The Beginnings of the Persian Empire

 

The Persians emigrated from the great plains of Russia in the 9th century BC.

The Persian kings: Teispes, Cyrus I, Cambyses I, Cyrus the Great, Cambyses II, (Gaumata the usurper), Darius the Great who was the 3rd cousin of Cambyses II, & Xerxes a.k.a. Ahasuerus.

The above mentioned kings, with the exception of Gaumata, were members of the Achaemenid Dynasty.  Nothing is known about Achaemenes, the founder of the dynasty.  Shortly after 700 BC, Teispes captured the city-state of Anshan and established himself as king.  Anshan became an ally of Elam against Assyria, the world power at that time.  In 639 BC, the Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Elam.  To retain Anshan’s independence, Cyrus I sent his eldest son with a tribute to serve as a hostage of Ashurbanipal in the Assyrian capital of Nineveh.  The crown prince perished in 612 BC when the Medes and Chaldeans joined forces to conquer Nineveh.  Thus his younger brother, Cambyses I, became Anshan’s heir apparent.

Cyrus the Great’s accession year was 559 BC.  From his humble beginnings as ruler of the tiny state of Anshan, he conquered Media, Lydia, and Babylon and built the humongous Persian Empire.

The Conquest of Babylon

 

God's command to Cyrus the Great:  "It is I who says of Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd and he will perform all My desire.'  And he declares of Jerusalem, 'She will be built,' and of the temple, 'your foundation will be laid.'  I have aroused him in righteousness; he will build My city, and will let My exiles go free."

The Medes and the Persians emigrated from the great plains of Russia in the 9th century BC. Shortly after 700 BC, the Persians took control of the city of Anshan.

Cyrus the Great was born about 600 BC, the son of a Persian king and a Median princess. Cyrus ascended the throne of the tiny state of Anshan in 559 BC to begin a reign that lasted 30 years.


In 540 BC, Cyrus set his sights on the conquest of Babylon. During that period, Babylonian morale was at a low ebb. King Nabonidus was more interested in the study of foreign religions and history than in government. Nabonidus took a ten year hiatus in Arabia and left his son Belshazzar at the helm. He returned in 543 BC with the hopes of winning back the favour of his subjects and the priests who preferred a monarch that restricted himself to the established religion of Babylon. Although he brought all the idols from the surrounding cities into Babylon and celebrated the New Year's feast, he was unable to win the approval of his people.


Cyrus was able to convince Gubara, a Median governor, to defect to the Persian side. (The Medes had been allies of the Babylonians since the two defeated Assyria in 612 BC.) After taking the cities of Opis and Sippar, the Persian army moved towards Babylon. The throne city was dissected by the Euphrates River and its tributary canals. The dry season coupled with an annual shortage of precipitation caused the river to reach its lowest level in years. Furthermore, this was the time of a great Babylonian festival when the entire city of Babylon was accustomed to revelling all night long.


That night, while the inebriated Babylonians celebrated, Gubara diverted the flow of the Euphrates and entered Babylon's impregnable walls through a water channel. On October 12, 539 BC, Gubara captured Babylon without a battle. On October 29, he opened the city’s gates and welcomed his benefactor, Cyrus, king of Persia. Cyrus entered Babylon peacefully and was hailed by its inhabitants as a liberator. Belshazzar was slain, Nabonidus exiled, and Gubara, a.k.a. Darius the Mede, was made king of Babylon to act as a vassal under Cyrus the Great.


In 538 BC, Cyrus released Judeans from their captivity in Babylon. His proclamation was recorded by Ezra the scribe:


“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
‘Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in Jerusalem.'"


Babylon's seventy year mandate had expired and an assembly of 42,360 survivors of the Babylonian captivity, accompanied by their servants, arrived in Judah in April, 537 BC, under the leadership of Zerubbabel, to rebuild their temple.

The Times of the Persians

Cyrus the Great was succeeded by his son, Cambyses II.  In his short, eight year reign, Cambyses added the kingdom of Egypt to the vast empire assembled by his father.

In 525 BC, Cambyses defeated Pharaoh Psammetichus III first on the Nile Delta and then at the key city of Memphis.  He continued south destroying the Egyptian temples along the way knowing full well that men were demoralized by the desecration of their gods.

In 522 BC, a sword wound inflicted to Cambyses’ leg became infested with gangrene and he died an untimely death.  That same year Cambyses was succeeded by his third cousin, Darius the Great, who seized control of the Persian throne.

Now the Jews began to rebuild Jerusalem's temple in 536 BC, during the reign of Cyrus the Great.  The reconstruction was halted due to the harassment of the Samarians coupled with their own lack of dedication to the project.  Encouraged by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, they resumed the temple's reconstruction in the second regnal year of Darius the Great. 

While the Samarians lobbied Darius to prohibit the reconstruction project, the Jews claimed they were working under an edict proclaimed by Cyrus in 538 BC.  

To clarify the issue, Darius searched the archives at the treasury in Babylon but could find no such edict.  After checking the royal itinerary, he discovered that Cyrus left Babylon in 538 BC to summer in Ecbatana.  So he searched the fortress in Ecbatana, in the province of Media, where he found the scroll containing Cyrus' decree.

