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Apostle Philip's Tomb Found
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PAMUKKALE, Turkey. A team of Italian archaeologists has announced the discovery here of what they believe to be the tomb of Philip, one of Jesus' 12 apostles, at the ancient Asia Minor city of Hierapolis in Turkey's Aegean province of Denizli, and are planning to excavate the unopened grave soon.
The discovery of the grave of the New Testament saint, who came to Hierapolis - known today as Pamukkale - nearly 2,000 years ago to spread the Gospel and was crucified upside down by the Romans, will attract immense attention around the world, said excavator Francesco D'Andria, director of the Institute of Archaeological Heritage, Monuments and Sites at Italy's National Research Council in Lecce.
Philip's tomb has traditionally been associated with the martyrium church built at the site, though no evidence of the ancient burial was ever found.
In July, however, D'Andria and his team located a smaller church less than 150 feet away from the martyrium that appears to contain the grave of the apostle:"As we were cleaning out the new church we discovered a month ago, we finally found the grave," said D'Andria. "With close examination, we determined that the grave had been moved from its previous location in the St. Philip Church to this new church in the fifth century, during the Byzantine era."
D'Andria has been leading archeological excavations at the ancient city for 32 years. Hierapolis was founded around 190 BC by Eumenes II, King of Pergamum (197 BC-159 BC), The Hellenistic city was given over to Rome in 133 BC and grew into a flourishing Roman metropolis, with temples, a theatre and popular sacred hot springs, believed to have healing properties:"Until recently, we thought the grave of St. Philip was on Martyrs' Hill, but we discovered no traces of him in the geophysical research conducted in that area. A month ago, we discovered the remnants of an unknown church, 40 meters away from the St. Philip Church on Martyrs' Hill. And in that church we discovered the grave of St. Philip," D'Andria said.
"St. Philip is considered a martyr. In fact, the church built in his name on the Martyrs' Hill is, for this reason, also called Martyrion, despite the fact there were no traces of the grave of St. Philip. As we were cleaning out the new church we discovered a month ago, we finally found the grave. With close examination, we determined that the grave had been moved from its previous location in the St. Philip Church to this new church in the fifth century, during the Byzantine era. We are extremely happy and proud to have discovered the grave of a saint whose name appears in the bible - this surely is an important discovery for religious tourism, archaeology and Christendom."
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Christians Come Under Attack In China
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It was 3 a.m. one Sunday last September.
“People shook me and told me. ‘Get up. Get outside. Hurry up!’ ”
What he witnessed on the grounds of the Gospel Shoes Factory – a rural Christian community where he lived and worked with 60 others near here – was complete chaos: a raging mob of more than 200 men were pushing their way through the darkness with flashlights, wooden clubs, bricks, hoes and pieces of metal, smashing everything and anyone in their path.
A perimeter wall had been toppled. The main gate was smashed. Men were pouring through it.
Behind them came a roaring bulldozer, then an excavator.
As Wang stared in disbelief, he was clubbed over the head and trampled to the ground, his face streaming with blood.
Then someone hurled a brick at him, fracturing his leg.
As he lay there he could hear a man yelling, “Beat them. Beat them as hard as you like. I’ll take responsibility for everything.”
To his amazement, and the amazement of other eyewitnesses, the mob was led by a local Communist Party official backed up by uniformed police.
It was, in fact, one of the more violent flare-ups in China’s ongoing campaign against Christians, a community that – according to researchers – exceeds 100 million and is growing rapidly.
That growth has stoked concern and even alarm among some government officials, who see the spread of Christianity as a threat to their authority.
The Gospel Shoes Factory had all its papers in order. It had a building permit. Its business license was current.
But it also had a church.
In the process they killed livestock, looted appliances and wounded 30 members of the community, seven seriously.
Most were taken to hospital by tractor and private cars.
Protestant Christianity especially, they say, is experiencing “explosive” and even “exponential” growth in China, both in the countryside as well as in major cities: from Heilongjiang province in the north to Guangdong province in the south – from cities like Shanghai and Chengdu, to Beijing and beyond.
When Mao Zedong first took control of the country in 1949, there were just 1 million Christians in China. Today, while it is difficult to calculate a precise number, many now estimate that number to have grown by a hundred-fold.
By comparison, the Communist Party itself has just 70 million registered members.
Communist theory has long held that religion is nothing more than “superstition and foolishness,” and that as China prospers and becomes more modern, religion will fade away.
But that hasn’t happened. Instead, religious belief is growing.
When a well-known, local preacher, Yang Rongli, dared to mount a day of prayer and protest at the site and threaten to take the church’s grievances all the way to the central government in Beijing, she was arrested with four other church elders.
Yang, a university graduate and fourth generation Christian, was leader of Linfen’s Golden Lamp Church – the mother church of Gospel Shoes – believed to be the biggest house church in all of China, boasting 50,000 followers.
In 2008, Yang and church elders had raised the equivalent of $1.5 million in donations from church followers to build the towering, eight-storey, Golden Lamp Church. In size, it rivaled all local Communist Party buildings.
As Yang was being arrested on her way to Beijing on Sept. 25 last year, hundreds of armed, uniformed and riot police swooped down and surrounded the Golden Lamp.
“I was inside,” says one church elder who has still managed to elude arrest. “There were about 100 of us in there. And we all knelt to pray. No one slept that night,” he adds. “We were just too nervous.” The standoff lasted 24 hours.
