ERM - Tape 033 - Facts Of Archaeology; Proving The Bible True | The Wesley Swift Library at Christogenea

TAPE NO. 33.......BY: ELLA ROSE MAST

Subjects:

1. More about facts of Archaeology

2. Proving the Bible is true

Another instance showing the truth of the Bible in the Oriental Institute Museum in Chicago, Ill., is a clay Prism with Sennacheribs own account of his invasion of Judea and the taking of fortified cities of Judah where 200,150 people were taken captive as told in II Kings 18:17., and 19:35. The Palace of Sennacherib has also been found and about 100,000 volumes were recovered there. About 1/3 of this library is now in the British Museum. This library was found by Layard in 1849-50., and he says the Palace was about the size of three large city blocks. Thus when this library is deciphered think of the information to be uncovered to fill in that part of the Bible story.

Now; along with Archaeology bringing out the fact that the Bible is true then came the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Dr. Swift was writing to the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Syria, and they were sending him scroll after scroll as they were translated. Some of the scrolls he learned were sent to Israeli when they demanded to see them, and they were never returned. The head of the Orthodox Church in Syria was very angry about that. But hundreds of scrolls were found, some of them were copies of the same things, and they had been diligently hand copied for they had no printing presses at that time.

In these scrolls was found the Book of Enoch, and after radio carbon testing of the papyrus it was written on they found this to be copied about 200 B.C.. In Syria they also found a Book of Enoch that was 800 B.C., as to age. Yet all the time the Jews and even the Catholic Church said the Book of Enoch was spurious Books written 200 years after The Christ. And now we have copies made from copies nothing original is their saying. But the Dead Sea Scrolls are changing all this because we do now have old scrolls and they find that they were diligently kept, and some of them were copied 800 years before the Birth of Christ. There was also in the scrolls a Book of Isaiah that goes way back and it is not too much different from the one we have, outside the fact that they talked a little differently in the Massoratic text, the wording used as they copied the scroll is exactly the same in all its meaning word for word proving the inspiration of Isaiah, and some of these other volumes.

In the scrolls found was this one about 'The battle of the sons of Light and the sons of Darkness'. In the order of discipline, in these Damascus scrolls they talk about the orders of heaven, and that God who existed in Light was the all powerful Potentate. When talking about this all powerful Potentate who dwells in the Light, it says He created Solar System after Solar System abiding in Light, and His Administration comes out of the LIGHT for He is the God of Light forever, and His children then are children of Light.

In the order of the heavens it talks about Angels of Light, and in the story of this battle it establishes that the sons of God were begotten in Light before the world was framed. This is also what the Apostle Paul was inspired to write. He said we were born of incorruptible seed which lives and abides forever.

In the Doctrine of Discipline in the Damascus Scrolls it says that YAHWEH (God) begat His children in the planes of Light, that He is the God of the Universe, that all His creation is held together by the force of Light which comes from His being. Thus we find the same story in the Dead Sea Scrolls, in the Epistles, in the Book of Enoch and in the Gospels..'Thou art Issue...My Israel...ruling with Me.'

In these Scrolls...of this battle...YAHWEH talks about how an Archangel refused to recognize the fact that YAHWEH had children of Light with a spiritual entity higher than his so Lucifer refused to reflect this truth. The word then is that he became Shaton, Satan, devious or a devil, which means to change course.

Then Peter records:...The day of the LORD shall come as a thief in the night, and the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall dissolve with fervent heat, and the fashion of this world order will be burned up. With these things happening then what sort of person should you be? Just remember...in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and in the Book of Esdras which was also found with the Scrolls and classified as Apocrapher...which was being copied 200 years before The Christ. In this Book it says the sons of darkness gather, and the cities of Asia which rule their hour with the beast will seek to conquer the world. But 'I shall send against them my horrible flying sword. And the horrible stars shall burn above them, and their cities shall turn to powder and dust.' Here in this final battle they will send their missiles against you, but YAHWEH says His heavenly army shall gather them up and His hands shall turn them back against themselves. (Perhaps the technology of His children is supposed to establish their Star Wars protection as well???)

Now; one more thing:...Back in 1968 James T. Hammon in his book 'Archaeology, the Bible and the Jew' had this to say:...further data has come across my desk indicating a possible war between the Jews themselves. You find this is between the communist Jews and the Zionist Jews both being Marxist at this time, but both want to rule the world and unveil the coming false Messiah, who we call Anti-Christ. Their view of the coming kingdom is one in which Marxism shall dominate the world headed by a Jewish Marxist Messiah.

Here then in September of 1984 we read in the Wichita, Ks Eagle Beacon Newspaper., dated Sept 9., these headlines:...'Who is a Jew'..proposed Israeli law could set thousands adrift. The proposed law would recognize only conversions to Judaism performed under Orthodox auspices. In addition to the Israelis who could be affected by the proposed laws, tens of thousands also of American Jews, those converted by non-Orthodox Rabbis could lose their right to become citizens of Israeli.

