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Final warning a history of the new world order
chapter Ten setting the stage for destruction
when the conspiracy actually began By now, there should be no doubt in your mind that there is an orchestrated effort by a small group of men to establish a one-world government. Even though we have gone back to look at the roots, and evolution of this movement, the actual motive goes back much farther than that. Just think, what motivation could there be to fuel that kind of desire. The answer is that you have to look at things with a spiritual eye, in order to comprehend the complexities that the New World Order actually represents. And when you do that, then you can understand how it has been able to progress through all these years, and why it will continue. This Part will deal with the application of the First Part to Biblical research and end-time prophecy. Although space constraints will only allow a general treatise of the major elements, I will be dealing with these matters in a much more detailed fashion on my website (www.viewfromthewall.com) in the near future.
When you read Genesis 1:1-2, it says: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” The Rotherham translation of the Bible, which was taken from the original Hebrew, says: “Now the earth had become waste and empty.” You have to understand that there was an undetermined amount of time which passed between these two verses. However, we do have some clues about certain events which occurred before Adam, and the refurbishing of this world for his habitation.
Just as God told Noah and his sons in Genesis 9:1 to “replenish” the earth after the flood, God had told Adam and Eve the same thing in Genesis 1:28. This seems to indicate that there were men on the earth before Adam. Proof of this can be found in Jeremiah 4:23-26. Now you can understand the time frame, and the circumstances regarding Lucifer (the ‘lightbringer’). He was a “cherub” (the highest classification of angels), and is described in the Bible as being wise and perfect. It was his job to bring light. Eventually he became proud of himself, and sought to take the place of God (Isaiah 14:12-17, Ezekiel 28:2, I Timothy 3:6). He led a third of the angels (Revelation 12:4) in a revolt against Michael, the archangel, and the remaining angels (Jude 1:6, II Peter 2:4-5) for the control of Heaven.
This battle for the control of Heaven nearly destroyed the earth. After his defeat, Lucifer was cast down to earth, where he became known as “Satan” (which means ‘adversary’), the leader of the fallen angels (or demons), and the “god of this world.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)
When God renewed the earth, and created man in His image, He gave Adam dominion over the earth, which infuriated Satan, who had the impression that he was to rule over the earth. Again, Satan plotted against God, and caused Adam and Eve to sin by eating the fruit of the tree which was forbidden by God. For their sin, they were banished from the Garden of Eden. Ever since then, Satan has been carrying out his plan to corrupt and control the earth. For six thousand years, a small group of satanically empowered men have been feverishly working to eliminate God and to enslave mankind. The New World Order is nothing more than the culmination of these efforts; the final step of a plan that will enable Satan to again challenge God, and the angelic forces of Heaven.
Helping Things Along
In the story about Cain and Abel, when Cain killed his brother, he was cursed by God (Gen. 4:11) and exiled. Genesis 4:12 says: “When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength...” Yet, we find that Cain established the city of Enoch; and his descendants Jubal, was the father of those who became proficient in the harp and organ, and Tubalcain, was a teacher of brass and iron works. We also find, that it wasn’t until Enos, the son of Seth, that men began “to call upon the name of the Lord.” (Gen. 4:26) Though it doesn’t say, the implication is that the line of Cain was ungodly.
The apocryphal Second Book of Adam and Eve, bluntly gives details about this. In chapter 20:2-4, it says: “But as to this Genun (a son of Lamech), Satan came into him in his childhood; and he made sundry trumpets and horns, and string instruments, cymbals and psalteries, and lyres and harps, and flutes; and he played on them at all times and at every hour. And when he played on them, Satan came into them, so that from among them were heard beautiful and sweet sounds, that ravished the heart. Then he gathered companies upon companies to play on them; and when they played, it pleased well the children of Cain, who inflamed themselves with sin among themselves, and burnt as with fire; while Satan inflamed their hearts, one with another, and increased lust among them.”
Although the origin and truth of this apocryphal book can never be ascertained, and it never became part of the holy canon, it is believed that the writings were part of an older, more ancient document that accurately reflected upon the events of this historical period. For a family line that has been perceived as being ungodly, they developed musical instruments, and the expertise and ability of producing weapons of war from metal mined out of the earth. Was the knowledge of these things God-given? I have concluded that they were not, and even though the evidence is circumstantial, I believe that Satan, through demons, divulged this information.
Ezekiel 28:13 relates that there were musical instruments created within the body of Lucifer, and it has been said that every time he moved, he played music. He led the angelic praise and worship of God. So when he fell, he knew the importance of music, and how to use it to his advantage. It seems likely that he would have bestowed the knowledge of music. Primitive cultures, American Indian ceremonies, and occult rituals are well known to have used the hypnotic and influential properties of music to enhance their activities.
And through weapons, and the means to wage war, people are controlled.
So, yes, I believe that there was some Satanic influence on the technology of the people at the time, because he was laying the groundwork for his plans to regain control of the world that he once ruled.
According to Tom Van Asperen there is a language of Twice Speak in the Bible, which is a separate code language, much like Equidistant Letter Sequencing, and Mathematical Signature. Basically, it is a revealing of the “secret” talked about in Amos 3:7 that has unlocked the typical and anti-typical method of recording Biblical history, and at the same time, end-time prophetic events. Asperen believes there is so much of this type of prophecy in the Old Testament, that, in a sense, it becomes another New Testament.
I have found some of the Twice Speak revelations to be fascinating in as far as it acts as an underlying witness to the Scriptures. However, when the interpretations provide new information that can not be found in the Biblical text then I have to question it. But, although this concept may be new to you, and may seem kind of off the wall, let’s just assume for argument’s sake that it is a divine Biblical code that proves the word of God, gives us a better understanding of it, and further reveals end-time prophetic events; and let’s assume that the events concerning the line of Cain is also a prophecy concerning the last days.
In 1997, Simon and Schuster published a book called The Day After Roswell, by Col. Philip J. Corso (Ret.). The cover proclaimed: “The truth exposed after fifty years- A former Pentagon official reveals the U.S. Government’s shocking UFO cover-up.” The subject of the book was the alleged crash of a flying saucer in Roswell, New Mexico, where alien bodies and pieces of the aircraft were recovered back in 1947. The government has long denied this happened, and indeed continues to deny the existence of flying saucers and extraterrestrial life. You might not believe in flying saucers. But bear with me, I don’t want you to question my credibility now.
Let’s look at the time period this occurred. It was 1947, which was around the time that flying saucers were first sighted. Now what else happened about that time? The United Nations was established in 1945, and Israel became an independent nation in 1948. These two events occurring around the same time was not a coincidence, because it set the stage for Armageddon, and the fulfillment of all things. The United Nations, or the foundation for a world government, was the prophetic trigger, and with the time-sensitive prophecies contained in the Bible, Satan knew that he was running out of time.
It was initially reported that a flying saucer crashed at Roswell, and also at that time, there were enough sightings and pictures in other parts of the country to give the report credibility. Since then, there has been so much evidence for the existence of flying saucers and aliens, that it’s become pretty much an accepted fact, even though the government continues to deny their existence. In fact, there is so much information and evidence, that now, the Christian church has said that, yes, there is something to it all.. The Christian perspective, and growing consensus, is that aliens are actually demonic manifestations. There have been four or five Christian books on the subject. So, again, let’s assume that there was a flying saucer that crashed at Roswell.
Philip Corso, is his book The Day After Roswell, relates, that as a member of President Eisenhower’s National Security Council, his Research and Development team at the Pentagon analyzed and integrated the alien artifacts found at Roswell into the private business sector. According to him, major companies such as IBM, Hughes Aircraft, Bell Labs, and Dow Corning, were unknowingly given the alien technology, which became the integrated circuit chips, fiber optics, lasers, and the super-tenacity fibers of today.
What I want to hone in on, is the information in Chapter 12, which discusses the “Integrated Circuit Chip: From the Roswell Crash Site to Silicon Valley.” Among the wreckage, Corso said that charred quarter-size, cracker-shaped, silicon wafers were found, which had grid lines etched on them, which was actually microscopic circuitry. An analysis of the craft’s remains failed to turn up any wiring, so it was determined that these chips actually represented the nerve center of the vehicle, carrying signals through the ship, just like impulses are carried throughout the nervous system of our body.
Corso wrote (page 167):
In 1948, it was revealed that the first junction silicon transistor had been developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories, and the technological capabilities of the computer industry took a huge leap in a short period of time. Even Corso wondered about where it would all lead (page 172): “..what if an enemy wanted to implant the perfect spying or sabotage mechanism into a culture? Then the implantation of the microchip-based circuit into our technology by the EBEs (aliens) would be the perfect method. Was it planted as sabotage or as something akin to the gift of fire? Maybe the Roswell crash in 1947 was an event waiting to happen, like poisoned fruit dropping from the tree into a playground.”
Now, instead of aliens, think demons, and I believe we have an anti-typical fulfillment of the prophetic event that took place when the line of Cain was given hidden knowledge. I believe that our computer technology, which developed into the Internet, is part of Satan’s plan for the last days, and will be used to carry out his devious end-time plot. Only God is omnipotent and omnipresent, however, through a world-wide computer network, Satan will be able to falsely misrepresent his power. For years, it was believed that the huge computer in Brussels, Belgium would be the one that would be used to record the files of everyone on Earth. Now it has come to light that our National Security Agency has a huge classified underground database at Fort Meade, Maryland, that covers an area of ten acres.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
The Prophetic Trigger of God’s Timeline
For hundreds of years, it has been common knowledge within the Church, that mankind’s life span upon this earth would be 6,000 years. This was gleaned from Exodus 20:9-10, which says: “Six days shalt thou labor ... But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Like many things in the Scriptures, it had a deeper meaning beyond what was being conveyed about their calendar, which was later revealed in 2 Peter 3:8 – “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
In 1650, using these Scriptures, Archbishop Jacob Ussher of Armagh in Ireland, attempted to calculate when the Creation took place by using chronological information from the Bible and counting backward from the date of the birth of Christ. At that time, it was believed that Christ was born in 4 BC (some calculations had indicated that it may have been as late as 1 BC or as early as 6 BC; however, recent evidence have determined it to be 3 BC), so Ussher theorized that the Creation took place in 4004 BC, and the passing of four “days” (two thousand years before the law, and two thousand years after the law) took us to Christ’s birth in 4 BC, so two more ‘days’ would end the six ‘days’ at 1996. The Sabbath, or the seventh ‘day,’ is the Millennium, or the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ upon the Earth, which is referred to in the 20th chapter of Revelation.
An apocryphal book known as the Epistle of Barnabas, which early church leaders such as Origen and Jerome believed had been written by the first recruit of the Apostle Paul, Barnabas, said:
“And God made in six days the works of His hands; and He finished them on the seventh day, and rested on the seventh day and sanctified it. Consider, my children, what that signifies, He finished them in six days. The meaning of it is this: that in six thousand years the Lord God will bring all things to an end. For with him, one day is a thousand years; as Himself testifieth, saying, behold this day shall be as a thousand years. Therefore children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, shall all things be accomplished. And what is it that He saith, and He rested the seventh day; He meaneth this; that when his Son shall come, and abolish the season of the wicked one, and judge the ungodly; and shall change the sun and the moon, and the stars, then He shall gloriously rest in that seventh day.”
Irenaeus, an early church leader, while writing in 150 AD about the book of Genesis in his book Against Heresies said: “This is an account of the things formerly created, as also it is a prophecy of what is to come. For the day of the Lord is as a thousand years; and in six days created things were completed; it is evident, therefore, that they will come to an end at the sixth thousand years.” Around 300 AD, in the writings of Christian scholar Lactantius, he said:
Other writers during the early Christian era also reflected this premise.
Some researchers have sought to adjust the calculations of this theory. The Jewish calendar conformed to the solar year, which contained 360 days, or 12 months of 30 days. In 1583, the Gregorian calendar was adopted, which added an extra 5.25 days to that year. If you add 2,160,000 days (6,000 years X 360 days) to 2,173.50 days (414 years of 5.25 days), you get 2,162,173.50 days, which divided by the Jewish year of 360 days, would make the end of the sixth day, the year 2002. When you deduct from that figure, the seven year period which is commonly referred to as the Tribulation period, that leaves us with the year of 1995 as the culmination of the efforts to establish a New World Order.
There is another theory, which has to do with the amount of time that the Jewish race would be dispersed across the Earth. The Jews were in bondage in Egypt for 430 years and later for 70 years in Babylon. These dates were foretold. The purpose of the prophecy which is given in Ezekiel 4:1-8 was to show how long the Jews would be scattered as a people. Other Scriptures deal with the extent of the dispersal: Deut. 28:25, Deut. 28:64, Jer. 24:9, and Amos 9:9. Adding the 390 and 40 years, gives you 430 years. Leviticus 26:18 says: “And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.” From 430, subtract the 70 years they were punished in Babylon, and what God was telling Moses, was that the Jewish people would be dispersed for 2,520 years (360 years X 7).
