Part 7 of Post Your Tough Questions Regarding Christianity

Solomon's temple was quite small.. about the size of a 2,000 foot house and modeled after temples in Byblos and Baalbeck.

The OT is just full of fanciful exaggerations.

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Solomon's temple was quite small.. about the size of a 2,000 foot house and modeled after temples in Byblos and Baalbeck.

The OT is just full of fanciful exaggerations.

The Hebrews were exiled to Babylon.. but it wasn't thousands.. Somewhere there is a list with family names.

 

You are truly amazing.

Not much for honest, but sometimes funny.

 

Thank you! Your great arguments have changed me forever!
Praise The Lord!

 

The Temple of Solomon is for real and was build during King Solomon time whether it is modelled after the temples in Byblos or Baalbeck does not matter what matter is that it was build to honour God of Abraham and that it is factual as the Bible have claim it.

The OT is the most complete book that historians, archaeologist and scholars have turn to get answers of the past.

The destruction and exiled of Jews by the conquering Babylonians was very devastating the events that is confirm by history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_captivity
Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem, his capture of King Jeconiah, his appointment of Zedekiah in his place, and the plundering of the city in 597 BCE as described in 2 Kings in the Bible are confirmed by a passage in the Babylonian Chronicles:[10]:293
In the seventh year, in the month of Kislev, the king of Akkad mustered his troops, marched to the Hatti-land, and encamped against the City of Judah and on the ninth day of the month of Adar he seized the city and captured the king. He appointed there a king of his own choice and taking heavy tribute brought it back to Babylon.
Tablets describing ration orders for a captive King of Judah, identified with King Jeconiah, have been discovered during excavations in Babylon, in the royal archives of Nebuchadnezzar.[11][12] One of the tablets refers to food rations for "Ya’u-kīnu, king of the land of Yahudu" and five royal princes, his sons.[13]
Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian forces returned in 588/586 BCE and rampaged through Judah, leaving clear archaeological evidence of destruction in many towns and settlements there.[10]:294 Clay ostraca referred to as the Lachish letters from this period were discovered during excavations; one, which was probably written to the commander at Lachish from an outlying base, describes how the signal fires from nearby towns are disappearing: And may (my lord) be apprised that we are watching for the fire signals of Lachish according to all the signs which my lord has given, because we cannot see Azeqah.[14] This correlates with the book of Jeremiah,[15] which states that Jerusalem, Lachish and Azekah were the last cities to fall to the Babylonians. Archaeological finds from Jerusalem testify that virtually the whole city within the walls was burnt to rubble in 587 BCE and utterly destroyed.[10]:295

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post #375
do you believe in the existence of the Temple of Solomon yes or no??
Do you believe in the existence of the 12 tribes of Israel yes or no?
Do you believe in the existence of the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and its destruction?
Do you believe in the existence of Jericho?
Do you believe that the Assyrian, Babylonians, Persians and Romans conquered Israel and exiled thousands of Jews as mention in the Bible yes or no?
Do you believe that all of those are part of the Bible yes or no?

 

Not really.. Jerusalem was a whistle stop on the trade route and a bandit town.. That's what archeologists have learned.

 

You are most welcome.

 

How about answering the questions? And by the way, I'm still waiting for you to man up and back up your phony 'lying' accusations.

 

