Free Republic

It was one of the more astonishing political images of the year: a newspaper advertisement that linked Osama bin Laden, the suspected international terrorist, with Senator Spencer Abraham, the Michigan Republican. Why is the senator, asked the advertisement that ran in some of Michigan's largest newspapers, ''trying to make it easier for terrorists like Osama bin Laden to export their way of terror to any street in America?''

“Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’” (Gen. 12:1–3, all Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version.). The entire remainder of the Bible after these verses can be...

Two researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) studied the bones of camels found in an area of ancient copper mines in the Aravah Valley, south of the Dead Sea. Using radiocarbon dating and other techniques, they determined that camels were first used in the mining operations near the end of the 10th century BC. They state that this is the first evidence of domesticated camels in ancient Israel. This would be almost 1,000 years later than the time of the patriarchs, when camels first appear in the Bible. Their study was quickly used to claim that the Bible was written...

Archaeologists from Israel’s top university have used radiocarbon dating to pinpoint the arrival of domestic camels in the Middle East -- and they say the science directly contradicts the Bible’s version of events. Camels are mentioned as pack animals in the biblical stories of Abraham, Joseph and Jacob, Old Testament stories that historians peg to between 2000 and 1500 BC. But Erez Ben-Yosef and Lidar Sapir-Hen of Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures say camels weren’t domesticated in Israel until centuries later, more like 900 BC. “In addition to challenging the Bible's historicity, this anachronism is...

In daily Mass for the past number of days we’ve been reading from the books of Nehemiah and Ezra. These books deal with the return of the Jewish people from the Babylonian captivity.Most modern-day Christians have only a passing knowledge of these aspects of ancient Jewish history and these events may seem to have little to say to us. But in fact, they speak quite powerfully of very important human struggles today. Thus, a review of these historical events seems in order, as well as an application of them to our life and struggles today.To begin, the Jewish people, as...

Nahor the Elder was Abraham's grandfather. Abraham's mother and father had the same father but different mothers, as shown in the diagram below. Nahor was the royal title of Abraham's older brother. He ruled in the territory of his maternal grandfather and of his father Terah in the region of Aram Na-haraim, between the western Tigris and the Euphrates. This territory was established by Nimrod, one of Nahor's ancestors (Gen. 10:8-12) Na-Haraim means "dedicated to Horus." This was Horite territory. Nahor the Elder was a descendant of Nimrod, the great Kushite kingdom builder. Erech (Uruk), Accad and Calneh were shrine...

Last week I maintained that the patriarch Abraham is in certain key ways a paradigmatic figure for today’s Israel. A paradigm, though, would be expected to show some consistency in his conduct. In at least one important regard, Abraham seems to engage in behaviors that radically contradict each other. When God prepares to leave Abraham’s tent encampment for Sodom, having heard that “sin is very grievous” there and in Gomorrah, Abraham rightly infers that—should the rumors turn out to be true—God intends to do away with these dens of depravity. Yet, at that point, Abraham seems to show incredible...

To understand Abraham's call it is helpful to investigate the circumstances at the time of his father's death in Haran. Knowledge of the Horite marriage and ascendancy pattern proves especially helpful. As with all the Horite rulers, Terah had two wives. They resided in separate settlements on a north-south axis. One lived in Ur and the other in Haran. Terah traveled between his wives, a distance of at least 730 miles. Likewise, Abraham's territory extended between Hebron, where Sarah resided, and Beersheba, where Keturah resided. The Horites were ruler-priests who maintained water shrines. Abraham's father was such a ruler. His...

The armies of allah are CONVERGING RIGHT NOW towards Damascus. The sole obstacle is the Assad régime. Once Assad is down (and he will be, it’s only a matter of time: the Obama régime, al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia are ALL against Assad), the armies of allah will mobilize in order to raid JERUSALEM. Should we not mobilize? Should we not be trying urgently to mobilize the antisemitic "Christians" among us, with the use of Reason, to become friends of the Jewish People -- in order to get their support in the CRUSADE to protect JERUSALEM? Abram...