Now here is where it gets a little tricky. Nebuchadnezaar’s first return of his Jewish captives was in 536 BC, and the final return was in 516 BC. Again, using the adjustment for the two calendars, and using the earliest date of 536 BC, we get these calculations: 907,200 days (2520 years X 360 days) plus 2,110.50 days (402 years X 5.25 days) is 909,310.50 days divided by 360 days of the Jewish calendar is 2525.86 years, or the year 1990. But then, the latter date of 516 BC, would give us the year 2010.
The Bible also says that the events of the end times would not take place until all of the Jews returned to their homeland, and this return is referred to in: Isa. 5:26, Isa. 11:11-12, Isa. 43:5-6, Jer. 16:15, Jer. 30:3, Eze. 34:11-13, Eze. 36:24, and Zech. 10:8. This return of God’s chosen people, only refers to pure, full-blooded Jews (Gen. 6:1-4, Ezra 10:2-18, Neh. 13:27, Jude 1:7). In 1800, Palestine had a population of 150 Jews; 1827- 1,500 Jews; 1850- 8,000; 1910- 41,000; 1914- 100,000; 1930- 170,000; 1935- 300,000; 1939- 450,000; 1948- 650,000; 1953- 1,300,000; 1962- 2,000,000; and 1970- 2,500,000. Now there are nearly five million Jews in Israel which have been gathered up from over 102 different nations.
A gentleman by the name of Joe Marler had proposed a theory based on Daniel 9:25-26 which says: “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off...” The Hebrew word for “week” is ‘shabula’ which means ‘seven,’ indicating that a ‘week’ is actually 7 ‘weeks’ of years, or 49 years, which is known as the Jubilee cycle (Lev. 25:8).
The 62 weeks began when the city of Jerusalem, and its Temple, which was destroyed in 586 BC, was rebuilt. Three such decrees were given. The first came during the first year of the reign of Cyrus (King of Persia, 536-527 BC), who ruled for nine years; after which his son Cambyses (527-520 BC) took over, and all the work on the Temple was stopped for seven years. The second decree was made by Darius I, in the second year of his 35-year reign (520-485 BC). Construction resumed on the Temple in 520 under Zerubbabel, the Persian governor, and was completed between 516-514 BC. Then Xerxes reigned 21 years (485-464 BC). Artaxerxes ruled 40 years (464-424 BC), and during his seventh year, in 457 BC, he decreed that Jerusalem be restored. Nehemiah, the cupbearer to Artaxerxes, was sent to Jerusalem in 444 BC to complete the work on the walls of the city to fortify it. Thus the period of 62 weeks represents 434 years, which added to 444 BC, indicates the date of 10 BC, which is close to the time of the birth of Christ.
Marler’s research somehow led him to the period of 440-438 BC, and adding 434 years to 438 BC led to 4 BC, which is closer to the actual date of the birth of Jesus. Marler believes that the other seven ‘weeks’ or 49 years apply to the second coming of Jesus. Rather than using the date of May 14, 1948, when Israel officially became an independent country, he used the date of November 29, 1947, when the United Nations voted 33-13 to approve a Jewish homeland. Adding 49 years indicated a date of November 29, 1996, as the end of man’s rule on this Earth.
By counting back 3-1/2 years, he theorized that the period known as the Tribulation would begin May 29, 1993. The irony here is a story that was reported on the news on May 19, 1993. Big Ben, the renowned tower clock famous for its accuracy, which was installed in 1859 at the eastern end of the Houses of Parliament in London, had mysteriously stopped running. Was the most recognized time piece in the world stopped through divine means to signal the beginning of the end? No. And another ‘date’ has come and gone.
There are also those researchers who have chosen to totally base all of their calculations on the premise of 360 days indicating a Biblical year. For instance, in Hosea 6:1-2 it says: “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.” From the initiation of Christ’s ministry, in the fall of 28 AD, and adding two “days” (2 years X 360 days) would give us 720,000 days, which adjusted to our calendar by dividing into that 365.25 results in 1971.25 years, which added to 28.75, takes us to the year 2000.
Another one has to do with the cleansing of the Temple. In 168 BC, the Syrian King Antiochus IV Epiphanes attacked Israel, and sacrificed a pig to Zeus on the Temple altar, an event that is referred to as the Abomination of Desolation. The period till cleansing, according to Daniel 8:14, was 2,300 days, which some scholars feel refers to 2,300 morning and evening rituals, or 1,150 days (3 years, 2 months and 10 days), which seemingly points to the ritual cleansing performed by Judas Maccabaeus three years later, after the success of the Hasmonean revolt. However, according to the apocryphal book of the Maccabees, the Temple was cleansed in 1,080 days.
To make matters worse, while the King James version states 2,300 days for this period, the Greek Septuagint, which was used during the time of Christ, says 2,400 days. In his 1754 book Dissertations on the Prophecies, Bishop Thomas Newton wrote about the existence of a third manuscript of the book of Daniel, which was mentioned in a Commentary of Jerome, the early church leader. This manuscript gives the figure of 2,200 days. Since this figure can not be applied literally to the events of that time, it is believed that the figure should be considered as years. This assumption is based upon Ezekiel 4:6, which says: “I have appointed thee each day for a year”; and Numbers 14:31, which talks of “each day for a year.” If the figure of 2,200 ‘days’ is used, the following calculation is then applied: 2,200 years X 360 days = 792,000 days, which adjusted for our calendar year of 365.25, results in 2,168 years. When this figure is added to 168 BC, it leads us to the year 2000.
Another theory deals with the Times of the Gentiles. This phrase stems from a statement by Jesus in Luke 21:24: “...and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” This refers to a period which began in 606 BC when the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem. In Daniel 4:23, according to Nebuchadnezzar’s vision (who is represented by a tree, as men sometimes were: Psalms 1:3, Psalms 37:35, Ez. 31:3), “seven times” were to pass over him. Revelation 11:2-3 (“42 months” X 30= 1,260 days), Rev. 12:6 (“a thousand two hundred and threescore days” or 1,260 days), Rev. 12:14 (“a time, and times, and half a time” or 360 + 720 + 180= 1,260 days) indicates that a “time” is 360 days, which means that seven “times” would be 2,520 ‘days’ or years (on top of referring to the seven years God struck him down with a period of insanity to show his power).
