Jerusalem project to clean up 'Solomonic' wall

November 19, 2009
EDMOND—Brent Nagtegaal, instructor of archeology at Herbert W. Armstrong College, and Harley Breth, student body class president, will transfer to Jerusalem for a six-week project in late November. Under the supervision of Dr. Eilat Mazar, they will clean up the area around a wall from the period of the First Temple and do some excavation as well.

The wall is probably part of a “Solomonic” gate complex from the First Temple period originally excavated by Sir Charles Warren in the 1860s. Sir Warren excavated the outside of the gate complex. In 1986, Dr. Eilat Mazar discovered the inside of the gate complex, a rectangular stone complex measuring over 2,000 square feet. Previous to the discovery of this water gate, there was little archaeological evidence to corroborate the biblical references to the Davidic dynasty. Dr. Mazar’s excavation, though, was never completely finished, and she will now return with support from the college to clean up the area and complete the excavation.

This project has a smaller scale than previous phases of the dig and Mr. Nagtegaal will assist Dr. Mazar directly. They will work in the area south of the Temple Mount known as the Ophel, where Dr. Mazar’s grandfather, Benjamin Mazar, led the Ambassador College-assisted excavation. It is about 400 feet north of the City of David excavation of King David’s palace. Mr. Nagtegaal was a volunteer on phase two and three of Dr. Mazar’s dig, and served as supervisor of area G for the last half of the third phase.

http://www.pcog.org/article.php?articleid=94

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May God bless these young men as they work in Jerusalem with our Jewish brethren, an opportunity of a lifetime!

I am a Christian Zionist

Jews and Christian Zionists

Herbert W. Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God Mentioned in Israeli Newspaper

Israel Work History (Worldwide Church of God)

Conflict in Jerusalem

Liberty Bell Park, Jerusalem, Israel

Rabbi misinformed about Herbert W. Armstrong

Archaeological digs in Jerusalem planned

Israel Plans Major Excavation at Western Wall
by Samuel Sokol

(IsraelNN.com) Israel is planning a major archaeological dig under the Western Wall (Kotel) plaza, opposite the Temple Mount, officials announced Thursday. The excavations will create an archaeological park directly underneath the area where worshippers currently stand while praying at the Kotel.

The current prayer area will remain open, supported by pillars, while a new area will be added underneath, at the level at which worshippers at the ancient Temple stood in the past.

The dig may be met with harsh reactions from Muslim and Arab leaders in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, many of whom have accused Israel of attempting to damage the Al-Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount. Jerusalem-area Muslims recently rioted for several days after it was rumored that “Jewish settlers” had planned to pray on the Temple Mount.

The Government Press Office gave foreign journalists a tour of Kotel-area excavations this week. The tour, ostensibly an apolitical opportunity to view new historic findings, appeared to be aimed at countering Muslim criticism of Israeli excavations as well. See drawing of planned archeological park

Click here to continue

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If Israel were truly a Jewish state, rather than merely a state of Gentilized Jews, with a proper Jewish leader like Meir Kahane, do you think they would worry about Nazi Muslim reactions to important Jewish archaeological digs?


http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Gerald Flurry has FAILED to repent

That false prophet Gerald Flurry has FAILED to repent of his Nimrodian ego and for his false accusations against me. I'm not surprised but saddened that false prophet Gerald Flurry has hardened his heart and appears bent on self-destruction, taking his blind organization down with him.

The Philadelphia Church of God is so close and so far away from the plain truth, mixing truth with lethal error, misrepresenting what Herbert W. Armstrong stood for and offering an adulterated version of it, polluting the gospel of the Kingdom of God. Thankfully, the Two Witnesses of Revelation 11 will set the record straight and testify from Jerusalem before a worldwide captive audience!

Gerald Flurry's Outrageous Attack Against David Ben-Ariel

Is David Ben-Ariel a Terrorist?
(Apparently Gerald Flurry and Stephen Flurry would mislead you to believe so!)

I'm not a terrorist
Is David Ben-Ariel a terrorist? Did he try to blow up the mosques in Israel? Is that why he was deported from Israel? Or is he simply somebody who has been targeted for exposing the German-Vatican plot against Jerusalem and highlighting the Nazi Muslim occupation of the Temple Mount?

God-given love for Jews
(mentions my volunteer service on 8 kibbutzim throughout Israel)

The Temple Mount Faithful is not a terrorist organization!
(Although Gerald Flurry and Stephen Flurry strongly insinuate it is, to their shame)

Star Witness testifies against Gerald Flurry

A little known blogger

http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Don't blame David Letterman for Jerusalem's rape!

Re: "How President Obama’s Cairo Speech Will Shake the Nations" (second comment by Anonymous)

I wasn't going to publish the filth, the unclean comments from "anonymous," since I consider it COWARDLY to fail to stand up for what you believe, but chose to go ahead and let folks see how IRRATIONAL anti-Semites are and how they abominably twist Scriptures to support their murderous hatred of Jews, their treacherous betrayal of the Word of God and Judah.

If we just take the two Scriptures wrongly referenced by the cowardly "anonymous," we can see how off base and inapplicable they are to the coming betrayal and rape of Jerusalem by vile international forces.

Nations will not mobilize armies and dark forces against Jerusalem because David Letterman disrespected Sarah Palin! Mrs. Palin would distance herself from such mad interpretations, from such hysterical stretches of evil imaginations!

When we read the Scriptures IN CONTEXT we see the Jews, specifically the Jewish leadership, were guilty of divorcing their Jewish wives to marry foreigners, Gentiles, that God's Word forbids them to marry! The Jews were betraying each other and polluting the priesthood and adulterating the nation by such mixed marriages.

Malachi 2:10-12
Treachery of Infidelity
10 Have we not all one Father?
Has not one God created us?
Why do we [Jews] deal treacherously with one another [not with assumed Gentiles]
By profaning the covenant of the fathers?
11 Judah has dealt treacherously,
And an abomination has been committed in Israel [not among Gentiles] and in Jerusalem [not on David Letterman's show in NYC],
For Judah has profaned
The LORD’s holy institution which He loves:
He has married the daughter of a foreign god.
12 May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob
The man who does this, being awake and aware,
Yet who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts!

God hates hypocrisy, whether among Jews or professing Christians.

The rabbis even state that the Second Temple, the one Yeshua referred to as "My Father's House," was destroyed because of baseless hatred, unwarranted hatred, since the Jews were dealing treacherously WITH ONE ANOTHER, and, it was all magnified by their treacherous betrayal of Yeshua who came to His own (Judah) and was rejected, as prophesied.

The hateful and covetous nations (inspired by the bloody Vatican) will not attack Jerusalem for righteous reasons, but God will permit them to temporarily pollute the Holy City until the King of the Jews returns and rebukes them, following Judah and Israel's repentance.

Christian-Zionist Response to Shimon Peres' AIPAC speech

Jews to Receive Jesus as Israel's King!

UN Resolution 181: Blueprint of the Beast?

www.davidbenariel.org

Liberty Bell Park, Jerusalem, Israel

Herbert W. Armstrong wrote to the members and co-workers of the Worldwide Church of God, May 21, 1978:

"On July 4 there will be a big '4th of July Celebration' in Jerusalem, hosted jointly by the Mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek, and myself. The city of Philadelphia had an exact duplicate made of the Liberty Bell--crack and all--and gave it to the city of Jerusalem. In the spring of 1976--Passover time--the Mayor came to me privately, and asked my help in building an important downtown park in Jerusalem, to be named the 'Liberty Bell Park.' Through the AICF [Ambassador International Cultural Foundation], I was able to agree to supply the children's playground area, at the very opening of the park. The park is now completed, and Mayor Kollek has asked me to be present on July 4 for the opening and dedication of the Liberty Bell Park."

This is a picture I took in 1982 of "A Children's Playground" monument sponsored by Herbert W. Armstrong and the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation.










Excerpt from "Inside Jerusalem," an article I wrote in 1996 for The National Messenger:

Teddy Kollek: Former mayor of Jerusalem. I just happened to be walking past a dinner theatre he was coming out of at the time, so I took advantage of the opportunity to say "Shabbat Shalom" (it was the Sabbath) and shake his hand. When I mentioned Herbert Armstrong, he said, "I have fond memories of the old man." (He isn't looking too young himself!). I saw him again when I was waiting with Aryeh Gallin in the lobby of the Laromme Hotel for some friends. (It's next to Jerusalem's Liberty Bell Park, where "The Children's Playground" was clearly designated as a gift from H.W.A and the A.I.C.F.--but not any more. When I first noticed this discrepancy years ago, I wrote a letter of inquiry to the WCG. but never received any reply).

I emailed Aaron Dean (Herbert W. Armstrong's personal assistant for years) Teddy Kollek's comments in August of 2000, and he responded and informed me:

"Is Teddy Kollek still alive? It would be good to see him again. He was a good friend. Mr. Tkach refused to maintain the park as contracted and I believe he wanted HWA's name out of there. Of course he abandoned his beliefs as well. Sad, but God is in control."

