Back in 2010, I put together a “Moocher Index” based on the percentage of non-poor people in each state getting government handouts.
Based on that back-of-the-envelope calculation, Vermont, Mississippi, and Maine were the biggest moocher states and Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona were the most self-reliant states.
Then, in 2013, I shared some data looking at the value of welfare benefits in each state, compared to both the median wage and to the federal poverty rate.
Sadly, those numbers showed it was more lucrative in many states (especially in the Northeast and Hawaii) to live off the government rather than work.
Today, let’s look at which states are the most generous with handouts. The Committee to Unleash Prosperity shared this table yesterday, which ranks states based on the level of per-capita spending on public welfare.
The folks at CTUP highlighted California and Florida. Since I usually do New York-vs-Florida and California-vs-Texas comparisons, I added a couple more numbers.
It’s not a perfect analogy since people presumably prefer cash to in-kind handouts, but the vertical bars basically represent living standards for any given level of income that is earned (on the horizontal axis).
Needless to say, there’s not much reason to earn more income when living standards don’t improve. May as well stay home and good off rather than work hard and produce.
This is why income redistribution is so destructive, not just to taxpayers, but also to the people who get trapped into dependency. Which is exactly the point made in this video.
Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose – Ep.4 (1/7) – From Cradle to Grave President Obama c/o The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. President, I know that you receive 20,000 letters a day and that you actually read 10 of them every day. I really do respect you for […]
Testing Milton Friedman – Preview Uploaded by FreeToChooseNetwork on Feb 21, 2012 2012 is the 100th anniversary of Milton Friedman’s birth. His work and ideas continue to make the world a better place. As part of Milton Friedman’s Century, a revival of the ideas featured in the landmark television series Free To Choose are being […]
Eight Reasons Why Big Government Hurts Economic Growth We got to cut these welfare programs before everyone stops working and wants to get the free stuff. The Bible says if you don’t work then you should not eat. It also says that churches should help the poor but it doesn’t say that the government should […]
Johan Norberg – Free or Equal – Free to Choose 30 years later 2/5 Published on Jun 10, 2012 by BasicEconomics In 1980 economist and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman inspired market reform in the West and revolutions in the East with his celebrated television series “Free To Choose.” Thirty years later, in this one-hour documentary, […]
I ran across this very interesting article about Milton Friedman from 2002: Friedman: Market offers poor better learningBy Tamara Henry, USA TODAY By Doug Mills, AP President Bush honors influential economist Milton Friedman for his 90th birthday earlier this month. About an economist Name:Milton FriedmanAge: 90Background: Winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize for economic science; […]
Below is a discussion from Milton Friedman on Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. February 10, 1999 | Recorded on February 10, 1999 audio, video, and blogs » uncommon knowledge PRESIDENTIAL REPORT CARD: Milton Friedman on the State of the Union with guest Milton Friedman Milton Friedman, Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution and Nobel Laureate in […]
Milton Friedman came up with the idea of eliminating all welfare programs and putting in a negative income tax that would eliminate the welfare trap. However, our federal government just doesn’t listen to reason. Obama Ends Welfare Reform as We Know It, Calls for $12.7 Trillion in New Welfare Spending Robert Rector July 17, 2012 […]
December 06, 2011 03:54 PM Milton Friedman Explains The Negative Income Tax – 1968 0 comments By Gordonskene enlarge Milton Friedman and friends.DOWNLOADS: 36 PLAYS: 35 Embed The age-old question of Taxes. In the early 1960′s Economist Milton Friedman adopted an idea hatched in England in the 1950′s regarding a Negative Income Tax, to […]
In the last few years the number of people receiving Food Stamps has skyrocketed. President Obama has not cut any federal welfare programs but has increased them, and he has used class warfare over and over the last few months and according to him equality at the finish line is the equality that we should […]
Testing Milton Friedman – Preview Uploaded by FreeToChooseNetwork on Feb 21, 2012 2012 is the 100th anniversary of Milton Friedman’s birth. His work and ideas continue to make the world a better place. As part of Milton Friedman’s Century, a revival of the ideas featured in the landmark television series Free To Choose are being […]
Recently I have been revisiting my correspondence in 1995 with the famous astronomer Carl Sagan who I was introduced to when reading a book by Francis Schaeffer called HE IS THERE AND HE IS NOT SILENT written in 1968.
Francis Schaeffer
I was blessed with the opportunity to correspond with Dr. Sagan, and in his December 5, 1995 letter Dr. Sagan went on to tell me that he was enclosing his article “The Question of Abortion: A Search for Answers”by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan. I am going to respond to several points made in that article. Here is a portion of Sagan’s article (here is a link to the whole article):
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For the complete text, including illustrations, introductory quote, footnotes, and commentary on the reaction to the originally published article see Billions and Billions.
The issue had been decided years ago. The court had chosen the middle ground. You’d think the fight was over. Instead, there are mass rallies, bombings and intimidation, murders of workers at abortion clinics, arrests, intense lobbying, legislative drama, Congressional hearings, Supreme Court decisions, major political parties almost defining themselves on the issue, and clerics threatening politicians with perdition. Partisans fling accusations of hypocrisy and murder. The intent of the Constitution and the will of God are equally invoked. Doubtful arguments are trotted out as certitudes. The contending factions call on science to bolster their positions. Families are divided, husbands and wives agree not to discuss it, old friends are no longer speaking. Politicians check the latest polls to discover the dictates of their consciences. Amid all the shouting, it is hard for the adversaries to hear one another. Opinions are polarized. Minds are closed.
Is it wrong to abort a pregnancy? Always? Sometimes? Never? How do we decide? We wrote this article to understand better what the contending views are and to see if we ourselves could find a position that would satisfy us both. Is there no middle ground? We had to weigh the arguments of both sides for consistency and to pose test cases, some of which are purely hypothetical. If in some of these tests we seem to go too far, we ask the reader to be patient with us–we’re trying to stress the various positions to the breaking point to see their weaknesses and where they fail.
In contemplative moments, nearly everyone recognizes that the issue is not wholly one-sided. Many partisans of differing views, we find, feel some disquiet, some unease when confronting what’s behind the opposing arguments. (This is partly why such confrontations are avoided.) And the issue surely touches on deep questions: What are our responses to one another? Should we permit the state to intrude into the most intimate and personal aspects of our lives? Where are the boundaries of freedom? What does it mean to be human?
Of the many actual points of view, it is widely held–especially in the media, which rarely have the time or the inclination to make fine distinctions–that there are only two: “pro-choice” and “pro-life.” This is what the two principal warring camps like to call themselves, and that’s what we’ll call them here. In the simplest characterization, a pro-choicer would hold that the decision to abort a pregnancy is to be made only by the woman; the state has no right to interfere. And a pro-lifer would hold that, from the moment of conception, the embryo or fetus is alive; that this life imposes on us a moral obligation to preserve it; and that abortion is tantamount to murder. Both names–pro-choice and pro-life–were picked with an eye toward influencing those whose minds are not yet made up: Few people wish to be counted either as being against freedom of choice or as opposed to life. Indeed, freedom and life are two of our most cherished values, and here they seem to be in fundamental conflict.
Let’s consider these two absolutist positions in turn. A newborn baby is surely the same being it was just before birth. There ‘s good evidence that a late-term fetus responds to sound–including music, but especially its mother’s voice. It can suck its thumb or do a somersault. Occasionally, it generates adult brain-wave patterns. Some people claim to remember being born, or even the uterine environment. Perhaps there is thought in the womb. It’s hard to maintain that a transformation to full personhood happens abruptly at the moment of birth. Why, then, should it be murder to kill an infant the day after it was born but not the day before?
As a practical matter, this isn’t very important: Less than 1 percent of all tabulated abortions in the United States are listed in the last three months of pregnancy (and, on closer investigation, most such reports turn out to be due to miscarriage or miscalculation). But third-trimester abortions provide a test of the limits of the pro-choice point of view. Does a woman’s “innate right to control her own body” encompass the right to kill a near-term fetus who is, for all intents and purposes, identical to a newborn child?
Carl Sagan recognizes that an unborn baby logically does belong to human race it seems. It comes down to if we respect human life or not.
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In 1972 there were 60,000 reported child-abuse incidents in the U.S. In
1976, the number had soared to over 500,000! Child Abuse is now the fifth most frequent cause of death among children. (Francis Shaeffer and Dr. C. Everett Koop, “Whatever Happened to the Human Race?”, Crossway Books, Westchester, IL.)
In the film and book Whatever Happened to the Human Race? you will see Dr. C. Everett Koop make this comment (in 1979):
There are those who try and justify abortions by saying that abortions get rid of unwanted children and therefore will cut down on child abuse, but consider this, since 1973 there have been 6 million abortions in the USA and there are therefore 6 million fewer children than there would have been without the liberal abortion ruling and yet child abuse has increased in incidents year by year from that date.
and you will hear what far smarter people than I have to say on this matter. I agree with them.
Harry Kroto
I have attempted to respond to all of Dr. Kroto’s friends arguments and I have posted my responses one per week for over a year now. Here are some of my earlier posts:
nitially an associate professor at Harvard, Sagan later moved to Cornell where he would spend the majority of his career as the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences. Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books.[5] He wrote many popular science books, such as The Dragons of Eden, Broca’s Brain, Pale Blue Dot and narrated and co-wrote the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. The most widely watched series in the history of American public television, Cosmos, has been seen by at least 500 million people in 60 countries.[6] The book Cosmos was published to accompany the series. He also wrote the 1985 science fiction novel Contact, the basis for a 1997 film of the same name. His papers, containing 595,000 items,[7] are archived at The Library of Congress.[8]
In the 1st video below in the 45th clip in this series are his words and my response is below them.
50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God (Part 1)
Another 50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God (Part 2
A Further 50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God (Part 3)
–
CARL SAGAN interview with Charlie Rose:
“…faith is belief in the absence of evidence. To believe in the absence of evidence, in my opinion, is a mistake. The idea is to hold belief until there is compelling evidence. If the Universe does not comply with our previous propositions, then we have to change…Religion deals with history poetry, great literature, ethics, morals, compassion…where religion gets into trouble is when it pretends to know something about science,”
I would respond that there is evidence that Christianity is true. The accuracy of the Bible has been confirmed by archaeology over and over in the past and one of the amazing finds was in 1948 when the Dead Sea Scrolls had copies from every Old Testament Book except Esther! One of the most powerful recent discoveries involved the bones of the high priest Caiaphas who questioned Christ in 30 AD.
______________ George Harrison Swears & Insults Paul and Yoko Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds- The Beatles The Beatles: I have dedicated several posts to this series on the Beatles and I don’t know when this series will end because Francis Schaeffer spent a lot of time listening to the Beatles and talking […]
The Beatles in a press conference after their Return from the USA Uploaded on Nov 29, 2010 The Beatles in a press conference after their Return from the USA. The Beatles: I have dedicated several posts to this series on the Beatles and I don’t know when this series will end because Francis […]
__________________ Beatles 1966 Last interview I have dedicated several posts to this series on the Beatles and I don’t know when this series will end because Francis Schaeffer spent a lot of time listening to the Beatles and talking and writing about them and their impact on the culture of the 1960’s. In this […]
_______________ The Beatles documentary || A Long and Winding Road || Episode 5 (This video discusses Stg. Pepper’s creation I have dedicated several posts to this series on the Beatles and I don’t know when this series will end because Francis Schaeffer spent a lot of time listening to the Beatles and talking and writing about […]
_______________ Francis Schaeffer pictured below: _____________________ I have included the 27 minute episode THE AGE OF NONREASON by Francis Schaeffer. In that video Schaeffer noted, ” Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band…for a time it became the rallying cry for young people throughout the world. It expressed the essence of their lives, thoughts and their feelings.” How Should […]
Crimes and Misdemeanors: A Discussion: Part 1 ___________________________________ Today I will answer the simple question: IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE AN OPTIMISTIC SECULAR HUMANIST THAT DOES NOT BELIEVE IN GOD OR AN AFTERLIFE? This question has been around for a long time and you can go back to the 19th century and read this same […]
____________________________________ Francis Schaeffer pictured below: __________ Francis Schaeffer has written extensively on art and culture spanning the last 2000years and here are some posts I have done on this subject before : Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 10 “Final Choices” , episode 9 “The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence”, episode 8 […]
Love and Death [Woody Allen] – What if there is no God? [PL] ___________ _______________ How Should We then Live Episode 7 small (Age of Nonreason) #02 How Should We Then Live? (Promo Clip) Dr. Francis Schaeffer 10 Worldview and Truth Two Minute Warning: How Then Should We Live?: Francis Schaeffer at 100 Francis Schaeffer […]
___________________________________ Francis Schaeffer pictured below: ____________________________ Francis Schaeffer “BASIS FOR HUMAN DIGNITY” Whatever…HTTHR Dr. Francis schaeffer – The flow of Materialism(from Part 4 of Whatever happened to human race?) Dr. Francis Schaeffer – The Biblical flow of Truth & History (intro) Francis Schaeffer – The Biblical Flow of History & Truth (1) Dr. Francis Schaeffer […]
Because of our family’s missionary work in Haiti, I know a number of children who, due to conditions of extreme poverty, are very far behind academically, if they have access to education at all.
One day I gave a little boy a pen and some paper. I told him to write me something. I had a Bible and a little notepad sitting between us with a bunch of notes and numbers visible on an open page. He proceeded to just write a collection of random letters and numbers as he copied them from my notes and from the cover of the Bible.
I realized the little boy had no knowledge of numbers or letters and didn’t even know the difference between them. They were all just indiscernible symbols and characters. He had no knowledge of their meaning.
He had created a bunch of content that pointed nowhere. He was proud of what he thought he had accomplished, but he hadn’t accomplished anything.
I think that’s what a lot of spiritually minded people are doing today. They use words like “God” without any distinct comprehension or concrete idea of who God is or how He may have expressed himself in ways knowable.
A lot of us today have spiritual content that lacks any meaning. We worship a god we don’t know in ways God has not commanded us to worship.
In his 1976 book, “How Should We Then Live,” Francis Schaeffer uses the 1970 Beatles song “My Sweet Lord” to illustrate this point. When the song was released a number of people believed that George Harrison may have accepted Jesus. But in the background when the song plays you can hear the words “Krishna, Krishna, Krishna.” Krishna is just one Hindu name for god.
Is our concept of God any clearer? Are we speaking God’s language or just smushing a bunch of spiritual and religious ideas together?
Harrison was not revering a personal God that can be known in Jesus Christ or in the Bible or in any other tangible way for that matter. He was using the vaguest sentiment of religion, which is sentimentality only.
A lot of us have spiritual feelings in our hearts, but those spiritual feelings are little more than jumbled letters and numbers and symbols on a page if they are not tied directly to some knowable expression of an existent God.
You and I are not children of God because we “feel” that we are. We are children of God to the extent that we come to Him speaking His language.
Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:3 NLT)
He either is or He is not, and if He is we must approach Him on His terms. Spiritual sentiment isn’t enough. We must be born again. We must learn to speak His language to understand His ways. We can’t just smash symbols together on a page.
Chris Surber is the pastor at Liberty Spring Christian Church in Suffolk. Email him at chris@chrissurber.com.
“Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, became the rallying cry for young people throughout the world. It expressed the essence of their lives, thoughts and their feelings…” Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984). We take a look today at how the Beatles were featured in Schaeffer’s film. How Should We then Live Episode 7 small On You Tube […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Francis Schaeffer | Tagged peter max | Edit|Comments (0)
Woody Allen believes that we live in a cold, violent and meaningless universe and it seems that his main character (Gil Pender, played by Owen Wilson) in the movie MIDNIGHT IN PARIS shares that view. Pender’s meeting with the Surrealists is by far the best scene in the movie because they are ones who can […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Francis Schaeffer, Woody Allen | Edit|Comments (0)
In the last post I pointed out how King Solomon in Ecclesiastes painted a dismal situation for modern man in life UNDER THE SUN and that Bertrand Russell, and T.S. Eliot and other modern writers had agreed with Solomon’s view. However, T.S. Eliot had found a solution to this problem and put his faith in […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Francis Schaeffer, Woody Allen | Edit|Comments (0)
In MIDNIGHT IN PARIS Gil Pender ponders the advice he gets from his literary heroes from the 1920’s. King Solomon in Ecclesiastes painted a dismal situation for modern man in life UNDER THE SUN and many modern artists, poets, and philosophers have agreed. In the 1920’s T.S.Eliot and his house guest Bertrand Russell were two of […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Woody Allen | Edit|Comments (0)
Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald left the prohibitionist America for wet Paris in the 1920’s and they both drank a lot. WINE, WOMEN AND SONG was their motto and I am afraid ultimately wine got the best of Fitzgerald and shortened his career. Woody Allen pictures this culture in the first few clips in the […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Woody Allen | Edit|Comments (0)
In the film MIDNIGHT IN PARIS Woody Allen the best scene of the movie is when Gil Pender encounters the SURREALISTS!!! This series deals with the Book of Ecclesiastes and Woody Allen films. The first post dealt with MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT and it dealt with the fact that in the Book of Ecclesiastes Solomon does contend […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Woody Allen | Edit|Comments (0)
In the film MIDNIGHT IN PARIS Woody Allen is really looking at one main question through the pursuits of his main character GIL PENDER. That question is WAS THERE EVER A GOLDEN AGE AND DID THE MOST TALENTED UNIVERSAL MEN OF THAT TIME FIND TRUE SATISFACTION DURING IT? This is the second post I have […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Woody Allen | Edit|Comments (0)
I am starting a series of posts called ECCLESIASTES AND WOODY ALLEN’S FILMS: SOLOMON “WOULD GOT ALONG WELL WITH WOODY!” The quote from the title is actually taken from the film MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT where Stanley derides the belief that life has meaning, saying it’s instead “nasty, brutish, and short. Is that Hobbes? I would have […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Atheists Confronted, Woody Allen | Edit|Comments (0)
As a ten-year-old, Yair had befriended at school a beautiful girl named Gallila, who was an Ethiopian immigrant. One day Gallila failed to come to class. A Palestinian suicide terrorist had exploded the bus she took to school, blowing her and other innocent passengers to smithereens. Like his classmates, Yair was deeply shaken by this. I tried to comfort him, and I knew that the erection of the fence would help prevent many more such tragedies. It did. In fact the security fence and accompanying security measures worked—dramatically bringing down the number of terrorist attacks. The security barrier was presented by the Palestinian Authority and its chorus of Israel haters as an “apartheid wall.” This is utterly false. First, the barrier is not a wall. Ninety-five percent of it is a fence that could be easily removed once the threat of terror ceases. Second, it doesn’t keep peaceful Palestinians out. Some fifty passages enable more than 150,000 Palestinian workers to cross daily into Israel’s cities to earn a living and help the Palestinian economy. THOSE FALSELY ACCUSING Israel of apartheid, especially radicals on US college campuses, deliberately ignore the fact that it is the Palestinian Authority that openly and unabashedly practices apartheid. It will not allow even one Jew to live in a future “Judenfrei” (Jew-free) Palestinian state. Scandalously, the Palestinian Authority makes it a crime punishable by death to sell property to Jews and has carried out scores of extrajudicial executions of Palestinians accused of doing so. By contrast, Israel’s Arab citizens can go anywhere they want, live anywhere they want, buy whatever properties they want and live their lives with the same freedoms enjoyed by the rest of the population.
Hamas roadblocks set up in Gaza on October 14, 2023, according to the IDF. (IDF)
The Israel Defense Forces says the Hamas terror group is preventing Palestinians from evacuating the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
The IDF has warned Gaza residents in the northern part of the Strip to evacuate amid preparations for an expected ground incursion or a stepped-up offensive. The area is home to about 1 million people.
