TRUTH-HISTORY
BIBLE FACTS
01-Red Sea Crossing Site
02-The Real MOUNt. Sinai
02-The Real MOUNt. Sinai
03-Noah's Ark
04-TEMPLE
05- Ark of the Covenant
06-SODOM GOMORRAH
07-TOMB OF JESUS CHRIST
Red Sea
04-TEMPLE
05- Ark of the Covenant
06-SODOM GOMORRAH
07-TOMB OF JESUS CHRIST
01 Red Sea Crossing Site
Exodus Chapters 14, 15Red Sea
After throwing Egypt into chaos by virtue of the 10 plagues that had been poured out on them, the Egyptians begged the Israelites to go.
The Israelites were gathered at Succoth, a common staging point for Egyptian armies prior to heading north for battle. Moses knew well the spot and gathered his people there. It was just north of the western arm of the Red Sea known today as the Gulf of Suez. There was a canal there at that time between the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Suez, as well as a bridge over it.
Moses had been told by God to bring the people to Mt. Sinai in the land of Midian in Arabia, which was on the other side of what we now call the Gulf of Aqaba arm of the Red Sea (Exodus 3:12). Thus he did not take them on what was known then as the Way of the Land of the Philistines, a more direct route, but took them on a highway known as the Way of the Wilderness of the Red Sea. This highway circled down through what was called the Wilderness of the Red Sea (which we now call the Sinai peninsula) and then continues around the upper tip of the Gulf of Aqaba.
About 2/3rds of the way around this peninsula, God told Moses to lead the people off the highway and towards the Red Sea. (Exodus 14:1-3)
At this point, the Israelites left the Way of Wilderness of the Red Sea and entered into a canyon leading directly to the Gulf of Aqaba arm of the Red Sea.
As they were still in Egyptian controlled territory, their every move was watched by military lookout posts on the surrounding hills and probably flashed via mirror relay back to Pharaoh (see photo of the ruins of such a lookout on right side below). When Pharaoh realized the Israelites were hemmed in by the mountains and the sea, he decided to pursue them (Exodus 14:3)..
CHARIOT WHEEL
CHARIOT WHEEL
MAP
Upon arriving at the Red Sea, the Israelites found themselves on a enormous beach. This beach was 4.5 miles long by 2 miles wide (7 km x 3 km). However, (as recorded in the writings of Josephus) the mountains closed in around the beach and there was no apparent escape route. At the north end of the beach an Egyptian military garrison was stationed in a fort. You can see the fort building in the next two photos. Locals from a nearby Bedouin village still draw water from the well inside the buildings.
PHOTO
The Gulf of Aqaba is around 5,000 feet deep (1,500 m) for most of its length with a steep 45 degree slope to the bottom. However, on the side where the Israelites were trapped was the canyon they had just come through. Water rushing off the land soon after the flood had carried with it a tremendous amount of sand which had been deposited halfway out into the Gulf. Miraculously, a similar canyon had produced a tremendous deposit of sand originating from the other side. The location of both canyons was such that the sand reached each other and formed a land bridge of about 6/10ths of a mile wide (900 m) by 8 miles (13 km) long through the deep between the two sides. The slope both up and down on this land bridge was a gentle 6 degrees.
But even then, at the deepest point, the land bridge was around 1,000 feet (300 m) deep. So given that it would take around 400 psi of pressure to hold back water 1,000 feet high, how could the Israelites survive such as wind as they passed through?
Exodus 15:8 says:
"By the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up.
The surging waters stood firm like a wall;
the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea."
The surging waters stood firm like a wall;
the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea."
To congeal means to turn from a liquid to a solid such as from water to ice. Moses raised his rod over the sea and God caused a strong east wind to blow, quickly freezing the water into a thick mass of ice on either side of what became a channel or trough over this land bridge.
Exodus 14:21, 22 says:
"Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left."
Then God caused the wind to cease and the Israelites passed through on dry (and perhaps frozen?) ground.
After the Israelites reached the other side, God removed the cloud blocking the Egyptians and they pursued the Israelites, going into the trough. Moses stretched forth his rod over the sea again. The ice which was thinnest at the western side of the trough began to melt, sending water cascading into it. The water rushed into the channel and eastward carrying many of the Egyptian soldiers and their horses with it. The bodies of many of the drowned soldiers were washed up on the eastern shore at the feet of their intended victims. (Exodus 14:30)
The Bible also says that the Lord "made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving" (Exodus 14:25) causing the Egyptian soldiers to become stuck. Expeditions diving along this underwater bridge discovered many coral encrusted chariots with their wheels detached. Some gold plated wheels were found indicating high level officials or priests were part of the group pursuing the Israelites. Also found were parts of skeletons of men and horses, all preserved by the coral covering them.