Then Darius resolved the disagreement with his own decree which was sent to the governor of Samaria:

“Leave this work on the house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site.

“And I issued a decree that any man who violates this edict, a timber shall be drawn from his house and he shall be impaled on it and his house shall be made a refuse heap on account of this.

“And may the God, who has caused His name to dwell there, overthrow any king or people who attempts to resist, so as to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem.  I Darius have issued this decree, let it be carried out with all diligence.”

The temple was completed on March 12, 515 BC in the 6^th regnal year of Darius the Great. 

Ahasuerus

Darius the Great was succeeded by his son who was the seventh member of the dynasty to become king of Persia.  Not only would he become richer than his father but wealthier than all his predecessors combined.  His name was Xerxes, the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther.

In 482 BC, his third regnal year, he threw a banquet for the Who’s Who of Persia and Media. He displayed the wealth and splendour of his majesty for 180 days after which he held a seven day banquet in the palace courtyard open to everyone in the capital of Susa, from the richest to the poorest.

The courtyard was filled with luxuriant gardens and stunning, mosaic walkways created of marble, mother of pearl, and purple, crystal-laden, Egyptian stone.  Guests were seated around marble columns on couches of gold and silver and treated to the finest wine which was lavishly served in cups of pure gold.

Simultaneously, Queen Vashti gave a banquet for the women inside the king’s palace.

On the seventh day, when Xerxes and his guests were merry with wine, he commanded the seven eunuchs, who served as his attendants, to bring Vashti before him with her royal crown so he could display her physical beauty, for she was truly a genetic wonder.  Now it was against Persian custom for a woman, let alone a queen, to appear in public.  Thus Vashti refused the king’s command.

As a result, Xerxes flew into a rage and summoned his seven wise counsellors, princes of Persia and Media.  He asked them what was to be done, under the law, with a queen who refused to obey the command of her king. 

They replied that a man is the master of his own household and that tales of Vashti’s conduct would surely permeate the entire kingdom resulting in all women, rich or poor, showing disrespect towards their husbands.  As a deterrent, they advised the king to issue an edict to be written into Persian law, thus rendering it irrepealable.  It would read that because Vashti refused to come at the king’s command, she would no longer be summoned into his presence.  Furthermore, she would be demoted in the royal harem and her position filled by another, more worthy than she.  And so it was decreed.  Letters were sent to all 127 Persian provinces outlining the king’s edict that a man is lord over his own house. 

So the quest began for the most voluptuous woman in the kingdom, a maiden whose divine pulchritude could quell the broken heart of a king.  Men were appointed to scour all 127 provinces for the most ravishing virgins in Persia.  Their bountiful bevy was then transported to Susa and placed under the tutelage of Hegai, the king’s eunuch.

Now among the bevy of beauties chosen for the harem of virgins, was a lovely Jewess from Susa by the name of Esther.  She was the ward of her cousin, Mordecai, who became her legal guardian at the time of her parent's death.  On his advice, she kept her ethnic origin a secret.

Esther didn’t play the harlot.  It was the Persian custom for a maiden to enter the king’s chambers from the harem of virgins.  Then, after spending a nuptial night consummating their marriage, she emerged as the king’s wife.  That very next morning, she was sent to the second harem, the harem of concubines, to live with his lower ranking wives.  However, she might never set foot in His Majesty’s chambers again, unless expressly summoned by him. 

Like all maidens, it was necessary for Esther to undergo the Persian beautification ritual before entering the king’s palace.  Her body was pampered for six months with oil of myrrh followed by another six months with the finest exotic spices and cosmetics that money could buy.  As a result, Esther’s body became impregnated with the most celestial fragrances known to man. 

In the tenth Jewish month, in the seventh year of the king, an enchanting Esther entered the palace of Xerxes, emperor of Persia, who wore the diadem of 127 nations.  She pleased the king more than all the other virgins.  Xerxes rewarded Esther by making her his new chief wife and queen of Persia.

Jerusalem's Modern History

On the 14^th day of May, 1948, sanctioned by a resolution adopted by the United Nations, the state of Israel was reborn.

Later, that same year, the Arab-Israeli War began.  The Arab nation of Jordan annexed the West Bank (of the Jordan River & Dead Sea) including East Jerusalem.  That meant the sacred sites located within the Old City were under Jordanian authority.  They included Temple Mount, the Western (Wailing) Wall, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Dome of the Rock, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  Palestinians living in the West Bank were granted full Jordanian citizenship.

Jordan governed the West Bank until 1967.  During the Six Day War that same year, Israel defeated Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.  They took Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank including East Jerusalem from Jordan, and Golan Heights (east of the Sea of Galilee) from Syria.  East Jerusalem was liberated and the sacred sites belonging to Jews, Muslims, and Christians came under Israeli authority.  Notably, Jews were no longer prohibited from entering the Old City. 

In 1980, Israel proclaimed Jerusalem its eternal, "undivided” capital.  Although Palestinians have declared East Jerusalem as their capital, Ramallah is the de facto capital city of Palestine.

Israel returned Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1982.

