Hot News

DVD

1. Under the “Some People Never Learn” category:

Geologists Claim Stats, Science Prove Jesus Buried in Jerusalem with Wife & Supposed Son

--The Jerusalem Post 04.07.15 as also featured on NBC’s The Today Show, 04.07.15

Simcha Jacobovici, a Canadian-Israeli filmmaker has been waiting since the release of his 2007 documentary, The Jesus Family Tomb, for a boost in his credibility. His credibility has been in question since the release of the documentary simply because the “evidence “ produced by the 1980 discovery of a tomb in Jerusalem containing ossuaries (bone boxes) that were inscribed in Aramaic with the names Jesus (Yeshua) the son of Yoseph, Maria (Mary), Mara Mariame, Yosah (short for Joseph), Matyah, Judah the Son of Yeshua, and a few others who are not mentioned in the Jerusalem Post article. While some folks would immediately jump on the bandwagon and shout to the rooftops that this discovery proves Jesus was married, had a son by Mary Magdalene, died and was buried-- to do so without the proper research would be a grave mistake.

The reality is that the names on the ossuaries were among the most common names in the region during the First Century AD. According to the research done by Richard Bauckman in his book, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, Yosef was the 2nd most common name in the region, Yeshua (Jesus or Joshua) was the 6th most common name in the region, and the two most common female names were Salome and Mary. The name Mara Mariame is not the name for Mary Magdalene as claimed by the documentary. Mara is short for Martha. If this is not proof enough, the family tomb discovered in Jerusalem was the final resting place of a very wealthy family. Joseph was a lowly carpenter in Nazareth, and his family did not have the wealth or status to afford such an upper class burial plot. As a result of all of the above, scholars (both secular and religious) dismissed the claims of Jacobovici as poor scholarship and sketchy research.

So how did this nonsense make back to The Jerusalem Post and the Today Show? Enter Ayre Shimron, geoarcheologist and the ossuary discovered in 2002 bearing the inscription of James, the brother of Jesus. There was quite a bit of hoopla with this discovery in 2002, but then the owner of the ossuary was accused of forging the inscription. This is quite a serious offence on countries that have governmental departments of antiquities, and it was 2012 until the owner of the ossuary was found innocent of the forgery.

This legal decision opened the door for Jacobovici and Shimron to persuade the owner of the James Ossuary that they needed to run chemical tests on the box to determine its original resting place. After over 150 chemical tests, Shrimron has proclaimed that the box containing the bones of James, the brother of Jesus has indeed sat in the Jesus Family Tomb for many years prior to its discovery. What a scoop for The Jerusalem Post and what a feature for Today. Once again, these organizations get to attempt to throw cold water on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!

Jacobovici and Shimron at the very least, are guilty of false assumptions and trying to connect dots that are not on the same page. At the worst, they are downright deceivers. NBC knows better. They are guilty of propagating a story with faulty and highly circumstantial (if not completely bogus) evidence. NBC and The Jerusalem Post are both guilty of poor and possibly dishonest journalism. Christians, on the other hand need not be shaken by these stories. The attack on the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the same old tactic used by Satan for almost 2000 years. If there is doubt about that, read I Corinthians 15. We simply face the same lies of Satan as was faced by the church at Corinth— The lies to today are just disseminated on a much broader spectrum.

NOTE: This News Alert continues following the product advertisement, below.

2. Dateline: Jerusalem 04.07.15
The Jerusalem Post

Arab League to Present Timetable for an End to Israeli Occupation

“Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, said on Monday that a special committee of Arab League ministers will publish a detailed timetable ‘for an end to Israel’s occupation.’ The committee’s formation is in line with a decision taken by the Arab League during its recent summit in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. According to Shoukry, Arab governments will soon submit a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council that contains detailed provisions for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.”

The West Bank is the most disputed piece of real estate on Planet Earth. This small piece of land that includes East Jerusalem was not part of Israel in the 1948 UN partition. The region was under the auspices of Jordan until the 1967 Six Day War when Israel gained this region, the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, and other regions surrounding Israel.

One of the most interesting aspects of this conquest was the fact that Israel offered to return all conquered territories a few days after the war. Israel made the offer to return all territory in exchange for “”peace and demilitarization.” This offer was actually blocked by the Soviet Union, and out of these negotiations came the infamous “3 NOs:”

After the Arabs attacked Israel again in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel gained more territory from the surrounding nations. With the Camp David Peace Accords between Israel and Egypt in 1979, all territories gained were released by Israel with the exception of the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank.

In 1988, Jordan made peace with Israel and released all authority over the West Bank. This left the PLO as the ruling authority of the West Bank and Hamas as the ruling authority over the Gaza Strip.

This situation left Israel with a real dilemma. Hamas is constantly attacking Israel with rocket and mortar fire, and the PLO---well, the best explanation of the PLO can be seen in article 20 of the PLO Charter:

The UN and the rest of the world deem Israel the aggressor in this entire scenario. However, the view of Israel is that they must retain military control over the West Bank as the attitude of the PLO Charter has never changed. The official attitude of the Israeli government is as follows:

As Christians, we must support the right of Israel to defend themselves against those who continue to call for the annihilation of the Jewish people and the total removal of the state of Israel from the face of the Earth. We need to understand that the Abrahamic Covenant was not conditional, and is still in force---“I will bless him that blesses thee.” We must not buy into the idea tat Israel is the aggressor and that the Jewish people are to be blamed for the unrest in the region. Israel has the moral high ground, and any proposal for a “2-State Solution” would endanger the very existence of Israel. As Bible-believing Christians, we must stand with Israel and continue to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”