We hope to add some photographs here in the near future showing some of these underwater findings.
Further evidence of the underwater bridge and the crossing site comes from identical Phoenician columns found on either side of the crossing site. The inscriptions on the one found on the west side lying in the water had been eroded off. However, on the one found on the Arabian side, arachaic Hebrew inscriptions were still legible on the leeward side of the column. They read "This monument is erected by King Solomon, king of Israel, in honor of Yahweh in commemoration of the crossing of the Red Sea." King Solomon, in his building of the temple, had formed very good relations with the Phoenician people. The column on the west side was moved across the road and stood upright in concrete (see below). The column on the Arabian east side was removed and possibly moved to a museum.
RED SEA
The Israelites continued up the canyon and on to Mt. Sinai. And we should expect to find evidence corroborating the Bible along this route.
Mt. Sinai
The Bible proved right again! May God be glorified and our faith in Him and His word increased!
02 The Real MOUNt. Sinai
Mount. Sinai
According to Scripture (Galatians 4:25 - "Now Hagar stands for Mt. Sinai in Arabia"), Mt. Sinai should be in Saudi Arabia, in the territory of the Midianites, not on what we call today, the Sinai peninsula. Indeed, after tracing the route of the Exodus from Egypt and discovering the Red Sea crossing site through the Gulf of Aqaba, the route to the real Mt. Sinai should be easier to find. And indeed, Jebel El Lawz, the Mountain of the Law, was rediscovered.
On the route to Mt. Sinai, the Israelites became very thirsty. God instructed Moses to strike a large rock at Horeb and water would pour forth (Exodus 17:5, 6). Moses struck the rock. God split the rock and water in copious amounts poured forth, enough to water the 1+ million plus people and their animals. Below is a picture of that rock and some of the erosion as the water forcefully poured out from it. Note the person standing at the base of the rock in the right hand picture. Water poured forth from both sides of it and the water channels formed extend for a fair distance into the valleys on both sides.
encamped "in" the mountain. Mt. Sinai has an area which is like the caldera of an extinct volcano, with an opening on one side. Thus the Israelites actually moved into the caldera, and camped inside the mountain. Following are some pictures of the Saudi fence and guard house that were placed around the peak area of the mountain, in the same location as where God told Moses to build a fence so that the Israelites could not break through.
A view looking down from the mountain showing where the fence Moses would have built would have been located. The fence above is in the same location. Next is several photos of the mountain.
Note the blackened peak where the burning presence of the Lord settled down. The rocks looked as if they had been torched. The darkened areas are not shadows from clouds or other peaks. To the right is a photo of the altar at Rephadim (Exodus 17:15, 16) built to commemorate the victory over the Amalekites. Moses called it, "The LORD is my banner". A closeup of the rocks show that the altar was built of unhewn rocks as commanded by God.
Following is a photographs of one of twelve Egyptian style petroglyphs of bulls on the altar around which the Israelites worshipped the golden calf. It was when Moses came down the mountain, and saw the Israelites dancing around this idolatrous calf, that he threw down the tablets of stone, containing the covenant or contract between God and His people.
03 Noah's Ark
The Story of the Flood and Noah's Ark is found in
Genesis 6 to 8
noahs ark
Satellite photographs taken years earlier of a boat like formation on Mt. Ararat in Turkey intrigued Ron Wyatt. This formation had earlier been discovered by the same analyst (Dr. Brandenburg of Ohio State University) that discovered the nuclear missiles in Cuba. While a subsequent expedition concluded that "there was nothing of archeological significance," in the formation, Ron felt it was worth checking out. He flew to Turkey and arrived at the ark site. Since the formation was mostly buried in mud, he felt it was too big a project for him. He returned to the his home in the United States and asked his friends to pray that God would do something to expose more of the ark.
Several month later, an unusual earthquake occurred causing the ark to be exposed an additional 20 vertical feet. The ark was measured and its internal structure was thoroughly mapped out with metal detectors and ground penetrating radar. The patterns clearly showed the ribs of the ark, an ~10 foot wide door near the front, two large water tanks near the front door, and large stabilizers running the length of the ship. The length of the ship was measured independently by two teams and found to be 515 feet long. Since Moses who wrote the book of Genesis was familiar with the Egyptian cubit which is 20.6 inches, the biblical record of 300 cubits is exactly correct! (300 cubits x 20.6 /12 = 515 feet)
A metal detector scan showed the presence of metal at the joints of the ark. Note the regular pattern of these joints. Later the joints were excavated and the metal analyzed. Many of the joints were held together with large rivets. The metallurgical structure indicated that the makers had a fairly advanced level of knowledge of metal alloys. A computer reconstruction based upon the ruin profile showed that the original shape had a highly sophisticated profile.