Opponents of the law say that its effect in America also could penetrate much deeper, extending to the core of religious identity of a majority of the estimate 5.3 million Jews in the U.S. Most American Jews describe themselves as non-religious or belonging to the less rigid reform, conservative or reconstructionist movement of Judaism. But the vast majority consider themselves loyal to their Jewish heritage, and are wary of a law passed any place that asks the question...Who is a Jew?

There is also some evidence that Orthodox leaders in Israeli plan legislation even more stringent than the..'Who is a Jew?'..Law'. One proposal would allow religious courts in Israeli to outlaw Jewish marriages, even Orthodox Jewish marriages performed outside of Israeli. Under widely accepted Jewish law, and tradition, a Jew is a person born of a Jewish mother and converted by a Rabbi. Orthodox Jews represent less than 25% of the Israeli population, but they weld significant power in the legislature and in Israeli's educational and legal systems. This proposed law has been on the back shelf for some time, but the newly won clout of the religious parties who now control 14 seats in the Knesset suddenly has improved its chances of passage. If this law passes it will have a great effect for many Jews who considered themselves as Jews will no longer be considered Jews with the privilege of citizenship in Israeli.

Now; there was quite an extensive story here but that is an outline so we might ask what is the meaning of this? Could this be what Jesus was talking about in Luke 11:18 ????

Then putting the facts of Archaeology with the Scripture and with this article perhaps your picture of todays events are more clear for (quote) 'under widely accepted Jewish law and tradition, a Jew is a person born of a Jewish mother and converted by a Rabbi' (unquote). Yet according to the Bible an Adamite, Sethite..Hebrew..Israelite is traced according to the lineage of the father starting with YAHWEH. Remember that everything is to be revealed...until this question of who are the people of the Book is no longer in doubt in anyone’s mind.

Now; this is just a bit of the proof that the Bible is true and that we have been telling you things that can be established outside even of the Bible, this is just scratching the surface of what is known but it should help you in your study of the Scriptures if you have the people of the Book figured out to begin with.

As we have said we have told you many things taken from the Swift tape ministry, and my library as well, and in this report we would try to give you another witness from facts established thru Archaeology.

I have a book which I acquired from a friend in England entitled 'The Bible is True' and it is by Sir Charles Marston. This book was published in 1938, and C. Marston is recording things the Archaeologists 60 years ago in 1923-34 unearthed to prove the Bible is true. I thought it most interesting that even tho this book was published in 1938 that you do not find from Adam down to Judah the coined word Jew. You do find in places the word Semitic which we feel should be Sethite, then later Shemite because the Bible story feeds down thru Seth and later thru Shem. And now we have also told you where this word Semite came from...a coined word by man as well, but in spite of a little mistranslation still the author proves thru Archaeology that the Bible is true.

As we record some of these interesting things that Sir Charles Marston is bringing to light, as well as the other authors before this one then please think back to some of the things we have learned from the Swift tape ministry which are also touched on in this record from Archaeology. Some people asked for documentation of everything that is a little different then they have always thought. They question even such a book as this one because the evidence is not laid out in story form with every 'I' dotted and every 't' crossed. But these things Sir Charles is pointing out in this his book is still proving the Bible is true if you understand the theme of the 'Book'.

Anything I add to this report you will now find in parenthesis so that the witness of this book shall speak to you.

Dr. Marston became very interested and involved in Archaeology because ...in search of reality we have wandered so far from the Scriptures. Our forefathers trusted in the Scriptures, and Queen Victoria is said to have ascribed the greatness of our race to the Bible. It is also claimed that the wonderful civilization which the United States and Canada have developed and enjoyed sprang from the work of men who were devout believers in the Bible. Yet in the modern world we are told that science deals with reality, and because our forefathers trusted in the Bible we now trust in science, because science proves that the earlier books of the Bible were not written by Moses at all, but were in the nature of folklore, and legends handed down by word of mouth, committed to writing centuries after the time of Moses. Even our own church commentaries tell us this. Then they still try to represent the New Testament as to be correct yet many of the Clergy admit there are also scientific doubts about the Divinity of Christ and His resurrection. For modern science has shown that all those miracles recorded in the Bible could have never taken place. Plain speaking like this is favored because it is thought to represent reality. With the advance of Humanism, of higher criticism with their so called modern science confusing people then Archaeology which is a true science moved to the front to find the proof of the Bible story which their hearts told them was true.

Today it should be the object of all educated men and women to seek the truth, and having regard to the great part the Bible has played in our history...to accord it fair play. Thus Archaeologists started to dig in the mounds of Ancient Bible lands to prove that ...'The Bible is True'.

One of the first things the Archaeologists found that shook the higher critics was that the races which inhabited the Euphrates valley..Syria, Palestine, and Egypt in Ancient times possessed a much higher culture than has been credited to them by Bible critics. For example we now know that the art of writing in cuneiform on clay tablets was in general use long before the days of Abraham. The attempt to apply evolution to the religious side is responsible for another long train of blinders in connection with the Bible. But now Archaeology and Anthropology have proved the Higher critics are wrong but their blinders still effect the thinking of our people.

As the higher critics tried to form everything to their thinking then God awakened some to begin this search using the true science called Archaeology to prove them wrong. One of the Archaeologists who has brought much Biblical evidence to light is Flinders Petrie. His excavations have proved that the Semitics (Sethites), the Hyksos were Shepherd Kings and their relatives occupied Syria, Palestine, and Egypt and that the Arabs are a branch of the Semitic (Sethite) line.

Archaeology has proved that in South Palestine, Aryan settlements go back at least 4000 B.C.. That those settlements at that time were more extensive than at any later time in history. Archaeology has proved that Egyptian civilization was upgraded by a people who came thru Palestine maybe in 4326 B.C., altho their dates are constantly being upgraded. Archaeologists tell us that these Aryans were Semitic, were linked back by way of India and beyond, and that they were also found in Europe in Ancient times.

Archaeology has proved that the great rife, or the Jordan valley was once a fertile valley in that land. The catastrophe which came to Sodom and Gomorrah seemed to have changed the climate. Dr. F. Albright has explored that district of the Jordan valley and found evidence that the prosperous period of the Jordan valley was before 2000 B.C.

In Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria, and Persia they have found whole libraries of clay tablets covered with cuneiform and wedge shaped characters, and other scripts, and there must be plenty more beneath the soil.

Sir Flinders Petrie undertook an expedition of the Peninsula of Sinai ...the traditional scene of the Israelite wanderings under the leadership of Moses. On top of a mountain he explored the ruins of a Semitic (Shemite) temple, and there he discovered alphabetical writings. Always when evidence of such things like this show up then there is much vandalism and some of the facts are lost, but enough remains to keep scholars busy deciphering the fragments that remain. But these alphabetical writings found at Mt. Sinai were found to link up with the Ancient Phoenician Script. (You also now know who the Phoenicians were...descendants of Enoch.)

You even find traces of our story in the writings of such men as Edgar Allen Poe for in the story...'The Gold Bug' there is a description of the decipherment of a cryptogram. Then professor Bauer of Halle, discovered which letter of the alphabet was represented by each of the 27 different characters found in the library at Ras Shamra. The language there proved to be Archaic Hebrew, making it clear that the worship of those people was connected with the worship of the Israelites in the wilderness with Moses.

There is no question then that a written language existed even back before Abraham. Egyptians wrote in Hieroglyphics and their language has also been traced by scholars back into Ancient times, and in the last 50 years this language has been deciphered as well.

Another discovery by Archaeology which helps in tracing people and time is the Scarabs which may be said to resemble the Seal on a finger ring. When they contain the Cartouch of a Pharaoh, or a Patriarch they give excellent indications as to the date of a particular site or dig.

In the country once known as Mesopotamia, or Babylon, which today is Iraq and Iran, where the Euphrates and Tigris rivers flow to the gulf, there under the sands is found indications of civilizations reaching back more than 5000 years before The Christ. There is found evidence of age, and classical writings left by two great races, the Summerians, and the Semitic, the later take their name from the eldest son of Noah, and this Hebrew race from which Abraham sprung. From these Ancient writings we find that in Abrahams time the children were taught of the creation, the temptation, the death of Abel, the Patriarchs before the flood, and the deluge itself. Thus none of these tales were invented during the last 4000 years. The cuneiform tablets prove that these Ancient Aryans believed in one Supreme God. All the Semitic (Sethite) tribes appear to have started with a single tribal deity who they regarded as the Divine creator of His own people.

There was at Ras Shamra on the coast of Syria, a tablet found which has supplied ample evidence that EL was the supreme deity, or El-Elyon of Genesis 14 translated God...MOST HIGH. Dr. Landon in his decipherment of these cuneiform inscriptions concludes; the theological view running thru Babylonia before 2000 B.C., was of a heaven for the righteous whom God might choose to receive into Paradise where there is the bread and water of Eternal Life.

Thus before Abraham, before any Book of the Old Testament as well as after each Book of the Old Testament was written there existed this belief in a future life, and the pleasure of the water of Eternal Life in the heavens. The possession of the truth of this knowledge enhances the significance of what Jesus said:...'I am the bread of life.' John 6:35. 'I am the Living bread which came down from heaven, if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever.' John 4:14. 'The water that I shall give him shall become to him a well of water springing up into Eternal Life.'

Among these cuneiform tablets was one written by a King who was praising himself because he loved to read the writings of the age..'before'..the flood. Indeed as knowledge increases it may prove that Christianity was actually the fulfillment of a far more Ancient religion than the one instituted in the days of Moses.

