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REXBURG, Idaho 26 December 2007 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prepares to welcome thousands of members of the public inside its newly completed Rexburg Idaho Temple from 29 December 2007 to 26 January 2008. As with all temple open houses, tour guides are prepared to answer questions from those curious about the emphasis the Church places on its temples and their purpose. Frank Moore Cross, the Harvard Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages, Emeritus, and not a Latter-day Saint, says, “Someone who does not know much about temples and Mormons building temples should be directed...

Elusive biblical Jerusalem wall finally found, Israeli archaeologist says The Associated PressPublished: November 29, 2007 JERUSALEM: A biblical wall that has eluded archaeologists for years has finally been found, according to an Israeli scholar. A team of archaeologists in Jerusalem has uncovered what they believe to be part of a wall mentioned in the Bible's Book of Nehemiah. The discovery, made in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, came as a result of a rescue attempt on a tower which was in danger of collapse, said Eilat Mazar, head of the Institute of Archaeology at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem-based research...

Public release date: 20-Nov-2007 Contact: George Hunka ghunka@aftau.org 212-742-9070 American Friends of Tel Aviv University Digging biblical history, or the end of the world Professor Israel Finkelstein Some come to dig the Tel Aviv University-directed archeological site at Tel Megiddo because they are enchanted by ancient stories of King Solomon. Others come because they believe in a New Testament prophecy that the mound of dirt will be the location of a future Judgment Day apocalyptic battle. Hence the second, rather more chilling name for the site: "Armageddon." Tel Megiddo has been the subject of a number of decisive battles in...

Raiders of the Faux Ark October 10, 2007 by Eric H. Cline Biblical archeology is too important to leave to crackpots and ideologues. It's time to fight back. This editorial was first published in the Boston Globe on September 30, 2007, and is republished here with their kind permission. Eric Cline at Megiddo (Courtesy Eric Cline) Noah's Ark. The Ark of the Covenant. The Garden of Eden. Sodom and Gomorrah. The Exodus. The Lost Tomb of Jesus. All have been "found" in the last 10 years, including one within the past six months. The discoverers: a former SWAT team member;...

Regaining biblical courage and zeal August 18th, 2007 · 5 Comments This weekend we watched The Last King of Scotland, and as the movie ended it reminded me that Israel used to defend its people with a level of courage, daring and zeal that I can only call “biblical.” The movie itself was about Idi Amin’s reign of terror in Uganda in the 1970s. But the final scene of the flick was the 1976 hostage crisis at Entebbe International Airport, when Palestinian terrorists hijacked an Air France plane full of Israelis and Jews and landed it in the Ugandan city...

Preacher Dan Smith turned a rap song about babes with booty into a spoof Internet hit, and used it to help create a new church for people who hate church. Dan Smith thinks Christians take themselves too seriously. Pastor Dan Smith's 'Baby Got Book' video, a big hit online, helped him start his Momentum Church. "We can be dorks," he says after Sunday service in suburban Cleveland. "We can be Ned Flanders and basically speak jargon that nobody understands." The 33-year-old pastor has made it his mission to turn the notion of earnest, boring, humorless Christianity on its head —...

Ancient cemeteries, burial caves from biblical times and centuries-old artefacts unearthed during construction work in Israel, forcing contractors by law to call in archaeologists and sometimes halt building projects Reuters Published: 11.29.06, 11:05 Building a housing complex or a road in the Holy Land can often have grave implications. Ancient cemeteries, burial caves from biblical times and centuries-old artefacts have been unearthed during construction work in Israel over the years, forcing contractors by law to call in archaeologists and sometimes halt building projects. In Holyland Park, a complex of apartments being built on a hill in Jerusalem, archaeologists will soon...

End times writers such as Hal Lindsay and Timothy LaHaye make much of Gog and Magog, the archetypal enemies of God. End times publications seem to be making lots of money for some people as the expense of good biblical exegesis, so it is time that we look into the matter of Gog and Magog. These people groups, named in the Table of Nations (Gen. 10), have incited the imagination and entered into the arena of modern fiction and enduring legend. Legends surrounding Gog and Magog are found associated with countries as distant as Russia and Denmark, and with the...

I have been praying for a while about a particular topic, waiting for when the Spirit to move me and let me know when the time is right. I have been ready to start this lesson several times, only to feel that “no, the time is not right, after all”. Based on questions and discussions I’ve been involved in and a perceived ‘nudge’, I am going to delve into a system of rabbinical teaching almost certainly used by Jesus, which we now call ‘PaRDeS’. While this system was not formally documented until well into the third century, its underpinning methods...

Thoughts on Israel -By Dr. David Reagan, Lamb & Lion Ministries,Saturday July 29, 2006 "Why don't those stubborn Jews just give the Arabs the West Bank so that there can be peace in the Middle East?" The question was directed to me by a grumpy man I was sitting next to on an airplane. Suspecting that the man did not have the foggiest idea what he was talking about, I responded with a question: "Where is the West Bank?" "You know," he said. "Yes, I know, but do you?" "Well, of course I know!" he snapped. "Okay then, where...

