Posted on 05/29/2005 1:28:15 PM PDT by wagglebee
"Raiders of the Lost Ark" is one of my all-time favorite movies, filled with mystery and adventure. It focuses on the search for a biblical artifact and treasure called The Ark of the Covenant. What makes the movie particularly exciting is how closely it mimics (with some added Hollywood flair) the real life hunt for the lost Ark.
History has it that the original Ark was where God manifested His presence on earth beginning in the days of Moses. The Ark was designed as a chest made of acacia wood overlaid with gold. It had four golden rings. Each one attached to a corner. These rings provided a means to carry the Ark by inserting two wooden bars (also overlaid with gold) on either side. Atop the Ark were two golden cherubim spreading their wings over the Ark's cover also known as the mercy seat.
The Ark itself contained the Ten Commandments and was housed in the innermost room of the Jewish Temple called the Holy of Holies. Here it was the center of worship, although actual access to the Ark was permitted only once a year on the Day of Atonement called Yom Kippur. On that day, the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies with the blood of a goat to make atonement for the sins of the Israelites.
Other contents of the Ark included Aaron's rod and a golden pot of manna. Additionally, the Ark is renowned for its mysterious powers. According to the Bible, when the Ark was carried by the people of Israel into battle, it protected the Israelites, supernaturally defeating any adversaries that came before them.
This explains why in the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark" the Nazis were intent on obtaining it. Their theory (as the story line goes) was that they would be unbeatable if they possessed the Ark and could harness its mysterious powers. Of course, as both the movie and history would have it, things didn't quite work out for the Nazis.
But what of the Ark?
It is believed to have disappeared with the destruction of the First Temple by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 586 B.C. The exact whereabouts of the Ark have remained a mystery ever since.
One theory is that the Ark was taken from ancient Jerusalem by Prince Menelik of Ethiopia. Menelik was the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Menelik purportedly brought the Ark to his country for safekeeping where it currently remains housed in a church in Axum.
Another theory is that the Ark was hidden in a secret chamber housed beneath Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The alleged secret chamber was created by either King Solomon, who built the First Temple, or a subsequent king before the temple was plundered by Nebuchadnezzar.
One version of this theory suggests that in the early 12th century a group of nine Frenchmen known as the original Knights Templars excavated beneath the site of the old Temple of Jerusalem. They retrieved the true Ark of the Covenant and secreted it away.
A second more popular version suggests the Ark is still located in a vault somewhere in the miles of tunnels carved beneath the city of Jerusalem. It is believed the location of the Ark will be revealed when the time is right for the Jewish Temple to be built for the third time.
One famous adherent to this theory is Dr. Vendyl Jones. He is a modern-day explorer and teacher and the true inspiration for the Indiana Jones series. Startling the world, he announced last week on Israel National Radio that he actually knows the location of the Ark.
He says according to ancient documents the Ark is hidden in a secret passage that runs 18 miles south of the Temple Mount into the Judean Desert. Before dismissing his claim as a lark, it is worth noting that Jones published a book in 1959 predicting the precise outbreak of the Six Day War.
He calculated the war in 1967 by analyzing the sequence of events in the First Temple period and transposing them on the Third Temple period. The First Temple period began with its original construction in the days of King Solomon. The Third Temple period began according to Jones with the Jews founding an independent state in the land of Israel in 1948.
Now Jones is convinced that with the help of ancient documents found in Qumran, he has pinpointed the location of the Ark. And armed with the blessing of religious leaders, Jones hopes to reveal the location of the Ark by Aug. 14, which marks the Fast of Tisha B'Av. This holy day commemorates repeated tragedy in Jewish history including the destruction of both the First and the Second Holy Temples.
Jones' plan is simple. It is to drill a borehole into the chamber containing the Ark, drop a pin-camera in and reveal the historic treasure to a watching world.
If Jones is right, many predict this event will turn the world upside down. Jones says this will bring an end to the government's plan to uproot Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria. It also will bring the very idea of any Palestinian state to a screeching halt. In fact, Jones predicts quite the opposite will occur. With the discovery of the Ark, the Jewish people will have the greatest motivation of all time to return to Israel from around the world and rebuild the Temple to house this holy treasure.
Of course, whether Jones actually uncovers the Ark is not the sole issue. Equally compelling is proving once more through science that the Bible is more than just a collection of parables. Are you ready for this?
If you are a Jew (and I presume you are) this is perfectly understandable. However, if you are a Christian, this belief is heretical within every denomination I am aware of.
Trinity: The Godhead is unified in Three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Heresy: The act whereby a person who purports to subscribe to a doctrine of belief disavows some teachings or dogmas thereof.
Christian Denomination: An organized body united by a explicit set of dogmas and beliefs.
Mary was greatly blessed in being chosen to be the earthly mother of Jesus. Being blessed however, doesn't mean that she forever remained a virgin, or that she herself was born of a virgin.
The bible itself declares that she was greatly blessed in being chosen for that role. The bible never declares that she was forever sinless or faultless either before or after bearing and raising Jesus.
A little time our here, Jesus' actual name is Jeshua which is formed of the same root word/s as Joshua which stands for 'Salvation'. (returning to previous topic).
Even the apostles themselves stated that they shouldn't consider themselves as being more special than anyone else because of the special relationship that they had with Jesus as his desciples or because of the spiritual gifts that they may have been given.
The bible declares that the Holy Spirit himself gives the gifts to all believers as HE wills. It is not the believers right ro privilige to say that they will or will not have a particular gift or office assigned to them.