The calculation would go like this: 2,520 years X 360 days = 907,200 days, which adjusted to our calendar year of 365.25 days, results in 2,483.78 years. When this figure is added to 606 BC, it leads us to the year 1878, which is believed to be the end of “the times of the Gentiles.” Now comes an interesting proposal. When Jesus spoke of the way things were in the “days of Noah,” when God gave mankind an additional 120 years (Gen. 6:3) to repent, before he sent the flood; this period has been added to the year 1878 (of course in the adjusted form of 118.28 of our calendar years), which indicates the year of 1997 as the end of “the times of the Gentiles” and the beginning of the judgment period known as the Tribulation, which when you add this 3-1/2 years, and leads us to the year 2000.
Let me throw one more at you, which came to me from an e-mail, and the website of Torstein Langesaeter from Norway, who made a very detailed mathematical calculation to determine the number of years between Adam, and Jesus; and believes that the period of 6,000 years will conclude in 2028.
All of these calculations can be somewhat correlated to the six ‘day’ theory, in that it indicates a time frame for events within this 6,000 year period. Jesus was very specific when He spoke about the signs of His return, and He exhorted His disciples to watch, and pray. Because of the symbolism, type and anti-types, and dual prophecies used in the Bible, was there something that would signal the end of time as we got closer to the end of the six ‘days’ or 6,000 years? In Luke 21:25, Jesus talked about the “signs ... upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity...”
There was a period in our history when a sequence of events occurred which seemed to set the stage for the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Let’s look at the events which happened during the three year period of 1945 – 1948:
1) On June 26, 1945, at a San Francisco conference, 50 nations met to adopt the United Nations charter. The UN General Assembly held their first meeting in London on January 10, 1946.
2) A UFO was reported to have crashed in Roswell, New Mexico on July 4, 1947.
3) On November 29, 1947, the UN voted to approve a Jewish homeland, and on May 14, 1948, Israel became a nation.
4) It has been long accepted that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, but according to Randall Price in his book Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls he found out that they may have actually been discovered as early as 1936. However, 1947 was time when their existence was revealed.
5) The World Council of Churches was established on August 23, 1948.
Just as we are able to interpret prophecy, and determine the signs of the times– so has Satan. He knew the time that Israel would prophetically be resurrected as a nation, and he had to make sure his plans would be in place, so, when the time came, he would be able to deceive the world into accepting the Antichrist as the messiah.
Let’s look at the events surrounding Israel becoming a nation. The establishment of the United Nations would herald the move toward one-world government. As discussed earlier, recent exposé has shown that there was a UFO crash at Roswell, and among the technology gleaned from it was integrated circuit chips, fiber optics, and lasers. The treasure of ancient documents found at Qumran has yielded copies of nearly every Old Testament book, however, it has also turned up documents from a Jewish sect known as the Essenes. As these Dead Sea Scrolls were translated in secret, the scholars behind them began to use them to undermine the divinity Jesus, by saying that the Essenes were the true originators of what became known as Christianity. And the World Council of Churches would begin the move toward ecumenicalism that is seeking to bring all the world’s religions together into one unified body.
Now let’s put these events in perspective with Bible prophecy.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:34 – “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Jesus was speaking to his disciples concerning the last days, and had just told them about the parable of the fig tree. Some Bible scholars have interpreted Ezekiel 36:8 to mean that the fig tree represented the nation of Israel. So it is believed that Jesus was referring to the generation that would be alive when Israel became a nation on May 14, 1948. Job 42:16 refers to a generation as being 35 years, while Webster’s Dictionary indicates that it is forty years. The figure of 40 years is echoed in Hebrews 3:9-10 which says: “When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation...” Adding 40 years to 1948 would give us the year 1988.
But let me add another wrinkle to this theory. It is no secret that Bible prophecy, and the understanding of it, revolves around Israel. Israel is the only nation that is referred to in the masculine gender. According to Jewish custom, a male is labeled under the following age categories: child (1-12), young man (13-19), warrior (20-29), and mature man (30-50, who is able to officiate in the Temple). The age of 50 is the age of retirement (and Jubilee). So if you interpret this as being symbolic and add 50 years to 1948, you get the year 1998, which is more closely aligned with the other calculations.
I think you’ll agree that this sequence of events was unprecedented, and that it was no coincidence that these major events happened in such a short period of time. This is why I believe, that collectively, they represent the prophetic trigger that has set into motion the time which has come to be known as the “last days.” These events began the toppling of the prophetic dominoes that will eventually lead to the fulfillment of all things, and the culmination of the events foretold in the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation.
Though Jesus said in Matthew 24:36 “... of that day and hour knoweth no man,” the prophetic outline He gave indicated the warning signs we are to look for. When it is cloudy, it is a sign that it is going to rain. Much the same, Jesus told his disciples what to look for, and in Matt. 24:33 explained that “when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near...” I for one will not try to calculate a date. I believe that it’s okay to come up with a time frame, but in the context that we also consider the signs that Jesus told us to look for. We have been seeing the signs. Without a doubt the end is near. Make sure that your heart is right with God. Watch, and pray.
THE RAPTURE
When this manuscript was initially printed in 1984, I had included a brief section on the Rapture, just to basically cover all the different Rapture theories. Since I grew up being taught in church that there was going to be a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, I sort of leaned that way. But because of all my research, and actually getting into the Scriptures myself, I began to rethink Pre-Trib. When the book was published in 1994, I did not include anything about the Rapture, either way, for fear that it would alienate people and detract from the message I was presenting.
However, things are quite different now. With the juggernaut of the “Left Behind” series consuming this country with best-selling books, audio books, movies, videos and DVD’s with their Pre-Tribulation Rapture theory, I felt it was necessary to weigh in with the results of my research. Believe it or not, it’s pretty straight forward, and the Scripture doesn’t require a theological scholar to interpret its meaning.
The word ‘rapture’ is not in the Bible. It actually comes from the Latin word ‘rapturo,’ which means ‘to seize or be carried away in one’s spirit,’ or the transporting from one place to another, and comes from the 1 Thessalonians 4:17 term “caught up.” The original Greek word was ‘harpazo,’ and refers to the same thing. The notion of the Rapture, with its Pre-Tribulation, Mid-Tribulation, Partial Tribulation, and Post-Tribulation theories have been one of the most divisive issues in the Church, with the Pre-Trib view being the prevailing one. If this is your view, please do not be offended that I would kick this sacred cow until you have read the evidence.
The Rapture is a supernatural event that the Church has said will occur in the end-times to remove them from this world when ‘trouble’ starts.