Jordan renounced its claims to West Bank in 1988 and recognized the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole representative of the Palestinians.

In November, 2012, the United Nations recognized the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza Strip as the State of Palestine.

However, Israel will never relinquish East Jerusalem to the Palestinians.  Why?  Because East Jerusalem is the location of Temple Mount, sacred to religious and secular Jews alike.  And let’s not forget that Temple Mount will be the site of Jerusalem's Third Temple which is at the very forefront of End Time prophecy.

 

Crying Wolf for the End Times

Many commentators, including myself, believe that the final week of Daniel's Messianic Prophecy will consist of three and a half years of prosperity followed by three and a half years of extreme suffering, called the Great Tribulation.  The Abomination of Desolation, also called the antichrist or beast, will be at the helm of those seven years.  He will control a global empire, not unlike ancient Rome, Greece, and Persia.

However, let's not raise false alarms about the End Times.  We are not at the end, or even the beginning of the end, but perhaps we are nearing the end of the beginning.  The Holy Scriptures coupled with current events bear this out.

Matthew was a tax collector when Jesus called him to be an Apostle.  He was an eyewitness to Christ’s earthly ministry which he recorded in his Gospel.  In Matthew 24, he quoted the very words of Jesus Christ who stated emphatically that wars and rumours of wars, famines, and earthquakes are not the end but merely the beginning.

Despite third party peace efforts, the wars continue between Russia and the Ukraine, Israel and Hamas.

On March 28th, Myanmar (Burma) was struck by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake.  To put that in perspective, the 1960 Chilean earthquake had a magnitude of 9.5, the greatest magnitude ever recorded.

Christ went on to say that there will be martyrdom, apostasy (falling away from the faith), false prophets, and an increase in lawlessness.  People's love will grow cold and the Gospel will be preached throughout the entire world, “and then the end shall come”.

And then Jesus said, "Therefore when you see the Abomination of Desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place...then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall."

The Apostle Paul relayed the same message.  He said that the day of the Lord will not come unless the apostasy (abandoning the faith) comes first "and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God".

The “holy place” mentioned by Christ and the “temple of God” mentioned by the Apostle Paul are references to Jerusalem’s Temple.  But, at the present time, there is no Temple in Jerusalem.  And of course, a Temple is crucial to the fulfillment of the aforementioned prophecies. 

Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC.  It was rebuilt by Zerubbabel during the reign of the Persian emperor Darius the Great.  Zerubbabel’s Temple didn’t approached the magnificence of Solomon’s Temple.  However, it was renovated by Herod the Great with such lavish splendour that it became one of the wonders of the Roman Empire.  Herod’s Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.  There has never been a Third Temple in Jerusalem.  In fact, Temple Mount a.k.a. Mount Moriah is now the site of Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, two Muslim holy places.

Observant Jews would never share the Temple Mount with Muslims.  The building of Jerusalem’s Third Temple would require removal of the two Islamic sanctuaries followed by the cleansing of Temple Mount by qualified Levitical priests.

The construction of Jerusalem’s Third Temple will be a sign that the end is near.  The building of the Third Temple will occur prior to the final week of  Daniel’s Messianic prophecy.  Exactly when they will break ground, nobody knows.  But one thing for certain.  When Jews start construction on the Third Temple, it will be the time for Christians to stand up and take notice.  And that will be the moment to sound the alarm for the End Times.

“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.  For in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”

The Simple Meaning of Life

"All things are summed up in Christ both in the heavens and upon the earth.

"For there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.

"In that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

"That I may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith."

In the twenty-first century, the beginning of the third millennium, it's not in vogue to talk about sin or the consequences of sin.  Hell is an undesirable four letter word tabooed by this generation.  But if there is neither sin nor punishment for sin, then Christ died needlessly.  And in the distance, we can vaguely hear the songwriter's chant, "I swear there ain't no heaven, but I pray there ain't no hell.”

Eternal salvation, spiritual rescue from the consequences of sin, is based on faith, and faith alone.  So simple.  Believing that Christ is who He says He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Atheists proclaim, "There is no God," and agnostics declare, "I can't know, for nothing can be known with any certainty about God or the supernatural.”  But some might ask, "What if we are wrong?  Is there any hope for us in eternity?"

A response from the Apostle John: "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

Will Believers Be Judged?

Will "believers" or, more precisely, "the righteous in Christ" be judged?  The answer is no; not with respect to their salvation.  And what is salvation?  Spiritual rescue from the consequences of sin; to be saved from eternal damnation.

Make no mistake about it.  We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ.  God says it; I believe it; that settles it.

My statement of faith is described in my article entitled "Justification By Faith”.  A short synopsis:  "Only the act of justification by faith in Christ can save a man's soul.  That is, the righteousness bestowed by God through faith in Christ by whom a believer is freed from the penalty due for his sins."

The Apostle Paul says:

"I may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith."

According to civil law, if a man is convicted of a crime, he is sentenced by the courts to pay a debt to society.  That could result in a prison term or even capital punishment.  In much the same way, according to God's Law, a sinner owes a debt to God because of his sins.

And again, the Apostle Paul says:

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

And once again:

"He has cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."