All believers are free to accept the giftings or 'offices' or 'callings' offered to them by the Spirit. To accept and receive the Spirits giftings or blessings results in the greatest benefit to the believer while rejecting the Spirit always results in loss.
Mary's office' or 'role' or 'gifting' was beyond her own ability to cause to happen. She could have turned down the opportunity and someone else would have been chiosen and blessed instead of her. If the Spirit did not chose her for that blessing, she would have been powerless to make it happen.
She was a glad and willing participant in obedience to her understanding of the prophets who declaired that the Messiah was to be born of a virgin. She also had the ancestry that would have uniquely qualified her for her 'office'.
Jesus is said by the bible to be 'the lamb that was slain from the foundation of teh world'. Mary I am sure was also chosen by God ahead fo time to fulfill the role that she was uniquely qualified for by her lineage. If Mary would have rejected her 'calling' God wouldhave found another who met all His stated requirements.
She knew the potential for shame and rejection for being pregnant before getting married and yet she faced the possibility of rejection to be obedient to the news the angel brought her.
Being chosed to be the earthly mother of the Messiah was greatly desired by the women of Israel who knew the prophecies. It was a great honor and anyone chosen to be that vessel would be greatly honored and blessed, above all other women who desired that blessing.
Nobody has EVER suggested that Mary was born of a virgin, this alone is indicative of your erroneous thinking based on bigoted misconceptions. Everything else you say is further evidence of your slanted and flawed views of Christian tradition. Anti-Marian beliefs arose in the mid-19th century when anti-Catholics sensed that Catholicism (especially in America) was gaining acceptance, they have nothing to do with the Reformation. Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and Wesley all shared Marian beliefs that are consistent with Catholicism's, they hated the Pope and the Catholic Church, but the adored Mary.
Don't waste your time, and chance defilement, on someone who relies on the Talmud for his opinions on the Saviour and the Blessed Virgin, and heavily distorts FR as "PapistOnLine". Some kind of conceited entity, a fit object for the St. Michael the Archangel prayer --- maybe Vendy Jones, the arch-apostate, himself. Our faith is built on a Rock, we shall not fear...... and we are glad to introduce Our Lady online.
Amen.
Well, it's extremely unlikely that the ark was still in the temple when itwas looted. Jerusalem lay under seige for two years before it fell, and II Kings tells us that the situation in the city grew desperate as starvation set in.
The leadership within the temple undoubtably knew that the city was going to fall months before it actually did and hid it elsewhere within the city or in the tunnels under the temple. No reasonable leader would have left a religions most valuable artifact sitting vulnerable when invaders stood ready to overrun the city and possibly kill all its inhabitants. This leaves us with three real possibilities.
1. The Ark and the temple treasures are still buried somewhere under Jerusalem.
2. The treasures really were recovered by the Templars and are now somewhere in Europe. While this is possible because we DO have historical confirmation of their digging in the area at the time, their findings are likely more legend than reality (they are credited with finding everything from the Ark to the Holy Grail, Jesus' cross, the Shroud of Turin, and the spear that pierced Jesus' side). If they did find anything, the odds are that it's either lost to history or is sitting in the Vatican.
3. As tragic as the thought might be, it's also completely possible that at some point in the intervening millenia, the Ark may have been claimed by regular looters. It could have been found by the Romans when they built their own temple on the site. It could have been found by the Muslims and destroyed. It could have been found by a couple of 10 year old kids who stumbled across it in a tunnel a thousand years ago and turned it over to some forgotten Muslim leader. There's no way to know, but the odds of it being found and destroyed are at least equal to the odds of it surviving.
As much as I hate to admit it, I think that it's either #2 or #3, and that we'll never know which.
Sometimes it is very tiring that FreeRepublic reads a lot like PapistOnline sometimes. >>
so, go somewhere else and bring your hate with you.
Actually, you're not being picky here at all. This is sort of what I was getting at. What you call 'ratification,' is sort of what I meant using the terms,'signify,' and 'signification.' His Blood is the signification of the New COvenant, the ratification, if you will, of the New Coivenant in the same way the stone tablets were the signification or ratification of the Old Covenant. And His Body is what was offered up in sacrifice which makes the New Covenant of effect.
Now, since it seems we're getting close here, you may want to take a look at St. Bonaventure's speculation that the 'Ark of the Covenant' refered to in Revelations is Jesus, Himself -particularly in light of your excellent Scripture regarding the New Covenant as being 'God's law written on our hearts.' One of the points he makes regards the fact that God's Law was most perfectly written on Jesus' heart since Jesus was the Son of God and it was through His sacrifice that the New Covenant would have effect. Thus, look at what we have here. In the old 'Ark of the Covenant' resided Aaron's rod, the signification of the high priest, the stone tablets, the signification of God's Law and manna, the signification of God's gift of bread to the ancient Israelites. From a Catholic perspective, all of these things signify Jesus in the New Covenant. He is our High Priest, it was upon His Heart that God's law was most perfectly written and from the Holy Spirit which He sent us that God's law may be written on our own hearts, and it is His Body which comes to us as the gift which gives life in the Eucharist.
Of course, also from the Catholic perspective, it is perfectly reasonable to consider Mary the Ark since all these aspects of Our Lord -being a part of Our Lord's One Person- were all once carried by Mary.
This guy claims he found it already
http://www.wyattarchaeology.com/ark.htm
Keepers of the Lost Ark?[Ethiopia][Ark of the Covenant]
Smithsonian Magazine | December 2007 | Paul Raffaele
Posted on 11/27/2007 2:27:12 PM EST by BGHater
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1931280/posts
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Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
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