Modern-day news stories don't get more Biblical that that of elderly shepherd Avraham Herzlich – who is dogged by Arab thieves in the hills of Samaria. According to both Jewish and Muslim tradition, the Arabs are descendants of Ishmael, son of the Biblical patriarch Abraham, who was a shepherd. Last weekend, Arabs stole about 400 goats from the herd of Avraham Herzlich, leaving him with only four goats out of what was, for him, much more than a money-making business. His son Shmuel told Arutz Sheva about the robbery, not the first one where Arabs have left his father without...

The Horite caste of rulers controlled the trade routes from the Sahara to India at a time when the Sahara, Arabia and Mesopotamia were wetter. Commerce moved along the rivers which were interconnected in the late Holocene. The Horites served as shrine and temple attendants. They interceded for others and offered sacrifice. Job offered sacrifice daily for the sins of his own family. At the end of the book, Job prays for his kinsmen Eliphaz, Zophar and Bildad. This is reminiscent of Abraham praying for Abimelech and his household (Gen. 20:17,18). Purity was an essential trait of the Horite priest....

"And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening and Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom." (From this week's Torah portion, Vayerah, Genesis 19:1) Hold on a minute! Didn't Lot learn anything from his previous misadventure? Just in last week's Torah portion, Abraham endangered himself and his entire family in a World War to save Lot from captivity after he made his bad decision to move to Sodom. After Abraham redeems him, Lot disregards everything that transpired and goes right back to Sin City as if nothing had happened, at all. In order to understand this psychosis,...

Over a hundred members of the recently banned Millata Abraham Muslim sect on Friday underwent a mass conversion to mainstream faith at the Baiturrahman Raya Mosque in Banda Aceh. The sect’s leader, Zainuddin, said the idea to convert came to him in a dream on April 19 that he had while locked away in a jail cell. He is facing a five-year sentence for blasphemy stemming from his practice of the banned religion. The mass conversion comes in the wake of pronounced relgious hostility in the province. On April 6, Irwandi issued a gubernatorial decree banning the Millata Abraham, along...

"On the night of Barack Obama’s rally in Tucson..." (continued)

2010 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Dollar Launch Ceremony Planned By Coin Update Staff on October 26th, 2010 Categories: US Coins, United States Mint Details of the launch ceremony for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Dollar have been announced by the United States Mint. Launch ceremonies have typically been held on or around the circulation release date for each Presidential Dollar coin, held at a location related to the former President. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential $1 Coin will mark the 16th release of the overall series and the final release for this year. The obverse of the coin features a portrait of Lincoln...

A year ago J Street — the putatively progressive fledgling counter to the Israel lobbying group AIPAC — was riding high. They had just received a write up in the New York Times Magazine that was somewhere between a press release and a love poem and, with a complaisant Obama in the White House, the tiny organization seemed poised to be a significant player in the Middle East discussion. My, as grandma said, have times changed. For starters, J Street’s director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, has shown himself to be a Junior Beltway Pinocchio, serially denying his organization had the financial backing...

CONCLUSION 1. God fulfilled His promise for Israel to receive the land...       a. So says Joshua, the Psalmist, and the Levites       b. At the very least Solomon ruled over the entire land described to Abraham 2. Israel's retention of the land was always conditional...       a. Moses and Joshua warned Israel that it was conditional       b. The Assyrian and Babylonian captivity illustrates how Israel lost the land       c. The Restoration described in Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah illustrates how Israel regained the land

Our former NR colleague, Joe Sobran, passed away today after a long battle with a variety of ailments. He was relatively young, just 64, and while physically beaten at the end, he also departed spiritually triumphant.   Surely, in short order, there will be ample reflection — much of it critical — on the hyper-talented, hyper-controversial writer. There will be a recounting of his history at NR, the break, the following years, and Joe’s soured relationship with WFB (happily, they rekindled their friendship before Bill passed away). Good, let’s discuss all that, and more. But later. Right now, let us,...

(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong...

(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong...