Digging with Darren

If you’re not familiar with the saga surrounding the discovery, acquisition, translation and subsequent publications of the Dead Sea Scrolls, you don’t have enough excitement in your life. For the latest criminal investigations involving a major case of lashon hara, read up on the latest article from the New York Times in which a debate regarding the identity of the Qumran community ends up in an arrest for identity theft.

The New York Times published an article today that already has sparks flying on the internet. It is entitled, “Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection.” It is a follow-up on an earlier article posted a year ago last April by Haaretz, called “In three days, you shall live.”

The basic premise is that of a Jewish tradition, predating Christianity which has the Messiah dying and resurrecting after three days, as a necessity of his messiahship. Israel Knohl, a professor from the Hebrew University, has been the main voice in this, because it appears to validate what he had already discovered in his studies of the Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts. In 2002, he published a book of his findings called, “The Messiah before Jesus: The Suffering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls” which explains his findings (and if anyone wants to get me a copy, I won’t complain).

Knohl takes the references of a Suffering (or Slain) Messiah (Mashiach ben Yosef) found in the Talmud (starting in Sukkah 52a), along with the DSS manuscripts to build a case for a first century expectation for a resurrected messiah. However, with the find of the Gabriel Tablet (the main focus of the two previous articles), Knohl has a very substantial text from the period just prior to the time of Yeshua to back his theory.

Be sure to read both articles, and pick up the book if you have a chance. This is some very interesting information that could prove very valuable in the near future.

I’m not a prophet, nor do I claim to have prophetic insight. I don’t study eschatology. I don’t focus on apocalyptic literature. It’s been years since I have read the Revelation of John. However, over the last few months, especially the last few weeks, there have been more world events to trigger biblical references than all the events combined that I can remember in my lifetime. Judgement is being meted out and the earth is groaning for her Maker’s return.

In the latest of catastrophic global events is Baghdad’s massive trampling of nearly a thousand Iraqis during a pilgrimage to an Islamic shrine. As the one million Shiites were walking across a bridge, someone in the crowd started screaming that there was a suicide bomber among them. Immediately, panic gripped the masses and a stampede broke out which ultimately ending in the trampling of the slower and weaker Iraqis. Many people even dove from the bridges to their death. It is thought that this was the strategy of a Sunni terrorist, a rival Muslim sect of which Saddam Hussein belongs.

Judgment has begun to come upon those who would seek to destroy the children of Hashem.

I just wanted to make mention of the “real” war that is fought day in and day out–the battles that are lost and the ground that is taken each and every day without so much of a mention. It is a war in which we all contribute to each and every day. Only, we support the enemy by giving it ammunition and killing our own through friendly fire.

What ware am I talking about? It’s the war of propaganda. Propaganda for what? You name it. From sympathy towards the terrorist organization of Islam to the pharmaceutical mofia. We are all being lured into their hypnotism and churned into drones for the mass distribution of lethal propaganda that sucks the very life from us. The media is geared to present Islam as a viable religion superior to Judaism or Christianity but with a very small fraction who are prone to terrorism. The pharmaceutical companies are using the media to poison the minds of the masses into paranoia and conditioning us to have a “need” for their mind-altering drugs. What is more is that they have the doctors in their back pockets by giving them commission bonuses for the number of drug perscriptions they write per month. Do you think this helps doctors to be objective in their perscriptions when writing just a few more perscriptions will ensure literally tens of thousands of dollars PER MONTH continue to flow into their personal bank accounts? Our minds are being poisoned from side of the spectrum to the other and we do nothing. We accept it, drink it, swallow it.

What will you do? How will you respond? What propaganda have you swallowed? How will you now respond?

It’s a fact that can’t be denied. However, if you say it on the job you can be fired. Just ask Michael Graham of WMAL radio in Washington D.C. who was let go just hours after making the comment on air. ABC / Disney was backed into a corner moments after his comments (which were even Pro-islam in their original context) which led to his release. Read the story here. And if you want to see how the muslims responded, sending out a massive message to its massive hord, you can read it here.

The fact remains:

ISLAM = TERRORISM & PAGAN RELIGION

It’s a very sad day in the world. Families are being removed one by one from the Gaza and West Bank areas of the Holy Land. They are being torn away from the Land which Hashem has promised them, and by their own people. Although there has been little actual violence, there has still been some. One woman even set herself on fire in order to resist. Please pray for the People of Destiny. Today a very sad day indeed.

The rabbis are asking all who would pray with and for Israel to pray Psalm 20 and Psalm 91 during these difficult times, especially today. I have them printed here for your convenience.

Psalm 20
For the Leader. A Psalm of David.
The LORD answer thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob set thee up on high;
Send forth thy help from the sanctuary, and support thee out of Zion;
Receive the memorial of all thy meal-offerings, and accept the fat of thy burnt-sacrifice; Selah
Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.
We will shout for joy in thy victory, and in the name of our God we will set up our standards; the LORD fulfil all thy petitions.
Now know I that the LORD saveth His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven with the mighty acts of His saving right hand.
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will make mention of the name of the LORD our God.
They are bowed down and fallen; but we are risen, and stand upright.
Save, LORD; let the King answer us in the day that we call.

Psalm 91
O thou that dwellest in the covert of the Most High, and abidest in the shadow of the Almighty;
I will say of the LORD, who is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust,
That He will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
He will cover thee with His pinions, and under His wings shalt thou take refuge; His truth is a shield and a buckler.
Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flieth by day;
Of the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor of the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
A thousand may fall at Thy side, and ten thousand at Thy right hand; it shall not come nigh thee.
Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold, and see the recompense of the wicked.
For thou hast made the LORD who is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation.
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent.
For He will give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
They shall bear thee upon their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and asp; the young lion and the serpent shalt thou trample under feet.
‘Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he hath known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him, and bring him to honour.
With long life will I satisfy him, and make Him to behold My salvation.’

As of late last night (according to North American time) the Israeli Disengagement began to be in full swing. Already, there have been numerous events transpire from violence, to looting by IDF soldiers, to soldiers melting to tears beneath the psychological burden. Although yesterday was Tisha b’Av, today will be remembered for a very long time as a scar in Israeli history. Already, the Muslims are planning victory marches, and are determined to place an approximated 60,000 flags of victory and demarkation within the evacuated cities. They are also planning on opening fire on fleeing Israelis in order to make it look like their acts of violence are supreme.

Read a very moving article submitted by the AP to Israel Insider HERE.

Please weep and pray with Israel in the days ahead.