And let's not forget the Apostle John:

"He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

Now believers will stand before the judgement seat (2 Corinthians 5:10) and some have said that their works will be judged.  However, the word "judged" can be confusing, especially to babes in Christ.  More correctly, their works will be "put to the proof”.  The NAS uses the word "test," the KJ the word "try," and the Douay the word "assay" and this is by fire.  The Apostle Paul gives a vivid description in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15:

"The fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.  If any man's work which he has built upon the foundation remains, he shall receive a reward.  If any man's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire."

Translations of the Old Testament Canon

"Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God."  Romans 10:17

The remarkable Holy Scriptures of Judaism: written by the sacred writers who were legends in their own time and for generations beyond; inspired by Almighty God, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, in whose hand is our very life's breath; culminating with the unfolding of Jesus the Christ from its sacred pages by which the prophetic mystery was concealed and then revealed at the fulness of time.

The Protestant Old Testament is identical to the Holy Scriptures of Judaism.  It consists of the 39 protocanonical books.  The Catholic Old Testament includes seven additional books as well as additions to Esther and Daniel.  Catholics call them the deuterocanonical books or second canon.  Protestants call them the apocrypha, meaning of doubtful authenticity or authorship.  However, Protestants recognize the historical value of some of the apocryphal books because they fill the 420 year gap between the prophet Malachi and the Gospel of Matthew.

The two most noteworthy translations of the Holy Scriptures of Judaism are the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate.

When Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, he built the city of Alexandria to showcase the superiority of the Greek culture.  The Diaspora was encouraged to settle there and Alexandria became a haven for Hellenists—Jews who adopted the Greek culture.

By the time Ptolemy II took the throne, the Jews in Alexandria spoke Greek rather than Hebrew.  Because there was a need for a Greek translation of the Holy Scriptures of Judaism, Ptolemy II commissioned 70 Palestinian Jews to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek in the third century BC.  In recognition of their work, the translation was dubbed the Septuagint (from the Latin, septuaginta, meaning seventy).

Fast forward to the fourth century AD and the Golden Age of the Church Fathers.  A scholar named Jerome was one of the most able Fathers in the early Christian Church.  A superb translator and commentator, he was fluent in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.  He was a contemporary of Augustine who was an extraordinary theologian, perhaps second only to the Apostle Paul.  Augustine praised Jerome’s talents by remarking, “What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal man has ever known.”

Jerome's greatest accomplishment was a Latin translation of the Bible known as the Vulgate.  The New Testament was his revision of the old Latin versions which were translated from the Greek.  About 390 AD, he began his work on the Old Testament.  However, he went beyond the Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament and created a new Latin version translated directly from the Hebrew Scriptures.  It was completed about 405 AD.

The Douay Bible is the English translation of Jerome's Latin Vulgate.  The New Testament was published in 1582; the Old Testament was published in two volumes, the first in 1609 and the second in 1610.  It was the only official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church until well into the twentieth century.

The King James Bible was published in 1611.  It was authorized by King James I of England.  Twenty-five gifted translators were involved in the creation of its Old Testament.  That translation was based on  the Masoretic Text, abbreviated MT.

The MT is the official Hebrew version of the Holy Scriptures of Judaism.  It was copied, edited, and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the 8^th and 11^th centuries AD.  Codex Leningrad is the oldest copy of  the MT.  It is dated to 1000 AD.

The King James Bible is probably the most widely read Bible in the English-speaking Protestant world.  For a few decades, it has been available in modern English as the New King James Bible.

"All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness."  2 Timothy 3:16    

Cherry Picking God's Word

How can the pastor of a prominent Toronto church claim there is no Hell?  Did she not attend a seminary before being ordained as a minister?  Is the cross displayed on her church not a symbol of Christ's crucifixion?  For if there is neither sin nor punishment for sin, then Christ died needlessly.  While believers are freed from the penalty due for their sins through faith in Jesus Christ, unbelievers will be judged according to their deeds.  Because all men are sinners and Christ's crucifixion is the only sacrifice that atones for sinful deeds, how shall unbelievers escape if they ignore so great a salvation?

Orthodoxy says the Bible is the word of God; liberals say the Bible contains the word of God, a dangerous philosophy indeed.

"For a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths." 

Liberals are tailoring the Bible to their own liking; cherry picking the word of God; rejecting those parts of the Bible that aren’t compatible with their lifestyle.

"Holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied it's power; and avoid such men as these.  Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

We must remain "all in" with the Lord.  We can't be deceived by the devil or those who distort the Gospel.  We must fight the good fight, finish the course, keep the faith.

How Was The New Testament Canon Created?

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12

The creation of the New Testament canon was a slow process largely completed by 175 AD.  Admission of a book to the canon was based on three criteria:  Was it written by an Apostle or a person who was a close associate of the Apostles; Did the words of the book have the power of edification when read before a congregation; Was the book in agreement with the established doctrines of faith?

"The historical verification of apostolic authorship or influence and the universal consciousness of the church, guided by the Holy Spirit, resulted in the final decision concerning what books should be considered canonical and worthy of inclusion in what we know as the New Testament."