Archaeology has also found evidence of those ten Patriarchs mentioned in the fifth chapter of Genesis in some of the early classical writings. But with the hasty conclusion that have been in vogue, then Patriarchs have been treated as myths, legends and unworthy of attention. However records discovered recently on clay prisms in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England are long lists of Kings and their dates are given commencing with the eight Kings who reigned before the flood. It is true that there are discrepancies but these heroes of the race are listed as having lived much longer periods of time than is allowed them in the Old Testament dating. The Ten Patriarchs are also mentioned under various names in the mythology of other civilizations such as the Summerian, the Greek, Phoenician, Indian as well as Hebrew.

Some cuneiform sources have made references to writings before the flood (of Noah's time) and it seems very possible that some have surfaced and may yet be deciphered and published. These later sources represent them as relating to Divination, to medicine, and to mystic rituals of sacrifice.

Now; as to proof that there was a deluge in Noah's time....as long ago as 1906, after certain excavations, this was declared true. In 1872 George Smith read his translation of the Chaldean account to a London audience, but its full significance as well as those later discoveries of the cuneiform versions have been explained away by conjectures of the higher critical school of thought obsessed with theories that identified traditions with myths.

In the winter of 1929., Dr. Landon’s expedition was working at Kish, and Dr. Wooleys expedition was excavating further south at Ur of the Chaldees simultaneously they came across deposits left by the great flood. In the book 'Ur of the Chaldees' by Dr. Wooley they found as they dug that all at once they hit a great bed of clay which could only have been caused by something other than the natural rising of the water from the river. It marked a definite break in the continuity of the local culture, the whole civilization about it. Then going deeper they broke thru the clay deposits into marks of civilization once more. This testifies to the fact that the flood was a reality in the many writings and different versions found. However the critical theories which have minimized the catastrophe need not lead us to believe that it was a Universal flood, or that one solitary vessel once contained all that was left of humanity, birds, beasts and reptiles. But the legends of a great deluge which came from different parts of the world should be considered should they not?

At Kish and at Ur the Dynasties are fixed at about 5500 B.C. and 4100 B.C., where as the Hebrew Genesis account of Abraham..has him born only 292 years after the flood. The Septuagint version translated into Greek from the Hebrew about 300 B.C., represents Abraham as being born 1072 years after the flood so there is some discrepancies. (Remember that Dr. Swift said that the Yehudin took 1400 years out of the King line so as to prove to themselves that Jesus was not the Messiah. In some places we find that Noah was still alive or at least the Shem Household still in place at the time Abraham was born.)

Since the deciphering of the wealth of material is so slow it is possible that our generation has only reacted to the fringe of knowledge which those who lived before and after Abraham have left behind them.

Geologists tell us that an Ocean once existed from the Caucasus Mountains to Mongolia about 1850 miles. Even as late as 200 B.C., the Caspian and Aral Seas were still connected. But this ocean was separated from the Black Sea on the eastern side by an Isthmus of land. And thru causes which are suggested, but which remain certain is that the content of this Ocean poured into the Black Sea, and the deluge of Noah's time then had its effect at Ur and at Kish and have been found in these digs by Archaeologists. It is also not without significance that the neighborhood of the Caucasus mountains should indicate to historians in our time that the relics of remote times marks this as homeland for our race, as well as other races.

Now; Professor Fessenden writes concerning..'The Egyptian Book of the Dead' ....the sun is said to rise over the mountains of Bakhau, and the modern Baku is at the eastern extremity of the Caucasus Mountains. The sun is said to set in Tamanu, and the Tamanu peninsula is at the western end of the Caucasus Mts. In the Caucasus region the natural fires of petroleum springs, both in the west and the east of Baku on the Caspian are claimed as the original idea of the Lakes of fire, found in 'The Book of the Dead'.

As we turn to Greek writers we find Herodotus insisting there is a close relationship, a close resemblance between the Colchians who lived south of the Caucasus and the people who ruled in Egypt saying that they came by way of the Caucasus area. The book...'The Odyssey' is said to be a veritable guide book to the Petroleum regions of the Caucasus area.

Then in the Arabian Peninsula much has been uncovered. In 1934 a city was discovered from the Ari, and identified with Saba (Sheba), this is about 80 miles north of Aden at the south end of the Red Sea. It has 20 or more square towers of a Semitic (Sethite) type of architecture. There is evidence of Minean, and Sabean inscriptions, with the oldest form of the Adamic language at present known as Accadian but these are all closely connected. The Minean monuments in Yemen seem to date 1000 B.C., but behind them is evidence of a far older civilization.

As we look to Egypt we find that Egypt was ruled for an uncertain length of time before the 18th., Dynasty by a mysterious people called the Hyksos which the Egyptian historian Manetho said meant 'Shepherd Kings'. In the last six years much has been learned about these Shepherd Kings, that they also ruled Syria and Palestine for an even longer time than they ruled Egypt. Manetho said the Shepherd Kings ruled in Egypt for 511 years, but modern critics say no, that cannot be true, and they reduce the time to 100 years. However Manetho lived some 2000 or more years nearer the time the Shepherd Kings ruled than does our modern critics.

