their home countries. Many worry that this too increases the crime rate in America, and leaves a big hole of entry for those who would terrorize the nation.

There are now such things as “Minuet Men” who patrol the border looking to capture and haul back across the border the illegal immigrants who attempt to cross over. It is estimated that there are about 12-14 million illegal immigrants living and working here in America, they were not born here and they take American money and jobs from citizens. With a homeless populace of approximately 300 million Americans, it is not hard to see how such an argument reaches beyond just the constitutional legalities. Also, as had happened in Israel, local Mexicalis could be seen protesting in the streets with large crowds waving the Mexican flag.

These are only a few instances, as I had also mentioned in the last post, which illustrate what happens when America forgets who Israel is, and pressures her to act in ways that go against the plan of God. I seriously don’t know what more evidence someone could give for recognizing the many points of reality that are being displayed upon the world stage. What happens to Israel, happens to America, and when it is America that places Israel at risk, she herself is visited by the same consequences Israel endures.

Only a country steeped in atheist education could ignore Israel and the results that come from attempting to manipulate her position. I worry a lot about the current administration and its attempts to have Israel give back land gained in the war of 1967. The Israeli Prime Minister answered in much the fashion as I myself predicted he would. “That simply isn’t going to happen”. It’s a hot topic I do hope that Mr. Obama abandons, but if he doesn’t, watch out folks!

There are those out there who have as their prime directive, the complete destruction of Israel, in fact they want to wipe them off the map. They want Israeli men, women and children slaughtered like cattle. Is it any wonder America suffered 9/11? Now America shares in the targeting by those who want our destruction. Is it because in the past we have supported Israel? Or would it have come anyway due to our capitalist society that is considered the “Great Satan” of the world? This is hard to say specifically, but the facts of what is our reality due to terrorism, and that which we share with the nation of Israel, are far from merely being open to interpretation.

There are those who feel that the War with Iraq was the blowing of one of the prophetic trumpets of Revelation. This being due to the way the sky was blotted out when Sadam Hussein set fire to 17,000 oil wells in Kuwait. In the Bible, there is a telling of events in Kings that relates heavily to the story of the Gulf War. There is a man named Ben-Hadad who also comes against Israel, and his name means “fierce”. Saddam Hussein’s name actually means “destroyer”, his mother so calling him that, it is reported because of the difficult time she had giving him birth. It is said that there are many similarities between the two events of the Ben-Hadad war with Israel and also America’s war with Iraq. But the thing we need to keep in mind for our day and time is that Iraq is present day Babylon, and the histories of Israel, America and Babylon/Iraq continue to this day to be entwined in events that effect the world.

Yassir Arafat, a leader of the PLO, once met with American President William Jefferson Clinton in the early 1990’s to assuage Muslim forces that assisted in the first Gulf War. Several years later the government used tactics on Israel that it would not employ itself if the positions were reversed and forced Israel to sign a peace treaty with someone they considered a known terrorist. The Madrid Conference of 1991, coerced Israel into peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

Despite his involvement in the Olympics terrorism that saw Israeli athletes snipered to death, America still sought to have Israel make peace with a man who had become an underground gun runner seeking Israeli destruction, and also a supporter of Saddam Hussein during the first War with Iraq. No need to spell out the history of the “Decade from Hell” that has befallen America from 2000 to 2011, and still seems to be continuing today. Arafat himself threw up and died in a Paris hospital in the early part of the decade. The cause of his death is still considered unknown.

Former President Jimmy Carter met with leaders of Hamas, a known terrorist organization, in the spring of 2008; a year known for its close call re-enactment of the “Great Depression” here in America. The very existence of Hamas is geared toward eradicating the people of Israel from Palestine. Their Prime directive is to “liberate” Jerusalem from its occupiers, an area known to them as al Quds. Jerusalem is the planned site for the capitol of the new Palestinian state.

When Carter was there, an earthquake hit West Salem, Illinois that shook the middle of the country. No need to point out the name Salem, and the name Jerusalem.

But are these events of America’s actions in dealing with Israel and Israel’s enemies truly a cause and effect or are they just events that happen randomly and can be place together by “linking the dots” on the time line grid? It does, of course, make a difference from what perspective you are coming from when considering the events of history.

But the trail of American and Israeli involvement goes back in history like no other. There are those who speculate that the Japan tsunami may have had something to do with Japan insisting on the rebuilding on the West Bank. Japan doesn’t have that historical link, so I am not a believer in any direct cause and effect in this case. The whole Earth is increasing in disasters of this type due to the end times we live in, and I think that this is a better explanation.

But I will say this, that Israel is more and more a burden to America, and the future of her will be intrinsically tied to how the United States deals with Israel in relation to her own Biblical history.

more to come, but not much more ;-)

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Ignoring Israel Part 7

2011-08-11T14:56:00.000-07:00

Mount of Olives

Ignoring Israel

Part 7: Israel and Water

There is a natural four hundred meter drop between the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and the lowest spot on Earth which the Dead Sea occupies. There are those who have suggested the exploitation of this natural drop for the creation of hydroelectric power. If these two bodies of water were connected, say for instance by construction, then this power would not only supply the area with electricity but it would also provide added water for overwhelming the salt and dry sand of the area. The idea is a beneficial one, but not necessarily in line with Ezekial’s vision of the healing of the area.

If one remembers the Dead Sea scrolls, the ancient parchments that were discovered in a cave after centuries of untouched solitude, these documents were found in an area called the Qumran. The Essenes lived here prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70 A. D. by the Romans, a point we have already covered here. This is the area where a huge underground water source was found, it is about three miles around and has millions of cubit meters of water. Small pools of fresh water run all along the northern edges of the Dead Sea, apparently they originate from this underground water source. But that’s not all prophecy referred to....

Zechariah refers to a third water source that is to appear during the return of Christ.

Zechariah 14:4

And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem in the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

When Christ ascended into heaven over 1,900 years ago, he led his followers out to Bethany, a small town on the back side of this mountain. In Acts 1:11 the apostles saw two men dressed in white who told them that, as they had seen him leave, he would also return. His leaving happened from the Mount of Olives and he will also return to the Mount of Olives. The mountain will split in half and a hidden water source from under the ground will erupt, half of it heading toward the Mediterranean and half toward the Dead Sea. (Zechariah 14:8)

Though the term “living waters” is used, there are two facts that make this prophecy a literal moment and not just a spiritual one. There has been discovered a fault line that runs from the surrounding areas of Jerusalem and includes the Mount of Olives. There are places in the land where no buildings can be erected due to the inevitable destruction should an earthquake occur.

These fault lines also run through what we know as the Valley of Armageddon. This two hundred mile site is to be a battle field during the final war of mankind. The entire Dead Sea region was also formed long ago by earthquake activity. Long fault lines run parallel to the length of the sea on both sides, the Jordanian and the Israeli sides. With all this fault line potential, it is not hard to see how waters could literally flow all over the land if the ground were broken and divided up over the top of underground waters.

According to Zechariah, at the return of Christ with the armies of heaven, which will land on the Mount of Olives, a great valley will be created by the splitting of the mountain. With the Dead Sea being 1,300 feet below sea level, the waters that will gush forth will run rapidly toward the Dead Sea and overflow the northern section of the sea with waters that may go back to the time of creation. There could be so much water due to all this shifting land mass, that the Dead Sea will be engulfed and obliterated by a much, much larger water source that can contain “Pacific Rim” quantities of sea life.

Man made fish ponds are already in the area selling “Dead Sea fish”. These ponds come from water bleeding out of the underground lake. The future of the healing of the Dead Sea is already coming to pass as we see these types of things become more and more prevalent. People in Israel know about this underground spring, and they already benefit from it. But how much does the world at large realize the prophecy that is unfolding? How much of this is revealed in any other source of so called future predictions? In the mid 1980’s, this area was desolate with hardly any vegetation. It had been that way for thousands of years. We now have a springing forth of oasis areas in the desert where just 25 years ago, there was only barren land.

This is exactly what the prophets of the Bible said would happen before the arrival of the Messiah.

The Puritans

The American Water

In Zechariah the word of God promises that Israel will become an unavoidable irritation to the entire world, and that those who come against her in order to remove this irritation, will be broken to pieces as a result. (Zechariah 12:2-3)

Few realize, as the founding fathers of America did, that there is a unique connection between America and the nation of Israel. As her future final supporter, this fact will become painfully clear as time in the near future rolls by. Many around the world call America prudish, especially the Europeans, and this reference leads back to those who were called the Puritans. The Puritans felt that they themselves were fellow Jewish travellers. Their departure from England to start a new life in the area we know of as New England, as being akin to the Exodus from Egypt, which says a lot about the soul of Europe and where it has headed into our own day. The federal seal of the United States would in fact become the image of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. Descendants of those Puritans fired the shot heard round the world that lead to the establishment of America and the original 13 states.

Ben Frankin's Seal

God instructed Israel that there was to be but ONE LAW for the people, just as the Mayflower compact settled the issue and held that there be one law for the people. That law was based on what Moses had written down in the Torah. John Endicott, a Puritan founder, wanted to make the Law of Moses the official law of Massachusetts.

Many of these Puritan leaders were fluent in the Hebrew language, not only in the Kings English. Many early universities taught Hebrew as a regular course, and the school insignias had much Hebrew imagery. People of the time hated Britain so much that they considered making Hebrew the national language. Wouldn’t that be something if that were the case today?

Primary components of a nation are law, language and land. Few people know that the boundaries and shape of the original 13 states resemble the nation of Israel. Early America had a major river to the East and an Ocean to the West, Israel had an ocean to the west and a major river to the East. Both nations came out of other nations. Both crossed the water into a new land. Both ran over the natives who lived there. National documents and morals are both based on scripture. Both were divided north and south during national conflict. In Israel the wars were usually won by the south and not the north. Both have and have had problems with Babylon and Iraq.

There are many more examples, but it is clear that America and Israel have a spiritual link. Few realize how this connection plays out in real life. For instance, there are two events that parallel in an interesting manner: Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans, and also incidents of the Gaza strip.

The 9th of the month of AV is a date synonymous with destruction and defeat. This date, like many amazing dates that correspond to historical events in the Jewish calendar, is the anniversary of many events that Israelis keep an historic eye on. On this date: the scouts sent by Moses returned with an unfavorable report; Israel was sentenced to forty years of wandering; the first temple was destroyed by the Babylonians; the second temple was destroyed by the Romans; Jews were expelled by Spain in 1492. Other Jewish calendar dates are just like this, though others may be of victory, events of victory and joy can be spread out over hundreds of years and yet happen all on the same date. Do you know of any other nation on the Earth that has that kind of undeniable evidence of speciality? I mean, come on, both Temples destroyed on the same date hundreds of year apart?

The 9th of Av is thought to be the worst of these kinds of dates. The 17th of Tammuz is the second worst, and shares the same weird historical happenings. On this date, Moses broke the tablets of the law; the Romans breached the walls of the second Temple. With such strong traditional record keeping from generation to generation, how can there be argument as to the calendar length of our world as we know it? Europe, with its lost soul, has tried for a long time now to educate us as to there being millions of years of our world, despite the presence of a nation like Israel. They, too, in their striving to be intellectually superior, ignore Israel at their own peril.

The Gregorian calendar date of July 4th, 1776, was the date of America’s Declaration of Independence. This is considered a bright spot on this historic day on the Jewish calendar, and the 9th of Av also has a corresponding bright spot. It is the day that Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue to find the New World. Israel and America appear to be joined at the hip. Whatever happens to Israel also happens to America.

When Israeli settlers were forced from their homes and out into the streets in an attempt to clear the Gaza strip during America’s pressuring of the Israeli government to make way for others to occupy the land, many of those deposed were simply left with nothing and nowhere to go. It was Israeli forces themselves that removed these people from their homes and land, at the urgence of America and it occurred on the 9th of Av.

New Orleans flooded with Katrina waters

At the same time, Hurricane Katrina was forming in the Gulf Coast. The rest is history as the poorly built levies failed to keep the waters of Lake Pontchartrain from devastating the entire area. An area, by the way which yours truly grew up in, and an area which still to this day, some six years later, has yet to be re-seeded and re-built. It is still a disaster area. Many citizens were disposed from their homes with no idea where they were going to live or work, in much the same way as those in the Gaza strip.

The Day the Music Died

Many of the police in the area simply walked out of the debacle and several are on trail right at this moment for having been going around neighborhoods shooting innocent hurricane victims without provocation. The police, like the Israeli forces, assaulted their own. (allegedly at this point) How many of us here in America lost faith in our government and its ability to serve the populace, much as many in Israel took umbrage at the government for disposing them. And don’t get me started on the FEMA camps that have been built around America, standing silent and empty as they await SOMETHING, surrounded by barbed wire.

Want more? Gaza and New Orleans are on the coast, Gaza and New Orleans are linked to ports, Gaza and New Orleans people lost their homes and work, Gaza and New Orleans people evacuated to their roofs, Gaza and New Orleans people were taken out in buses, Gaza and New Orleans people fought troops and police, Gaza and New Orleans people were relocated, Gaza and New Orleans people were refugees, Gaza and New Orleans buildings were torn down or destroyed, Gaza and New Orleans people were removed from cemeteries.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Ignoring Israel Part 6

2011-08-04T16:56:00.000-07:00

Aravah in Flood Stage Aug 2011

Ignoring Israel

Part 6: Israel Rebirth

The blossoming of Aravah is not the only thing that has happened in the barren desert that was once the promised land. Isaiah also saw a great pool of water surrounded by reeds and rushes and breaking out in the desert as a spring of water. Today this great pool is called “Sapphire”. Out in the desert of Aravah, as I type this post, the desert is in flood stage. Yes, FLOOD stage.