The Epistles of the Apostle Paul were the first books collected for the canon. They were gathered together by the elders of the Ephesian church.

Paul's Epistles were followed by a collection of the Gospels sometime after 100 AD:

Matthew was a tax collector at Capernaum when Jesus called him to become a disciple and later an Apostle.  Hence, he was an eyewitness to the events described in his Gospel.

Mark was a convert of the Apostle Peter and a companion of the Apostle Paul.  His mother Mary had a house in Jerusalem that was a gathering place for Christians.  Mark finally settled in Rome where he documented the memories of the Apostle Peter.  Both Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome. 

Luke was a physician who never actually saw Jesus.  A pagan by birth, he was an early convert who became a companion and co-worker of the Apostle Paul.  He wrote his Gospel for Theophilus who was a cultured Greek.  Therefore, Luke carefully examined the evidence and assigned  precise dates to the events which occurred in his Gospel.  Luke was also the author of Acts of the Apostles.

John was at first a disciple of John the Baptist.  He was the Apostle most loved by Jesus and an eyewitness to the events described in his Gospel.  John also wrote three Epistles and then the book of Revelation while exiled on the barren Isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea.  After the death of the Roman emperor Domitian, John was allowed to return to Ephesus where he died at an advanced age.

In 180 AD, the so-called Muratorian Canon contained 22 New Testament books.

About 324 AD, Eusebius the Father of Church History determined that at least 20 books were worthy of inclusion in the New Testament canon.  The books of Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, Jude, and Revelation were still under consideration because of authorship uncertainty.

Finally, in 367 AD, Athanasius the bishop of Alexandria listed as canonical the same 27 New Testament books that we have today.  That same Athanasius was the champion of the orthodox view when it was challenged about 325 AD.  He believed that Christ was coeternal, coequal, and consubstantial with God the Father, a belief for which he was exiled five times when he was a young man.

While some have thought the New Testament canon was a product of the Roman Catholic church, that was not the case.  About 170 AD, the church was calling itself the "catholic" or universal church.  The term was coined by Ignatius, an early church father who was arrested because of his Christian testimony and sent to Rome where he was killed by beasts in the imperial games.

According to historians, the Old Catholic Imperial church existed between 100 and 590 AD.  As that period ended, the Old Catholic Imperial church virtually became the Roman Catholic church.                         

Inspiration Incompatible With Error

Can faith in the Holy Scriptures be restored in the third millennium since the beginning of the Christian era?  Is it possible to re-establish the belief that the 39 traditional books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament are inerrant in their original manuscripts as left by the hagiographers?

There are two schools of thought: those who believe the Bible is the word of God and those who believe the Bible contains the word of God.  The former believe that the sacred writers were inspired by Almighty God and that divine inspiration is incompatible with error.

Augustine was a Church Father who was esteemed by Catholics and Protestants alike.  If he came across an apparent discrepancy in Scripture, he didn't attribute it to the sacred writers.  Instead, he concluded that it was a copying error, a translation error, or that he himself had failed to understand the passage in question.

Augustine as quoted by Leo XIII:  "On my own part I confess to your charity that it is only to those books of Scripture which are now called canonical that I have learned to pay such honor and reverence as to believe most firmly that none of their writers has fallen into any error.  And if in these books I meet anything which seems contrary to truth, I shall not hesitate to conclude either that the text is faulty, or that the translator has not expressed the meaning of the passage, or that I myself do not understand." 

The Great Tribulation

"And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation, and the desolation shall continue even to the consummation and to the end.

"For there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until this time, nor ever shall.

"And the man of lawlessness will be revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

"And all who dwell on earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.

"How long shall it be until the end of these wonders? It shall be for a time, times, and half a time.

"And from the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that maketh desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days.

"How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days!"


The seventy weeks in Daniel’s Messianic prophecy were often interpreted as seven year cycles which were fashioned by God and recorded by Moses in the Books of Exodus and Leviticus.

Chapter 9 of the Book of Daniel tells us that after sixty-nine weeks, Messiah will be slain and the people of the prince shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Those prophecies were fulfilled in 30 AD when Christ was crucified and in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and Herod’s Temple.

Week seventy will come during the reign of the “abomination of desolation” spoken of by Daniel the prophet and re-introduced by Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew.

The “abomination that maketh desolate,” also called the antichrist or the beast, will capture the popular imagination and inspire allegiance and devotion. He will strike up a covenant with rabbinical Judaism allowing them to perform animal sacrifices and grain offerings in Jerusalem’s Third Temple. Notably, for that agreement to be realized, Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque would have to be eliminated and the Third Temple erected on Mount Moriah in their stead.

However, in the middle of the seventieth week, the beast will break the covenant and prohibit the Jews from making sacrifices and oblations to their God. It is then that he will sit in Jerusalem’s Third Temple declaring himself to be God. This will mark the beginning of the Great Tribulation, a time of unprecedented suffering, the likes of which has not occurred since the beginning of time, nor ever shall.

Daniel measures the length of the Great Tribulation as “a time, times, and half a time.” That’s the equivalent of 1260 days or 42 months according to the Book of Revelation. Hence, the Great Tribulation will span the last three and a half years of Daniel’s seventieth week or “a year, two years, and half a year” in prophetic parlance.