The pIece of petrified wood from the Ark shown below was excavated in the presence of a number of Turkish officials. This piece was sawn in several places, exposing the wood grain. Note the lamination of 3 layers in the photograph. Later analysis confirmed its organic nature. After many corroborating tests, the Turkish government agreed that the structure was indeed Noah's Ark. They subsequently built a Visitors Center near the Ark. Due to ongoing fighting between the Turkish government and Kurdish rebels, the Visitors Center and the area have restricted access. The goal eventually is to build a protective structure over the ark and begin excavations.
Later expeditions also located what appears to be Noah's first home after the flood and the grave sites of Mr. and Mrs. Noah. The graves were evidenced by petroglyphs on the large tombstones. These were within ~5 miles of the Ark. Unfortunately, the graves were subsequently exhumed by grave robbers. The Turkish government later reported that a bodice that Mrs. Noah was wearing, which was covered with large precious stones, was sold on the Turkish black market for around $75 million. One of the burial crypts was later recovered and is in a back room of a museum in Ankara, Turkey. It is 18 feet long! Enormous human bones appeared in some of the hotels in the area soon after the graves were robbed. The size of the bones suggests that the Antediluvians were between 12-15 feet tall!
04- The Temple
(I Chronicles 28:3).
The Temple
The crowning achievement of King Solomon's reign was the erection of a magnificent Temple (Beit ha-Mikdash) in Jerusalem. His father, King David, had wanted to build a great Temple for God a generation earlier, as a permanent resting place for the Ark containing the Ten Commandments. A divine edict, however, had forbidden him from doing so. "You will not build a house for My name," God said to him, "for you are a man of battles and have shed blood" (I Chronicles 28:3).
The Bible's description of Solomon's Temple suggests that the inside ceiling was was 180 feet long, 90 feet wide, and 50 feet high. The highest point on the Temple that King Solomon built was actually 120 cubits tall (about 20 stories or about 207 feet). According to the Tanach (II Chronicles):3:3
The length by cubits after the ancient measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.
3:4 And the porch that was before the house, the length of it, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and the height a hundred and twenty; and he overlaid it within with pure gold.
He spares no expense in the building's creation. He orders vast quantities of cedar from King Hiram of Tyre (I Kings 5:2025), has huge blocks of the choicest stone quarried, and commands that the building's foundation be laid with hewn stone. To complete the massive project, he imposes forced labor on all his subjects, drafting people for work shifts lasting a month at a time. Some 3,300 officials are appointed to oversee the Temple's erection (5:2730). Solomon assumes such heavy debts in building the Temple that he is forced to pay off King Hiram with twenty towns in the Galilee (I Kings 9:11).
When the Temple is completed, Solomon inaugurates it with prayer and sacrifice, and even invites nonJews to come and pray there. He urges God to pay particular heed to their prayers: "Thus all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and revere You, as does Your people Israel; and they will recognize that Your name is attached to this House that I have built" (I Kings 8:43).
Until the Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians some four hundred years later, in 586 B.C.E., sacrifice was the predominant mode of divine service there. Seventy years later, a second Temple was built on the same site, and sacrifices again resumed. During the first century B.C.E., Herod greatly enlarged and expanded this Temple. The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E., after the failure of the Great Revolt.