Isaiah also told of the glory of Carmel and how this would be given to the area. The leading packing company in Israel that sends food out to the world is known as the Carmel Packing Company. This prediction of agricultural blessing to the world is also contained in Isaiah:

Isaiah 27:6

He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

(Hey! That rhymes!)

Isaiah saw the people of Israel returning from all over the world, where their ancestors had been dispersed, and striking the soil. They would take root, as it were, and the land would be blessed, then the people would bless the world with the fruit of their labors. Israel, once surrounded by desert and desolate herself, has become a major exporter of food to the world. The Hebrew word, “turnavah” means “crops”, and the major export company of Israel is called: “Kunavah”. Isaiah predicted this in the Word of God over 2,600 years ago and the fruit of the land blessing the Earth not only applies to the physical food being exported, but also to the fruit of God’s Word being confirmed.

In Zechariah, he speaks of the nations left on the Earth that shall come every year to Israel to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, and pay their good homage to the Lord of Hosts. (Zechariah 14:16) While Isaiah points out that there will be a road that passes through this area, Zechariah defines the reasons that the road will exist. There is already a great road that passes by the area of the Gulf of Aqaba, a resort area that Israel, Jordan and Egypt share. When you head north, it takes you directly to the Dead sea. This pilgrimage to the Holy City that many will take, will be surrounded by every good and best food that the desert is now producing, in the area once known as the promised land, a land filled with milk and honey. A land once a desert full of nothing but sand and brush.

Isaiah 19:23-24

In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land.

The King's Highway

Israel is currently drilling through mountains and building super highways that will link them with all the surrounding nations. These prophesies of Isaiah and Zechariah speak of a time when the Messiah will rule from his throne. Rule the whole Earth, that is. And yet, we are seeing the land prepared even in our day.

The implication of the multitude of floods, and fruit production, and highway production in the once desolate area, while meaning perhaps not as much in any other area of the world, speaks volumes of shouts to those who are awaiting the return of the Messiah, whom we all know a Jesus Christ. The ongoing development if Isaiah chapter 35 is a joy to those who know what to look for, those who keep their “lamps burning”, and a dire warning to those who just won’t see how these developments mean everything when they happen to Israel.

But why is it important that this highway head up into the Dead sea? What could possibly be in the Dead sea, once the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, now cursed with ground ruining salt. You’ll remember that when the Romans destroyed the second temple, they also plowed the land with salt. The idea being to make sure that the land was worthless and not suitable for returning to by the lost inhabitants. So what could possibly come out of the Dead sea?

“Dead Sea” in Hebrew is Yam Ha-Melach, or sea of salt. It is actually a large lake formed by the waters of the Jordan river flowing into it from the north. The south has no outlet. It is 38 miles long and 11 miles wide. It lies between Israel and Jordan. It has so much mineral wealth that it is easily worth about two trillion dollars in minerals, those minerals being the likes of magnesium, calcium chloride, bromide and many others.

It is also the lowest spot on the planet. At about 1,378 feet below sea level it sits in a rift that stretches from Turkey to South Africa. The whole rift stretches about 3,700 miles. It used to be known in Biblical times as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Zoar. More than likely, geologist say, the destruction of the area was due to volcanic eruption. In Genesis 19:24, Abraham describes the destruction of these cities as being due to fire and brimstone.

Mineral laden in its makeup, no sea life can exist there. Ezekiel, however, predicted that in the time of the Messiah, men would spread nets and catch fresh fish there. Before 1985, if one had looked out onto the landscape of this sea, they would have wondered how anyone could ever catch fish in such an moribund area. (Ezekiel 47:8-12)

According to end time prophecy of the Bible, when Christ returns, a Temple will be built in Jerusalem. Fresh water will flow out from under the altar of this temple. It will head out toward the Dead sea and eventually become so deep you could launch boats in it. This fresh water will empty into this salty dead lake, and transform it into fresh water teaming with fish. For some time now, the water level in the Dead sea has been dropping. In the meantime satellite photos have confirmed the existence of TWO bodies of water contained within the Dead sea region. The Dead sea has now divided and is comprised of a northern and southern half.

The north is bluish and clear, while it is the south part that remains choked with salt. According to Ezekiel, this southern half will not be healed, in fact as time goes by the south sea will become even saltier as the combination of hot weather and lack of an inlet literally evaporate the sea away to nothing. It is the northern half that will be miraculously transformed. Winter rains accumulate in the higher elevations of the mountains and river beds channel this fresh water into the Dead sea after a trip through the surrounding land. From 2,500 feet above sea level, this lowest point is provided with a steady amount of purified water from the sky.

What has been happening for the last twenty years, of course, is that the waters have been not only evaporating, but they have also been tapped in an effort to sublimate the irrigation of the surrounding land while developing the area of Aravah benefitting from underground springs. But is the addition of the rain water and the runoff of the Jordan enough to do the job described in Ezekiel of transforming the land and the sea? Could it be that the high to low elevation of the land itself can be used for assisting in this transformation?

more on this next time

The King's Highway thru Jordan

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Ignoring Israel Part 5

2011-07-29T14:37:00.000-07:00

The Arrow

Ignoring Israel

Part 5: Israel Codex

Another fact that separates Israel from the rest of the world, is the annoying consistency of how the nation has always been surrounded by those who would seek her destruction. Israeli science has worked long and hard to develop instruments of defense against these enemy forces. In the books of Nahum and Joel, mention is made of these great “chariots” that have been developed. They are chariots that can leap to a mountain top and fire a missile that explodes and sets everything on fire. The modern Israeli tank is called a “Merkavah”, and it is the same Hebrew word used by those prophets hundreds of years ago.

Jeremiah the prophet once spoke of an instrument that would destroy Babylon, this weapon was called a “bright arrow”. As we know, however, Babylon, or as we know it today as modern Iraq, was never destroyed by a “bright arrow”. A Merkavah has a special rocket projectile that has contained within its shell certain secret abilities. Its name is not so secret, it is called the arrow! The arrow can easily penetrate tanks as well as buildings. During the Gulf War, America provided Israel with certain missile defense systems against those who would fire scud missiles into their country, and Israel added their own tech to the mix of defensive weapons. Today Israel now has a thing called the “Arrow Missile Defense System”.

Ezekiel himself has prophesy that outlines how the nation would no longer be split like the days of old when there was an Israel and a Judah. One could say that the process of all Israelis returning to the land is still in progress, and that is probably true, and will be true for a while yet. Wether or not the whole area of the Middle East will one day hold the descendants of Jacob is a matter for others to debate. Let’s just be honest though, at no other time has Israel been rejoined as one nation as it has today, with the super force that it now has, with the miraculous changes in the desert, and that is saying something about our day and age.

Ezekiel’s words continue to come true ever since we crossed the 1948 date line. Israel was given re-brith on May 15, 1948, and this is important, for later on it would be found to have been important to the Torah. As with anything in this subject matter, one has to decide where your belief is going to lie. Will you believe God, or someone else? As anyone who has read the book will tell you, The Bible Code can be either an amazing find, or mere fodder for the atheists of the world. However, in the Bible Code, it explains how the entire history of mankind was found encoded within the text of the Book of Genesis. Already there are things predicted in the codes that have proven to be accurate. For instance, the leader of Romania who was killed in 1989, was actually discovered in the code, and also the fall of communism and the return to Israel of the Russian Jews.

The end is written from the beginning in the codes. In much the same way as an old Sherlock Holmes novel was written with the end laid out first, then worked backwards, so is the code of the future. Just as Doyle had his red herrings to throw the way of the reader, so one has to understand the way things are written and history is literally “backed into”, despite our lack of grasp of this process.

Patterns develop when studied at length, and you’ll only see these patterns if they mean anything to your understanding of how the future can be seen in the past. For instance, in the Bible if we look at the genealogy from Adam to Abraham, we see a list of men and their sons. We are given ages at the time of a son’s birth, and when we add the years up, we see patterns develop like a DNA helix under a microscope.

When we add up the years from Adam, the first man, to Abram the first Hebrew, the total is 1,948 years. And it doesn’t stop there, from the birth of Christ to the rebirth of Israel was also 1,948 years. Looking more at the future that involves the nation of Israel, one need only see the nations present at the beginning. Persia (Iran), Libya and Ethiopia are considered to be some of those involved at the end of times. For the first time in history, the nations of the end times are now aligning themselves for the end time battle of the war of Gog and Magog, and this could not have happened before 1948.

When the future becomes one of an Earth where Christ rules the planet from Jerusalem, not just a bunch of small angles playing harps in the clouds, the Feast of Tabernacles will be celebrated by the whole world. At least for those who want rain and seasons. There will need to be a huge accommodation for such crowds of people from the whole Earth. Roads, and plenty of food will need to be in abundance. Keep in mind that during the reign of Christ there is every reason to believe that the electronic needs of our day will be anathema in favor of complete naturalism. No cars, no planes, no cell phones, no TV or internet. (maybe, but it’s a good bet)

Isaiah wrote over 2,600 years ago that a miracle would happen in the land of Israel.

Isaiah 35:1-2

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as a rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given into it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.

For a desert or wilderness, as they called it, to blossom would indeed be a miracle. In the Hebrew there are certain words that relate to specific areas around Israel, not just any desert or wilderness. The primary word is Midbar, used with another word to give primary location. There is a huge region between Israel and Egypt called the Negev, a term not referred to in the English translation of the Bible. Without getting too technical, for those falling asleep with Hebrew text lessons, the area blossoming is the Aravah.

There are two areas identified as the Aravah. The first is the African-Syrian rift from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea on either side of the Jordan river. The second region is south of the Dead Sea and travels 120 miles toward the Gulf of Aqaba. This area has long been the most deserted and barren section of all the Holy Land area. There is no rain or underground water to support any sort of vegetation. Or so it would seem.

Not long ago, however, satellite tech revealed a huge underground water source in this very area. Drilling revealed a huge underwater lake! Modern farming tech took over and irrigated the area, and today we have the desert blossoming like a rose! When else in history could man have found this underwater lake in a desert? The Israeli desert.

Farms in this region now produce five times more product than the average American farm. The desert gives up tomatoes, peppers, melons, and dozens of other vegetables. The cows give more milk, about 4,000 gallons a year compared to the average American cow at 2,500.The barren wasteland of 5,800 years has become a bread basket for the Middle East, and only after 1948.

More on this next time

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Ignoring Israel Part 4

2011-07-24T22:56:00.000-07:00

Ignoring Israel

Part 4: Israel, Now with Teeth

On that day when Allied soldiers arrived at the death camps and saw the survivors of Hitler’s holocaust, war torn and battle weary men where deeply shocked by the sight of emaciated bodies hanging on to life by a thread. Thousands of people with decimated families were literal walking skeletons.

Ezekiel 37:1-5

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus sayeth the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live.

Ezekiel 37:12-14

Therefore prophesy and say unto them, thus sayeth the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then ye shall know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, sayeth the Lord.

According to the Hebrew perspective, death and exile are synonymous. Therefore; if death is exile, then restoration, or returning from exile, is resurrection. As soon as the graves are opened, then God brings them back into the land.

Despite the attempt at a “final solution” God brought forth a remnant out of the death of the Holocaust and into the land of Israel just as Ezekiel had predicted. Because of the Holocaust, the European Jews and also many from around the world, pushed for the re-establishment of a homeland. This is an amazing event that no other nation can make a claim to. Nowhere in the history of mankind.

Two thirds of European Jews were annihilated, and God used the seemingly impossible series of events to work out a way to restore the Promised Land and establish it as the homeland for an Israeli people who had long, long ago become a lost nation. In a place called Palestine, named by the Romans of old, the population consisted of Muslims, Christian Arabs, foreigners, and a handful of Jews. As I have said, Israel as a nation did not exist at that time, but in 1948, the United Nations voted to partition the land of Palestine, (with the Soviet Union casting the deciding vote), and the Jews once again had a nation of their own.

Harry Truman, then United States President, also voiced support for the new nation. There are those who say that Truman believed himself to be a type of “Cyrus”, the ancient King of Media-Persia who paved the way for the Jews to return to Israel from their captivity.

In Jeremiah, 30:7, the prophet spoke of a time known as “Jacob’s trouble”, which is believed to be seven years in length. The Holocaust period lasted from 1938 until 1945, a period of seven years, and the resulting environment from this period, was instrumental in the rebirth of the state of Israel.

Traditional Christian eschatology includes a future period of seven years also identified as the tribulation or Jacob’s Trouble. Jacob worked for the daughters of Laban for two separate periods of seven years a piece. This type of future and past equivalence is no great stretch for those used to studying the intricate workings of prophecy.

The eventual outcome of this analysis would seem to imply that despite the Holocaust and also the restoration to the Israeli lands, Jacob is still not completely joined to the one they truly love. This only happens after the second period of seven years of labor. As I had said in the first installment, the restoration is in the process, as Jews from all over the globe return to the land. And this is still happening. Jeremiah 16:14-15 makes it clear that when this return happens, it will make the exodus from Egypt look like a trivial thing. Ezekiel makes it clear that when they do first re-enter the land, that they will spend many days fighting those who resist what God has ordained.

Ezekiel 37:10

So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

After the first destruction of Jerusalem, and the captivity of Judah, the Jews returned to the land with Nehemiah and Ezra, but they never did assemble a great army. The Maccabees put together a resistance movement against the Greeks in which the Temple was cleansed and re-dedicated. This gave us an historical basis for the Feast of the Dedication or Hanukkah. There are several such Jewish resistance movements, both successful and tragic, down trough the ages. These organized militias however, were hardly considered armies.

Since the nation of Israel has reemerged, however; they have become known for their amazing ability to fight for and defend the land.