Many believe that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ will occur 30 days after the Great Tribulation. Forty-five days later, following the Battle of Armageddon, Christ will establish His Millennial Kingdom. (1260 + 30 = 1290; 1290 + 45 = 1335)

Will believers suffer through the holocaust known as the Great Tribulation? Many think not. The following passages are examples of scriptural evidence supporting a rapture of the saints prior to the Great Tribulation:


“Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I will also keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.”

“And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.”  (That is, the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain; Revelation 13:8.)

The Heritage of Hope

The Hopeless Heritage: Everything happens by chance.  The Big Bang was a random occurrence that created the universe.  There is no reason behind life. We live, we die, we decompose; end of story. Graveyard dust is our biological heritage and there is nothing more.

The Heritage of Hope: Jesus Christ came down from heaven and by the power of the Holy Spirit was born of the Virgin Mary which was foretold by Isaiah the prophet some seven centuries earlier.  “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” 

On Passover Friday, April 7, 30 AD, Jesus was crucified for our sins.  He rose from the dead on the third day, the first fruits of the resurrection.  After forty days, He ascended into heaven where He is seated at the right hand of God the Father.

Great is the reward in heaven for those who are saved by grace and justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.  Now grace is defined as favour and more specifically, unmerited favour.  Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, being convinced of things not seen.  

While believers are justified by their faith, unbelievers will be judged according to their deeds.  Because all men are sinners and Christ’s crucifixion is the only sacrifice that atones for sinful deeds, how shall unbelievers escape if they ignore so great a salvation?

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

The Armour of God

And there was a war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon.  And the dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.  And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Now a man with an unclean spirit met Jesus; and he had not put on any clothing for a long time, and was not living in a house, but in the tombs.  And seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him, and said in a loud voice, “What do I have to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I beg You, do not torment me.”

For He had been commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man.  For it had seized him many times; and he was bound with chains and shackles and kept under guard; and yet he would burst the fetters and be driven by the demon into the desert.

And Jesus asked him, “What is your Name?”

And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him.  And they were begging Him not to command them to depart into the abyss.

Now there was a herd of swine feeding there on the mountain; and the demons urged Him to permit them to enter the swine.  And He gave them permission.  And the demons came out of the man and entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, the powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness on high.

And the Father will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of the truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.

Therefore, put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  And you will overcome the powers of darkness because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.  Indeed, if God is for us, who can be against us!

The Passover Puzzle: part 4 of 4

In discussing the Passover events up to and including the Exodus, it was noted that the Sadducees and the Pharisees held different interpretations of the timeline associated with those events.

The Sadducees believed that the Passover events, including the slaying of lambs and the painting of Hebrew doors, the eating of the Passover meal, the angel’s pass over of Hebrew homes, the smiting of Egyptians, and the night journey out of Egypt, all took place on Nisan 14.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, believed that only the slaying of lambs and the painting of Hebrew doors took place on Nisan 14 and the other events, beginning with the Passover meal, occurred the following day, on Nisan 15.

The Sadducees and the Pharisees agreed on only one point.  The Passover lambs were sacrificed on Nisan 14.

“Now the feast of the Passover and Unleavened Bread was two days off; and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to seize Him by stealth, and kill Him."  (Mark 14:1)

“And on the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, His disciples said to Him, ‘Where do You want us to go and prepare for You to eat the Passover?’”  (Mark 14:12)

In Mark 14:1, the author made a distinction between the Lord’s Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  God’s original intention was that the single day Lord’s Passover, on Nisan 14, and the seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread, beginning on Nisan 15, would be observed as two separate feasts.  However, in Mark 14:12, the author described the two feasts as one celebration.  Regardless, when he said, “the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed,” he was referring to Nisan 14.

So at what time, on Nisan 14, did Christ’s disciples ask, “Where do You want us to go and prepare for You to eat the Passover?”  Was it in the evening at the beginning of Nisan 14, according to the custom of the Sadducees or was it in the afternoon near the end of Nisan 14, according to the tradition of the Pharisees?

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke document the late night events leading up to Christ's Crucifixion.  Additional information is revealed in the Gospel of John. 

“So the Roman cohort and the commander, and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound Him, and led Him to Annas first; for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year…Annas therefore sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest…They led Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the Praetorium; and it was early; and they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium in order that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.”  (John 18:12-13,24,28) 

Notably, Jesus was delivered to Pilate by the whole council.  (Mark 15:1; Luke 23:1)

After His arrest and trial before the Council of the Jews, they transferred Him to the Praetorium which was Pontius Pilate’s palace that served as the governor’s official residence and the hall of judgment.  Those who delivered Jesus wouldn’t set foot in the palace.  Why?  Because they didn’t want to defile themselves before they ate the Passover.  It was unlawful for a Jew to come in contact with a Roman or any uncircumcised Gentile prior to eating the Passover.

Now what exactly was the Council of the Jews?  Let's investigate.