Historical finding concur that the City of Jerusalem was conquered by King David and that King David will make it the capital of Israel. This finding is another proof that the Bible is accurate in it's story especially in the birth and history of the Jewish nation Israel that history that started in the OT Genesis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem#History
Ceramic evidence indicates occupation of the City of David, within present-day Jerusalem, as far back as the Copper Age (c. 4th millennium BCE),[2][59] with evidence of a permanent settlement during the early Bronze Age (c. 3000&#8211;2800 BCE).[59][60] The Execration Texts (c. 19th century BCE), which refer to a city called rw&#353;3lmm, variously transcribed as Ru&#353;alimum/Uru&#353;alimum/Rôsh-ramen[59][61] and the Amarna letters (c. 14th century BCE) may be the earliest mention of the city.[62][63] Some archaeologists, including Kathleen Kenyon, believe Jerusalem was founded by Northwest Semitic people with organized settlements from around 2600 BCE. Nadav Na'aman argues its fortification as the centre of a kingdom dates to around the 18th century BCE.[64] The first settlement lay on the Ophel ridge.[65] The biblical account first mentions Jerusalem ("Salem") as ruled by Melchizedek, an ally of Abraham.
In the late Bronze Age Jerusalem was the capital of an Egyptian vassal city-state,[66] a modest settlement governing a few outlying villages and pastoral areas, with a small Egyptian garrison and ruled by appointees such as king Abdi-Heba,[67] At the time of Seti I and Ramesses II, major construction took place as prosperity increased.[68]
This period, when Canaan formed part of the Egyptian empire corresponds in biblical accounts to Joshua&#8217;s invasion.[69] In the bible, Jerusalem is defined as lying within territory allocated to the tribe of Benjamin[70][71] though occupied by Jebusites. David is said to have conquered these in the Siege of Jebus, and transferred his capital from Hebron to Jerusalem which then became the capital of a united Kingdom of Israel,[72] and one of its several religious centres.[73] The choice was perhaps dictated by the fact that Jerusalem did not form part of Israel&#8217;s tribal system, and was thus suited to serve as the centre of its federation.[68] Opinion is divided over whether a Large Stone Structure and a nearby Stepped Stone Structure may be identified with King David's palace, or dates to a later period.[74][75]

 

I already did man up many times something I can hardly say about you.
And what is your question? Was your question abut my questions;
do you believe in the existence of the Temple of Solomon yes or no??
Do you believe in the existence of the 12 tribes of Israel yes or no?
Do you believe in the existence of the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and its destruction?
Do you believe in the existence of Jericho?
Do you believe that the Assyrian, Babylonians, Persians and Romans conquered Israel and exiled thousands of Jews as mention in the Bible yes or no?
Do you believe that all of those are part of the Bible yes or no?

Just in case of it is my question that you are asking me to answer here are my answers to my questions:
do you believe in the existence of the Temple of Solomon yes or no?? = Yes
Do you believe in the existence of the 12 tribes of Israel yes or no? = Yes
Do you believe in the existence of the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and its destruction? = Yes
Do you believe in the existence of Jericho? = Yes
Do you believe that the Assyrian, Babylonians, Persians and Romans conquered Israel and exiled thousands of Jews as mention in the Bible yes or no? = Yes
Do you believe that all of those are part of the Bible yes or no? - definitely YES

 

It was tiny ... a threshing floor and occupied by Jebusites.

 

The Jebusites another group of tribes mention in the Bible that modern historians agree did existed and were believe to be the builders of Jerusalem that eventually would be taken over by the army of King David and ever since Jerusalem has become the capital City of Israel. In fact at one point in modern history Yasser Arafat tried to argue that the Pelestinians were descendant of Jebusites thus giving them legitimate claim over Jerusalem how ever no...read on ;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jebusite
Yasir Arafat[21] and Faisal Husseini[22] have stated Palestinians may have a Jebusite background. The claim is used as an attempt to prove a connection between Palestinians and Jerusalem that predates the Muslim conquest.[23] There is, however, no archaeological evidence linking the Arab-Palestinians of today with the Jebusites of the Canaanite period.[21][23]

 

Have you been to Jerusalem. It was originally a tiny city.

Palestinians are an amalgamation of Syrians, Greeks, Arabs, Jews, Egyptians and Canaanites who lived there. Some of them are also related to the Crusaders.

 

I have not been to Jerusalem yet, chances are next year I will travel to the Holy Land.
I agree the Palestinians are an amalgamation of different ethnicity of that region. The Syrians, Greeks, Arabs, Jews and Canaanites that have all been mention in the Bible and form parts of the Bible and this include the Jebusites. the authenticity of the Bible is true and factual that is why the Bible was and is the first book that historians and scholars will turn to in their quest to unearth the past.

 

They used to turn to the Bible for political reasons. They don't do that anymore.. You might as well base science on Grimm's fairy tales.

