Special Announcement

We have been asked to start a Bible Institute in Panabo City, Philippines. While there are many Bible Schools in the country, certain church leaders felt there was a need for one in this city. One reason was that there isn’t one in the city.

After prayer and consulting with different pastors we agreed to take on the responsibility to establish the school. We also agreed to fill the teaching position. We were asked because we have the education, the experience and the qualifications to handle these duties.

Like any new Bible School, we do have needs. So far, we have found a temporary building to use which is an answer to prayer. This gives us time to locate a better building that will meet the student’s and teaching needs.

The list of our needs may be a bit long but that is because some explanation is required to inform you of the real situation we face.

#1. Books:

Good books written in English are hard to come by in this country and they are not cheap. We need to establish a library as well as obtain as many books that can be used as textbooks as we can. The subjects include but are not limited to the ones mentioned in the list below:

History, Archaeology, Church History, Theology,  Textual Criticism, Prayer, Science, Origins, Bible Studies, Commentaries, Old & New Testament Surveys, Book son  specific books of the Bible, Education, Controversial Issues (divorce, suicide, homosexuality, transgenderism, tattoos, tithing, etc.), Evangelism (including history of evangelists, etc.), Missions (including history of), Apologetics, Church Fathers, Comparative religions, Cults, Men & Women of the Bible, Difficulties with the Bible, Ancient authors

 

#2. Magazines:

For research and general knowledge magazines, old or new are vital for us. The list is not limited to but includes:

National Geographic, Smithsonian, Leadership, Christianity Today, Church History, Archaeology, Theological Journals, Evangelism, Missions, Alliance Life, Apologetics, Denominational magazines and so on.

We cannot think of every title that would be useful.

** You can send duplicates, fiction books and as many as you can spare. One of our goals is to open a used book store to help provide revenue to keep us self-sufficient.

Donations:

Once we get the SEC clearance in this country we will be opening up a Pay Pal or Skrill account to help facilitate cash donations. We have office and other expenses like salaries that need a boost until we get firmly established.

We are registering as a non-profit, so your donation s may be tax deductible. There are some specific areas where donations would come in handy:

#1. Sponsoring Students:

While our tuition is low at 3,000 pesos per each 6-week section, that is a figure that is a little out of reach of some of the Filipinos in this country. We are starting off with a 10-month certificate program divided into 6 sections. That is 18,000 pesos per year.

We require the students to pay at the beginning of each section. Because you may not know the name of the student, just mark your donation Student Scholarship and that money will be set aside for those students in financial need.

#2. General Expenses:

Until we can become self-sufficient we will have some general office and school expenses to meet with your generous support. These include but not limited to whiteboard, markers & erasers, office supplies, school supplies, rent, utilities, taxes and so on.

Just mark your donation General expenses and your money will be set aside for these needs

#3. Salaries:

We do not expect anyone to work for free or for non-living wages. We will need to meet certain salary expectations for those people we employ. Until we become more established and have a regular income we will need help in this area.

Just mark your donation Salaries.

Of course, we will need prayers as well. But remember God uses people and if they ignore God’s leading to act in meeting physical needs, then nothing gets met.

 

We hope you can help us get this Bible Institute up and running as we already have some verbal promises from prospective students who are interested in developing and adding to their theological and spiritual knowledge.

 

For further information you can write the president of the Panabo City Dove Bible Institute at kinship29@yahoo.com. You have a little time to prepare as we are still setting up addresses, accounts and other important contact information.

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Archaeological Discovery- B

Same for this one

https://www.christianpost.com/news/ancient-secret-church-discovered-under-isis-occupied-city-in-war-ravaged-syria-223574/

An ancient church that’s believed to have operated in secret has been discovered in Manbij, Syria, along with artifacts from the first centuries of Christianity’s existence and human remains.

For more than two years Manbij was occupied by the Islamic State terror group before it was liberated in 2016.

Abdulwahab Sheko, head of the Exploration Committee at the Ruins Council in Manbij, said in a Fox News report on Tuesday that the discoveries include the ruins of what appears to have been an ancient Christian church, including various crosses carved into the surviving columns and walls.

The church had been structured in such a way to allow people to flee through passages should they have been discovered.

 

Archaeological Discovery-A

We just heard about it so we will not comment

https://www.christianpost.com/news/archaeological-discovery-king-david-city-found-near-jerusalem-excavations-align-with-bible-events-223580/

Archaeologists in Israel said they discovered a building below the hills of Hebron near Jerusalem that is linked to King David of the Old Testament, with excavations alluding to events described in the Bible.

According to Breaking Israel News, the dig was led by Professor Avraham Faust of Bar-Ilan University. Researchers identified the remains of the lost city as Eglon, which is mentioned in Joshua 15:39 in the Bible as one of the cities that fought against the Israelites as part of the five Amorite kings coalition.

Faust explained that the dig was aided by burrowing mole rats, which brought earth to the surface, offering initial clues as to what is buried underneath. Radiocarbon dating has since confirmed that the Eglon ruins date back to around 1,000 B.C., which aligns with the period of King David’s time.

 

A Unique Discovery 2

Mentioned in the previous post, here is an article on that discovery:

https://www.christianpost.com/news/1500-year-old-magical-papyrus-discovered-near-pyramid-invokes-gods-human-sacrifice-test-the-bible-223092/

An ancient 1,500-year-old “magical papyrus” discovered near a pyramid in Egypt addresses the Bible’s God as the God of an Egyptian deity, and refers to the test of faith Abraham faced when asked to sacrifice his son.

Written in Coptic at a time when Christianity was widely practiced in the country, the writer, who isn’t named, pleads: “God of Seth, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, God of Israel, watch over everyone who suffers. My word, may it come to pass with power.”

These quotes should not raise eyebrows but the following quote may as the researchers may have made an error in their interpretation

Seth is an ancient Egyptian god said to rule over the desert and the storms, associated with eclipses, thunderstorms and earthquakes.

Seth was also the third named son of Adam and Eve.  Genesis 4:26 tells us

To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.

Most likely the writer was calling on the same God that the people sought prior to the flood. That God was the God of Abraham, Jacob, and Israel. Since The Egyptian god seth was not a follower of the God of the Bible, it is highly unlikely that God would be referred to as the God of seth the Egyptian god.

The text presents few clues as to its nameless composer, though Zellmann-Rohrer noted that the writing “lacks professional proficiency.” What is more, it makes references and uses terms used by followers of Gnosticism.

We would need to see those terms and the context before coming to any conclusions on this assessment.

He suggested that those who copied the text may have been Christians who “made use of a textual tradition that owed much to Jewish belief and lore and to Gnosticism.”

But this assessment is just wrong.

 

A Unique Discovery

You may have heard about it already but here it is again:

https://www.christianpost.com/news/passages-of-bibles-deuteronomy-found-hidden-behind-8th-century-islamic-quran-223395/

Fragments of the Bible have been discovered for the first time ever hidden behind an eighth century Quran, or Islamic holy text, a French scholar has revealed.

“And what’s even more fascinating is it’s on top of passages from the Old Testament. … It shows the contact between communities in the first centuries of Islam; it’s very relevant.”

A number of Coptic texts have provided important reflections on early Christianity. Last week, LiveScience reported that a 1,500-year-old “magical papyrus” discovered near a pyramid in Egypt has been deciphered, with the Coptic text issuing a plea from an unnamed writer.

Oxford University researcher Michael Zellmann-Rohrer noted that the papyrus also calls the biblical God on a number of occasions “the one who presides over the mountain of the murderer,” referring to the account in the book of Genesis when God initially asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah.

Although in the biblical narrative Isaac is spared and a ram is sacrificed instead, the researcher noted that the papyrus describes the story as if the son’s sacrifice actually took place, suggesting such a belief might have been widespread at the time.

We have only placed a few quotes here and the last one gives us evidence that the story of Abraham and Isaac was known in ancient times.

 

Nahum’s Tomb

For those who may not know about this topic, we offer the following quoted information from a newsletter we receive regularly:

Not every old thing is buried deep in the dirt. The 2,700-year old tomb of the Hebrew prophet Nahum, many believe, is located in the northern Iraqi town of Al Qosh, in an abandoned synagogue which is about to collapse. A local Christian church and a restoration group based in the U.S. are trying to save and restore the synagogue.

Al-Monitor reports that the local Chaldean church put a roof over the crumbling structure a couple years ago to stop further deterioration by winter rains. This spring, a team of engineers with ARCH (Alliance for the Restoration of Cultural Heritage) traveled to Iraq to add scaffolding, ropes and support beans which should hold the structure together for at least three years while plans are made and money is raised for restoration.

The synagogue was deserted in the 1950’s when Jews left under Iraqi persecution–a response to the creation of the State of Israel, according to Al Monitor. A local Christian family was handed the keys to the synagogue and has opened it faithfully throughout three generations for visitors coming to pray at the tomb of the minor prophet Nahum, writer of the Bible’s Book of Nahum.

You can read the rest at the following link, hopefully. Let us know if you can’t

http://patternsofevidence.com/blog/2018/04/13/prophet-nahums-tomb-peeks-above-ground/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Thinker109Nahum&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=Thinker109Nahum&inf_contact_key=0ba887acafd682b5fe56a00fbcc4f51632fc7bc17499c2ed747657c964b6a296

 

 

2,000 year old discovery

We will let you read about it sans too many comments

http://patternsofevidence.com/blog/2018/04/06/2000-year-old-coins-found-in-jerusalem-cave/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Thinker108JerusalemCoins&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=Thinker108JerusalemCoins&inf_contact_key=6ef6ad25532b4f4b55580f0d8cbd14277b41b3a55b3e2013f8e0295890f0c8ae

Archaeologist Eilat Mazar and her team have discovered a trove of bronze coins and cookware in a cave at the base of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. The discovery was made last month, on the fifth day of a new dig at the Ophel, which is mentioned in the Bible as a point of fortification.

Dr. Mazar speculates that the 7 x 14-meter cave was a hiding place for Jews seeking to escape the Roman siege and eventual sacking of Jerusalem during the First Jewish-Roman War (66–70 AD). At the end of that war, the Roman army destroyed both the city and the Second Temple built by King Herod the Great.

“It’s not a usual phenomenon that we can come to such a closed cave, untouched [for] 2,000 years, including the very last remains of life of the people who were sieged in Jerusalem, suffered in Jerusalem, till the very last minute of the Second Temple period,” The Trumpet quoted Dr. Mazar as saying.

We question the funding source since Herbert W. Armstrong was not a Christian but a cult leader.

Found in the cave with the coins were broken jars and cooking pots, and a network of tunnels with footholds and handholds carved into the walls, indicating that people seeking to escape the warfare overhead, actually moved around and lived for an extended time in this cave.

Just keep in mind that the pottery and the coins may come from different time periods. They may not make a dating case for each other