Sir Flinders Petrie has excavated Hyksos sites on the border of Egypt, in Palestine, at Gerar, Bethphelet, and at old Gaza as well as at Avaris, Egypt the last stronghold of these Shepherd Kings before they were finally expelled by a native Egyptian Dynasty. The Land marks of the occupation by these Shepherd Kings consists of peculiar types of fortifications such as the sloping rampart called glacis with a ditch which exposed assailants to a direct hail of arrows, and stones at every point of their advance. This is a point Archaeologists make when tracing the Shepherd Kings for they had a different type of defense than others. Also there is sufficient evidence to show that it was thru Syria and Palestine that their invasion of Egypt was made. According to the Egyptian historian Manetho, it was into Palestine that the remnant of the Shepherd Kings went as they left Egypt. Sir Flinders Petrie concluded from his finding that it was the Hyksos or White Shepherd Kings that first introduced the horse to Egypt.

Later Josephus the Judean historian wrote in his essay...'Contra Apion' ...these Shepherd Kings were our ancestors. Josephus refers to them as being Hebrews, also refers to himself as being a Hebrew. Consider for a moment, as to how did Canaan land become the land of the Hebrew. Consider for a moment as to the fact that there must have been other Hebrews probably a considerable number besides Jacob and his children.

As Sir Flanders Petrie was excavating in old Gaza he found a series of cities superimposed one above the other dating back even before 3000 B.C., and up thru 211 B.C., that connects to the Hebrews, the White Shepherd Kings or Hyksos as they were called.

At the city of Jericho Archaeologists have found the remains of three cities superimposed on each other with quantities of Hyksos scarabs in the Palace area, and in the tombs. The walls of the oldest city was with large slabs of clay bonded with thick layers of bituminous earth after the fashion found in the Babylon area. The second oldest city from the bottom showed evidence of Babylonian influence while the third belonged to the type of fortifications such as the Hyksos used.

In Persia at Persepolise, in the Palace of King Darius they found 20,000 cuneiform tablets. In these tablets there is a reference to Melchizedek, King of Salem, and this God seems to have given HIS name to..Ur-Salem, or later Jerusalem. There is considerable evidence in these tablets of the people descendants of Shem and even earlier of the race as being in occupation of Syria and Palestine long before the days of Abraham. From all the evidence it seems there was at least two great streams of Aryan occupation into Egypt and maybe three. The first two from the east and north and the latter from Arabia. It is also a fact from the cuneiform writings that it was these Aryans now called Semites by modern writers, that brought the Hebrew language into Palestine. To sum up this evidence thru Archaeology of the White Shepherd Kings it has been recognized for some time that when Abraham left Ur of Chaldees he left a country which had long been ruled by his race. And it has only now been recognized that when he came into Canaan land he was in a country which had been invaded and occupied, and traversed by others of his race on their way to Egypt, for the conquest of that land.

Yes, Archaeology is proving the higher critics to be wrong...wrong. Archaeology found the Ras Shamra inscriptions of 1400 B.C. to 1350 B.C., which proves the writings of a Phoenician sage named Sanchuniathon to be correct for he claimed to have access to inscriptions of a much earlier date. He mentions Adam and Eve and alludes to the temptation. He as well as the Ras Shamra tablets refers to Adam as the man from the East. He describes the creation, the ten generations of men following creation, and concludes with their relationship to the Shemites. Thus the earlier contact with Egypt in the Phoenician writings is fully born out by Archaeologists who have discovered that the Phoenicians, and the Shepherd Kings were branches of the same race.

As to evidence about Abraham and his ancestors before him, Archaeology has uncovered so much, and much has been published, and yet people seem to miss the significance of such or think it belongs to another people. Archaeology has uncovered at Ur of the Chaldees a gold helmet for instance, and pictures of the king who wore it a thousand years before Abraham. Their findings prove that Abrahams descent was thru Heber, and Peleg, while the other son of Heber by the name of Joktan was the father of a dozen sons whose names identify them as settling in South Arabia.

Dr. Wooley has been excavating for 8 years (remember this was written in 1938) at Ur of the Chaldees, and Abraham must have known about the flood deposits. Dr. Wooley describes the houses of Ur as being two stories or more high with at least 12 or more rooms grouped around a central paved courtyard. The stairs to the upper floor were made of brick. A chapel was in each house and under the chapel was a vaulted tomb where family members were buried. Archaeology has thus confirmed the Biblical story of Abraham and much, much more. It has traced his movements to Haran and then Westward to close to Damascus, Syria and that settlement was also called Haran. From southern Palestine it was to his kindred near Damascus that Abraham sent his servant for a wife for Isaac. Archaeology also points out that the two great mountain ranges of Syria were called Lebanon and Ante Lebanon, and points out also the close relationship of the Phoenicians, the Syrians, and the Hebrews.