“But there shall not an hair of your head perish.” (Luke 21:28)
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
The following Scriptures are key–
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)
“So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.” (Job 14:12)
There is no reason that we can’t take these verses literally. We can see that when Jesus returns, there will be a resurrection of the dead, and then a ‘catching away’ of the living. This will occur when the “heavens be no more.” In John 6:44, Jesus says: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” If He would return before the Tribulation, that wouldn’t be the “last day.”
So, when is He going to return?
“And the gospel must first be published among all nations.” (Mark 13:10)
“But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place … For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be … Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect … Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” (Matthew 24:13-30)
“And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.” (Luke 17:23-24)
“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him … Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God … And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-6)
These four Scriptures give you an absolute time frame for the coming of Jesus. There’s only one resurrection– not two; He’s only coming one time– not twice. There is nowhere in the Scripture that indicates the He is coming twice. It really irritates me when I hear well-meaning ministers on the radio or television who say that ‘Jesus could come back tonight– are you ready?’ No, Jesus is not coming back tonight! How do I know that? Because God’s Word says so. Christ will not return to this earth until–
The Gospel is preached and distributed to the entire world.
A “falling away” will occur.
The “abomination of desolation” and the revealing of the “man of sin” takes place.
The three things that have to happen before Christ’s return is that the Gospel has to be presented to the entire world (which quite possibly has been fulfilled), there must be a “falling away,” (which has not occurred yet), and the “abomination of desolation,” which is when the Antichrist will reveal himself as the Messiah in the Temple. Then the Tribulation will come.
“Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22)
Jesus tells his disciple that He will return “immediately after the tribulation.” Of the period after the Tribulation, Jesus says:
“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” (Luke 21:36)
Though Christians can’t even consider being on the earth during the Tribulation, there are examples, and Scripture to support the case for this. Jesus Himself (Luke 17:26-30, see also Isaiah 43:2) in His discussion about the end-times, used the days of Noah and Lot as examples. Noah, and his family endured the Flood in an ark of protection. Lot and his family escaped the destruction of Sodom only by being obedient and turning their backs on the city. If you remember, Lot’s wife didn’t listen. Jesus even pointed that out in Luke 17:32 when He said: “Remember Lot’s wife.” In addition, the Hebrews were protected from the plagues that were brought against Pharaoh and Egypt. We can also take note of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego surviving the fiery furnace, as well as Daniel going through the ordeal in the Lion’s Den. These examples also lead us into another aspect of end-time theology which further explains the flow of events.
It is important to delineate between the Tribulation period, and the time of Armageddon. The Tribulation, or the time when the Antichrist influences the world, is man’s wrath on man. The time of the end, when Jesus returns, will be God’s wrath on man. The examples of Noah, Lot, and the Hebrews were examples of God’s wrath, and a separation from it. The examples of Shadrach and the boys, and Daniel, were examples of going through tribulation, man’s wrath, and being protected. And you’ll notice that these incidents are in the book of Daniel, the prophetic book that gives information about the time of the Antichrist.
The time when Jesus is to return has been referred to as the ‘day of the Lord.’ So let’s look at what that is.
“Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.” (Isaiah 13:9)
“For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter … For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.” (Isaiah 34:2, :8)
“Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.” (Joel 1:15)
“Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.” (Amos 5:18)
“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come:” (Acts 2:20)
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” (2 Peter 3:10)
“And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.” (Revelation 14:9)
The ‘day of the Lord’ is associated with His vengeance and wrath, and is most detailed in the book of Revelation. This is the “last day” that Jesus talked about. God’s wrath is not meant for His people– His Church. You can see this in 1 Thessalonians 5:9: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” Rev. 3:10 says: “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” This is the time that Jesus will return, before God’s wrath is brought upon the earth.
Even though we are given the seasons in time when the Rapture will occur, Jesus said in Matthew 24:36: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” However, the following portions of Scripture definitively illustrates the time frame that the Rapture will take place, and to me, it can’t be any plainer.
“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” (Revelation 16:13-16)
“For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape … Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” (1 Thessalonians 5:2-6)
These passages indicate that the Antichrist and False Prophet are preparing for Armageddon, which will be the “great day of God Almighty.” Jesus will come as a “thief,” a term used to indicate the Rapture, and the admonition of ‘watching’ and ‘keeping your garments,’ is a warning to keep your heart right, and not be a part of the “falling away.”
There has been some much-criticized research by Dave MacPherson to indicate that the Pre-Tribulation Rapture may be a fairly recent creation. Great men of God like John Wesley, Charles Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, John Knox, John Calvin, Isaac Newton, George Whitfield, John Newton, Jonathan Edwards and John Wycliffe never talked about a Pre-Trib Rapture, because the concept literally did not exist. In 1993, after years of investigation, in a well-researched, well-articulated manner, MacPherson was able to put the whole story together about the actual origin of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture teaching.
A gentleman by the name of John Nelson Darby (1800-82), a founding father of the Plymouth Brethren Church in England, is the guy who has received the most attention for teaching the Pre-Trib theory. Some researchers maintain that he was expressing this view as early as 1827, yet it was an article he wrote in 1850 which squarely places him in the Pre-Trib corner:
“It is this passage (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2) which, twenty years ago, made me understand the rapture of the saints before– perhaps a considerable time before– the day of the Lord (that is, before the judgment of the living.)”
By his own admission, he claims 1830 as the year he gained this revelation. It is therefore believed that Darby heard it from Edward Irving (1792-1834), of the Apostolic Catholic Church; and Irving actually found out about it from Margaret Macdonald (c. 1815-40), a 15-year old, chronically sick girl from Port Glasgow, Scotland, a member of his church (along with her sister and brothers) who apparently manifested the charismatic gifts of prophecy, speaking in tongues, and visions. After being sick for a year and a half, and a Christian for only a year, in the spring of 1830 she had a vision, which she gave copies of to various clerical leaders, including Irving.
The most unique part of her long, scripture-laden message, was the earliest known documentation of the Pre-Tribulation theory: “Only those who have the light of God within them will see the sign of his appearance. No need to follow them who say, see here, or see there, for his day shall be as the lightning to those in whom the living Christ is. ‘Tis Christ in us that will lift us up– he is the light– ‘tis only those that are alive in him that will be caught up to meet him in the air.”
Macdonald’s vision was first published in 1840 by Dr. Robert Norton (who heard and recorded the words in person), a long-time friend of the family, in the book Memoirs of James & George Macdonald, of Port-Glasgow, a biography of her older brothers. Norton quoted a May 18, 1830 letter written by Margaret’s older sister Mary that indicated that “the house has been filled with people every day from all parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland,” listening to her expound on the Rapture and end-time events. He did not attribute the vision to Margaret until his 1861 book The Restoration of Apostles and Prophets; In the Catholic Apostolic Church.