At 4 p.m. the next day, armed police moved in, took control of the church and arrested more leaders.
Following a one-day trial, Yang Rongli and four other church officials were sentenced to three to seven years in prison for constructing a church on agricultural land and for mounting a protest that had blocked traffic.
Five other church officials were also sentenced – without trial – to two years of “re-education” in a government-run labour camp.
Today the Golden Lamp Church, still under state control, faces a demolition order. Just as they crushed the Gospel Shoes complex, authorities intend to reduce the Golden Lamp to rubble.
“Even if they do destroy the church, it won’t destroy our faith,” says the elder who was trapped inside the church the night of its siege.
“We believe in what we believe,” he says.
And so do others: On a steamy Sunday morning in Beijing’s college district a disproportionate number of pedestrians make their way along Bei Sanhuan Zhong Lu, coalesce into lines and disappear down an alley. At the bottom of the alley they file into a private club.
The lobby is filled with great photographic moments of Chinese Communist Party history. Mao Zedong’s smiling face is everywhere.
But from a back auditorium, comes the ascending sound of a church choir.
This is Beijing’s biggest, unregistered house church, known as Shouwang, in English: The Lookout.
Inside, the auditorium overflows with 400 Christian faithful – people are standing in the aisles—and this is just the first of three services to be held today.
Psalms are recited. Scripture is read. A sermon is preached , and when the hymns are sung – everyone joins in.
The audience looks mainly young to middle-aged, middle-class people dressed in their Sunday best. Very few are old.
Then Pastor Song Jun steps to the lectern and announces that the time has arrived to welcome newcomers: “Ladies and Gentlemen,” he says, “when the microphone is passed to you, please announce your name.” Eighteen people rise.
“Dear brothers and sisters how are you?” says a handsome young man taking the microphone. “My name is Song Yubin. I’ve always gone to Haidian Christian Church, but I heard about Shouwang from friends. Sister Zhao Yi brought me here today and I’m very glad to meet you. God bless you all!”
Another young man is handed the microphone.
“My name is Han Song,” he says. “And it was God who brought me here!”
The audience laughs appreciatively. “This is the very first time I’ve come to Beijing, so it’s my first time to Shouwang.”
Then another man nervously takes the microphone and, in doing so, seems to forget his name.
“Dear brothers and sisters,” he says, “this is my first day inside a church.” He pauses then. “God be with you,” he says. “Hallelujah!”
When the introductions are complete the choir and community burst into a rendition of “Jesus Loves You,” before spilling out into the street where hundreds of others are preparing to get in. It’s a spirited scene.
China’s central government has never tried to bulldoze Shouwang. But it has tried everything else.
In Sept. 2004, state police raided the church founder’s home, seized religious materials, detained him for 15 hours and warned him to stop the services. But the services continued.
In May 2008, state police raided Shouwang in the middle of a service, sealed the congregants inside, took down all names, i.d. numbers and work place details – and ordered workplace bosses to “have a chat” with the churchgoers and threaten them with firing if they continued to attend. But the congregants kept coming.
In Nov. 2009 – just weeks before a state visit to China by U.S. President Barack Obama – state police finally succeeded in threatening the church’s landlords to terminate the church’s lease.
Shouwang then held its services outdoors in the snow, attracting wide public attention.
Finally, after two weeks and with President Obama preparing to board Air Force One, Chinese government authorities – fearing a public relations disaster during the president’s visit – relented and allowed the church back indoors.
They are now preparing to move into their own property in downtown Beijing, recently bought with tens of millions of Chinese yuan in church donations.
Many other house churches have sprung up across the capital, with names like, The Cedar, Mt. Zion, Grace Evangelical, The Gospel, The New Tree, The Ark and others.
They too have attracted police attention and some leaders, like prominent Chinese writer and intellectual Yu Jie, have been detained and questioned about their faith.
Down a dirt road in Hebei province about 150 km. south of Beijing, past fields of corn and pear orchards and vineyards, through air thick with the stink of pig manure, beneath the haunting, screaming sound of cicadas perched in trees above the baking earth, lies the Catholic Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Wuqui Village.
It is Monday noon and upon its grounds one can hear the sound of children playing. There is an orphanage here that is home to 80 children, many suffering from severe disabilities.
They are looked after by an impoverished group of nuns and a single cleric, Bishop Jia Zhiguo, without any state support.
“People just leave them on our doorstep,” explains Sr. Zhang Ruizhen, a gentle, smiling woman in her 50s. “If we don’t care for them, who will?”
Bishop Jia is 76-years-old, in frail health and has just been released from 15 months of arbitrary detention, but he has endured worse: as a young layman he served 15 years in prison for inviting a Catholic priest to his hometown. Today Bishop Jia is under 24 hr. guard.
Appointed a bishop by the Vatican in 1980, the Chinese Communist government regards him as a renegade. China doesn’t acknowledge the authority of the Vatican.
The Vatican doesn’t officially recognize China and instead maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
But as a concession, Chinese authorities allow Jia to say daily mass and some locals are allowed to attend. But he is officially prevented from carrying out any of his bishop’s duties.
Despise the efforts of the government of China, the faith in China continues to flourish, surprising the state with ever more visibility and greater growth.
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Church Is Forbidden To Ring The Bells In Brazil
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Church bells have a fairly long history of use in such capacities as calling for worship, signaling times of prayer, telling the time, warning of danger, etc.
The most common use for church bells historically was for calling the faithful to worship. For example, bells are rung to mark the times for the Angelus (a mostly Catholic practice) at 6 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m.