Politics in the Church of God Prevents Progress offers an update on the monument in Jerusalem's Liberty Bell Park:

[The Philadelphia Church of God] even know I've given them contacts in the Middle East, in Jerusalem, Jewish leaders, and that it was me whom God used to contact the mayor of Jerusalem to get the HWA monument repaired (in the Liberty Bell Park in Jerusalem), and then I forwarded the information to Flurry (who didn't even say thank you and wasn't even aware of its woeful neglect that I knew about from being over there so many times). I'll bet you didn't know that, did you?

I had written an open letter to the mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, that was published in The Jerusalem Post. His office contacted me to inquire about what groups or organizations I was referring to that would be interested in undertaking the financial responsibility for the monument's restoration and the rest is history.

Gerald Flurry wrote the Philadelphia Church of God members and co-workers in the July/Aug. 2001 Royal Vision magazine:

"In January 1997, the Philadelphia Foundation contacted the Jerusalem Foundation to inquire about the Herbert W. Armstrong Memorial Plaque that once rested in Liberty Bell Park. Several members had visited the park and were unable to locate the marker.

Alan Freeman of the Jerusalem Foundation informed us the park was being restored and the marker would be replaced upon completion.

In November 2000, after additional contacts, we were told that a new plaque would need to be produced. The Philadelphia Foundation agreed to provide the funds for the new plaque and to help support the maintenance and refurbishment of the Liberty Bell Park in the memory of Mr. Armstrong."

I'm very pleased that Herbert W. Armstrong's name has been restored to Jerusalem's Liberty Bell Park and that I was honored to have something to do with it. You can view how it appears today by clicking on the link below:

Liberty Bell Park Plaque

Now I encourage the Philadelphia Church of God (and others) to reach out to the cities of Judah and sponsor planting a forest or creating a park to honor Herbert W. Armstrong's memory and commemorate his close friendships with Israeli leaders. Mr. Armstrong said we should focus on Jerusalem. Why not?

David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.

A multimillion-dollar house for God in Edmond?

Royal Vision
March – April 2009

From the Editor:
THE KEY OF DAVID

(excerpts from 10 pages:)

p2 Be Watchful
The truth in The United States and Britain in Prophecy is at the core of the key of David vision, which God gave to the Philadelphians (verse 7). This was the loving god reaching out to His Family! What that would have done for the Sardis Church had it accepted it!

God was trying to SAVE THE SARDIS ERA! How could a loving Father not reach out and try to save His Family when He sees them going astray? Everything is at stake! God doesn’t want to see any of His beloved children have their names blotted out of the book of life. They rejected god’s correction—His new revelation—and the era died.

Members of God’s Church can die. It’s all too common! In a sense, God’s faithful people today are sandwiched in between the Sardis people, who died spiritually, and the lukewarm Laodiceans, 50 percent of whom will die forever! It shouldn’t be that way at all. God does everything He can to prevent that.

When you talk about the key of David, you’re talking about a RULERSHIP OPPORTUNITY that will never come again to any of God’s people. God doesn’t make this extraordinary promise to those in Sardis, or to the Laodiceans. But to the Philadelphians, who have this key, God says, “Him that [conquers] will I make a pillar…” These blessed individuals will be at headquarters in Jerusalem throughout eternity!

Can you imagine if the Sardis era had listened to Mr. Armstrong and turned it around? If they had accepted the key of David, how DYNAMICALLY ALIVE THEY WOULD HAVE BECOME! Instead, most of the members embraced spiritual leaders who were dead. With all that power available, they were dead! Many of their names were blotted out of the book of life. What a missed opportunity…..

…[Rev 3v7-8] Here is how an end-time Christian lives or dies. He must embrace the key of David vision or he dies!

P3 God used Mr. Armstrong to build beautiful building—the crown jewel being God’s house in Pasadena, California. IT WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BUILDING OF ITS KIND ON EARTH.
The Philadelphia era was throbbing with spiritual life! It all flowed from the key of David vision.
The Philadelphia Church in the Laodicean era is being used by God to “raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen” (Amos 9:11) Why is it called the tabernacle of David? Because we have the same key of David message that Mr. Armstrong had. God has even given us a fuller understanding of that vision than what He gave Mr. Armstrong…..
….
The only people who understand the key of David vision today are God’s very elect—the only people who will sit on David’s headquarters throne in Jerusalem forever. THIS VISION ACTUALLY IDENTIFIES GOD’S VERY ELECT TODAY!
…
Today, we are building another house for God. Today it will be the ultimate message to the Laodiceans and this world. The Head of this Church, the one who gave the key of David vision, is going to have a house and live on this campus in spirit!

THAT HOUSE WILL ILLUSTRATE THAT GOD IS ALIVE ON THIS CAMPUS AND IN GOD’S VERY ELECT. That house will be the greatest sign of hope on Earth! That hope is embodied in the key of David vision, which will be the dominant vision emanating from that auditorium. Those who understand and proclaim this vision are the only ones empowered to do God’s worldwide Work!

WHAT IS THE KEY OF DAVID?
…
It takes Philadelphians in two eras to FULLY EXPLAIN THAT KEY. The understanding of the key of David always comes through Philadelphians in this end time.

What is the key of David? IT IS THE ROYAL GOSPEL VIEWED THROUGH THE EYES OF THE FATHER, AND THE HUSBAND, AND THE HEADQUARTERS BRIDE—the highest level of god’s government through all eternity.
…
Those during this Laodicean era who reject the key of David will not have that reward. Fifty percent of them

p4 will repent and be in God’s Family, but they will not be at headquarters, because they rejected the key of David, the greatest vision of the Bible. Revelation 3 makes it clear that anyone who goes into the Tribulation will not be stationed at God’s headquarters.

The big question is this: Will you understand and submit to this government in the age of man’s rule of man and act while there is time?

Consider this carefully: THE ROYAL KEY OF DAVID GOSPEL IS UNDERSTOOD NOW ONLY BY THE HEADQUARTERS KINGS AND PRIESTS IN EMBRYO! If you fully understand and submit to this teaching now, you are going to reside in Jerusalem forever.

Only 5 percent of God’s own people in the Laodicean era will qualify for that level of royalty in this end time…..
….That is why God gives us that vision from the perspective of headquarters in Jerusalem forever! He is revealing this vision with greater clarity all the time. Christ personally gives it to the Philadelphia era and to the Philadelphians in the Laodicean era….

… What could be more profound? What an uplifting, wondrous vision! Only the Philadelphians of this end time will share David’s headquarters throne. Philadelphian will be a very exalted word in the World tomorrow.

The title of our television program is the Key of David. We believe that title was inspired by God.
We followed the two-fold formula for loving God: keeping His Word and obeying His government….

… Because of our loyalty and obedience, God is swinging doors open for this Work! We started a few years ago with $80, and today we’re building a multimillion-dollar house for God! A mighty door simply opened for this Work. Who did that? God did. And when He throws a door open, he challenges anyone in this world to shut it!

p5 Revelation 3:9 reveals that there was a “synagogue of Satan” right in God’s Church—a church within a church. Even while Mr. Armstrong was still there, Satan conquered a great many members! Satan was right there even while God’s apostle was on this Earth! He had a synagogue! Those in this synagogue did not keep god’s Word, and they denied God’s government. Consequently, they lost the key of David vision and were conquered by the devil.

THE JERUSALEM DIG
Isn’t it interesting how this Work is getting so involved in Jerusalem today? We are digging in the very spot where David’s throne once sat—and upon which Christ is about to establish His throne forever! We’re clearing away the rubble for Christ’s throne—the throne we are about to share with our Husband!...... If we deeply understand the key of David vision, we will be thrilled by that project in Jerusalem. Behold—LO! There is something truly special here!

What do our activities in Jerusalem have to do with the gospel? EVERYTHING! WITHIN JUST A FEW SHORT YEARS, EVERY CITY AND COUNTRY AROUND THE WORLD WILL BE FOCUSED ON JERUSALEM! When they are, we’ll be teaching them about the same thing we’re teaching now: the key of David. God wants the whole world to understand this vision…..
… Satan knows what we’re doing in Jerusalem, and he is raging like a mad dog in his attempt to stop it. He knows what it means for us to build a house for God—it is simply another sign we are in the final phase of this Work. He is deeply disturbed by these developments. All he lives for is to try to destroy what God is building. …

CONQUER OR BE CONQUERED
p6 Satan established a beachhead in the strong Philadelphia era. These rebels were conquered by the devil, instead of conquering him.
So when Mr. Armstrong died, Satan used his synagogue to conquer 95 percent of god’s Church (now comprised of several different churches). Unless those church members repent before the Tribulation, they cannot qualify to rule in the Jerusalem headquarters….
… We won a bitter six-year court battle with Satan the devil. We have had to fight and conquer Satan in many battles. With God’s very elect, that is a way of life. ..