As glorious and elaborate as the Temple was, its most important room contained almost no furniture at all. Known as the Holy of Holies (Kodesh Kodashim), it housed the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. Unfortunately, the tablets disappeared when the Babylonians destroyed the Temple, and during the Second Temple era, the Holy of Holies was a small, entirely bare room. Only once a year, on Yom Kippur, the High Priest would enter this room and pray to God on Israel's behalf. A remarkable monologue by a Hasidic rabbi in the Yiddish play The Dybbuk conveys a sense of what the Jewish throngs worshiping at the Temple must have experienced during this ceremony:
God's world is great and holy. The holiest land in the world is the land of Israel. In the land of Israel the holiest city is Jerusalem. In Jerusalem the holiest place was the Temple, and in the Temple the holiest spot was the Holy of Holies.... There are seventy peoples in the world. The holiest among these is the people of Israel. The holiest of the people of Israel is the tribe of Levi. In the tribe of Levi the holiest are the priests. Among the priests, the holiest was the High Priest.... There are 354 days in the [lunar] year. Among these, the holidays are holy. Higher than these is the holiness of the Sabbath. Among Sabbaths, the holiest is the Day of Atonement, the Sabbath of Sabbaths.... There are seventy languages in the world. The holiest is Hebrew. Holier than all else in this language is the holy Torah, and in the Torah the holiest part is the Ten Commandments. In the Ten Commandments the holiest of all words is the name of God.... And once during the year, at a certain hour, these four supreme sanctities of the world were joined with one another. That was on the Day of Atonement, when the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and there utter the name of God. And because this hour was beyond measure holy and awesome, it was the time of utmost peril not only for the High Priest but for the whole of Israel. For if in this hour there had, God forbid, entered the mind of the High Priest a false or sinful thought, the entire world would have been destroyed.
To this day, traditional Jews pray three times a day for the Temple's restoration. During the centuries the Muslims controlled Palestine, two mosques were built on the site of the Jewish Temple. (This was no coincidence; it is a common Islamic custom to build mosques on the sites of other people's holy places.) Since any attempt to level these mosques would lead to an international Muslim holy war (jihad) against Israel, the Temple cannot be rebuilt in the foreseeable future.
05-Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant
The ark was in a mortar casement with a lid on it which was cracked and the smaller part shifted away. The crack continued through the casement to its base and permitted viewing through the crack, as well as through a colonoscope. The poles were still in place in the rings attached to the ark.
The Ark of the Covenant was rediscovered through the leading of God. Ron Wyatt, the archeologist whom God had permitted to re-discover a number of significant archeological finds including Noah's ark, the Red Sea crossing site with its encrusted chariot wheels, the real Mt. Sinai with its blackened top and altars, was directed by God to dig in an area outside of old Jerusalem known as the Calvary Escarpment. The place is also known as the place of the Skull, reflecting a pattern in the rock and is fairly close to the Garden Tomb, one of the suspected burial places of Jesus (see map below). This was in an area located between the walls of Jerusalem and the Babylonian siege wall during the siege of Jerusalem prior to its fall and destruction around 586 B.C. Permission to excavate was granted by the Israeli government as well as by the owners of the two properties that would be affected.
A lot of rubble was removed from the excavation site and digging commenced. Efforts were fruitless on a number of trips, extending over a 3 year period. Finally the searchers dug into the hill, and found it honeycombed with natural tunnels, most quite narrow.
At the time of the discovery, the diggers, an Arabian helper and Ron Wyatt came upon a small hole leading into another chamber. The hole was enlarged and the helper crawled into the chamber first, but with a horrified look on his face, rapidly exited, never to return to the honeycombs. Ron enlarged the access hole, entered the chamber, and when he saw the casement and the other sanctuary implements in the chamber and realized that he'd found what he'd been searching for over the past years, he fainted and remained unconscious for around 45 minutes.
The chamber was about 22 feet long by 12 feet wide at one end with a with a flat ceiling about 8 feet high . It was filled to within 18 inches of the ceiling with fist sized rocks. The sanctuary implements (see list below) were covered with dry rotted wood and animal skins of some sort. At the far end of the chamber was a casement with a lid on it. It was of the right size to just hold an Ark of the dimensions indicated in the Bible.
Over the next several weeks, the chamber was emptied of the filler rocks and the sanctuary implements were uncovered and cleaned up. Also the original passageway into the chamber (through which the chamber contents had been brought in) was located. Attempts to clear the passageway ended in futility. [There are extensive man-made tunnels under the temple mount on which the temple of the Dome of the Rock currently stands. Some of these extend several miles in length.]
Items identified in the chamber include:
i. The Ark of the Covenant
ii. The Table of Shewbread
iii. The golden Altar of Incense
iv. The Golden Censer
v. The 7-branched Lampstand (with bowl-like golden oil lamps built into the tips of the branches)
vi. A very large sword, 5' 2" long, most likely that of Goliath
vii. An ephod
viii. A miter with an ivory pomegranate on the tip
ix. A brass shekel weight
x. Numerous oil lamps
xi. A brass ring (This appeared to be for hanging a curtain or something similar)
This find is probably the most significant archeological find in history. A number of dictators, including Adolph Hitler and Mussolini, felt that possessing the Ark would give them power over their enemies and aggressively sought for it. Yet it should be emphasized that the Ark itself has no power except as God's presence is dwelling there.