In Brazil’s Capital, one Catholic Church was forbidden to ring the bells due to a possible breaking of an environmental law that states that the sound produced by the bells cannot exceed 50 decibels.
The Ibram (Brasília Environment Institute) has taken the action after one neighborhood complained about the San Peter Church.
Officers fined the parish for infringement of the environmental law.
Priest Givanildo Santos still has to justify why was ringing the church bells.
Miss Larissa Gadelha, member of the church, said that the government is in contradiction with the Brazilian Constitution, which provides for freedom of religious expression.
It is hard to understand how the government supports other activities like “Samba Schools”, music festivals and bars that operate thru the night until dawn.
There are place were people cannot sleep and many move to other areas in order to get some rest. People some times are even threatened by bar-goers drunk or drugged and no government agents shows up at all.
What is going on in Brazil?
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Hollywood Animal Found By God
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Self-described “Hollywood Animal” Joe Eszterhas, the blockbuster screenwriter famous for steamy eroticism and dark thrillers, says God found him and life’s never been better.
Seems the master storyteller is telling a new story.“My life has turned inside-out,” Eszterhas wrote in the Washington Post’s On Faith.
Films from Eszterhas’ screenplays have grossed over one billion box office dollars. Time Magazine once called him “America’s king of sex and violence.” Jack Valenti, the late head of the Motion Picture Association, once labeled him “desperately ill and in need of medical attention.
”Once Hollywood’s highest-paid screenwriter, Eszterhas has said he’s “been a bad boy all my life. I was the king-daddy of sex and violence, the wild hair, the rogue elephant, the drinking, drugging, wild man, the cocaine cowboy.
Eszterhas’ Hungarian childhood included almost five years in refugee camps. Acutely poor, he ate pine-needle soup and suffered from rickets. Smoking and alcohol use begun in youth haunted his adulthood. He had surgery for throat cancer; medical experts warned that continued substance use would kill him. With a family he cherished, Joe was desperate to live. But he couldn’t relinquish his addictions.
Finally, feeling hopeless, sobbing alone on a curb, “I cried and begged God to help me,” Eszterhas writes. “I hadn't prayed since I was a boy. I had made fun of God and those who loved God in my writings. And now, through my sobs, I heard myself asking God to help me … and from the moment I asked, He did.”“I didn't at first understand why He did. I didn't deserve His help, I thought. I was unworthy. I ignore Him for forty years and then suddenly I ask Him to help me and He does? It took me some time to understand that God helped me because He loves me. Because even though we don't deserve God's love, God loves us – all of us.
”Eszterhas replaced his excesses with prayer and long walks. He’s written a memoir, Crossbearer, “as a thank-you to God. Not just for saving my life, but for saving me.
”The front of the book quotes this New Testament statement: “Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Also through Him, we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Faith, peace, access, hope; sounds as if it could be Eszterhas’ new personal theme.
His wife, Naomi, says the transformation has been gradual but real. It appears to be lasting. They’re living in Ohio, raising their sons and continuing to give thanks:“I am witness to and the beneficiary of God's love for all of us,” Joe writes. “I am witness, too, to the fact that His love is so strong that it was even able to open my rusty old closed heart.”“I will thank Him forever because He gave me new life and a heart which is truly able to love for the first time in my life. His love is mine.
”A hopeful postscript: Eszterhas says his throat surgeon has pronounced him “cured.” The man who removed about eighty percent of Joe’s larynx says the tissue has regenerated such that evidence of the cancer is gone. The surgeon called it “a miracle.”
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Homosexuality Promoted In Italy
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Italy's national homosexualist activist group, Arcigay, has announced that the Italian Ministry of Labor, Health and Welfare is co-funding a project to promote homosexuality in Italy's schools, reports Hilary White, LifeSiteNews.com. The project, "Interventions to prevent the origins of homophobic bullying" will include a national report on "homophobic bullying" to be conducted by Arcigay, and a series of training seminars for school staff and lectures to young people and students.
Materials to be disseminated to schools will include a poster depicting three teenage girls dressed in traditional Catholic school uniforms, with the caption, "She's gay, and we're cool with that.
"In Britain, the "homophobic bullying" theme, introduced by the phenomenally successful homosexualist lobby group Stonewall, has been identified by Christian groups as a "key codeword" in the suppression of public opposition to the homosexualist political program.
British schools, including Christian schools, have been instructed by the government to implement programs designed to present homosexuality and the "gay lifestyle" as just one of a variety of forms of normal "sexual expression." In 2007, a British Education Secretary told homosexualist activists that the government is preparing "guidance" to address what was identified as "faith-based homophobic bullying." The government has threatened to "crack down" on religious schools who refuse to implement the programs.
Arcigay's public funding has allowed the group to hire two "facilitators" to work on the project. Dr. Ambra Guarnieri, and Dr. Gabriele Prati, both lesbians, will act as "Training Facilitator" and "Scientific Supervisor" respectively.
Guarnieri said that the goal of the program is to create a situation in which a young homosexual in high school will "hear a talk in his school and his classroom of homosexuality as one of the possibilities of his sexual identity and not as an illness or problem from which he should be freed.
"Gabriele Prati, a psychologist at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Bologna, said that "homophobic bullying" is "a largely underestimated phenomenon" and "it is necessary to combat it vigorously."