THE HOUSE OF JACOB
p7 ..Jer 33:15..The “land” is referring to the whole Earth! The Messiah is about to come and sit on David’s throne and RULE THE EARTH!
Judah and Israel are about tot be reunited under that throne. In fact, THIS WORLD is about to become spiritual Israel and be united by the throne of David. All mankind will be looking to that one throne, the “key of David” throne. THE KEY OF DAVID UNITES EVERYONE!

AN APPARENT CONTRADICTION
(Jer 33:17) That is a promise from God! That throne is on Earth today, and it’s going to continue forever!
Verse 18 shows that there will always be a man proclaiming the truth about that throne. That two-fold covenant is all part of the key of David, and it is absolutely binding.
Now, that covenant is interesting to consider in light of a prophecy in Hosea 3:4…
This is describing a very tragic period—the Great Tribulation—almost upon us. It is a prophecy about Ephraim, Manasseh and Judah, when they no longer have a king or even a prince. Jeremiah wrote that David’s throne would never lack a man sitting on it—yet here it says that for a time, Israel will have no king or prince. How can you reconcile this apparent contradiction? We must remember that the very elect of spiritual Israel is being protected by God at this time.
Consider this as well: the word image in Hosea 3:4 refers to Jacob’s pillar stone—the stone Jacob called “God’s house” that stayed with Israel for generations, and that to this day resides in Great Britain. God revealed to Hosea that in this end time, Ephraim is going to lose that stone.
Where do you suppose that stone will be? I believe that question becomes more interesting over time.
Hosea’s prophesy continues (verse5) Imagine the peoples of Israel going into captivity and finally coming to their senses. When that happens, and they emerge from slavery, DAVID WILL BE RIGHT THERE FACING THEM—resurrected as a fiery God being!
… Now, let’s answer the deep and electrifying mystery presented by Hosea’s prophecy! I believe it is explained by a passage in Isaiah 16—one that has become clearer to me in light of the projects we have been undertaking in Jerusalem…….
………
P26…Here in Isaiah 16:4, God uses the Moabites to protect them from “the face of the spoiler.” It is the same being and the same place of safety in both scriptures! Satan is fanatically trying to get at us! We will need protection. He is after us—he always has been and always will be until God puts him away. He will come after us head-on in order to destroy us. We must respond by using God’s power to conquer him!
Now look at verse 5—where GOD HAS REVEALED SOME NEW TRUTH TO ME.

THE THRONE SHALL BE ESTABLISHED
… Here you have the same tabernacle of David you see in Amos 9:11. The anchor Bible says these two verses are talking about the same “tent,” or “booth,” of David. The tabernacle here means a hut, or temporary dwelling. The Hebrew-Greek key Study Bible says “the most common use of the term had to do with the yearly booth made in conjunction with the Feast of Tabernacles.” Amos 9:11 shows that this temporary dwelling has fallen, and Christ has to raise it back up through the very elect.
So there will be a tabernacle over there in the Middle East, in the midst of a lot of trouble. It is there for an important reason. In this context, it is clearly WHERE GOD IS. If it’s the very elect tabernacle, God is right there leading His people. You can see that by the way God is talking to Moab here—and I have a strong feeling that the people of Moab are going to obey! They’ll recognize that God is in charge here. But still, it is a temporary dwelling. The Kingdom of god has not arrived yet.
Now—look again at Isaiah 16:5. There is an added

p27 expression you don’t find in Amos 9:11: “THE THRONE.” This says that THE THRONE will be established in addition to the tabernacle. What THRONE is this talking about? David’s throne! The same throne that Jeremiah 33:17 says will always be occupied!
This is the only throne on Earth that will last forever!
As we cover in our booklet the Key of David, the throne of David is in Britain today. For millennia, the kings and queens who have been crowned on that throne have done so over Jacob’s pillar stone, also called “the stone of destiny.”
How could that throne be ESTABLISHED in the context of Isaiah 16? ONLY THE STONE OF DESTINY COULD FIRMLY ESTABLISH THE THRONE OF DAVID!
IS ISAIAH 16 TELLING US THAT GOD WILL SOMEHOW GIVE US THAT STONE WHEN GOD’S PEOPLE GO TO THE PLACE OF SAFETY? After all, we are going to be sharing that throne with Christ in a matter of just a few years!
THE STONE OF DESTINY IS REALLY THE SYMBOL OF DAVID’S THRONE—not the chair that sits in Westminster Abbey. That chair was constructed by men rather recently—but the stone has been around for MILLENNIA! It goes all the way back to Jacob! It was at one time called GOD’S HOUSE—where GOD DWELLED!
Where will that stone be during the Tribulation? Again, Ephraim is going to lose it, according to Hosea 3:4 Where will that rock be? Will God give it to the Gentiles? I don’t believe for a minute that He would. He didn’t give it to the Gentiles when Judah was taken captive. …
… Wouldn’t God want us to save that marvelous stone of destiny, or to gain possession of it? I can’t see this verse as anything but a strong statement about where that rock will be.
God says THE THRONE WILL BE ESTABLISHED—and it’s in the context of a tabernacle, or temporary dwelling. The word “established” comes from …refers to THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A DYNASTY. In this passage, it must be talking about THE DAVIDIC DYNASTY! God said there would never lack a man to sit on that throne—and here He says the throne will be ESTABLISHED in a temporary, Tribulation setting, with God’s loyal people dwelling in a rocky fortress!...
… right now, the pieces seem to be falling into place for us to assist in uncovering the very place where David’s throne was, and where Christ will sit on His throne. Do you suppose; God might also get us involved with that stone? Does it seem illogical that God would use His people, who have the key of David and are about to sit on the throne of David, to get that stone, which is a symbol of that throne and of Christ? Certainly not to me.

WHO WILL SIT ON THE THRONE?
I don’t know—but I know that SOMEONE will be on it, and it will be ESTABLISHED—and it appears to be there in the Middle East during a terrible time on Earth.
At the time of Jeremiah, he had with him a queen from the royal family to sit on that throne. Maybe there will be a member of the royal family with us in the place of safety. However, considering Isaiah 16:5 says he will be “seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness,” that doesn’t seem likely.
There is much here we don’t know, but the context seems to imply that the “he” who “shall sit upon” that throne is a man from this Church.
As I point out in Who Is “That Prophet”?, Micah 2:13 refers to the office Christ has given me as that of “their king.” That couldn’t be referring to Christ, because the same verse separately mentions “the LORD.” The word king in that verse means the leader, or one in charge—but the word king is appropriate.
In Micah 4:8-9, god asks the Laodiceans, “Is there no king in thee?” They don’t have a king.
These scriptures are talking about a man who leads a breakaway from a rebellious church! It’s END-TIME prophecy in your Bible!
It shouldn’t be too upsetting to think of God calling a man in the Church a “king.” After the 3 1/2 –year period of the Tribulation, EVERY CONVERTED MEMBER IN GOD’S CHURCH WILL BE A KING AND A PRIEST FOREVER!
…..
… Some of you might remember how surprised Mr. Armstrong was to find that the ancestry on one side of his family could be traced back to King David. I too was shocked to discover this fact concerning my own lineage, also on one side of my family. Is there a reason why Mr. Armstrong and I both can follow our roots back to David’s kingly line—to the tribe of Judah? Does it have anything to do with this “lawgiver” coming from Judah’s.

p28 feet—or Judah’s descendants—in the last days, “until Shiloh (Jesus Christ) come”?
Mr. Armstrong had to establish god’s law and government. He was the Elijah who restored all things just before Christ’s return. I have continued the same law and government that he taught. No other church can truthfully make that claim!
We must believe god’s Word. I don’t know exactly what God is going to do—but I know He made a promise to David that there would NEVER LACK A MAN TO SIT ON THAT THRONE. Could that man be inside the church of God, helping us to get ready to sit on that throne as kings and priests? ..

… In that place, there will be the tabernacle—AND THE THRONE. There is only one throne on Earth that has such meaning for God and His people….
… What MERCY God will shower upon this evil world. Yes, people will suffer. But so soon, they will receive ABUNDANT MERCY from that throne, and that stone, which is a symbol of Christ Himself.
… God used a prophet to make the first overturn of the throne—and the stone—from Jerusalem to Egypt, then Spain, then to Ireland. An old, grey-haired prophet named Jeremiah traveled to Ireland a with a beautiful young queen who sat on David’s throne. So that first overturn of those three was performed by God’s people. Might god’s people again gain possession of that throne—and stone?
Ezekiel shows that, after the overturns, when Christ returns, god will give that throne to Christ, whose right it is!
The projects that God is getting us involved in today make it obvious that we are getting very close to that coronation!

…TO BE CONTINUED [emphasis mine]
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What a crying shame that Gerald Flurry digs himself in deeper, condemning himself before both God and man, taking some biblical truths and polluting and adulterating them with his idolatrous ideas! The House of God is to be built in JERUSALEM - not Edmond, Oklahoma!

Gerald Flurry pontificates:

...we are building another house for God. Today it will be the ultimate message to the Laodiceans and this world. The Head of this Church, the one who gave the key of David vision, is going to have a house and live on this campus in spirit!