He said that during her long convalescence she had access to her family’s “extensive library” which could have included Bibles like the Self Interpreting Bible (1778), and the Columbian Family Bible (1822) which contained cross references and marginal notes similar to that in study Bibles; as well as a host of other sources which MacPherson believes could have been used as a basis to develop her idea.
In the March, 1830 edition of The Morning Watch, a quarterly prophecy magazine that Irving edited, he wrote an article that stated that the “translation of the saints taketh place … before the judgments which fall upon the earth at the coming of the Son of Man … just before the great consummation of wrath.” However, in a letter dated June 2, 1830, Irving wrote that the “substance of … Mcdonald’s visions … carry to me a spiritual conviction and a spiritual reproof which I cannot express.”
In Part 1 of an article called “Commentary on the Epistles to the Seven Churches in the Apocalypse,” in the June issue of The Morning Watch, by an author who identified himself only as “Fidus,” wrote from a Post-Trib view. Yet, when Part 2 appeared three months later in the September, 1830 edition, he clearly elaborated a Pre-trib view when he wrote that the Philadelphia church “which receives the answer of its faith in being caught up to meet him; which is thus kept from the hour of temptation…” while the Laodicea Church is described as “the last and dying stage of the Gentile church, before the gathering of the Jews…”
Subsequently, Dr. Cyrus I. Scofield discovered the new teaching on a trip to England, and he took it back with him to his church in Dallas, Texas; where it became part of the Scofield Study Bible as theological concept, and then became the official position of the Dallas Theological Seminary, as well as the Moody Bible Institute.
I believe that the Word of God clearly bares me out that there will not be a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, and I shudder to think what will happen when those expecting one don’t get it. Will this be the source of the “falling away,” as those whose faith is not strong enough to endure acquiesce to the strong-arm tactics of a political leadership bent on establishing world government. Without a doubt, this period of time will be a tremendously trying period, and I can only say that God’s word is true, and there is a place of protection.
Psalm 91
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.
THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS
The ruins of the settlement of Khirbet Qumran stand on a cliff, a mile away from the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, in the Jordan Valley. It is there, just south of Jericho, and twenty miles east of Jerusalem, that one of the most important archaeological discoveries in religious history was made.
Early in 1947, three Bedouin shepherds from the Ta’amireh tribe had their flock in the area, and while Jum’a Muhammad was looking for a stray goat, he discovered a cave in the cliffs. He threw a rock into the hole, and heard the sound of breaking pottery. Two days later, his cousin, Muhammed Ahmed el-Hamed, returned and crawled into the small cave, which measured 6 feet by 20 feet. The cave contained many earthenware jars, about 2 feet high and 10 inches wide. Though many were broken, 9 were believed to be intact. Inside one of the jars, he discovered three leather rolls wrapped in linen. In a subsequent visit, four more leather rolls were discovered. These rolls turned out to be ancient scrolls, which have been referred to as the ‘Dead Sea Scrolls.’
A Christian shopkeeper, Khalil Iskander Shahin (known as “Kando”), and George Ishaya (Isaiah) Shamoun, members of the Syrian Jacobite Church in Jerusalem, heard about the discovery and went to Qumran to verify the Bedouin’s claims, finding some scroll fragments. They later met with the three shepherds to examine their findings.
One of the Bedouins sold 3 of the scrolls to the Muslim sheik of Bethlehem, and Kando purchased the other 4, which consisted of a 22-foot long scroll containing the entire text of the Book of Isaiah, the Genesis Apocryphon, the Habakkuk Commentary, and the Manual of Discipline (also known as the Community Rule), which had split into two. These 4 were in turn sold to the Syrian Metropolitan (Archbishop) Athanasius Yeshua Samuel, head of the Syrian Jacobite Church. Samuel later sent George Isaiah back to Qumran to carry out secret extensive excavations. It is believed that other scrolls were discovered, the contents of which have not been revealed.
In September, 1947, Samuel took the four scrolls to Homs (north of Damascus), Syria, where he met with the Patriarch of the Church. During his return trip, he again sent a team to Qumran.
Samuel got in touch with Professor Eleazar Sukenik of the Hebrew University’s Department of Archaeology in order to have the age of the scrolls determined. Meanwhile, in November, 1947, Sukenik was contacted by someone identifying himself only as an Armenian antique dealer, and he was able to purchase the other three scrolls, which turned out to be The War of the Sons of Light With the Sons of Darkness (also called The War Scroll), the Book of Hymns (also known as the Psalm of Thanksgiving Scroll), and another copy of Isaiah.
In January, 1948, Sukenik received one of Samuel’s scrolls, a copy of the Isaiah scroll, which he was able to inspect. Although he was interested in purchasing the four scrolls, he couldn’t raise the money necessary to make the transaction.
Samuel then contacted the William F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, where the scrolls were inspected by John C. Trever and William H. Brownlee, who felt they were as old, if not older, than the 2nd century Nash Papyrus fragment, which up to then, was the oldest known example of Biblical Hebrew. A set of prints were forwarded to Professor William Foxwell Albright at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, who was the leading Hebrew epigraphist in the world. He dated the material back to 100 BC. Upon examination of all these Hebrew and Aramaic scrolls and fragments which have been discovered at Qumran, it is generally accepted that they were written between 250 BC and 68 AD, when the Romans destroyed the Qumran settlement.
The scrolls were taken to a bank in Beirut, and then in January, 1949, to a New York City bank vault. Up to 1954, only three of the scrolls had been published. Samuel, labeled a ‘smuggler,’ was anxious to sell the scrolls, and would not allow the fourth to be published until all of them had been purchased.
In February, 1949, Gerald Lankester Harding, director of the Department of Antiquities for Transjordan and Arab Palestine; and Father Roland de Vaux, director of the Dominican-controlled Ecole Biblique in the Jordanian sector of East Jerusalem, went to the cave at Qumran, where they found the remains of 30 identifiable texts, and a number of unidentifiable fragments. Harding made it known that he was interested in all subsequent finds made by the Ta’amireh tribe. They would sell the results of their excavation to Kando, who would then sell the items to Harding. Meanwhile, de Vaux, Harding, and a group of fifteen workers continued to excavate around Qumran until 1956, where they uncovered the buildings of what they felt were an Essene community.
