For PERSPECTIVES Vol. 2 No. 4 [October-December 1999]   

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A Very Sad Day for Archaeologists

Recently the legal advisor of the Israeli Government visited the Temple Mount and was shocked to see the terrible destruction which the Arabs together with the Islamic Movement in Israel are engaged in. This visit came after The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement made a petition to the Supreme Court asking that the destruction being performed by the Arabs in the beautiful halls, called the Hulda Halls, be immediately stopped. These halls were the main entrance for millions of pilgrims during the Second Temple period. His report after the visit had to be an answer to the petition by the Faithful. The report also shocked all the Israel people and everyone in the world who heard about it.

In the report, he wrote that the Arabs had dug 10 metre (sic) deep over a large area next the so-called Solomon's Stables in order to build a new entrance to the Solomon's Stables after they had built a mosque in the Stables which is the biggest in the Middle East. Solomon's Stables were never actually stables but were halls which were part of the Second Temple complex which were built by King Herod and were used for the worship in the temple. The first barbaric destruction and new building in the area was when the function of the area was changed and the mosque built.

Along with this work they destroyed monuments which had remained after the destruction of the temple in 70 CE. This destruction and building of the mosque is a part of the Arab activities to destroy any Jewish identity on the Temple Mount and any evidence which had remained for 2000 years since the temple existed on this holy hill. Their goal is to completely convert the Temple Mount and to make it into a completely Islamic site. 

–Israel Faithful Movement

The foregoing consists of the first three paragraphs of a message sent out by the Israel Faithful Movement to inform its supporters and others of its opposition to Palestinian construction at the Haram esh-Sharif. Deborah Atkinson kindly forwarded it to us stating it is a very sad day for archaeologists.

–editor

Once Saved Always Saved?

I am so thankful that I came across your page. I have recently been debating with a friend of mine about once saved always saved. My friend does not believe that once you have repented of your sins that no matter what you do, you will still go to heaven. I strongly disagree with this. If you agree with me, could you possibly tell me where in the bible I can find a scripture that can confirms my belief. I found some very good information explaining different verses in my Biblical Illustrator Books. But there is always room for more knowledge.

–Christine Willis

This issue inflames many Christians who deeply believe that once one accepts Jesus Christ he or she is forever saved. Is this the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth and the apostles? The apostle Paul wrote in Romans that unless one receives the Holy Spirit (also known as the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Christ), he or she simply is not a Christian (Romans 8:9). For conversion, or as many state it "born again" or "begotten of God," we must receive God’s Holy Spirit which indwells us (vs. 9). The converted are the true children of God. So then, once converted does a person always remain converted or can one fall away?

Simply because we receive God’s Holy Spirit does not mean that we have given up our free will. God requires us to exercise free choice. We remain at liberty either to reject God, God’s way of life, and the law of Christ, or to obey him. Now a converted person is a saint, a holy one, who the apostle Paul says is a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) who puts his or her faith to work through love (Galatians 5:6). Our duty, through the power of God's holy spirit, is to bring every thought captive to the will of Jesus Christ (II Corinthians 10:5). Or as the apostle John states at John 3:16-21 believers in Christ will practice truth.

–editor

Our Doctrinal Stand 

Could you tell me the doctrines to which you hold? Doctrine is one of the things that Scripture is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work (II Timothy 3:16-17). It keeps us from being tossed to and fro (Ephesians 4:14) and most importantly, Christ Himself told us to know the doctrine (John 7:16-17). I understand that asking for a doctrinal statement might be out of the ordinary, but as we live in a time when more and more men have itching ears you can never be too careful.

–Erik Kohl

BibArch is a Christian website. Our basic doctrinal position is that:

1. The Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament (the Bible) alone and the Bible in its entirety is the World of God written, and therefore inerrant in the autographs.

2. Jesus of Nazareth, truly God and truly man, is God incarnate in whom the divine and human natures are perfectly and inseparably united. Jesus is the eternal Word, through whom and for whom God created all things. Before his human birth, he existed eternally with God and as God (John 1:1-2, 1:14; Revelation 1:8). God created everything in the universe by and through Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:16; John 1:3). Jesus is the Christ, or Messiah, sent from God to be humanity's Savior and redeemer (John 1:29; 3:15-17; Acts 4:12). Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, engendered in the human flesh of the virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:34-35).

3. Salvation and life eternal is the gift of God, by God's grace, only through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Christ, or Messiah, sent from God to be the savior and redeemer of humanity (John 1:29; 3:15-17; Acts 4:12). In Jesus Christ, the whole sinful world became reconciled to God (Galatians 4:4-5; 3:13; II Corinthians 5:18-19). Eternal salvation is only through Jesus' death on the cross and "there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12 NASB). Jesus made atonement for the whole human race (Romans 5:8-11) and God has given him a name which is above every name (Philippians 2:9-11).

4. The first covenant, the Mosaic one, ended in order to establish the second, the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:7, 8:8, 8:23; 9:10, 9:15; 10:9). The Torah is now null and void as a legal code but the Hebrew Scriptures, inspired by God, are profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness (II Timothy 3:16). Any continuing relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, requires faith in Jesus Christ of Nazareth and not reliance on the onetime covenant mediated through Moses (Galatians 2:16; 3:11).

–editor

The Decree of Artaxerxes

Has archaeology found Artaxerxes' decree to rebuild Jerusalem (Daniel 9:25; Nehemiah 2:1-8)? Estimated to be in the month of Nissan, 444 or 445 BCE.)

–Paul Vermillion
Seattle, Washington

No. Artaxerxes I (465-424 BCE) ruled Persia while Nehemiah was governor of Judah and the time of the activities of Ezra the scribe. Ezra 7:11-26 tells of a decree of Artaxerxes, 458 BCE, issued in his 7th year permitting Ezra and those Jews who desired to do so to go to Jerusalem to beautify the Temple and to engage in worship. Nehemiah 2:1-8 tells of the issuance of letters by Artaxerxes in 445 BCE in his 20th year authorizing the rebuilding of Jerusalem's wall. Archaeologists have not discovered these documents. Hence, the Hebrew Scriptures remain the sole record of them. 

Scholars do not know the exact year of Artaxerxes' decrees. The year is important to some Christians as they use this date as the beginning point of the Seventy-Weeks Prophecy. They argue that the decree to restore and build Jerusalem was issued in 457 (Nisan-to-Nisan reckoning) or 556 BCE (Tishri-to-Tishri reckoning), in the early fall of the 7th year of Persian king Artaxerxes I (Ezra 7).

Then 69 (7+62) prophetic weeks (in which a day equals a year), or 483 years, would pass from that date until the Messiah would come, after which He would be cut off or killed, not for Himself but for the sins of humanity. Counting 483 years beginning with BCE 458 brings us to the autumn of 26AD (because of the crossover from BCE to CE one year is added), which many believe was when Jesus became 30 years old and began His ministry. If the Gospels show that He was crucified on the fourth Passover of His service, which would be by this reckoning therefore in the spring of 30 CE (the conventional date for the Crucifixion). If BCE 457 is correct then the fourth Passover would have occurred in 31 CE (an Adventist view followed by some of the Churches of God). 

If Jesus' ministry was of 2 1/2 years duration then other possibilities arise. A basic question is whether or not Daniel 9 deals with the Messiah at all. A careful exegesis of Daniel 9 may reveal a very different explication than the popular one.

–editor

Page last edited: 12/16/05 06:18 PM

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