THAT HOUSE WILL ILLUSTRATE THAT GOD IS ALIVE ON THIS CAMPUS AND IN GOD’S VERY ELECT. That house will be the greatest sign of hope on Earth! That hope is embodied in the key of David vision, which will be the dominant vision emanating from that auditorium.

How can an exorbitantly expensive music hall in Edmond, Oklahoma - on the campus of a cult that gives a bad name to what's left of their religion that's biblical - even remotely be considered "the greatest sign of hope on Earth"? How bizarre! I'm all for the Third Temple that will soon be built where it belongs - in JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - and yet I wouldn't have the chutzpah to declare it's the greatest sign of hope on Earth!

And for Gerald Flurry to blather his diamond in the dust (since the United States will soon suffer national destruction, defeat and deportation) will illustrate God is alive on their campus and in their cult is blasphemous! It paints a very ugly picture of how Satan is twisting Gerald Flurry around his little finger, sifting him like wheat, mocking spiritual and prophetic principles that will be fulfilled in God's good time. Those who aren't brainwashed by Gerald Flurry and his sycophant ministers know Jesus Christ said, "you shall know them by their fruits" - the spiritual fruits of the Holy Spirit - especially divine love for one another, not by their physical backyard projects!

As I've written in Flurry's focus on Edmond over Jerusalem -

You don't need any "special revelation" to read and believe the Bible that clearly shows God's House on Earth has always been in Jerusalem - not elsewhere like Mormons and others mislead.

Gerald Flurry foolishly attempts to spiritualize everything away when it comes to the holy temple of God that will be built in Jerusalem. The least he could do is encourage the Jews to fulfill their responsibility to build God's House - the Embassy of the Eternal - in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount and stop equating Edmond with Jerusalem!

Where's the Temple On the Temple Mount?
Third Temple Coming Soon to Jerusalem!
The Temple of God in Holy Jerusalem

As for the Stone of Scone, the Stone of Destiny, and the possibility of King David's descendants, British Royal Family members, accompanying God's Church members accounted worthy to escape to wherever God has predetermined to protect us, Beyond Babylon has said that for years! See "God Save the Sons of Princess Diana!" It's been said Gerald Flurry plagiarized much of Malachi's Message, and now he appears to be stealing sections from Beyond Babylon and claiming it as his revelation!

It's great that the Philadelphia Church of God is at least participating in archaeological digs in Jerusalem, as I've encouraged them (and the other Church of God groups) to get involved in Israel, as documented in The Great Mideast Commission: Reaching the Cities of Judah and
Stephen Flurry's response to Judean Voice ad - but that should knock in the head any of his foolish notions about Edmond being some new Jerusalem! What does he want to do? Build his "house of God" and proclaim himself "God" in it? He already claims to be "that Prophet" that those not under his evil influence know refers to Jesus Christ. He already refers to himself as their "king." These are his own self-incriminating words:

As I point out in Who Is “That Prophet”?, Micah 2:13 refers to the office Christ has given me as that of “their king.”

May God wake up Gerald Flurry from his drunk, deliver him from his delusions, and save the PCG (Philadelphia Church of God) from further heresies! God let proud Nebuchadnezzar go off the deep end for quite awhile too to humble him and then brought him around.

All this could have been avoided if Gerald Flurry had humbled himself when first presented with Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. Instead he ran out of steam with Malachi's Message, tried to rally folks with what had already been done - getting Mystery of the Ages out - then Stephen Flurry's book Raising the Ruins ( a repeat of Malachi's Message in greater detail, but same old, same old) and now his grandiose music hall that will leave them singing the blues!

The Work of God Must Go Forward!

PCG: Carrying on "Business as Usual"

Politics in the Church of God Hinders Progress

Pope has his evil eye on Jerusalem!

Beyond Babylon warns: Beware Roman wolves in sheep's clothing! Europe's New Crusade that has its evil eye on Mount Zion and is after the Temple Mount.

Beyond Babylon warns: Don't be flattered by the pagan pope's proposals for peace! Don't be seduced by his Babylonian charm! Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem is at stake.

Beyond Babylon warns: The German-Jesuit jackboot will stomp Jerusalem!

Never Forget: Yitzhak Rabin was sacrificed by the Israeli oligarchy for their German-Jesuit masters intent on occupying Jerusalem and ripping the heart out of Israel. Watch for them to invoke UN Resolution 181.

Vatican Linked to the Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin?
Mount Zion Coveted by Rome
UN Resolution 181: Blueprint of the Beast?



http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Jerusalem Under Siege!

Tevet 10 is the fast day the Jews mourn King Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem that led to its desolation: the destruction of the Temple and the deportation of the Jews. (I was actually born on Tevet 10 - January 10, 1960).

By the grace of God, there's a FULL PAGE AD in the Jewish Voice and Opinion (this month of Tevet) warning its Jewish audience that a German-led Europe will wage a New Crusade to enforce the Vatican's version of peace - that Babylon has begun its new siege against Jerusalem:

THE GERMANS ARE COMING!

THE GERMAN JESUIT JACKBOOT WILL STOMP JERUSALEM!

The FULL PAGE AD (on page 17) proceeds to direct them to Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall where my beliefs are on public record.

Download the January 2009 issue PDF here!
The Jewish Voice and Opinion speaks out forcefully and unashamedly for the unique concerns of what we have termed "classical Judaism." As a politically conservative Jewish publication, we take as our mission to present news and feature articles not generally available elsewhere in the Jewish or secular media.

Now in its 23th year, The Jewish Voice and Opinion has been influential in religious and political circles throughout the United States, Israel, and elsewhere. It is often quoted and reprinted. It has been admired, feared, often debated, but never ignored.

THE GERMANS ARE COMING!

THE GERMANS ARE COMING!

Beyond Babylon drops the bomb:

THE GERMAN-JESUIT JACKBOOT WILL STOMP JERUSALEM!

All the while during my six and a half hours of Israeli interrogation, I clearly warned them that the "peace process" is a trap; that it's about to blow up in their faces, and that a German-led Europe is going to wage a New Crusade to enforce the Vatican's version of peace. Catholic Europe will backstab and betray both the Arabs and the Jews. They'll push for Jerusalem to become "an international city," all under the cover of UN Resolution 181.

I maintained that the only explosives that I'm involved with is the bombshell I've written, Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. I continually referred them to it, stating that's where my beliefs are on public record. (Later I gave them a computer disk with my book on it to assist their investigation). I told them I know that Israel won't take G-d's warning seriously, any more than those Jews who spurned Jabotinsky's efforts to save them from Hitler. (Ze'ev Jabotinksy warned the Jews of Hitler's fury but they thought he was just crying wolf). Nevertheless, the Almighty will intervene and save us after our worst time of suffering, if we so insist, and every survivor in Jerusalem will be holy.

www.davidbenariel.org

Israel's Lost Generation

Israel’s Lost Generation
October 13, 2008 From theTrumpet.com
It seems the days of the young, vibrant sabra in Israel, dedicated to working for retention of the rich Jewish heritage, are a thing of the past.

Ron Fraser
Jerusalem—During the period between Israel’s fight for survival against Arab incursion in 1948 and the battling nation’s hour of glory in the Six Day War of 1967, the tough, tanned, hardworking youth of the Jewish nation became a source of legend. This was the generation that became known as the sabras, named after the cactus that thrives in the Judean hills.

Pioneering the kibbutzim, laboring to recover the land from swamp and desert, the work-hard, play-hard, fight-hard young generation of mid-20th-century Israel formed a vital link between the constant threat of annihilation and survival as this tiny embattled country fought for its very existence against the surrounding enemy and even the very elements themselves.

The sabras were either the children of the refugee camps that followed in the wake of World War ii, or the children of migrant parents who fled their former lands of persecution to found a new, modern nation on the ancient foundations of the old. They were celebrated in the massively popular bestseller of the time, Leon Uris’s Exodus.

In this, my first visit to Israel, my eyes and ears have been geared to sounding out the youth in the city of Jerusalem. I had wanted to confirm that which research had already indicated was a growing phenomenon within Israeli society, that the legend of the sabras is no more, at least in terms of Israel’s current generation of youth.

Sadly, my observations have to date confirmed the worst.

On more than one occasion, inquiring of the bright, attractive waitresses who have served us in local restaurants, I have been shocked at the degree of contempt they show for the ways of their forefathers. Young men and women who by day dress in khaki and tote automatic weapons as part of the Israel Defense Forces (idf), by night seemingly throw off any thought of vigilance against their enemy and party on into the wee hours of the morning. Their religion, once a glue that bound the Jewish culture together, is now a compromise between the worship of celebrity and pop culture and some little degree, if any, of condescension to the ways of their parents and grandparents. This is a youth gone soft, just wanting the ongoing war with the Palestinian enemy to go away so they can get on with the good life.

The contrast with the children of their prime enemy is stark.