The Council of the Jews was called the Sanhedrin.  The Lesser Sanhedrin was a panel of 23 members.  The Great Sanhedrin was the 71 member council in its entirety which convened for matters of national importance. It was comprised of both Sadducees and Pharisees.  Annas was undoubtedly a Sadducee.  It is more than likely that his son-in-law Caiaphas was a Sadducee as well.

Officially, there was only one high priest.  He was appointed by the Roman governor of Judea.  At the time of Our Lord's execution, Caiaphas held that office.  His father-in -law Annas also received the respect due the high priest.  Not only was he a former holder of that office, but also head of the most prominent high priestly family; his son-in law and five sons had tenures as high priests.  Notably, there were chief priests in addition to the high priest as confirmed in Matthew 26:3, "Then the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, named Caiaphas."  Chief priests were the principal accusers when Christ came before Pilate.

Because Caiaphas and Annas were only identified at Christ's preliminary trial before the Sanhedrin, it's more than likely that the Lesser Sanhedrin delivered Christ to Pilate and that its 23 members were all Pharisees.  However, if the Great Sanhedrin delivered Christ to Pilate, it's possible, because of the magnitude of the Passover celebration in 30 AD, that the Sadducee members ate the Passover according to the more practical tradition of the Pharisees, as discussed in parts two and three.

In summary, Christ ate the Passover meal just after dark on Nisan 14.  Later that same night, He was arrested and tried by the Sanhedrin.  Early the next morning, they delivered Him to Pontius Pilate where He was sentenced to death by crucifixion.  He was pronounced dead at 3 PM on Nissan 14.  In the evening following His death, after the sun had set, the day changed to Nisan 15.  It was then that those who delivered Christ to Pilate ate the Passover meal according to the tradition of the Pharisees.

Therefore, when Christ’s disciples asked Him where they should go to prepare the Passover, it was evening, at the beginning of Nisan 14.  Jesus ate the Passover that same night at the time observed by the Sadducees which was based on the Torah.  “You shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the time that you came out of Egypt.  And you shall cook it and eat it in the place where the Lord your God chooses.”  (Deuteronomy 16:6-7)

The Passover Puzzle: part 3 of 4

At the time of the Exodus, the Hebrews sacrificed their Passover lambs and smeared the blood on the doorposts and lintels of their houses in the evening of Nisan 14.  After dark, they ate the Passover while the tenth plague passed over their homes and struck down first born Egyptians.

Two and a half centuries later, Solomon built the First Temple circa 973 BC.  The Babylonians destroyed Solomon’s Temple and the city of Jerusalem in 586 BC.  Surviving Judeans were exiled in Babylon.  After Cyrus the Great released the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, they rebuilt their Temple.  It was completed in 515 BC.  The Second Temple didn’t approach the magnificence of Solomon’s Temple.  However, in 37 BC, Herod the Great became King of the Jews.  To gain favour with his subjects, he began to renovate the Second Temple in 19 BC.  He continued for over a decade until the lavish splendour of the Second Temple rivalled the magnificence of the First.

In the latter part of the Second Temple period, every Jewish male was obliged to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration.  Passover lambs were slaughtered at the door of the Temple.  Some of the blood was collected and carried in basins so it could be sprinkled on the altar.  Then the lambs were butchered and conveyed to thousands of community ovens in close proximity to the Temple.  Groups, of no less than ten, roasted their lambs and ate the Passover.  By the time the Passover reached its zenith, just before the destruction of Herod’s Temple in 70 AD, over 256,000 lambs were sacrificed in a single Passover, according to Josephus.

When the Lord’s Passover was celebrated in homes, the hour or so, between sunset and darkness, was sufficient to slay the Passover lambs.  But as the celebration grew, the sacrificial period was gradually extended.  First it was moved to the following afternoon between 3 PM and 5 PM.  Then it was extended until 6 PM and may have started as early as 12 noon.  Surely it would take several hours to slaughter and butcher tens of thousands of lambs.  With the extended time also came a new interpretation of the phrase “between the evenings.”

As mentioned in part two, the Pharisees adopted the sacrificial period in the afternoon at the end of Nisan 14 while the Sadducees observed the sacrificial period in the evening at the beginning of Nisan 14.

In 30 AD, when Christ was crucified, Caiaphas was the high priest.  He was the son-in-law of an influential aristocrat named Annas, who was a former high priest.  While Annas was undoubtedly a Sadducee, it is more than likely that Caiaphas was a Sadducee as well.  Because the Sadducees ran the Temple, there is a question as to whether the Passover lambs were sacrificed according to the custom of the Sadducees, the more practical tradition of the Pharisees, or according to the practices of both religious parties given the time necessary to slaughter and butcher tens of thousands of lambs.

The Passover Puzzle: part 2 of 4

The Hasmonean dynasty began in the middle of the second century BC and ended in 37 BC when the Romans made Herod the Great, King of the Jews.  Two religious parties emerged from that dynasty, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

While the Pharisees were the larger, more dominant party, many of the Sadducees were wealthy and influential. The Sadducees ran the Temple and were responsible for performing sacrifices during festivals including Passover.  The governing council, called the Sanhedrin, contained members from both parties.

