America-An Israelite Nation

AMERICA

(Look Unto the Rock Whence Ye are Hewn!)

By

Reverend Ken Kemble



'Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone and blessed him, and increased him.' - (ISAIAH 51:1-2)

IT is generally assumed and taught that America is named after the explorer Americus Vespucci (1451-1512). Others claim that America is named after Richard Ameryke, enthusiastic supporter and financier of the explorer John Cabot (1450-1498).

The name America, however, is actually much older, and has been attached to this great land since the time of the Vikings and before, hundreds of years before the time of Columbus, Cabot or Vespucci.

Thus, America (amalric, himmelreich) literally means Kingdom of Heaven.

'A marvelous appellation,' wrote Miskovsky, 'and calculated to make us thoughtful.' Indeed, one might almost believe that this name, apparently given to our land by mere accident, was in reality prophetic, looking forward to a bright day to come.



America ... Kingdom of Heaven! God's country!

It has been suggested that 'Arnerica' is derived frorn the old Norse word 'Ommerike' (oh-meh- ric-eh), that was evidently in cornmon use among the North Atlantic sailing fraternity frorn around the beginning of the 11 th century.(1)



Omme means 'out there,' 'final,' or 'ultimate' Rike (spelled a number of ways in ancient Norse manuscripts such as rige, rega, rike, rikja, and reykja) means 'great land', 'kingdom', 'empire'. It is the equivalent of the Gaelic 'righ' and the German 'reich'.

The old Norse ommerike, however, is simply a slightly corrupted form of the still more ancient Visigothic term amalric.(2)

In fact, Professor Louis Miskovsky of Oberlin College wrote in the 1920's that America is 'simply another form of the old Gothic Amalric'. Amal means 'heaven'; and ric means 'Kingdom', just as in the old Norse rike. We find the same old word handed down to us today in the modern German term 'Himmelreich', used for, the Biblical 'Kingdom of Heaven.' (3)

Throughout our history men and women have fought all manner of trouble to come to this great land. It was a new mysterious 'Promised Land'; a land flowing with milk and honey, prepared for us by the Hand of the Almighty. They came usually at risk of life, and sometimes lost it. But in their hearts was a righteous fervor. They wanted not only to be free, but to establish a place where they could live for God unfettered by the chains of religious persecution!

The Pilgrims were Separatists (a dirty word nowadays, but highly scriptural - II Corinthians 6:17). They settled here in the early 1600's and established a 'Civill bodyPolitick', and it is made very clear in the Mayflower Compact that they did so under God, referring to God and the Christian Faith repeatedly throughout the Compact. The Compact even begins with the words 'In the name of God, Amen.' They lived their lives according to the Word of God, and to them this was truly America, the Kingdom of Heaven.

By the early 19th century, the United States of America was a marvel and a wonder to all the world. Our God had placed us above all the other nations of the earth, just as He had promised to do if we were obedient (Deuteronomy 28: 1). We were so blessed of God and so full of strength, liberty and bounty that one almost had to come to Arnerica and see it to believe it. And that they did; by the hundreds.

One of those who curiously came over for a visit to see this great new wonder called the United States of America was a French historian and researcher named Alexis de Tocqueville. He came to see what made America 'tick'. In 1826, after he had been here for a tirne, he came to a conclusion. He said: 'I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbours and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile land and boundless prairies, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ceases to be good America will cease to be great.'

Back in those days, there were indeed many mighty men of God in the pulpits across America. Men like Jonathan Mayhew, Samuel West and countless others stirred their congregations on to holy living. They preached righteousness. They preached obedience to God. They preached the Kingdom of Heaven. The pulpits of America were, as de Tocqueville states from firsthand experience, aflame!

Sadly, I see a totally different America when I look around me and when I listen to the news on the radio. Lawlessness abounds in the land of the free and home of the brave. In fact, it becomes more and more evident if we take an honest look at life in America today that we are neither free nor brave. We are in bondage. A bondage of our own making. The bondage that results from turning away from God.

Matthew 24:12, in speaking of our present day, says: And because of the abundance of lawlessness (rebellion against God's Law), the love of many shall become cold.'

We have indeed become cold, and have lost our first love. We have become a wicked and adulterous generation, calling evil good and good evil. We accept all manner of wickedness in the name of tolerance, and are called 'un-christian' if we don't. Forgiveness of the wicked seems to be the principal concern, while the cries for the re-establishment of righteousness in the land are made out to be the ravings of an ogre.

We have brazenly turned our back on God and despised the inestimable treasure of His Holy Word. We have become a nation of infidels, reprobates and debauchees. We allow our unborn to be slaughtered without the blink of an eye, and talk about it as though it were merely some trivial political issue. We accept decadent sexual perverts as normal and castigate anyone who dares suggest that they are what they are; wicked

Our nation's Capitol is filled, even at it's highest levels, with sexual deviants, liars and felons; and nobody even seems to care.

More and more, the lovers of righteousness and those that love God's Holy Word are called 'hate mongers' and the wicked are smothered with sympathy and called simply 'human' or even 'good!'

Righteousness is more and more becoming a relic of the distant past. It is now an undesirable trait. It simply doesn't fit in to the communistic New World Order that everyone seems to want.

Just as the angry mob so long ago shouted 'Give us Barabbas' and 'CrucifyJesus', we have said 'Away with Christ', 'Away with His Word', 'Away with Christian ideals', and we have welcomed Barabbas with open arms! Just as in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, we have married strange wives and have begotten a whole new order, both in our society and in our churches, that is contrary to the Divine order! Just as the mighty Samson, we have laid our head in the lap of Delilah, and have been lulled to sleep by the constant subtle stroking of the world upon our mind. We have lost our vision and our strength.

America, look around. You have ceased being good; and whether you realize it or not, you are no longer great; not like you once were. And you have only yourselves to blame. De Tocqueville's prophetic words loom ominously overhead. Your demise is sure if you do not repent with a humble and contrite heart, and look unto the Rock whence ye are hewn for grace and mercy.

The God of Heaven is the God of your fathers as far back as the history of the faith goes. He is the Lord your God, and He is a jealous God. He will not tolerate this wanton rebellion and harlotry! Submit yourselves under the Mighty Hand of God! Forsake all of this foul wickedness! Turn back to your God ('In God We Trust!) and obey His Commandments and Statutes. Serve Hirn with your whole heart. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you! Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will, once again, lift us up!

For He hath said: 'If My people, which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My Face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.'(II Chronicles 7:14)

Amen, Lord! Let It be! May America be truly America, Kingdom of Heaven, once again!

ISRAELITES WERE IN AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS!

By

Pastor Alan Campbell



1992 marked the 500th Anniversary of Columbus' voyage of discovery from Spain to what was then known as the New World in 1492. No doubt there were those who who exploited the celebration of this event to emphasize the Hispanic as opposed to the Anglo-Saxon element in American Culture and society. However it is becoming an increasingly well known and documented fact, that not only were there North Europeans on the American continent long before the voyage of Columbus, but also that Phoenicians/ Israelites sailed from the Middle East through the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic to these shores centuries before the birth of Christ.

I became aware of these exciting facts of suppressed history during my first visit to the United States in 1984. While attending the AMERICA'S PROMISE MINISTRIES camp in New Mexico that year, I was able to visit the site at Los Lunas, near Albuquerque, and see the rock with the Ten Commandments carved in the ancient script.

My curiosity being aroused, I went on to study the books Saga America and America B.C. by Professor Barry Fell of Harvard University, also Cyrus Gordon's Before Columbus and They All Discovered America by Charles Boreland; from these books and various other research items the following facts emerge:

THE PHOENICIANS CAME TO AMERICA

The term Phoenician is a general one, which covers not only the seafaring peoples based in the ancient cities of Tyre and Sidon (on the coast of modern Lebanon) but also the sea-roving Israelite tribes of Dan, Asher and Zebulon, whose tribal territories in Canaan were adjacent to these city states on the East Mediterranean coastline. These peoples planted trading posts and mercantile colonies along the shores of north Africa and Spain, and they engaged in a flourishing tin trade in the southwest corner of the British Isles, their ships passing through the Straits of Gibralter, then known as the 'Pillars of Hercules'.

As long ago as 1913, author T. C. Johnston in his book Did The Phoenicians Discover America? claimed that the American continent was discovered and settled by Phoenicians and Hebrews who kept in contact with the Middle East for some three hundred years. He clairned that North America was the Biblical Ophir, visited by the fleets of King Solomon, and he outlined some twenty-six points of comparison between the civilization of the Eastern Mediterranean homelands of the Phoenicians and Hebrews and the Mayan, Inca and Aztec civilizations in the New World.

More research by Professor Barry Fells points to Punic or Phoenician inscriptions found in New England, Ohio and West Virginia, and also the discovery of coinage and trade goods in the United States which had come from the Phoenician city of Carthage in North Africa.

THE ANCIENT CELTS CAME TO AMERICA

The name Celts was the designation given to those peoples who emerged from the same geographical location where the so called 'Lost Tribes of Israel' had disappeared from at an earlier stage of world history. These people migrated across Europe to settle in the British Isles and the coasts of France and Spain. They were a well organized sea power at the time when Julius Caesar and his Roman legions invaded Britain in 55 B.C.; and he, in fact, makes reference to their ocean-going vessels. Professor Fell has now identified the megalithic structures at Mystery Hill, New Hampshire as a type of temple observatory dedicated to the ancient Celtic sun-god Bel (it was for worshipping this same Baal that their Israelite ancestors had been cast out of Palestine). He claims that other sites dedicated to this same deity and to other Celtic gods and goddesses have been located in Vermont, together with Celtic burial urns and other artifacts.

THE IRISH AND WELSH WERE IN AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS

It has been rightly said that when the Norsemen/Scandinavians arrived in North America in the Tenth Century, they found that the Irish had got there before them. Although sceptics have ridiculed the legends of the Irish monk Brendan and his journey to America in a hide-covered boat known as a coracle, yet a reconstruction of the voyage in recent times has demonstrated that the route described in the legends from Ireland to Newfoundland, and on to Florida by way of the Bahamas is indeed accurate. It also seems likely that Culdees from the ancient Celtic Church in Ireland, fleeing the sea raids of the still pagan Vikings, followed Brendan's route, seeking refuge first in Iceland, then Greenland, Newfoundland and finally, deep into North America, where they disappear, perhaps giving rise to the traditions common to the Aztecs, lncas and Mayas, of visits by bearded white men.

Legends and traditions also persist that a Welsh Prince named Madog and his followers, fleeing from violence and bloodshed in Wales, escaped by ship and, using ancient Celtic maps and charts, crossed the Atlantic and landed on American soil at Mobile Bay in 1170 A.D.. Moving inland, they built fortified settlements in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, giving rise to later claims of discovery of 'Welsh Indians' between the mid 1500's and early 1800's. George Catlin believed that he had traced the descendants of these Welsh settlers among the Mandan Indians, many of whom were blue-eyed and whose language contained elements of Welsh.

THE SCANDINAVIANS PRECEDED COLUMBUS BY 500 YEARS

Less open to question or dispute than any of the other groups I have mentioned, is the coming of the Norse or Scandinavian explorers and settlers whose activities in North America lasted from before 1000 A.D. to the late 1300's. The names which immediately spring to mind are those of Bjarni Herjulfon, Eric the Red and his son Leif Ericsson. These Viking settlers travelled from Greenland to New England, which Leif called Vinland because of the abundance of wild grapes found there; at least one building, the Newport Church Tower, still stands as evidence of these pre-Columbian Norse settlements.

CONCLUSION

In light of these few brief facts which I have outlined, it is now obvious that the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did indeed 'spread abroad to the West' (Genesis 28:14) as Almighty God had promised. They had in fact discovered, traded with, and even for a time made settlements in North America, long before Columbus reached the West Indies in 1492.

By all means let us pay tribute to the achievements Columbus made, but let us as Christian Israelites do our best to bring before our people the increasing evidence of the pre-Columbian history of America, which clearly shows God's Covenant people staking claim to their New Promised Land from the very earliest times.

AMERICA IS MANASSEH

By

John Lovell



THE mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceedingly sure. God gave Israel a world commission down through the ages, to break every yoke and lift every burden. But the Arnerican or the United States section of Israel broke this law of God by placing yokes on negro men and women and making them slaves. With what result?

When the tribe of Manasseh, USA., were in Canaan, they were in two parts, as divided by Joshua: east of the Jordan and west of the Jordan. It is coincident that, when they were in America, 2500 years later, the Mason-Dixon line divided them again into two parts, North and South.

God raised up Moses to unite and lead the united tribes of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. So again He raised up Abraham Lincoln, man of God, born of Puritan stock from Britain, the great leader of Manasseh to establish peace between the two sections.


When the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, were playing around the public square and Temple of On in the Egyptian city of Memphis they saw the great Pyramid. In the public square in front of the temple stood two obelisks - and there are no other two in the world, like them today. Does it not seem strange that one of these obelisks, several thousand years later, should find its way from Egypt to America; and should be set up in our largest city? This Egyptian obelisk is of rose-red granite and was presented to the City of New York by Ishmael, Khedive of Egypt, in 1877. It was erected in Central Park in 1881, where it stands today, pointing skyward as a wayrnark to all America of the place of origin of our forefather Manasseh, and the starting place of our world-wide wanderings since we left Egypt under Moses. England has the other obelisk.

When America won her Independence they put on their Great Seal the great Pyramid of Gizeh with its capstone missing. This seal (see below) was adopted by Congress June 20, 1782. But Manasseh means 'forgetfulness' and the seal was not used until recently.

Our Pilgrim Forefathers were a God-fearing body of men. 'They entered into covenant to walk with God and with one another, in the enjoyment of the Ordinances of God,' according to the Word of God. But finding by experience they could not peaceably enjoy their own liberty in their native country they came to America.

The 'Mayflower' had a rough passage, encountering many gales, but they made land November 9-16, 1620, at Cape Cod. The crew refused to sail down the coast in the teeth of the gales, and the Pilgrims had to land and stay in Massachusetts though their patent was only for Virginia. Had they landed on any other section of the coast than where they did, they could not have survived the winter and the Indians. A plague had struck this section of country two years before and wiped out the Indians, but left in a cave some Indian corn, which the Pilgrims used for seed for the season 1621, as they brought none from England.

In 1621 they secured a patent, granted by the British Council, for New England (the new bull or Engle land). Israel was to settle the coasts and drive the heathen before them. You can see that the heathen were driven out by the plague and the way made possible for them to build homes and become installed peacefully.

As early as 1623 these English-men kept days for fasting, humiliation, and prayer and in 1637 passed an ordinance: 'That it be in the power of the governor to command solemn days of humiliation and prayer,' and their American descendants have eaten the November turkey and cranberry, with or without humiliation and prayer and in many cases have forgotten what their predecessors knew in their souls, namely, that God had been and still was looking after them and 'prospering their undertakings,' as our Great Seal of State with its all-seeing eye declares.

Our Pilgrim forefathers kept the Sabbath as did the British from whom they sprang and the Anglo-Saxons are the nations, and the only nations, who do keep it, by the law of the land as well as by observance of doing no work, etc. At the Paris Exposition in 1889 every nation had their exhibits wide open on the Sabbath but Great Britain and the United States. They closed their sections each Saturday and did not open them until Monday morning.

Israel was to keep the Sabbaths throughout Israel's generations and 'twas a sign between Him and us as to who we are. Every Sabbath of the year the Protestant Episcopal Churches in America repeat frorn their prayer-book the Benediction or Jubilate Deo.

Luke 1:68-75: 'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people; And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us: in the house of his servant, David; As he spake by the mouth of His Holy Prophets: which have been since the world began; That we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us. To perform the mercy promised to our forefathers: and to remember his covenant; To perform the oath which he sware to our forefathers: Abraham; that he would give us; That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies: might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him: all the days of our life.'

If this Book of Common Prayer means what it says - why say we will be saved from all our enemies, which was promised only to Israel - if we are not Israel?

Who have been the people to carry the light, God's laws and commandments and light to the Gentiles, and to the ends of the earth? God's servants, Israel, were to do it. The Anglo-Saxons alone have done it, therefore the Anglo-Saxons are Israel. They have a divine commission and the specifications are interwoven throughout both the Old and New Testaments, that the wise who search the Scriptures may understand. Had the Anglo-Saxons made the job of searching the Scriptures as they were instructed to do, they would be wise on how to deal with all the problems that now afflict the world.

America's stand will be decisive in more ways than one. It is up to us! We have the wealth of the mine, and the forest, the sea, and the fertile earth at our command and we will have to give account of our stewardship; because God has given us His plan to work to, which covers all the details we would require during our life time. It shows how we are to invest and how to spend the talents - golden talents - He put in our way.

The kingdom will be right here on earth. In that day how many of us will wish we had spent the time in clothing the naked and feeding the poor - while our profiteers are getting rich on starving the people?

The church can see the prophecies about Judah and the Jew coming true , but when you ask them, about the Kingdom, Israel, who were ten times as many, where they are, they say, 'Israel is God's church!' Has God's church been the Creator's battle-axe and weapons of war with which He was to smash nations? If so, what nations has the church smashed? Does the church possess the 'gate of his enemies?' If so, what gate? What enemy and where? Has God's church become a nation, a great nation, and a company of nations?

The church sees the Cross of Christ but fails to see that He left His Kingdom on earth to His ten servants, the Ten Tribes of Israel, 'my chosen,' 'my dispersed,' 'my outcasts,' 'my people Israel,' who were to 'occupy' until He comes as foretold by Jesus in Luke 19:11-13.

Therefore, America, let us wake up to our identity, mission, purpose and destiny; return to God's Law and acknowledge Him as our King.

DID THE VIKINGS NAME AMERICA?

By

Dick Wicken

A NUMBER of theories regarding the origin of the name 'America' have been advanced, but none have been proved true.

First, and most generally accepted, is that the name 'America' is derived from the first name of Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian map maker and self-promoter who explored the seacoasts of North America in the decade following Christopher Columbus' 'discovery' of the New World for her most Catholic Majesty, Isabella of Spain.

However, there has been no substantiation that this derivation of the name 'America' is correct: and there is other evidence indicating that Amerigo Vespucci was not above turning to personal advantage an odd coincidence of phonetics in the sound of his first name and a composite word of ancient Norse invention, evidently in very current use by the North Atlantic sailing fraternity from about the year 1000 until well past the times of Columbus, Cabot and Vespucci.

The claim that the name of the entire continent, North and South, was derived from a given name is odd in itself, for common practice at the time would indicate using a man's family name to derive an identity for a locality.

Secondly, and less generally accepted, is a theory emanating from Bristol, England, submitting that the name 'America' was derived from name of one Richard Ameryke, a tax collector for King Henry VII as well as the city's leading lumber merchant. Ameryke was an enthusiastic supporter and financial backer of the Italian navigator, John Cabot. Under letters-patent from Henry VII, dated 5 March 1496, Cabot set sail from Bristol in 1497, accompanied by his three sons.

On 24 June 1497 he sighted Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia, thus 'discovering' the mainland of North America - about 600 years after the Vikings had done so.

There is no more factual substantiation of the Bristol theory of the origin of the name 'America' than the highly questionable claims of Amerigo Vespucci.

Thirdly, the theory has been advanced that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of 'Amairick'.

Since these unproved - and quite possibly, unprovable - claims and theories are being advanced and accepted, it seems only right to submit a fourth unproven, equally logical and far more possible theory of the origin of the name 'America'.

Therefore, it is herewith submitted that the word 'America' is simply a phonetic derivation of an ancient Norse compound word 'omme-rike'. In its simplest translation from the largely four-letter language of the Viking discoverers of the New World, it means 'the remotest land'. The various parts of the New World were referred to in the Icelandic Sagas as Helluland (Stoneland), Markland (Woodland) and Vineland (Wineland).'Omrne-rike'would have been the logical name to apply to the great land mass as a whole.

In support of this submission the following facts are listed for consideration:

1. The long-used and familiar name occurring in classic writings, 'Ultima Thule,' designating a mysterious distant land. The meaning of these two words is singularly interesting in itself. Ultima means 'the end,' 'remotest,' and Thule is derived from, not Latin, but from the old Norse word 'Thyle,' which means to 'speak'. It is safe to assume that when the Norse word meaning speech is used, the speech being referred to is Norse. The simplest translation of 'Ultima Thule' is 'the farthest out land where Norse is spoken'. The obvious conclusion is simply that 'Ultima Thyle' means what it says.

2. The analysis of the word in question, 'America,' as to its possible meaning in old Norse, the language of the Vikings, still current in a slightly changed form in Iceland and in isolated parts of Norway. In old Norse, the word 'America' strongly suggests two separate words, 'omme' and 'rike'. 'Omme' means 'over,' 'out,' 'out there,' 'the end,' 'final,' 'furthest out,' 'most remote,' 'very last,' or 'ultimate'.

'Rike' appears in lively existence today both in contemporary Norse, and its use by the Vikings to designate large land masses is amply attested to today in the names of places in the areas of Viking operations. Sometimes the word is slightly modified, but its presence is as easily recognized as its meaning. In old Norse it is pronounced RICA as in America, it is spelled in a number of ways, but always pronounced the same: rige, rega, rike, rikja, reykja. In German it appears as 'reich'. It always means the same thing: country, land, kingdom empire. Examples of the use of this ancient Norse word can be found in the following:

Norege, pronounced nor-reeg-eh, meaning Norway.

Sverige, pronounced sver-reeg-eh, meaning Sweden.

Frankrike, pronounced frankr-reeg-eh, meaning France.

Osterike, pronounced oste-reeg-eh, meaning Austria.

The above should be sufficient to prove that it was cornmon practice for Vikings to use this word to designate countries.

Combined, the old Norse words 'omme' and 'rike' would be pronounced 'Oh-ma-reeg-eh' - virtually identical to 'America'- and would translate into an almost identical meaning with the oft repeated classic term 'Ultirna Thule (Thyle)' when one considers that Norse was a spoken, not a written, tongue, and that Latin was the only written language of the time; additional inferences are obvious.

On one of Verrazzano's maps, the coast of New England is oddly named 'Norumbega'. Naturally, one cannot expect a 'segener' like Verrazzano to pronounce Norse words correctly, much less spell or understand them. Basic study on the possible Norse origin of the word 'Norumbega,' bastardized by an ignorant Latin, suggests much support for the idea advanced: 'Norum' is nothing else than the Norse word 'naerom,' meaning 'near under' (and contains the stem word 'om' from 'omme') and 'bega' is merely a misspelled and mispronounced Italian version of the Norse word 'rege' or 'rike'. I believe it is obvious that 'Norumbega' is an Italianized version of the Norse word 'Naerom-rega,' 'Naeromrike,' or, possibly, 'Naerom-vikja' which would translate into the meaning of 'the near-under regions' or 'the near-under-harbour'. But its real meaning is even clearer: It is only a slightly modified version of 'omme-rike'.

3. Finn Magnussen has established that Columbus did visit Iceland at least once in 1477, fifteen years before undertaking his first voyage to the New World. He could have easily heard of Ommerike and could even have visited there in a Norse ship.

4. Previous to the great plague, Iceland and Greenland - and the lands beyond - are believed to have supported a population numbering into the hundreds of thousands. One of the major ports doing business in this area was Bristol, England. It was the home base for John Cabot and source of the Bristol Theory of the origin of the name 'America'. The first White man to see America was Bjarne Herulfssen, wind-blown upon it while bringing a cargo of wood (reader please make note of the cargo) from Norway to Iceland, 600 miles across open seas. It is rather naive to assume that what happened to Bjame Herulfssen did not happen to others, Bristol traders as well as Norsemen. It is, I believe, quite safe to assume that Bristol ships had sailed the Ommerike coast long before John Cabot - if only by accident ~ and referred to the place by its Norse name.

5. The key to the main reason that the Icelanders and Greenland Norse would never have abandoned contact with Ommerike can be found in the cargo of Bjarne Herulfssen's ship. As there are no forests on either Iceland or Greenland and wood was needed to sustain life (both to keep warm in the rigorous winter and as building material for shelter for humans and livestock as well as for building and repairing ships), a source of supply of lumber had to be maintained. It had to come either from Europe or Ommerike. Europe meant a six hundred mile voyage across the open seas, with plenty of chance of disaster from the elements, desertion of the crews on arrival and payment of some kind to secure lumber; while a voyage to Ommerike meant a two hundred and fifty mile open sea voyage from Iceland to Greenland with landfall almost certain, another two hundred and fifty miles to certain landfall on the Ommerike coast, and from there on a cold but relatively safe coastal voyage to endless forests that were free for the taking - with little chance that the crew would desert or refuse to return to Iceland.

Any present Icelander, given a similar choice of voyages, would set his sails for Ommerike, not Europe.

6. Vatican records in Rome are reported to establish that a Bishop Erie Gnuptson (probably Knutssen), Bishop of Greenland and neighbouring regions, arrived in Ommerike in the last year of Pope Pashal II, stayed for at least one year and then returned to Rome via Greenland and Iceland. His ministry is said to have included seventeen parishes. There is also a reported Norwegian record granting the King's authority to one George Knutsen to recruit the sons of leading Norwegian families to go to the lands beyond Greenland to search out and induce to return to the fold those colonists that had drifted off to live with the natives.

7. The Vatican could well have had very real practical reasons to be reluctant to place too great an importance to the Norse adventures in the New World or to publicize them. The Church's authority always diminished in direct proportion to the northward distance from Rome. The grip on the countries around the Norwegian sea was always precarious, and any real hold in Iceland or Greenland was virtually non-existent.

Undoubtedly it seemed - and proved to be - to the Vatican's advantage that the discovery and all ensuing 'rights' to the New World be credited to the enterprise and operation of nations ruled by devout Christians.

The. name, of this wondrous land, Ommerike, was so well established, so totally known and accepted, such common knowledge that none of the Italian navigators, not Cabot, Vespucci or even Columbus himself, ever thought of calling the place by any other name but the already long established Ommerike - America.

The political expedients employed in this great delusion worked very well indeed, for both the nations of Spain and Portugal and for the Catholic Church. However, the days of such reasoning and shenanigans are long past and no reason remains, except indifference, to continue to deny that some place in forgotten archives of the Vatican exist maps and written reports of Bishop Erie Knutssen and many others who visited the New World long before Columbus, voyaging over the Icelandic-Greenland route, and perhaps even as far as the islands of the Gulf of Mexico or even Mexico itself. Bit by bit, in unexpected ways, the truth of the discovery of the New World surfaces, the last example of which is the authenticated Yale University Vinland map.

There will be many more such scholastic breakthroughs and it is safe to predict that in some future rediscovered map or written report predating both the Italian Arnerigo Vespucci and the Englishman Richard Ameryke, a name for the new lands will appear very close to 'Ommerike'. As stated before, these submissions are mere theories, with no more substantiation than the theories of other origins of the name ''America'. Proof of them must be left to better and more thorough scholars than the writer. But the meaning of the word 'omme-rike' in ancient Norse is sound, and should provide a new and different source to explore in searching out and authenticating a page of human history replete with all the ingredients of enchantment and subterfuge of a mystery novel.

MANASSEH - THE DOUBLE-PORTION INHERITOR

By

R. J. H. Allen

(Author of Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright, 1902)



The Case Stated

In our former works we have shown that as descendants of Joseph, son of Jacob, the people of these United States of America have for a portion of their inheritance a part in the oath-bound covenant made by Jehovah with Abraham. The lawful heir to the covenant promises and blessings which belonged distinctively to the inheritor of the family birthright must necessarily be a first-born. Joseph fulfilled this condition since he was the firstborn son of Jacob, and Rachel and because of the delinquency of Reuben (the first-born of Jacob, and Leah) inherited the family birthright. Just here it is important to state that the words first-born, birthright, first fruits, and firstling are translated from the same original Hebrew word and the firstling of the herd or flock (that which openeth the matrix among cattle, sheep, horses, etc.) belonged to the Lord as well as the first fruits of the harvest, of vineyard, and field.

By the law of primogeniture the first-born son was the lawful inheritor of certain properties, blessings, and indisputable rights, of which he could not be deprived except by sale, by the commission of crime, or by death. Esau sold his birthright; that is, he sold that which was his by right of birth as the firstborn or birthright son of lsaac and Rebeccah; Reuben the first-born of Jacob and Leah forfeited his birthright by the commission of crime; but Joseph, the first-born of Jacob and Rachel neither sold nor forfeited his birthright. Consequently it is written,'But the birthright was Joseph's'

In the King James version (I Chron. 5:2) the word was is in italics which shows it is interpolated by the translators for the omitted verb, but from the context, the historic facts, and also the prophecies concerning the birthright, we know that the interpolated word should be in the present tense and not in the past, as used in the authorized version. Substituting then is for was and comes for the interpolated word came we have the following: 'He [ Reuben ] was the first-born of Israel; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed [See Gen. 35:22], his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph, the son of lsrael.. and the genealogy [of Reuben] is not to be reckoned after the birthright. For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him comes the chief ruler [Margin, 'or prince']; but the birthright is Joseph's.' Because Judah is the progenitor of the royal line, he must also be the racial father of the Messiah. It is therefore recorded in the New Testament.. 'Our Lord sprang out of Juda.'

As we are now dealing especially with the birthright, we must call attention to the fact that we have both the statement that the birthright of Reuben was given to the sons of Joseph and that the birthright is Joseph's. While this fact is never again restated in these same words, the Scriptures, both in history and in the prophecies, when referring to the national and racial birthright facts pertaining to Israel, use either the name of Joseph alone, or the name of one or both of his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. For example, we find in Genesis 48:20 the following: 'In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh,' and again in Deuteronomy 33:16, 17: 'Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph ... His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim and they are the thousands of Manasseh.'

Reference is again made to Ephraim and Manasseh. seven hundred and twenty-five years after this last quoted prophecy was written, more than two hundred years after the division of the seed of Jacob-lsrael into two kingdoms, and five years before the ten tribes were carried out of their land - Samaria - by Shalmaneser the King of Assyria into the head waters of the Euphrates. At this time, during the first year of the reign of Hezekiah, after he had destroyed the altars of idolatry in Judea, it is written that Hezekiah, sent letters to Judah 'and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem {the capital of Judah} to keep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel' (2 Chron. 30: 1). Judah here stands, as it ever does, as the representative name of the Jews, while the names of Ephraim and Manasseh, the joint holders of the national birthright of the Abrahamic race, stand for the ten tribes - the kingdom of Israel.

Concerning these two birthright sons, it is further written (Joshua 17:14, 17): 'And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as the Lord hath blessed me hitherto? And Joshua spake unto the house of Joseph even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, Thou are a great people, and hast great power: thou shalt not have one lot only.'

It is remarkable that the word 'great' as herein used in relation to the two tribes of the birthright house, is never used in holy writ concerning any of the other tribes of Israel; that Ephraim is universally denominated 'Great Britain,' and that to-day Manasseh, the United States of America is now spoken of among the nations of the world as 'A great people,' and 'A great nation.'

The names Ephraim and Manasseh are used interchangeably with the name Israel, all Israel, the kingdom of Israel, etc., because they as the birthright holders are to develop into the multiplicity of seed which was promised to Abraham in the oath-bound covenant and when the division into two kingdoms took place the birthright house was one of these kingdoms and the royal line of Judah the other. Thus, the two houses are dealt with separately in the history and prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures. So much for the use of the two names of the birthright sons of Joseph as the representatives of the ten tribes or the birthright nation.

The following passage illustrates the use of the name of one of the birthright sons of Joseph 'I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born [birthright]. Hear the word of the lord, O ye nations [the nations of Israel], and declare it in the isles afar off [where the birthright house of Israel are] and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob'(Jer. 3:9-11). Notice in this quotation that the names Israel, Ephraim and Jacob are used as a synonym of the kingdom or house of Israel (of which Judah is in no sense a part). But the same writer in the same chapter continues: 'I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself, thus: Thou [God] hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock, [insignia of the house of Joseph-Israel] unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me and I shall be turned [back to God]; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after thatI was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh [like Jacob's and as with him this was the symbol of human submission to the divine.].'

In some cases the name Joseph represents the ten tribes in contradistinction to Judah: for example, 'I will strengthen the house of Judah and I will save the house of Joseph and I will bring them again to place them ... And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man'(Zech.10:6, 7). Here we find that these names of the birthright family are used as representative names of the Israel of history and prophecy. It is the failure of Biblical teachers and students to note this fact which has caused both the Christian and the secular world to connect the name Israel exclusively with the Jews and to consider only the Jews as the Israel of history and prophecy, and to ignore Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh as having a separate and distinctive national and racial importance independent of the Jews - of Jewish Israel.

Elsewhere we have dealt more exhaustively with these two separate and separated peoples. Now it is our purpose to deal with Manasseh, not only joint heir in the national birthright with his brother, but also sole heir to the birthright which came to him as Joseph's first-born. As such he has inherited rights, blessings and promises, which in no sense are shared by his brother, Ephraim, who has been placed before him only in their joint inheritance of the national birthright of the Abrahamic covenant.

For the benefit of those who are not familiar with our other writings in which we have explained, although briefly, that Manasseh has a double inheritance, we will herein give Biblical proofs that as the firstborn he holds the birthright to those blessings, promises, and heritages which belonged to his father, Joseph. Before dying Jacob, the then indisputable holder of the national birthright transferred the Abrahamic racial birthright to the family of Joseph through his two sons, as recorded in Genesis 48:15-18: 'And he blessed Joseph and said, God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name (Israel) be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim it displeased him [Margin: 'was evil in his eyes]: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so my father: for this is the firstborn' We have previously dealt so fully with the national birthright, which was given to these two 'lads' that we have used here only as much of the Scripture as was necessary to bring out the fact that Manasseh is not only a joint inheritor of the Abrahamic birthright but that he is also Joseph's firstborn, inheritor of the family birthright, and, like his father, he has a double-portion. One portion of this he inherited as his father's first-born and the other was divinely bestowed. His double-portion came to him as to his father, i.e., one part by the natural law of primogeniture and one part from the God of his fathers, the God of Israel. Both portions so far as Manasseh. is concerned, are indicated in the above quotation, first when he is made joint heir in the racial birthright with his brother Ephraim and secondly when he is spoken of as the first-born of Joseph.

Both the double-portion of Joseph and that of Manasseh. seem to have a double significance, an earthly and a heavenly or a carnal and a spiritual. For there are some things in the life of Joseph which were typical of those of our Lord. Joseph was the second first-born in the house of his father. Christ Jesus the second Adam is the 'first born among many brethren' (Rom. 8:29), but both he and Joseph were the first-born of their mother. Christ is the 'firstborn of every creature' (Col. 1: 15), Joseph is the firstborn, the birthright holder of God's chosen race. Joseph was persecuted by his brethren, so was the Lord Jesus. Joseph was sold by his brethren, so was our Lord. Joseph's brethren were brought into deep sorrow because of their treatment of him, the brethren of Jesus must yet mourn in great bitterness for him whom they pierced. Joseph saved his people from famine, - from physical death. Our Lord's name was called Jesus 'for he shall save his people from their sins' (Matt.1:21) - from death. Joseph gave his brethren gifts of corn and provision and gold. Jesus gives his brethren the bread of life and gold tried in the fire. Finally there came a time when the brethren of Joseph were terrified at the revelation of himself to them, but it ended in peace and joy, and there will come a time when the Redeemer of Judah will be revealed to them, and they too will be terrified, but all will end with peace and joy.

Again, Joseph ascended to the rulership of Egypt at the time when he was the greatest man in all Egypt except the king on his throne. At this time he was ruler over all his brethren - his nation. This rulership we read, was previously foretold in his God-given, stellar dream, in which typically, his father, mother and brethren were made to bow down to him. Christ also the rejected shall yet rule over the world, of which Egypt was a type. At this time the individual house of Joseph shall be as its progenitor was, next to the throne, with the one on the throne alone superior in authority to that of the exalted house of Joseph.

Furthermore, while so far as the national birthright of Israel is concerned, Ephraim was set before Manasseh, that is, at the transfer of the national birthright the first was made last and the last was made first, yet when it was declared that the seed of Ephraim should be greater than the seed of Manasseh, there is not the slightest hint that the greatness thereof should be along any other line or in any other possible sense, than in the one thing involved, i.e., great in number - in multiplicity - the ten thousands of Ephraim being compared with the thousands of Manasseh. Although Manasseh was an equal heir with Ephraim in the national birthright there is not the slightest intimation that that in any sense lessened or invalidated the glory, exaltation or blessedness of the individual birthright held by Manasseh as his father's inheritor, nor that that honour should in any sense be shared by his brother Ephraim. Ephraim's honours were purely national, those of Manasseh were both national and ancestral. Ephraim's portion was single, Manasseh's double, one by inheritance and the other divinely bestowed.

There is in the divine economy a law of reversal in which the first became last and the last first. Ishmael was Abraham's first son, Isaac was his last, but by this law of reversal Ishmael the first became last and Isaac the last became first. Esau the first-born of twins sold his birthright and became the last, while Jacob the last-born of these first-borns became the first. Reuben also was the first-born of Jacob and Leah, of whom Jacob said, 'Thou art my might, the beginning of my strength, the excellency of my dignity and power.' But Reuben the first first-born went down and Joseph the last first-born of Jacob (but the first-born of his first love), was placed first and made the inheritor of the national and racial birthright. Also in Joseph"s case there is a double reversal, for his mother Rachel was the first love of Jacob, but as a wife came last, and for whom he served the first seven years, but whom he did not get until he had served another seven years. This double reversal may be the foundation or basic law for Joseph's double-portion.

There is also a parallel or witnessing truth to this first becoming last and its consequent law of reversal, in the statement: 'First that which is natural and afterward that which is spiritual.' Ishmael was wholly natural, - of the flesh only - and was the result of an attempt in the flesh on the part of Sarah and Abraham to bring about that which God had promised to accomplish supernaturally, but Isaac was the child of promise - the spiritual. Esau was wholly natural, earthly, carnal, but Jacob who at first was also all that Esau was, became Israel, i.e., the one who as a prince had prevailed with God - the spiritual. Reuben also, corrupted himself, dishonoured his father's bed, and lost the opportunity to reach his possible best. Joseph the reverse of all this, resisted all temptation to be corrupted, loved and forgave his enemies and persecutors, was faithful even in prison, and said to his repenting brethren 'Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.' Reuben the first was natural, Joseph who afterward succeeded him was spiritual.

All of these were but the foreshadowing of the two, double-portions of the house of Joseph. The first double-portion was the giving of the national and racial birthright to 'the two sons of Joseph' instead of to but one. The second double-portion was the inheritance of both the national and family birthrights by the first-born of the family of Joseph-Manasseh.

Now, the very fact that Manasseh was the first-born of Joseph and was made last in the national birthright is a prophecy that in the full fruition of his family birthright he shall yet be placed in his rightful place as first - not first in regard to the greatest number of posterity, of the multiplicity of seed, or of becoming the company of nations - no, that is forever settled upon Ephraim. According to the last census in 1902,Great Britain had over four hundred million subjects in her company of nations, while the population of the United States of America had only one hundred and five million. In regard to number it must ever be the ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh. But that in which Manasseh is due to become first is in the one thing which made his father first - his spirituality. Because of that he was first in power, influence, ideals, and God-blessedness in the land of Egypt, and for that reason it is written: 'And the Lord prospered everything that Joseph did.'

Manasseh is now coming into his own as the rightful first-born of his family as the one exalted, righteous, representative nation of his godly father who in the national birthright was made last that, according to the law of divine reversal, he might be made first. Hence the descendants of Joseph through his first-born son, who inherited the birthright shall be recognized ethically as leading the world, before whom his national brethren shall bow down, as their progenitors did before his father when he sat on the throne of Egypt.

Again, Manasseh was placed last in his tribal relations to the race that by the very law of reversal he might eventually be recognized as the one, single, individual first-born tribe; and, as such, take his place as first in moral influence and power among his brother nations. Hence the thirteenth tribe as the last becomes the first, as a world-wide power in the propagation of lofty ideals, of questions of right and wrong, of justice and righteousness, as the spokesman for God, to whom the world gives heed, as also it did to Joseph in Egypt.

'But,' questions one,'how is it that Manasseh having been made the last can now rise to the first place, since it is true that neither lshmael, Esau, nor Reuben did or could rise again to the first after having once been made last?' Our reply to this query is, that in each of these cases there was only one portion - only one birthright, while in the case of Manasseh there was the double-portion - the double birthright, and since his birthright was unforfeited and unsold he was the unimpeachable heir of his father's house, and though he was placed last in the national birthright, it is his due, his inalienable right; now to rise to the fulness of the birthright which is his as his father's first-born, which cannot be affected by the interest in the national birthright shared by his younger brother. Thus there is a reversal to the first order in the case of Manasseh which was not possible in the previous cases. Here is where the double-portion counts, the first not only becoming last but that same last becomes first. And since the inheritance which came first to this double birthright holder was purely natural, we may expect him in fulness of the later inheritance to find in connection with those natural things, by that other law of reversal, the better things, the greater things, the things that are purely spiritual.

Vinland Map of America no forgery, expert says

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By John AcherPosted 2009/07/17 at 12:09 pm EDT
COPENHAGEN, July 17, 2009 (Reuters) — The 15th century Vinland Map, the first known map to show part of America before explorer Christopher Columbus landed on the continent, is almost certainly genuine, a Danish expert said Friday.


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Controversy has swirled around the map since it came to light in the 1950s, many scholars suspecting it was a hoax meant to prove that Vikings were the first Europeans to land in North America -- a claim confirmed by a 1960 archaeological find.

Doubts about the map lingered even after the use of carbon dating as a way of establishing the age of an object.

"All the tests that we have done over the past five years -- on the materials and other aspects -- do not show any signs of forgery," Rene Larsen, rector of the School of Conservation under the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, told Reuters.

He presented his team's findings at an international cartographers' conference in the Danish capital Friday.

The map shows both Greenland and a western Atlantic island "Vinilanda Insula," the Vinland of the Icelandic sagas, now linked by scholars to Newfoundland where Norsemen under Leif Eriksson settled around AD 1000.

Larsen said his team carried out studies of the ink, writing, wormholes and parchment of the map, which is housed at Yale University in the United States.

He said wormholes, caused by wood beetles, were consistent with wormholes in the books with which the map was bound.

He said claims the ink was too recent because it contained a substance called anatase titanium dioxide could be rejected because medieval maps have been found with the same substance, which probably came from sand used to dry wet ink.

American scholars have carbon dated the map to about 1440, about 50 years before Columbus "discovered" the New World in 1492. Scholars believe it was produced for a 1440 church council at Basel, Switzerland.

The Vinland Map is not a "Viking map" and does not alter the historical understanding of who first sailed to North America. But if it is genuine, it shows that the New World was known not only to Norsemen but also to other Europeans at least half a century before Columbus's voyage.

It was bought from a Swiss dealer by an American after the British Museum turned it down in 1957.

It was subsequently bought for Yale University by a wealthy Yale alumnus, Paul Mellon, and published with fanfare in 1965.

The lack of a provenance has caused much of the controversy. Where the map came from and how it came into the hands of the Swiss dealer after World War Two remain a mystery.

MANASSEH AND THE UNITED STATES


By

Revd Joseph Wild, P.P


Extracts from a pamphlet published by the Reverend Joseph Wild in 1882. This is one of the most famous
pieces published by the British-Israel movement. We reprint it here for your reading enjoyment.


NO one interested in the course of human events can reasonably afford to be indifferent of the history of the United States, for in the future history of the world, this country has to play a prominent and successful part ... For the past century the population has been doubled every twenty five years: ... The tyrannies and intolerance of the past make us blush for our sires, because their opportunities were so grand and the results so feeble



FOR WHOM DID GOD INTEND THIS COUNTRY?



and what is the Divine ideal belonging to it? In answering these two questions we will need to go back to the beginning of our race, not simply to the Pilgrims and Puritans, but back still, for these folks were Pilgrims and Puritans before they came to this country.
These people had their own ideas very distinctly defined politically, socially, and religiously, and they were to the rest of England as offensive as their ideas were distinct. But whence came their ideas, and how came they to be distinct? Divine adaptation reigns through all known creation. ... Primary differences respond to nature and Providence, and in this they make known to us the intentions [of the] Creator, both through man and beast.

The Pilgrims and Puritans stand for a peculiar character, a regular sui generis, a character who in form and habit, in speech and manners, and in ideals and practice, is in some degree in contrast with the rest of mankind. But again we ask, how came he by
these distinct traits? ... “God speaks once, yea, twice, and man perceiveth it not”. The great and mighty rivers have their rise and origin far back inland... A knowledge of the beginning enables us to analyse the waters, forecast the course, and see the end. So a knowledge of



OUR ORIGIN



will enable us to judge more correctly of our work and place among the nations. A true conception of the beginning will give us a prospective view of our destiny and end.

Let us travel back ... to the place of our birth back some 3,500 years ... About this time Egypt was great and prosperous, well versed in astronomy, agriculture, architecture, and sociology. There are two kings on the same throne Pharaoh and Joseph. This Joseph had risen to power and honour from the humble position of a slave. He was the eleventh son of the Hebrew Patriarch Jacob, and the firstborn of Rachel, his beloved wife.

His father and brethren were sojourning with him at this time. He had married into the priestly family of Potiphera, by taking for his wife, Asenath. Joseph was known in Egypt by the name of Zaphnath-paaneah, which meant the revealer of secrets. Of his children, two sons are brought to special notice. Let us now repair to the death-bed of the venerable Patriarch Jacob, and listen to the benedictions given and prophecies uttered. He first recounts to Joseph how God had appeared to him at a place called Luz, and how and what the Almighty had promised to him and his seed after him.

Then he says, “Thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee in Egypt are mine: as Reuben and Simeon, they are mine”. These two grandsons the old Patriarch adopted, making them joint-heirs with his own sons. It is very important that we thoroughly understand the nature of this will, what it contains as to time, men, and things, and what the distinction was with respect to Ephraim and Manasseh.
Having ascertained this, we must then follow in



THE FOOTSTEPS OF EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH



on the line of history relative thereto, to see if the said will has been executed and fulfilled. The whole will was entailed, even to the end of time, in the bounds of the tribe, it was tribable in its clauses - that is, what was said to each of the twelve sons as well as to Ephraim and Manassch was to descend to the Tribe, and belong to the Tribe, and be characteristic of the Tribe. This is even true of the children of the concubines of Jacob

Take for an illustration the case of Ishmael, the brother of Isaac, and son of Abraham; indeed the first-born of Abraham, and we find that the Angel of the Lord said concerning him: “And he shall be a wild man; his hand will he against every man, and every man’s hand against him and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren” (GENESIS 16:12). Now it will
be apparent to all that such a prediction was tribal and national. It is not only Ishmael that will be wild and free, but that his descendants will be. Ishmael will relive and reappear in his seed after him. And will one conversant at all with history deny that these predictions have been literally fulfilled, even to this day? The Arab is proud to claim lshmael as his father. Will any one be bold enough to claim that the angelic predictions touching Ishmael should be spiritualised? Nay, verily not, because the land and the people are literal facts which none can hide away or truthfully deny...

Remembering these facts, let us examine




THE WILL OF JACOB MADE TO EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH



but with special reference to Manasseh. The language of Scripture recording the same is inimitable... Genesis 48:8-22:

"And Israel beheld Joseph’s sons, and said, Who are these? And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, God has given me in this place, And he said, Bring them, I pray you, unto me, and I will bless them. “Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and he embraced them. And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see your face; and lo, God has shewed me also your seed. And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand towards Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand towards Israel’s right hand, and brought them near unto him. And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim ‘s head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh ‘s head, guiding his hand wittingly; for Manasseh was the first-born. And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long until this day, The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim ‘s head unto Manasseh‘s head. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father; for this is the first-born; put thy right hand upon his head. And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son,I know it: he also shall he great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. And he blessed them that day, saying, In you shall Israel bless, saying, God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh, and he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die; but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. Moreover I have given to you, one portion above your brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword, and with my bow." - (GENESIS 48:8-22).

Here, I believe, we have the origin of the American nation; here we have welded out the first Puritan And as in lshmael and Esau’s case, we find a literalness, so in this case.

The old Patriarch was evidently guided by Heaven in blessing the lads. It was not the will of Joseph that Ephraim should precede Manasseh. Joseph tried to rectify it, he made objection, and tried to change the hands of his father. The old Patriarch had crossed his hands, and in that position they made a cross, what is now called St. Andrew’s cross. You will also see that if you fold the cross together from the centre, you have the shape of the Pyramid. The St. Andrew’s cross is nearly like the letter X. A portion of the Scots are from Joseph, hence their plaid of many colours and the St. Andrew’s cross. You will observe that Joseph put his two sons in the right position, before his father - namely, Manasseh, his oldest son, on the right hand , and Ephraim, the youngest on the left hand - but Jacob’s crossing his hands changed the whole purpose of Joseph. Nor would the old Patriarch yield, though importuned by Joseph to do so. There surely was a Providence in the
whole proceeding. The birthright, and preference, and pre-eminence was given to Ephraim. We should remember that Ephraim became the representative of all national and political blessing, for he not only was set before Manasseh, but he was set before Reuben, the first-born of the twelve sons, as we read in I Chronicles 5:1:

“Now the sons of Reuben, the first-born of Israel (for he was the first-born, but forasmuch as he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel; and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph’s).”

The plain meaning of this passage is, that all political blessings will flow down through Joseph’s sons; they will have most liberty, and be the most prosperous of the nations of the earth; in them all the nations of the earth will be blessed temporarily ... in
Judah all the nations of the earth will be blessed spiritually. The inference is clearly this, that if England stands for Ephraim, and the United States for Manasseh, why then politically, they must be superior to all other nations.

Other nations must get better as they imitate and practise after England and America. Through .Judah was to come the best Saviour and best religion... The religion from Judah, and political freedom of Ephraim and Manasseh, will very generally go hand in hand. The temporal blessings falling to Ephraim and Manasseh as representatives are, that Ephraim was to be a nation and company of nations... while

MANASSEH IS A PEOPLE AND A GREAT PEOPLE



And as recorded in Deuteronomy 33:17, “His glory is like the firstlings of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns, with them he shall push the people together unto the ends of the earth; and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh”. This very thing these two nations have done and are doing.

To better comprehend what follows, let me state a few facts preparatory: About B.C. 980, the kingdom of Israel was divided; nine tribes went off and formed what is afterwards called the kingdom of Israel. Their first king was Jeroboam, their last was
Hoshea. This kingdom continued about 250 years. They were carried captive into Assyria about B.C. 725 ... The Tribes are called the Ten Lost Tribes. The other part of the whole kingdom of Israel contained the Tribes of Judah, Levi, and Benjamin. It was called the kingdom of Judah.

Ever after this the Jews and Israelites were a distinct people, and have remained so to this day... The Tribes were to disappear from view for a time, then come to the fore as inheritors of ... blessings and they and the Jews are to be joined together in the latter days. The Jews have never been lost ... Their history and course through the ages is very different from that of Israel ...the Saxon race are these Ten Lost Tribes. Among them was hid this Tribe of Manasseh, and as the prophecies began to fulfill on the line of Ephraim, so it would naturally follow that those having reference to Manasseh would. As pointed out by the prophets, the home of Israel, when coming to view, would be in some islands, for in the islands they were to rest and renew their strength.

These islands we take to be the British. The place would, after resting .... get too narrow for them, hence they will throw off the surplus by emigration. But they are first to lose some of their own children - namely the Manassehites: “The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, the place is too strait for me, give place to me that I may dwell” - (ISAIAH 49:20).
Now God had in reserve this country for them, for, geographically speaking, the whole world is laid out in reference to Israel.
“When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance - when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel” (DEUTERONOMY 32:.

This same idea is frequently set forth in the Divine Book...the settlement of America was neither accidental as to time nor persons.

When




MANASSEH’S BIRTH TIME OF A SEPARATION



drew near, he began to get restless; and that his brethren might see him and he learn to know his own, Providence permitted them to come to the surface under Cromwell, and for several years Manasseh stood forth in separate character. The people asked Cromwell to be their king, for as yet they knew not the grand purpose of Providence; he refused, well he might, for this people are to choose their rulers from among themselves, and their nobles and governors are to proceed from the midst of
them, as the prophets had foretold. This English Cromwell was only a successor of Gideon and Jephthah and other democratic leaders of the Tribe of Manasseh.

When this Tribe was first settled, they were divided in their own land; half of them stayed on the East of the Jordan and took to farming, the other half preferred exploring and trading. They had a great desire for more land a desire natural to Americans to this day. They complained to Joshua saying, “Why hast thou given me but one lot, and but one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great people?” And Joshua told them if they were a great people to go and clear land for themselves and drive out the giants from the mountains and wooded country of the Perizzites. And again “Joshua spake unto the House of Joseph, even to Ephraim and Manasseh, saying, Thou art a great power, and hast great power; thou shalt not have one lot, only” - (JOSHUA 17:17) ... What people on the face of the earth can say as naturally as we can, “We are a great people”?

It is in this Tribe, too, that we find the first Woman’s Rights movement. The daughters of Zelophehad petitioned the State Council for the privilege to vote. No wonder that the Woman’s Rights Movement should be so prominent amongst us. You will remember that Manasseh counted as a Tribe, made thirteen Tribes. So when he settles down to real independence and distinction , he federates thirteen States. He represents these symbolically by thirteen white stars in a field of blue, to signify that they were under Heaven’s protection. He chooses the eagle as his bird of symbolism. This bird formed one of the four faces of the cherubim. And the Almighty often reminded His children that He had cared for them as the eagle cared for its young. When the Twelve Tribes were camped in four squares, the banners outside of the battalions presented the face of a man, ox, eagle, and lion

Let any one examine



THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES



and study its design... facts, providence, and prophecies do so wonderfully agree. Take the obverse side. Here you have an eagle... in its beak a scroll, inscribed with a motto, “E pluribus Unum.” One out of many, as Manasseh was ... and as the country is building up a grand nationality and oneness ... But it is on the reverse side of the Great Seal that we have a wonder. Here we have an unfinished pyramid... exactly the same as the Great Pyramid in Egypt is at this day (ISAIAH 19:19): “In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt.” Now it is somewhat singular that the Congress of 1782 should have adopted so remarkable a sign, one that would witness to God and tell of their origin. The reverse side is the underside, and shows from whence the nation came, and on what it is built ... The suggestions of items upon the Great Seal were from St. John Prestwich, Bart, an Englishman. He gave the suggestions to the American Minister, John Adams, and thence the same were conveyed to Congress and adopted.

...When the Tribes marched, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh went together, on the West side of the ark, for their homes were Westward. On their battalion banner was the figure of a youth...

...The word Manasseh in Hebrew is Nenasseh, from Nasshane, and means forgetting. So England and America will be friends, for Manasseh will forget and forgive.

And at the same time Ephraim at Waterloo conquered a world’s peace, changed the course and destiny of nations. Ephraim calls us brother Jonathan. All the other colonies are called sisters. Jonathan was of Benjamin. We speak of ourselves as a people. We begin our laws of enactment “We, the people of the United States.” How ‘Manasseh like’ that is! Other
nations legislate by the name of their rulers or the name of their nation. We called England, John Bull, the very thing that Ephraim was compared to in the Bible. Ephraim was spoken of as an heifer, and this word in Hebrew is Engle. Of him it was said he should go forth and grow as calves in the stalls - Ka Engli.

The division of the Tribe away back, accounts for the difference between the Pilgrims and Puritans, between the North and South. When we remember that Manasseh was deprived of his birthright, it is no wonder that he set his face against kings, titles, and monarchical forms of government. This disposition was handed down.

To know our destiny, we must study the prophecies relating to Manasseh... When the Tribes return to occupy, by representation, Palestine, we find Manasseh has her lot and place. I can only wish that the glorious truth committed to our keeping may be cherished, and that we, as a nation, may work out our God-assigned task. The future has work and some trouble in reserve, but if we are faithful... we need fear no evil...



Courtesy of Origins of Nations

STONE SECRETS OF THE FIRST AMERICANS

by

Thomas Fleming


From ancient inscriptions, newly deciphered, comes startling evidence that Europeans had settled in America as early as 800 B.C.


THOUGH most people believe that American history began with Christopher Columbus, historians have lately discovered hard evidence that Leif Ericson and his fellow Norsemen were exploring Canada and the northern tier of the United States as early as A.D. 1000. But before that date, the history of the New World north of the Rio Grande has been a virtual vacuum, inhabited by a few Indian legends. Now, thanks to the genius of a single man from another hemisphere, all this is about to undergo a vast change. In his recently published book, America B.C., * New Zealand-bred Barry Fell, a marine biologist at Harvard University, offers astonishing evidence that there were men and women from Europe not merely exploring but living
in North America as early as 800 B.C.

They worked as miners, tanners and trappers, and shipped their products back to Europe. In temples in the hills of New Hampshire and Vermont in the north-east, and in river valleys south-west of the Great Lakes in Iowa and Oklahoma, they sang
hymns and performed sacred rituals to honour their gods. When their kings or chiefs died, they buried them beneath huge mounds of earth in which they left steles-written testimony of their grief carved on stone.

Some of these were discovered in the nineteenth century: strange inscriptions carved on cliffs from Maine in the north-east to the Rio Grande in the south, or on stones which lay in obscure museums. But archaeologists could not read the writing, and
dismissed these mysteries as forgeries or accidents of nature. Fell’s expertise in this recondite field (called epigraphy), which requires many of the gifts intelligence men bring to codecracking, is the tool which has enabled him to add a thousand years to
America’s past.

A large, genial man in his late fifties, Fell first became interested in ancient languages when he was a student at the University of Edinburgh. He learned Gaelic, and began investigating Celtic tombs and ruins in Scotland. Then, in a study of the marine biology of Polynesia, he found hundreds of unreadable inscriptions engraved on rocks and painted on cavern walls.



PAST MASTER


Intrigued, Fell went to Harvard in 1964 and spent eight years there ransacking the Widener Library’s unique collection of texts on obscure languages and writing systems. He acquired a working knowledge of half a dozen ancient alphabets, including Egyptian hieroglyphics; Punic; Carthaginian script (used by several ancient peoples); and Ogam, an almost-forgotten script used by pre-Christian Celts.

Fell finally found that the Polynesian inscriptions were written in the native language, Maori. But its vocabulary was derived from a mixture of Greek and Egyptian spoken in Libya after Alexander the Great conquered Egypt. The alphabet came from
Carthage.

The most remarkable of these Libyan texts was found in a huge cave in New Guinea. There, a navigator named Maui left drawings of ancient but sophisticated astronomical and navigational instruments, as well as a depiction of a solar eclipse which enabled Fell, with the help of Harvard astronomers, to identify the year of the drawings as 232 B.C. If there were Libyans visiting Polynesia at that time, Fell reasoned, perhaps they sailed on to South America. He accumulated evidence for such landfalls, and began lecturing on the subject at Harvard.





His talks attracted the attention of a group of dogged investigators led by James Whittall, an archaeologist who had noted the similarity between many crude stone buildings in New England, which farmers often called root cellars, and similar ruins in Spain and Portugal. The European buildings had been identified as creations of Celts who ruled that part of Europe during the Bronze Age, the period of prehistory which dates roughly from 3500 B.C.

Whittall asked Fell to take a look at the Bourne stone, which had been discovered near Bourne, Massachusetts, around 1680. No one had ever been able to make any sense of the writing on it. Now, Barry Fell was able to read it. The letters were a variation of the Punic alphabet found in ancient Spain, for which Fell has coined the word “Iberic.” It recorded the
annexation of a large chunk of present-day Massachusetts by Hanno, a prince of Carthage.

Fell joined in a search for additional inscriptions at one of Whittall’s favourite sites, Mystery Hill in North Salem, New Hampshire-a series of slabstone buildings variously attributed to Norsemen and wandering Irish monks. Fell began studying the inscribed triangular stones which had previously been found at the site by Bob Stone, the owner of Mystery Hill, and found a
dedication to the Phoenician god Baal, written in Iberic. Then sudden!y, people began seeing hitherto unnoticed inscriptions.

“A shout from Bob Stone told us that he had found another tablet in an adjacent drystone wall,” Fell recalls. “As he brushed away the adhering dirt, there came into clear view a line of Ogam script that read ‘Dedicated to Bel.”’

Students of ancient mythology had long suspected that the Celtic sun god Bel and the Carthaginian-Phoenician god Baal were identical. Here, for the first time, was evidence not only of this fact, but of a Celtic-Carthaginian partnership in exploration and
settlement on a scale never even imagined.

“Within ten days we were finding dozens of Ogam inscriptions on another more remote site in central Vermont,” Fell says. “It became clear that ancient Celts had built these stone chambers as religious shrines, and the Carthaginian mariners were visitors who were permitted to worship at them and make dedications in their own language to their own gods.”

Next, Whittall showed Fell a 1940 photograph of an inscription engraved on a cliff above Mount Hope Bay, in Bristol, Rhode Island. Discovered and recorded in 1780, it had been severely vandalized, making it necessary to work from the photograph. Fell soon read a single line, which was written in Tartessian Punic:
“Voyagers from Tarshish this stone proclaims.”

Tarshish was a bib!ical city on the southern coast of Spain, and its men were among the boldest sailors of antiquity. About 533 B.C., Tarshish was destroyed by the Carthaginians and its trade was taken over by them. Here was evidence of how the partnership between the Iberian Celts and the Carthaginians began.

On Monhegan Island, ten miles off the coast of Maine, another inscription was brought to Fell’s attention. Written in Celtic Ogam, it read “Cargo platforms for ships from Phoenicia.” From these and other inscriptions, as well as an intensive study of historical data on the seafaring ability of the men of Tarshish and Carthage, Fell concluded there was a highly developed trade route between America and the Mediterranean for at least 400 years before the birth of Christ. The chief products from North America were probably copper, furs and hides.

“American data,” as Fell calls it, now began to multiply. Most important was his decipherment of the Davenport stele, which some people compare to the translation of the Rosetta stone-the nineteenth century breakthrough which enabled men to read hieroglyphics and grasp the awesome sweep of Egyptian history. On this inscription, which was found in a burial mound near Davenport, Iowa, in 1874, Fell was able to read three kinds of writing. At the top were Egyptian hieroglyphics, Below them was the Iberic form of Punic writing found in Spain. The third line was in Libyan script.





What does this mean? “It means there were Egyptians, Libyans and Celtic Iberians living together in a colony in Iowa in 800 B.C.,” Fell says. “It means we have to revise a lot of our ideas about American history in general and American Indian culture in particular.”

Fell next turned his attention to native Indian languages. He reasoned that if these pre-Christian visitors colonized parts of America, they must have left behind a deep impression on the language and beliefs of the people they encountered. He soon found evidence to support this conclusion.



MISSIONARY LINK


From Harvard, one of Fell’s colleagues brought him a book by a missionary priest, published in 1866. It contained a document entitled “The Lord’s Prayer in CO Micmac Hieroglyphics.” Fell saw that at least half of these hieroglyphics were Egyptian. He was able to prove from the written testimony of other priests that the Micmacs were using this writing when the first missionaries arrived. In fact, all the north-eastern Algonquians, the family of tribes to which the Micmacs belonged, apparently used it, having acquired this language from Libyan mariners and preserved it for 1,000 years.

As Fell began studying the Algonquian language, he found hundreds of Egyptian words in the dialects of the north-eastern Agonquians. The verb na, to see, is the same in both languages. So is nauw, which means to he weak, and neechnw, which means child. Celtic is also plentiful. The names of many New England rivers, once thought to be Indian, turn out to be Celtic. Merrimack, for instance, means “deep fishing” in Algonquian. It is too close for coincidence to the Gaelic Mor-riomach,
meaning “of great depth.”

In the next few years, Fell expects archaeologists and interested amateur explorers to report new discoveries and inscriptions from all parts of North America. These findings may help to explain exactly what happened to the continent's earliest settlers after the destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C.and the fall of Rome in the fifth century A.D.

No longer can we think of America as developing in cultural isolation. For the first time, fighting Celts from Spain and daring Semitic seafarers from Carthage, Libya and Egypt must be included in America’s heritage. Who knows how many others will be added before the end of Barry Fell’s epic voyage into the past?

GEORGE WASHINGTON AND ISRAEL

By

C.R. Dickey

A STUDENT of Genealogy Dr Burhl B. Gilpin Junior,discovered interesting facts when his studies led him to obtain the genealogy of the Washington family. In that record he found genealogical confirmation of the migration pattern of the Caucasians. The information is taken from a book in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., written by Albert Welles, titled Pedigree and history of the Washington Family.

This book contains the following information concerning the background of the beloved ‘Father of our Country’ - George Washington:

“Odin (first King of Scandinavia, 70 B.C.) came from Asaland or Asaheim, east of Tanais. He endeared himself to the Asiatic subjects, successful in every combat. Son of Fridulf, supreme ruler of the Scythians, in Asaland or Asaheim, Turkestand, between the Euxine and Caspian Seas in Asia He reigned at Asgard, whence he removed 70 B.C., and became the first king of Scandinavia. Died 50 B.C., and was succeeded by Sons who ruled in different parts of Scandinavia

“Frode Fredigod, fourth generation, was King of Denmark at the time of Christ, died A.D. 35.

“Thorlin the Dane was the 32nd generation from Odin. He founded the Washington family. Born about A,D. 1000. His ancestors came from Schleswig, in Denmark and settled in Ebor or Yorkshire, prior to the Norman Conquest.

“Colonel John Washington was the 51st generation from Odin. He migrated to America and settled in Virginia. He was the great grandfather of George Washington.”

Note that the first paragraph of this record contains a sentence of tremendous historical significance. It states that Odin was the “Son of Fridulf, supreme ruler of the Scythians, in Asaland or Asaheim ... between the Euxine and Caspian Seas in Asia”. This sentence places the family of Washington right in the midst of the migrating Israelites as they moved from Assyria - by way of the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea - into Europe, where their exploits changed the face of a continent.

This transmigration of the major portion of Israel’s clans from the land of their captivity was the greatest mass movement of a multi-tribed kingdom of kindred people in the history of the world. These captive Israelites were once proud citizens of the Northern Ten-tribed Kingdom of Israel. They were a people of prophetic destiny and could not be subdued by their captors.

Dr J. Llewellyn Thomas points out that the Kingdom of Judah was not involved in Israel’s transition. “This migration,” he says, “took place about a century after their main deportation. Let it be noted that it commenced before the destruction and carrying away of the Kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar. Israel had started on their migration out of the land of their captivity into the southeast of Europe before Judah ceased to exist as a kingdom. Note that when the Jews returned, the main body of the Israelites were in Arsareth, over a thousand miles from Babylon ... This migration into Europe took place at the time when the great Assyrian Empire was failing before the rising of the new world Empire of Babylon. Israel seized the favourable opportunity of escaping into Europe.”

One other fact must be mentioned here to keep the record straight; indeed, it is a point of peculiar import even in these latter days, though generally ignored or forgotten. It is true, as Dr Thomas says, that the Southern Kingdom of Judah as a whole was not involved in Israel’s deportation, nor in the mass migrations westward which took place in subsequent years; however, there is one brief record concerning Judah which is of supreme importance. It is found in 2 Kings 18: 9-13

“It came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria ... Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them.”

Briefly, the salient facts are these: In the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign [he would have been about 31 years old I, Shalmaneser captured Samaria and deported Israel to Assyria. Then, eight years later, in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, “did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.”

The essential point to note here is that these captives from the fenced cities of Judah were not taken to Babylon, but to Assyria, where they were henceforth identified with their kinsmen of the ten-tribed kingdom. Sennacherib was unable to capture Jerusalem at the time because the Lord had other plans for that city and the remaining remnant of Judah. It was over a hundred years after these events before the capture of Jerusalem and the deportation of its citizens to Babylon.

The key to understanding, for us, lies in the fact that the kingdom of Judah included not only the tribe of Judah, but Benjamites, Levites and members of the royal House of David. Thus when the Assyrian king captured the fenced cites of Judah, he transported to Assyria, not Judahites alone, but also portions of Benjamin, Levi and the House of David. There is reliable evidence also that they were not few in number. Sennacherib’s inscription, according to A.H. Sayce, states that the number of cites taken was 43, and that he took captive “200,150 men of Judah.”

This move brought representatives of all the tribes of Jacob-Israel into the multitudes of Israel assembled in Assyria.

With such basic facts in mind, we are now ready to mention some of the names by which these people were known during the period of their scattering and colonization. It was prophesied that they would gradually lose their identity and call themselves by other names. (See Hosea 2:17 and Isaiah 28:11.)

Let us note first what names these people bore before their captivity. Among others, we find three in particular The House of Israel, The House of Isaac, and The House of Omri. Dr William Pascoe Goard states the distinction well by saying that “Israel was a Divinely given spiritual name; Isaac was the Divinely given family name; Omri was a dynastic or national name.”(Post-Captivity names of Israel.)

Omri was Israel’s most renowned king. It was he who substituted the “statutes of Omri” for the commandments, statutes, and judgments of the Lord. “His influence in lawmaking”, says Dr Goard, “is with us still. Therefore the people, who kept his law were called by his name tin the eyes of the Assyrians]: Beth Ornri (House of Omri). Whatever other names Israel bore in the days of her residence in Palestine, such as Ephraim etc., she bore out into captivity these two names: Isaac, or Saka; and Omri.”

During the captivity Israel acquired other names and all of them are fund in many forms with various spellings of the same names. Among the variations of Beth Omri we find Bit Khumri, Khumri, Humri, Kimmeri an Gimmiri (etc.). The name Isaac has also a score or more of variations, such as Sakai, Sacae, Sakasuna, etc. But the Sakai, too, are called Kimmerians, Gimmirians and Scythians, a fact that is established by the inscriptions which are best known and which have furnished the key to Assyriology. “The Sakai who in Latin are called Sacae, were an important branch of the Scythian nation” (Sharon Turner, History of the Anglo-Saxons, Vol. 1, p. 100).

Historians agree that the Scythians were one of the greatest military powers of the day. But many of them fail to see how this distinction could be claimed for the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Yet in the time of Jeroboam Israel could put 800,000 “mighty” fighting men in the field, gathered from within its own boundaries (2 Chronicles 13:3). A nation able to do that would be rated a sizable military power today.

The foregoing review is necessarily brief and incomplete. It is intended to serve as a connecting link between the ancient past of a great Covenant Race and their emergence as the dominant peoples and nations of the Western World. For further light on this fascinating subject, we turn now to European and Other Race Origins, by Herbert. Bruce Hannay Esq., of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law, Advocate of the High Court of Judicature, Calcutta, and author of A grammar of the Tibetan Language.

As we quote from Mr Hannay, note the variations in names as they appear in the different languages. The following paragraphs are found in Part III, Chapter VI:

“Let us now resume the fortunes of the Skolotoi of European Skuthia from the time (say 92-20 B.C.) when they received into the bosom of their community the Saghian followers of Asha who had come from Airyan and Turan as already explained; when they adopted from them the name of Asen; when Skuthia acquired the new name of Asaland, or Asaheim, being then well up to the north, near the confluence of the rivers Pripet and Desna with the Dnieper, and when their capital, now represented by Kieff, was called Asgard “

“According to calculations into which need not enter here, this period is ascertained to have been the approximate time when Odin, orWodin, flourished. Chief of the Asen, as we may now call them and a hero in his own country, he was afterwards deified by the pagan descendants of his subjects and ultimately his memory was merged in that of the god whose name he bears. The Tyrkland where, according to the north Saga ‘Odin had great Possessions,’ was, like the Swithoid-an of the Yotar of Yotland in Scandinavia, merely a reminiscence of Airyan and Turan - i.e. Turkistan - the distant home of the Saghs during so many centuries.”

“Since the days of the Hebro-Phoenician activity”, says Mr Hanney, “the thoughts of the Beth-Sak and their descendants had ever been concentrated upon the Isles of the West, and imparts no little meaning into the seemingly idle statement in the Saga that for Odin the Northwest was a region where he knew by his skill in magic that a place of refuge was reserved for him and his people.”

Mr Hannay quotes the following from Crichton and Wheaton:

“In the old Swedish legends it is related that Odin founded the Empire of Svea, and built a great temple at a spot called Sigtuna near Lake Maelar, in the present province a Upland, which was known by the Northmen under the name of the ‘Lesser Swithoid,’ to distinguish it from the ‘Greater Swithoid’ of Skuthia, from which they believed he had led his followers. When Odin arrived with his twelve pontiffs or chief priests called Diar or Drottnar, he is said to have found that a great part of the land was occupied by a people who, like himself, had come from Swithoid, but in such long ages past that according to their awn account no one could fix the time. These people who call themselves ‘Gota’ or ‘Gauta,’ Goths ... were so strong that Odin was forced to make a compact with their king Gylfe before he could settle the land” (Otte’s Scandinavia, p. 59).

“One of the greatest of these Scythian expeditions was that under the leadership of the historic Odin (who was subsequently deified) - see The Historian’s History of the World, Vol. xvi, pp. 18-19. Odin amassed a huge army at Asgard, in the heart of the Thyssa-getae, and marched first up the valley of the Dnieper, then westward to the shores of the Baltic and finally crossed to Scandinavia where he founded a new empire,” (Anglo-Saxon Israel).

From the writing of Strabo, Pliny, Tacitus, Ptolemy and others, “It appears that the advance guard of Israel was, by 58 B.C., occupying the countries in northwest Europe, bordering the North Sea. There they remained, developing their powers and their character, till the movements to Britain began” (Fasken).

We return now to Odin in relation to the Washington family. Odin is registered in the Washington genealogy as the “first King of Scandinavia, 70 B.C.” No doubt his forbears were distinguished leaders of clans during their westward trek. It seems likely that there was an Odin dynasty both before and after the time of “Odin, first King of Scandinavia” The genealogy states that Odin “was succeeded by sons who ruled in different parts of Scandinavia”. I

n his book, The Royal House of Britain, an Enduring Dynasty, W.M.H. Milner quotes from a leaflet by Mr Grimaldi in which it was stated that “The descent of our Royal Family from the royal line of Judah is, however, only a rediscovery. The Saxon kings traced themselves back to Odin, who was traced back to his descent from David, as may be seen in very ancient MS. in the Herald’s College, London.” Desiring to verify this, Mr. Miner wrote to Heralds College and received positive assurance (dated 5-2-1901) that “There is a very valuable MS. here, deducing our Saxon kings from Adam through David” (p.28). This MS. says Mr Milner, “we have inspected.” It is caged on the back of the binding, Pedigree of the Saxon Kings. Both Odin and David are listed there, he says. Then on page 41, Mr Milner traces the later Odin dynasty as follows:

“King Edward VII introduced to the throne a new section of the one continuous Royal House of Britain. His mother was Queen in her own right, of the Guelphic line. His father was a prince of the Saxon dukedom of Coburg-Gotha, one of several branches of the House of Wettin. To that house our king belongs. Like the older Saxon and Norman lines, this newer Saxon comes from Odin whose connection with the dynasty of David we have already discussed. Through one of the sons of Odin and Frea were ancestors of Cadwallader, Roderick, and Howel the Good, whence came the Tudor kings of England, and, through Nesta and Fleance, the Stuarts as well. A second son of Odin made him progenitor of William the Conqueror. Through a third he was forefather of Egbert, the first King of England, and of Alfred the Great. Through the union of several lines, he was the ancestor of the Plantagenet kings and the Hanoverian princes. By a fourth, named Wecta, crowned by him, King of Saxony (died A.D. 800), Odin was the ancestor of Hengist, last of the kings and first of the Dukes of Saxony. Queen Victoria was also of this line, by her mother.”

Programs and Papers, prepared and distributed in 1982, by the United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission, contain the following information on Washington’s family name and ancestry:

“For eight hundred years, through successive generations, the name of Washington or de Wessyngton has been known for the valour, chivalry, high code of honour, and military distinction of those who bore it. Knights and noblemen of the Old World and citizens of the New, each in their own turn, through service and achievement have given to it a notable place in history.”

“In the process of evolution this name like many others known to fame, has had many variations from the modem spelling. It is apparently of Saxon origin and is known to have existed in the twelfth century. Early records refer to the village of Warton in Lancashire and of Wessyngton in the Palatine Durham. It was from this latter village that the name of de Wessyngton was derived by the progenitor of the Washington family ... In different sections the name was spoiled in divers ways. Other forms appearing in important records are Weschington, Wassington, and Washington. In the standardized form of the present day this name is widely mentioned in early county records of England and is engraved on timeworn monuments in churches and cathedrals.

“George Washington was great to a great extent because of what his ancestors were before him. His great-grandfather, John Washington, came to these shores about the middle of ‘the seventeenth century and settled in Westmoreland County Virginia on the very plantation where in later years, George Washington was born.

“... No sooner did the head and shoulders of George Washington rise above the great and near great about him than his contemporaries across the sea commenced to ask, ‘Who is this superman who has defied our sovereign and wrested our American possessions from our grasp? From which branch of our Washingtons is he descended?’ So the queries were set afoot, and since that time many genealogists have devoted much study and research to the subject.

“Many years were consumed in searching for the documentary evidence which would establish the English pedigree of John Washington and of his great-grandson who had risen from the ranks to the head of a new nation. Elusive clues were followed without definite results until through the persistent efforts of Henry F. Waters, the connecting links between the American and the English ancestry were eventually discovered. Having established the connecting link, it was then possible to trace the English ancestry of George Washington back, through the rector of Purleigh, to the Sulgrave branch of the family, and on back for seven generations to John Washington, of Tewhitfield, County Lancashire, whose great-grandson, Lawrence Washington of Grays Inn was Mayor of Northampton and grantee, of the Sulgrave estate which remained in the direct family for two generations....

“Robert Washington inherited Sulgrave Manor... Lawrence Washington was next in line. His mother, Margaret Butler Washington, was a daughter of Margaret Sutton, through whom a strain of royal blood descended into the veins of George Washington. Though fitted in every way to serve as a wise and considerate Sovereign had he permitted the people to proclaim him King of the United States of America, he most emphatically declined that honour, preferring to be called the President.”

And now a few words about Washington’s mother, whose maiden name was Mary Ball. She, too, came from a distinguished family. The escutcheon of her family bears upon it a black lion on a silver shield with a crest having a lion rampant, holding a golden ball in his paws. The motto, Coelumque Tueri, means “And Look to Heaven”. The more immediate ancestry of Mary Ball is traced back to Colonel William Ball, who emigrated to Virginia about 1650 and settled in Lancaster County on a plantation called Millenbeck, on the Rappahannock River.”

The Bicentennial Papers pay this tribute to Mary Ball:

“Through his maternal ancestor there came to George Washington the strength of a philosopher and the truthfulness of a Christian: he was taught to love God supremely, his kind tenderly, and to be good and generous to all living creatures. And above all he was always considerate of his mother’s wishes and ever addressed her as ‘Honoured Madam’ thus paying a courtly tribute to her and through her to her distinguished forbears.”An article by George C. Crux, in Destiny Magazine, January 1937, contains the statement: “Over the entrance of the House of Tudor Sulgrave Manor in Northamptonshire England, hangs the Tudor Coat of Arms, a replica of which was among the Washington heirlooms. In this Coat-of-Arms is to be found both the Stars and Stripes.”

As we have seen, many of the early colonists wanted to crown George Washington King of the Confederation. He declined the Honour. Nevertheless, their readiness to make him a king indicates their recognition of his royal lineage. Some of the Founding Fathers, and many other citizens of that time, had distinctive family heraldry; however, they said little about their background because of their desire to avoid the rise of class consciousness in the New Republic. Yet these facts are extremely important today because they prove beyond the shadow of doubt that the English speaking and kindred people have a common heritage.

The interesting though generally unknown facts which follow are found in The Huguenot Society of Pennsylvania Publication (Vol. XII, p.7). The early colony of Virginia numbered among its prominent leaders at least twenty whose ancestors stemmed from the same royal lines as those of Queen Elizabeth II. In fact, her progenitors gave America some of our most eminent patriots, including the beloved Father of our Country General George Washington. Others among the Queen’s American cousins are a vice-president; three cabinet officers: eight senators; Chief Justice John Marshall; six governors of states including Patrick Henry and General Thomas Nelson, wartime governor of Virginia and a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Meriwether Lewis, the explorer; General ‘Light Horse Harry’ Lee of the revolution, and his still more famous son, General Robert E. Lee; and a veritable host of men and women prominent in, national life.

“Symbolic dreams and prophetic visions, from time immemorial have been given credence, notably in the period covered by the Holy Scriptures. According to tradition the mother of George. Washington saw in a dream, when he was a child, the measure of his future greatness. Another tradition states that an aged Indian chieftain pronounced a divine inspiration when he said of George Washington: ‘There is a something bids me speak in the voice of prophecy. Listen! The Great Spirit protects that man., and guides his destinies. He will become the chief of nations and a people yet unborn will hail him as the founder of a mighty empire!’ (From Bi-centennial Papers).”

Isaac-David-Odin-Washington. Such men under God, have produced the miracle of our American Saxon Heritage!

(Originally published under the title America’s Saxon Heritage, and republished in The Kingdom Digest.)

TRAIL-BLAZING FOR KING SOLOMON

THE ANCIENT WHITE GODS OF SOUTH AMERICA

By

W.F. Finlayson

WHEN CORTEZ and his soldiers arrived in South America, they were welcomed by the Indians as the ‘White Gods’ who had visited their ancestors in the very dawn of their history, bestowing upon them the blessings of civilisation. The Indians were soon to learn that, far from being ‘White Gods’, the Spaniards were robbers and murderers, inspired not by benevolence but by lust for gold. The Spaniards, on their part, were awed by the magnificent temples and palaces and by the profusion of gold objects. They found the Indians enjoying the benefits of an evolved civilisation. Their kings wore robes of Tyrian purple (the Phoenicians obtained this dye from a type of shellfish). They wore crowns; sat on thrones: employed heraldic devices and standards. They used cups and spoons. The Spaniards were astonished to learn that their priest taught about the Flood, the Tower of Babel, Heaven and Hell and also themes from both Egyptian and Greek mvtlology. They used incense in religious ceremonies; sprinkled infants with water; held festivals which the Spaniards found were astonishingly like their own Church festivals and held on the same dates. They met rulers and nobles who were fair-haired and fair-skinned, who spoke a different language from their subjects and would not intermingle with them.

THE ARRIVAL OF THE FAIR-HAIRED GOD-MEN

The legends of the White Gods continue among the Indians of South America today. They tell of White Gods with fair hair, beards and blue eyes who arrived in great ships, wearing ornaments on their foreheads depicting serpents. They taught the indigenous Indians science, engineering, law and morality. They forbade human sacrifice and preached peace. Ultimately these White Gods left, to return to their own land, promising that they would return.

In contrast, arriving aeons later, the Spaniards brutally destroyed the civilisation they had discovered, forcibly converting the surviving Indians to Roman Catholicism and reducing them again to a primitive people. Their Iiterature was burned by fanatical priests. But one Bishop repented of this insane orgy of destruction and rescued a few precious manuscripts. In later centuries, travellers found the Indians living in degenerate, squalid conditions beside the ruins of the magnificent cities which their ancestors had inhabited. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, adventurers and explorers became fascinated by evidence of great civilisations which they discovered in South America. Jean Frederic Waldeck - who had been present when Napoleon made his famous speech beside the Egyptian Pyramids, looking down upon his army - spent two years sketching ancient remains in South America. American, John Lloyd Stephens, exploring a jungle, discovered a huge statue which had been concealed by foliage. He bought the entire forest from its half-caste owner for fifty dollars and brought a pyramid to light.

ARCHITECTURE FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN

He went on to discover more remains of the Mayan civilisation. The magnificent finds attracted world interest and a succession of scholars and archaeologists have since continued to make fresh discoveries. More lies in unexplored jungles awaiting search.

What evidence do these discoveries give us regarding the identity of the mysterious White Gods? The architecture of the temples and palaces point to Egypt and Crete as being the original civilisations from which they came. Actually, there was obviously a succession of such ‘Gods’ arriving in South America, from before 2000 B.C. until AD.10; but all were alike in showing a benevolent concern for the welfare of the Indians. The White Gods had taught them how to build pyramids. In 1922 archaeologists discovered the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan, which is 100 feet high with a base 330 feet by 260 feet. On its western side there is a double staircase with four parapets. On a platform stood two temples with two stone altars; it was decorated with sculptured, plumed serpents. Also uncovered was the famous Aztec calendar stone, 12 feet in diameter and weighing 24 tons. In 1925, archaeologists found beneath a hill a 60 feet pyramid with a base 200 by 165 feet. It was decorated by huge turquoise snakes. The Sun Pyramid near Mexico City has the same foundation measurements as the Cheops Pyramid in Egypt, although only half its height.

THE CULTURE OF BIBLE LANDS

Other Egyptian evidences are the Egyptian symbol of life which was widely used in ornamentation. Mummies have been unearthed, the methods of mummification being exactly the same as those used in Ancient Egypt. Mummified animals - also an Egyptian custom - have been found. Death Chambers - like those of Ancient Egypt - have a little round hole in the top slab to allow the soul to flutter though. Monoliths, similar to Egyptian obelisks, have also been discovered. In Ancient Egypt, the god of death was depicted with a dog’s head - in Aztec mythology Xolot, god of death, has a dog’s head. Gold death masks, another Egyptian custom (also found in Mycenae) have been discovered. The magnificent Mayan Temple of the White God Kukalchan has nine steps representing the 'nine heavens' and 365 steps, one for each day in a year. The whole of Mayan art was mathematical and the priests were obsessed by chronology. They were expert astronomers.

The magnificent palaces are like those in Crete with modern drainage systems and air conditioning. Like the Cretans, they used asphalt in decoration. The statues do not have Indian features but Caucasian and wear the same type of helmet with flaps to protect the chin as those worn in ancient Crete and Mycenae. Amber iewellery - another Cretan specialty - has been found. The Indians relate that the White Gods gave them their script and modern scholars have found this to be an ancient Cretan script. The Cretan spiral is also common in South America. Western civilisation is associated with the stele, which came from Mesopotamia to Greece. The Mayan were also a people of the stele and sculpture - as in ancient Greece - attained so high a standard that the great sculptor Rodin confessed that he could not attempt to create anything near their quality! In Greek mythology a three-headed dog called Cerberus guarded the entrance to Hades.

A WEALTH OF EVIDENCE

The god of death, in both Egyptian and Aztec mythology; had a dog’s head. The ancient Greeks place a small coin into the mouth of the corpse, to pay the fare for Charon, who ferried the souls of the dead across the River of Death. Similarly, mummies have been found in the Peruvian coastal region with small discs in their mouths. Small statues have been found, combining human and fish features as in Greek mvthology. Carved archaic Greek letters have aiso been discovered. Hybrid gods, typical of Assyrian, Egyptian and Greek rnythology have been found. Explorers recognising that many of the names of rivers, mountains, hills, animals and plants, etc., were Semitic, were convinced that the gold countries of Ophir, Tarshish and Parvaim mentioned in the Bible were not in the Old World but in the Amazon region on the Rio Solimoes - Solomon’s River. We recall that Solomon’s ships took three years on some of their voyages.

CAUCASUS - CHINA - SOUTH AMERICA

There is also evidence of 'Chinese' influence on the South American civilisations. Heine-Geldern has established that many of the accomplishments of the Far East were taken to China about 700 B.C. by migrating people from the Caucasus area - the dispersal point of the clans of Noah. Thus, the features of civilisation from Asia which were brought to South America came originally from peoples who migrated from the very area from which Shem, Ham and Japheth led their respective peoples. It was also the region in which deported Israel later sojourned after their escape from Assyrian bondage.

The Spanish Dominican, Fray Diego Duran, who served among the Aztecs in the sixteenth century was convinced that they were descended from Israelite wanderers. He wrote:

"The Indians have traditions regarding a great man who, alter suffering many afflictions and persecutions on the part of his countrymen, gathered the multitude of his followers and persuaded them to flee from that persecution to a land where they could live in peace. Having made himself leader of those people. he went to the seashore and moved the water with a rod he carried in his hand. Then the sea opened and he and his followers went through. And the enemies, seeing this opening made, went after him, but the waters returned to their place and the pursuers were never heard of again."

Duran also saw an Indian painting which depicted events recorded in the Bible; the earth swallowing up Korah, Dathan and Abiron; God’s provision of manna for His people. An ancient Indian also described the Creation and the Tower of Babel to him as being ancient traditions of his race.

In the nineteenth century, Lord Edward Kingsborough spent his fortune on the luxury publication of nine huge volumes giving a mass of evidence to prove that the Indians were one of the ‘lost’ tribes of Israel. They do indeed show that Hebrew-Israelites in those far-off days had reached South America.

KING SOLOMON IN THE PICTURE

Thomas Stuart Ferguson, a Californian lawyer associated with the New World Archaeological Foundation, is of the opinion that Mexico’s early high civilisation was received from Mesopotamia in the third millennium B.C. surely Shemite - and that about 600 B.C. two small groups of Israelites crossed the Atlantic to make contributions to the existing Middle American culture and to influence religious beliefs.

He cites records of extensive early voyages from Crete to Britain and one from Ezion-Geber to Ophir, to bring gold to King Solomon. He also cites the Annals of the Cakchiquels, a document compiled by the nobles of Totonicapan in 1554, relating the history of their ancestors, telling of their ocean journey undertaken at the instigation of the 'Great God' Who wished it to be done because they were the sons of Abraham and Jacob. Because of his special interest in Semitic and Near Eastern origins, Mr. Ferguson initiated in l964 a linguistic project under the supervision of Professor Swadesh of the National University of Mexico to determine to what extent Hebraic influences may have survived. In a pilot study, Mr. Ferguson reported that the Zapotec vocabulary contained from 18 to 20 per cent recognisable Hebrew words: a percentage too high to be the result of chance parallels. He also compiled a list of 311 cultural elements common to both Near Eastern and Middle American cultures. These include: adobe bricks, blast furnaces, crested war helmets. truncated pyramids, sundials, stucco masks on walls, thrones, wheeled toys made of pottery, hieroglyphics, genealogical records, fertility figures, unleavened bread, tripod vessels and cylinder seals incised with identical designs.

THE EVIDENCE PILES UP

Scholars have recently compared similar dyestuffs employed by pre-Colombian peoples of Middle America and the ancient Hebrews. Egyptologist, Joseph Lindon Smith, found striking features in common between the cultures of the Egyptians and the Maya. These include: the Milky Way symbol of Divine Life; the Serpent; the Tree of Life (found in ancient Sumerian, Egyptian, Assyrian, Hittite and Hebraic cultures and mentioned in Genesis and Revelation).

Altars and incense-burners horned at four corners, described in the Old Testament, are common to the ancient Middle East and to ancient Middle America. The six-pointed Star of David - with the triangles similarly interlaced - appears on the wall of a Mayan ruin in Uximal.

The mass of evidence now available assuredly establishes that the Indians of South America, whose ancestors in the days of prehistory crossed the Behring Sea from Asia to Alaska, and who over the centuries moved south through the two Continents, received civilisation from far-ranging pioneers of Noachic descent - surely Shemite - and that, centuries later, these were followed by seafaring Israelites who were in all probability Danite merchant mariners of the fleet of King Solomon. These intrepid adventurers carried the Divine Revelation bestowed on the Adamic Race to the very ends of the earth. These were the White Gods who took culture to the lands of the Aztecs, the Mayas, the Toltecs and the Incas, many, many centuries before Columbus made his historic landfall.

AUTHORITIES:

In Quest of The White God by Pierre Honoré.

The Aztecs - The History of The Indies of New Spain by Fray Diego Duran.

The Ancient Past of Mexico by Alma M. Reed.

THE MYSTERIOUS MEGALITHS OF NEW ENGLAND

By

Paul Tudor Angel

LOCATED in the heart of modern-day New England stand sites of such great antiquity, sites so enigmatic, so sophisticated and seemingly inexplicable, serious scientists and archaeologists have denied their study because of their monumental implications: it would force them to throwaway their preconceived notions about the achievements of ancient man into the historical garbage can.



The impressive Megalithic ruins of Mystery Hill, near North Salem, New Hampshire, photographed by Malcolm Pearson in 1946, were at first interpreted as the works of Culdee monks who had fled Iceland just before the arrival of the Northmen. Further research has assigned them an origin of much greater antiquity - perhaps as old as 3000 B.C. Evidence indicates that this site, and others like it were made by Bronze Age Kelts as predictive calendars and ceremonial centres for religious gatherings. Photo courtesy of the author

Mystery Hill, the Upton Cave, Calendar I and Calendar II, Gungywamp and Druid's Hill are just several of the names given some incredibly important historical sites of which many have never heard a whisper. But their existence - and their importance - is becoming harder and harder to hide as more are discovered and interested folk become exposed to their grandeur.