“We have all seen the pictures of children dressed as suicide bombers,” wrote Lance Fairchok in American Thinker earlier this year, “the toddlers holding Kalashnikovs, the grade school students happily reciting poems glorifying genocide. The masked gunmen strutting for the cameras are teenagers, the fighters who launch rockets are in their early 20s. Whole generations have come of age without education, indoctrinated in an ideology of Islamic fanaticism and blind hatred, kept destitute and embittered, the most efficient way to breed terrorists. With the help of Syria and Iran, funding from Islamic nations and charities, and aid from the ever-gullible West, the perpetual ‘refugees’ never build schools and hospitals, but arsenals that become ever more sophisticated” (July 22).

These are Hezbollah’s children—trained from birth to be sacrificial lambs with a fanatical anti-Jew, anti-West mindset, brainwashed to destroy the enemy at all costs. The glory dream of too many is to blow themselves sky high, taking as many Jews with them as they can.

Fairchok continued, “There can never be peace when the children of Hezbollah and Hamas and Muslim children all over the world learn: ‘The hour of resurrection will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and kill them. And the Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!’ (The Hadith of the Prophet, Sahih Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 52, Number 177).”

The stark difference between the grandchildren of the Israeli sabras and the children of Islamist terrorists is extreme. It bespeaks the gulf that exists between a generation grown tired of war, becoming soft on the legacy of Western decadence, victims of the duplicity of Anglo-Saxon diplomacy, and on the other a generation of religious fanatics bent on the destruction of an entire people, the nation of Israel, at all costs.

“Train up a child in the way that he should go,” declares the ancient proverb, “and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). The sabras, children of a generation that suffered so greatly under constant persecution and the threat of the Holocaust, simply forgot this profound teaching from the very Scriptures that they declared were an integral part of their national heritage. The sad result is to see their legacy dying a rapid death within a generation rapidly divorcing itself from the history that once kindled a burning desire for national survival within the Jewish nation.

There can be but one result when such a glaring dichotomy exists between the youth of one nation fanatically brainwashed to destroy any vestige of Jewish existence and the youth of a nation gone soft on the idea of its own self-preservation at all costs. As Fairchok opines,

Caught in the moral relativism that is the scourge of the West, we no longer see the evil that confronts us; we obfuscate, we negotiate, we posture and we pander and we pretend. Forever losing ground, innocent lives and our vital moral strength, evil is rewarded and the whirlwind howls at our door. Yet Israel compromises with those who wish only to murder her children, those who will murder them in the years to come.

If the current scenario was allowed to play itself out, the tiny embattled nation of Israel would soon be no more. Thank God that the very Being whom the Jewish peoples deny, the living Messiah, will soon return to put down all war, all insurrection, all terror, all youthful sacrifice on the altar of war!

This week I climbed to the top of the Mount of Olives with a small party of others who hold the grandest of prophetic visions in mind. It is the vision of which the Prophet Zechariah spoke, of the Messiah coming literally to this Earth, of the mount cleaving in two, of the destruction of the armies assembled to resist the power of their very own Creator, and of the establishment of the government of peace by the very King of peace, in the city of peace, Jerusalem!

****************

The same pioneer spirit is gone in the United States too, with the inspired drive of Manifest Destiny depleted by materialism and hedonism, idolatry and immorality.

Both Jews and Joes (British Israelites) are wandering in the wilderness, adrift, the living dead. Only national repentance can restore us to life, meaning and purpose (2 Chron. 7:14, Dan. 9:11) or the German-Jesuit Europe will be used to bring us to our knees and restore us to our senses. Why doesn't Ron Fraser (or another PCG writer) visit the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City and write an article about Manifest Destiny?

As mentioned within From Toledo to Jerusalem -

You could say I have a God-given love for the Jews and the nation of Israel (Isaiah 62:6-7). That sacred bond has been strengthened over the years by the fact that I've been blessed to have lived all over Israel, getting to know its land and people quite well.

Apart from 5 months at Ramat Yohanan (where I met my "kibbutz mother," Miriam Weiss) I've also stayed at Sdot Yam on the Mediterranean, next to Caesarea, the site of my first ulpan (intensive Hebrew course), and where Israel's heroine, Hannah Senesh, was from - as well as mentioned in Exodus by Leon Uris; Regavim, near Zichron Yaakov, where I continued my Hebrew lessons amid its rolling green hills; Reshafim, near Bet She'an, with Mt. Gilboa practically in our backyard, and Jordan's mountains in lovely view out front; Adamit, on Lebanon's border, high up on a mountain, from where on clear days you can see all the way to Haifa's Mt. Carmel; Shoval, a rose in the Negev desert, just north of Be'er Sheva; Dan, way up in the northernmost part of Israel, in between Syria and Lebanon, next to the majestic snow-covered Mt. Hermon, where I was living when "Operation Desert Storm" blew in; and Ha'On, with its campground and ostrich farm on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee, across from Tiberias; and last but not least, my beloved Jerusalem, next to my favorite spot on earth: the Temple Mount.

The EU and Israel

Ron FraserColumnist

The EU and Israel

August 11, 2008 | From theTrumpet.com

President Sarkozy’s mooted Mediterranean Union may have seemed a sore point with Germany’s chancellor. The reality is it may bring her nation one step closer to achieving a long-cherished goal.

Ron Fraser

Our long-time readers will be familiar with the Trumpet’s early and continuing exposure of the European Union’s strategy to expand south and east. Our early warning of this strategic move by the EU was predicated on an ancient prophecy for our times recorded in the book of Daniel which speaks of a northern power that will grow “exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Glorious Land [Jerusalem]” (Daniel 8:9; New King James Version). The relevance of that prophecy to the times of global disruption through which we are presently living is clearly explained in our booklet Daniel—Unsealed at Last!

The first obvious indication of the EU’s intentions to expand its power toward the south, toward the east and toward Jerusalem was the strategic move in 1991 by Germany, followed by the Vatican, to disrupt Yugoslav unity through bilateral recognition of Croatia and Serbia as sovereign nation-states separate from the Republic of Yugoslavia. That is an initiative that is now well advanced toward the EU taking direct administrative control of the Balkan Peninsula.

Ever since that move, the EU has steadily expanded its reach south and east, inching ever closer toward the “Glorious Land.”

The latest initiative in this direction was that of France’s President Sarkozy, bringing together 43 representatives of Mediterranean nations in June to form a Mediterranean Union, in association with the ever-expanding European Union. In the process, the current president of the EU may be unwittingly aiding in achieving a long-held national goal of imperialist Germany.

Way back in the eighth century a.d., emissaries were sent to Jerusalem by Emperor Charlemagne to negotiate an agreement with the Muslim Caliph Haroun. The result was that Jerusalem became a protectorate of the Holy Roman Empire.

Historical records indicate that such a protectorate was limited to the oversight of the welfare of Christians, the care and protection of designated holy sites, and the properties of the Roman Catholic Church in Jerusalem. The fact that the caliph would be a beneficiary financially to this enterprise was a given. Muslim support of the Kaiser’s army in World War i, and again of the Nazi regime in World War ii, was the end result of a long historical nexus between the Muslims and the German nation.

From the time of the Charlemagne/Haroun pact to this day, elements within the German nation have historically viewed themselves as protectors of the Roman Catholic Church, though having been mostly denied the plum job of protector of Jerusalem.

The extent of Charlemagne’s largesse under his treaty with the caliphate of Haroun included the building of an abbey on the Mount of Olives, the church of Haceldama, the Latinity, an extensive hospice for pilgrims, the church of the Holy Mary, a library, and a market place. The whole district under the protection of Germany was autonomously administered, supported by taxes from the Holy Roman Empire.

In a.d. 1009, the Tatimite caliph of Egypt reversed Caliph Haroun’s policy of benevolence toward the Holy Roman Empire’s presence in Jerusalem and ordered the destruction of Christian establishments in Jerusalem. Persecution of traditional Christianity in the Middle East ensued.

With Pope Urban’s call to a crusade in an effort to wrest back control of Jerusalem into the hands of what became known as Christendom, a history of bloodletting in the name of religion was unleashed.

With the First Crusade of a.d. 1095-1099, the Franks were successful in seizing control of Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks, establishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Frankish rule of Jerusalem was to last less than a century. By 1187, Saladin, sultan of Egypt, had wrested back control of Jerusalem. The city was to remain in Muslim hands till a German king initiated the Sixth Crusade to return Jerusalem as a Holy Roman imperial possession.

In 1228, Frederick Barbarossa (Frederick ii), emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, paid a state visit to Jerusalem. There he gained by diplomatic means what previous crusades had been denied. Frederick made a treaty with the Ottomans via which they surrendered Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem to the Christians, with the Mosque of Omar remaining in the hands of the Muslims. He then crowned himself king of Jerusalem.

By 1244 the Muslims had laid siege to the city, retaking it as a Muslim possession. It was to remain in their hands until centuries later an interesting event, again involving a German emperor who paid a state visit to Jerusalem, changed the whole complex of the city.

In 1898, Kaiser Wilhelm visited Jerusalem. From then on, things never were the same for the City of Peace.

Having long languished as a backwater under Ottoman rule, the Kaiser’s triumphal entry on horseback into Jerusalem was greeted with enthusiasm by its majority Muslim population. They conferred upon him the freedom of the city.

The Kaiser and his wife visited the “holy” sites which the Empress Helena, Charlemagne’s mother, had “identified” over a millennium earlier and which since had become venerated as icons of the Catholic faith.

At the church known as the Holy Sepulcher, the Kaiser and his wife were welcomed with much Romish pageantry as they entered the sepulcher to pray.

The parting gift granted the Kaiser for his high-profile visit to Jerusalem was permission by the ruling Ottoman caliphate to a repeat building of a Catholic icon atop Mount Zion, the Domitian Abbey.

Unfortunate for the builders, they initiated a world war in 1914, which led to a mighty mounted charge by Australian and New Zealand infantry liberating Beersheba from the Turks and opening the way for General Allenby’s famous march into the city of Jerusalem at the head of a contingent of troops of the British Empire. A mandate was then issued to the British to become protectors of Jerusalem.

Once again Germany had failed to deliver the goods to Rome.

Israel was subsequently established as a sovereign state, to become home to Jewish refugees from two great world wars and from the tyranny of the Soviet Union, among many others who already were established there or who chose to make the Levant their home, migrating from all over the world.

As a sign of Germany’s continuing interest in Jerusalem, in 1982, the Kaiser’s grandson visited the city that had so captured the imagination of Wilhelm and his wife.

Then in 1996 came an unprecedented event.

For the first time in history, the head of the Roman Catholic Church visited Jerusalem. John Paul ii, who did more during his papacy than any other to heal the deep wounds and offenses of centuries ingrained between Rome and international Jewry, paid homage to the Jews in the City of Peace.

Twelve years later, a greatly expanded European Union, dominated by a newly strident Germany, just beginning to feel its oats as a revived world power, looks south and east for lebensraum.

Enter Nicolas Sarkozy.

Just a few weeks ago, on Sunday, July 13, Sarkozy addressed an unprecedented assemblage of delegates, mostly comprising presidents or prime ministers from an array of nations, many hailing from “the south, the east, and the Glorious Land.” “‘The European and the Mediterranean dreams are inseparable,’ Sarkozy told leaders from more than 40 nations in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. ‘We will succeed together; we will fail together.’ The union Sarkozy championed as a pillar of his presidency brought together around one table for the first time dignitaries from such rival nations as Israel and Syria, Algeria and Morocco, Turkey and Greece” (Associated Press, July 13; emphasis mine throughout).

Holding up the EU’s accomplishments as an example toward which the Mediterranean countries should aspire, Sarkozy stated, “We will build peace in the Mediterranean together, like yesterday we built peace in Europe” (ibid.).

“Peace … peace.” The double employment of the word in this context brings to mind the Apostle Paul’s prophecy, “For when they shall say peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). Compare that prophecy with the fact that “A draft declaration obtained by the Associated Press shows that summit participants will announce ‘objectives of achieving peace, stability and security’ in the region” (ibid.). Given the context, the participants and the timing, that statement ought to electrify any student of international relations who is even partway familiar with Bible prophecy for these days!

The draft declaration issued by the conveners of the Mediterranean Union states that the union will be jointly run by all of its members, having a dual presidency. This presidency will be shared jointly, in rotating terms, by one EU member nation and one Mediterranean nation. That’s shorthand for declaring that the EU, by far the most powerful bloc of the two, will hold the whip hand.

This has been assured by Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel insisting that 27 EU nations be represented in the Mediterranean Union. The chancellor, foreshadowing one of the prime reasons for the creation of the Mediterranean Union, called the union’s first meeting “‘a very good start’ and said it could help the Middle East conflict” (ibid.).

The Mediterranean Union replaces a trial at EU Mediterranean union launched in 1995 termed the Barcelona Process. For the EU, that process has not moved quickly enough to bring Southern Mediterranean nations to heel, hence the new Franco/German initiative, which is designed to be fully up and running by year’s end.

Note that the United States is excluded from this process. The reason is simple. The EU seeks to use the new Mediterranean Union to muscle in on the Middle East, in particular so as to influence the peace process between the Palestinians and Israel, which the EU sees as going nowhere under U.S. jurisdiction.

With eyes ultimately on Middle Eastern oil, the EU is cranking up its diplomacy in the Mediterranean and Middle East, sidelining the U.S. in the process. In the meantime, certain elements within Germany see the Mediterranean Union as a process that moves their nation one step closer toward the ripest plum of all, the greatly coveted city of Jerusalem.

Will the resurrecting Holy Roman Empire, in the guise of the European Union, succeed in seizing for Rome that which Kaiser Wilhelm failed to deliver? Read our booklet Jerusalem in Prophecy for the answer! •

Ron Fraser’s column appears every Monday.
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Previous columns by this author:

• Karadzic and Islam’s Northward Push
• Karadzic and the Anti-Serbs
• The Coming Religious Storm

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Exposing the German-Vatican Plot to Occupy Jerusalem

Woe to Ariel! (Jerusalem to Suffer EU Occupation)

Europe to Take Out Iran For Jerusalem

Jerusalem's Fall, Division and Liberation

Mount Zion Under Siege: Who Will Be King of the Mountain?

The Temple of God in Holy Jerusalem

The Temple of God in Holy Jerusalem

by David Ben-Ariel

Speaking of some of the saints who were temporarily restored to physical life to testify about Yeshua's resurrection, after jealous Jewish leaders delivered Him to the bloody Romans to murder, we find, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit:

Matthew 27:53

...and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into THE HOLY CITY and appeared to many.

Paul, speaking of the imminent Third Temple, the holy TEMPLE OF GOD (the Temple of God -- not just of the Jews or any other conspiracy theory that contradicts Scripture), that Europe's wannabe divine emperor will pollute, coveting it since Satan knows (even if some religious folks don't) it is the TEMPLE OF GOD:

2 Thessalonians 2:4

...who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the TEMPLE OF GOD, showing himself that he is God.

Speaking of the imminent Third Temple and EU occupation of Jerusalem (whose days are numbered when they trespass upon the Temple Mount), and simultaneous ministry of the Two Witnesses, the apostle John was inspired by the Holy Spirit to foretell:

Revelation 11:1-3

1 Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, 'Rise and measure the TEMPLE OF GOD [not merely of the Jews or of the Masons or Illuminati or whoever some slander], the altar, and those who worship there. 2 But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread THE HOLY CITY underfoot for forty-two months. 3 And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.

Speaking of the imminent clash between Catholic Europe and Islam with Jerusalem's holy Temple Mount caught in the middle:

Daniel 11:40-45

At the time of the end the king of the South shall attack him; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. 41 He shall also enter the Glorious Land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape from his hand: Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. 42 He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 43 He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels. 44 But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. 45 And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him.

Jerusalem is holy in the biblical sense it has been called to fulfill its awesome calling to become the City of our God, the City of the Great King. It has been sanctified, set apart for a holy purpose that it will soon fulfill. It is holy, even though it is a sinful city, just like Israel and Judah are holy, set apart, sanctified, and need to learn to live holy lives.

The New Jerusalem doesn't come down from Heaven until after the initial thousand year reign of Christ who will subdue all opposition and destroy all enemies, including death and Satan when the Earth is purified by fire. Then the Father comes with New Jerusalem -- the Sabbath-keeping Church of God is a type of it.

Meanwhile, we pray for Judah and intercede for Jerusalem:

Isaiah 62:1-2

1 For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace,
And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
And her salvation as a lamp that burns.
2 The Gentiles shall see your righteousness,
And all kings your glory.
You shall be called by a new name,
Which the mouth of the LORD will name.

Isaiah 62:6-7

6 I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
They shall never hold their peace day or night.
You who make mention of the LORD, do not keep silent,
7 And give Him no rest till He establishes
And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

These watchmen are the Two Witnesses of Revelation 11 -- Two Witnesses who will testify in Jerusalem against Europe. They will announce to the cities of Judah and comfort captive Israel (all Twelve Tribes) that our God will come and save us.

Isaiah 35:4

4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
"Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and save you."

Isaiah 25:9

9 And it will be said in that day:
"Behold, this is our God;
We have waited for Him, and He will save us.
This is the LORD;
We have waited for Him;
We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation."

The Atlantic Times attacks Israel

Israel's Only Way Out: Follow Kahane!
by David Ben-Ariel

Israel must make concessions, Israel must do this, Israel must do that, while the Arabs continue to get away with mass murder and terrorism (while promising peace and feigning ignorance), aided and abetted by the international community.

The Atlantic Times repeats the list of delusional demands upon the Jewish homeland in "The Only Way Out: A Stringent Policy of Peace" that completely ignores history and the facts on the ground: Israel has no peace partners; Israel has no peace but only an ongoing war of attrition; the entire lying "peace process" is all part of the phased destruction of Israel that the Israelis have insanely enabled to continue. This harsh reality will soon blow up in the faces of those who have chosen to remain in a state of denial, repeating the big lie of Palestine as the proffered solution.