The military says it has identified hundreds of thousands of Palestinians moving south, but many are getting stuck in traffic caused by Hamas roadblocks.
“Hamas is making it difficult for the residents of the Gaza Strip to move on main roads, and prevents the passage of vehicles on these roads,” the IDF says.
The military releases a video showing heavy traffic in the Gaza Strip, which it says is caused by Hamas roadblocks.
“We see an active effort by Hamas to block and prevent the population from going south. Hamas wants to show the world that it has casualties and dead,” IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says in a press conference.
“We continue to urge the residents of Gaza City, go south… Hamas wants you as human shields… This is for your personal safety,” Hagari adds. “We are going to attack very widely in Gaza City in the near future.”
2 Kings 20v20 states that Hezekiah ‘Made the Pool and the conduit and brought water into the city’
and in 2 Chronicles 32v30 that he closed the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them down to the West side of the City of David.
This refers to the tunnel which connects the ‘Spring of Gihon’, through the rock to the reservoir called the Pool of Siloam.
It was found in 1838 when it was explored by the American traveller, Edward Robinson, and his missionary friend Eli Smith.
They first attempted to crawl through the tunnel from the Siloam end but found that they were not suitably dressed to crawl through the narrow passage. Three days later and dressed in only a wide pair of Arab drawers, they entered the tunnel from the ‘Spring of Gihon’. And advanced much of the way on their hands and knees and sometimes flat on their stomachs, they went the full distance.
They measured the tunnel and found it to be 1750 ft in length. The tunnel was full of twists and turns. The straight line distance from the Spring of Gihon to the Pool of Siloam is only 762 ft, less than half the length of the tunnel.
In 1867 Captain Charles Warren also explored the tunnel. He also excavated ‘Warren’s Shaft. which was the earlier tunnel through which the people of Jerusalem were able to obtain water.
In 1880 a boy, in the tunnel noticed an inscription on the walls and reported it to his school teacher Herr Conrad Schick who made the information available to schollars. It was written in old Hebrew (Canaanite), and said “..when (the tunnel) was driven through, while ….were still…..axes. Each man towards his fellow, and while there were still three cubits to be cut through there was heard the voice of a man calling to his fellow for there was an overlap in the rock on the right. And when the tunnel was driven through, the quarrymen hewed each man towards his fellow, axe against axe, and the water flowed from the spring towards the reservoir for 1200 cubits’.(Ancient Near Eastern Text). In 1890 a vandal entered the tunnel and cut the inscription out of the rock, and it was found, later, in several pieces, in the possession of a Greek in Jerusalem who had bought it off an Arab. At least two other conduits were built from the Spring of Gihon into Jerusalem before the Siloam Tunnel.
There had been a tunnel at that place since David’s time, and possibly before the Israelites conquered the Promised Land, because when David wanted the City as his capital city, the Bible records that it was still in the possession of a tribe of Canaanites called the Jebusites, and David conquered the city from the Jebusites by taking his soldiers from the Spring, through the tunnel, under the walls and into the Jebusite City.
The Gihon Spring is not at the bottom of the valley but is on the Western slope, from the City walls down to the Brook Kidron. (The water comes out of the limestone a little way up the valley slope). This seems to suggest that there is an underground, natural watercourse which collects the rainwater which falls on Mount Moriah (Jerusalem), travels under the City, errupts at the spring Gihon, in the valley of Kidron, only to be taken back into the City through both the ancient and Hezekiah’s tunnel.
There are deep wells within the City, (Captain Warren had to block one of these off, for safety reasons, when he was excavating Hezekiah’s tunnel). These wells could have been one of the reasons why Jerusalem was built there in the first place, way back in antiquity.
Hezekiah’s works were two-fold.
1. To improve the access to the water from the Gihon.
2. To hide the spring Gihon from attackers.
Before Hezekiah, the people in Jerusalem used to walk about 30 yards to a shaft where they lifted up the water using a bucket. (see the OPHEL diagram).
Jerusalem is on a hill and the Siloam Pool is on the lower slope of the hill and is lower than the Gihon Spring.
This picture shows the elevation of Hezekiah’s Tunnel and Warren’s Shaft in relation to the Gihon Spring and the Pool at Siloam.
See this site
Hezekiahs Tunnel
Some accounts say that Edward Robinson discovered Hezehiah’s Tunnel in 1838.
Some accounts say that Sir Charles Warren found Hezekiah’s Tunnel in 1867.
There are THREE known tunnels from the Spring Gihon, and a very good, and scollarly account, which questions whether the tunnel was built by Hezekiah at all, is given at this site
The Biblical Archaeologist
In 1880, a boy found the ‘Siloam Inscription’ in the tunnel entrance to Hezekiah’s tunnel.
This photo of the Pool of Hezekiah was taken in approx 1937
This shows Hexzekiah’s tunnel at the Siloam Exit in 1937
This photo was taken in approx 1890 and shows the Pool of Siloam before the tunnel was discovered.
This shows the Pool of Siloam. The Bible gives the dimensions as 55ft square. In 1937 it measured18ft wide, 53 ft long and 19ft deep. The opening of the tunnel can be seen on the left. Its original height was increased by cutting done in the fifth century AD
If, as it has been confidently asserted, the Spring Gihon (or the Fount of the Virgin) is the only spring in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem, then it would have been the one that was used by people before King David conquered the City from the Jebusites. That the Jebusies had access to this well or spring from within their walls is clear, but in the end it proved their undoing, for David’s men obtained possession of Jerusalem, (then called Jebus), by means of the ‘Zinnor’, (AV = gutter) i.e. the channel and shaft leading from the well to the City. The spring is intermittent, overflowing periodically, thus pointing to the existence of either a natural chasm or reservoir, or a man-made reservoir (made in antiquity), whose site is unknown. Possibly it is under mount Moriah itself. Tradition has much to say about a deep well within an unfailing water supply beneath the Temple area. It could have been one of the chief reasons why the City was built in that place originally. Somehow this well must have been forgotten and the people had to rely upon the Spring Gihon.
Before the time of Hezekiah, the City of David was dependant upon this source for its water supply in times of danger threatened from without in the same manner that the Jebusites were. The Jebusites were descended from Ophel by means of rock hewn passages with steps and slopes (still in existence) till they reached the top of ‘Warren’s Shaft’, and by means of buckets drew their water from the unfailing well spring some 40 to 50 feet below. At the top of this shaft is still to be seen the iron ring employed for this purpose.
The rock hewn conduit and tunnel discovered by Sir Charles Warren in 1867 conveyed the overflow water from the Spring to the Pool of Siloam. (Before Hezekiah’s time the overflow wate rmust have escaped from the Virgin’s fountain at a lower level than is now possible and flowed out and down the lower end of the Kidron Valley, past the King’s Garden, possibly being the feeder for Joab’s Well.)
Hezekiah, before the Assyrian invasion in 603 BC constructed the tunnel and brought the water from Gihon to a new pool that he had made for the purpose. (2 Kings 20v20). This pool henseforth became known as the King’s Pool (Neh 2v14). When the Assyrian Army approached, Hezekiah stopped the waters from the fountains that were without the City (he concealed their extra mural approaches and outlets.
The ‘Siloam Inscription’ discovered in 1880 on a stone on the right wall of the tunnel about 20ft from its exit into the Pool of Siloam is undoubtedly the work of Hezekiah. An interesting fact with regard to its inscription is that it giveds the length of the conduit in cubits which being compared to the modern measurement in English feet yield a cubit of 17½ inches.
Sir Charles Warren wrote “It is impossible that any of the plans of the aqueduct can be rigidly correct because the roof is so low that your head is horizontal in looking at the compass so that you can only squint at it. It is necessary to remember this warning coming from such a source. Never-the -less the figures as above shown are highly interesting.”
The Siloam Inscription is graven in ancient Hebrew characters similar to those of the Moabite Stone on occupies six lines the translation of which is given below.
Line 1. [Behold] the excavation. Now is the history of the breaking through. While the workmen were still lifting up
Line 2. The pickaxe, each towards his neighbour, and while three cubits still remained to [cut through, each heard] the voice of the other calling.
Line 3. To his neighbour, for there was an excess (or cleft) in the rock on the right.And on the day of the
Line 4. Breaking through the excavators struck, each to meet the other, pickaxe against pickaxe, and their flowed
Line 5. The waters from the spring to the pool over [a space of] one thousand and two hundred cubits. And…
Line 6. Of a cubit was the height of the rock above the heads of the excavators.
The Zondervan Pictoral Bible Dictionary has this
Through the Kidron Valley ran a winter torrent but was dry much of the year. The earliest knowledge of the tunnel dates from 1838 when it was explored by the American traveler and scholar Edward Robinson.and his missionary friend Eli Smith. They first attemped to crawl through the tunnel from the Siloam End but found that they were nt suitably dressed to crawl through the passages. Three days later dressed only in a wide pair of Arab drawers they entered the tunnel from the spring of Gihon and advancing much of the way on their hands and knees and sometimes flat on their stomachs they went the full distance. They measured the tunnel and found it to be 1750ft in length.
The tunnel is full of twists and turns. The straight-line distance from the Spring Gihon to the Pool of Siloam is only 762 feet, less than half the length of the tunnel. Why it follows such a circuitous route has never been adequately explained. Grollenberg suggests that it may have been “to avoid at all costs any interference with the royal tombs, which were quite deeply hewn into the rock on the eastern slope of Ophel” (Atlas of the Bible, New York: Nelson, 1956, p. 93).
In 1867 Captain Charles Warren also explored the tunnel, but neither he nor Robinson and Smith before him, noticed the inscription on the wall of the tunnel near the Siloam end. This was discovered in 1880 by a native boy who, while wading in the tunnel, slipped and fell into the water. When he looked up he noticed the inscription. The boy reported his discovery to his teacher, Herr Conrad Schick, who made the information available to scholars. The inscription was deciphered by A. H.
Sayce, with the help of others. It consists of six lines written in Old Hebrew (Canaanite) with prong-like characters. The first half of the inscription is missing, but what remains reads as follows:
“[… when] (the tunnel) was driven through: while [ . . . ] (were) still [ . . . ] axe(s), each man toward his fellow, and while there were still three cubits to be cut through, [there was heard] the voice of a man calling to his fellow, for there was an overlap in the rock on the right [and on the left]. And when the tunnel was driven through, the quarrymen hewed (the rock), each man toward his fellow, axe against axe; and the water flowed from the spring toward the reservoir for 1,200 cubits, and the height of the rock above the head(s) of the quarrymen was 100 cubits”
(Ancient Near Eastern Texts ed. James B. Prichard, Princeton ‘1 University Press, 1955, p. 321).
In 1890 a vandal entered the tunnel and cut the inscription out of the rock. It was subsequently found in several pieces in the possession of a Greek in Jerusalem who claimed he had purchased it from an Arab. The Turkish officials seized the pieces and removed them to Istanbul where they are today.
The Siloam tunnel was not the only conduit which had been built to bring water from the Spring of Gihon into Jerusalem. At least two others preceded it, but neither was adequately protected against enemy attack. It was probably to one of these former conduits that Isaiah referred in the words, “the waters of Shiloah that flow gently” (Isa. 8:6).
The New Bible Dictionary has this
SILOAM. One of the principal sources of water supply to Jerusalem was the intermittent pool of Gihon (‘Virgin’s Fountain’) below the Fountain Gate (Ne. iii. 15) and ESE of the city. It fed water along an open canal, which flowed slowly along the south-eastern slopes, called Siloah (Is. viii. 6). It followed the line of the later ‘second aqueduct’ which fell only ~ inch in 300 yards, discharging into the Lower or Old Pool (mod. Birket ei~!5Iamra) at the end of the central valley between the walls of the south-eastern and south-western hills. It thus ran below ‘the svall of the pool of Shiloah’ (Ne. iii. 15) and watered the ‘king’s garden’ on the adjacent slopes.
This Old Pool was probably the ‘Pool of Siloam’ in use in New Testament times for sick persons and others to wash (Jn. ix. 7—il). The ‘Tower of Siloam’ which fell and killed eighteen persons – a disaster well known in our Lord’s day (Lk. xiii. 4)—was probably sited on the Ophel ridge above the pool which, according to Josephus (BJ v. 4. 1), was near the bend of the old wall below Ophlas (Ophel). According to the Talmud (Sukkoth iv. 9), water was drawn from Siloam’s Pooi in a golden vessel to be carried in procession to the Temple on the Feast of Tabernacles. Though there are traces of a Herodian bath and open reservoir (about 58 feet x 18 feet, originally 71 feet x 71 feet with steps on the west side), there can be no certainty that this was the actual pool in question. It has been suggested that the part of the city round the Upper Pool (‘Am Silwdn) 100 yards above was called ‘Siloam’, the Lower being the King’s Pool (Ne. ii. 14) or Lower Gihon.
When Hezekiah was faced with the threat of invasion by the Assyrian army under Sennacherib he ‘stopped all the fountains’, that is, all the rivulets and subsidiary canals leading down into the Kedron ‘brook that ran through the midst of the land’ (2 Ch. xxxii. 4). Traces of canals blocked at about this time were found by the Parker Mission. The king then diverted the upper Gihon waters through a ‘conduit’ or tunnel into an upper cistern or pool (the normal method of storing water) on the west side of the city of David (2 Ki. xx. 20). Ben Sira tells how ‘Hezekiah fortified his city and brought the water into its midst; he pierced the rock with iron and enclosed the pool with mountains’ (Ecclus. xlviii. 17—19). Hezekiah clearly defended the new source of supply with a rampart (2 Ch. xxxii. 30). The digging of the reservoir may be referred to by Isaiah (xxii. 11).
In 1880 bathers in the upper pool (also called hirket siht’dn) found the entrance to a tunnel and about 15 feet inside a cursive Hebrew inscription, now in Istanbul, which reads:
” was being dug out. It was cut in the following manner . . . axes, each man towards his fellow, and while there were still three cubits to be cut through, the voice of one man calling to the other was heard, showing that he was deviating to the right. When the tunnel was driven through, the excavators met man to man, axe to axe, and the water flowed for 1,200 cubits from the spring to the reservoir. The height of the rock above the heads of the excavators was 100 cubits’ .
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(The Bible as History romances this story but gives an eye witness account of walking through the tunnel. It says…
Two Arab boys were playing there, one of them fell in. Paddling for all he was worth he landed on the other side where a rock wall rose above the pool. Suddenly it was pitch black all round him. He groped about anxiously and discovered a small passage. The name of the Arab boy was forgotten but not his story. It was followed up and a long underground tunnel was discovered. A narrow passage about 2ft wide and barely 5ft high had been cut through the limestone. It can only be negotiated with rubber boots and a slight stoop. Water, knee deep rushes to meet you. For about 500 yards the passage winds imperceptibly uphill. It ends at the Virgin’s fountain, Jerusalem’s Water supply since ancient times. In Biblical days it was called ‘The Fountain of Gihon’. As experts were examining the passage they noticed by the light of their torches old Hebrew letter on the wall. The inscription which was scratched on the rock only a few paces from the entrance at the pool of Siloam reads as follows….”The boring through is completed and this is the story of the boring. While yet they plied the pick each towards his fellow and while yet there were three cubits to be bored through there was heard the voice of one calling to the other that there was a hole in the rock on the right hand and on the left hand, And on the day of the boring the workers in the tunnel struck each to meet his fellow, pick upon pick. Then the water poured from the source to the pool twelve hundred cubits and a hundred cubits was the height of the rock above the heads of the workers in the tunnel.”
The Turkish Government had the inscription prized out before the First World War. It is now exhibited in the museum at Istanbul.
During a siege the number one problem is that of drinking water. The founders of Jerusalem, the Jebusites, had sunk a shaft through the rock to the Fountain of Gihon. Hezehiah directed its water, which would have otherwise flowed into the Kidron Valley through the mountain to the west side of the City. The Pool of Siloam lies inside the second perimeter wall which he constructed.
There was no time to lose. Assyrian troops could be at the gates of Jerusalem overnight. The workmen therefore tackled the tunnel from both ends. The marks of the pickaxes point to each other as the inscription describes.
Oddly enough the canal takes an ‘S’ shaped course through the rock. Why did the workmen not dig this underground tunnel the shortest way to meet each other, that is in a straight line. The wretched job would have been finished quicker. 700ft of hard work would have been saved out of a total of 1700ft.
Locally there is an old story which has been handed down which claims to explain why they had to go the long way round. Deep in the rock between the spring and the pool are supposed to lie the graves of David and Solomon. Archaeologists took this remarkable piece of folk-law seriously and systematically tapped the walls of the narrow damp tunnel. They sank shafts into the rock from the summit, but they found nothing.
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When this remarkable Judean engineering feat was excavated the marks of the picks and deviations to effect a junction midway were traced. The tunnel traverses 1,777 feet (others 1,749 feet), twisting to avoid constructions or rock faults or to follow a fissure, to cover a direct line of 1,090 feet. It is about 6 feet high and in parts only 20 inches wide. It has been suggested that this or a similar tunnel was the gutter (sjnndr) up which David’s men climbed to capture the Jebusite city (2 Sa. v. 8). Modern buildings prevent any archaeological check that the upper pool is the ‘reservoir’ (bereicd) of Hezekiah or that from this the waters overflowed direct to the lower pool.
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The New Bible dictionary has this…
Below the southern wall, in the bill opposite the village of Silwan (Siloam) where the old Jebusite stronghold stood that afterwards became the city of David, the famous Siloam inscription was found cut in Hebraic characters of the time of King Hezekiah on the rocky side of the water channel made by this monarch, when he “turned the upper water course of Gihon and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David” The piece of rock bearing this inscription has recently been removed and broken, but was fortunately recovered, and now rests in the Ottoman Museum at Constantinople. Another inscription of almost equal importance was found at the north-west corner of the Haram enclosure, on a tablet that formerly served as a notice forbidding strangers to enter the Temple Courts on pain of death. Built in the wall over the Double Gate on the south side of the Temple Area, is a Latin inscription that originally belonged to a statue of Hadrian. On this, the south side of the city, but further west, below Neby Daud, where excavations are being carried on at the present time, old Jebusite houses have been brought to light. Other work is in contemplation that will probably settle the position of the city of David and open the tombs of the Kings of Judah.
The Kidron is the only stream of water in Jerusalem the people of Jerusalem ever see without setting out on a day’s journey. It appears at rare intervals of one or two years, and then only after a plentiful supply of rain. As soon as the water begins to flow the news spreads over the City and men women and children flock to see it, In their anxiety to see most of the wonder they picnic there all day long and hold a general holiday.
It now runs only from ‘Bir Eyub’ (Job’s Well) when this overflows; but in the days of old, when Hezekiah was King, and compelled to keep constant watch over his Assyrian enemy, Sennacherib, it ran all down the valley from Ain Umm ed Deraj (Spring of the Mother of Steps), the Virgin’s Fountain, and was known as ‘the brook that overflowed in the midst of the land’. (2 Chron 32v4).
Its course was, however, perverted by the primitive Jewish Engineers in order to provide for the wants of the City, and cut off the water supply of the besieging army. (see 2 Chron 32v30).
“The same Hezekiah also stopped up the upper watercourse of Gihon and brought it straight down to the west side of the City of David”.
The channels that were made for this purpose have since been found and one contained the famous Siloam inscription, one of the most valuable and interesting ever discovered. It has lately been removed and broken but a photograph of a squeeze with a translation is sold by the Palestine Exploration Fund. This practically settles the site of the ‘City of David’. ‘the stronghold of Zion’, the hill above the spring through which these channels were cut from the Virgin’s Fountain, (the upper watercourse of Gihon).in the Kedron Valley.on the East to the ‘King’s Pool.’ ‘The Pool of Hezekiah’ now the ‘Pool of Siloam’ in the Tyropean Valley on the ‘west side’.