The birth of Isaac is recorded and associated with the long stay of Abraham at Beersheba, the memories of his residence still seem to cling around that district. Then comes the strange chapter constituting a link between the Shemite (Sethite) religion before Moses, and evidence begins to suggest a far wider relationship to Christianity than that termed Semitic (or Judaism) of today. The mountain in the land of Moriah was probably Mt. Moriah. There 1000 years later Solomon built the Temple upon it, but Ur-Salem in Abrahams day lay further to the south and east. (about 6 miles, and in Boaz and Ruth’s day it was a threshing floor, later Bethlehem where YAHSHUA was born.

Among the ornaments found in the Royal tombs of Ur of the Chaldees is one of a 'Ram caught in a thicket'. This was laid away more than 1000 years before Abraham. Yet Abraham came from this Ur of the Chaldees, so was 'this ram caught in the thicket' a symbol of some ritual ceremony which shaped itself into reality with Abrahams offering of Isaac???

Abraham is considered a great man in the Moslem, the Christian and the Jewish Faith. Dean Stanley’s account of his visit to the Ancient Shrine of the burial place of Abraham and his descendants with the late Kind Edward who was then Prince of Wales used to delight this author as a lad. As an immense privilege the heir apparent to the British Throne was shown the splendid Mosque above the burial cave by the Arabs.

On summing up the evidence it is thus sure from Archaeology excavations that the Old Testament is correct as to people and places of that story. They have even found in the empty tombs of the areas of Jericho in the time span of the occupation of the Shepherd Kings...found scarabs bearing the joint names of Princess Hatshepsut and Thotmess III. (We have told you that she ruled with her father, was a white Princess...the one who raised Moses as her son, and had much to do with the preparing of Mt. Sinai for the coming of the Israelites.)

Archaeology has no trouble in proving that before the days of Noah there are records of an intimate contact with the unseen, not in these cases with the influence of good and evil, but with the Holiest and Highest. Thus it is written that Enoch walked with God, and was not, for God took him. Genesis 5:22-24. The expression 'Walked with God' is twice repeated as tho to emphasize a close and intimate communion with the unseen for over 300 years. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews summarizes these happenings in thrilling strains in triumph:...'By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death.' Thus the honor roll of Faith ran thru Abel thru Enoch, thru Noah, Abraham to Moses. And those who assume the Hebrew religion began with Moses overlook these Bible proofs of an earlier religion; of earlier sacred ceremonies, and sacrifices, of earlier communications with the Divine. Yes, Enoch we are told 'Walked with God', what possibilities of Divine revelations are implied during the 300 years in which Enoch enjoyed this association.

In the consequence of the unfortunate theory of evolution of religion, modern writers have failed to realize how those days before and even after the flood were not all evil days. There was a Golden Age to which the Ancient Classical writers refer to. And now Archaeological evidence of such a time from the older Egyptian monuments is being brought to our attention. The walls of the galleries and rooms in the interior of the Pyramids of Sakkara are covered with Hieroglyphic writing which are dated back to a period of 3500 B.C., or perhaps earlier. This writing testifies to a very high standard of religion. They display a conception of righteousness and justice such as we are familiar within the Book of Deuteronomy, the Book of Job, Psalms, Isaiah and such. Bible readers can then trace them back to an earlier source, they are relics of the Golden Age; of the outpouring from the unseen; of the days when 'Enoch walked with God.'

We find also that Abraham paid tithe to Melchizedek the King of Salem (Hebrews 7:4), six centuries before Moses instituted the tithe. But the Ras Shamra tablets also tell of the ritual of 'Bread and Wine' and 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy.' The word remember presupposes that the Sabbath day was already in existence which we now know from the findings of Archaeology.

Tel-el-Amarna was once a new metropolis of Egypt built to supersede the Royal city of Thebes. It is a matter of general knowledge that this Pharaoh Amernhetap III., revived a primitive but more pure form of religion, which seemed to have come from Syria, and it brought a wonder second revolution in the artistic life of Egypt which then went to pieces after the death of this Pharaoh. However amid the ruins at Tel-el-Amarna in the year 1888 an old peasant woman came across what was once the record office of this Pharaoh and she found 320 clay tablets which 82 are now in the British Museum, 160 are in Berlin, 60 are in the Giza Museum, and the rest in private hands. In 1933-34., nine more fragments were found, but these tablets found in 1889 are the ones referred to as the Tel-el-Amarna tablets. Those dicifered consist of letters from the kings and governors of Palestine and Syria at that time, they were addressed to both Amenhetep II and Amen Hetep IV (some places called Akhenaton). We have learned from this source that after the death of Princess Hatshepsut that Thotmes turned his attention to the conquest of Syria and Palestine. Again and again he invaded these countries. He defeated their inhabitants in battle after battle and captured their walled cities. His successor then consolidated the results obtained from this conquest. Thus both Palestine and Syria were under the yoke of Egypt. Then came appeals for help from Egypt against invaders who were in league with the Hittites in the north. Then again came the appeals for help from Egypt against the invasion of the Habiru under Joshua who appeared to come from the direction of Mt. Sinai, or Mt. Seir. These tablets contain Cainanite, Amorite, Jebusite accounts of the Israelite invasion thru here then are versions of the Bible story written by the other side.