"Israel must reach an understanding with Syria," drones the asinine article written by a German Jew in a self-imposed exile from the Promised Land of Israel (contrary to Judaism), and then exposes such an "understanding" amounts to total Israeli surrender of the biblical territories of the Golan Heights (inheritance of Manasseh, son of Joseph) for more worthless promises and toilet paper agreements.

"The Jewish state must completely pull out of the occupied territories, abandon the settlements there and recognize East Jerusalem as the future Palestinian capital."

If Rafael Seligmann, the suicidal author, wants to slit his own throat or offer his head to the Nazi-Muslims, so be it. However, such murderous slander against biblical Judea and Samaria (occupied by covetous Arabs), such hateful incitement against Jewish pioneering communities (let RS take an armed stroll through the destroyed Jewish towns near Gaza, victims of Judenrein policies), and such treacherous talk against Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel, must not be tolerated! A self-respecting Jewish country would rebuke such nonsense (whether its from writers or world leaders) and unequivocally reject such an invitation for disaster.

Shame on Seligmann for his defeatist bile that spewed, "Now that the military option has been exhausted, Israel must safeguard its future through a brave policy of peace." What a schizophrenic statement! Israel has never truly utilized their military option but have always been restrained by world opinion and lucrative bribes.

If the Israelis won't properly defend themselves, they can never enjoy peace but will suffer open season against Israeli men, women, children and babies in strollers with further calls for appeasement and surrender. The German-Jesuit EU knows this full well, and wait in the wings to occupy Jerusalem as "peacekeepers." However, the EU is not a savior but a destroyer. The Vatican purposely exploits the Arab-Jewish conflict to breach Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and will soon influence agents to invoke the accursed UN Resolution 181.

The aforementioned "Seligmann Column" of Jewish self-loathing, deliberate deceit and shameful collaboration with hostile elements, crumbles when examined in the brilliant light of history and the Bible: The Israelis were offered the only way out when Meir Kahane, rabbi and former Knesset Member, reminded them of the Law of Moses that teaches peace through strength, treating sworn enemies like sworn enemies and restoring the Temple Mount (Judaism's holiest site) as the Temple Mount without apology or hesitation (Malachi 4:4).

It's past time the Israelis come to their senses and acknowledge Kahane was right and succeed, following the direction of the Torah, or the Jews will continue to suffer escalating consequences for disobedience and Jerusalem will suffer defeat (Daniel 9:11).

David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.