For nearly two weeks in mid-March, 1952, de Vaux, three members of the Ecole Biblique, William Reed (director of the Albright Institute), and 24 Bedouins under the supervision of three Jordanian and Palestinian archaeologists, embarked on an effort to conduct a survey of all the caves in the area. This survey indicated the existence of 40 caves, and the umbrella term of the Dead Sea Scrolls refers to the scrolls and fragments that were found in eleven of the caves.
In September, 1952, in Cave 4, located about 50 feet away from some of the Qumran ruins, the largest number of scroll fragments were discovered– the remains of over 500 different scrolls.
By 1959, all the scroll fragments were kept in a room known as the ‘Scrollery’ in the Rockefeller Museum (formerly known as the Palestine Archaeological Museum), which had been built with funds provided by John D. Rockefeller. The Museum was run by an international Board of Trustees, and later fell under the control of the Jordanian government. After the Six Day War in June, 1967, when Israel took over control of the entire city of Jerusalem, the contents of the Museum were considered spoils of war, so the Israeli government became the guardian of the fragments.
The Museum contained laboratories, photographic facilities, and the Department of Antiquities, however, the headquarters of the entire operation was actually located at the Ecole Biblique which contained a research library totally dedicated to Qumran research, which was not open to the public. They also published two journals, the Revue Biblique, printed since 1892, and the Revue de Qumran, started in 1958 to publish information on the scrolls.
This may be one of the keys to understanding what may be going on here behind the scenes. In 1882, on the site where, according to tradition, St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr was stoned to death, a French Dominican monk established a Dominican church and monastery in Jerusalem. At the urging of Pope Leo XIII, a Biblical school was begun there in 1890 by Father Albert Lagrange to train scholars with the knowledge necessary to protect the Church against the potential of damaging archaeological discoveries. Originally known as the Ecole Practique d´Etudes Bibliques, it was later renamed the Ecole Biblique et Archeologique Francaise de Jerusalem.
Lagrange became a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, which had been started by Pope Leo to ‘monitor’ the work of Catholic scriptural scholarship. In 1956, de Vaux became a consultant to this Commission until his death in 1971, as did his successors Father Pierre Benoit, and Jean-Luc Vesco in 1987. The head of the Pontifical Biblical Commission is Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who is also the executive head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which prior to 1965 had been known as the Holy Office; and prior to 1542, as the Holy Inquisition. After 1971, with many common members, the two groups were virtually combined, sharing the same offices at the Palace of the Congregation at the Holy Office Square in Rome. Because of this connection, the implication had been made that the Vatican was exerting influence over the Scrolls, in order to control what information is released.
The team that de Vaux chose in 1953, to assemble and translate the Scrolls were primarily Catholic:
1) Frank Cross: Harvard Professor, of the McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and the Albright Institute in Jerusalem. The only Protestant on the team. 2) Monsignor Patrick Skehan: From the United States, who was director of the Albright Institute. He was quoted as saying that the Biblical scholar should adhere to Church doctrine and “be subject always to the sovereign right of the Holy Mother Church to witness definitively what is in fact concordant with the teaching she has received from Christ.” When he died in 1980, he was replaced by Professor Eugene Ulrich of Notre Dame University. 3) Father Jean Starcky: From France, who, after his death, was replaced by Father Emile Puech of the Ecole Biblique. 4) Dr. Claus-Hunno Hunzinger: From Germany, who was later replaced by a French priest, Father Maurice Baillet. 5) Father Josef Milik: A priest from Poland. 6) John M. Allegro: An ex-Methodist turned agnostic from Oxford, who revealed that certain material was being kept secret because of the controversial nature, and de Vaux did not want the Church to be embarrassed. He was replaced by Oxford Professor John Strugnell, who in 1960 became Assistant Professor of Old Testament Studies at Duke University; and in 1968 became the Professor of Christian Origins at the Harvard Divinity School.
After de Vaux’s death in 1971, his handpicked successor was another Dominican, Father Pierre Benoit, who became the head of the Ecole Biblique and the overseer of the international team, until his death in 1987. Strugnell, who converted to Catholicism, then became the leader of the team.
As you can see, this small group of Catholic scholars had complete control of all of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments that were found.
In 1954, Yigael Yadin, the former Chief of Staff for the Israeli Defense Forces, who taught Archaeology at Hebrew University, purchased Samuel’s four scrolls for $250,000. Ironically, he was the son of Professor Sukenik. These four scrolls, and the three purchased by his father were then housed in a building known as the Shrine of the Book. While the Israelis worked on these scrolls, across town at the Rockefeller Museum, de Vaux and his group of international scholars were working on the fragments they discovered.
In 1967, Yadin interrogated Kando, who subsequently relinquished possession of a scroll he had for six years, which had been found in Cave 11. Known as the Temple Scroll, at 27 feet, it is the longest scroll, and has been dated between 150-125 BC. It has references to the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the rituals to be performed there, however, because of the laws found in it in regard to general matters, and quotes from the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible, known as the Torah of Moses), it has been referred to as the Sixth Book of the Law, and may contain the information referred to in 1 Chronicles 28:11-19 and 1 Samuel 8:11.
The Pentateuch was compiled by Ezra (Ezra 7:14) about 458 BC, and it is believed that what was edited out, became part of the Temple Scroll. Five separate sources were compiled to form the Temple Scroll, and it is now considered a supplement to the Torah. In addition to the content, another reason that it is considered a Biblical text, is that in all established Biblical books, the name of God, YHWH (Yahweh), is written in the square Aramaic script like the rest of the text; while in non-Biblical writings, the name is written in Paleo-Hebrew, while the rest of the text is in Aramaic.
The goal of de Vaux’s international team was for the Oxford University Press to publish all Qumran scrolls by 1962 in a series called the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert of Jordan. That didn’t happen. The first, in 1955, contained the fragments found in the original cave, known as Cave 1. In 1961, the second volume appeared, however, it contained material discovered in the four caves of Wadi Murabba’at, eleven miles south of Qumran, and was dated from 70-135 AD. This find included the Hebrew versions of all the minor prophets, including Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. In 1963, the third volume was published, containing fragments from Cave 2, Cave 3, and Caves 5 - 10; including the Copper Scroll found in Cave 3, and fragments from two copies of The Book of Jubilees, a copy of which was later found at Masada.