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Hospital Bans Nurse's Crucifix
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An employment tribunal ruled that the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust was right to ban nurse Shirley Chaplin from wearing the necklace during shifts because it compromised health and safety rules.
Shirley Chaplin had gone to court claiming religious discrimination on the grounds that staff of other faiths were allowed to wear religious symbols. The tribunal ruled, however, that the trust’s ban did not amount to discrimination.
The Comres poll for Premier Radio found that 81 per cent of the public thought that people should have the right to wear a cross at work “whatever their job”.
The Bishop of Lichfield the Rt Rev Jonathan Gledhill told the station: “It does seem daft that Muslim scarves are allowed to wear headscarfs, Sikhs are allowed to wear turbans but Christians shouldn’t be allowed to wear a cross and to deny the significance of that and the support it is ... that’s extraordinary.”
Mrs Chaplin claims to have worn the cross necklace every day since her confirmation nearly 40 years ago without experiencing any problems.
She said she was disappointed but not surprised by Tuesday’s decision.
“It is extraordinary that the trust can spend what must be tens of thousands of pounds defending their position, when at the same time they are making cut backs which affect patients every day,” she said.
“What the Trust doesn’t realise, as it seeks to enforce its uniform policy in the way it has, is that it sends out a very clear message to Christians working in the Trust or considering working for the trust in the future that they will have to ‘hide’ their faith.
“The message is clear: Christians whose faith motivates their vocation and care of patients do not appear to be welcome at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust.”
Mrs Chaplin has vowed to challenge the ruling.
She added: “I fight on and I fight to win the right for Christians to live out their faith in Britain today – anything less would be a negation of my Christian duty.”
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Iran Presses Pastor: Islam Or Death
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Iran’s security officials recently delivered a book on Islam to Nadarkhani, Fox News says; he is in prison Rasht on the Caspian Sea coast.
Iran’s government and security apparatus have ratcheted up the pressure on Evangelical pastor Youcef Nadarkhani to convert to Islam or face execution, Fox News reported.
Youcef Nadarkhani, now 34, was arrested in 2009 for questioning the compulsory Islamic education of his children and for seeking to register a home-based church. He was sentenced to death in 2010.
The Iranian officials told him they would be back to discuss the material and hear his opinion, according to the report.
David Parsons, spokesman for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, told The Jerusalem Post the new development is “very troubling.”
There need to be “three attempts to make him convert to Islam before they can kill him,” Parsons said. He cited Shari’a Islamic law as the basis
for the three attempts rule.
The case “should be an eye-opener for world leaders,” he said. “They should know what Islam teaches in terms of ‘inferior religions’ like Judaism and Christianity.”
Fox News wrote that it secured “a digital copy of the book given to Nadarkhani, a 300-page compilation entitled Beshaarat-eh Ahdein, meaning ‘Message of the Two Eras,’ referring to the New and Old Testaments. Through various narratives, the book attempts to establish the superiority of Islam and claims Christianity is a fabrication.
Parsons said it “needs to be a priority to hold the Iranian regime accountable.
Dr. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, an authority on minority groups in the Islamic Republic of Iran, told the Post by phone from Berlin that the book given to Nadarkhani, Beshaarat-eh Ahdein, is “religious indoctrination.”
There is “no freedom of opinion or religion in Iran,” he said. The Iranian regime has been closing newspapers and “there is no freedom of conscience” in the Islamic Republic.
“This case shows that Iran does not seek dialogue with Christians, rather it wants to convince Christians of the correctness of converting to Islam,” he said.
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Lech Walesa And The Abortion
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Nobel Peace Prize laureate and ex-president of Poland, Lech Walesa, said in Spain this week he would have resigned as president “twenty times” before signing a law that would allow abortion in his country, reports Catholic News Agency.
Walesa made his statements during the Europe Forum together with Miguel Duran of Spain, who is running for a spot in the European Parliament.
The former Polish president explained he would “never” agree with a law that allows abortion because he cannot accept “the killing of innocents,” although he did recognize that no woman ever wants to “kill her child,” but rather is usually motivated by “other situations.
”For his part, Duran criticized the Spanish Socialist government for its political “opportunism” with regards to these issues, especially in a time of crisis. “It would be more important to devote our energies to resolving the problem of the four million unemployed,” he underscored.
“I am bewildered that a government that calls itself progressive would play around with these issues. The government is unfortunately throwing a curtain of blood over the true problem,” Duran charged.
Finding Peace With God.
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Los Angeles Episcopalians Elect Lesbian Bishop
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Los Angeles Episcopalians elected an openly lesbian bishop late Saturday, the denomination's news service reported.
The Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool, 55, will become the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church since Gene Robinson took office in New Hampshire in 2004, if she is formally approved.
Conservative factions in the Anglican Communion -- a 77-million member denomination worldwide, with the Episcopal Church as its U.S. branch -- have opposed the ordination of gay bishops.
The archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican Communion, issued a statement Saturday saying that Glasspool's election "raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole," according to the Episcopal Church's Web site.
Glasspool's election is the first choice of an openly gay bishop since the church ended an agreement designed to keep the worldwide Anglican Communion from tearing itself apart. In the wake of the Robinson controversy, Episcopalians called a temporary halt to appointing any more openly gay bishops, to give the church time to hammer out a compromise. They voted this summer not to renew the ban.
Glasspool, now based in Baltimore at the Diocese of Maryland, is the first openly gay candidate elected bishop since then. The Diocese of Minnesota considered an openly gay candidate for bishop in October, but chose another priest when votes were cast.