Preparing Jerusalem for Its King

Preparing Jerusalem for Its King

by Stephen Flurry May 2007

With hands-on help from Herbert W. Armstrong College students, 3,000 years of buried history is coming to life in Jerusalem. God is, even now, preparing the very spot from which Jesus Christ will rule the world during the Millennium. As part of its ongoing intifada against Israel, radical Islam is fighting fiercely on the intellectual battlefront as well—especially regarding Israel’s historical ties to Jerusalem. According to a new book by Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Yasser Arafat preposterously claimed to President Clinton at the 2000 Camp David summit that Solomon’s temple was not in Jerusalem (The Fight for Jerusalem). Two years later, in a newspaper interview, Arafat further advanced the myth, claiming that Solomon’s temple wasn’t even in Palestine. According to Gold, temple denial “quickly became a new Palestinian dogma that was even repeated, with the firmest conviction, by Western-educated Palestinian officials who are assiduously courted by the international media” (ibid., emphasis mine throughout). In an article titled “Reclaiming Biblical Jerusalem,” Rachel Ginsberg wrote about the territorial gains Palestinian propaganda has also made in the field of academia. “For a growing number of academics and intellectuals, King David and his united kingdom of Judah and Israel, which has served for 3,000 years as an integral symbol of the Jewish nation, is simply a piece of fiction. The biblical account of history has been dismissed as unreliable by a cadre of scholars, some of whom have an overtly political agenda, arguing that the traditional account was resurrected by the Zionists to justify dispossessing Palestinian Arabs” (Aish.com, Nov. 6, 2005). This revisionist history has even been accepted by certain Israeli scholars, Ginsberg noted: “Israel Finkelstein, chairman of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Archaeology, began championing a theory several years ago that the biblical accounts of Jerusalem as the seat of a powerful, unified monarchy under the rule of David and Solomon are essentially false. … He concluded that David and Solomon, if they existed at all, were merely ‘hill-country chieftains’ and Jerusalem a poor, small tribal village. He claims that the myth of King David was the creation of a cult of priests trying to create for themselves a glorious history.” This trend toward historical revisionism is what makes the most recent excavations of Dr. Eilat Mazar so controversial. Since 2005, she and her team of archeologists have been unearthing a massive stone structure from the original Jerusalem, called the City of David in the Bible (visit theTrumpet.com to read “King David’s Palace Found?” in our March 2006 issue). Mazar believes she has found King David’s place of residence—the royal palace. Because of her discovery, Gold wrote in his book, “The ‘minimalists’ had suffered yet another blow. Jerusalem, under the united monarchy of David and Solomon, could no longer be credibly characterized as a minor village” (op. cit.). Since October of last year, Herbert W. Armstrong College has had the honor of jointly participating with Dr. Mazar’s crew on the Jerusalem dig. Three of our volunteer students returned from the site in March. We plan to increase our involvement in Jerusalem over the summer. Here we will look at the City of David—past, present and future—and show you how Armstrong College, in a very practical, hands-on way, is helping to prepare Jerusalem for the return of Jesus Christ to this Earth! The City of David Before King David established Israel’s capital in Jerusalem, the city was a Jebusite stronghold (Joshua 15:8). When David became king in the 10th century b.c., he detested the thought of an enemy fortress retaining its location right in the middle of Israel’s territory. And so, after seven years of ruling from Hebron, David’s army attacked the Jebusite city. The Jebusites were so certain they could defend against David’s attack that they taunted the young king—saying even the blind and lame could defend the city (2 Samuel 5:6). David challenged his military generals, saying whoever captured the stronghold would be given command of the armies in the field. So Joab proceeded to lead a sneak attack by climbing up into the fortified city through a water conduit, resulting in its capture (verses 7-8). “So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward. And David went on, and grew great, and the Lord God of hosts was with him” (verses 9-10). And so the kingdom of Israel under David’s reign became a world-ruling empire, according to the Bible. But revisionist historians claim this account overstates the significance of David’s reign. For some, the biblical version is little more than a fable. The Bible says the king of Tyre built David a palace after he had conquered the Jebusite fortress and turned it into the City of David—or Jerusalem (verse 11). “But when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the [strong]hold”—or, the fortress (verse 17). This verse had a profound impact on Eilat Mazar’s mind while she prepared for the dig. “The Bible says that David heard about it and ‘descended to the fortress,’” Ginsberg wrote in her article, “implying that he went down from his palace, which was higher up on the mountain than the citadel/city.” She then quoted Dr. Mazar: “I always asked myself: Down from where? It must have been from his palace on top of the hill, outside the original Jebusite city.” Many archeologists had assumed that David’s palace must have been located within the walled city. But why would the king of Israel build his royal palace inside the cramped city walls of the old Jebusite fortress, Mazar wondered? The old city was only about 9 square acres in size. Relying on the history recorded in 2 Samuel 5:17, however, it made sense. Once David heard about the Philistines’ approach, he left his palace at the peak of Mount Zion and “went down” to the stronghold—entered the walled city, in other words. So Mazar started digging immediately north of the City of David, right at the top of Mount Zion. And after just one season of digging, she discovered a massive wall, up to 10 feet wide in some places, and running 100 feet in length, east to west. This scenario makes sense even looking at Jerusalem today. Just north of Mount Zion is Mount Moriah, where Solomon, David’s son, built the first temple, located on what is called the Temple Mount today. So when David captured the Jebusite stronghold and made it Israel’s capital, he later expanded the city northward, building his own palace adjacent to the walled city, at the top of Mount Zion. Then, to the mount just north of there, Solomon constructed a magnificent house for God. And that’s about how Jerusalem remained for the next four centuries. During the first phase of the dig in 2005, Dr. Mazar found a bulla, or clay disc used to seal scrolls, with the inscription “Yehuchal” on it. This is the name of the Judean prince mentioned in Jeremiah 37:3 (Jehucal), indicating that Judean royalty ruled from the palace David built for more than four centuries—right up to Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 585 b.c. “For me, finding the bulla was tremendous,” Mazar explained. “Yehuchal was no longer just some name in a biblical account that I might not even have been sure was true. He was a real person. We now have his business card. The account is a real account. It is very rare to find such precise evidence for a narrative in the Bible. … Today the scholarly approach to Tanach [the Bible] is that it’s not true unless you can prove it true. Maybe we should do a little reverse. Why don’t we say it’s true unless we can prove otherwise?” How refreshing—a scholar who operates on the assumption that what the Bible says is actually true. Jerusalem in “Heaps” In ancient Israel, God had placed His name in Jerusalem (2 Kings 21:1-4). But after evil kings introduced all sorts of abominable practices within the temple, God promised to cast off this city and the temple (2 Kings 23:27). And, of course, that is exactly what happened. About 130 years after Israel’s captivity at the hands of the Assyrians, God caused the Jews also to be driven out of their land into captivity and slavery. God prophesied through His servant Jeremiah, “And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant” (Jeremiah 9:11). The Hebrew word for “heaps” in this verse means heap after heap of ruins—or waves of ruins. The Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem was so thorough that very little remained of the ancient city. (See also Jeremiah 26:18 and Micah 3:12.) Seventy years after Jerusalem was destroyed, about 50,000 Jews returned in order to rebuild the ruined city. This history is recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. This time, the city of Jerusalem and the second temple weren’t nearly as impressive as the first ones. Nevertheless, this rebuilt city remained intact for about 300 years—until the second century b.c. during the Maccabean Revolt. During that period, the Syrians had gained control of much of Judah—and the Jews, led by Simon of the Maccabean brothers, set out to remove the Syrians entirely from the region. According to Jewish historian Josephus, the last Syrian stronghold to fall during the Maccabean Wars was the citadel fortress on top of Mount Zion. Simon cut off supply lines into the city in order to starve its inhabitants into submission. “He [Simon] also took the citadel of Jerusalem by siege,” Josephus relates, “and cast it down to the ground, that it might not be any more a place of refuge to their enemies when they took it, to do them a mischief, as it had been till now. And when he had done this, he thought it their best way, and most for their advantage, to level the very mountain itself upon which the citadel happened to stand, that so the temple might be higher than it.” Simon convinced the Jews of the necessity of the project, and the people went to work. “[S]o they all set themselves to the work, and leveled the mountain, and in that work spent both day and night without intermission, which cost them three whole years before it was removed, and brought to an entire level with the plain of the rest of the city. After which the temple was the highest of all the buildings, now the citadel, as well as the mountain whereon it stood, were demolished” (Antiquities of the Jews, xiii, vi, 7). And so, to this day, there appears to be one mountain—where the Temple Mount is located (Mount Moriah)—and the topography slopes downward from there, heading south. This history covered by Josephus is important for a couple reasons. First, after Mount Zion was leveled off, it was essentially left desolate for generations to come as Jerusalem construction and expansion essentially pushed northward and westward. As Herbert W. Armstrong wrote, “It is significant that few buildings now stand on the multiple-acre area of the original Jerusalem, now being excavated”—referring to an excavation of the area his organization was part of in 1969 (Plain Truth, April 1969). Second, by removing the top of Mount Zion, Simon and the Jews essentially spent three whole years getting rid of the heaps that God had prophesied to send upon the ancient city. With that in mind, consider this comment from Ginsberg: “What most amazed Mazar was how close the building is to the surface—just 1 to 2 meters underground. ‘The cynics kept saying, there will be so many layers, so many remnants of other cultures, it’s not worth digging, it’s too far down. I was shocked at how easy it was to uncover it, and how well-preserved it was, as if it were just waiting 3,000 years for us to find it,’ Mazar said.” Dr. Mazar conveyed this same amazement to me when I spoke with her in Jerusalem last year. “We only dug down a couple meters,” she said, “and we went back 3,000 years in time!” Project Delays Ginsberg also wrote about the trouble Dr. Mazar had in getting this project up and running. “More than 10 years ago, Mazar proposed a solid thesis as to the location of the palace, and argued her position in a piece published in Biblical Archaeological Review. … Despite her sound hypothesis and impeccable credentials, she couldn’t find any financial backers, as if no one in the academic world really wanted to find David’s palace. It would just be too politically complicated. It’s no wonder, when even mainstream archaeologists are inclined to play down finds which might be considered too highly charged with biblical or historical accuracy. … “Despite the seeming indifference from the academic world, Mazar’s proposal finally found a sponsor in the Shalem Center, an academic center in Jerusalem that recently established an institute for archaeological studies, and was funded by Roger Hertog, an American Jewish investment banker who told the New York Times that he fronted the dig because he wants to encourage scientific support for the Bible as a reflection of Jewish history.” So Dr. Mazar was all ready to proceed with the project in 1995, but had to wait 10 years until she could find someone to fund the project. The ancient ruins from the Davidic Empire were waiting under just a couple meters of dirt. Perhaps God delayed the project just long enough for Armstrong College to become a partner. When I first met with Dr. Mazar last August to see if she would be interested in using our volunteers, she told us the plan was to begin phase two of the dig in September but said there had already been numerous delays. When I called her two days later, she was extremely excited. Apparently, plans to begin phase two were suddenly progressing rapidly. In January, while visiting our three volunteers on the job in Jerusalem, I met with Dr. Mazar again; this time she said that after phase two ended in March, a third phase would begin soon after, without delay. This summer schedule for the dig worked out perfectly for our expanded involvement, since class will be out of session at Armstrong College. This is an incredible opportunity for Armstrong College—but not merely because of the history that is being uncovered. The most important aspect of this archeological project has to do with the future of that city. God Shall Yet Choose Jerusalem We have already noted certain prophecies where God said He would pile “heaps” upon Jerusalem—which He did. But God has also prophesied to “choose Jerusalem again” (Zechariah 2:12; see also Zechariah 1:17). Notice what Mr. Armstrong wrote to co-workers in 1968, when he sent Ambassador College students to volunteer at the Temple Mount excavations in Jerusalem, under the direction of Benjamin Mazar, Eilat’s grandfather. He said God had commissioned His people to “clean up the filth and rubble in that area that was the original Jerusalem and City of David (actually several acres of ground—this is a major operation of excavation)” (Dec. 10, 1968). And why is this important? Mr. Armstrong asked. “Because Christ has said He will yet choose Jerusalem, and make it the capital city of the whole World Tomorrow! Jesus is coming in all the supernatural power and glory to rule the world. His throne will be there. Do you not suppose it will be in the very spot He chose for David’s throne? Jesus is to sit on David’s throne! Where was David’s throne? It was on this very spot where we are now cleaning up and hauling off the rubble of century after century of accumulation! And even David is to be resurrected! That is the spot we are cleaning up! So there is a physical preparing, as well as spiritual, in preparing the way for Messiah’s coming! Further, God says we are to shout, with amplified power, to the cities of Judah the glad message that the Messiah is soon coming. This is leading to the opportunity to do this (Isaiah 40:1-11).” Mr. Armstrong said they were cleaning up the “very spot” where David’s throne was located, but actually they weren’t—they were just a little ways north of that spot, on Mount Moriah (the Temple Mount). He did indicate a desire for the volunteers to work their way down toward the City of David, but they never made it that far. God left that for us to do. And as Mr. Armstrong indicated in that letter, this all leads into the wonderful World Tomorrow when Christ will rule this Earth (Jeremiah 3:16-17) from the throne of David: “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32-33). Mr. Armstrong wrote, “How remarkable that this scriptural prediction says plainly that the messianic future world ruler—long, long looked for by many if not most Jews—is to reign on the throne of David!” (Plain Truth, op. cit.). City on a Hill This magazine has often referred to the very next prophesied event to occur in Jerusalem—the division of the city between Jews and Arabs, referred to in Zechariah 14:1-2, and how that event will lead directly to the return of Jesus Christ to this Earth. “Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south” (verses 3-4). The Mount of Olives is across the Valley of Jehoshaphat, directly east of the Temple Mount and Mount Zion. Verse 5 continues, “And ye shall flee to the valley [or through the valley] of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.” TheJamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary says the mountains mentioned here could be referring to the two mounts—Mount Moriah and Mount Zion. Notice verse 10: “All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses.” Here is how Lange’s Commentary explains this verse: “The whole land is to be leveled to a plain in order that Jerusalem may be elevated, and then the holy city is to be restored to its former grandeur. … In consequence of this depression of all the surrounding country, Jerusalem becomes high.” In other words, the Jerusalem excavations will continue right on into the Millennium. “The capital seated on her hills shines conspicuous as the only elevation in a very wide region,” says Lange. Jerusalem, in a very literal sense, will be a city that is set on a hill (Matthew 5:14). “And it shall come to pass in the last days,” the Prophet Isaiah wrote, “that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it” (Isaiah 2:2). How wonderful are the prophecies of God! Yes, there is a great spiritual excavation going on in preparation for Christ’s return (see Amos 9:11-12). But as Mr. Armstrong brought out in his 1968 letter, there is also a physical preparing for the Messiah’s appearance. “If the spot of the original throne of David is, in fact, to be the coming seat of world government, then all that accumulated debris of century after century must be cleared off before that event can occur! Exciting?” Mr. Armstrong asked (Plain Truth, op. cit.). “Beyond words to describe, it is!” ******************* I'm very happy to see God's Church has again been restored to Jerusalem, to a degree, by participating in archaeological digs like we did under the direction of Herbert W. Armstrong. I've called upon the Church of God to do this for years, and taken our leaders to task, reminding them of Herbert W. Armstrong's words concerning this part of the Great Commission too many had forgotten or woefully neglected. It's a start - or rather a resumption of the Work in Israel! The Great Mideast Commission: Reaching the Cities of Judah Jews to Receive Jesus as Israel's King! Israel and Judah Must Get House in Order Before King Messiah Arrives