Ipso facto:

1) The War of Independence - 1948

2) The War with Egypt - 1956

3) The War of Liberation - 1967

4) The Yom Kippur War - 1973

5) The War with Lebanon - 1981

Israel survived these wars, and in completing the will of God for Israel, they will continue to survive future wars. Keeping in mind that they are surrounded by those who would get rid of them, it would be beyond stupid not to be ready and prepared to meet the attacks that will surely come.

One can only hope that leaders like President Obama will come to a better understanding as to why Israel simply cannot just give up land in the nation of Israel.

More on this next time.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Ignoring Israel Part 3

2011-07-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

Ignoring Israel

Part 3: Israel, Like No Other

Many out there in the world are sure to disagree with the idea that there was a Holocaust. This horrific event is considered by many to have been a Semitic creation, despite war time photos and films that would argue to the contrary. The whole idea that over 6 million Jews were annihilated by the forces of Nazi Germany in war camps, where Jewish citizens, often citizens of Germany herself, were sadistically tortured and killed is dismissed by a large portion of certain parts of the world as nothing more than propaganda.

The problem with this point of view is the resultant historical significance of the Holocaust. For one thing, the United Nations certainly believed there was evidence enough for this tragedy, so much so in fact, that they made it a point to “find reparations” toward the Israeli people by working to re-instate them as a nation. But from a Biblical standpoint, there is also prophetic evidence of this event as seen through the eyes of the prophet Ezekiel some 2,600 years earlier. Jewish historians recognize this idea as fact, and those who of course support Israel don’t have a problem with it either. It would be safe to say, I believe, that the event is either supported or denied based solely on the position one takes on the Jewish state itself.

Painful to Look At

According to Ezekiel, the nation of Israel would be a “valley of dry bones rising out of their graves to live again.” Scholars tell of this prophecy as indicating a time when the nation would be on the point of annihilation, but instead would rise from the grave and return to their land, they would then form a great nation and a mighty army. (Ezekiel 37:10-12) If anyone has ever seen the horrific photos of heaps of human bodies all piled up on one another or of the emaciated living skeletons kept in death camps, it is not difficult to see that the Nazi led Holocaust was no mere minor bump in the road for the Israeli people.

Moses too, warned of severe persecutions for the nation. When the blessing and the curse of the law was established, there was then no getting around a cause and effect for those who belong to the Israeli nation. There would be blessings for following the law, and rotting of those blessings for disobedience. Blessings would make Israel the big gun, the BMOC, if you will. God would indeed show his favor on the nation by covering them with unheard of and seemingly impossible good fortune and blessings if the law was followed. Conversely, if they disobeyed the law, they would have sickness, drought, poverty and captivity. As a result, the nation would be few in number. (Deuteronomy 28:62)

And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shall fear day and night, and thou shall have no assurance of thy life. (Deut 28:66)

Eight hundred years later the Kingdom of Israel was invaded by Assyria. They were exiled and scattered throughout the Earth. Just like Moses had warned them. One hundred and fifty years later the Babylonians came and took Judah away. They destroyed the first temple and looted the land, leaving it open to the sorts of citizens that had at first been cast out by Joshua and his men in the beginning.

Six hundred years later, the Romans did it again. They slaughtered the Jews and burned the second temple. For the next 1900 years the people of Israel existed outside the land, in what is known as the Diaspora, or Galut, meaning “exile” in Hebrew. These are all historical facts, and to doubt the history books on these events, as some do in the case of the Holocaust, is to doubt in the face of recurring events that are germane to the people of Israel. Think about this, can you see anyone else among the nations of the world with such a history?

Of course, there are those suffering nations that lay at the feet of bigger powers, like those of the Ukraine that suffered beneath the Russian bear, or the Pacific Rim small nations that suffered below the heel of China, but Israel has suffered uniquely in that they have existed as a people without a nation to call their own for an impossibly long time. Surely, they would have disappeared into the genealogy of those nations that they were dispersed into by now. You and I, though we may be from European descent, or South American descent, or Asian descent, may indeed have Jewish blood in our lines and not even be aware of it. Without a place to call home, how can a people continue as a people?

Auschwitz Crematorium

Hitler and the Holocaust are not all that far fetched when one considers the long term history of the Jewish nation. I started this post talking about Nostradamus and his prophecies and one thing he does indeed mention is the re-occurrence of seemingly obscure figures who appear from out of nowhere and go on to infamy. One of these persons was indeed Adolph Hitler. Hitler was so incredibly effective in his persuasion, that a huge portion of the European citizenry was literally brainwashed to believe that the Israelis were sub-human and deserved to be exterminated.

A Jew named Karl Marx was one reason for Hitler’s hatred of the Jews, but the citizenry was already primed for fear and loathing toward them due to the belief that the Jews had been responsible for the defeat of Germany in World War I, and the continued economic crisis that existed just before the onset of World War II. It didn’t help that the allies of the day were demanding Germany pay up for all the destruction it had caused in the early 1900’s and the resultant economic crisis was one of hyperinflation and loss of value in the German dollar. (Sound familiar, America?) By the time 1923 rolled around, it took 4.2 trillion German marks to buy one American dollar. German paper money was only useful for kindling wood.

The hyperinflation created an atmosphere of doom and desolation that made it easy to finger Jewish bankers as the “Henry F. Potter” who is only motivated by greed and avarice. (The banker in the movie, It’s A Wonderful Life) In a panic mode, the people of Germany were primed for an emotional talker who filled them with hope and focused them all on a common enemy, be he real or imagined.

When Hitler came to power, he made good use of the “them against us” gospel, and included Communists and Slavs in his chastisement of the Jews. Historians believe that the Reichstag fire of 1933 was actually set by the Nazis but blamed on the Communists. This in much the same way as many feel the 9/11 terrorist attack was an inside job created to fuel the people into a common enemy mode. The fire led to a suspension of civil liberties (sound familiar?) including freedom of speech and of the press. In 1935, Jews were deprived of their rights as citizens.

Hitler was definitely after the nation of Israel and in something called the Crystal Night, he proved it beyond a doubt. That night the Nazis literally attacked the Jewish people, and their property located on German lands. In one single night 91 Jews were murdered and over 25,000 were dragged from their homes, thrown out of the country and placed in concentration camps. Go on Google sometime and look for “secret government camps” that have been built right here in America, which are empty but surrounded by barbed wire. There are some videos on YouTube also. What are those empty camps for?

The Crystal Night also saw the pillaging of thousands of Jewish businesses and homes. This was the marker for the beginning of the elimination of the Jewish influence from German society. This policy then evolved into the “final solution”, for which Hitler is also famous for coining. The estimates are that in the next seven years, the Nazis had killed about 11 million men, women and children by starvation, beatings, shootings and gas chambers, not to mention the human baking ovens of Auschwitz. Two thirds of the Jewish population in Nazi controlled lands, about 6 million Jewish persons, were exterminated over this period. Moses had said it, they were made few in number.

According to Nostradamus, Hitler was one of three Anti-Christs, and indeed many at the time believed he was THE Anti-Christ. In this, we may find a “leak” of information, as I have referred to before, in that Hitler may have been one type of Anti-Christ. Keep in mind the collapse of the stock market here in America that sent shock waves all around the world. The Great Depression hit Germany especially hard and paved the way for a leader like Hitler. A leader like an Anti-Christ. October 29, 1929 is on the Hebrew calendar as Tishri 25, 5690. A democratic Germany gave dictatorial powers to Hitler on Adar 25, 5693 (March 23, 1933). That’s about three and a half years or forty two months. Sound Biblical? Sound like the Tribulation time line? Can it happen again?

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Ignoring Israel Part 2

2011-07-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

Ignoring Israel

Part 2: Israel Returns

A long time ago, in an era far, far away, the Roman army occupied the Holy Land and the city of Jerusalem. Six hundred years earlier the temple of Solomon had been destroyed and then later the temple was restored by the likes of Ezra, Nehemiah and Haggai. All good Old Testament Prophets.

Centuries later a Gentile ruler named Herod, built huge additions and gates for the temple. One of these gates was named Huldah, after a female prophetess. This is the same place Jesus and his disciples used to gather for the Jewish feasts.

During many of these feasts, Jesus revealed himself to be the promised Messiah. The disciples, themselves being good little students of the Old Testament, understood that the Messiah, when he came, would rule his Kingdom on Earth from Jerusalem. He would also restore Israel to its spiritual and national grandeur. The twelve tribes of Israel had been scattered ever since the Assyrian invasion in the 7th century B.C., and consequently, when the Messiah appeared, the tribes would return.

Many of Jesus followers understood the direction things were going and this frightened the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, into thinking that all men would follow Jesus and they would lose their state and their place as a nation to the Romans. Even the high priest tried to tell them that it would be better for one man to die for the nation than for them all to be wiped out, thus predicting the history of Christ. In the same breath he spoke of gathering together the nation, as was expected of the coming of the Messiah.

Even the disciples asked Jesus if this was the time when he would restore the nation of Israel. (Acts 1:6) That would have been the litmus test for the Messiah. What they were looking for was a rebellion to be initiated against Rome, and a revolutionary army to repel the occupiers, so that the nation could be restored and a “Throne of David” set up for ruling the nation.

His disciples looked forward to serving at his side in high positions of authority, a few even asked for posts at his right and left hand. They squabbled among themselves as to who was the greatest, no doubt jockeying for position in some future GLOBAL government. This is no real surprise as many of the prophets had told of the time when all Israel would return to the land from the “four corners of the globe.”

Isaiah 11:11

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the Islands of the sea.

Their questions were deferred by Jesus himself who told them “that it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which God the Father has put under his own power.” (Acts 1:7)

Notice this, Christ never said that he had NO PLANS for Israel, nor did he say he was going to replace them with another church. Jesus knew the old prophesies they were waiting expectantly for and he told them flat out that the plan to restore Israel and also the global Messianic Kingdom that was coming was off in the future and under God the Father’s control. In fact, before the visible Kingdom would rule from Jerusalem, the city would again be taken over by invaders and the people once again scattered to the four winds. Jesus let them know of this by pointing out the white limestone buildings and notifying them that not one stone would be left upon another. (Matthew 24:2)

Indeed Jerusalem was invaded by an army and the Holy Temple was indeed destroyed a second time. The Babylonians had done it the first time, and they carted away everything, literally raping and pillaging the city and its people. It was a national disgrace for such a people, and subsequent generations had to live with the historic shame of their ancestor’s actions. Though they were permitted to return after 70 years, the concept that this would happen again was a big let down to anyone who was proudly Israeli.

There would be a set time for Israel to be established as the home base for the global rule of the Messiah (Psalms 102:13), but it wasn’t going to happen in the disciple’s lifetime. They would instead become empowered by the Holy Spirit to spread the Good News of God and be a) Proclaimers of God’s message to the world, b) Preachers that the messiah is savior of all mankind, c) A light to the nations, d) An example of God’s love to the poor and the needy.

In the book written by Jewish historian Josephus called, The War of the Jews, he documents how in just forty years after Christ’s prediction the Roman tenth legion surrounded the city in an attempt to squelch a rebellion. They basically cut them off from entering and exiting, a classic move in those days. Famine ravaged the land as the people began to starve to death. Crime ran rampant. Jew on Jew violence reached beyond levels of some of out worst inner city crime scenes of today. Not only did roving bands of raiders go from house to house looking for food and water, but they began to eat each other. Babies were shaken upside down to see if there was food inside them. Rich citizens would swallow any gold they had to protect their wealth. They then tried to escape the city through underground tunnels only to have the Romans catch them in the act and then rip them open for the gold they had in their bellies.

Romans, of course, loved crucifixion so many of the escapees were crucified on the walls of the city as an example. Dead bodies lay everywhere on the open ground and the putrification that was happening made the Roman generals ill.

The Romans dickered over the fate of the temple itself, whether to destroy it or leave it intact as a monument to the Roman rule. Titus wanted it saved but it was accidentally torched and as it burned down, the gold melted and covered the limestone blocks. Thus the stones were toppled in order to get at the gold that had melted around them. Therefore, not one stone was left upon another.

In this same time before the destruction of the temple there had been many reports of strange happenings and visions that appeared concerning the temple. These things were considered signs of God’s favor with the nation and his anger at Rome, and thus a rebellion was considered an apt response to these “signs and wonders”.

Despite false prophetic words to the contrary, the temple was indeed razed, the walls destroyed, and thousands of the people were killed. The year 70 A.D. marked the end of the city of Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel and also any control of the city that the Jewish people might have hoped for.

For those of you who are looking for the 12 lost tribes of Israel, and maybe you think that the Throne of David is in England, sitting on top of the Joshua stone, having been planted there by Jeremiah and Tia Tephia, the daughter of the last king of Judah, don’t ignore this prophesy from Hosea:

For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without and ephod, and without teraphim. Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their King; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. Hosea 3:4-5

In 71 A.D., the Romans plowed Jerusalem with salt. They did this as a statement that the city was gone for good. Sixty years later the Emperor Hadrian, designated the site of Jerusalem as a Roman "Polis" and called it Aelia Capitolina, after the Roman god Jupiter. (Who is Thor to the Scandinavians). Jupiter’s temple was then built on that very site of the former temple.

Israel was then called Palestine, and the land of Jerusalem would change hands every time a new power took over. The Romans were followed by the Byzantines, whose headquarters were located in Constantinople. Then the Muslims took over for 450 years, and then the Crusaders in 1011, then the Turks in 1071, then the Muslims returned in 1187, then the Ottoman Empire took over in 1517 for 400 years. In 1917 the British took over.