Now the two parties were bitter rivals.  That rivalry reached its boiling point in 88 BC after the country erupted into civil war.  Alexander Janneus, the Hasmonean, hereditary High Priest, was victorious.  He was supported by the Sadducees and opposed by the Pharisees who allied themselves with Syria.  During his victory celebration, he crucified 800 Pharisees while he feasted with his concubines.  Prior to their deaths, he cut the throats of their wives and children before their very eyes.

The origin of Rabbis can be traced to the Pharisees.  Before the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 AD, Rabbis were known as teachers of the Written Law which was called the Torah.  They determined what the written laws meant and how those laws should be applied to everyday life.  The details of their determinations were committed to memory and established as oral traditions to be passed down to future generations.  The first written record, called the Talmud, wasn’t created until about 200 AD.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees disagreed over the timing of the events related to the Lord’s Passover.  Their disagreement was based on the Hebrew phrase ben ha arbayim which is translated “at twilight” in most Bibles.  This was the time when the Passover lambs were sacrificed. 

Notably, unlike our contemporary day that runs from midnight to midnight, the Jewish day ran from sunset to sunset.  It started in the evening about 6 PM and ended at 6 PM the following evening.

Twilight can be defined as the light diffused over the sky from sunset to dark or, in less common usage, from dark to sunrise.  However, to someone who understands Hebrew, ben ha arbayim literally means “between the evenings.”  This should not be construed as the 24 hour period between sunsets.

The Sadducees believed the phrase, “between the evenings,” meant dusk or the time between sunset and complete darkness.  The first evening referred to the time when the sun sank below the horizon and the second evening referred to the time of total darkness.  That constituted a period from 6 PM to 7:20 PM, at the beginning of Nisan 14.

The Pharisees understood the phrase to mean from mid-afternoon to sunset.  The first evening referred to the time when the sun began to descend and the second evening referred to sunset.  That covered a period from 3 PM to 5 PM (some say 6 PM), at the end of Nisan 14.

The Pharisaic interpretation of the phrase, “between the evenings,” was based on the Torah and the Talmudic traditions.  Conversely, the Sadducees had rejected the oral traditions and based their interpretation solely on the Torah.

Hence, the Sadducees believed that the Passover events, including the slaying of lambs and the painting of Hebrew doors, the eating of the Passover meal, the angel’s pass over of Hebrew homes, the smiting of Egyptians, and the night journey out of Egypt, all took place on Nisan 14.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, believed that only the slaying of lambs and the painting of Hebrew doors took place on Nisan 14 and the other events, beginning with the Passover meal, occurred the following day, on Nisan 15.

The Passover Puzzle: part 1 of 4

Special Note:  Some have suggested that Christ’s Last Supper wasn’t a Passover meal because it was eaten on Nisan 14, the day before the Jews ate the Passover.  Others have suggested that Jesus was indeed celebrating the Passover when He ate His Last Supper. Because Jews eat the Passover in the evening at the beginning of Nisan 15, they contend that Jesus died in the afternoon of Nisan 15.  This four-part series will prove that Jesus ate the Passover on Nisan 14 and was crucified later that same day.

“Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old...And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.  Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.  And they shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs...and you shall eat it in haste–it is the Lord’s Passover.  For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments–I am the Lord.  And the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt...

“Now it came about at midnight that the Lord struck all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of cattle.  And Pharaoh arose in the night...Then he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, ‘Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go, worship the Lord, as you have said.’”  (Exodus 12:5-8, 11-13, 29-31)

“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover.  Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.”  (Leviticus 23:5-6)

The Diaspora or Jews living outside of Israel celebrate an eight day Passover (Nisan15-22) while Jews living in Israel hold a seven day Passover celebration (Nisan 15-21).  After reading the scriptural passages above, one might ask, “What happened to Nisan 14?  Surely it should be included in the Passover celebration held by the Jews.”

Atheists in Heaven?

An Italian newspaper created a controversy when it reported, “Pope Francis assures atheists that they don't have to believe in God to go to heaven.  Non-believers will be forgiven by God if they follow their consciences.”

I’m puzzled as to why atheists are interested in heaven.  If they don’t believe in God, how could they believe in His heavenly kingdom?  Are atheists wavering in their beliefs?  Are they asking themselves, “If I’m wrong and come before the judgement seat as an unbeliever, is there any hope for me in eternity?”

I presume that  Pope Francis was reaching out to atheists who are unconvinced about their beliefs.  He was quoted in the Italian newspaper as saying, “God’s mercy has no limits if you go to Him with a sincere and contrite heart.  The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience.  Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.”

Notably, no mortal man has unwaveringly obeyed their conscience.  All men are sinners.  Moreover, to approach God with a contrite heart is to approach God with remorse for having sinned. 

Christians are saved by grace and justified by faith in Jesus Christ whom the prophet Isaiah identified as “Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”  However, atheists don’t believe in God.  Hence, they can’t acknowledge Jesus as the only begotten Son of God.  As unbelievers, they will be judged according to their deeds.  Since all men are sinners and apart from Jesus Christ there is no salvation from the consequences of sin, how will they escape eternal damnation if they neglect so great a salvation?