The upper watercourse of Gihon that played such an important part in the reign of Hezekiahis an intermittent spring in the Kedron Valley below the southern wall of the City. It is now known to Europeans as the ‘Virgin’s Fountain. And to the natives as ‘Ain Umm ed Deraj’. The peasants call it also the ‘Dragon’s Well’ because they believe a dragon lives in the bottom who swallows up the water, which can only escape when he is asleap. This spring has been a subject of many a conroversy, and is still, but has fairly proven to be the ‘Upper Watercourse of Gihon’, and is claimed by some to be ‘En Rogel’. mentioned in Joshua 15v7.and again in 18v16 as well.
“And the border came down to the end of the mountain that lieth before the valley of the son of Hinnom to the side of Jebusi on the South and descended to En Rogel
The identification of the large stone near the ‘Virgin’s Fountain’ on the rocky side of the village of Silwan (Siloam) by M. Clermont-Gannneau now called in Arabic ‘Zehwele’ with the ‘stone of Zoheleth’ naturally assisted in identifying this as the mark of the tribal border of Judah and Benjamin.
But, unfortunately, its position does not answer the requirements of the text quoted above, “to the end of the mountain that lieth before the valley of Hinnom to the side of Jebusi on the south.” “The end of the mountain” is lower down the valley, below the Pool of Siloam, where the Tyropeon joins the Kedron, and near to this is “Bir Eyub” (Job’s Well), “before the valley of the son of Hinnom.”
Before the water of the “upper watercourse of Gihon” was turned by the Jewish king to the Pool of Siloam (the lower pool of Gihon’), itflowed straight down the valley to Job’s Well (En Rogel), and watered the King’s gardens that lay between, where now the best vegetables are grown for the Jerusalem market.
Job’s Well (Bir Eyub), or, as it is often termed, Joab’s Well, on account of its identification as En Rogel, has never been properly examined. It was opened by the Crusaders in 1184 A.D.,and during the 15th and 16th centuries was known as the well of Nehemiah. There can be no doubt that it is in some way connected with an intermittent spring, as the flow from it after heavy rains is more than enough to empty the well itself. The hillside on the east of this well has the same rocky character as that above the Virgin’s Fountain When Adonijah was making his feast (1 Kings 1v9), on being proclaimed King, the noise of the revellers was heard in the city. So Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, went to the aged King David, and told him what was taking place, reminding him at the same time of his promise of the kingdom for her son. After seeing the prophet Nathan, he said: “Cause Solomon, my son, to ride upon mine own mule and bring him down to Gihon.” He was there anointed King, and the sound of rejoicing that went through the city was heard also by Adonijah and his adherents, but a bend in the valley hid the scene from view. Soon, however, the news was carried to him that Solomon had been anointed king in Gihon. This could very easily have been the lower Gihon if the En Rogel is the “Upper Gihon,” as one is on the eastern side of the hill, and the other on the “west side.”
(See 1 Kings 1.)
The most reasonable conclusion to be drawn is that Bir Eyub is En Rogel, and the spring further up the valley, Virgin’s Fountain, is the upper watercourse of Gihon, The pool on the “west side” of the hill, that separates the Kedron Valley from the Tyropeon, is the lower pool of Gihon, the pool of Hezekiah,’ “King’s Pool” (of Nehemiah), and the pooi of Siloam, in the time of our Saviour.
See (Joshua 15. 7 and 17v16, 2 Chron. 17v4-30, I. Kings 1)
The Brook Kedron (2 Sam. 15v23, 1. Kings 15v13, 2 Kings 23v6, 2. Chron. 29v16, Jer. 31v40, John 18v1)
is now a dry torrent bed, except what is seen in the picture, and that, as before mentioned, appears only once or twice in as many years. It runs along the eastern side of Jerusalem, commencing some distance to the north-east, broad and shallow at first, deepening only as it separates the city from the slope of the Mount of Olives. Between the south-east corner and the village of Silwan (Siloam) it becomes a deep ravine, widening out again towards the Virgin’s Fountain (Mn Umm ed Deraj) into the King’s gardens, where it is joined, after passing the Pool of Siloam on the west, by the Valley of Hinnom, close to Bir Eyub, and afterwards pursues its course towards the wilderness of the Dead Sea, as Wady en Nar, i.e., the Valley of Fire.
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The Bible and Archaeology – Is the Bible from God? (Kyle Butt 42 min)
I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times Blog on many issues such as abortion, human rights, welfare, poverty, gun control and issues dealing with popular culture. Here is another exchange I had with them a while back. My username at the Ark Times Blog is Saline […]
I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry King’s Show. One of two most popular posts I […]
I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry King’s Show. One of two most popular posts I […]
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John MacArthur on the Bible and Science (Part 2) I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry […]
John MacArthur on the Bible and Science (Part 1) I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry […]
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I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times Blog on many issues such as abortion, human rights, welfare, poverty, gun control and issues dealing with popular culture. Here is another exchange I had with them a while back. My username at the Ark Times Blog is […]
Here is some very convincing evidence that points to the view that the Bible is historically accurate. Archaeological and External Evidence for the Bible Archeology consistently confirms the Bible! Archaeology and the Old Testament Ebla tablets—discovered in 1970s in Northern Syria. Documents written on clay tablets from around 2300 B.C. demonstrate that personal and place […]
REVIEW OF “Bibi: My Story – by Benjamin Netanyahu” Part 24 BIBI LOSES HIS TEMPER WITH ALBRIGHT
BIBI NOTED “as the prime minister of Israel I will not endanger over three thousand years of the Jewish people’s struggle for a place among the nations by capitulating to conditions that would endanger the one and only Jewish state.”
Contrast this with President Biden’s ideas today on 60 MINUTES!!!
President Joe Biden: The 2023 60 Minutes interview transcript
BY SCOTT PELLEY
/ CBS NEWS
Rarely does a president confront so much peril; the catastrophe in Israel—the war in Ukraine—and no help from a paralyzed Congress. Late Thursday, we met President Biden at the White House. It had been a rough week and we could see it on him. Mr. Biden will be 81 next month. And he has said that when he’s tired, his life-long stutter can creep back in. But he wedged us into his schedule to express his commitment to Israel after the massacre of more than 1,000 civilians eight days ago. Twenty nine Americans were killed. Fifteen are missing—and at least a small number of them are known to have been taken hostage. In a video call on Friday, Mr. Biden had this message for Americans in Israel whose loved ones have vanished.
: President Biden: I’m saying we’re gonna do everything in our power to find those who are still alive and set them free. Everything in our power. And– I’m not gonna go into the detail of that, but there’s– we’re workin’ like hell on it.
Scott Pelley: Why do you feel so strongly about speaking to these families personally on Zoom?
President Biden: Because I think they have to know that the president of the United States of America cares deeply about what’s happening. Deeply. We have to communicate to the world this is critical. this is not even hum– human behavior. It’s– it– it– it’s– it’s– it’s pure barbarism. And we’re gonna do everything in our power to get them home if we can find them.
Friday’s hour-long call with 14 families included a father who told us the president answered desperate pleas with empathy and patience.
Scott Pelley: Is getting the American hostages back safely among your highest priorities now?
President Joe Biden participates in a zoom call with relatives of American citizens who are being held hostage or missing in the Israeli Hamas conflict Friday, October 13, 2023, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)ADAM SCHULTZ
President Biden: Of course, it is. But it’s hard to– hard to make distinctions. It’s– most important thing is ending this brutality and to hold those who committed it accountable.
To confront the ‘brutality,’ Mr. Biden ordered two aircraft carriers plus cruisers and destroyers to the region. There are about 900 U.S. troops in Syria–on a counterterrorism mission since 2015.
Scott Pelley: Can you foresee U.S. troops in combat in this new Middle East war?
President Biden: I– I don’t think that’s necessary. Israel has one of the finest fighting forces in the country. I guarantee we’re gonna provide them everything they need.
Scott Pelley: Because of what we’re seeing in the Middle East, is the threat of terrorism in the United States increased?
President Biden: Yes. I had a meeting this morning with the Homeland Security people, with the FBI, with– for the Situation Room, for the better part of an hour to discuss how we make sure that we prevent a lone wolf and/or any cohi– coordinated effort to try to do what was done in synagogues before, do what was done to Jews in the street. we’re making a major effort to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Saturday, October 7th, has been called Israel’s 9/11. More than 1,000 Hamas terrorists from Gaza smashed through a border wall to commit mass murder–families in their homes, crowds at a concert, people in the street.
Israel is striking back with the largest bombardment of Gaza ever. More than 2,000 have been killed by Gaza’s count.
Scott Pelley: Certainly, about 1,200 Israeli civilians were killed in the initial attack, but now Hamas fighters and Palestinian civilians are being killed in the counterattack. Is it time for a ceasefire?
President Biden: Look, there’s a fundamental difference. Israel is going after a group of people who have engaged in barbarism that is as consequential as the Holocaust. And– so I think Israel has to respond. They have to go after Hamas. Hamas is a bunch of cowards. They’re hiding behind the civilians. They put their of—their—their—their headquarters where civilians are and buildings and the like. But to the extent they can separate out and avoi—I’m conf– the Israelis are gonna do everything in their power to avoid the killing of innocent civilians.
Hamas is an Islamist terrorist group and the government of Gaza. Gaza is 25 miles long and averages 5 miles wide. Israel severely limits its economy so most Gazans are destitute. Now, Israel has cut off food, fuel, electricity and most water, and has ordered 1 million Gazans to evacuate to the southern half of Gaza. The U.N. warns of a humanitarian disaster.
Scott Pelley: There are about 2 million people in Gaza, as you know, Mr. President, 2 million people trapped. About half of them are children. Are you asking Israel to establish a humanitarian corridor in that area or get humanitarian supplies into it?
President Joe Biden60 MINUTES
President Biden: Yes, our team is talkin’ to ’em about that. And– whether there could be a safe zone. We’re also talking to Egyptians– whether there is an outlet to get these children and– and women out— into—out of that a that area at this moment. But it’s– it’s c– hard.
Scott Pelley: You would like to see a humanitarian corridor that allows some of the 2 million Gazans out of the area?
President Biden: Yes.
Scott Pelley: You would like to see humanitarian supplies brought into Gaza?
President Biden: Yes.
Scott Pelley: So you do not agree with the Israeli total siege of the Gaza Strip?
President Biden: I’m confident that Israel is going to act under the measure– the– the rules of war. There– there’s– standards that democratic institutions and countries w– go– go by. And so– I’m– I– I’m confident that there’s gonna be an ability for the innocents in Gaza to be able to have access to medicine and food and water.
Scott Pelley: Would you support Israeli occupation of Gaza at this point?
President Biden: I think it’d be a big mistake. Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that…It would be a mistake to…for Israel to occupy…Gaza again. We…but going in but taking out the extremists the Hezbollah is up north but Hamas down south. Is a necessary requirement.
Scott Pelley: Do you believe that Hamas must be eliminated entirely?
President Biden: Yes, I do. But there needs to be a Palestinian authority. There needs to be a path to a Palestinian state.
That path, called “the two state solution,” has been U.S. policy for decades. It would create an independent nation next to Israel for 5 million Palestinians who live in Gaza and on the West Bank of the Jordan River.
Scott Pelley: And you believe Israel would pursue that after what’s occurred–
Scott Pelley speaks with President Biden at the White House60 MINUTES
President Biden: Not now. Not now. Not now, but– but I think Israel understands that a significant portion of Palestinian people do not share the views of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah is a powerful Islamist militia to Israel’s north which is armed and trained by Iran. Iran also supports Hamas.
Scott Pelley: There’s limited fighting already on the northern Israeli border, and I wonder what is your message to Hezbollah and its backer, Iran?
President Biden: Don’t. Don’t, don’t, don’t.
Scott Pelley: Don’t come across the border? Don’t escalate this war?
President Biden: That’s right.
Scott Pelley: Is Iran behind the Gaza war?
President Biden: I don’t wanna get into classified information. But to be very blunt with you, there is no clear evidence of that.
Scott Pelley: At this point, no evidence that Iran is behind any of this?
President Biden: Correct. Now, Iran constantly supports Hamas and Hezbollah. I don’t mean that. But in terms of were they– w– did they have foreknowledge; did they help plan the attack– the– there’s– there’s no evidence of that at this point.
The president is asking for billions of dollars for Israel and Ukraine. But Congress is paralyzed. Hard-right Republicans are obstructing the election of a speaker of the house.
Scott Pelley: Does the dysfunction that we’ve seen in Congress increase the danger in the world?
President Biden: Yes. Look, this is not your father’s Republican Party. Thirty percent of it’s made up of these MAGA Republicans who are maybe– democracy is something I don’t– they don’t look at the same way you and I look at democracy.
Scott Pelley: Are the wars in Israel and Ukraine more than the United States can take on at the same time?
President Biden: No. We’re the United States of America for God’s sake, the most powerful nation in the history– not in the world, in the history of the world. The history of the world. We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense.
Scott Pelley: How do these wars in Israel and Ukraine relate to the safety of the American people?
President Biden: Overwhelmingly, they relate. For example, in Ukraine one of my objectives was to prevent Putin, who has committed war crimes himself, who– from bein’ able to occupy an independent country that borders NATO allies and is on the Russian border. Imagine what happens now if he were able to succeed. Have you ever known a major war in Europe we didn’t get sucked into? We don’t want that to happen. We want to make sure those democracies are sustained. And Ukraine is critical in making sure that happens.
Mr. Biden told us images of October 7th reminded him of the Holocaust—which he has studied– taking his family to the Dachau death camp in Germany. This is 2015, the man in the wheelchair is a Dachau survivor. Behind Mr. Biden is the president’s granddaughter.
President Biden: I want my children and grandchildren to fully understand exactly what happened and why you couldn’t deny the carnage going on if you were living in Germany and in Europe.
Scott Pelley: Why do you feel so strongly? What does Israel mean to you?
President Biden: The Jews have been subject to abuse, prejudice, and– and– attempt to wipe them out for, oh, God, over a th– thousand years. For me, it’s about decency, respect, honor. it’s just simply wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It violates every religious principle I have and every way– and every single principle my father taught me.
As we spoke to the president, his secretary of state was in Israel, his secretary of defense was in a NATO meeting on Ukraine. America’s oldest president seemed tired from directing all of this. But he was very clear on what he stood for and how his policies, in his view, would see America through.
Scott Pelley: Mr. President, given these two wars and the dysfunction in Congress, are you sure that you want to run again?
President Biden: Yes ..because.. I’m sure. Look, when I ran, I said, “The world’s at an inflection point.” The world’s changing, but we have an opportunity to make it– so, imagine if we were able to succeed in getting the Middle East put in place where we have normalization of relations. I think we can do that. Imagine what happens if we, in fact, unite all of Europe and Putin is finally put down where he cannot cause the kind of trouble he’s been causing. We have enormous opportunities, enormous opportunities to make it a better world.
Produced by Maria Gavrilovic. Associate producers, Alex Ortiz and Katie Brennan. Broadcast associate, Michelle Karim. Edited by Sean Kelly.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre turned up the heat on members of the far-left “Squad” during Tuesday’s press briefing, blasting their comments on the war between Israel and Hamas as “wrong,” “repugnant,” and “disgraceful.”
“I’ve seen some of those statements this weekend, and we’re going to continue to be very clear. We believe they’re wrong, we believe they’re repugnant, and we believe they’re disgraceful,” Jean-Pierre said when asked for the administration’s reaction to comments made by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. and Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo.
“Our condemnation belongs squarely with terrorists who have brutally murdered, raped, kidnapped hundreds, hundreds of Israelis. There can be no equivocation about that. There are not two sides here. There are not two sides,” she added.
From left to right: Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo. (Getty Images)
In their statements following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas over the weekend, Tlaib and Bush ignited outrage when they called for U.S. assistance to Israel to end.
“I grieve the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day,” Tlaib’s statement read. “As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.”
Bush’s statement said, “As part of achieving a just and lasting peace, we must do our part to stop this violence and trauma by ending U.S. government support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid.”
Ocasio-Cortez and Omar both called for a “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas on Saturday, the day of the attacks that saw hundreds of Israelis and many from others countries brutally slaughtered, including women, children and babies.
Additionally, in a Monday social media thread, Omar seemed to equate the Israeli victims killed by Hamas terrorists this weekend and Palestinians killed in the ongoing Israeli response.
“Just as we honor the humanity of the hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians and 9 Americans who were killed this weekend, we must honor the humanity of the innocent Palestinian civilians who have been killed and whose lives are upended,” she wrote on X, going on to highlight the hardships of living in Gaza and accusing Israel of operating an “apartheid” state in an attempt to explain violence by Hamas.
Israeli forces establish heavily armed control points along the border as Israel tightens measures by the army, police and other security forces after Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in Sderot, Israel over the weekend. (Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“Palestinian residents of the West Bank have scarcely better lives than Gazans — with the routine destruction of their ancestral homes, destruction of their crops, and violent attacks by Israeli settlers,” she wrote.
“Palestinians have few recourses for justice and accountability. Attacks by the IDF and settlers against Palestinians are regularly met with impunity. Efforts to seek justice in international courts are stonewalled by the Israeli government, with U.S. support,” she added. “As the world is condemning Hamas’s attacks, we must also oppose an Israeli military response that has already taken the lives of hundreds of Palestinians, including nearly two dozen children.”
Fox has reached out to the offices of Omar, Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez and Bush for comment.
Fox News’ Houston Keene and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
Brandon Gillespie is an associate editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @brandon_cg.
Want to see some Old Testament prophecies that have been fulfilled?
2,000 prophecies including some 300 prophecies and implications about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
There are no prophetic failures.
While there are both obvious and subtle prophecies, most are very detailed and specific.
No other religion has specific, repeated, and unfailing fulfillment of predictions many years in advance of contingent events over which the predictor had no control.
Studies of psychics show only around 8% of their predictions come true and virtually all of these can be attributed to chance and a general knowledge of circumstances.
Mathematicians have calculated the odds of Jesus fulfilling only 8 of the Messianic prophecies as 1 out of 1017 (a 1 followed by 17 zeros). This is equivalent to covering the entire state of Texas with silver dollars 2 feet deep, marking one of them, mixing them all up and having a blind-folded person select the marked one at random the first time. For more on this, see What Are The Odds?
Fulfilled prophecy is powerful evidence that the Bible is divine rather than human in origin.
Objection: Jesus manipulated events to fulfill prophecy. Answer: (a) Many prophecies were out of his control (ancestry, place of birth, time of death). (b) His miracles confirmed Jesus to be the Messiah. (c) There is no evidence that Jesus was a deceiver. (d) In order to manipulate all the people (including his enemies) and even his disciples to make it appear that he was the Messiah, Jesus would have needed supernatural powers. If he had such powers, he must have been the Messiah he claimed to be.
Examples of Non-Messianic Prophecies
The Succession of Great World Kingdoms (Daniel 2:37-42). Even negative critics agree that Daniel foretold the governments in order of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
Cyrus King of Persia (Isaiah 44:28-45:1). Since Isaiah lived between about 740 and 690 BC and Cyrus did not make his proclamation for Israel to return from exile until about 536 (Ezra 1), there would have been no human way for him to know what Cyrus would be named or what Cyrus would do.
Israel to Be Returned to Its Land A Second Time (Isaiah 11:11-12). The first time God reclaimed a people was from Egypt through the Exodus; the second time is from the Babylonian Exile (Isaiah 51:9-11).