In 1948 the British mandate ended and the United Nations divided up the Holy Land and gave the Jews the section that would be called Israel. May 14, 1948 was the rebirth of this nation, and many attribute the Holocaust as the main trigger for this occurrence. This event had been prophesied by the Prophet Ezekiel some 2,600 years earlier.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Ignoring Israel

2011-07-11T12:16:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Modern Israel

Ignoring
Israel

We’ve all heard a lot of talk recently about the predictions for the Rapture and such, which was supposed to have happened last May according to a preacher in California who had done some mathematical calculations on dates and times while working from a template fixed from the time of Noah and the Ark. As we all know, the Rapture didn’t quite happen, in fact nothing happened and the person responsible for all the billboards and thousands of dollars spent attempting to warn people of the coming doom, now says that the world is coming to an end anyway this October. Which, if you know your stuff, can’t happen until a handful of other events happen that still have to take place.

Ancient Israel as far as photography goes

Personally, I understand where the preacher comes from, and why he says what he says about the coming Armageddon, but I can’t agree with him. It’s not just a matter of those many other things that have to happen first, but it is also a matter of avoiding the “control” button that this sort of thinking desires to have in many of these kinds of situations. We simply DON’T have that kind of control. We can’t know. We can’t be the ones to say to the world, “I told ya so!” And I feel a lot of this sort of thinking is the basis for this line of thought.

That isn’t to say he doesn’t have a small point to make here. Indeed he does! For there are certain signs that ARE here and now that DO lead someone who believes God to see that times and events may already be in action for the Second Coming of Christ, but the remedy is not mathematical formulas.

The remedy is simply to be ready. Do you believe God? Or do you believe someone else as to the truth of our reality? You may have never stepped foot in a garden of Eden, you may have never eaten from a forbidden fruit tree, but God says you are born with an original sin against him and that this is the root of all of mankind’s problems. Do you believe God? Or do you believe someone else? Keeping in mind that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, and only the righteous inherit the Kingdom of God. That is to say, only those who believe God can share in the future universe that will exist without end. That’s what God says, and that should be our main focus. The rest will come by itself.

Speaking of the Garden of Eden and such, and also of the Devil, or Lucifer. No one ever seems to point out that the existence of a devil and his involvement are direct implications of this forever eternity that I speak of here. If there had been another place for Lucifer to go, you would think that he would have, but instead, as the story goes, he wanted to take over God’s universe. This implies that there is NO place else to go, and also is a telling measure of the insanity inherent in the sin of pride, for which a brilliant and powerful angel gave up his position in a failed coo. Thank God, he did not succeed, for every inch of the reality we live in is entwined with the power of God, our creator, and if a non-omniscient, selfish, being tried to take it over and rule, things would become unglued rather quickly. But that’s how crazy Lucifer’s actions are.

Nostradamus

So, having said that, let me just mention something about predictions for the future and the coming end of the world, and then finally Israel, and it’s place in all this, which is actually the body of this blog post. Recently, I went looking into the non-biblical studies of the predictions of Michael Nostradamus. For those of you who don’t know, Michael de Nostredame (14 or 21 December 1503[1] – 2 July 1566), usually Latinised to Nostradamus, was a French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become famous worldwide. He is best known for his book Les Propheties (The Prophecies), the first edition of which appeared in 1555. Since the publication of this book, which has rarely been out of print since his death, Nostradamus has attracted a following that, along with the popular press, credits him with predicting many major world events.

Having read up on a little bit about this, there are a few points to be made here about this sort of prediction. Nostradamus is given credit by some as having predicted Napoleon, and also Hitler; which he calls the first two Anti-Christs. There is a lot to be desired in his writings according to whom you ascribe to in your studies of his work, but there are also some rather startling revelations there that are date and event relevant. However, that is the problem with a lot of this work, some of it is right on and some of it is way off the mark. It’s often weird stuff. But he does predict a comet to hit the Earth in 2069, and then the third world war to begin in 2070. This war is begun by the Muslim world, and the Middle East, according to Nostradamus, is defined by the Muslim world with little mention at all of Israel.

He mentions Israel as a bohemian country. There is even scripture from Corinthians that can be used to support this notion that Israel is the “bohemian”. Anti-Semitic? Indeed it is. And it is Nostradamus’ big mistake. Or is it? Is it a mistake? Consider for a moment the brilliant Lucifer who has access to spiritual goings on that no man sees. He can actually be right about some things but prevented from revealing others. He would indeed ignore Israel, and even hate Israel, as he does all mankind, to be honest. In a reality where God rules everything and that which happens is “allowed” to happen, even those things which are death and destruction have a place in the communique between God and his creation.

God loves his creation and affords it grace and forgiveness that go way beyond what that creation deserves, mostly due to its disobedience and inherent unbelief. This forgiveness was never proffered to Lucifer. And remember what I have said about believing God, and not someone else. Therefore, if anything can be gleaned from Nostradamus’ predictions, it can conceivably be said that certain information may have indeed been allowed to be leaked concerning not only Napoleon and Hitler and World War II, but also our immediate future.

But, I provide this as only a possibility. The key to future events resides in Israel. Israel is God’s time clock, and to ignore her is to ignore the signs of the times. Whatever Nostradamus’ predictions might be worth information wise, they do not include Israel or even God for that matter, for at the end of the book he claims that “The Great Comedian” has won. Mankind is destroyed. And whom do you know who would give us that kind of ending?

So why bring this up? Many today who refute the preacher’s predictions of the Rapture would like you to believe that the many disasters that we as a planet have been experiencing are nothing all that new. The earthquakes and the tsunamis are only more prevalent because we have better communications. We have a world wide net to get world wide news from and nothing goes unnoticed anymore. But just like Nostradamus, they ignore Israel. They do so at their own peril, for God himself has said, Israel is his “first son”.

The return of Christ for the church and His appearance to set up the kingdom in Jerusalem could not have occurred before the date of 1948. Israel’s restoration as a nation and its link to the return of the messiah is a link that must not be ignored in a reality that belongs to God. It’s His house people! Things are going to go the way he wants them. Old testament prophets foresaw a future Messianic kingdom with its head in Jerusalem. The King is God himself, and all nations would be subject to his authority. This is not the usual view proposed to the masses, and it may seem unusually focused on the Jewish state, but that’s because it IS focused on the Jewish state. God has long chosen the Israeli people as his nation to spread the knowledge of himself to the world. Jesus himself echoed the laments of God the Father from the Old Testament as to his great disappointment with Israel’s infidelity toward himself. Watching Israel is the key to everything.

In order for the Messiah to return and establish His throne on the Earth, there are five major events that must happen that precede the Second Coming of Christ.

1) Israel must be re-established as a nation on the Earth. (DONE)

2) Jerusalem must become the capitol of the nation. (DONE)

3) The people of God must return from the four corners of the Earth, from the North, South, East and West, and go back to their ancient homeland in Israel. (In the process)

4) The arid, desert regions of Israel must be restored to a fertile and productive land. (In the process, and if you haven’t seen how this is happening, you will be amazed.)

5) The nation of Israel will become a superpower with a great army, surpassing that of many Gentile nations. (Not yet)

Only when these five events begin to occur, and they must be within the same generation, can we say with Biblical certainty that we have the generation that will see the end of all things, and the Rapture and the last world war. Israel is the measure by which we can see the future coming.

In this post, I will be discussing these points and why it is a mistake to ignore Israel when considering the future.

Sorry, Nostradamus.

More on this next time.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: 12 Must Know Bible Verses to Defeat Satan

2011-07-07T17:02:00.000-07:00

12 Must Know Bible

Verses To Defeat Satan

by Mark Virkler

Satan is always trying to put his thoughts in our minds, but we can identify them and reject them with the Word of God. Below are 12 types of thoughts Satan tries to inflict on us and the Bible verses to keep in your mind to counter Satan's thoughts.

1. I can't... "I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me." - Phil. 4:13.

2. I lack... "My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus" - Phil. 4:19.

3. I fear... God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind. "For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline." - II Tim. 1:7.

4. I don't have faith... God has given to me a measure of faith. "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you." - Rom. 12:3.

5. I'm weak... The Lord is the strength of my life. "The LORD is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life of whom shall I be afraid?" - Ps. 27:1.

6. Satan has really got me... Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." - I Jn. 4:4.

7. I'm defeated... God always causes me to triumph in Christ Jesus. "But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere." - II Cor. 2:14.

8. I don't know what to do... Christ Jesus is made unto me wisdom from God. "It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption." - I Cor. 1:30.

9. I expect to get sick once in a while... By His stripes I am healed. "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed." - Is. 53:5. Also, Jesus Himself took my infirmities and bore my sicknesses. "This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: 'He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.'" - Matt. 8:17.

10. I am so worried and frustrated... I can cast all my cares upon Him, because He cares for me. "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." - I Pet. 5:7.

11. I'm in bondage... Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." - II Cor. 3:17.

12. I feel so condemned... There is no condemnation to me, because I am in Christ Jesus. "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," - Rom. 8:1.

The Lord is our strength and His Word has power. Through Him we have the victory!

Mark Virkler is with Christian Leadership University. CLU is a Christian University and Online Bible College offering Christian education including Christian counseling and Christian theology seminaries and offers certificates, undergrad, Masters, and Doctorates in the various Christian colleges of CLU.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Green Lantern

2011-06-19T22:15:00.000-07:00

Green Lantern

Hal Jordan/Green Lantern
Ryan Reynolds
Carol   Blake Lively
Hector   Peter Sarsgaard
Sinestro Mark Strong
Abin Sur Temuera Morrison
Dr. Waller Angela Bassett
Sen. Hammond   Tim Robbins
With the voices of:
Parallax Clancy Brown
Kilowog Michael Clarke Duncan
Tomar-Re Geoffrey Rush

Warner Bros. presents a film directed by Martin Campbell. Written by Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Goldenberg, based on the comic-book series. Running time: 105 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action).

Green Lantern may at first remind you of a very famous movie from the recent past, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The Green Lantern Corps are a group, and it’s a very large group, of intergalactic aliens who run around doing the “peacekeeper” job in the universe. Not only do they resemble the Jedi Knights of Star Wars in their organization, but they carry a Farscape name of “peacekeeper”. Green Lantern, however, is much older, almost by a generation than Star Wars and the concept probably goes back even farther. There isn’t much new out there in the entertainment world, seeing as movie production rarely takes big risks on things it hasn’t sold before.

The long and the short of the film is this: a Guardian of the planet OA, from whence the Corps operate as a home base, took a risk on fear and was devoured by it, then he becomes the movies main bad guy. Hal Jordan, a mere Earth man, is chosen by a Green Lantern ring to continue the service of a mighty warrior who fell to Parallax, the big baddie. Hal is of course, a rookie, and goes through training, then must defend Earth against the fear monger monster.

Ryan Reynolds is a test pilot who becomes the Green Lantern, he shows kamikaze like tendencies in defeating a pair of computer jets during a test exercise. Blake Lively is the female love interest that the “good guy” must win over with his heroics. And in grand “James at 15” style, he is indeed the only thing that stands between Beauty and the Beast as he saves her not once, but twice.

In order to do this, win the girl that is, and also save the Earth, Hal must continue to believe in the power of the will (whose color is green) over the power of fear (whose color is yellow). Just like the yellow stripe down the back that Looney Toons cartoons used to use for the symbol of being afraid. Get the girl, be courageous, don’t give into fear for it can consume you. Those are all great ideas and worthy philosophies, when you are just starting out in life, like say at 13 years old or so. But then again, whoever said that comic books weren’t aimed at the sophomore audience? They always have been, that is until recently when they have gotten dark and sexual beyond what is appropriate for the old quarter machines where you could buy a comic and it would slide down the rack like a bottle of coke. No, those days are gone I am afraid.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for this message, but we adults will just have to sit and smirk at how simplistic those ideas are presented, as we know better. A lot better. But that’s not my only marginal complaint here. There are actually two bad guys in this movie, one a transforming human besides the great beast of space making its way toward Earth for the final battle. I asked myself why in the world we needed this other precursor to the bad guy and I got my answer in a “scripting trick”. The movie spends way too much movie time explaining all the dynamics of the movie and why it exists at all and in order to make this work, we have to first follow the human bad guy until the explanations are over and we can get on to the real space monster. This makes for a less than satisfying story arch, however, and gives us two surface stories one after the other, and not a fully blown story from start to finish.

Action packed, the movie is indeed. Once things get going and we being training with Hal Jordan, the special effects kick into high gear, and high gear they are indeed. The rings can do anything the person wearing them considers. They even protect against space radiation, explosive de-pressurization and they can make you travel at light speed through worm holes and even reach the Sun in the blink of an eye. Not to mention protection against being within frying distance of that same Sun.

Sci-fi angled it is, in many ways Superman is not, and in all ways Batman is not. Lantern movies will always be “comic book” movies, and that’s not a problem, but it does stop them from being something a little more gravitational in its presentation than a larger movie audience is known to shell out bucks to go see. It’s no Dark Knight, and it never will be. And I hate to mention it, but as good as Ryan Reynolds fits the “nice guy” who gets empowered role, he’s no Robert Downey Jr. either.

I can’t say it was a great movie, but it wasn’t all that bad either. So I give it a little over an average rating.

3.5/5 stars

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Super 8

2011-06-19T22:09:00.000-07:00

SUPER 8

Joe Lamb Joel Courtney
Jack Lamb Kyle Chandler
Alice Elle Fanning
Charles Riley Griffiths
Nelec Noah Emmerich
Louis Dainard Ron Eldard

Paramount Pictures presents a film written and directed by J.J. Abrams. Running time: 112 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and some drug use).