Some researchers believe that the Copper scroll should be put in a different category, and separated from the other texts that have been found, because it is the only document that was recorded on metal, it was written in a different variation of Hebrew, and was discovered in an isolated section of the cave; which could indicate a different origin. The fourth volume, in 1965, was a collection of Psalms found in Cave 11. The fifth volume, in 1968, under the direction of Allegro, contained some material from Cave 4, however, most of the scrolls from this cave continued to be withheld from the public, even though Allegro had said in 1964 that the compilation and translation had been nearly completed by 1961. The sixth installment of the series appeared in 1977, the seventh in 1982, and the eighth, which didn’t even deal with the texts of Qumran, was released in 1990.
These eight volumes are said to represent only 25% of the information contained in the Scrolls, even though Father Benoit had said in December, 1985, that everything would be published by 1993. Strugnell would later set a deadline of 1996. Then it was announced that it would be done by 2000.
Edmund Wilson, author of The Scrolls of the Dead Sea, said in 1955 that de Vaux’s team wanted to isolate the sectarian non-Biblical scrolls from being connected with Christianity and Judaism, and concentrated only on the Biblical literature. In 1956, tired of de Vaux’s attempts to prevent the Scrolls from being linked to Christianity, John Allegro was a guest on a series of three radio shows in northern England. The third interview resulted in a New York Times article which said:
In 1987, he quit, calling the team’s delays “inexcusable,” saying that for years they had been “sitting on material which is not only of outstanding importance, but also quite the most religiously sensitive.” He died in 1988.
Robert Eisenman, a former Research Fellow at the Albright Institute, who was a Professor of Middle East Religions and Chairman of Religious Studies at California State University at Long Beach, was denied access to photographs of the Scroll fragments by Strugnell. In 1989, he said publicly, that during the last 40 years, all of the research on the Dead Sea Scrolls was controlled by a handful of scholars who had revealed only a small portion. He called for access to the Scrolls by qualified scholars, and for AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectroscopy) Carbon-14 dating to be performed on the documents to verify the dating, which up to that point had been relying on the original, obsolete form of dating, which had been done shortly after their discovery.
In April, 1989, the Israeli Archaeological Council created a Scroll Oversight Committee to oversee the publication of all Qumran texts, and to make sure the international team completed their assignments, and in July, 1989, Amir Drori, Director of the Israeli Department of Antiquities, a member of that Committee, told the Los Angeles Times, that “if someone does not complete his work on time we have the right to deliver the scrolls to someone else.”
After the Israeli government took full possession of Jerusalem in June of 1967, many were surprised that de Vaux was allowed to continue in his capacity as the leader of the team of scholars, even though it was a known fact that he was anti-Semitic, which was why he would not allow any Jewish scholars into the project. In the mid-1980’s, Strugnell brought in Israeli scholar Elisha Qimron; Talmud scholar Jacob Sussman; Devorah Dimant of Haifa University; and Emmanuel Tov, Shemaryahu Talmon, Joseph Baumgarten, and Jonas Greenfield, of Baltimore’s Hebrew University, to work on some unpublished text.
In November, 1990, without informing Strugnell, the Israeli government assigned Emmanuel Tov to become the ‘joint editor-in-chief’ of the project to finish the translation and publication of the Scrolls. Then, in December, 1990, the New York Times quoted from an October 28, 1990 interview Strugnell had with the Israeli paper Ha-Aretz, where he said that Judaism was a “horrible religion,” a “racist” religion, and that Israel was “founded on a lie.” Magen Broshi, curator of Jerusalem’s Shrine of the Book, said: “We’ve known for twenty years that he was an anti-Semite.” On another occasion, he referred to Strugnell’s “rabid anti-Semitism.” These anti-Semitic comments resulted in him being dismissed from the project as editor-in-chief, even though he still controlled his portion of the texts. Tov became chief editor, along with Professor Eugene Ulrich and Emile Puech.
In September, 1991, Professor Ben-Zion Wacholder, and one of his doctoral students, Martin G. Abegg, from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, released their compilation of the Qumran texts, which was published by the Biblical Archaeological Society. In 1988, Strugnell had printed 30 copies of a 52,000 word concordance of words found in the scroll, which had been created by de Vaux’s team in the 1950’s, so it could be used by the team. Wacholder and Abegg used a computer to reconstruct these words, and it was purported to be 80% accurate. Later that month, the Huntington Library in San Marine, California revealed that it had a complete set of negatives, from photographs, of photographs of the original scrolls, which had been given to them in 1987 by Elizabeth Hay Bechtel of the Bechtel Corporation, who had founded the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center in Claremont, California (who also had a copy).
They made microfilm copies available to any scholar who requested it. The Hebrew Union College also have a partial set; and the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies in England has a full set, which had been given to them in May, 1991, by the Israeli Oversight Committee.
The Qumran texts, written in Hebrew and Aramaic, are believed to have been written between 250 BC and 68 AD. They have been divided into two groups – Biblical and non-Biblical. About 20% are Biblical. Copies of every book in the Hebrew Bible have been found, except for Esther (which, coincidentally, was the only book that didn’t mention the name of God). In Cave 4, one of the most complete manuscripts which they have been able to reconstruct, is the First Book of Samuel, which was found to contain passages not contained in our Bible, and is being used to fill in some of the narrative gaps.
The non-Biblical fragments consist of hymns and psalms, biblical commentaries, legal documents, a letter, apocryphal writings, and an inventory of the Temple treasure. Of the non-Biblical, there are texts referred to as sectarian writings, which were produced by a unique sect of Jews who have been identified as the Essenes.
The seven intact scrolls that were found in Cave 1, were quickly published by Israeli and American scholars, but the fragments collected by de Vaux were a different story. Just in Cave 4, there was believed to be well over 15,000 fragments (and perhaps as many as 100,000) from 500 different manuscripts. In all, the find was said to represent about 800 manuscripts. Of the Biblical writings, 25 copies of Deuteronomy were found, 18 copies of Isaiah, and 27 copies of the Psalter. Among the non-Biblical, 11 copies of the Community Rule, 9 Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, 8 of the Thanksgiving Hymn, and 7 of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness.
Prior to the discovery of the Scrolls, the oldest known Old Testament texts were copies which dated back to 1100 AD, yet they were nearly identical. Originally, only the linen surrounding the scrolls were tested with the Carbon-14 dating process, which indicated a date around the 2nd century BC and the beginning of the 1st century AD. In 1991, new tests by a Swiss laboratory confirmed these results. A palaeographical analysis was done on the script used in writing the texts which revealed a similarity to styles that were used from 250 - 150 BC, 150 - 30 BC, and 30 BC - 70 AD.
Archaeological dating was also done with the help of several hundred coins which were found in the Qumran complex. The earliest structures were buil |