The Israeli government after examining artifacts brought from the chamber, has confirmed to its satisfaction that the Ark has indeed been found. However, to its credit, the government has been very careful with the release of information to prevent riots and the potential destruction of the Dome of the Rock by Jewish extremists. Some examples of what happened when people misused the ark discovery information.
1. A brash young intrusive tourist who called a press conference to announce the find was found by the press corps dead from a gunshot to the back of the head.
2. A doctor of archeology from the Israeli university, as he attempted to enter the chamber became totally paralyzed in his back and legs. He spent two weeks in the hospital and swore he'd never try to enter the chamber again.
3. When the Israeli government released some information about the find, a riot ensued at the Dome of the Rock resulting in over 20 deaths.
The Israeli government, satisfied that the Ark has been found, has ordered the chamber to be sealed. The entryway was covered with a steel plate and then covered with 2 feet of rock and dirt. It awaits a better time for God to reveal it.
The following graphics are an artist's computerized renditions from eye-witness descriptions and sketches of the ark of the covenant. The ark was viewed directly by several witnesses both through a crack running down the casement surrounding the ark (see picture below) and through a colonoscope (a flexible yet controllable fiber optic viewing device normally used for examining the insides of a colon) on a number of occasions during a two year period before the Israeli government ordered the chamber sealed.
The atonement cover was of solid gold and was encircled by the pomegranates as mentioned in the Bible. The two cherubim (angels), one on either end, had their wings positioned at right angles to the other, one wing covering the back side of the ark, the other at their sides.
06-SODOM GOMORRAH
"Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah --from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities --and also the vegetation in the land."
Genesis 19:24, 25 NIV
At the south end of the beautiful, yet barren Dead Sea area, there is a mountain known as Mt. Sodom. It is adjacent to this area that the city of Sodom was located. The Bible indicates that there were more than just the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that were destroyed that day. So far, at least 5 cities have been discovered that were turned to ash and have sulfur balls strewn throughout them. The location of each of these was found by scrutinizing satellite maps of the area, locating geometric shapes, particularly square or rectangular areas. Visits to each location, with the subsequent finding of a city turned to ash and many sulfur balls (brimstone in the King James version of the Bible), provided confirmation.
When the balls had fallen from heaven, they were estimated to be around 5,000 degrees Celsius (or around 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit). After consuming everything that was around them, the heat continue to melt the ash that had formed around them, vitrifying (turning to glass) the ash. Thus the balls were surrounded by a glassy casing of melted and re-solidified ash.
No speculation needed. The houses and buildings were actually quite substantial in size, suggesting a people of great stature once inhabited these cities. The walls and everything in the cities were turned completely to ash!
Hundreds of sulfur balls were found and collected. On two occasions, the investigation teams entered the cities after a rain fall. The glass surrounding the balls glistened in the light, the rain having exposed millions of the balls.
The balls themselves were composed of pressed pure powder sulfur. Checking with volcanic experts around the world confirmed that no where else in the world, even around volcanic activity, were any balls of this composition found.
One of the many sulfur ball sample collected by the verification teams. Independent laboratory testing confirmed that the balls had a high (95+%) sulfur content.
07- Jesus Christ's Tomb
Jesus Christ's Tomb
The garden tomb has long been suspected as the burial site for Jesus Christ for some time, but recently, from discoveries surrounding the re-discovery of the crucifixion site, the Ark of the Covenant and the tomb stone itself, we can conclusively say that the Garden Tomb WAS the burial site for Jesus. For as the Bible says, "He is not here. For He is Risen!"
The tomb was hewn out of solid rock.
The tomb stone for the Garden Tomb was found in a first century A.D. building surrounding the crucifixion site several hundred feet away. It is 13 feet, 2 inches in diameter and around 2 feet thick. Dimensionally, it fits perfectly into the trough in front of the tomb, and also fits the exact spacing between two iron pegs designed to hold the stone in place (see sketch below). The stone was held in place with a rope or iron chain being fastened to two iron pegs driven into the stone face. It is the largest known tombstone yet discovered and MUCH larger than that covering King Herod's tomb which was 5 1/2 feet in diameter. So when the Bible says a "great stone," it means exactly that.
The angel upon forcefully rolling away the stone, sheared the iron pegs holding the stone in place. The photo on the right shows the sheared off stub still left in its hole.
This show of strength was hardly the act of timid disciples in stealing a body in front of a cohort of Roman soldiers as some allege.
EMPTY TOMB
Truly, our Lord is risen!