Some Episcopal leaders reacted angrily to Glasspool's election. The Rev. Canon Kendall Harmon, canon theologian from the Diocese of South Carolina, said the election "represents an intransigent embrace of a pattern of life Christians throughout history and the world have rejected as against biblical teaching," according to the Episcopal Church site.
Glasspool will assist Bishop Diocesan J. Jon Bruno in ministry to the Los Angeles region's 70,000 parishioners, according to that diocese's Web site.
She will become one of two bishops suffragan -- the second-highest position in the clergy of the diocese -- if she is formally approved. The choice requires consent from a majority of the church's other 108 dioceses.
"If by chance people are going to withhold consents because of Mary's sexuality, it would be a violation of the canons of this church," Bruno said, according to the Episcopal Church site.
Her partner, Becki Sander (19 years old), recently earned a doctorate in social work.
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Hong-Kong Evangelists found the Noah's Ark
While searching for the remains of Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey, a Chinese-Turkish exploration team successfully excavated and ventured inside a large wooden structure at an elevation of more than 4,000m above sea level.
Wood specimens were dated as 4,800 years old. Officials of Turkish government and Cultural Ministries highly regarded the finds and jointly announced the discovery with the exploration team in Hong Kong.
They planned to submit an application for the wooden structure to be included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. A mutual agreement for further co-operation was signed and the Hong Kong team members were recognized as Honorable Citizens of Agri Province, Turkey.
In the press conference on April 25, Consul General of Turkey, Mr. Mehmet Raif Karaca, was invited to come and support the great achievements of the exploration team in the aspect of the search for Noah’s Ark.
Background information
Historical accounts dating back more than 2,000 years maintain that ‘Noah’s Ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat after the Great Flood’. The same records can be found in the Bible and the Koran. In the local region, a saying passed down through the generations goes: ‘There is an ancient boat on the mountain’.
The earliest record of Ark search by a Western scientist was German naturalist Dr. Friedrich Parrot, who climbed the Mount Ararat in 1829. Although he failed to find substantial evidence for the proof, he was the forerunner in the field – in the following 200 years, many scientists and explorers have been dedicated to search an ancient boat that matches the historical records.
However, the greatest result of Western research in two centuries was the retrieval of wood fragments in glacier at an elevation of above 4,000m on Mount Ararat. From an objective scientific point of view, the discovery of wood on Mount Ararat is encouraging because scientists maintain that high mountain altitudes are depleted of trees and no human settlement has ever been found above an elevation of 3,000 metres. Wood fragments discovered in the past may have come from the Ark.
The discovery of the wood structure
Noah’s Ark Ministries International achieves a breakthrough in the search. The team first located a site on an elevation of above 4,000m, excavated the glacier, found and ventured inside the wood structure.
Man-fai YUEN, a representative of NAMI said in the press conference, “The search team and I personally entered a wooden structure high on the mountain. The structure is partitioned into different spaces. We believe that the wooden structure we entered is the same structure recorded in historical accounts and the same ancient boat indicated by the locals.”
Team members entered the wooden structure and proceeded to conduct field studies, take measurements and collect samples, with the entire process filmed (see link below).
This is the first team in history ever to visually document the interior of the wood structure on the mountain.
Ahmet Ertugrul, the search team leader, was the first to get information on the location and then started the search.
He explained, “I got to know the secret location in June 2008. The source told me that this is Noah’s Ark. I took a team there for the search around the region and found a wooden structure. I took some photographs of the interior structure. Since I have worked closely with NAMI for some years, I informed them of the discovery.”
The search extended for nearly two years. A milestone was marked by one of the team members, Panda Lee, who went for a pioneer climb to witness the existence of a wood structure high above an altitude of 4,000m.
He also surveyed the landscape, preparing for further search. Panda Lee said, “In October 2008, I climbed the mountain with the Turkish team. At an elevation of more than 4,000 metres, I saw a structure built with plank-like timber. Each plank was about 8 inches wide. I could see tenons, proof of ancient construction predating the use of metal nails.
We walked about 100 metres to another site. I could see broken wood fragments embedded in a glacier, and some 20 metres long.
I surveyed the landscape and found that the wooden structure was permanently covered by ice and volcanic rocks. Prior to my expedition, the Turkish team had excavated the site to expose the structure.”
Following Panda’s confirmation, although search activities were interrupted by unmerciful weather and tense situation, the quest was relentlessly conducted for a whole year.
Finally, in October 2009, a film crew accompanied the search team to document the expedition. Six Hong Kong team members entered the wooden structure, with Fiona Leung the sole female member.
She says, “The expedition was difficult. We stayed a few days in base camp at 2,800 metres above sea level in order to acclimatise.
All of us suffered various symptoms of mountain sickness. The weather on Mount Ararat was unpredictable. Fine sunny weather would be overwhelmed by heavy fog in an instant.
The difference in day and night temperatures was as large as 30 degrees Celsius.
At night, temperatures dropped below minus 20 degrees C and one night it even snowed.
The last section of the route leading to the site was very rugged. We negotiated steep terrain of 60 degrees and could see rock basalts rolling towards us: the sunshine caused melting snow to loosen, which rolled down. Some of the rock basalts were as large as a head and could seriously have injured anyone hit”
Seven spaces revealed
The wood structure discovered by the team is broken, so members entered the structure through various openings.
Up to now, the team has discovered seven spaces.