The Closing of the Golden Gate (Ezekiel 44:2-3). The Golden Gate is the eastern gate of Jerusalem, through which Christ made his triumphal entry on Palm Sunday before the crucifixion (Matthew 21). Ezekiel predicted its closing and in 1543 Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent closed the gate and walled it up, not knowing he was fulfilling prophecy. It remains sealed to this day exactly as the Bible predicted.
The Destruction of Tyre (Ezekiel 26:3-14). The prophecy was partly fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city and left it in ruins. Alexander the Great later attacked the seemingly impregnable Island of Tyre by taking the stones, dust, and timber from the ruined mainland city to build a causeway to the Island. This prophecy is comparable to saying that Chicago will be destroyed and never rebuilt.
The Doom of Edom (Petra) (Jeremiah 49:15-17). Given the virtually impregnable nature of the ancient city carved out of rock and protected by a narrow passageway, this was an incredible prediction. Yet, in 636 AD it was conquered by Muslims and today stands deserted but for tourists.
Flourishing of the Desert in Palestine (Ezekiel 36:33-35). Since before the turn of the twentieth century, Israel has been renovated and Israel’s agriculture is flourishing.
Destruction of Jerusalem (Mark 13:1-2). Fulfilled literally when the Romans completely destroyed Jerusalem and the temple buildings. According to historian and eyewitness Josephus, some of the stones were 37 feet long, 12 feet high and 18 feet wide. Stones were even pried apart to collect the gold leaf that melted from the roof when the temple was set on fire.
______ Ben Parkinson pictured below: On November 9, 2014 at Fellowship Bible Church, Ben Parkinson noted in his sermon that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah and that the Jewish leaders knew what Jesus was claiming when Jesus referred to himself as “I AM.” John 8:57-59 New American Standard Bible (NASB) 57 So the Jews said to […]
One of my favorite messages by Adrian Rogers is called “WHO IS JESUS?”and he goes through the Old Testament and looks at the scriptures that describe the Messiah. I want to encourage you to listen to this audio message which I will send to anyone anywhere anytime. I have given thousands of these CD’s away […]
________________ Picture of a Jew praying at the Wailing Wall: _______ I thought of you last Sunday when I heard the sermon at Fellowship Bible Church since the passage John 5:18-47 was about Jesus talking to the religious Jews of his day who were skeptical about his claims that he was the Messiah. When I […]
_____ Brandon Barnard pictured below: Dr. Charles Barg’s book below: Dr. Jack Sternberg below: When I was 15 I joined my family on an amazing trip with our pastor Adrian Rogers to the land of Israel in 1976 and the most notable event to me was our visit to the Western Wall (or Wailing Wall) […]
Shout Out | Jack Sternberg | A Fellow Physician Began Attending Church – and He was Jewish Published on Jan 6, 2014 Welcome to our weekly podcast of Jewish stories of faith from doubters to doctors to the devoutly Orthodox. We release a new, incredible life journey each Monday. For more information go to jewsforjesus.org/shoutout! […]
The Astonishing Servant of Jehovah (Isaiah 53) John MacArthur Published on Apr 16, 2012 by JohnMacArthurGTY http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/90-435Now for this morning, I finally want you to open your Bible to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 53, and we are about to embark on a study of this immensely important portion of the Old […]
___________ Grace to You :: Unleashing God’s Truth, One Verse at a Time One of John MacArthur’s finest sermon’s Jesus’ Power over Death, (Matthew 9:23-26) Part 2 Scripture: Code: 2266 Would you look with me at Matthew chapter 9…Matthew chapter 9…We’re continuing in our examination of verses 18 through 26. Matthew 9 verses 18 through 26, and […]
Yoni, Bibi and Iddo Netanyahu (Courtesy Netanyahu family)
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in New York, September 25, 2016 (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
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In this handout photo provided by the Israeli Government Press Office, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets former U.S. President Bill Clinton, on November 8, 2010 in New York City. | Getty
In the earlier post I wrote about this same subject.
USA ELECTION INTERFERENCE BY BIBI? BUT CLINTON ADMITTED HE DID I!!! THAT IS IRONIC!!!
American anxiety that Israel would act against Iran dominated the rest of the year leading to the presidential elections. Before the elections, Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for president, visited Israel. As I had done with Obama when he visited Israel as a presidential candidate, I met Romney to discuss Iran, the Palestinians and the American-Israeli alliance. I could easily imagine Romney, who was handsome and fit, with only a bit of gray hair, at BCG thirty-five years earlier. We never actually mingled during our time there because Mitt was a senior manager and I was a junior consultant, and we also never worked on the same case. Nonetheless, like anyone who had been at BCG in those days we reminisced about Bruce Henderson. All BCG graduates spoke in a common code when it came to economic matters. On the economy Romney spoke passionately and authoritatively. He was knowledgeable about political and defense matters as well, but spoke about them with a bit less passion. Passion and conviction are the foundation of strength, which is what most people look for in a leader. Obama had these in abundance, even if his convictions and his reading of reality were often in direct conflict with my own. As the months passed by during 2012, Obama sent a string of envoys to try to convince me not to act militarily. These included Leon Panetta and National Security Council director Tom Donilon, a straightforward professional. Both described to me in detail the developments in America’s military preparations, hoping to curb Israel’s activities. I was noncommittal. Israeli preparations were real, and if they prompted similar preparations by the Americans, so much the better. Still, the balance of American policy was to avoid concrete action, and even more than that, to make sure that I avoided it. Administration spokespersons constantly briefed against the wisdom and efficacy of such an attack.
On August 30, 2012, General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, went further, saying, “The US will not be complicit in any Israeli action.” His choice of words outraged me. It both imputed an illegitimate, even criminal, nature to a potential Israeli action and signaled to Iran that the United States did not support Israel. This was putting blinding daylight between the US and Israel. What better way to reassure Iran that it was not in any danger if it continued to pursue its nuclear program? Worse signals of America’s passivity would soon follow.
On the eve of the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, I said on Bloomberg Television: “Iran will not stop unless it sees a clear determination by the democratic countries and a clear red line. They don’t see a clear red line and I think the sooner we establish one, the greater the chances that there won’t be a need for other types of action.” Barely a few hours passed before Secretary of State Clinton, while being interviewed on Canadian television, said emphatically, clearly in response to me, “The US is not setting deadlines for Iran.” Stunned by the speed in which the American administration rushed to distance themselves from Israel and assuage Iran’s fears, we briefed the press: “Without a clear red line Iran will not cease its race toward a nuclear weapon.”
The next day, September 11, I used a press conference during a visit by the Bulgarian prime minister, Boyko Borisov, to push back with my own words. “The world tells Israel, ‘Wait, there’s still time,’ ” I said. “And I say, ‘Wait for what? Wait until when?’ Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel. “If Iran knows that there is no red line and no deadline, what will it do? Exactly what it’s doing. It’s continuing, without any interference, towards obtaining nuclear bombs.”1 I had a challenging phone call with Obama following my speech. My agenda was clear—get tough on Iran. Obama’s agenda was centered on something else—making sure I didn’t meet with Romney when I came to the UN a few days later. A month earlier, Ron Dermer—whom I had appointed as Israel’s ambassador to Washington in 2013—told Dan Shapiro, who had been appointed US ambassador to Israel, that in my coming visit to the UN I would want to see Obama. Obama didn’t want to have the meeting, believing it would prompt a parallel meeting with Romney, who had asked to meet me when I came to the US. At the same time, Obama did not want it to look like he was snubbing me so close to the election. He argued that meeting opposing presidential candidates so close to an election would politicize the discussions. I thought differently. I wasn’t concerned with politics but rather with Israel’s survival.
Four years later I met with both candidate Donald Trump and candidate Hillary Clinton on the eve of the 2016 elections. I spoke to both about Iran. But now I felt boxed in by a direct plea from the president of the United States. “C’mon, man, work with me on this,” he said. His plea was so direct and so candid that I was left with little choice. Would I force upon the president of the United States a meeting he didn’t want? I instructed National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror to tell the press that we hadn’t asked for a meeting with Obama, even though Dermer had. Amidror said it was the only time he had lied in all his years of public service. I offered a lame excuse to Mitt Romney on why we couldn’t meet. He accepted it graciously. In my September 11 phone conversation with Obama, I weighed in on the statements by Hillary and General Dempsey. “These statements convey that the US has no deadline and undermine Israel’s right to self-defense. The number one terror regime in the world calls for the annihilation of my country and my people, and most of the criticism is reserved for whether Israel should act or not act.” Obama pushed back on this: “We’ve imposed the toughest sanctions ever on Iran. The idea that we’re spending more time convincing Israel not to act than on Iran is not true. Some of the concerns we raised were raised by your military people, too.” Ouch! I had wondered when he would get to that one. “We don’t need to get into the deliberations of our military but they are more nuanced than that,” I said. “At least they don’t speak out publicly, while the head of your military did speak out against us, which is extraordinary.” But my main point was reserved for something else. “I believe that if Iran sees a clear red line, they will not cross it,” I said to the president. “I can’t give a red line,” he replied, “that says that if they have X amount of centrifuges on Y date, then I’d bomb a week later. The red line I gave is no nuclear weapons.” That, I thought, would be too late. When the conversation ended, I put the phone down and looked at my staff. As in all such conversations with foreign leaders, they had sat around the table and heard the exchange, occasionally handing me notes with suggestions. “I guess we have no choice,” I said. “We’ll have to be the ones to draw the red line. We’ll do that when I next speak at the UN.”
Left-wing megadonor and billionaire George Soros blasted the U.S. and Israel for not recognizing terror group Hamas as a legitimate government in an op-ed 16 years ago.
The New York Post recounted Friday how in a 2007 Financial Times op-ed, the wealthy progressive blasted the U.S. government for supporting Israel’s decision not to work with Hamas after it won an election to govern Gaza the previous year.
Last weekend, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and murdered over 1,200 people, including 27 Americans. They also kidnapped approximately 150 people.
Hungarian-born US investor and Democrat donor George Soros wrote an op-ed in 2007 slamming the U.S. and Israel for not recognizing Hamas election in Palestine. (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
In his piece, titled, “America and Israel Must Open the Door to Hamas,” Soros claimed, “The Bush administration is again committing a blunder in the Middle East by supporting the Israeli government in its refusal to recognize a Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas.”
He argued that the decision impeded peace between Israel and the Palestinian people and the Middle East at large. He wrote, “This precludes any progress towards a peace settlement at a time when such progress could help avert conflagration in the greater Middle East.”
Israel condemned Hamas’ election in 2006, as the terror group’s main goal is to establish a Palestinian stateincluding the city of Jerusalem as its capital by employing violence.
The billionaire added that the U.S. and Israel’s hope for new elections to deny Hamas’ majority is “a hopeless strategy, because Hamas would boycott early elections and, even if their outcome resulted in Hamas’s exclusion from the government, no peace agreement would hold without Hamas support.”
He noted that, “If Israel had accepted the results of the election, that might have strengthened the more moderate political wing. Unfortunately, the ideology of the ‘war on terror’ does not permit such subtle distinctions.”
A column of Israeli Merkava battle tanks is amassed in the upper Galilee in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon on October 11, 2023. (JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images)
He said, “Defenders of the current policy argue that Israel cannot afford to negotiate from a position of weakness. But Israel’s position is unlikely to improve as long as it pursues its current course.”
Soros accused Israel of adopting heavy-handed retaliation tactics against Hamas violence, saying, “Military escalation – not just an eye for an eye but roughly 10 Palestinian lives for every Israeli one – has reached its limit.”
He also urged Israel and U.S to loosen the requirement that Hamas and Palestinian authorities recognize the legitimacy of the Jewish state, stating, “that could be made a condition for an eventual settlement rather than a precondition for negotiations.”
The op-ed concluded with a jab towards President George W. Bush’s “war on terror” at the time, claiming it had encouraged Israel to make these errors regarding Hamas. “Demonstrating military superiority is not sufficient as a policy for dealing with the Palestinian problem. There is now the chance of a political solution with Hamas brought on board by Saudi Arabia. It would be tragic to miss out on that prospect because the Bush administration is mired in the ideology of the war on terror.”
This post wraps up our Top Ten Biblical Discoveries in Archaeology series. To see the complete series please click here.
Old Testament Scribes
How accurate is the Old Testament we hold in our hands? It’s popular today to attack the accuracy of the Bible on the grounds of its lack of effective transmission. Popular authors claim the Bible we have today has simply been copied too many times, with too many textual errors, to be believed as the very words of God handed down to us over the millennia.
Every single copy of the Old Testament was hand copied up until the printing press came along in the 15th century AD. Imagine that, some of the books of the Old Testament were copied over and over for more than 3,000 years (traditional view of dating). Can a document copied so many times by hand truly be accurate today?
Tradition tells us the Hebrew people were meticulous copyists of Scripture. Scribes were so aware of their task they would go to great lengths to make sure their hand-written copy of Scripture was free from error. Hebrew scribes were bound to the following rules:
They could only use clean animal skins, both to write on, and even to bind manuscripts.
Each column of writing could have no less than forty-eight, and no more than sixty lines.
The ink must be black, and of a special recipe.
They must verbalize each word aloud while they were writing.
They must wipe the pen and wash their entire bodies every time before writing God’s name.
There must be a review within thirty days, and if as many as three pages required corrections, the entire manuscript had to be redone.
The letters, words, and paragraphs had to be counted, and the document became invalid if two letters touched each other. The middle paragraph, word and letter must correspond to those of the original document.
The documents could be stored only in sacred places (synagogues, etc.).
Silver Amulet Scroll and Nash Papyrus
With all the careful scribal work a shockingly few number of Old Testament ancient manuscripts exist until today. The silver amulet scroll is by far the oldest. The scroll was mentioned as #4 in this top ten series. The amulet scroll dates way back to 600 BC. This is fantastic but it is only a couple verses of the entire Bible. So we can get a feel for the accuracy of those couple verses but not be able to get a good representative sample for the entirety of Scripture.
The Nash Papyrus dates to around 200 BC. It’s also a wonderful discovery but similar to the amulet scroll it only contains a hand-full of verses. Gratefully those verses are the Ten Commandments, but nonetheless our only 2 manuscripts of the Old Testament from the BC era are a very small representation of the entire Old Testament canon.
Codex Aleppo
Codex Aleppo is the oldest entire Old Testament possessed by humanity. The manuscript dates to around 900AD. The priceless manuscript is indeed magnificent. When analyzing the more than 2.7 million writing details that make up the Old Testament, the manuscript appears to be very precise in its creation. Although we have such a beautiful manuscript, the elephant in the room is that this manuscript dates from 900AD. Many New Testament manuscripts are older than our oldest Old Testament manuscript. Most of the Old Testament was written over 1500 years before Codex Aleppo.
1946-47
The greatest biblically relevant archaeological discovery, made in the winter of 1946-47, would shake up the biblical and archaeological world. John C. Trever has done a good job reconstructing the story of the scrolls from several interviews with the Bedouin people.
Muhammed edh-Dhib, a 15 year old Bedouin living in Bethlehem, was with his cousin in the region of the Dead Sea. Jum’a Muhammad, the cousin of edh-Dhib, noticed some possible cave openings while out shepherding some goats. Edh-Dhib made it into a cave and discovered something that had been untouched for more than 2,200 years. He reached into a pot and retrieved some scrolls and showed them to Jum’a.
The impact of these scrolls were not readily apparent. The scrolls were taken back to the Bedouin camp to show the rest of the family. The Bedouin kept the scrolls hanging on a tent pole while they figured out what to do with them, periodically taking them out to show people.
The scrolls were first taken to a dealer named Ibrahim ‘ljha in Bethlehem. In one of those famous dumb moments of history ‘ljha returned them saying they were worthless. Undaunted, thankfully, the Bedouin went to a nearby market, where a Syrian Christian offered to buy them. A sheikh joined their conversation and suggested they take the scrolls to a part-time antiques dealer. The Bedouin left one scroll with the dealer and then sold three scrolls to another for the ridiculous sum of $29!
George Isha’ya, a member of the Syrian Orthodox Church, heard about the scrolls and contacted St. Mark’s Monastery in the hope of getting an appraisal, news of the find then reached Metropolitan bishop Athanasius Yeshue Samuel, better known as Mar Samuel.
After examining the scrolls and suspecting their astronomical worth, he expressed interest in purchasing them. Four scrolls found their way into his hands. More scrolls continued to arrive on the scene. By the end of 1948, nearly two years after their first discovery, scholars had yet to locate the source of the manuscripts.
What was all the fuss about? After careful analysis and scientific analysis at the University of California, Davis it was determined that a new era of Old Testament biblical manuscripts had arrived. We were witnessing what appeared to be the discovery of an entire library of Old Testament and ancient Jewish writings. How old were these books? Remember our oldest complete Old Testament had been 900AD. An entire scroll of Isaiah was found and dated to around 200BC! Can you believe that, in one discovery 1100 years of biblical hand-written copies were spanned.
Magnitude of the Discovery
Archaeologists were able to track down the origin of the first scrolls and together with the Bedouins ended up finding a total of 972 manuscripts from 11 different caves. All 11 caves are in the southeastern Dead Sea area of Israel. The area receives almost no rainfall making it a perfect climate for ancient manuscripts to last thousands of years without decomposing.
The scrolls contain verses from every Old Testament book except for one. Only about 1/3rd of the scrolls are biblical writings. 2/3rds of the manuscripts are not biblical but pertain to Jewish life at the time. Think of it as stumbling across the 1,000 volume library of a Christian with many books of the Bible but then all sorts of books about 21st century Christian life and thought. This is the equivalent of the Dead Sea Scroll discovery. Many of the non-biblical books discovered were not known to even exist!
The scrolls, for some insane reason, were put up for sale in the Wall Street Journal on June 1, 1954. They were purchased for $250,000 and brought to Jerusalem where they eventually became housed in a museum called the Shrine of the Book where they reside today when not circulating in museums around the world. The scrolls today are considered priceless. Just to purchase a replica facsimile copy of 3 of the scrolls currently will run you $60,000 (a donation of replica scrolls to Parchment & Pen will not be turned down).
Significance of the Discovery
The scrolls are still, after decades, a discovery still being digested. The 972 manuscripts have shed great light on the accuracy and complexity of the Old Testament. The Isaiah Scroll, in comparison to Codex Aleppo and other manuscripts, show that the message of the Old Testament has not been changed over millennia. More articles and books have been written about the Dead Sea Scrolls than any other archaeological discovery with biblical significance. The scrolls are shedding a great deal of light on the Jewish religious world of roughly 200BC-90AD. The scrolls are generally showing the modern-day Old Testament to be an extremely accurate representation of the original writers.
Work in Progress
Google has announced a new deal with the Israeli Antiquities Authority to photograph all of the scrolls in order to make high-resolution photos available to anyone online for free. The scrolls continue to amaze and delight us; where we once had only a couple fragments of the ancient Old Testament we now enjoy an abundant library.
Please join the discussion by posting your thoughts in the comments section below.