One thing Spielberg sure loves to do is tell a story from the perspective of kids. I suppose all the wonder and newness of life that kids posses is great stuff for the imaginary landscape of the movie theater. That’s what Super 8 brings us, back to the waist level view point of young kids, many of whom have traits we all know and remember. JJ Abrams wrote the script and Spielberg produced, and both of these gentleman know a thing or two about story telling and the heartfelt innocence of young kids.

Some might believe that this movie was set in the 70’s but they wold be missing the musical cues of My Sharona (circa 1979) and Blondie’s Heart of Glass (circa early 80’s). Joe Lamb, the young innocent kid hero of the film (yes, named LAMB), is a buddy to a young director friend of his who likes to make zombie movies on Super 8 film. They use much cloak and dagger to produce these films, as parents would of course stop their productions. (Footloose anyone?) So they run and hide and skirt the parental laws and film in places they shouldn’t be for the natural production values. This gets them in trouble one night as they film by a train station when a huge freight train derails in fantastic sequence. It literally covers the landscape with debris, and the kids, trying to escape, are surrounded by flames and twisted metal, but you know they all survive.

Joe has lost his mom in a work accident and his father, the local deputy (soon to be sheriff) can’t help himself from sitting on the toilet and crying by himself. Joe makes friends with a local girl who feels for him and they bond in a nice kid sort of way which reminds us all of the time when things were not so puerile between boys and girls, at least no until one’s thirties anyway. So this train has crashed and there is some kind of big thing inside that breaks free, suddenly the government is there investigating and the ground is covered with small cubes that belong to another world. What in the world has just happened? Scooby Doo, where are you?

The kids are on the case in their own investigation and they also have a super 8 film that kept running during the crash as evidence. These kids are more intrepid than any I would have ever known, I can tell you. Many of the situations they find themselves in would reduce a kid to panicked tears, especially one moment for young Joe, where he actually finds courage most adults would not have had in the same instance, as he is held in a deathly embrace and only seconds from lunch time.

Mystery abounds as the kids operate seemingly right under the noses of parents who should be demanding that they all stay “right where I can see you” until the town crisis is over. But the story is of course about the kids and their adventure at these strange times despite the fact that in a real event one or two of them would have never made it to the third act.

A Spielberg movie for sure, and a professionally done one that reminds one of classic 80’s style movies from the master.

4/5 stars

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Education, Capitalism, Competition, Schools, Learning, Public Schools, Monopolies

2011-06-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

Stupid, Capitalism
and Education

part 5

It wasn’t always the case that America had state run schools. Once upon a time it was the communities that set up their own schools, and many parents home schooled. Back then, of course, teachers made very little money, but then it was the kids education and the future of society that mattered more, so there was plenty of volunteering. It wasn’t until around the 1830’s that the drive for state run schools was instituted.

Back then there was plenty of justified suspicion as to this matter. When the Massachusetts State Board of Education was formed, it was then promptly abolished. It was obvious that the organization was to lead to a centralization and monopoly of power in a few hands, and thus “anti-democratic” in its inception. How true!

Horace Mann, the so called Father of Public Education, believed that public schooling could cure all sorts of social ills. All in the name of reducing crime, he touted that 9/10ths of the penal code would soon be eradicated. Is that what happened?

These dreaming collectivists created a system that became the adversary of the good. Left to their own devices, private schools would have expanded. The money they saved could have been used to help the charities of the day.

Literally, we are protecting our kids from the benefits of competition by forcing them to exist inside of the system of a monopoly. I get a pretty good regular cup of coffee from a local Starbucks for about $1.50. The surrounding coffee service providers are forced to keep their coffee prices down in order to maintain a competitive edge. Their coffee had better be competitive too, or they won’t even make that margin. If you could only get coffee in one place, you’d be paying taxes on the coffee and have a limited choice as to what would be served... then what sort of service would you receive?

Monopolies don’t innovate. In much the same way as they hand out drab olive colored clothing to citizens in communist countries, these monopolies have “Orwellian” overtones contained in their prime directives. Why does school run from September to June? The Farm calendar from the early 1830’s is the template for this schedule. Back then, the summer was for planting crops. Today we are no longer agrarian in our efforts on a major scale as a nation. But the public school system is one of blind obedience, not a responder to changing times. Year round schooling might even create shorter school days for kids and increase the amount of covered studies, many parents would indeed support the change. Less than 2% of our country lives by the farming cycle now, but has public education responded? You tell me.

We’re finding today that teenagers actually perform better on a later schedule than the early morning start, due to their unique physiology, but schools have done nothing to adjust to the findings. This should tell you something about the response they have to outdated methods also.

If you believe that America has the best education system in the world, you must be living under a rock. But, its not your fault, you’re not allowed to see anything better.

It would be nice to abolish government involvement in education all together, but American’s are addicted to feeding at the teet of the Government. Sadly, there is simply no courage to move out on your own when mom and dad are willing to pay your bills for you.

The difference however, is that Government funded would be a better alternative than Government run. Our schools should have that “Starbucks” look, where we have a choice to go somewhere else for a low priced, excellent product. Customers get to decide where they want to have their coffee, and they should also get the choice of where they want to get their kids education. Vote with the feet. Vote with the wallet. It makes for superior choices.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Education, Capitalism, Competition, Schools, Learning, Public Schools, Monopolies

2011-06-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

Stupid, Capitalism
and Education

part 4

It has been reported that teachers in New York City can be paid somewhere in the amount of 60 to 70 thousand dollars. For a nine month job, that’s not too shabby. But if you ask teachers they will tell you they work hard enough to be paid 85 to 90 thousand. And why not? Indeed they are given a huge responsibility for bringing up the next generation of our society. NYC teachers also have a pension plan with a government guarantee of an 8.25 per cent return. They are not taxed and the teachers also get ten days per year sick leave.

In the national sense, however, most teachers do make less. Most of the K-12 teachers make around 45 grand a year, but they only work nine months a year. For three months they receive paychecks and are free to do as they please every day. They make more than a chemist and computer programmer on an hourly wage basis.

But just imagine a free market of education. Parents would demand a bigger share of that government spending of $250,000 per classroom for great educators for their kids. Demand would make the value of teachers go even higher, and they could challenge entertainers and athletes for outrageous salaries.

How Much Money Does it Take?

Are they really underpaid? Why would you keep teaching if other opportunities arose that you could succeed at and make more money with. Are there that many sacrificial heroes in teaching? Do they all have Machiavellian type paradigms as they spend their own money to see to it that their kids have books and pencils? If teachers were paid too little, then they would never be able to retain teachers, we would have shortages all over the country. But statistics prove other wise. Many schools have multiple applications for each available position. At charter schools, teachers often make about 15-20 percent more than the government public school counterparts. One size fits all contracts reward bad teachers and punish good teachers. It’s a crying shame is what it is.

The Truth About Home schooling

A growing number of parents fed up with public schools are opting for home schooling their kids. The numbers are still comparatively low, but they make headway every year.

The argument of course, is that socialization suffers in the home schooled child. But a lot of that is just assumptions of those who march in lock step with the establishment. School is where you are supposed to pay attention to the teacher, not have concerns over your classmates and their presence around you.

Home schooled kids have about four hours a day of real school. The rest of they day, usually spent trapped in the school system of regimented daily routines, can be spent for all the social involvement one needs. And that social involvement can be controlled. There is no need to remind parents of the horror that many kids go through as they step from a social environment of the home, where they are loved and accepted (hopefully) to an environment of neurotics and ego insecure strangers.

Everyone knows how puberty can ruin a perfectly sweet and good kid, why subject them to a society of children all being effected? As an added note, just keep in mind the success of Asian children as they practice a common theme for themselves on the way to school achievement. They often get together with friends to actually do the study and homework, and this is a trait that has made many an Asian child a top performer. They don’t struggle with the social paradigms of “giving into the man” if they are a good student, and the results have us all looking for doctors and lawyers and professionals from all walks of life who are Asian. Not because they are Asian, but because of the stand they take on studying throughout their scholastic careers.

It’s a statistical fact that home schooled kids consistently score 15-20 percent higher than kids in a school system setting. They also score higher on the ACT, about 10 percent higher. Schools held at homes have freedom and love of the learning experience that has until now been crushed by the regimen of the system, and it shows in the results.

The “great thinkers” of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s who wanted to create a society of piece meal workers who only knew how to repeat the same job over and over until the day they die, have sent us all into a hell no one could ever have foreseen. Home schooling is re-awakening the human spirit that was crushed with industrial maneuvering over the scholastic lives of America’s children. Only with the continual destruction of a system meant to enslave our kids can we see the true benefits of doing away with a system that has made our kids stupid all in the name of big money men who wanted to socially engineer their own workforce.

Voucher anyone?

But what if we gave parents education vouchers? One of these could be as much as $5,000 a year and would be attached to the child so that the parent could send the child to the best school that they could choose.

Critics say that these could destroy public education. (And your point is?......) Public schools would then be overrun with nothing but problem kids and this would turn them into public detention centers and they would not longer be schools. Sure, money would disappear from the system with a big sucking sound you could hear all across America.

This would in turn force the government to make long needed changes to maintain their own position as a school and not a detention center. What would they do? I think that perhaps they have no clue what would happen then. Just keep your kids in our unproductive system, it’s the good kids and the involved parents that keep them the way they are, for without them, the bad kids and uninvolved parents would have no leg to stand on. Remember, teachers and kids who give a dam are punished and the converse are kept afloat. It’s the American school system way.

The school system in Milwaukee has actually tried the voucher system and the results proved that students everywhere did a better job, those who were pulled out of the public school and also those who remained. The public schools were forced to try harder and be more competent as the money went in other directions, and the kids improved in their performance.

Amazingly, organizations like “People for the American Way” have actually filed lawsuits over the voucher program, stating that it violates the separation of church and state. They say this because lots of parents with vouchers send their kids to religious schools. This was a huge threat, since most schools who are not government schools are indeed religious organizations. However, the ruling was that as long as parents chose those schools and as long as the government did not force them to go to those schools, then the violation was not present. The U.S Supreme court agreed.

Allowing for school choice is nothing new. The G.I. bill sent over 2 million soldiers to college after World War II and some of those colleges were the likes of Notre Dame and Bringham Young. Soldiers could choose whatever school they wanted. American colleges were sparked by the competition for government money from vouchers and in the end result, American colleges are now sought after institutions all over the world.

more on this next time

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Education, Capitalism, Competition, Schools, Learning, Public Schools, Monopolies

2011-06-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

Stupid, Capitalism
and Education

part 3

All over America thousands of Catholic schools outperform government schools. They spend less than half as much money. Average teachers make more than the top they are paid at Catholic schools, but Catholic schools get the job done. Why? Because they want to be there. They are not as well qualified, they don’t have fancy degrees. But, they are successful in ways public schools can only dream about.

There are those who will tell you that Catholic schools succeed the way that they do because they have a choice of students. Public schools must take everyone. Catholic schools are able to throw out the trouble makers, but they rarely do. The parents and the students both know that expulsion could happen at any time. Catholic schools involve the parents in ways that public schools simply don’t bother with. Problem kids get the education that is coming their way, they have no choice in the matter.

The Catholic school system has the freedom to fail students without interference and this is one of the main reasons they are as successful as they are. New York City’s CHS system serves the same disadvantaged population as the government does, but they graduate 99% of their students. Government schools hover around the 50% range for student graduation. A huge difference that continues despite the obvious results of the two systems. Whom does the public school system serve? Whom do they REALLY serve?

Of course, there are always the charter schools to go to if Catholic school is not your thing. But try to open one. For many who try to open charter schools, or perhaps, switch out a government run school into a charter school, the headaches are enormous. There are massive amounts of government regulations that attempt to limit and control the abilities of charter schools. There have been instances of the public schools fighting the development of charter schools all the way to the Supreme Court. The bottom line here, is of course, the money being lost to charter schools. It seems the development of future generations of educated kids comes at a price.

A Governor of a southern state was once offered to place his kids in the best schools in his area by the school board. The local school was sub par, and if he had not been Governor, his kids would have been required to attend that school because of the location of his residence. But for the Governor, the rules didn’t apply.

He then decided that he would institute a plan that would help all kids with their education and called the plan: Put Parents in Charge. Parents could choose any school they wanted and if they wanted to go to a private school, then they would receive a tax credit to assist them with the choice.

Competition makes everything better. No one would settle for just one kind of product these days, not when production moves us all ahead in various ways in the relentless pursuit of the top profit spot. With kids falling through the cracks right now, how can we continue to ignore the process of competition? But the school boards are locked into their testament of fear, despite the obvious results in every other facet of life.

The Governor’s plan of Putting Parents in Charge was voted down by the legislature as being a “victory” for education. The claims being that they system is too accountable to allow competition to ruin our education system, it’s just not a proven commodity, at least not where education is considered. But that commodity is proven in every other area of life. Never mind that, though.

Accountability is the very reason Private and Catholic schools do better than public schools. Everyone there works to make sure the product, an educated human child, is what is produced. If they don’t produce them, the administrator is out of a job.

The USSR was a government monopoly, and we all know what has happened there. The only thing worse is a unionized government monopoly. If teachers are all paid the same, and they can’t be fired, then they can fart around all day and the kids don’t matter anyhow. Just deliver the health benefits and let them have their coffee lounge.

New York City has something called the NTE, the National Teacher’s Examination. Many teachers refuse to take these tests, even though they are used to determine benefits and pay scales. Teachers in the system are mediocre because it is tolerated. They are all paid the same.

(Just take a look at the Movie: Waiting on Superman, for an inside look at how these things happen.)

Teachers are ferried around from school to school in the dance of the lemons because excellence is barred by contract. In this contract there are 205 pages of rules to follow. Union monopolies create these kinds of things. The rules forbid paying excellent teachers more than others and they also prohibit firing of teachers who rarely show up for class or maybe have a thing for one of their students. Teachers who are violent, incompetent or sexually aggressive to students make big bucks, and the litigation to fire them is cost prohibitive... so they say.