 

Politicians turn to the Bible for political reasons, scholars and scientist even atheist turn to the Bible for answers and they still do.
Grimm's fairy tales is just that it is a fairy tale that contains no factual events or characters that is why scientist do not turn to fairy tales for answers.

 

I was asking thebrucebeat to answer your questions.

 

Do you honestly think that there were NO politics in the ancient Holy Lands or during the Roman occupation?

 

Of course there were and are politics that is why they had Jesus crucified because Jesus refuse to be part of their politics but most of all Jesus Christ was preaching the true message of God a message that is cleanse of politics, politics are only for humans. And now we see how politics are being use to exploit Christianity especially after Constantine has stop the persecution of Christianity in the 300 AD.

 

Out of the 54 emperors who ruled between 30 and 311 AD, only about a dozen went out of their way to persecute Christians. {5}

It has been calculated that between the first persecution under Nero in 64 to the Edict of Milan in 313, Christians experienced 129 years of persecution and 120 years of toleration and peace.

http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/history/persecution.htm

 

They have been backed up over twenty times on these threads. Serious debate with you has proved fruitless. When you have been shown ludicrous, you simply refuse to answer. You run away and blame the questions. When your quotes are proven deceptive you either pretend not to understand or you are actually unable to comprehend it.
You and WanRen have earned nothing but ridicule, and from now on that is all you will receive.

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That was your intellectual ally.
How do you like your company?

 

Yes only a dozen Roman emperor went out of their way to persecuted Christians and when they did it was with shear brutality from the 1st century to 313 AD Christians were heavily persecuted if there was according to your sources 120 years of tolerance then that leave about 193 years of persecution that included the torture and execution of the Apostles and St, Paul the persecution only stop after Constantine came into power in 313 AD.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/timeline_09.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Christians
Dissension began almost immediately with the teachings of Stephen at Jerusalem (unorthodox by contemporaneous Jewish standards), and never ceased entirely while the city remained.[6] A year after the Crucifixion of Jesus, Stephen was stoned for his alleged transgression of orthodoxy,[7] with Saul (who later converted and was renamed Paul) heartily agreeing.
In 41 AD, when Agrippa I, who already possessed the territory of Antipas and Phillip, obtained the title of King of the Jews, in a sense re-forming the Kingdom of Herod, he was reportedly eager to endear himself to his Jewish subjects and continued the persecution in which James the Greater lost his life, Peter narrowly escaped and the rest of the apostles took flight.[6]
After Agrippa's death, the Roman procuratorship began (before 41 they were Prefects in Iudaea Province) and those leaders maintained a neutral peace, until the procurator Festus died and the high priest Annas II took advantage of the power vacuum to attack the Church and executed James the Just, then leader of Jerusalem's Christians.[6] The New Testament states that Paul was himself imprisoned on several occasions by Roman authorities, stoned by Pharisees and left for dead on one occasion, and was eventually taken as a prisoner to Rome. Peter and other early Christians were also imprisoned, beaten and harassed.

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Are you talking to me? I thought that you have already made peace with yourself and have accepted your own stupidity?

 

Not unless your name is Paul.

 

Thank you Angedras.
Finally, the voice of reason prevails.
Over all Christians have been persecuted since the 1st century and early Christians have nothing material wealth, power or prestige to gain they have everything to lose except their soul. Politicians such as the Pharisees, Roman governors, emperors, other Christian heretical groups and Islam their purpose and goals are political, power, wealth and earthly empire they will exploit Christ by either persecuting Christians or they will create their own version of Jesus Christ that they will make it to conform with their ideology and ambitions.

As I have pointed out the Bible especially starting from the Books of Leviticus to the New Testament has been very factual many historians, scientist have refer to the Bible to uncover ancient sites such sites as Jericho, Sodom and Gomorrah remains of ancient tribes such as the Jebusites, Amorites etc. that without the Bible we would not know they existed.

 

There is also Hammurabi, the Nag Hamadi Library and thousands of clay tablet from Babylon and the Ugarit.. from Dilmun... There is a great deal of historical and archeological evidence outside of scripture. Stanley spent 4 decades translating Sumerian writings.

 

And much of this was by Jews and not Romans.