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The Bible and Archaeology – Is the Bible from God? (Kyle Butt 42 min)
I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times Blog on many issues such as abortion, human rights, welfare, poverty, gun control and issues dealing with popular culture. Here is another exchange I had with them a while back. My username at the Ark Times Blog is Saline […]
I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry King’s Show. One of two most popular posts I […]
I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry King’s Show. One of two most popular posts I […]
Prophecy–The Biblical Prophesy About Tyre.mp4 Uploaded by TruthIsLife7 on Dec 5, 2010 A short summary of the prophecy about Tyre and it’s precise fulfillment. Go to this link and watch the whole series for the amazing fulfillment from secular sources. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvt4mDZUefo ________________ John MacArthur on the amazing fulfilled prophecy on Tyre and how it was fulfilled […]
John MacArthur on the Bible and Science (Part 2) I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry […]
John MacArthur on the Bible and Science (Part 1) I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry […]
Adrian Rogers – How you can be certain the Bible is the word of God Great article by Adrian Rogers. What evidence is there that the Bible is in fact God’s Word? I want to give you five reasons to affirm the Bible is the Word of God. First, I believe the Bible is the […]
Is there any evidence the Bible is true? Articles By PleaseConvinceMe Apologetics Radio The Old Testament is Filled with Fulfilled Prophecy Jim Wallace A Simple Litmus Test There are many ways to verify the reliability of scripture from both internal evidences of transmission and agreement, to external confirmation through archeology and science. But perhaps the […]
I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times Blog on many issues such as abortion, human rights, welfare, poverty, gun control and issues dealing with popular culture. Here is another exchange I had with them a while back. My username at the Ark Times Blog is […]
Here is some very convincing evidence that points to the view that the Bible is historically accurate. Archaeological and External Evidence for the Bible Archeology consistently confirms the Bible! Archaeology and the Old Testament Ebla tablets—discovered in 1970s in Northern Syria. Documents written on clay tablets from around 2300 B.C. demonstrate that personal and place […]
Yoni, Bibi and Iddo Netanyahu (Courtesy Netanyahu family)
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in New York, September 25, 2016 (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
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In this handout photo provided by the Israeli Government Press Office, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets former U.S. President Bill Clinton, on November 8, 2010 in New York City. | Getty
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SHOULD ISRAEL ATTACK IRAN OR WAIT TILL THEY HAVE NUCLEAR BOMB? ISRAEL DID NOT ASK USA FOR PERMISSION EITHER!!!
Obama responded by saying that if we attacked, the sanctions he had orchestrated would collapse. He explained that the reason so many countries agreed to them was that the US told them the alternative was Israeli military action. If Israel acted, these countries would immediately lift all sanctions. I had heard this before in the Mavi Marmara affair. Once again Obama minimized the power of America and chose to “lead from behind.” It was clear to me that if countries had to choose between doing business with the small Iranian economy or the $20 trillion American economy they would choose the latter. If the United States maintained sanctions following an Israeli attack, other countries would maintain them, too. “I haven’t yet decided to act militarily,” I told Obama. “But I want you to know that I reserve the full right to do so.” “I can’t decide that for you,” he answered. “I can only tell you what I think: it would be a mistake.” “I hear you,” I said. “But I didn’t come here to get a green light.” In consultation with Defense Minister Barak, we postponed the decision on a potential strike by a few months. Undoubtedly, however, I assumed US intelligence picked up enough signals to reveal that preparations were taking place.
Yemenis wave Palestinian flags and shout slogans against Israel during a demonstration in support of Palestinians on Friday in Sanaa, Yemen. (Photo: Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu/ Getty Images)
Hamas unleashed an unprovoked, surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, during Shabbat and the Simchat Torah holiday.
The Gaza Strip-based terrorist group’s Pearl Harbor-style onslaught included 2,200 rockets that blasted communities as far north as Tel Aviv. Regardless, Israel’s critics and enemies point their fingers at the Israelis, as if they had bombed themselves.
The Biden administration’s statements have improved, but its knee-jerk response was dreadful. “We urge all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks,” the U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs declared, soon after the mayhem erupted. Washington’s initial message to Jerusalem: Don’t do anything. Just stand there. This wrongfully even-handed X post sparked outrage and soon disappeared.
George Achi, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.’s director of journalistic standards, instructed his newsroom colleagues: “Do not refer to militants, soldiers, or anyone else as ‘terrorists.’ The notion of terrorism remains heavily politicized and is part of the story.”
“We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” read a joint statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the situation in Palestine. “The apartheid regime is the only one to blame.” Members of 33 undergraduate groups signed this communique.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., displayed a Palestinian flag in front of her Capitol Hill office, beside the star-spangled banner. Other radical “Squad” members have slammed Israel, even as Israelis hose their countrymen’s blood from sidewalks.
Black Lives Matter of Chicago created an “I stand with Palestine” meme, complete with a paragliding terrorist, like those who flew from Gaza into Israel, with guns blazing.
Pro-Palestine demonstrators in Times Square dressed as Hamas killers. One protester waved a swastika on his cellphone screen.
These doe-eyed dreamers and Islamofascist fifth columnists should focus on Hamas’ atrocities before they denounce Israel and defend its tormentors.
“We saw boys and girls bound, who were shot in the head,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a TV address Wednesday. “Men and women burned alive. Young women who were raped and slaughtered. Soldiers who were beheaded.”
Netanyahu declared via X: “Hamas is ISIS. We will crush and eliminate it as the world crushed and eliminated ISIS.”
“Babies with their heads cut off, that’s what [the soldiers] said,” i24 News’ Nicole Zedek reported from Kibbutz Kfar Aza near Sderot, just outside Gaza. “Families gunned down, completely gunned down in their beds.”
CNN’s Nic Robertson said, “There were so many murdered members of this Kibbutz. Men, women, children, hands bound, shot, executed, heads cut.”
“They killed babies in front of their parents, and then killed the parents,” said Israel Defense Forces Gen. Itai Veruv. “They killed parents, and we found babies between the dogs and the family killed before him. They cut heads of the people.”
“A pregnant woman in southern Israel was found by Hamas terrorists,” India’s TV9 Network’s Aditya Raj Kaul explained via X. “They dissected her body. Her stomach was cut open, and they took the fetus out with the umbilical cord. And let the unborn child die slowly out of his mother’s womb. This is what inhuman savages Hamas do to people.”
“Israelis—young and old—were slaughtered in their homes,” Aviva Klompas, former head speechwriter at Israel’s U.N. Mission, wrote via X. “Entire families were butchered in cold blood. In one home, a terrorist shot the parents dead, took a child’s cellphone, and livestreamed the horrors on the child’s Facebook account.”
“Our children suffered the most horrific experience no one could even imagine—going to enjoy music with friends in nature and get bombarded with hand grenades and automatic weapons, and just being slaughtered, one after another,” David Abramov told CBS News. His son Laor, an aspiring DJ, vanished after Hamas swiped him in a pickup truck. “Young, beautiful, happy people go to celebrate life and meeting monsters that come to celebrate death.”
In a Hamas X video, its forces excavate water pipes, slice them, pack them with explosives, and convert them into do-it-yourself bombs, which they lobbed into Israel. “Allahu Akbar!” (“God is great!”) a men’s chorus sings on the soundtrack.
And what was Hamas’ message to Gazans thirsty for running water? Go to hell.
Hamas makes the Palestine Liberation Organization look like moderates. These rats resemble 1970s-era Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge.
All told, Hamas has killed some 1,200 Israelis. This has been the biggest orgy of Jew killing since the liberation of Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
Conversely, Israel acts in self-defense. Any collateral damage that rank-and-file Palestinians suffer will not be because the Israel Defense Forces gunned them down in their living rooms, but because their jihadist leaders launched this genocidal bloodbath.
Until last weekend, Israel had been pursuing peace like never before. In conjunction with then-President Donald Trump, Israel already had signed mutual-recognition treaties with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, and Morocco. Atop these four Abraham Accords, Israel and Saudi Arabia lately had signaled that a separate peace was within reach.
“I believe that we are at the cusp of … an historic peace with Saudi Arabia,” Netanyahu told the United Nations last month. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Fox News: “Every day we get closer.”
This is what it looks like when doves fly.
But that enraged the ayatollahs, arguably the most evil, hateful, destructive, and apocalyptic humans alive. The Wall Street Journal reports that Iran and Hamas engineered this war on Israel to car-bomb any truce between Jerusalem and Riyadh.
Hamas’ ensuing carnage has killed at least 27 Americans, as of this writing. Fourteen other U.S. citizens are missing and could be kidnapped or dead.
These facts alone should quell the Far Left’s lust for Hamas.
Alas, this catastrophe hurts America. Thus, too many on the Left are exactly where one typically finds them—on the wrong side of the Stars and Stripes.
The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.
Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email letters@DailySignal.com and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the url or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.
The 1st century AD Jewish writer Josephus recorded the ascension of King Herod to the throne of Judea. The Bible also refers to King Herod in such passages as Matthew 2:1, which reads, “…Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod” (NIV). A quote from Josephus concerning Herod is as follows:
“As soon as Herod was established on the throne, he conferred honors on those in Jerusalem who had supported his cause, and punished the partisans of Antigonus. Converting his valuables into money, he sent large sums to Anthony and his friends.”
Quote taken from: Josephus, Josephus the Essential Works. Trans & Ed. by Maier, Paul L. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007. Print. P. 241.
The inscription on this piece of a wine jug refers to King Herod who is noted in the Bible as having killed the babies in Bethlehem near the time of Christ’s birth.
Click “Read more” below to see the museum placard that accompanies this artifact.
The first of the three Roman emperors mentioned in the Bible is Augustus who reigned from 27 BC – AD 14. He is referred to in Luke 2:1 and is a well documented historical figure. The photo here shows a marble bust located in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, Turkey.
The second of the three Roman emperors mentioned in the Bible is Tiberius who reigned from 14-37 AD. He is referred to in Luke 3:1, and his reign is also discussed by other ancient authors (e.g. Tacitus, Suetonius, etc.). The photo here shows a bust located in the Ephesus Museum, Turkey.
The third of the three Roman emperors mentioned in the Bible is Claudius who reigned from 41-54 AD. He is noted in Acts 11:28 and 18:2. Ancient historians such as Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio also wrote about him. The photo here shows a model head located in the Museum of Roman Civilization, Rome.
In Luke 20:23-25 Jesus requested a coin and then asked the crowd, “Whose image and inscription are on it?” They replied that it was “Caesar’s.” Several types of coins were in circulation at that time that showed an image of Caesar, with the one displayed here being a typical example. It contains the image of Tiberius Caesar who reigned 14-37 AD, the time of the ministry of Christ. The text on the silver coin is written in Latin, and the coin itself is now in a private collection. Click on “Read more” below to see the reverse side of the coin.
This quote, from the 1st century AD Jewish writer Josephus, references the execution of John the Baptist, which is also recorded in the Bible (Matthew chapter 14).
“Now, to some of the Jews the destruction of Herod’s army seemed to come from God as a…punishment for what he did to John who was called the Baptist. For Herod had executed him…” (Jewish Antiquities).
Quote taken from: Josephus, Josephus the Essential Works. Trans & Ed. by Maier, Paul L. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007. Print. P. 271.
View of the Western Wall,* which is part of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Many people from around the world come here to place written prayers into the crevices between the building blocks. The lower portion of the wall displayed in the photo represents part of the Temple complex that was rebuilt by King Herod starting in c. 19 BC. Herod’s rebuilt Temple was the one visited by Christ. The Gospels record Christ at the Temple in such passages as John 2:12-25. Click “Read more” below to see an aerial photo of the Temple Mount.
This photo displays the location of a first-century AD house in the village of Capernaum that archaeological evidence indicates was quite likely the home of the Apostle Peter with whom Jesus may have lived (Mark 1 and 2). The miracle during which a paralyzed man was lowered through the roof likely occurred at this location. Excavations were carried out on the site between 1968 and 1998, and it was learned that it was used early in the Christian era as a church and as a place of pilgrimage. Also, inscriptions that refer to Jesus Christ were found. Today the structure is still visible under a larger modern church that was built over it to commemorate the site. To see a photo of this modern church, click “Read more” below.
In 2004 workers digging a sewer line in Jerusalem uncovered this terraced stone pool that was identified by archaeologists as the Pool of Siloam referred to in John’s Gospel. This pool is noted in John 9:7 as the place where Jesus sent a blind man to be healed. The approximate date the pool was originally constructed was indicated by coins placed in antiquity into the plaster pool lining. The pool, which is about 225 feet wide, is located near the end of Hezekiah’s tunnel (discussed above) and can be seen by visitors to the area.
This inscribed limestone slab was found in Caesarea Maritima, Israel in 1961. It was originally made in c. 30 AD. It is written in Latin and reads, “Tiberium Pontius Pilate Prefect of Judea.” Pontius Pilate is known from the Bible as the one who condemned Jesus to death (Matthew 27).The artifact is about 32 inches in height and is now housed in the Israel Museum.
PHOTO RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN: BRBurton (Thank you)
View of Mars Hill, also called the “Areopagus,” in Athens, Greece. The Bible reads, “Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious….” (Acts 17:22 NIV). Mars Hill (the Areopagus) is located next to the Acropolis in the center of Athens, and it appears to have originally had a building on it in which the Areopagus council met (the building is now gone). Paul likely gave his speech before the Areopagus council in the building on this hill, or perhaps in another building in which the council met (e.g. Royal Stoa). Today there is a plaque on the side of the hill, and this plaque contains the text of Paul’s speech. The full plaque can be read in modern Greek by clicking “Read more” below and enlarging the photo.
The Bible refers to a proconsul in ancient Greece by the name of Gallio (Acts 18). The Greek language inscription shown to the left refers to the same Gallio noted in the Bible. It was written in the 1st century AD and was discovered in Delphi in 1905. It originally consisted of various fragments that were pieced together in 1967. The artifact is now in the Delphi museum, Greece. Click on “Read more” below to see the remains of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi.
The Bible records that the people involved in a riot in the city of Ephesus shouted, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19:34 NIV). This photo displays a marble statue of the goddess known as the “Great Artemis.” It was discovered in the city and measures over nine feet in height. It was made in the 1st or early 2nd century BC and is now on display in the Ephesus museum. Ephesus was known in the ancient world as a center for the worship of Artemis, and the temple devoted to her in the city was considered to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
The inscription shown in the photo was discovered in 1924 at the location of ancient Corinth in Greece. The text is in Latin and reads, “Erastus…bore the expense of this pavement.” This is probably a reference to the same “Erastus” referred to in Romans 16:23 as a city official. The inscription, with seven inch letters, dates to the 1st century AD. The limestone slab is in its original location in a field at the ruins of ancient Corinth.
The Roman historian Tacitus wrote his book, The Annals of Imperial Rome, in c. 110 AD, roughly a decade after the death of the last apostle, John. Tacitus is one of the earliest non-Christian sources to discuss Jesus and his crucifixion. The quote by Tacitus is shown below, and by clicking “Read more” at the bottom of this post additional quotes about Christ and the early Christians can be seen.
Tacitus (Roman historian, c. 110 AD): “Their originator, Christ, had been executed in Tiberius’ reign by the governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate” (Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome. Rev. ed. Trans. Grant, Michael. New York: Penguin, 1971. Print. P. 365.)
The Bible and Archaeology – Is the Bible from God? (Kyle Butt 42 min)
I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times Blog on many issues such as abortion, human rights, welfare, poverty, gun control and issues dealing with popular culture. Here is another exchange I had with them a while back. My username at the Ark Times Blog is Saline […]
I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry King’s Show. One of two most popular posts I […]
I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry King’s Show. One of two most popular posts I […]
Prophecy–The Biblical Prophesy About Tyre.mp4 Uploaded by TruthIsLife7 on Dec 5, 2010 A short summary of the prophecy about Tyre and it’s precise fulfillment. Go to this link and watch the whole series for the amazing fulfillment from secular sources. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvt4mDZUefo ________________ John MacArthur on the amazing fulfilled prophecy on Tyre and how it was fulfilled […]
John MacArthur on the Bible and Science (Part 2) I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry […]
John MacArthur on the Bible and Science (Part 1) I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry […]
Adrian Rogers – How you can be certain the Bible is the word of God Great article by Adrian Rogers. What evidence is there that the Bible is in fact God’s Word? I want to give you five reasons to affirm the Bible is the Word of God. First, I believe the Bible is the […]
Is there any evidence the Bible is true? Articles By PleaseConvinceMe Apologetics Radio The Old Testament is Filled with Fulfilled Prophecy Jim Wallace A Simple Litmus Test There are many ways to verify the reliability of scripture from both internal evidences of transmission and agreement, to external confirmation through archeology and science. But perhaps the […]
I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times Blog on many issues such as abortion, human rights, welfare, poverty, gun control and issues dealing with popular culture. Here is another exchange I had with them a while back. My username at the Ark Times Blog is […]
Here is some very convincing evidence that points to the view that the Bible is historically accurate. Archaeological and External Evidence for the Bible Archeology consistently confirms the Bible! Archaeology and the Old Testament Ebla tablets—discovered in 1970s in Northern Syria. Documents written on clay tablets from around 2300 B.C. demonstrate that personal and place […]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in New York, September 25, 2016 (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
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In this handout photo provided by the Israeli Government Press Office, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets former U.S. President Bill Clinton, on November 8, 2010 in New York City. | Getty
BIBI KNOWS IRAN WANTS TO ELIMINATE JEWS JUST LIKE HITLER WANTED TO
ON MARCH 5, 2012, I met Obama in the Oval Office. Reviewing the deteriorating situation in Syria under its dictator, Bashar Assad, son of the previous dictator, Hafez Assad, Hillary said, “Apparently Bashar’s mother is telling him, ‘Your father would have done this, your father would have done that.’ ” “I didn’t know Bashar had a Jewish mother,” I said, and then, looking at Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, I corrected myself: “Sorry, an Italian mother.” (Actually, except for my education, my mother never nudged me on anything.) Everybody laughed, Leon the loudest. A former congressman, he was savvy and down-to-earth, lacking any of the ideological antipathies that animated many of his colleagues. He liked Israel and I liked him. The atmosphere softened, but only a little.
Our conversation centered mostly on Iran. My intention was to move the US to a tougher stance while maintaining our right to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. Obama assured me he was building a military capacity and said that it should be given a chance to work. “I strongly believe a preemptive strike would be a mistake,” he said. “Iran is weak. We will lose legitimacy and oil prices will spike. An Israeli attack would not achieve anything. In six to nine months, maybe the world will recognize the need for action.” He was clearly trying to get me to kick the can forward and postpone any action until after the presidential election in November 2012. “I am the prime minister, you are the president,” I said. “If I were in your shoes, I would probably think like you. But you are big and we are small. Acting early for me is not a question of trust in you; it’s a question of my responsibility as the leader of Israel. In matters of survival and security Israeli prime ministers often disagree with American presidents.” I described how Ben Gurion disagreed with Secretary of State George Marshall on declaring Israel’s independence, Eshkol disagreed with Lyndon Johnson on the Six-Day War, and Begin disagreed with Ronald Reagan on the need to destroy Saddam’s nuclear reactor. “I’ve recently been to the Villa Wannsee near Berlin, where the Nazis held the conference to coordinate the Final Solution,” I said. “We’re not going back to the brink of annihilation. Iran says Israel is a one-bomb country. They believe that with nuclear weapons they can wipe us out. We will act if there is no choice, with or without your support. In the meantime I believe it’s important that you put forward clear demands on Iran to stop enriching uranium and to dismantle the Qom facility.”
Cities throughout the world experienced acts of alleged Islamist terrorism and anti-Israel demonstrations on Friday, following calls by the former chief of Hamas for the Islamic world to partake in a global “Day of Rage.”
For context, Hamas is an Iranian-backed terrorist organization that launched a horrific attack against Israel earlier this week, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,200 innocent civilians. Days after the initial attack, Khaled Meshaal, Hamas’ ex-chief (2004-2017) who resides in Qatar, called for worldwide demonstrations in support of Palestinians living in Gaza and Muslim-majority Middle Eastern countries to wage war against Israel. He also claimed the day represents a “moment for the application” of jihad.
“[We must] head to the squares and streets of the Arab and Islamic world on Friday,” Meshaal said. “To all scholars who teach jihad … to all who teach and learn, this is a moment for the application [of jihad].”
“The entire planet will be under our law, there will be no more Jews or Christian traitors,” he added.