Tax payers pay millions every year for unproductive teachers in the public school system. Many are put in holding, throwing their own lives away each day as they DO NOT teach, but might as well be watching TV for a living. The system keeps them even though they are afraid to let them near a student. The contract demands that. Avoiding getting in trouble with the union creates an atmosphere where the lazy people drag everyone else down.

In contrast, it is competition that always stimulates innovation. At KIPP charter schools, kids may stay in class until 5pm every day. They have school on Saturday every other day of the week. Kids and parents have the cell phone numbers of teachers who are always on call to help students with class work. People are involved in these types of schools and the difference shows. Everyone has a jobs here, and the students are the ones who benefit. The student has the job of succeeding in school. The Teacher has the job of turning out high graduation rates for kids who have actually done the work and succeeded, and the parents are the supporters and nurtures of the process.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Education, Capitalism, Competition, Schools, Learning, Public Schools, Monopolies

2011-05-25T12:08:00.000-07:00

A Sylvan Learning Center

Stupid, Capitalism and Education

part 2

Those who administer the international tests to students at about the age of 15, say that the freedom to choose a school and the act of schools governing themselves, matters more than the people who run those schools. It is increasingly obvious that the freedom for parents to choose and the freedom for schools to create the type of school they want is more important than the ability to create a uniformed, “lock step” type society within schools which produce more and more inferior educational results. Since 1989 Belgium and France have shown marked differences with divergent types of schools on each side of the country. The kids on the Flemish side of the country do remarkably better in the international tests than the French side, and they have a greater autonomy.

Better for the Disadvantaged?

The Public School officials will tell the public that the school system levels the playing field. According to them, the poor and minorities are given better opportunities to succeed. It’s a load of hogwash. Public schools are regularly more segregated than private schools. Studies have shown that 54% of public school students were in classrooms that were 90% white or more than 90% minority. Only around 40% of private school students had the same experience.*

*Education Myths, Jay Green

These statistics are the result of the wealthy being able to move near good schools, and the poor being stuck with what they can get. Washington DC has a school called, Ballou High; a place where teachers often don’t even show up. And why should they since they can’t be fired? The kids have no where to go, hanging in the hallways, they know they are stuck and it seems no one cares. Of course, she and her parents could try to pretend that they live in another school district, but then the school zone border patrol might exercise their right to control trespassers.

Where Liberals Run Wild and Free

Even in California, “the left coast”, school detectives go around making sure kids in schools of the Freemont district actually live where they say they do. Freemont schools are markedly better than the surrounding schools in the area, and kids and parents who want better have to become clandestine to do so. One grandmother who created a room and address for her grandson was “caught” as she tried to give her grand kid a better education. Big Brother saw to it that a better education was denied as they “corrected” the situation. Can you say, “Papers please!”

I can remember my own high school experience of being forced into a remedial reading class my freshman year, all of us were, even the kids who were in the “A” class. So pervasive is the poor education that is being produced, that even the “brains” have to be screened. One might think that all is the fault of the kids themselves, their parents, or maybe the media influence upon them. You would be right, of course, to claim that parents who read to their kids create better readers. Parents who take an interest in the school work of their kids, make better students for teachers, and the teacher’s job is much less insurmountable. Many parents however, have no option but to send their kids to these horrific schools created by the government system.

Ah, well... someone has to work for the Government

The U. S Department of Education says that 25% of American high school students can’t read at a basic level. They tell the kids to just go home and read on their own, the kid plays video games instead, and the system passes them to the next level anyway. Some of these kids were taken by a private investigative party to the Sylvan Learning Center and in 72 hours of instruction the reading comprehension jumped two grade levels. The government system loves to have meetings with parents and throw around all sorts of high sounding words and existentialist philosophy, then deny the reality of kids who graduate from their schools that still cannot read, but the final statistics show that private institutions succeed in teaching kids even the basics of reading at an alarmingly more efficient rate over the long term.

Is there an answer?

Sylvan learning centers are an example of accountability. They have to do what they say they will do, if not: no business, no income. A Sylvan program may cost upwards of about $3,000 dollars, the government spends about $10,000 on a child’s education. Why not just fund the parents for going to private instruction? Perhaps the bloated costs are not all they have to be.

Supposedly, the public schools have no money. Just study the abject failure of “No Child Left Behind”, an exercise in government excess at the planning stage with no execution afterward, due to “lack of funding”. When one asks school officials if more money would be the answer, they always reply in the affirmative. More money would indeed fix the problem. How much you ask? Millions. They tell you millions would fix the school system.

Right now they spend about 10,000 per student. In a class of 25 that’s $250,000, and that’s per classroom. That’s all operating money, not capital expense. The surrounding infrastructure are all paid for. With $250,000 a lot can be done to make the student experience radically different than it is at this point.

The stats don’t lie though, America spends more on education that it does on the military, and we still score lower than most countries that spend less. It makes one wonder if the education system isn’t just a store front for another kind of organization in the shadows. Spending billions on “country clubbing” up the schools has only made the education system results worse.

Spending from 1971 to 2001 went from $4,479 per student to $8,996 per student. High school graduation rates from ‘71 to ‘01 went from 75.6% to 72.2% during the same duration. The facts are irrefutable, one can give the American school system all the money it wants, and things just don’t get better.

And yet, all that money goes ..... somewhere....

All over the country there are schools that outperform the government public schools. In South Carolina, there is a school where kids jump from their chairs to answer math questions in a “math game” exercise. They play relay math. They play bingo. They play “phonics around the world”.

This school, called “Middleton” charges about $3,000 per student, less than half of the money the government gives to the public schools in the surrounding area. Students there do better there with less money spent. Parents pay for the extra, despite the fact that they already are taxed and paying for the surrounding public schools; because their kids are fundamentally superior students.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Education, Capitalism, Competition, Schools, Learning, Public Schools, Monopolies

2011-05-19T14:06:00.000-07:00

Students of the Wildly Successful European School System

Stupid, Capitalism and Education

When one looks at the histories of nations in the last 2,000 years or so, there is a definite dichotomy of progress that is readily observable. Some may point out a racial divergence as the source of this progress, but they would be over simplifying cause and effect. The bottom line is that when we consider the countries of Western Europe, we see a progress that the rest of the world still has not been blessed with.

One can observe the histories of African nations, Samoan nations, and even the Middle East, and there is a consistency of action among these nations that has held them at bay from the beneficial onset of Western European type progress, which is more than skin deep. Britain, France, Spain, Italy and surrounding nations in the late 18th century and beyond all competed for the larger piece of the “world pie”.

The Real Tool of Motivation

Competition was the name of the game, and its fanatical use was instrumental in the changing of the face of the world, for better or for worse. The evidence of the benefits of competition is undeniable. Evidence of the lack of it, in the nations that have stayed behind, living in the former centuries even today, is also ubiquitous.

This has also worked toward the benefit of mankind in the smaller arena of business and entertainment. How many creative ideas have come from the imaginary stage of Hollywood, searching for the next big money draw, only to end up as a similar reality in the world of business. My grandfather would be amazed at our society wide use of hand held devices whereby one can even chat live with another person face to face, much like the old Dick Tracy wrist watches. This is not the only part of the result of competition, but inclusive is also the speed at which innovation is taking place. Those who have passed away only in the last 25 years or so, say in the ‘80’s, knew nothing of the internet, cell phones, electric cars, artificial limbs that respond to brain waves, and any number of innovations brought about by invention in just the recent years of mankind’s history. An yet how many of us fondly remember the 80’s as though it were yesterday?

Sadly, much can be said about the lack of competition and it’s stifling effects when it comes to education and our schools. Much like those anachronistic nations I have mentioned, our schools have not just floundered, but they have fallen behind and deteriorated. Hijacked by those with business and sociological agendas, our kids have become intellectual anathema in the scholastic realm.

Stupid is a hard word. It carries with it certain judgements and requirements for plausibility that may or may not have real world applications. It is also relative, as many of our popular beliefs will lead you to believe that we, today, are OF COURSE, intellectually superior than any group of people who has ever lived.

We're Smarter, but closer to annihilation

I recently saw the movie Thor, and they even mention this type of thinking in relation to Norse mythology. The statement is made that primitive people such as the Vikings would have worshiped Thor as a god, clearly implying that we today are way too smart for that sort of thing. Yet, how ignorant can this concept be when we consider the gross dilapidation of our educational system. Vikings may have not discovered the atom, but they were far from stupid cave dwelling types. In fact, over history, nobody was a stupid cave man type. Stupid people die quickly, they don’t survive to make more stupid. They just didn’t have the educational progress that we today supposedly have, although much of what we are taught in school is now subject to scrutiny as revisionist in compliance with industrial agendas of the past.

Science must be observable, unless it happened millions of years ago

An example of this would be carbon-14 dating. Wholly believed to be evidence that substantiates such things as a Paleolithic period by droves of students who attend grade schools and on into college, little is mentioned, if ever, of the intrinsic need for atmospheric conditions to be conducive to the rate of carbon-14 atom creation. Simply because there is a certain amount of carbon-14 in a dinosaur bone, an imaginary extrapolation about the term of age of said bone is produced and then expanded in to “what must have been”, based upon the “evidence”. However, had the environment been such that carbon-14 production was inhibited until radical atmospheric change took place, then the rate of carbon-14 in ANYTHING is a result of that change and not a result of great age. But you never hear this from grade school history books.

For a better explanation on carbon-14 dating problems please see this link: http://contenderministries.org/evolution/carbon14.php

You would, however, hear about this sort of thing if there were competition over money and power involved. So why the intellectual political slant? Why are out of date “truths” taught to our kids despite the updated advances in our knowledge about such things as carbon-14 dating, which we owe to the progress of competition?

Monopolies. Basically, our education system has gone nowhere fast due to the death grip of monopolies. The monopoly in education is the government itself. If you concede my examples of entire nations throughout history as an example, then you understand the prescriptive point toward the results our education is reeling beneath. A pejorative word for both stupid and union-dominated monopolies that run our school system would be redundant in its essence.

Unionized monopolies create ossified, bloated bureaucracies that do little to help the people they are supposed to serve. One may move from the grass hut to the adobe home, but you’ll never see a skyscraper.

Competition, however, made Europe great. It has made our technology better in leaps and bounds, thanks mostly to Microsoft and Apple. And yes, I have to give credits to the movie industry for blazing a trail of innovation in contributing to technological advances.

We're number two, we try harder

When there is a battle for the almighty dollar, those in competition have to try harder. It often seems that all one needs in advertising is a pretty girl in a bikini. No real need for all the advertising research that is done, since everyone has a firm grip on what sells an audience. But if all advertising was only focused on sex, then where do you go next? Therefore, advertisers must try harder.

Take also as an example of this: the U.S. Postal service. The stigma of lousy service due to ineffectual government employees has remained with them despite their best efforts to compete with private industry such as UPS and FedEx. Today we do have a better postal service than our grandfathers had, but they are still not better than UPS and FedEX. They are still government.

Cell phone companies offer tons of different plans in the hopes of covering an entire market of needs. Education should be doing the same. If people get to choose their kids school then the options would be endless. There would be schools everywhere, for the general to the specific. You could have Wal-Mart type schools, sports schools, music schools, and all of it right at home on the computer. In fact, we have lots of this sort of thing happening already. But not with the public school system.

Mark of the Best? hmmm...

Kids from around the world, scratching their heads in disbelief

Belgian kids and New Jersey kids were given the same test in one experiment. The Belgian kids thought that the test was easy and believed that the American kids given the same test would have no trouble. Not so. The schools the kids came from were comparable in their performance, but the Belgian kids scored 30% higher in the test scores. The American kids were shocked at the rate of advancement of those Belgian kids.

At the age of ten, students from twenty five countries take the same test and kids in America place eighth in ranking. (Singapore. Guess who is number one? Finland.) But by the time they reach fifteen, American kids are in the bottom of the chart at 25th place. The longer American kids stay in school, the worse they do in international competition. Poorer countries like Korea and Poland score much higher and spend less on education.

But government education in America is a monopoly. Families who send kids to public school must take what they are given. Is your school terrible? Do the teachers get moved around from school to school no matter how bad they are? Tough. Taxes pay for it, that’s what you get, government employed teachers. Just like the post office, teachers in government employ become a part of the substandard system. And why not? They can’t be fired.

The government often fails to live up to the market need in many facets of life. Instead of being a regulator of private industry (God help us!) or a delegate to private industry, it attempts to offer the “yellow box” product or service to the public. Government airlines and automobiles like the “Trabant” are prime examples of this grade C type of production.

Can anyone remember the government phone company? Every phone was black, and an answering machine was an “illegal device”. Once the monopoly was broken up and competition was introduced, the phone market took off. Just take a look at old phones and compare the usage we have today since the introduction of competition. That is only in a little over 60 years and it won’t be long at this rate before “Star Trek” type communication is considered quaint in the face of the new technological reality.

Other countries have government run schools, but the money from the government is given to the kids and their parents so that they may choose where they want to go. Schools are forced to innovate in order to appeal to parents so that business comes their way, even if that business brings in the government’s own money. The funding comes from the customer, so to speak, not from an office in City Hall and the like.

More on this next time

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Konig's Fire

2011-05-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

Konig’s Fire

by Marc Schooley

They Called Me Nebuchadnezzar

The Nazis have established a torture center in a mine at the heart of a Romanian forest. Here they interrogate prisoners and, sometimes, throw them into the furnace at the heart of the mine.

Only now, the primeval forest is rising against them, unleashing a preternatural army to besiege the great iron gate of the mine. The fearsome guards become terrified prisoners and the furnace itself burns with hungry anger against them.

Sascha König, a man they called Nebuchadnezzar, is their only hope. He is master of the furnace. All along, he has been Hitler’s ardent servant. But now...König is wrestling with demons of his own, and the Master of all fires is calling him to Himself through the haunting eyes of a little gypsy girl König did not save.

Philosophical depth and Transcendent hope

Marc Schooley is one of those authors who reminds me of King Solomon, as he projects an ability and writer’s sense that transcends much of the rest of what is offered in the novelist world. He makes one think that perhaps the world itself misses out on truly great talent when it ignores something in the vein of this book, which is wholly Christian themed.

A rich, descriptive narrative that reveals a complex and talented imagination, Konig’s Fire can be a tough read. The reader may have a problem getting around reading a novel about Nazis also, and in the first half or so of the book, Mr. Schooley takes some rather long and intensive paragraphs to describe the surrounding environment and situational complexities of the characters involved. This happens to such an extent that it leads one to believe that perhaps there are dozens and dozens of conceptual drawings somewhere that helped the author to literally inject himself into the subject at hand, in an uncomfortably realistic way. I couldn’t help but wonder why there weren’t a few illustrations within the book, as I would have loved to see some of this creation, but I suppose that the author prefers to keep the incredible narrative descriptions within the readers imagination.

There are fanciful and fantastic images and also “antagonists” in the vein of venue from the best of “Johnny Quest” style imaginings. The plant men, giant gorilla like creatures and glowing orbs that float through the air, will bring an impression of the “childlike fantastic” to bear. The action sequences, with machine gun battles against giant sentient vines and scrappy giant roaches, are also in the best vein of “guy movie” literation, without ignoring the more human aspects of what is really, on its surface, a rather ridiculous situation that leads to important revelations that can impact the reader in a personal way.

However, the themes covered in the narrative are both deeply considered and realistically rendered. It is perhaps the desire of the author to write a book on these deeper themes of mankind without creating a dusty tome for the college library philosophy and religion department. And indeed his delivery of this desire is championed in an unabashed and principled way. Though the book may entertain with action and fanciful creatures from the surrounding forest, the deeper aspects of the narrative’s purpose are never sublimated for the benefit of mere energetic entertainment.

The second half of the book begins to loosen up a bit with the description of the surrounding forest, the mine and the characters within the claustrophobic prison of their unintended captivity, and begins to move at a pace that keeps one turning pages. Mr. Schooley has a talent for this, as I have seen in another of his books, therefore, if one can “trudge through” the thicket of his narrative in the first half, you’ll be rewarded with the spry and quickened pace of the second half.

This is, of course a Christian themed novel, and therefore promotes those concepts and ideas of Christianity established by the Bible. The only difficult thing that you may have a problem with is reading the book in a public place. The chapters are emblemed with the iron cross of Germany circa World War II. The cover also has the “fittingly” Nazi look in keeping with the subject matter. If reading on the bus or in the library, you may not get the chance to explain to passers by that the story is about redemption and the role of evil in the everyday mind of mankind, and not some type of “union manifesto”. But, of course, this is a personal thing for each reader to decide for himself. Regardless, I recommend this novel for any one who can handle a mix of the fantastic and the transcendent that deals with God, Mankind and the results of evil.

Marc Schooley is a Texan, which may be empirically verified if you ever hear him speak. He is a Christian philosopher, theologian, Bible teacher, speaker, musician, and nascent Christian fiction writer.

http://www.marcschooley.com/about.php

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Thor

2011-05-07T19:13:00.000-07:00

THOR

Genre: Drama, Action & Adventure, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Synopsis: The epic adventure THOR spans the Marvel Universe from present day Earth to the mystical realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is The Mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war.
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hr. 55 min.
Distributor:Paramount Pictures
Directed By: Kenneth Branagh
Written By: Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Don Payne

Chris Hemsworth • Thor
Tom Hiddleston • Loki
Natalie Portman • Jane Foster
Anthony Hopkins • Odin
Stellan Skarsgård • Professor Andrews
Jaimie Alexander • Sif
Colm Feore • Laufey
Joshua Dallas • Fandral
Ray Stevenson • Volstagg
Tadanobu Asano • Hogun
Idris Elba • Heimdall
Kat Dennings • Darcy
Clark Gregg • Agent Coulson
Rene Russo • Frigga
Adriana Barraza • Isabela Alvarez
Maximiliano Hernandez • Agent Sitwell
Richard Cetrone • Frost Giant Captain

A movie Walter Mitty would have loved. Shakespearean drama trades back and forth with pedestrian modern day Earth “soap style” theatrics. Although I was glad to see the creation of Asgaard high in the heavens, due to the early trailers not including much else besides a look at Natalie Portman, I did wish that the movie did a little more of something on at least one side of the universe. Because there are two stories, we only get a sort of “fill in” from both camps. We don’t really know astrophysicist (one time nurse) Jane Foster any more than we do Anthony Hopkin’s Odin the all father. We just know what they do and what they don’t do. I suppose that this is mainly to time constraints on both sides. But that sort of thing is typical of what goes on here writing wise. Thor’s not stupid, he’s a battle tested veteran and knows his way around hand to hand combat, with frost giants and also Navy SEALS. But if you ask him how he knows Shield Agent Colson is an ally protecting the innocent general public, or even how Jane Foster, an astrophysicist who studies space phenomenon, (and she isn’t something like a missionary who is saving starving children in Africa); manages to imbue him with mature altruism, I doubt that Thor himself could tell you. Certainly the story doesn’t. But those explanations will have to float off into comic movie oblivion as they are the only real complaints I have for this rip roaring block buster.

Chris Helmsworth is well worth the ticket for a Thor public and fits the role nicely, he’s big enough, buff enough and has a certain charm I know the ladies who go for the Norwegian blonde type will just love. His brother Loki, played by Tom Hiddleson to great effect, vies with Thor despite himself for his father’s approval. Hiddleson gives us subtle shades of Loki I had never seen in the comic book as we see his inner struggle between himself, and the life he has grown up with. That is to say, he has become disillusioned by his place in life, and can’t quite decide what is more important; the status quo or his own shocked resentment. A nice change from cackling super villains.

Anthony Hopkins plays father Odin, as only HE can, and we believe in Odin’s character, we just never really get to know him. A real shame. Odin casts Thor out of the Kingdom and down to Earth for his impetuousness, though he seems not to know the why and where that Thor got the “bee in his bonnet” in the first place that brings him to his actions. Curious, because supposedly Odin can see all things. Ah, well.

Portman’s Jane Foster would have made more sense to me in her effects on Thor had they left her as a nurse as she is in the comics, or if as I have said, she was a missionary who broke Thor’s heart with her self sacrificing work for those who can’t help themselves. Ooo! Boy would that have killed! But instead she is a scientist, who no doubt, from the way things work out, will team up with Tony Stark in the future for the next chapter in considerations of Thor’s place in the grand scheme of Marvel movie directives. She only lacks funding and the science magic of Stark himself. Portman is everywhere today, and one thing she is definitely doing is leaving a legacy of malleability only rivaled by Johnny Depp. Unlike say, William Shatner or Tony Randal, you never see her the same way twice. That’s accomplishment!

Other secondary characters who make a splash are, Jaimie Alexander as the female warrior, Sif who is actually Thor’s lady love in the comics. (One classic comic story is where Thor must save Sif from Dracula, natch!) Alexander is great and really looks the part of the character, though she is NOT part of the team other than here in this movie. Idris Elba as Heimdall the protector of the rainbow bridge, is also chillingly effective and commanding, even in his secondary role.

Others have said they didn’t like the computer generation of Asgaard, but I can’t agree. Other worlds in other dimensions of space have never been so amazingly rendered. For me, it was money well spent, and I loved the care and detail and sweeping majesty of the kingdom. I also loved the traveling through the vastness of space, which no one from Asgaard or the Frost Giant realm seem at all in awe of. The power that Thor wields, just in the ability to transverse worlds, puts him in a league all his own. I would say that the Hulk has his hands full in tussling with Thor, and remember, the Hulk was throwing around automobiles like frisbees in his last outing.

Thor is a funny movie at times in the populist predictability of movie making these days, and the fact that a Simpson’s writer is involved added lots of familiar touch to the comedic moments. It does however, undercut the potential serious drama that could have made the movie a real gut checker, being about disgrace, justice and redemption; especially if it had been coupled with a missionary female lead.

Thor’s fight scenes are truly great stuff, that hammer of his makes wimps of some of the most potentially horrific monsters and enemies that we have come to see in modern movies. But for Thor, he hardly flinches in the face of something like the “Cracken” from another movie. The fact that Loki proves to be a physical if not a tactical match for Thor, is portentous for the upcoming Avengers movie, of which Loki is one of the main bad guys, so I have heard. But Thor need not worry, with the likes of Iron Man, Captain America and the Hulk backing him up, Loki will have his hands full. It’s the Avengers movie itself that may overheat and explode all over the audience if not handled properly. It will take special care to pull off so many ridiculous improbabilities in one movie.

Good stuff here folks. It’s hard to make it a 4 of 5, because it seems so presentational, so I give it 3.5 out of 5. But on a personal level, I liked it better than that.

3.5/5 stars - oh what the hell, go see it.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Historicity of the Old Testament Part 5

2011-05-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

Historicity

of the Old Testament

part 5

One of the things discussed in my post about the Historicity of the NEW TESTAMENT was the continuing witness of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper by early Christians as having been a linchpin to which scripture was accepted by these churches as being authentic when copies of scripture were presented to them years after the initial events. These two ordinances were established by Christ himself and then adopted by new believers as they became part of new churches and then spread out into the surrounding society. Had this not been the case, the New Testament, which describes the establishment of the ordinances, would never have been received as genuine in the first years of the church. They would have instead been rejected out right as false, due to the fact that the establishment was already in force and also had been relayed as being from other sources, and not Christ himself; if indeed these ordinances were in force at all. And if they had not even existed, then the rejection of scripture would have been even more of a non-event. But that is NOT what happened.

The Passover ceremony reflects in many ways the same sort of witness when it comes to the Old Testament. Higher critics attribute these books to other writers and priests hundreds of years after the life of Moses. The implication flatly stating that Moses existence is in dispute.

The book of Exodus describes in great detail the directions of God concerning the Passover celebration and its yearly observance. It delineates the events of the first Passover and Israel’s miraculous delivery from Egypt, which is commanded to be remembered by the children of Israel every year.

But suppose NONE of this had really happened. In supposed fact, let’s say a group of priests who lived about 700 A.D. got together to promote a formalized system of worship they had created in order to solidify their control over the populace of its day. They then developed a body of religious literature, with the help of various sources, in particular cementing their own position of religious power. They then attributed the authority of scripture to the writing of Moses for the “name dropper” effect of credibility.

But, this would have been immediately rejected by those for whom the writing was intended as soon as the Passover feast was presented, for such a thing had NEVER been established, and the people would have known how phony the whole thing was. The response of course, would be that the documents which ordered the Passover observance had been lost in antiquity and therefore the feast was unfortunately forgotten with time. Many hard headed Israelites would have been reticent to ignore this decree as the documents describe an expensive and demanding priestly rule and restriction. They would have demanded firm proof of the authorship of Moses before ever coming under the “totalitarian” demands of scripture. Kings and rulers would have been especially dismissive as the books relay a rule by God over the people and not my a monarchy, as the governmental structure of the nation. The priests presenting these papers to the people would have been condemning themselves as the documents describe the necessity of the priesthood as the keepers of the religious institutions of Israel and were therefore no longer trustworthy.

The documents also describe the creation of other institutions such as, the Tabernacle, perpetual offerings, annual feasts and also the Levitical priesthood themselves. In fact, the priesthood was NOT to own land, as their inheritance comes from God, and this would have put a crimp in the power mongers for sure. None of these could have been instituted on the basis of rediscovery of ancient text, as they often punish the presenters themselves.

But let’s say that all these institutions had sprung up on their own with no help from Moses. Then the priesthood itself decided to crystallize them all with the creation of scriptures. In real life, effects require causes, and believability asserts that it is more likely that Moses delivered these decrees to the nation of Israel than it is that such “anit-egocentric” writing was easily accepted as truth. Due to the nature of the story line involved, the facts of the story are central to the existence of Israel itself, and therefore the institutions would have to have happened, and or been written about, but in any case established, immediately after the formation of the nation.

However if the histories really took place, if Moses was actually the great leader and lawgiver that scripture indicates, then the institution of the Passover and the other articles of practice would never have been accepted by the people unless they corresponded with what they already knew to be true without great evidential proof of Moses’ authorship.

The writers could have been the most clever deceivers and charlatans ever known to mankind. They somehow made it all up! The creation, Earth’s history, the moving lives of the patriarchs, thrilling stories of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and then wandering in the desert for forty years, everyone dying in the desert and never seeing the promised land, the Ten Commandments and their impossible moral code which only points toward mankind’s complete inability to place himself in good standing before God. For thousands of years now, the world has been duped!

It is higher critics who have really been exposed here. Can anyone who reasons in such a way really be an honest man? Our neighbor’s true nature is plain to see for each of us and any tome which was “made up” that does not speak to the ego of man in some way, but instead to his pathetic fallen existence before God, would have been long forgotten.

The Old and New Testament stand! The testimony of the Passover. The unanimous acceptance of scripture by the early Christian church and their Jewish counterparts. The careful studies of Bible scholars. The penetrating discoveries of scientific archeology. The impact of the Old Testament on all of world history. The testimony of Christ himself. All these thing unite in a message that the Old Testament, and in fact the Bible itself, is undeniably true.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Historicity of the Old Testament Part 4

2011-04-29T11:27:00.000-07:00

Historicity
of the
Old Testament

part 4

Historicity, basically meaning “historical accuracy”, supports the proposition that Moses had written the books of the Pentateuch, and Daniel had also written his book, or any of the Old Testament authors have written the books associated with their names. Any contention on linguistic basis for doubting the accuracy of these books pales in comparison when checked with actual historical facts.