"Palestinians" death cult - Humanity turned Upside down 9/11 & other terror victims in agony are to be cheered, danced & laughed at but monsters on humanity (on non Arabs & on their own people like) Al-Zarqawi & Saddam Hussein are to be sympathized with. They tell us day & night that they are about "freedom", yet, in their entire violent totalitarian society, not one person is ever really free. If they deliberately send their kids to be killed as murderers (bombers or shields for adult shooters), How do they expect us to take them seriously when they make a...

PROPOSALS INVITED TOWARD A MORE CIVIL DISCOURSE RE RELIGIOUS FIGURES AT ODDS WITH VARIOUS SENSIBILITIES The current thread regarding Pat Robertson is but the latest in a long tradition of certain flavors of evangelical Christian and particularly Pentecostal/Charismatic religious figures being thoroughly shredded by what--90% or more of the posts--usually in the harshest, most hostile, even demonizing wording possible. It seems that when folks are perceived to be in such Pentecostal/charismatic categories, all bets are off, no holds barred--the most viscious attacks are the minimal Standard Operating Procedure. Instead of exhorting one another in Christian Love, the worst attitudes normally...

Folks, Fr. Benedict Ashley, O.P. wrote a very enlightening article exploring the effort to root Catholic theological systems more firmly in the Bible, as desired by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council. According to Fr. Ashley, that hasn't happened still. The article is entitled The Bible Gap: Spanning the Distance Between Scripture and Theology and these are my favorite quotes:Recently the Pontifical Biblical Commission has instructed us on the strengths and weaknesses of various methods of modern biblical exegesis. Yet when it was consulted by the Holy See on what the Bible might have to say about the ordination...

PLANTATION -- The manger scene at the Broward Mall cost him $1,000, but for Len Torres, the symbolism is worth much more. This year he got his Christmas wish when he was able to purchase and erect the holiday scene. The multi-piece scene of the baby Jesus surrounded by biblical characters and animals was set up a week ago on Sunday night just outside the Sears entrance.

Meir Shitreet says Israel will have to leave most of its Biblical heartland By Israel Insider staff and partners December 2, 2005 Israel will have to pull out of most of the West Bank and allow the Palestinians to establish a state, a Cabinet minister close to Ariel Sharon said in an interview published Friday. In the meantime, "not a single additional house" should be built in the communities of Judea and Samaria ("the West Bank"), Cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit, who recently joined Sharon's new centrist Kadima party, told The Jerusalem Post. Israelis should instead settle in the outlying Negev...

Americans who don't believe in God have decided it's time they had a lobbyist in the nation's capital. Their new advocate describes herself as a "soft, fuzzy atheist." Lori Lipman Brown starts Monday as executive director of the Secular Coalition for America. Her two goals: keep religion out of government and win respect for a stigmatized minority. The magnitude of those challenges is, well, biblical. Think Daniel entering the lion's den, or David taking on Goliath. Christian conservatives wield enormous clout here through a network of advocacy groups and relationships with politicians from President Bush on down. Atheists, humanists and...

A debate of biblical proportions By Ran Shapira The recently ended season of excavations at the top of the City of David slope was accompanied by much excitement. With every passing day, more and more parts of an enormous building were unearthed. Dr. Eilat Mazar, the archaeologist in charge of the site, believes this could be the palace King David built after conquering Jerusalem from the Jebusites. The discovery has stirred up the old argument among archaeologists as to whether the events described in the Bible in fact occurred, and in this context, the importance and greatness of David himself....

Dig backs biblical account of Philistine city of GatLast update - 02:53 09/08/2005 By Amiram BarkatThe moat running around Gat that was to enforce the siege. David Bachar New evidence regarding the bitter end of Gat, the largest and most important Philistine city, was recently unearthed at a dig at Tel Zafit near the Masmia intersection in the Lachish region. According to Kings II (12:18), Gat was conquered by King Hazael of Aram. He intended to capture Jerusalem as well, but King Jehoash of Judah saved the capital while losing treasure taken from the Temple (Kings II 14:14). Findings at...

Bedouin wanders across Biblical manuscript Fragments of a Biblical manuscript dating back to the last Jewish revolt against Roman rule in 135 AD Judaea, have been uncovered near the Dead Sea. After four decades with a dearth of new finds, archaeologists had resigned themselves to believing the desert caves in the modern-day West Bank had already yielded all their secrets from the Roman era. "It's simply sensational, a dream come true," archaeology professor Hanan Eshel, a Biblical specialist at Israel's Bar Ilan University, said. For the past 20 years, he has scoured the Judaean desert around the Dead Sea, overturning...

Over the years I have appreciated and admired what Billy Graham has stood for and against. His integrity has been near perfect. When most evangelists have slipped or stuck their feet in their mouths, Billy Graham has stood on the Word of God, without wavering. During the past six decades, his message of Jesus Christ has been heard by over 210 million in 185 countries. He has been counsel to presidents, a passionate evangelist, a loving husband, and a caring father. This past weekend in New York, it was Graham’s much-anticipated last revival. Instead of focusing on his revival, Graham...