Several acts of violence and anti-Israel demonstrations have since been reported in cities across the world on Friday that appear to be in response to Meshaal’s call to action.
France
In Arras, a Chechnyan man was arrested by law enforcement after stabbing several adults at a local school. While no children were harmed, early reports indicate at least one adult was killed and two injured. According to France24, the suspect allegedly shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” in Arabic, at some point during the attack.
The suspect was also reportedly on a “state watchlist of known people to be a possible security risk,” according to Reuters.
China
An Israeli national who worked at the country’s Beijing-based embassy was reportedly stabbed on Friday. While the attacker’s nationality remains unknown, Chinese authorities claimed the suspect is a 53-year-old “foreign national” who has “operated a small retail business in Beijing.” According to embassy officials, the victim has been hospitalized and remains in stable condition.
A video circulating social media on Friday appears to show the suspect in question stabbing the victim before hobbling away.
Jordan
Jordanian police were forced to disperse pro-Palestinian demonstrators after the latter attempted “to reach a border zone with the Israeli-occupied West Bank.” According to Reuters, witnesses claimed, “Police fired tear gas to halt about 500 demonstrators who had reached a security checkpoint outside the capital Amman on a highway leading to a main border crossing.” The nation’s government had previously declared anti-Israel demonstrations near the area off-limits.
Iran
According to the New York Post, video evidence from Iran shows thousands of the nation’s residents “taking to the streets … burning not only Israel’s flag but the American flag as well.” Demonstrators also reportedly chanted phrases such as “End of Israel” and “Down with USA.”
Other Middle Eastern Nations
In addition to Iran and Jordan, a bevy of other Middle Eastern nations also experienced pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstrations on Friday. This list includes Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Oman, Qatar, and Yemen, according to Bloomberg News.
Washington State
Students at the University of Washington held a demonstration in support of Hamas on Friday, in which attendees reportedly chanted for the “one solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In praising Hamas, one attendee claimed the terrorist organization is “fighting for their people [and] fighting for their country back.”
“What America is promoting is that Israel is a victim. For what? For Hamas defending their people?” the girl said.
California
Students at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) held an anti-Israel gathering, in which participants could be heard shouting “intifada, intifada,” a termoften used by Arab demonstrators invoking the memory of past Palestinian uprisings in the Jewish state.
Italy
Video footage posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday afternoon showed Italian police officers in Rome beating back violent pro-Hamas demonstrators.
On November 9, 2014 at Fellowship Bible Church, Ben Parkinson noted in his sermon that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah and that the Jewish leaders knew what Jesus was claiming when Jesus referred to himself as “I AM.”
John 8:57-59 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
57 So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
Then Ben pointed to the scripture in the Old Testament where Jehovah answers Moses’ important question.
Exodus 3:13-19New American Standard Bible (NASB)
13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”15 God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt.17 So I said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’18 They will pay heed to what you say; and you with the elders of Israel will come to the king of Egypt and you will say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, please, let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except under compulsion.
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Then we closed the service on November 9, 2014 with this great song below:
Phillips, Craig & Dean – Great I Am (Lyrics)
Published on Mar 17, 2012
“Breathe in” album available now.
I wanna be close, close to Your side
So heaven is real and death is a lie
I wanna hear voices of angels above
Singing as one
Hallelujah, holy, holy
God Almighty, the great I am
Who is worthy, none beside Thee
God Almighty, the great I am
I wanna be near, near to Your heart
Loving the world, hating the dark
I wanna see dry bones living again
Singing as one
The mountains shake before Him
Thee demons run and flee
At the mention of the name, King of majesty
There is no power in hell or any who can stand
Before the power and the presence of the great I am
The great I am, the great I am
The great I am
The great I am
The great I am
______________________________
When I was 15 I joined my family on an amazing trip with our pastor Adrian Rogers to the land of Israel in 1976 and the most notable event to me was our visit to the Western Wall (or Wailing Wall) where hundreds of orthodox Jews were praying and kissing the wall. At the time we were visiting the wall I noticed that Dr. Rogers was visibly moved to tears because he knew that these Jews had missed the true messiah who had come and died on a cross almost 2000 years before. They were still looking for the messiah to come for the first time sometime in the future.
That one event encouraged my interest in presenting the gospel to the Jews. At about the same time in Little Rock two Jews by the names of Dr. Charles Barg and Dr. Jack Sternberg were encountering that gospel message. I have posted before about their life stories and they can be easily found on the internet.
____________ __________________________________ ___________________________________ In light of recent developments in the news the future fulfillment of Revelation chapter 12 does not look so far-fetched. Obviously Israel is the mother that produced the Messiah (verse 1) and Satan is the dragon that dragged 1/3 of the angels out of heaven with him. Jesus is the child who […]
Zechariah 12:3 (KJV) notes, “And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” It is amazing how up to date the Bible can be in many ways. […]
Irving Kristol pictured below: In 1980 I read the books HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE? by Francis Schaeffer and WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE? by both Schaeffer and Dr. C. Everett Koop and I saw the film series by the same names. In those two books Daniel Bell was quoted. In HOW SHOULD WE […]
The Birth Of Israel (2008) – Part 1/8 I can’t say I agree with every word from Chuck Colson’s words below but it is a good article though. Covenant and Conflict Israel’s Place in the World Today By Chuck Colson|Published Date: February 18, 2003 When our BreakPoint Managing Editor Jim Tonkowich returned from this year’s […]
One News Now reports on Friday Obama’s comments a ‘gross error’ GOP lawmaker and Tea Party Caucus founder Michele Bachmann says President Obama has defined his Middle East policy: “blame Israel first.” Supporters of Israel are expressing outrage over President Barack Obama’s call yesterday that Israel give back territory it gained when attacked by Arabs […]
Michele Bachmann released this statement yesterday: Washington, May 19 – Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (MN-06) released the following response after President Obama’s speech today on his Middle East policy, which included a dramatic shift away from support of Israel: “Today President Barack Obama has again indicated that his policy towards Israel is to blame Israel first. […]
“Drink Your Energy Drink & Away We Go!” Michele Bachmann Federal Spending & Jobs Summit Michele Bachmann Wikipedia notes: She married Marcus Bachmann in 1978.[17] They have five children (Lucas, Harrison, Elisa, Caroline, and Sophia), and have also provided foster care for 23 other children.[18][19] Bachmann and her husband own a Christian counseling practice in […]
President Barack Obama addresses an audience during a campaign fundraising event, in Boston, May 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton greets President Obama before his speech at the State Department. Clinton introduced Obama, who joked that she has been accruing quite a few frequent-flier miles. Below is […]
The Existence of God (Part 2) Uploaded on Mar 6, 2009 Examining the Creation/Evolution Controversy in Light of Reason and Revelation Moral Argument For God – Part 1 – William Lane Craig Uploaded on Apr 3, 2011http://drcraigvideos.blogspot.com – Dr. William Lane Craig teaches on the topic of morality and God. Is morality objective or subjective? Is it […]
One of my favorite messages by Adrian Rogers is called “WHO IS JESUS?”and he goes through the Old Testament and looks at the scriptures that describe the Messiah. I want to encourage you to listen to this audio message which I will send to anyone anywhere anytime. I have given thousands of these CD’s away […]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in New York, September 25, 2016 (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
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In this handout photo provided by the Israeli Government Press Office, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets former U.S. President Bill Clinton, on November 8, 2010 in New York City. | Getty
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W O VAUGHT WAS CLINTON’S PASTOR
DESPITE HIS CONTINUED efforts to get me out of office, it was impossible to dislike Bill Clinton personally. Even in the toughest encounters, he maintained an even keel and a glint in his eye that disarmed you. A natural and gifted politician, he was less guided by ideology than by the desire to solve problems by finding a middle ground. It was this search for the center that had guided his economic and social policies when he passed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in December 1993 and the sweeping welfare reforms that put him at odds with the left wing of the Democratic Party. In my conversations with him I was impressed by his mastery of these and other economic issues. He was also naturally sympathetic to Israel. In his speech to the Knesset in 1994, he recalled the words of his ailing pastor who accompanied him on his first trip to Israel. “If you abandon Israel, God will never forgive you.” However, in his eyes and those of his staff this often meant “saving Israel from itself,” since time and again Israeli voters apparently didn’t know what was good for them. (This prompted one of my colleagues to wryly comment, “After all, what do we know? We just live here.”) And if saving Israel required intervening in Israel’s electoral campaign, so be it. Clinton twice sent his personal political advisors to help Peres and Barak in the Israeli elections against me, openly admitting the first effort to me when it failed and openly celebrating the second when it succeeded. The irony was that I was falsely accused of interfering in the US elections by the very people who intervened in mine. Clinton was genuinely smitten with Rabin, whom he looked up to. His oration at Rabin’s funeral and his words “Shalom, chaver” (“Farewell, friend”) were genuinely moving.
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT CLINTON TO THE ISRAELI KNESSET The Knesset Jerusalem, Israel October 27, 1994
9:25 p.m. (L)
PRESIDENT CLINTON: Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Netanyahu, ladies and gentlemen of the Knesset: Let me begin by thanking the Prime Minister and the people of Israel for welcoming me to your wonderful country, and thanking all of you for giving me the opportunity to address this great democratic body where, clearly, people of all different views are welcome to express their convictions. I feel right at home. (Laughter and applause.)
Yesterday Israel took a great stride toward fulfilling the ancient dream of the Jewish people — the patriarch’s dream of a strong and plentiful people living freely in their own land, enjoying the fruits of peace with their neighbors. Nearly 17 years after President Sadat came to this chamber to seek peace, and Prime Minister Begin reached out in reconciliation. And just over a year after Israel and the PLO declared a pathway to peace on the South Lawn of the White House, Israel and Jordan have now written a new chapter.
Tonight we praise the courage of the leaders who have given life to this treaty, Prime Minister Rabin and Foreign Minister Peres. They have shown the vision and the tenacity of other leaders of Israel’s past whose names will be remembered always for their devotion to your cause and your people — Ben Gurion, Maier, Begin.
In your life, Prime Minister, we see the life of your country. As a youth, you wished to fulfill the commandment to farm the land of Israel, but instead you had to answer the call to defend the people of Israel. You have devoted your life to cultivating strength so that others could till the soil in safety. You have fought many battles and won many victories in war. Now, in strength, you are fighting and winning battles for peace. Indeed, you have shown your people that they can free themselves from siege; that for the first time, they can make real a peace for the generations.
For the American people, too, this peace is a blessing. For decades, as Israel has struggled to survive, we have rejoiced in your triumphs and shared in your agonies. In the years since Israel was founded, Americans of every faith have admired and supported you. Like your country, ours is a land that welcomes exiles — a nation of hope; a nation of refuge. From the Orient and Europe, and now from the former Soviet Union, your people have come, Ashkenazim and Sephardim, Yemenites and Ethiopians — all of you committed to living free, to building a common home.
One of nearly four of the citizens of this country is an Arab, something very few people know beyond your borders. Even without the blessings of secure borders, you have secured from your own people the blessings of democracy. With all of its turmoil and debate, it is still the best of all systems.
In times of war and times of peace, every President of the United States since Harry Truman, and every Congress has understood the importance of Israel. The survival of Israel is important not only to our interests, but to every single value we hold dear as a people. Our role in war has been to help you defend yourself by yourself. That is what you have asked. Now that you are taking risks for peace, our role is to help you minimize the risks of peace.
I am committed to working with our Congress to maintain the current levels of military and economic assistance. We have taken concrete steps to strengthen Israel’s qualitative edge. The U.S.-Israel Science and Technology Commission unprecedented Israeli access to the U.S. high-technology market, and acquisition of advanced computers — all these keep Israel in the forefront of global advances and competitive and global markets.
I have also taken steps to enhance Israel’s military and your capacity to address possible threats not only to yourselves, but to the region. F-15 aircraft are being provided, and F-16s transferred out of U.S. stocks. We work closely with you to develop the Arrow missile, to protect against the threat of ballistic missiles.
As we help to overcome the risks of peace, we also are helping to build a peace that will bring with it the safety and security Israel deserves. That peace must be real, based on treaty commitments arrived at directly by the parties, not imposed from outside. It must be secure. Israel must always be able to defend itself by itself. And it must be comprehensive. We have worked hard to end the Arab boycott, and we’ve had some success. But we will not stop until it is completely lifted. (Applause.)
There is a treaty with Jordan and an agreement with the PLO. But we must keep going until Syria and Lebanon close the circle of states entering into peace, and the other nations of the Arab world normalize their relations with Israel.
This morning in Damascus I discussed peace with President Assad. He repeated at our press conference what he had earlier said to his own Parliament, Syria has made a strategic choice for peace with Israel. He also explained that Syria is ready to commit itself to the requirements of peace through the establishment of normal peaceful relations with Israel. His hope, as he articulated it, is to transform the region from a state of war to a state of peace that enables both Arabs and Israelis to live in security, stability and prosperity.
We have been urging President Assad to speak to you in a language of peace that you can understand. Today he began to do so. Of course, it would take more than words — much more than words. Yet I believe something is changing in Syria. Its leaders understand that it is time to make peace. There will still be a good deal of hard bargaining before a breakthrough, but they are serious about proceeding.
Just as we have worked with you from Camp David to Wadi Araba to bring peace with security to your people, so, too, we will walk with you on the road to Damascus for peace with security.
There are those who see peace still as all too distant. Surely, they include the families of those burned in the rubble of the community center in Buenos Aires; those in the basement of New York’s World Trade Center; the loved ones of the passengers on bus No. 5; and of course, two people who, as been noted, are in the chamber with us tonight — and we honor their parents — the parents of Corporal Nachsan Waxman, a son of your nation and, I proudly say, a citizen of ours. (Applause.)
We grieve with the families of those who are lost and with all the people of Israel. So long as Jews are murdered just because they are Jews, or just because they are citizens of Israel the plaque of anti-Semitism lives, and we must stand against it. We must stand against terror as strongly as we stand for peace, for without an end to terror there can be no peace.
The forces of terror and extremism still threaten us all. Sometimes they pretend to act in the name of God and country. But their deeds violate their own religious faith and make a mockery of any notion of honorable patriotism.
As I said last night to the Parliament in Jordan, we respect Islam. Millions of Americans citizens every day answer the Moslem call to prayer. But we know that the real fight is not about religion or culture. It is about a worldwide conflict between those who believe in peace and those who believe in terror; those who believe in hope and those who believe in fear.
Those who stoke the fires of violence and seek to destroy the peace, make no mistake about it, have one great goal. Their goal is to make the people of Israel, who have defeated all odds on the field of battle, to give up inside on the peace by giving into the doubts that terror brings to every one of us. But having come so far, you cannot give up or give in. Your future must lie in the words of a survivor of the carnage of Bus No. 5 who said, I want the peace process to continue; I want to live in peace; I want my children to live in peace.
So let us say to the merchants of terror once again, you cannot succeed; you must not succeed; you will not succeed. You are the past, not the future; the peacemakers are the future. (Applause.)
I say to you, my friends, in spite of all the dangers and difficulties that still surround you, the circle of your enemies is shrinking. Their time has passed. Their increasing isolation is reflected in the desperation of their disgusting deeds.
Once in this area, you were shunned. Now, more and more, you are embraced. As you share the waters of the River Jordan and work with your neighbors, new crops will emerge where the soil is now barren. As you join together to mine the Dead Sea for its minerals, you will bring prosperity to all your people. As you roll up the barbed wire and cross the desert of Araba, the sands will yield new life to you. As you dock in each other’s ports along the Gulf of Aqaba, more and more people will have the chance to experience give wonders of both your lands, and more and more children will share the joys of youth, not the dread of war.
This is the great promise of peace. It is the promise of making sure that all those who have sacrificed their lives did not die in vain; the promise of a Sabbath afternoon, not violated by gunfight; a drive across the plains to the mountains of Moab where Moses died and Ruth was born; A Yom Kippur of pure prayer without the rumble of tanks, voices of fear or rumors of war. After all the bloodshed and all your tears, you are now far closer to the day when the clash of arms is heard no more and all the children of Abraham, the children of Isaac, the children of Israel will live side by side in peace. (Applause.)
This was, after all, the message the prophet Mohammed himself brought to peoples of other faiths when he said, “There is no argument between us and you. God will bring us together, and unto Him is the homecoming.” And this was the message Moses spoke to the children of Israel when, for the last time, he spoke to them as they gathered across the River Jordan into the Promised Land when he said, “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.”
This week, once again, the people of Israel made a homecoming. Once again, you choose life. Once again, America was proud to walk with you.
The Prime Minister mentioned a story in his remarks that he never asked me about. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if it weren’t true? (Laughter.) The truth is that the only time my wife and I ever came to Israel before today was 13 years ago with my pastor on a religious mission. I was then out of office. I was the youngest former governor in the history of the United States. (Laughter.) No one thought I would ever be here — perhaps my mother; no one else. (Laughter.)
We visited the holy sites. I relived the history of the Bible, of your Scriptures and mine. And I formed a bond with my pastor. Later, when he became desperately ill, he said I thought I might one day become President. And he said, more bluntly than the Prime Minister did, “If you abandon Israel, God will never forgive you.” (Applause.) He said it is God’s will that Israel, the biblical home of the people of Israel, continue forever and ever. (Applause.)
So I say to you tonight, my friends, one of our Presidents, John Kennedy, reminded us that here on Earth, God’s will must truly be our own. It is for us to make the homecoming; for us to chose life; for us to work for peace. But until we achieve a comprehensive peace in the Middle East and then after we achieve comprehensive peace in the Middle East, know this — your journey is our journey, and America will stand with you now and always.
Thank you and God bless you. (Applause.)
Pres. Clinton’s Address to the thirteenth Knesset in Jerusalem (1994)
Those at U.S. colleges are blaming Israel and supporting Hamas over the latest attacks. While alumni are appalled, their money is often fueling such outrages by expanding campus DEI bureaucracies. Pictured: Cal State Long Beach students hold a campus rally in support of Palestinians after Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel Oct. 7. Long Beach, California, Oct. 10, 2023. (Photo: Luis Sinco, Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)
Israel, America’s great ally, faced the darkest day in its history Saturday. There is simply no moral justification for Hamas’ terror. The only normal response is to condemn such violence.
Yet, on college campuses across this country, administrators, faculty, and student activists took turns blaming Israel and expressing enthusiastic support for Hamas. And while alumni have been shocked and appalled at these spectacles, it’s often their money that’s fueling such outrages by expanding “diversity, equity, and inclusion” bureaucracies.
One of the fastest-growing budget items at universities today is the explosion of diversity, equity, and inclusion staff. These DEI staff are supposedly there to foster an environment where all ethnic groups and nationalities will feel respected. What better time for a DEI office to voice unqualified support for Jewish students than in the face of Hamas’ war crimes?
Except DEI bureaucracies are hotbeds of antisemitism. Heritage scholar Jay Greene looked at tweets by DEI staff at colleges and universities and found that they “pay a disproportionately high amount of attention to Israel and nearly always attack Israel.” (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news and commentary outlet.)
In fact, 96% of their tweets or retweets about Israelwere critical of the Jewish state. In contrast, 62% of their tweets about China (which is currently carrying out a genocide against its minority Uyghur Muslim population) were positive.
In other words, instead of fighting antisemitism on campuses to make them more “inclusive,” DEI staff are fueling hostility toward Jews. And now, we’re seeing the results.
Harvard University’s DEI mission statement says it “establishes a profound sense of belonging for each member of our community.” Yet this week, 33 student groups cosigned a letter that “holds the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
As the nightmarish images of innocent Israelis being murdered, tortured, and kidnapped populated the news and social media, Harvard took days to utter a response to their campus activists. How many Jewish students at Harvard could possibly feel a sense of belonging on that campus?
At Yale University, Associate Professor of American Studies Zareena Grewal has taken to X (formerly Twitter) in support of Hamas. With over a thousand Israelis dead, including butchered infants, Grewal praised Hamas’ treatment of Israeli captives: “Today, Palestinian freedom fighters showed their humanity in their treatment of Israeli settlers, compared to the brutal actions of the Israeli occupying forces towards Palestinian women and children.”
Yale has been rife with violations of free speech on its campus recently, including the disruption of Alliance Defending Freedom’s Kristen Waggoner. But it chose to defend Grewal’s freedom of expression. How are “diversity” and “inclusion” served by silencing conservatives while letting a faculty member celebrate the murder of over a thousand Jews?
At Stanford, an instructor of a “Civil, Liberal, and Global Education” course used the Hamas attack to teach Jews a lesson. The instructor demanded Jewish students move themselves into the corner of the classroom, telling them “This is what Israel does to the Palestinians.” Then the instructor said that while 6 million Jewish people were murdered in the Holocaust, “colonizers killed more than 6 million. Israel is a colonizer.”
According to Stanford’s DEI website, “A diverse and inclusive community offers different perspectives, experiences, and cultures that enrich the educational experience.” Do Stanford’s DEI officers have nothing to say about this outrage?
Examples like this are popping up all over the place. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
University of Florida President Ben Sasse offered an unequivocal letter of support to the school’s Jewish community and a stern warning against campus activists supporting Hamas’ terror. Sasse wrote, “I also want to be clear about this: We will protect our Jewish students from violence. … If anti-Israel protests come, we will absolutely be ready to act if anyone dares to escalate beyond peaceful protest. Speech is protected—violence and vandalism are not.”
What a bold and rational stance. But why is this so rare? As universities and colleges pain themselves to appear as havens of diversity and inclusion, Sasse’s cogent statement should be the status quo.
Of course, free speech should be protected on college campuses. And there’s nothing wrong with a university aspiring to create an environment where all students, no matter their culture or ethnicity, can feel welcome.
But what good is a (very expensive) army of DEI officers if campus activists feel empowered to celebrate the deadliest day of violence against Jews since the Holocaust?
Soon, you may get a letter in the mail from your alma mater asking for money to help it cover the cost of an ever-expanding DEI bureaucracy. And you might feel a sense of obligation to an institution that helped shape your life.
But before writing that check, call the DEI office and ask about the status of pro-Hamas activism on campus.
This year, your answer just might be “no.”
Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email letters@DailySignal.com, and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.
This post is a continuation of our Top Ten Biblical Discoveries in Archaeology series. To see the complete series please click here.
1967
1967 was an active year. The Doors kicked off the year releasing their self-entitled debut album. The United States was fully involved in the Vietnam War. The Green Bay Packers won their third consecutive championship against the Dallas Cowboys in the frozen “Ice Bowl.” In 1967 NASA had a lunar orbiter circling the moon taking photos of the surface looking for the best place to take that famous, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
In the Middle East, June 5th through the 10th of 1967 has become known as the Six Day War. It was a war between Israel and the neighboring countries of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The Arab countries of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria additionally sent troops to the war. At the war’s end, Israel had gained control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The results of the war affect the geopolitics of the region to this day.
For the first time in centuries Jerusalem was again a unified city. To commemorate the new unification of Jerusalem a forest was planted. The Jerusalem Peace Forest links the city’s eastern and western parts. The forest’s name symbolizes the hope for peace and brotherhood among the united city’s residents.
The Jerusalem Peace Forest, which was planted at the edge of the desert, offers its visitors a unique spectacle created by the natural contrast of green trees surrounded by a barren landscape. Unknown to those in 1967 a marvelous archaeological discovery just happened to lay underneath the Jerusalem Peace Forest. The discovery we will focus on today would never have happened without the six day war in 1967. The discovery would have never happened without the creation of the Peace Forest.
Uneventful Construction Project Turned Eventful
Many archaeological discoveries in Israel come from pure chance. The discovery we are focusing on today is no exception. In December, 1990, a new park was being constructed within the Peace Forest. As the workers, using modern construction equipment, dug down they soon picked up their telephones. A long forgotten ceiling collapsed revealing a room deep in the earth.
The construction superintendent knew he had stumbled upon something ancient. The construction workers suspected they may have found an ancient burial tomb. The park project would be put on hold until the ancient room could be inspected. Israelis, like most cultures, put a priority on honoring the graves of their ancestors. It would be dishonoring for a large modern-day excavator to press on and brashly dig up human bones.
The construction superintendent contacted the Israeli Antiquities Authority. Zvi Greenhut arrived on the scene to see what the construction workers stumbled upon.
Burial Chamber Discovered
Greenhut writes, “When I arrived at the site, I found a rock-hewn loculi burial cave, the type of tomb that is typical of the Second Temple period in Jerusalem. The cave is located in an area in which scores of other such tombs have been discovered, all part of the Jerusalem necropolis which stretches southward as far as the vicinity of the Arab village of Sur Bahir.
The limestone bedrock into which the cave is hewn is soft and crumbly and full of cracks, very characteristic of the area. The cave has an irregular floor plan, and its entrance is on the east side. We reached the entrance from within the burial chamber, entering the tomb through what had been the roof.”
What a great sight. They get into the hole dug by the construction equipment. Then they see the secondary hole from the collapsed ceiling. They lower themselves through the ancient ceiling and quickly recognize they’re in a burial tomb from the period of the Second Temple.
The Ossuary
The archaeologists have just stepped back in time more than 2,000 years. As the flashlights sweep the tomb several ossuaries are found. An ossuary is a surprisingly small burial box. When looking at an ossuary you think there’s no chance a body could fit inside the box. That’s not the point. The ossuary is only used to store the bones after the body has decomposed.
An ancient burial chamber would include an area where the most recent death in the family lies on a chiseled-out rock bench. A family member would come into the chamber about a year after their death, take the bones, and place them in an ossuary in order to make room on the bench for the next deceased family member.
Zvi Greenhut discovers an exceptionally fancy ossuary. The ossuary is dated to the first century. It measures 37 centimeters high (14.6 inches) and 75 centimeters long (29.6 inches). The ossuary is covered with an ornate design which would seem to point toward an important person. The contents of the ossuary are studied and found to contain the remains of several people. This is not unusual. A family would place as many deceased relatives as possible into one ossuary.
Inside this ornate ossuary are found the bones of two babies, an adolescent child, a teenage boy, an adult woman, and a man about 60 years of age. The ossuary is an interesting chance discovery but not something to rock the archaeological world.
On the outside of the ossuary is found an inscription in Aramaic dramatically increasing the value of the ossuary and importance of this piece to the world of archaeology. In Aramaic the inscription reads, “Joseph son of Caiaphas.” Another ossuary, additionally, is found in the tomb containing an inscription reading simply, “Caiaphas.” The first ossuary draws the most attention.
The name Caiaphas is found in the New Testament. Cool, we found someone sharing the same name as someone from the Bible. The excitement from this discovery came from the big question, “Is this ‘the’ Caiaphas from the Bible?”
The New Testament describes Caiaphas as one of the primary individuals involved in the crucifixion of Jesus. Matthew, Luke and John each identify Caiaphas as the high priest that presided over the arrest and trial of Jesus. Being the high priest made him second in power only to the Roman governor. Jewish law did not allow the high priest to sentence people to death. The Bible explains Caiaphas worked with the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, to carry out a death sentence on Jesus. You may be thinking, “Wait a second. The inscription says Joseph son of Caiaphas. Not just Caiaphas.” That’s what I originally thought too. The way the inscription is written is actually why it drew so much attention.
The first-century historian Josephus helps piece together the significance of the discovery. He identifies the high priest at the time of Jesus as not only Caiaphas but “Joseph Caiaphas.” Josephus tells us additionally Caiaphas was the Jewish high priest from 18 to 36 AD (Jewish Antiquities 18:35). A source outside the Bible helps us to establish the right name at the right time. Josephus later refers to him as “Joseph who was called Caiaphas of the high priesthood” (Jewish Antiquities 18:95).
Significance of the Ossuary
The discovery in 1990 brought excitement to the world of archaeology. The 60 year old man found in the ossuary is determined by Greenhut and others to be the high priest involved in the crucifixion of Jesus. The discovery is significant for really only one reason.
For the past 2,000 years Christians have viewed the crucifixion of Jesus (and subsequent resurrection) as the most important event of all human history. My objective in this series is not to make a reasoned case for the importance of the crucifixion. If you do not hold to the belief that Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, paid for the sins of humankind on the cross then you will not find any significant value in the Caiaphas Ossuary. If you do believe in the crucifixion as the most important event of human history then the Caiaphas Ossuary holds substantial significance. The Caiaphas Ossuary shows to us the bones of a 60 year old man who 2,000 years ago led the charge to put Jesus on the cross. The ossuary strengthens the historical reliability of the cross by supporting the existence of one of its central characters.
What do you think? Do you find the Caiaphas Ossuary to be a significant discovery in archaeology? Join the conversation by commenting on the post. In the next post we head to Jerusalem to get our feet wet.
The Bible and Archaeology – Is the Bible from God? (Kyle Butt 42 min)
I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times Blog on many issues such as abortion, human rights, welfare, poverty, gun control and issues dealing with popular culture. Here is another exchange I had with them a while back. My username at the Ark Times Blog is Saline […]
I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry King’s Show. One of two most popular posts I […]
I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry King’s Show. One of two most popular posts I […]
Prophecy–The Biblical Prophesy About Tyre.mp4 Uploaded by TruthIsLife7 on Dec 5, 2010 A short summary of the prophecy about Tyre and it’s precise fulfillment. Go to this link and watch the whole series for the amazing fulfillment from secular sources. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvt4mDZUefo ________________ John MacArthur on the amazing fulfilled prophecy on Tyre and how it was fulfilled […]
John MacArthur on the Bible and Science (Part 2) I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry […]
John MacArthur on the Bible and Science (Part 1) I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry […]
Adrian Rogers – How you can be certain the Bible is the word of God Great article by Adrian Rogers. What evidence is there that the Bible is in fact God’s Word? I want to give you five reasons to affirm the Bible is the Word of God. First, I believe the Bible is the […]
Is there any evidence the Bible is true? Articles By PleaseConvinceMe Apologetics Radio The Old Testament is Filled with Fulfilled Prophecy Jim Wallace A Simple Litmus Test There are many ways to verify the reliability of scripture from both internal evidences of transmission and agreement, to external confirmation through archeology and science. But perhaps the […]
I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times Blog on many issues such as abortion, human rights, welfare, poverty, gun control and issues dealing with popular culture. Here is another exchange I had with them a while back. My username at the Ark Times Blog is […]
Here is some very convincing evidence that points to the view that the Bible is historically accurate. Archaeological and External Evidence for the Bible Archeology consistently confirms the Bible! Archaeology and the Old Testament Ebla tablets—discovered in 1970s in Northern Syria. Documents written on clay tablets from around 2300 B.C. demonstrate that personal and place […]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with his father, Benzion, during a memorial ceremony for Yoni Netanyahu at Mount Herzl military cemetery, Jerusalem, 2007 (photo credit: Michal Fattal/Flash90)
Yonathan Netanyahu –
Yoni, Bibi and Iddo Netanyahu (Courtesy Netanyahu family)
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in New York, September 25, 2016 (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
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BIBI LOSES HIS TEMPER WITH ALBRIGHT
When the meeting began in a London hotel, Albrightgave me an ultimatum to accept some unacceptable aspect of the negotiations with the Palestinians. “You have two hours to give me an answer,” she told me. “If you don’t, I’ll go down to the press corps in the lobby and tell them who is responsible for blocking peace.” I was furious. “Madam Secretary,” I said, “I don’t need two hours. I don’t need even two minutes. Let’s end this meeting right now and we’ll both go down to the world press. You tell them whatever you want. I’ll tell them that as the prime minister of Israel I will not endanger over three thousand years of the Jewish people’s struggle for a place among the nations by capitulating to conditions that would endanger the one and only Jewish state.” We didn’t go down to the lobby.
President Joe Biden’s nominee as ambassador to Israel is Jack Lew, treasury secretary during the Obama administration, when he was responsible for administering sanctions relief as part of the Iranian nuclear deal. Pictured: Lew, then board chairman for the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, speaks Nov. 9, 2021, during that organization’s gala dinner in New York. (Photo: Wang Ying/Xinhua/Getty Images)
As war rages between Israel and Hamas terrorists, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to hold a confirmation hearing Wednesday for Jack Lew to become the nation’s next ambassador to Israel despite significant baggage, including his support for the nuclear deal with Iran.
As treasury secretary during the Obama administration, Jacob Joseph “Jack” Lew was responsible for administering sanctions relief to Iran as a result of the U.S.-led multilateral Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Under that agreement, Iran temporarily would agree to stop developing nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of U.S. economic sanctions.
Iran is suspected of helping to plan and finance Hamas’s brutal terrorist attacks Saturday on Israel, based largely on a Wall Street Journal report.
President Joe Biden on Sept. 5 nominated Lew as ambassador to Israel, prompting significant opposition a month before Hamas attacked Israel. Lew, an Orthodox Jew, is a veteran of top jobs in both the Clinton and Obama administrations.
Days before Biden’s formal nomination, Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., was among the first to publicly demand that Biden reconsider nominating Lew for the post.
However, under the current circumstances in Israel, Tenney said, the United States must have an ambassador.
“Jack Lew has made controversial remarks that have undermined American and Israeli national security interests,” Tenney told The Daily Signal in a written statement Friday.
“He is not the best choice to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel. However, in this time of crisis, we need an administrator to coordinate U.S. support for Americans and Israelis,” she said. “The United States must reiterate our unwavering support of Israel, and that includes having an ambassador on the ground.”
After the Hamas attack, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Ben Cardin, D-Md., announced that he would move forward with a confirmation hearing for Lew as part of several steps to assist Israel. Other steps, the Maryland Democrat said, include replenishment of the Iron Dome missile defense system and supplemental funding for Israel’s defense.
“Right now, it is as critical as ever that we have a Senate-confirmed ambassador in Israel,” Cardin said Saturday. “That is why I hope my colleagues will join me in promptly confirming Secretary Jacob J. Lew as the new U.S. ambassador to Israel.”
However, during an interview Friday morning on Fox Business, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, expressed reservations about Lew.
“I would say I think we should have an ambassador in every country. It has to be the right person,” Rubio said, adding:
In the case of Mr. Lew, I have real concerns that he has misled and lied to Congress in the past, in terms of some of the financial arrangements that were made under the Obama administration. That is a valid situation. That is something that needs to be asked. The Republicans haven’t been blocking his nomination. He just got nominated. The paperwork on his nomination arrived literally a week ago here in the Senate. It would have been impossible to confirm him or anybody else. We’ll go through those hearings. We’ll go through that process.
In 2015, Rubio, joined by then-Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., asked Lew for information about sanctions relief for Iran proposed by President Barack Obama.
In 2018, a Senate report said Lew and other Obama administration officials misled Congress on the financial resources available to Iran.
“As Israel responds to the greatest loss of life in its history, and the United States responds to one of the deadliest days since 9/11, our interests would be better served by an ambassador that does not represent the policies of appeasement that provided unprecedented funding to the Islamic Republic of [Iran] and its surrogate Hamas,” Robert Greenway, director of the Center for National Defense at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal on Friday. (Heritage is the parent organization of The Daily Signal.)
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Tuesday that Biden is working with both parties in the Senate to secure a swift confirmation for Lew.
“The Senate is coming back into session next week,” Sullivan said. “Second, when they do, we are going to work with both Democrats and Republicans—and particularly the leaders on both sides and the chair and ranking [member of] the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—to make that happen as soon as humanly possible and then get [Lew] out to the region immediately thereafter.”
Here are six things to know about Lew’s background.
1. Iranian Nuclear Deal
During a 2015 visit to Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress urging opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran.
Pro-Israel groups, and most conservatives and Republican election officials opposed the Iranian nuclear deal, arguing that it wouldn’t stop the development of nuclear bomb, only slow it down, and that sanctions relief took the pressure off the ruling Islamist regime. Opponents also noted that the agreement didn’t allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit certain facilities without permission.
In 2017, during an event at Columbia University in New York, Lew criticized Netanyahu’s opposition to this so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as “provocative.”
“I mean I saw as much provocation coming from the prime minister. … I saw more provocation coming in than I saw going out,” Lew said at Columbia of Netanyahu’s earlier 2017 address to Congress.
After the Obama administration ended in January 2017, Lew became managing partner of Lindsay Goldberg LLC, a private equity firm in New York, and a visiting professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University. He is also co-president of the board of the National Library of Israel USA.
“I think that was a huge mistake for Israel,” Lew said during the Columbia speech. “A, it wasn’t going to work; B, it contributed to a trend of Israel identifying on a partisan basis when for most of 70 years there was no question that both parties [Republicans and Democrats] could be pro-Israel,” Lew said.
In a June 2015 speech at The Jerusalem Post’s Annual Conference in New York, Lew, then treasury secretary, attempted to sell the nuclear deal with Iran that was being touted by Obama at the time.
“At the same time, as the framework lays out, the final deal will be built around an incredibly robust and intrusive inspections regime on Iran’s nuclear program,” Lew said in those remarks.
He added: “We will be inspecting and monitoring Iran’s nuclear sites and, importantly, supply chains. Uranium mines, uranium mills, centrifuge production sites, assembly and storage facilities, the purchase of sensitive equipment—all will be under penetrating surveillance.”
Lew’s 2015 speech at The Jerusalem Post’s event was misleading on multiple fronts, New York City lawyer Eric R. Levine wrote last month in an op-ed distributed by Jewish News Syndicate, an Israeli business.
“Unfortunately, Lew failed to tell his audience that Iran’s military sites were totally off-limits to inspections,” Levine wrote. “It did not take much imagination to figure out where Iran would develop its nuclear program.”
Lew also told the 2015 Jerusalem Post gathering that the Iranian nuclear deal “will have blocked all four of Iran’s pathways to develop a nuclear weapon.”
Levine wrote: “As we now know, the JCPOA did the precise opposite. It created a legal path for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.”
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., another member of the Foreign Relations Committee, wrote this week on X, formerly Twitter, that Lew has a lot of questions to answer.
2. What a Senate Investigation Found
In July 2015, Lew appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the same panel that will hold his confirmation hearing Wednesday.
“Iranian banks will not be able to clear U.S. dollars through New York, hold correspondent account relationships with U.S. financial institutions, or enter into financing arrangements with U.S. banks,” Lew testified about what the nuclear deal would mean.
However, more information came to light after both Obama and Lew left office in January 2017.
By February 2016, the Treasury Department had “granted a specific license that authorized a conversion of Iranian assets worth billions of U.S. dollars using the U.S. financial system,” according to a 2018 report by the investigative subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
This Senate report said the Obama administration tried to help Iran use U.S. banks to convert $5.7 billion in Iranian assets. It also said the Office of Foreign Assets Control, an appendage of the Treasury Department that regulates U.S. sanctions law, “encouraged two U.S. correspondent banks to convert the funds.”
The investigative subcommittee was led by then-Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
In response to the 2015 letter from Rubio and Kirk, Treasury Department officials told the Republican senators:
“The U.S. Department of Treasury is not working on behalf of Iran to enable Iranian access to U.S. dollars elsewhere in the international financial system, nor are we assisting Iran in gaining access to dollar payment systems outside the U.S. financial system. The [Obama] administration has not been and is not planning to grant Iran access to the U.S. financial system.”
The 2018 Senate report pointed to State Department documents that said the Obama administration conducted “roadshows” across the world to encourage financial institutions to work with Iran.
