May 1, 2007
Inscribed to God Jesus Christ
By Stephen Yulish

It never ceases to amaze me how much God listens to our prayers and petitions. He is right there beside us but we often have no clue. I have been having a friendly discussion with a man who calls himself a fellow Christian yet refuses to believe that Jesus is equal to the Father. I have told him that he is therefore either a Jehovah’s Witness or maybe a Mormon. He told me that he loves Jesus and was insulted that I called him a JW or a Mormon. I asked him how he could call himself a follower of Christ, i.e. a Christian, and not believe that Christ is equal to Jehovah or Yahweh?

He would quote me from John 14 where Jesus said that He would petition the Father. When I showed him John 10:30,38 where Jesus said me and the Father are one, he did not listen. He quoted me from the New Jerusalem Bible and from Harper’s Bible and other so called scholarly works which seemed to question the equality of Jesus to the Father. He tried to tell me that he had seen programs on the History and the Discovery Channels that supported his beliefs. He quoted the theologian Hans Kung and even used his Professor of New Testament many, many years ago in college who had taught him that Jesus was a prophet and God’s only son but was not equal to the Father. When he tried to tell me that many of Jesus sayings were similar to those of the Essenes and that He therefore might have learned from them, I nearly lost it. I told him that Jesus was God and therefore could not learn anything from the Essenes or anybody else. He scoffed.

I became frustrated and finally told him that the Holy Spirit would have to reveal the truth to him. We agreed to disagree.

Then I picked up my copy of the latest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2007, vol. 33, no.2 and found the article, "Inscribed to God Jesus Christ".

The article tells about the recent discovery of an early Christian prayer hall under the prison in Megiddo in Northern Israel. The prison needed more room so they began excavating. When they found archaeological remains, they called in the Israeli Antiquities Authority. They discovered the remains of the earliest prayer hall ever discovered in the Holy Land. It was dated to the first half of the 3rd Century around 230 AD. Very few prayer halls or churches have been discovered anywhere in the Middle East before the Church became a part of the Roman Empire under Constantine a hundred years or so later.

The find was actually near the ancient Jewish village of Kfar Othnay which is mentioned in the Jewish Mishnah and also near the outpost of two Roman legions. They found elaborate mosaic plaques and floor designs. They found an early Christian design of two fish facing one another. The Greek word for fish is 'ichthys' whose letters spell out, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. More importantly they found the four sides of what appeared to be an offering, communion, or Eucharist table. Nearby, they found an inscription which said, “The God loving Akeptuous has offered the table to God Jesus Christ as a memorial.”

This is the earliest inscription found in Israel and, perhaps, anywhere that mentions Jesus Christ. And, even more significantly, to describe Him as God shows that the early followers of Christ thought of Him as God. Historians and Bible scholars have tried to tell us that His early followers did not think of Him as God and that this belief was not added until later at the Council of Nicea and others under Constantine. My friend also tried to use those same arguments but this find silenced him. To God, Jesus Christ says it all.

Finally, isn't it sad that this tremendous archaeological find did not get the attention that the scandalous Lost Tomb of Jesus did? Of course, we know the reason for this. The Lost Tomb purported to say that Jesus was not God, was not resurrected, and married Mary Magdalene while this find showed that Jesus Christ was thought of as God by His early followers. The media always seems to choose blasphemy over truth. It sells better.

Posted by Michael G. Mickey at 9:09 AM
....................................................benny

That is exciting news! Found this online shows pic's of the escavation:

http://members.bib-arch.org/nph-proxy.pl/0...&UserID=3d0

NOTE: Tel Megiddo is the name of the site found...Megiddo in the BIBLE...


Jos 12:21 The king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one;

Jos 17:11 And Manasseh had in Issachar and in Asher Bethshean and her towns, and Ibleam and her towns, and the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, and the inhabitants of Endor and her towns, and the inhabitants of Taanach and her towns, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns, [even] three countries.

Jdg 1:27 Neither did Manasseh drive out [the inhabitants of] Bethshean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns: but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.

Jdg 5:19 The kings came [and] fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.

1Ki 4:12 Baana the son of Ahilud; [to him pertained] Taanach and Megiddo, and all Bethshean, which [is] by Zartanah beneath Jezreel, from Bethshean to Abelmeholah, [even] unto [the place that is] beyond Jokneam:

1Ki 9:15 And this [is] the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

2Ki 9:27 But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw [this], he fled by the way of the garden house. And Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the chariot. [And they did so] at the going up to Gur, which [is] by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo, and died there.

2Ki 23:29 In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.

2Ki 23:30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.

1Ch 7:29 And by the borders of the children of Manasseh, Bethshean and her towns, Taanach and her towns, Megiddo and her towns, Dor and her towns. In these dwelt the children of Joseph the son of Israel.

2Ch 35:22 Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.

Megiddo is also known as the the Valley of Armagedon...

Here is a map of its location:


Proof that JESUS was real and the MESSIAH then and is still the REAL MESSIAH! AMEN!

Wow! Did they say when the fine was? I realize it was an article in your recent magazine...

Maybe someone should alert the major news media and show them....

"During the fall of 1945, Dr. Eleazar Sukenik of Hebrew University investigated another first century Jewish catacomb at the southem end of the Kidron Valley on the road to Bethlehem. He found several ossuaries with the sign of the cross, Greek inscriptions, a coin minted in A.D. 41 for King Herod Agrippa 1, proving the tomb was sealed by A.D. 42. Professor Sukenik concluded that the ossuaries "contain almost the whole dictionary of names in the New Testament.

One coffin had a surprising dedication in Greek to "Jesus" followed by the exclamation "Y'ho," meaning "Jehovah" or "the Lord." The inscription reads: "[To] Jesus, the Lord." In light of the A.D. 42 date for the sealing of this tomb, the presence of this dedication to "Jesus, the Lord" attests to the acceptance by Christians of Jesus Christ as God within ten years of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Christian theologian Professor Alexander Hopkins commented on this significant inscription as follows: "The inscription which was hidden for almost 2,000 years and inscribed at least two decades before any part of the New Testament was written. . . bears a personal testimony of faith ... a message from the past with a very modem meaning for the present."

http://www.raptureme.com/terry/james27.html

Other Historical and Archaeological evidences of Jesus
http://www.geocities.com/faithinevidence/evidence.html