One of the team members, Wing-cheung YEUNG explains during the press conference:
1) One of the spaces discovered is frozen by ice. Under ice is wood with wood beam above.
There is tenon construction on the wall and it is obvious artificial structure.
2) The space witnessed by Panda Lee is L-shaped. This is the first discovered space. It’s L-shaped and its features match well with some spaces discovered later, like tenon construction. We concluded that it was originally a box-shaped room and heavily decomposed.
3) This space stands at more than 5 metres high. Team members had to get through a broken opening and abseil down to get inside. All walls are wood and the space is not box-shaped.
Strictly speaking, the walls are not vertical but rather curved and inclined. The small door on one side, of dimensions one meter high and half meter width, presumably leads to another space but our team did not risk going further due to the lack of oxygen.
4) This room is box-shaped, having a dimension of height, width and length of more than two metres. There is a wooden beam with wooden nails on one side of the wall. It is believed that a rope was hooked on these nails to keep animals in place. On another side of the wall, there are racks.
5)A very small tunnel-like space connects two spaces.
6) A few wooden staircases were found inside the structure, which seemingly craved by tree logs. Our team climbed one and found a door in the ceiling and concluded the wood structure has more than one floor. We tried to open it but failed. Since we did not want to destroy the structure, we will try again with appropriate equipment in the future.
7) The team has not entered this space. They viewed and took shots from a small opening above. The height and width are estimated to be 5 metres and 12 metres respectively.
Attending experts and government officials agreed that the discovery is of great significance.
In light of historical records, they believe that the most probable explanation is Noah’s Ark and subsequent scientific studies should be undertaken. Mr. Gerrit Aalten, renowned Dutch Ark researcher said, “The significance of this find is that for the first time in history the discovery of Noah’s Ark is well documented and revealed to the worldwide community.”
With more than 30 years experience in collecting information, Mr. Aalten believes that detailed eyewitness accounts made the Ark puzzle complete because they all together mentioned the same significant details that exactly match this astonishing find on the mountain.
He continued, “Just a few of the many details that are matching this find: …the height it’s found on, which is above “the 4000 meters level”; another detail is, the way the Ark is situated on the mountain which is: “slightly tilted”; …that it has a ” reddish/brown wood appearance”, …the end of the Ark “is decayed and broken and has a hole” through which one can enter; …it is most partly “embedded in the ice and rock debris”;…and that the Ark is “very solid and of high quality”; …and ”very dark, long and rectangular”.
In conclusion, Mr. Aalten said , “there’s a tremendous amount of solid evidence that the structure found on Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey, is the legendary Ark of Noah.”
An archaeologist, Professor Oktay Belli said, “The search team has made the greatest discovery in history. This finding is very important and the greatest up to now.
On Mount Ararat, human settlement has never reached up to 3,500 m. Mount Ararat is a holy place and has rich historical accounts about Noah’s Ark on the mountain. Many people have searched the mountain for the holy Ark. This time’s discovery is the first serious search that the team found a wood structure under ice.”
Dr. Ahmet Özbek, a Turkish geologist explained how the condition has helped preserve the structure for thousands years without decay or petrifying.
He said that “In present days, the permanent snow line on Mt. Ararat is 3,900 meters. The wood structure was found higher than 4,000 meters.”
The low temperature and environmental condition of glacier deposits and volcanic material helped the preservation. He also explained that the proportion by weight of wood material was able to carry loads up to 5 times its weight. So this structure can bear heavy weight without breaking into pieces.
Turkish government officials, Mr. Murat Güven, Lieutenant Governor of Agri Province, Mr. Muhsin Bulut, Cultural Ministries Director of Agri Province and Mr. Ibrahim Sahin, District Secretary of Dogubayazit City appreciated the effort put forward by the search team and thanked them for the discovery of Noah’s Ark.
It would be shocking news to the world. Mr. Muhsin Bulut, Cultural Ministries Director of Agri Province said, “For more than 2,000 years, historical and eyewitnesses accounts tell us that there is an ancient boat on Mt. Ararat which survived a great flood and landed on the mountain.
People believed that it is Noah’s Ark. I believe the team has finally located this ancient boat and I believe it is Noah’s Ark.”
The Turkish government officials will help further scientific search of NAMI in the future. Attendees will invite the participation of scientists and will be committed to scientific search to reveal the truth of Noah’s Ark. They read and signed a co-operation agreement:
“We, the undersigned, agree to collaborate on scientific search and study related to Noah’s Ark on Mt. Ararat.
The results are of significance to the whole world in that humankind should cherish its common beliefs and origins.
We believe that the discovery of Noah’s Ark will resolve centuries of national ideological conflict.
We are dedicated to working towards a better, peaceful world.”
Hong Kong people are recognized as Honorable Citizens for the first time
In appreciation of the Hong Kong search team’s dedication and contribution to the Ark search on Mount Ararat in Agri Province and its subsequent discovery, Mr. Murat Güven, Lieutenant Governor of Agri Province announced four of the team members as Honourable Citizens. They are the first foreigners to be recognized this status.
Noah's Ark in the Bible
According to the Judaeo-Christian Bible, Noah was a ‘righteous man, blameless in his generation’ (Genesis 6:9) at a time when ‘the Earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the Earth . . . was filled with violence’ (Gen 6:11). God therefore decided to destroy the whole world, yet preserved the life of Noah and his family because of Noah's righteousness.
God instructed Noah to build an Ark of gopher wood 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high, for God was to destroy the world with a Great Flood. God also told Noah to take with him two of every sort of animal on to the Ark (Gen 6:19-20).
