Posted on 12/05/2011 9:23:24 AM PST by marshmallow
*Leaking roof in Ethiopian chapel 'will lead to relic being revealed'
*Ark contains Ten Commandments God 'gave' to Moses on Mount Sinai
*One holy monk is the only person allowed to see the holy box...
* ...but he'll need a hand carrying metre long wooden structure to new home
A very British problem of a leaky church roof could be about to give the world the chance to glimpse the legendary Ark of the Covenant.
That's because the claimed home of the iconic relic - a small chapel in Ethiopia - has sprung a leak and so the Ark could now be on the move.
The Ark - which The Bible says holds God's Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai - is said to have been kept in Aksum, in the Chapel of the Tablet, adjacent to St Mary of Zion Church, since the 1960s.
According to the Old Testament, it was first kept in the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem for centuries until a Babylonian invasion in the 6th century BC.
Since then it's been the goal of many adventurers and archaeologists to find it. Most-famously, but also fictitiously, Indiana Jones was shown in the 1981 Steven Spielberg film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
There has also been a long-running claim from the Orthodox Christians of Ethiopia that they have had the Ark for centuries, and since the 1960s it has apparently been kept in the chapel.
This small and curiously-styled building is surrounded by spiked iron railings, and situated between two churches, the old and new, of St Mary of Zion in central Aksum.
No one has been allowed to see the holy object, described in scripture as being made from acacia wood, plated with gold and topped with two golden angels, except one solitary elderly monk...........
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Who died and left you in charge?
What is it about the black art of idolatry you would ever want to defend?
And you have borne false witness against me and accused me of idolatry. Blessing and curse come out of the same mouth? I’ve never seen anything close to a blessing come out of yours.
Knowing you by your fruits puts you in a very bad light.
Oh, is it you worshipping the ark of the covenant?"
More false witness? The fruits I see being produced by you are completely devoid of the Love of Christ.
I asked you a question: Are you the one worshipping the Ark of the Covenant? It is as simple as that.
At this point I don't think you know how to Scripturally define the love of Christ. Would you please attempt it? There is no love of Christ without a basis in Truth from the Scriptures. All else is a mushy-gushy Hollywood, baby-doll, music industry-defined "love."
It’s a stupid, stupid question.
But if you need to have such nonsense responded to, I do not worship the ark of the covenant.
I guarantee I can give a name to the absence of the Love of Christ, and that would be the freeper posting under the screen name of “John Leland 1789”.
That's okay. I'm sure you would have treated John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth, and the Apostles the same way, had you seen John rebuke Herod, Jesus rebuke the Pharisees (or when Jesus rebuked PETER, the first pope! [sarc]), and Paul rebuke Elymus (or when Paul rebuked PETER, the first pope (sarc). They didn't practice the thin-skinned, sensitivity-trained, modern, Laodecean church, denominational, let's-all-just-get-along model of "Love."
While you've shown that all of them would be strangers to you, you once again bear false witness against me. May God have mercy on you.
Have you been born again (John ch. 3) by definite specific faith in the finished redemptive work of Jesus Christ at the Cross? Can you testify with regard to that regeneration (Titus 3:5)?
Many religious people who love icons and relics have never truly experienced the New Birth. How about you?
My wife and I were born again by God's grace on Dec. 6, 1977. We know Christ. Having His personal presence abiding by the Holy Spirit, we got over and dispensed with religion and a life of "sight" to live by faith.
Experience in four countries as missionaries has illustrated the universal need of religious folks to keep looking for relics and symbols, and icons, and depending upon the dead ("saints and "fathers"), none of which can save, none of which can keep, none of which can sanctify, none of which can purify, none of which can glorify.
So when we see overpaid attention to things that have to be dug up out of the ground, or drug from a mountain side, or hung around the neck, or earthly things that have to be bowed to, we highly suspect a sad lack of the reality of Christ within.
Christ is all-in-all to any true child of God. Things made with hands, even things made with hands in the Old Testament, can not enhance the true believer's faith or standing in Christ. Not having those things can diminish ought from such faith and standing.
Making this known to men is the Love of Christ which constrains us (2 Cor. 5).
They will cover it.
One thing I think that many forget is that the Ark is now just a box that may or may not have some stuff inside. The power of God has long been absent from it. (Or as some have interpreted - the actual presence of God is no longer in it.)
And while I don’t idolize this type of stuff (the Shroud of Turin, etc.) - it is pretty cool. Of course I love history and mysteries.
Funny - I was looking at the funky artwork of a wall hanging at church and was thinking about “graven images”, and how some folks consider a painting, etc. of Jesus as a “graven image”. While I’m not sure it is “graven”, an image (or a box) does tend to limit your perception of the true and full God.
And yet, all I have seen come out of you is hatred.
Or you have definitions of “love” and “hatred” that are emotionally self defensive.
Have you been born again (John ch. 3) by definite specific faith in the finished redemptive work of Jesus Christ at the Cross? Can you testify with regard to that regeneration (Titus 3:5)?
It matters in gaining a Scriptural understanding of "love" and "hatred."
What makes you think you even have the right to ask that of a Christian after you started bearing false witness against him first?
You owe me and every other person on this thread an apology before you can start demanding to have your questions answered.
Well, first, it is your Scriptural responsibility, if you indeed are a Christian, to testify as to the hope that is in you.
Secondly, I must try to discern from your testimony whether you indeed are a Christian, as you claim to be.
Thirdly, I must discern whether your hyper-sensitivity is simply due to the natural man, or a carnal nature, or simply that you took my general disdain for idolatry very personally . . . hyper-personally, and would just rather wrangle.
I’ll say it again, you have forfeited any right to ask anything of a Christian on this thread?
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