Critics love to cast doubt on the Bible as an historical document more than any other ancient writing. They are only satisfied with a huge amount of supporting evidence. They operate like a court that finds you guilty until proven innocent; instead of taking it as true until proven false, it is the opposite tract that they adhere to.

Nineteenth century so called “intellectuals” used to deny the existence of the Hittites, the Horites, the Edomites and various other peoples. They claimed that the absence of other historical mentions outside of the Bible are ample proof of the “story telling” nature of scripture. This argument of silence has long been eradicated by the science of archaeology. Few critics today dare argue against the geographical and ethnological reliability of scripture. Though, little has been done in the realm of education to correct the harm done to our school systems by throwing out the history referenced in the Bible. No doubt, one would be labeled as trying to “turn back the clock” if you did try to make those corrections, no matter what truth and evidence may come of scientific investigation.

Archeology has now also supported the truth of kings and empires including, the Davidic-Solomonic empire, the other kings of Israel and Juda, the Babylonian captivity and the return from exile, the conquest of Canaan by Joshua and also the destruction of Jericho, a city that has been dated back to 9,000 BCE.

The names of over 40 different kings from other nations, mentioned in the Bible, have also been confirmed. These contemporary documents and inscriptions from outside the Old Testament, are always consistent with times and places associated in the Bible. In comparison to gross errors in other ancient histories, it becomes obvious that the Old Testament writers were the contemporaries of the people and events named in other text, and they wrote with a commitment to care and scrutinize their own text for the glory of God. Even names long ago though fictional, such as Belshazzar and Darius, have been confirmed as real by the investigation of science.

Dr. Nelson Glue

A major example of all this is the story from Genesis 14 of the group of kings who invaded Canaan and were defeated by Abraham. The Dean of Palestinian archaeologists, Dr. Nelson Gluek, also President of the Hebrew Union College and Jewish Institute of Religion, found abundant evidence of this invasion.

“Centuries earlier, another civilization of high achievement had flourished between the 19th and 21st centuries B. C., until it was savagely liquidated by the Kings of the East. According to the Biblical statements, which have been borne out by the archaeological evidence, they gutted every city and village at the end of that period from Ashtaroth-Karnaim, in the southern Syria through all of Trans-Jordan and the Negev to Kadesh-Barnea in Sinai (Genesis 14:1-7).“

Nelson Gluek, Rivers in the Desert, (New York: Ferrar, Strauss and Cudahey, 1959) p. 11

Dr. Gluek has made extensive research into the Biblical records of the Israeli nation and has found amazing reliability on all points for all those things considered. He has often made new discoveries, some resulting in a financial treat for the nation of Israel. He has therefore made the following sweeping generalization:

“As a matter of fact, let it be stated categorically, that no archeological discovery has EVER controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions, has often lead to amazing discoveries. They form tesserae (one of the small pieces used in mosaic work) in the vast mosaic of the Bible’s almost incredible correct historical memory.”

Neslon Gluek, op cit., p. 31

Christ himself, having made the claims to divinity and having all power and knowledge as such, must be vilified by scripture else wise, the writings are inexplicable. His own evaluation and reference to the Old Testament cannot be ignored as a result. Not only did Christ himself accept the Old Testament as authentic, but so did all the New Testament writers of their own day.

There are at least 320 direct references to the Old Testament in the New Testament, all considered cannon, and there are also thousands of other allusions as well.

“The scripture cannot be broken.”
John 10:35

“It is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.”
Luke 16:17

“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”
Luke 24:27

“If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”
John 5:46,47

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
Matthew 13:14

Refers to:

(Hebrew; Septuagint) “You will be ever hearing, but never understanding; you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ This people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.”
Isaiah 6:10

This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:

“Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
John 12:38

Refers to:

“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?”
Isaiah 53:1

“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—”
Matthew 24:15

Refers to:

“He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”
Daniel 9:27

and:

“His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation.”
Daniel 11:31

and:

“From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days."
Daniel 12:11

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh"
Matthew 19:4,5

Refers to:

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Genesis 2:24

"And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar."
Matthew 23:35

Refers to:

“Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.”
Genesis 4:8

and:

King Joash did not remember the kindness Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his son, who said as he lay dying, “May the LORD see this and call you to account.”
2 Chronicles 24:22

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.”
Luke 17:26

“Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
John 8:56-58

“It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.”
Luke 17:28

“But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Mark 10:6-9

“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”
Matthew 24:37-39

“But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.”
Luke 17:29

“Remember Lot’s wife!”
Luke 17:32

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.”
John 6:32

“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up..”
John 3:14

“I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
Luke 4:25-27

Refers to:

And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’ Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
2 Kings 5:10-14

He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matthew 12:39,40

To Christ and the Apostles, the Old Testament was authentic and verbally inspired by God. and that should settle the matter for Christians!

Next we’ll talk about the continuing witness of the Passover.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Historicity of the Old Testament Part 3

2011-04-25T13:42:00.000-07:00

Historicity
of the
Old Testament

part 3

Lower criticism provides an important service as it inspects the actual texts in order to establish the true Biblical writings. This is done through some rather thorough scientific methods, by those who care for the truth and are not afraid of finding something other than the actual truth. However, there is another field of study called “higher criticism” which attempts a similar trope but with less than honorable motivations.

This type of speculation assumes the ability to form an accretion process by which ancient writings, especially the Bible, came about as the result of miscellaneous fragments and forgeries and then was foistered on the people as a divinely inspired “scam”, as it were. Higher critics profess to be scientific in this process, however, they are hamstrung by the inevitability of their process being mainly subjective in its presuppositions. They seek by all means, to find a naturalistic, evolutionary method for explaining the Bible and the Christian Church and also the history of the nation of Israel. They do, of course, have to explain away all miracles and fulfilled prophecies (no easy task), and they also have to attribute the authorship of books to more recent writers than those presented in the origins themselves.

For these folks, the Bible is a waste of time as it is full of “bull cookies” as they might put it, containing errors and out right lies. Biblical scripture cannot contain any moral value or even any religious authority if indeed it is just a big charade meant to control the people, “opium for the masses” if you will, as a famous Russian leader once was quoted as having said. I have covered in this blog the secrets of our educational system and its dogged determination to teach our kids that God doesn’t exist, and how for the last century or more this accusation of inferiority of God’s word to naturalistic humanism has been taught as fact, in all levels of our schools system, despite its origin of speculation and downright atheist propaganda. But that’s not the end of it, this deterium has now crept into our theological teaching venues as well, and if there was ever an example of the “great falling away” during the end times, this would indeed be one of those instances. And this has happened right under the noses of the general public who go about their daily lives in ignorance of it, most growing old and perishing confident in the assumed knowledge of the big lie.

One would think, that with an abundance of manuscript evidence confirming the textural accuracy of the Old Testament going all the way back to the very time of its completion, combined with its universal acceptance as being divinely inspired and authentic, by both Jews and Christians, in the centuries closest to its writing and compilation, it would be taken at face value by those who use it; at least until some evidence of forgery or fraud is brought to light. (Something the Antichrist will no doubt achieve, with his ability to fool all of mankind, when his time comes.)

But this is not the case. Higher critics state that NONE of the books of the Old Testament were written by the original authors. According to them, the writers had no direct knowledge of anything they were writing. Claims of authorship were deliberately misrepresented, to give the writings an fake authority, and also to make the records of things like miracles and fulfilled prophecies only seem to have come true. The ultimate historical re-write.

As always, the attack must first come against the book of Genesis. Despite the erasing of any purpose Christ may have had for the sacrifice of the cross and even his own mentioning of events from Genesis in the New Testament record. These so called scientist have moved forward to discredit the beginning in order to eliminate the end, buy virtually calling Christ, and anyone who believes on him, an unmitigated fool.

In 1753 (and this date has much cache for the time when so called European intellectualism was being born to high fashion in the social realm), Jean Astruc, an atheist physician, wrote that Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 were from two different and conflicting sources, due to the name for God being Elohim in the first case and Jehova in the second case. In 1779, Eichron, the German rationalist, made note of differences in style. In 1806, DeWette professed to distinguish four main writers for the “Hexateuch”, writers known as J, E, P, and D. Various other writers also made mention of documentary division, authors and “redactors”. The Graf-Wellhausen (and I have written here in this blog about Wellhausen) hypothesis of 1866-78, worked out a very complex division of the first six books of the Bible. All were supposedly written about 900-600 B. C., despite Moses having died about 1450 B.C..

De Wette

Other prominent higher critics in the 19th century, whose actions have brought about the down turn of American society in our day, though one would never know it from what we are told, are Kuenen, Driver, Cheyne, Ewald, Coonhill and others. These were, of course, all evolutionists and naturalists, with an atheist agenda to promote humanism. Their higher criticism does not stop with the books of Moses and Joshua. The prophetic books of both Isaiah and Daniel have also been attacked, and if truth be told, there is no book of the Old Testament that has not been cleverly attacked in order to discredit the Word of God. What is truly sad is that people have been lead to believe that “smart” does not include the Bible, or even God himself. Once you get “smart”, you are above something like believing that God has a Word for his creation and watches over it to fulfill his design for the future of HIS universe. No, to these men, we are too smart for all that now. May heaven help them, and those who digest the atheist lie.

The writings of these men all have an underlying supposition, despite their intellectual and convoluted reasonings and “superior” testimonies. Their ideas have more to do with being an enemy of Christ, than anything even remotely resembling intellectual honesty. This is about atheism, it is not about being intellectually superior.

According to them:

A) Moses could not have written the Pentateuch, because writing was unknown in his day.

B) Evolutionary theory. (still a theory folks, not the truth, though it is taught as truth) does not allow for the attainment of high civilizations and literary abilities as early in Israel’s history as the Bible intimates happened.

C) Miracle stories are nothing more than ancient mythology, since scientifically miracles are impossible. This only applies of course, in a universe where science is the ultimate authority.

4) Fulfilled prophecy is also a miracle, and therefore scientifically impossible. Never mind the fact that science is about the observable and not about the hypothetical or theorizing. But theorizing away from God is more intellectually and scientifically honest for them than taking God at his Word and his existence. And they would like you to join them.

Were they all run into problems is with science itself. There are those whom also perform the investigations of science, and have steadily proven the writings of these men, who knew nothing of higher sciences like Astrophysics, as being unequivocally false.

Ras Shamra

Archeological findings have discovered that writing was indeed very common, even among tradesmen and housewives. And this pre-dates even Abraham. Sites in Ur of Chaldees, Abraham’s home town, have given up thousands of stone tablets on which there were volumes of writing in evidence. Business documents from Nuzi, a Horite town, from the time of Abraham have also been found. The Ras Shamra tablets are examples of cuneiform writing in the days of Moses, as have the Tel-el-Amarna letters.

Tel-el-Amarna

That which is true of writing is also that which is true of civilizations. Even if evolution had been proven to be true, and not still a theory, civilizations had developed a high form of existence long before Moses. The advanced state of math and technology from ancient times gives up its truths almost daily to scientists who are looking for validation and also those who just happen to be in the right place at the right time. Never mind the “aliens built the pyramids” idea, mankind had the math and ingenuity to build those edifices all on his own.

Similarities of the Great Flood and such from ancient mythological tales and passed down folk tales are a dim, flimsy built rhetorics compared to the recording of the flood from the Bible. To state etherial tales of long lost civilizations or generically old societies have enough weight on their own to discredit Biblical text, is more a revelation of prejudice against God, and it is also the practice of atheism, than it is intellectual honesty.

Their dealings with details of grammar, vocabulary and style, go to great length in their intellectualizing in the hopes of discrediting Holy Scripture, but don’t even come close to the revelation of the history of the nation of Israel and the Christian church. In considering style as a barometer of authorship, to make a case for in-authenticity is pure speculation. Style and vocabulary can indeed differ among many different writings of one author depending on the subject and purpose of the writer. I am quite sure that authors of romance novels, or horror novels do not even remotely resemble their every day correspondence.

In Genesis, however, this may indeed be the case. But their authorship may have to do more with Shem, Noah, and other patriarchs, not the mysterious J, E, P and D. Divisions in Genesis are marked off by the term, “these are the generations of...”. There is little to refute the possibility of these writings being carved in stone and then handed down to Moses who then scripted them. The problems with scripture that atheists hold fast to from almost 300 years ago, by men who knew less than we know today, have been refuted by Bible scholars, but have been ignored due to arrogance and belligerent propagandist proposals, more than to intellectual honesty.

Dr. Wilson

Dr. Robert Dick Wilson, a Princeton Semitic Philologist, studied the Old Testament for 50 years until his death in 1930. His devastating critiques of higher criticism’s so called findings have never been answered. Numerous others such as : W. H. Green, James Orr, Oswald Allis, Edward J. Young, all smart, well schooled writers, have demolished the findings of so called higher criticism, only to be ignored by an educational system that professes allegiance to the public good.

The claims of untrustworthiness of Old Testament scripture have utterly failed. Critics have NOT succeeded in a single line of attack. Ex-cathedra theories, though taught as verified truth, in concordances, dictionaries and literature, not to mention the secular university system, would find themselves hard pressed to prove their propositions concerning scripture if only they had the heft for the fight. Facts and evidence are not their stock and trade, however, since the educational “dumbing down” of the average common man has relegated him or her to over reliance on those who would place themselves in the unofficial office of “wise man”.

I’ll deal with historical and geographical accuracy in my next section.