In June 2018, Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, detailed the Senate report and blasted the Obama administration.
“How bad is this? Remove the words ‘Obama’ and ‘Iran’ and replace them with ‘Trump’ and ‘Russia’ and imagine the outrage that would ensue over the same revelations,” Thiessen wrote in his column. “Democrats would be holding news conferences, and the story would be front-page news.”
“We hear a lot these days from the media about the danger of presidential lies,” he wrote. “Well, when it comes to the Iran deal, the Obama administration took lying to new heights. And no, that’s not Fake News.”
3. Government Resume: ‘No Administration Has Done More for Israel’
Lew, a staffer for then-House Speaker Tip O’Neill in the 1980s, left Capitol Hill to become a lobbyist.
Before he was Obama’s treasury secretary, Lew was his White House chief of staff. Prior to that, he was director of the executive branch’s Office of Management and Budget, a role he also held during the administration of President Bill Clinton, another Democrat.
Lew’s first post in the Obama administration was deputy secretary of state for management and resources at the State Department.
During the 2015 speech promoting the Iranian nuclear deal at The Jerusalem Post event, he asserted: “No administration has done more for Israel’s security than this one.”
But that was hardly the case with the Obama administration, wrote Morton A. Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, in an op-ed that appeared in The Jerusalem Post in late August amid reports that Biden would nominate Lew as ambassador to Israel. Klein opposed this possibility.
That’s not exactly the truth of an Obama administration that was about to enrich the extremist, antisemitic, terrorist Iranian mullahs with $150 billion of sanctions relief; repeatedly called for Israel to retreat to the suicidal pre-1967 lines with hypothetical small swaps; sent huge annual sums to the Palestinian Authority—thereby helping to enable the PA’s ‘pay to slay’ payments to Palestinian and Israeli Arabs to murder Jews; sent Egypt $1 billion of the latest weaponry during the frightening one-year period when the Muslim Brotherhood was in charge; repeatedly castigated Jews for building a few apartments in the Jewish homeland; and much more.
Klein went on to refer to nearly $2 billion flown to Iran in early 2016 by the Obama administration and wanted to know what Lew knows.
“For instance,” he wrote, “how was Lew—who was treasury secretary at the time—involved in Obama sending planeloads with $1.7 billion of cash to Iran?”
Klein was referring to Obama’s decision to order planes carrying Swiss francs, euros, and other currencies to Iran.
4. Pro-China Association
The Biden White House, in announcing his nomination, boasted that Lew “currently chairs the board of the National Committee on United States-China Relations.”
The U.S.-China committee is a New York-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that professes to encourage understanding and cooperation between the United States and “Greater China” to serve vital American and world interests.
The organization has assets of more than $16 million, according to the Capital Research Center, which monitors nonprofits.
“The manner in which America and China conduct their security, economic, and political relationships in the coming years will have a profound impact on the policy dynamics of the entire global community,” Lew said in a statement on the National Committee website.
“By educating leaders and creating opportunities for dialogue, the National Committee will play an important role in helping the two countries navigate this critical period in their relationship,” he said.
5. Big NYU Payments
After serving in the Clinton administration as director of the Office of Management and Budget, Lew went to work as executive vice president and chief operating officer for New York University. He was also a professor of public administration there.
Shortly before Lew joined the Obama administration, NYU paid him $685,000 in a severance package, The New York Times reported. The university also provided Lew with a $1.5 million mortgage loan and forgave about one-third of that loan.
In a written response in 2013 to the Senate Finance Committee, which was considering his nomination for treasury secretary, Lew said of the NYU loan: “In addition to my salary, I received housing assistance, tuition remission, and a one-time severance payment upon my departure.”
He added: “I do not recall the interest rate or other specific terms.”
6. Citigroup Payouts
Lew left New York University for Citigroup, where he helped negotiate a $2 million settlement deal with then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat.
The state of New York was investigating Citigroup because of its designation of NYU as a preferred lender for students.
The New York Attorney General’s Office alleged that Citigroup paid kickbacks to NYU so that the university would steer students in Citigroup’s direction. The kickbacks allegedly were paid while Lew was in a senior position at the university, but weren’t tied to him directly.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, asked about the Citigroup arrangement during Lew’s 2013 confirmation hearing for the post of treasury secretary for the Obama administration. Lew responded that he didn’t recall details.
“I do not recall having any conversations with Citigroup officials regarding Citigroup’s selection or actions as a preferred lender for NYU students,” Lew told Grassley. He added: “Also, I do not believe that I approved the selection of Citigroup as a preferred lender for NYU students.”
In January 2009, three months after the federal bank bailout in response to the 2008 recession, Citigroup gave Lew a bonus of $944,518.
Lew earned a combined $2.65 million in 2007 and 2008 for his work at Citigroup, Reuters reported.
Ken McIntyre contributed to this report.
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This post is a continuation of our Top Ten Biblical Discoveries in Archaeology series. To see the complete series please click here.
Setting the Stage
In 1846 archaeologist Henry Layard led a dig of a site in modern day Iraq named Kalhu. Layard, who also discovered #10 on our list, was fast becoming one of the world’s leading experts on the ancient Assyrians. Kalhu was once the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire. Assyria was the leading world-power for a few hundred years (roughly 900-650BC). Many of the people and events in the Old Testament took place during this time of history.
Kalhu, also known as Nimrud, is located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. The city covered an area of around 16 square miles. The ruins of the city are located only 19 miles southeast of current-day Mosul.
Layard discovered something in Kalhu shocking the archaeological world. Kalhu’s discovery centered on an Assyrian king named Shalmaneser III. You’ve probably never heard of King Shalmaneser III. He ruled Assyria from 859-824 BC. His long reign of 35 years consisted of constant military campaigns against eastern tribes such as the Babylonians, the nations Mesopotamia, Syria, etc…
Things are getting Interesting
In 853BC a coalition was formed to try to kick Shalmaneser’s buttocks. The coalition consisted of some leading kingdoms of the time. The Kurkh Monolith, which is an amazing archaeological discovery in its own right, explains the coalition fighting against Shalmaneser. The Kurkh Monolith lists the coalition as the kingdoms of Egypt, Hamath, Arvand, the Ammonites, “Ahab of Israel” and other neighboring states, under the leadership of king Hadadezer of Damascus. The coalition in 853BC defeats Shalmaneser at the Battle of Qarqar.Shalmaneser loses the battle but is determined to win the overall war.
Ahab and Jezebel
Did you catch one of those coalition names? Yes, I’m talking about, “Ahab of Israel.” Ahab and Jezebel are the Bonnie and Clyde of the Old Testament. No married couple did more to lead people away from God than Jezebel and Ahab. Their pathetic exploits take up a surprisingly large portion of the Old Testament. 1 Kings 16 through 2 Kings 10 describe their lives.
God raises up several people to prophecy against and destroy the evil works of Ahab and Jezebel. One of the greatest prophets in the Bible, Elijah, spends his entire prophetic career speaking against Ahab and Jezebel. The Kurkh Monolith confirms the reign of Ahab and also his coalition with the Syrian king Hadadezer of Damascus.
Enter Jehu on the Scene
God raises up a man who would absolutely destroy the royal line of Ahab. In 2 Kings 9 Jehu is anointed the new king of Israel. God then uses Jehu to destroy the evil kings of Israel and Judah. Jehu drives his chariot to a city named Jezreel. 2 Kings 9:30 takes it from here, “When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. And she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window. And as Jehu entered the gate, she said, “Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?” And he lifted up his face to the window and said, “Who is on my side? Who? “Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. He said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down. And some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled on her.”
Yes, I admit, the previous verse paints a grotesque scene. If you feel any sympathy for Jezebel you have wasted your sympathy. She was evil to the core. If you read the accounts in 1 and 2 Kings you will see what I mean. She makes people like Osama Bin Laden look like members of the junior varsity team of evil leadership.
The Discovery
As Henry Layard’s team, in 1846, excavated the sandy world of Kahu they encountered a large black object taking them quickly back to the time of Shalmaneser III, Ahab and Jehu. The large black object is known as an obelisk. The word obelisk simply refers to the shape of the object. 21st century Americans are most familiar with a white obelisk known as the Washington monument. This black obelisk is not as big as the Washington monument, it’s only 6 feet tall, but for an archaeological find in the middle of a desert…a black carved object 6 feet tall is a substantial discovery.
We know the obelisk was erected as a public monument in 825 BC at a time of civil war. The relief sculptures surrounding all sides of the obelisk glorify the military achievements of King Shalmaneser III and his chief minister. The king thought the obelisk would help inspire the people toward greater national patriotism and unity thereby helping to end the civil war. The Obelisk lists military campaigns of thirty-one years and the tribute they exacted from their neighbours: including camels, monkeys, an elephant and a rhinoceros. Assyrian kings often collected exotic animals and plants as an expression of their power.
The obelisk contains five different scenes on five different rows. Each row depicts the tribute of a foreign king. A tribute would usually entail a foreign king coming before Shalmaneser and bowing down before him showing Shalmaneser to be the ultimate king of his land.
Guess what? The second row of pictures on the Obelisk depicts the tribute of one particular king whom we know. When the ancient Assyrian Cuneiform inscription was translated the biblical world was shocked. The inscription reads, “The tribute of Jehu, son of Omri: I received from him silver, gold, a golden bowl, a golden vase with pointed bottom, golden tumblers, golden buckets, tin, a staff for a king [and] spears.”
Significance
This is the ONLY, to my knowledge,contemporaryartistic depiction of anyone mentioned in the Bible. What do I mean by contemporary? This is the only artistic depiction of someone in the Bible done by a person who actually lived during the same time. The Obelisk you see before you was created while Jehu was still the king sitting on his throne in Israel. The people knew what Jehu looked like. History outside of the Bible tells us Jehu and Shalmaneser were kings at the same time. When the Obelisk was created Jehu still had 10 years left of his reign in Israel.
The black obelisk fully supports every detail of the Bible. It makes perfect sense for Jehu to be paying tribute to Shalmaneser. Here are some reasons:
Jehu was the mortal enemy of Ahab. Who was one of Ahab’s allies? Hadadezer the king of Damascus. It would be natural for the king of Damascus to hate Jehu. A man named Hazael assassinated Hadadezer and became the new king of Damascus. We learn from 2 Kings 10:32, “In those days the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel. Hazael defeated them throughout the territory of Israel.” Jehu was being routed by Hazael, he needed some help to try to keep the country alive.
You may be thinking, “Why in the world would a king of Israel, especially someone like Jehu who was being used by God in powerful ways, ever pay tribute to the King of Assyria?” Why didn’t Jehu just pray to God and allow God to rescue him from Hazael? We learn from 2 Kings 10:31, “But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin.” Jehu had some amazing moments being zealous for God, but had other times in his reign when he wasn’t walking with God. It would make perfect sense for Jehu, instead of praying, to be looking for the Assyrian King to rescue him from King Hazael.
Don’t forget the coalition defeating Shalmaneser at the battle of Qarqar in 853BC. Shalmaneser would have never forgotten that battle. Two of the people in that coalition: the king of Damascus and Ahab. Jehu and Shalmaneser shared common enemies. It would be natural for Shalmaneser and Jehu to join forces.
The black obelisk depicting Jehu’s tribute to Shalmaneser is such an amazing archaeological discovery. We are brought right into the time frame of the 9th century BC. The discovery provides such rich evidence for the accuracy of many events mentioned in 1st and 2nd Kings. The cherry on the top from the discovery is being able to see the real life depiction of one of the important kings of Israel.
As we continue down our Top Ten list the significance of our discoveries continue to grow. What do you think of the discovery? Feel free to join the conversation by commenting on this discovery.
The Bible and Archaeology – Is the Bible from God? (Kyle Butt 42 min)
I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times Blog on many issues such as abortion, human rights, welfare, poverty, gun control and issues dealing with popular culture. Here is another exchange I had with them a while back. My username at the Ark Times Blog is Saline […]
I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry King’s Show. One of two most popular posts I […]
I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry King’s Show. One of two most popular posts I […]
Prophecy–The Biblical Prophesy About Tyre.mp4 Uploaded by TruthIsLife7 on Dec 5, 2010 A short summary of the prophecy about Tyre and it’s precise fulfillment. Go to this link and watch the whole series for the amazing fulfillment from secular sources. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvt4mDZUefo ________________ John MacArthur on the amazing fulfilled prophecy on Tyre and how it was fulfilled […]
John MacArthur on the Bible and Science (Part 2) I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry […]
John MacArthur on the Bible and Science (Part 1) I have posted many of the sermons by John MacArthur. He is a great bible teacher and this sermon below is another great message. His series on the Book of Proverbs was outstanding too. I also have posted several of the visits MacArthur made to Larry […]
Adrian Rogers – How you can be certain the Bible is the word of God Great article by Adrian Rogers. What evidence is there that the Bible is in fact God’s Word? I want to give you five reasons to affirm the Bible is the Word of God. First, I believe the Bible is the […]
Is there any evidence the Bible is true? Articles By PleaseConvinceMe Apologetics Radio The Old Testament is Filled with Fulfilled Prophecy Jim Wallace A Simple Litmus Test There are many ways to verify the reliability of scripture from both internal evidences of transmission and agreement, to external confirmation through archeology and science. But perhaps the […]
I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times Blog on many issues such as abortion, human rights, welfare, poverty, gun control and issues dealing with popular culture. Here is another exchange I had with them a while back. My username at the Ark Times Blog is […]
Here is some very convincing evidence that points to the view that the Bible is historically accurate. Archaeological and External Evidence for the Bible Archeology consistently confirms the Bible! Archaeology and the Old Testament Ebla tablets—discovered in 1970s in Northern Syria. Documents written on clay tablets from around 2300 B.C. demonstrate that personal and place […]
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How accurate is the Old Testament we hold in our hands? It’s popular today to attack the accuracy of the Bible on the grounds of its lack of effective transmission. Popular authors claim the Bible we have today has simply been copied too many times, with too many textual errors, to be believed as the very words of God handed down to us over the millennia.
With all the careful scribal work a shockingly few number of Old Testament ancient manuscripts exist until today. The silver amulet scroll is by far the oldest. The scroll was mentioned as #4 in this top ten series. The amulet scroll dates way back to 600 BC. This is fantastic but it is only a couple verses of the entire Bible. So we can get a feel for the accuracy of those couple verses but not be able to get a good representative sample for the entirety of Scripture.
Codex Aleppo is the oldest entire Old Testament possessed by humanity. The manuscript dates to around 900AD. The priceless manuscript is indeed magnificent. When analyzing the more than 2.7 million writing details that make up the Old Testament, the manuscript appears to be very precise in its creation. Although we have such a beautiful manuscript, the elephant in the room is that this manuscript dates from 900AD. Many New Testament manuscripts are older than our oldest Old Testament manuscript. Most of the Old Testament was written over 1500 years before Codex Aleppo.
The greatest biblically relevant archaeological discovery, made in the winter of 1946-47, would shake up the biblical and archaeological world. John C. Trever has done a good job reconstructing the story of the scrolls from several interviews with the Bedouin people.
The scrolls were first taken to a dealer named Ibrahim ‘ljha in Bethlehem. In one of those famous dumb moments of history ‘ljha returned them saying they were worthless. Undaunted, thankfully, the Bedouin went to a nearby market, where a Syrian Christian offered to buy them. A sheikh joined their conversation and suggested they take the scrolls to a part-time antiques dealer. The Bedouin left one scroll with the dealer and then sold three scrolls to another for the ridiculous sum of $29!
After examining the scrolls and suspecting their astronomical worth, he expressed interest in purchasing them. Four scrolls found their way into his hands. More scrolls continued to arrive on the scene. By the end of 1948, nearly two years after their first discovery, scholars had yet to locate the source of the manuscripts.
Archaeologists were able to track down the origin of the first scrolls and together with the Bedouins ended up finding a total of 972 manuscripts from 11 different caves. All 11 caves are in the southeastern Dead Sea area of Israel. The area receives almost no rainfall making it a perfect climate for ancient manuscripts to last thousands of years without decomposing.
The scrolls, for some insane reason, were put up for sale in the Wall Street Journal on June 1, 1954. They were purchased for $250,000 and brought to Jerusalem where they eventually became housed in a museum called the Shrine of the Book where they reside today when not circulating in museums around the world. The scrolls today are considered priceless. Just to purchase a replica facsimile copy of 3 of the scrolls currently will run you $60,000 (a donation of replica scrolls to Parchment & Pen will not be turned down).
The scrolls are still, after decades, a discovery still being digested. The 972 manuscripts have shed great light on the accuracy and complexity of the Old Testament. The Isaiah Scroll, in comparison to Codex Aleppo and other manuscripts, show that the message of the Old Testament has not been changed over millennia. More articles and books have been written about the Dead Sea Scrolls than any other archaeological discovery with biblical significance. The scrolls are shedding a great deal of light on the Jewish religious world of roughly 200BC-90AD. The scrolls are generally showing the modern-day Old Testament to be an extremely accurate representation of the original writers.
Google has announced a new deal with the Israeli Antiquities Authority to photograph all of the scrolls in order to make high-resolution photos available to anyone online for free. The scrolls continue to amaze and delight us; where we once had only a couple fragments of the ancient Old Testament we now enjoy an abundant library.
1967 was an active year. The Doors kicked off the year releasing their self-entitled debut album. The United States was fully involved in the Vietnam War. The Green Bay Packers won their third consecutive championship against the Dallas Cowboys in the frozen “Ice Bowl.” In 1967 NASA had a lunar orbiter circling the moon taking photos of the surface looking for the best place to take that famous, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
The Jerusalem Peace Forest, which was planted at the edge of the desert, offers its visitors a unique spectacle created by the natural contrast of green trees surrounded by a barren landscape. Unknown to those in 1967 a marvelous archaeological discovery just happened to lay underneath the Jerusalem Peace Forest. The discovery we will focus on today would never have happened without the six day war in 1967. The discovery would have never happened without the creation of the Peace Forest.
The archaeologists have just stepped back in time more than 2,000 years. As the flashlights sweep the tomb several ossuaries are found. An ossuary is a surprisingly small burial box. When looking at an ossuary you think there’s no chance a body could fit inside the box. That’s not the point. The ossuary is only used to store the bones after the body has decomposed.
On the outside of the ossuary is found an inscription in Aramaic dramatically increasing the value of the ossuary and importance of this piece to the world of archaeology. In Aramaic the inscription reads, “Joseph son of Caiaphas.” Another ossuary, additionally, is found in the tomb containing an inscription reading simply, “Caiaphas.” The first ossuary draws the most attention.
In 1846 archaeologist Henry Layard led a dig of a site in modern day Iraq named Kalhu. Layard, who also discovered #10 on our list, was fast becoming one of the world’s leading experts on the ancient Assyrians. Kalhu was once the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire. Assyria was the leading world-power for a few hundred years (roughly 900-650BC). Many of the people and events in the Old Testament took place during this time of history.
You’ve probably never heard of King Shalmaneser III. He ruled Assyria from 859-824 BC. His long reign of 35 years consisted of constant military campaigns against eastern tribes such as the Babylonians, the nations Mesopotamia, Syria, etc…
Shalmaneser loses the battle but is determined to win the overall war.
As Henry Layard’s team, in 1846, excavated the sandy world of Kahu they encountered a large black object taking them quickly back to the time of Shalmaneser III, Ahab and Jehu. The large black object is known as an obelisk. The word obelisk simply refers to the shape of the object. 21st century Americans are most familiar with a white obelisk known as the Washington monument. This black obelisk is not as big as the Washington monument, it’s only 6 feet tall, but for an archaeological find in the middle of a desert…a black carved object 6 feet tall is a substantial discovery.
The Daily Hatch 
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