Just think of the wealth of information waiting to be deciphered and arranged in correct sequence that has been unearthed by Archaeology to prove that ...the Bible is true. Certainly the glimpses one gains from these Tel-el-Amarna letters of the pack of rascals that had been governing Palestine, and Syria, for this Egyptian Pharaoh suggests he would not be sorry to see those rascals replaced by a God fearing people like the Israelites. Digging deeper into Egyptian history of that time of these Pharaohs of Egypt named in those tablets we find a connection by marriage to Syria, and further north, to Shepherd Kings and Queens leading back... back in their worship of Indra...the name of YAHWEH (God) in India.

When Amerhetep II took control of Egypt after the death of the mighty Thotmess II, and refused to let Israel go, he was surrounded by very, very different influences than those around Amenhetep III...40 years later when Israel began to enter Canaan land. As time went on and the New religion spread, the influences already at work in the Egyptian court would grow stronger, and the hostility of the Egyptian Priests would tend to discredit similar faiths as practiced in Palestine, and Syria at Ras Shamra for example. The first 13 years of the reign of Amenhetep II corresponds to the last 13 years in the story of Moses. There was thus good religious reasons for at least a benevolent neutrality between the Egyptians and Israelites during the years when the Israelites were conquering the Cainanites and others in old Palestine. A poem of that period runs parallel with the Psalm 104 in the Bible, and there seemed to be no doubt from a common source. There may well have been powerful considerations favorable to the Israelites influencing Amenhetep II and his son. Then we wonder why no reference is made to them in the Bible, but this Egyptian relationship with the Israelites forty years after the Exodus is to be marked.

Later in the reign of Tutankhamen in 1351 to 1339 B.C., we have evidence also that he had some influence in Palestine, and this enables us to form an impression of the surrounding in which Moses must have lived a century and a half earlier. In Tut’s tomb was found writing material and brushes, and some small pieces of iron as well as that beautiful gold jewelry. It has been a puzzle to many explorers as they why all mention of Egypt seems to be left out of the Scriptures after the Exodus. But it has been concluded that is what was expected. In the Bible story of the conquest of Canaan land by Thotmess III., the disguised story is found as to the sending of the 'hornets' after certain ones, but the hornet was the badge of Thotmess III. After all...illusions to Egyptian aid direct or indirect would dim the Glory of the Exodus. The deliverance of Israel by YAHWEH would be the principal story. The part Egypt played was just from God's influence as He carved out His purpose. Year after year then Israel would celebrate their greatest feast day...the feast of the Passover. The silence concerning Egypt’s help in subduing Canaan land tends to further authenticate the Bible narrative however, for Egypt would hold the coast land corridor for the purpose of trade while the Israelites entered from the east to take the interior of the land.

Professor Garstang in his book...'The Foundations of Bible History' gives a chart of the 440 years succeeding the fall of Jericho and then Joshua and Judges...and set side by side are summaries of events in Palestine and Egypt. There is some arguments about the time of the Exodus but still the facts are plain that Egypt played a great part as the Israelites gathered 40 years for their assault on Canaan Land.

In 1923 another site, this one in Palestine was excavated by a joint American and British expedition. This one is called Tell El Hesy and is about 30 miles southwest of Jerusalem. It is thought to be the Ancient Lachish. Interest here is because in the British Museum is the stone bas-relief that once adorned the walls of Sennacheribs Palace at Ninevah. This depicts the storming of Lachish by the Assyrians in the days of Hezekiah, King of Judah. It is the same story found in II Kings 28:14-17 and Isaiah 36:2. A Bronze Crest of a helmet was then unearthed at Tel Dniveir that is like the one worn by Sennacheribs spear men on the bas-reliefs, just another witness that the Bible is true.

At Tell El Hesy dig it is possible to tell that this was a great city 3000 to 4000 B.C., long before Abraham even. And it seems to be marked as a type of fortification like the Shepherd Kings built with the sloping glacis, or ditch and low subterranean tunnels 40 ft. wide. At old Gaza the tunnels were wider and higher and they ran into the base camp. In the temple in this dig they found the connecting link between the alphabetical script found in the temple of Serabit in the Peninsula of Sinai, and the Phoenician King Ahiram, and also a break thru was then made with the Ras Shamra tablets. In fact the Ras Shamra tablets represent an attempt to reproduce the Hebrew alphabet in the cuneiform script, while it also reproduces it in the earlier Sinai script, and which was adopted into the Phoenician script, showing once more the connection between these people.

There is also evidence from these Ancient libraries of cuneiform tablets and other sources of writing that monotheism was the original religion of the Aryan people. Anthropology also confirms Archaeology sources, and along with this is evidence of a universal belief in the future life. Evidence left behind of such contemporaries such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and Hezekiah show that the stories of creation, the temptation, the death of Abel and Patriarchs before the flood, and the Golden Age were widespread and well known by these people, even back in the time of Abraham.