Having spent one whole year on the Ark, the floodwaters receded, and the Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (Gen 8:2-4). God told Noah and his family and all the animals to leave the Ark and to fill the world once again.
God then made a covenant with Noah that "Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the Flood, and never again shall there be a Flood to destroy the Earth", and the covenant was marked by the sign of a rainbow. (Gen 9:13)
Historical Accounts of Noah’s Ark
- Berossus, a native historian of Babylonia in 275 B.C.
“...grounded in Armenia some part still remains in the mountains of the Gordyaeans in Armenia, and some get pitch from the ship by scraping it off, and use it for amulets.”…Babyloniaca
- Nicolas of Damascus, a Greek historian and philosopher in 30 B.C.
“Above the country of the Minus in Armenia a great mountain called Baris, where, as the story goes, many refugees found safety at the time of the Flood, and one man transported upon the ark grounded upon the summit: and relics of the timber were for long preserved…”
- Flavius Josephus, the official historian of the Jews for the Roman Empire in the 1st Century
“The Armenians call that spot the Landing-Place for it was there that the Ark came safely to land, and they show the relics of it to this day. This Flood and the Ark are mentioned by all who have written histories of the barbarians.”… Antiquities of the Jews
- Eutychius, an Egyptian Arab, Patriarch of Alexandria, a famous historian and physician in the 9th Century A.D.
“The Ark rested on the mountains of Ararat; that is, Jabal Judi near Mosul.”… Nazm al-Gawahir
Although the names of the mountain where the Ark landed vary in different historical records, they actually refer to the same mountain – Mount Ararat.
Click here to watch the movie."
Source "Noah’s Ark Ministries International". NANI is an international organization comprising ark researchers, scientists and Bible scholars; they seek the truth of the Ark from a faith-based yet objective, scientific perspective.
In the future, it will continue to invite academia to participate in historically, culturally, geologically and archeologically informed scientific research of the Ark.
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Archaeologists recently unearthed and opened a white marble sarcophagus located under the Basilica of St. Paul’s outside the Walls in Rome. The faithful have believed the sarcophagus to be the tomb of the Apostle Paul.
Speaking at a service to mark the end of the Pauline year, Pope Benedict said that carbon dating tests on bone fragments show them to date from the first or second century.
"This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul," he said.
Tradition holds that St. Paul was beheaded in Rome in the 1st century during a persecution of early Christians by Roman emperors. Bone fragments from St. Paul’s head are believed to be in St. John Lateran, another Rome basilica, while his other remains are believed to be in the sarcophagus.
Archaeologists who opened the sarcophagus discovered the bone fragments alongside some grains of incense, a “precious” piece of purple linen with gold sequins and a blue fabric with linen filaments.
In 2002 Vatican archaeologists began excavating the 8-foot-long tomb of St. Paul, which dates from at least the year 390 A.D.
The top of the coffin has small openings which were covered with mortar. In ancient times, Christians would insert offerings or try to touch the remains through the openings.
A related discovery was announced on Saturday in L’Osservatore Romano. Inside the catacombs of St. Tecla in Rome, a fresco which depicts St. Paul was discovered on June 19. The round fresco is edged in gold and features the emaciated face of St. Paul.
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Sexual Orientations In The US
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H.R. 1913, which has been dubbed the federal hate crimes legislation, passed 249 to 175 in the U.S. Congress, paving the way to conspicuously curtail religious freedom in a country that espouses freedom, reports MNN.
The International human rights watchdog International Christian Concern is more than concerned. ICC's President Jeff King says with the House passage, "It now goes to the Senate Judiciary Committee. They're going to look at it. If they release it, it'll go to the Senate. If the Senate passes it (which we assume they will), if they pass the same version as the house, then it'll go to the President who will sign it. He won't veto it.
"One of the most insidious and almost hidden dangers of the bill is that it could be used to halt the free speech of Catholic and protestant ministers alike as it pertains to the biblical teachings of homosexuality.
King says the pro-homosexual lobby or anyone else could cripple a church. "The bill can be used as a bludgeon against the church," he says. "You can bankrupt a church pretty easily when a lawsuit comes from the government. There [are] unlimited resources, and this thing is dangerous.
"The Hate Crime law, HR-1913, will make 30 sexual orientations federally-protected, reports AFA. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has published 30 such sexual orientations that, because of Congress's refusal to define "sexual orientation," will be protected under this legislation. These 30 orientations are listed in the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), which is used by physicians, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and psychiatrists throughout the U.S. It is considered the dictionary of mental disorders. Those 30 sexual orientations include behaviors that are felonies or misdemeanors in most states.
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Tall el-Hammam sits in the northeast quadrant of the Dead Sea, in an area known as the Kikkar, or the “disc of Jordan.” It is an area lush with farmland, water, and natural beauty.
Geographically, it is east of Jericho, at about the same level above the sea. To this day, it is one of the most important agricultural areas of Jordan, providing many fruit and vegetable crops for Jordan and for export.As amazing as it may sound, Tall el-Hammam may also be the location of the ancient city of Sodom.
According to archeologist, Dr. Steven Collins, this site fits perfectly with the geographical profile outlined in Genesis 13-19.
How Dr. Collins arrived at this conclusion involves years of research, digs, and textual research with many colleagues, including Dr. Peter Briggs. Drs. Collins and Briggs developed a means to determine if an ancient text is a "true narrative" through a scientific methodology called "criterial screening."
With the current dig well under way, the findings have been staggering.
“Not only do we have the right place geographically speaking, but it falls within the right time frame (the Bronze Age), and it was destroyed during the time of Abraham (the Middle Bronze Age). When you add in the pottery, architecture (it was a fortified city), and the chronological consistency of the region to the biblical text, it is a match made in heaven, so to speak,” Collins beams as he shares this with me.
“To make it even more intriguing,” he continues, “there is great mystery concerning this site, and all of its associated sites. For some reason there is what I call a “historical hole or LB Gap” regarding the site. Meaning, after this cluster of towns was destroyed during Abraham's time, the area was not re-occupied until much, much later; later than the sites in the regions surrounding this particular cluster.”
“It must have been seen as a taboo site of some kind. Something terrible must have happened there that caused people to stay away for so many centuries.”
When I asked Dr. Collins for some evidence, he said: “Well, to start with, the Tall el-Hammam site has 25 geographical indicators that align it with the description in Genesis. Compare this with something well known—like Jerusalem—that has only 16. Other sites have only 5 or 6. So, this site has many times more indicators than any other Old Testament site. That is truly amazing.”
“Second, our findings—pottery, architecture, and destruction layers—fit the timeframe profile. Meaning, we should expect to find items, like what we are finding, from the Middle Bronze period. This is exactly what we are uncovering.”
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Judge Roy Moore, who was ousted as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court after refusing to remove a granite monument of the Ten Commandments from the state judicial building, announced Monday that he plans to run for governor of Alabama in 2010, reports Charisma News Online.
The bid marks the second time Moore has run for governor. During his kickoff speech the Republican candidate criticized the government's refusal to acknowledge God, a theme that some say may have cost him the 2006 gubernatorial race, the Associated Press (AP) reported. "Out of Washington comes a dangerous new message that we are not a Christian nation. Indeed, I refute that," Moore said.
Moore also called for economic and social reform, including criticizing federal power that "intrudes into private business, undermining our free enterprise system upon which we've always been based."
He also called for the creation of a commission to recommend changes in public education and opposition to gay marriage. "We cannot and will not allow activist judges from California and Massachusetts to push their own immoral opinions on the people of this state," he said.
Known as Alabama's "Ten Commandments judge," Moore became a hero for social conservatives when he was sued for displaying a handmade copy of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom in 1995 when he served on the civil court in Gadsden, Ala.
The case ended largely unresolved due to legal technicalities, but the Ten Commandments stayed on Moore's courtroom wall.
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The Manhattan Declaration
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Citing conscience issues with the trend of several social issues 145 religious leaders hav signed what they call the Manhattan Declaration saying they will not cooperate with laws that could be used to compel their groups to participate in abortions, same-sex relationships or stem cell research.
“We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence,” it says.
A mixture of evangelicals, Catholics and Orthodox leaders signed the document which is aimed at stirring support for what they call the three most important social issues facing American society today. It appears to be an effort to rally Christian support at a time when the historic religious foundation of American religious culture appears to be cracking. The so called Moral Majority of the past has been disbanded, shattered by the very political system it sought to enter. The culture wars have made significant inroads into the moral and ethical behavior of Americans. Is this the last redoubt of conservatism against the post-modern culture?
The document says, “We will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other antilife act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent.”
The document will be released at the National Press Club in Washington this Friday.
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Will Apophis Hit Earth in 2036?
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In 2004, NASA scientists announced that there was a chance that Apophis, an asteroid larger than two football fields, could smash into Earth in 2029. A few additional observations and some number-crunching later, astronomers noted that the chance of the planet-killer hitting Earth in 2029 was nearly zilch.
Now, reports out of Russia say that scientists there estimate Apophis will collide with Earth on April 13, 2036. These reports conflict on the probability of such a doomsday event, but the question remains: How scared should we be?
“Technically, they’re correct, there is a chance in 2036 [that Apophis will hit Earth]," said Donald Yeomans, head of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office. However, that chance is just 1-in-250,000, Yeomans said.
The Russian scientists are basing their predictions of a collision on the chance that the 900-foot-long (270 meters) Apophis will travel through what’s called a gravitational keyhole as it passes by Earth in 2029. The gravitational keyhole they mention is a precise region in space, only slightly larger than the asteroid itself, in which the effect of Earth's gravity is such that it could tweak Apophis' path.
“The situation is that in 2029, April 13, [Apophis] flies very close to the Earth, within five Earth radii, so that will be quite an event, but we’ve already ruled out the possibility of it hitting at that time,” Yeomans told Life’s Little Mysteries. “On the other hand, if it goes through what we call a keyhole during that close Earth approach … then it will indeed be perturbed just right so that it will come back and smack Earth on April 13, 2036,” Yeomans said.
The chances of the asteroid going through the keyhole, which is tiny compared to the asteroid, are “minuscule,” Yeomans added.
The more likely scenario is this: Apophis will make a fairly close approach to Earth in late 2012 and early 2013, and will be extensively observed with ground-based optical telescopes and radar systems. If it seems to be heading on a destructive path, NASA will devise the scheme and machinery necessary to change the asteroid’s orbit, decreasing the probability of a collision in 2036 to zero, Yeomans said.
There are several ways to change an asteroid’s orbit, the simplest of which is to run a spacecraft into the hurtling rock. This technology was used on July 4, 2005, when Deep Impact smashed into the comet Tempel 1.
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