Proved also is that the art of writing was certainly in existence in the Sinai Peninsula when Moses led Israel out of Egypt. That it was in Palestine not long after the days of Joshua. Proved now with evidence is the deluge or flood, and its dispersion from the Caucasus Mountains. Proved also is the testimony that Sethite (translated Semitic) civilizations existed in the Euphrates valley, where as Shepherd Kings from there and Arabia conquered and occupied Palestine before Abraham, and that this country was at one time called...'The land of the Hebrews'.

Proved also is that there were professional soldiers called Habiru in Babylon and Assyria about 2000 years B.C., with the Hebrew people. Proved now with the evidence found in the temple of Serabit, beautified by Princess Hatshepsut, that this was the place in the Peninsula Sinai to which Moses led the 12 tribes of Israel.

In the evidence of the Jericho excavations it is now proved in exact confirmation...of the Book of Joshua, that the walls fell flat outward, and even food stuff was found untouched in the burnt city. We have also the confirmation on the Tel El Amarna letters of the Habiru (Hebrew) invasion with even the very name of Joshua recorded.

There is also some of this evidence of Archaeology that is conclusive in character for instance:...the original monotheism, the primeval civilization, the general use of writing even before the flood of Noah's time, the alphabetical writing at the time of Moses, first in Sinai then in Palestine. The whole chronology of the Old Testament has been proved to be correct, verified by Astronomy at its very start then outlined in detail from Abraham to the founding of Solomon’s Temple, even later verification of Shiskah's invasion in the year...the first year of Rehoboam.

Since this results and evidence of Archaeology is in, then is it not time to recognize what new reality this gives to Christianity, and how this should breathe upon our 'Dry Bones'.

Since we have now progressed...have passed far beyond a mechanical conception of the Universe to glimpses of unfathomable splendor which is leading to the true science of God, then if the study of the Bible is now approached from a similar standpoint is there any doubt that it will be recognized as the Word of God in a much more real sense than ever before.

The direct effect of these Archaeological evidences upon the New Testament should now be immense. Not merely do they confirm the revelation of God to Moses, but they take us back before Moses to Melchizedek, and even further. They even glimpse the mystery involved in such expressions as 'The Lamb slain before the foundation of the World.'

The evidence in favor of writings by Moses has peculiar importance for the following reasons:...those who study the New Testament recall that Jesus The Christ replied to the temptations of the devil in the wilderness and was to quote three passages from the Old Testament. All taken from Deuteronomy a Book 'critics' had declared was composed many centuries after Moses, yet that book repeatedly represents Moses as having uttered the words of the book. It seems as tho no amount of explanation, or special pleading can escape the issue, that from a critical point of view, the book was declared to be nothing less than a forgery. It is conceivable that in answering the devil the father of lies, that Jesus Christ would have taken sentences from such a source??

To conclude this work we are thus confronted with the words of Jesus:... 'If ye believed Moses, ye would believe me for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings how shall ye believe my words?' John 5:46-47. From a consummate dilemma the Archaeological discoverers for 1920-39 have freed the Christian Faith.

Therefore we ask:...what then is real science but a quest for the real truth? Let us strive to disentangle ourselves from past conclusions which are now proved to have been false.

Now; some have asked, and some have questioned Dr. Swift's lineage. The answer is this:...On his fathers side Anglo-Saxon on back into the Judah line of Germany. Strangely enough that German household is the same household that is inter-married into the Windsor line of Britain.

My friends there is another Archaeology book titled 'Digger for facts' by Kinneman. I have given you some of those stories as we talked about Abraham and about Moses in the wilderness journey. This book is also out of print, but if you should ever run across one then it is well worth acquiring.

To back up some of the things I have told you about the Persecution of the followers of YAHSHUA in Rome in the time of the Apostles, this book of Archaeology tells of investigating the catacombs of Rome and has this to say:...There are many catacombs underneath the city of Rome and not all have been explored. But in the explored parts there are over 6 million Christian buried there, more than six times the amount who walk the streets above.

This book also tells of the different murals...pictures found of the Apostles and YAHSHUA so we do know what YAHSHUA looked like besides the description that Pilate gave to Rome. Also as Archaeologists were working on the shores of the Sea of Galilee at one of the spots where the Romans had build one of their winter resort cities, here they found a life sized statute made of Jesus The Christ ...in Parian Marble. The inscription on the base of the statue reads something like this:...'I Mary Magdalene had this statue made of Jesus The Christ who did so much for me, in order that the world might know how He looked.' Here was a figure that even without the inscription we would have no difficulty in identifying.

The author does not tell us where that statue is today but knowing where it was found it makes us wonder if it is still available. A life sized statue of that size would be hard to move, so we will be watching to see if it is found again, or if it turns up somewhere in Israel lands as did the two Obelisks for the sons of Joseph.

MAY YAHWEH BLESS------E.M.