Sometime in the late 1600s or early 1700s, early American colonists began discovering and utilizing underground "root cellars" made of large but manageable pieces of dressed stone as storage houses for food stuffs. Colonists were also finding numerous stone buildings, usually of "one story, circular or rectangular in form, and up to 30 feet in length and up to 10 feet wide and eight feet high or more." Many included roof slabs or lintels of several tons. Many also had carefully crafted openings in their roofs which allowed a small amount of light to pass through to the interiors. The colonial newcomers were convinced that these so-called root cellars had been constructed by the former Amerind inhabitants of the area - irrespective of the fact that their Indian neighbours showed little hint of an ability to work in large stone or the desire to do so. Before long, the inheritors of these properties thought their own American ancestors had built these cellars - some which were eighty feet deep and lined the entire way with roughly hewn stone.

Simultaneously, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of oddly-inscribed flagstones were being found in the surrounding New England woods, carted off by farmers For use in stone walls or in larger stone structures in them settlements of the growing northeast. The angular cuts on these stones looked much like the marks a plow makes when it strikes a submerged piece of stone - at least they looked that way to most of the simple country farmers of the day. Others believed the markings appearing in rocks all across New England were "the action of the roots of trees." For decades nothing at all was thought of them. As any New Englander can tell you, the entire northeast is strewn with large chunks of striated stone material left from the last era of glacial recession.



But a local Puritan clergyman, Cotton Mather, was not convinced. In 1712 he discovered some strange incisions on an exposed seaside rock face in Dighton, Massachusetts - far from where any plough could have marked it. He immediately wrote to the Royal Society in London, England, to inform them of his find and to convey his belief that the rock carvings were in fact an ancient scriptural alphabet - perhaps several differing ancient alphabets. Unexpectedly, his letter generated little interest. The scientists of the Royal Society were already busy exploring newly discovered rock inscriptions in neighbouring Ireland. These European inscriptions were later identified as Irish Hinge Ogam, a form of Gaelic Keltic writing unknown for centuries and stubbornly undecipherable.

Dighton Rock on the Taunton River seemed a hodgepodge of grafitti until Cotton Mather suspected that the engravings covering its face were ancient scriptural alphabets including Keltic ogams and Viking runes.

Photo courtesy of the author

It is referred to as "hinge" Ogam because a central dividing line or a facet edge was used to separate the subtly different individual characters. Little did anyone know at the time, the inscriptions found on both sides of the Atlantic were firmly connected.

Yet how could Celtic writing, a style reminiscent of that from the first millennium B.C. be in America? Who were the authors of the many rock engravings? How could the carvers possibly have got to America a thousand years before the birth of Christ? Why had they come and what evidence is there to support such a far-fetched notion? And what of the large stone structures found across the American northeast, eerily similar to types found in Europe?

The answers were being spoken loudly and clearly if someone could only listen to what the rocks and buildings themselves had to say. But time seemed to be running out. Thousands of the inscribed rocks were being broken up for building material and the larger stone structures were being dismantled or vandalized, destroying the monumental works of these mysterious builders.

For answers, we first tum to an odd stone arrangement found in the hills of New England. The Mystery Hill complex, the largest and most sophisticated of its kind in North America, covers over 30 acres and is composed o monolithic standing stones, stone walls and underground chambers, most of which are aligned to obvious astronomical points. Even now the site can be used as an accurate yearly calendar utilizing the stones set up over two thousand (perhaps as long as 5,000) years ago. The lack of household artifacts and grave goods leads us to believe that the site was a ceremonial centre and neither living quarters nor a "city".

Over the years the more interesting features and structures on-site have been given un-scientific names that insinuate inferred function. The "Watch House" is the name given to a chamber structure located outside the main complex at Mystery Hill. The roof is a massive, quarried slab of granite of several tons. On the back wall of the chamber the stones contain a high percentage of white quartz, a stone found in its pure form in many of the neolithic structures over the world and treasured by ancient peoples for its reflective qualities. This particular chamber is aligned to the February first sunrise and lunar minor south. At sunrise on this date the sunlight enters the entrance of the chamber and slowly moves along one wall until it illuminates the quartz crystals at the back wall, making the semi-precious gems sparkle noticeably. February first was one of the eight most important divisions of the Keltic year as we shall discuss in more detail later.

The "Oracle Chamber" is one of the most interesting and important structures located at Mystery Hill - or anywhere for that matter. It is significantly larger than any other chamber found at the site and contains unique characteristics found nowhere else in any of the other megalithic sites in New England.

A 4 inch by 6 inch shaft lined with thin facing stones, runs from the exterior and enters through the interior wall at about chin level. The "Speaking Tube," as it is called, emerges above ground, yet concealed underneath a sacrificial altar with runnels. It would seem that the speakers within the Oracle Chamber could talk into the tube, their voices warped and amplified, carrying up to the altar above and creating quite an impressive sound to a group of worshippers who might be gathered around the altar-in effect making the altar talk.

Also found across the Mystery Hill site are huge monolithic standing stones (some now fallen) all of which line up to sun, moon or star alignments as seen from a central viewing slab located by one of the earlier researchers at the site. From this slab, monoliths align to the Midwinter solstice sunrise and sunset, the November one sunrise and sunset the Spring and Fall Equinox sunrises and sunsets, the May one sunrise and sunset, the Midsummer solstice sunrise and sunset, the August one sunrise and sunset and true north (this stone is aligned to the star Thuban, the pole star of 2,000 B.C.). On these days the sun will either rise or set above worked monolith stones. Exact alignments coincide, according to scholars and astronomers, with a date of 2,499 B.C.to 1,900 B.C.

Other impressive constructions on the site include a number of underground chambers with clear astronomical alignments. The calendrical orientations of these slab-roofed chambers, it would seem, would rule out these structures being constructed as root cellars by early American colonists or the woodlands Indians of the northeast as neither were concerned with alignments that coincide with the most important of yearly Keltic celebrations. Further, noted archaeo-astronomer Byron Dix has determined that New England is replete with underground chambers. He says, "there are some 105 astronomically aligned chambers in Massachusetts, 51 in New Hampshire, 41 in Vermont, 62 in Connecticut, 12 in Rhode Island, and 4 in Maine." Suffice it to say, it is obvious that the alignments found at Mystery Hill and other sites are not random.

One of the central features of the Mystery Hill site is the sacrificial table/altar. It is a 4.5 ton grooved slab whose purpose is still under debate by scholars. In the words of archeologist and Mystery Hill curator Robert Stone: "others believe it was used for sacrifices, not only because of its central location, its size but also because the Oracle speaking tube was beneath it, as well as the carved channel [for the draining of blood] on the top surface. It is positioned on four worked stone legs and is located at the centre of the site in a large courtyard."



A photograph of what is known as the ''sacrificial altar," centrally located at the Mystery Hill complex. It is a massive 4.5 ton grooved slab. Was it the site of human sacrifice conducted by ancient travellers escaping religious persecution? Photo courtesy of the author.

It too bears a striking resemblance to altar stones found at megalithic sites in Europe. And we do know that blood sacrifice and altars such as these were connected firmly to Neolithic religions. But even more than mere physical resemblance to European sites, it was carbon dating, carried out under the supervision of respected scientists from Geochron Laboratories in 1971 that supported the disputed claims of researchers who were being ridiculed for insisting that Mystery Hill was a site of extreme antiquity. Carbon tests conducted on charcoal found alongside a stone pick and a hammer stone unearthed at an excavation near one of the underground chambers reveal a date of 2,000 B.C. The artifacts were clearly related to Neolithic pieces of the same era in the British Isles and Iberia. The excavation pit carbon tested had been undisturbed before digging and layers of strata above were perfectly intact.

Unfortunately, many of the other structures at the site were carted away, vandalized or destroyed yet what remains should be viewed as one of the most important historical sites in the Western Hemisphere. And Mystery Hill is not-by far-the only megalithic site in New England whose origins are somewhat clouded.

Megalithic constructions known as dolmens can be found all across New England, the western part of Europe and even into Syria and South Africa. Dolmen comes from the Breton word for stone table as the dolmens in many instances are three, four or five smaller boulders topped by an immense, flat topped boulder than can weigh any where from several tons to 90 tons. Many of these capstones are however roundish, dressed stones, and not flat topped.

The dolmen usually was erected to commemorate the death of a chieftain or an historical event of great importance and scriptural incisions usually accompany the dolmen on stone markers. Some experts believe that the dolmen was actually a tomb that was then covered in huge amounts of earth-in effect a tumulous tomb in which the earth has been eroded away. Dolmens are frequently occurring structures in the American north east. There are in fact over 200 examples of dolmens in New England alone and some very impressive examples can be found in our country as faraway as California.

Another frequently occurring megalithic structure familiar to all readers is the stone circle. We know of the great Stonehenge complex in England with its huge stones found there and the many calendrical alignments they delineate. But there are ancient stone circles in New England as well. Probably the most intriguing archaeological site in Connecticut is located in Groton and is called "Gungywamp," thought to be an ancient Indian name, but actually ancient Gaelic meaning, "Church of the People." Besides containing beehive chambers and petroglyphs, the Gungywamp site has a double circle of stones near its centre, just north of two stone chambers. Two concentric circles of large quarried stones-large slabs laid end to end-are at the centre of the site. Extensive fire burning on some of the slabs is apparent which leads many to believe it was an ancient altar. Nearby there are several large pillar stones and one boulder slab that have been carefully positioned along astronomical site lines.

Visiting the Gungywamp site on the afternoon of September 21st, Dave Barron, the head of the Gungywamp Society, saw a sight that he would never forget. He said,

"The setting sun had cast a beam of light through the vent shaft at the back of the chamber. This beam of light slowly moved down the east wall and spotlighted into the small beehive crypt near the entrance. This stone-lined tube was designed precisely to permit the Equinoctical sunset to fully penetrate the chamber's dark interior on only two days during the year-March 22nd and September 21. The high density of garnet in the stones magnified the intensity of the sunlight entering the chamber. It certainly acts as a predictable calendar. The Gungywamp site has been carbon dated to 600 A.D."

James Whittall had this to say about an astonishing megalithic site he viewed at LeBlanc Park in Lowell, Massachusetts:

"There I saw a sight I had not seen since my travels in the British Isles. Situated on a mound were weathered megalithic stones. I was filled with disbelief - it just couldn't be - Western Europe, yes, but here in Massachusetts - no. The reality of the scene was astonishing."

This oval mound was measured at 112 feet long by 56 feet wide. And the stones, as Whittall predicted, provided astronomical alignments. The monoliths were oriented east to west, and bearings of the sight indicated that it had been used to observe solar events.

The first observation was made on September 22nd, the fall equinox, from the highest stone on the western side from the peak of the eastern most stone. The sun set behind stone number four just as Whittall had surmised.

This article was originally published in The Barnes Review and is reprinted here in edited form with the kind permission of the author. The mission of The Barnes Review is "... To Bring History Into Accord With The Facts, in the tradition of the Father of Historical Revisionism, Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes. "

THE LOS LUNAS INSCRIPTION

AMERICA'S ancient Indians called it the "Cliff of the Strange Writings".It has been named Phoenician Rock or the Commandment Stone. It is called today Inscription rock. Located west of Los Lunas, New Mexico at the base of Mystery Mountain (also called Hidden Mountain) this rock has been raising some eyebrows.

The strange chiseled characters on the volcanic basalt rock were undecipherable by America's early European settlers and to the "native" Indians. (Hence, the mountain's name - Mystery).The local residents had been made aware, by the Indians, of the unusual inscription as early as the year 1800. Why is this rock causing such excitement?

The stone preserves an abbreviated form of the Ten Commandments as written in Exodus 20, which is very exciting, but what makes this stone an enigma is the fact that the writing is clearly Semitic in origin. The ancient Hebrew inscriptions were once thought to be a combination of Greek, Hebrew and Phoenician characters but now are clearly seen as a form of Hebrew writing dating to approximately 1000B.C.! The Greeks "borrowed" from the Phoenecian alphabet so the characters would be familiar. The Hebrews and the Phoenicians were neighbors which, in their trading environment, shared the same language and alphabet. The style of the characters is strikingly similar, almost identical, to that used on the Moabite Stone in the days of the Israelite kings Omri and Ahab. The Moab stone was engraved by captive Israelites for the Moabite king, Mescha, as per its own inscription. After examining the Los Lunas site geologist, George Morehouse, estimated the placement of this Decalogue inscription up to 3000 years ago, which would, again, date it around 1000 B.C. Just how were historians to explain how a seventy ton boulder with Hebrew inscription appeared on this mountain landscape in North America around 1000 B.C.?

Over two thousand years before Columbus "discovered" America there were people of Semitic origin in New Mexico worshipping the God of Israel. How can this possibly be reconciled with known history? It is seemingly apparent that the financial backing to launch a Hebrew-Phoenician voyage of world exploration could have readily occurred during the reign of King Solomon of Israel. Solomon worshipped the true God of Israel and had the means to fund explorative voyages to other lands. With Solomon's main port being located on the Red Sea it would be difficult to explain how his fleet would have entered America through the Atlantic drainage. (Reference note: 1 Kings 9:26, 27 "And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber,which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon".)

Tarshish , however, had access to the Atlantic. The reign of Solomon was enveloping the entire world. Israel's close neighbor, Phoenecia, and their expert navigators were working with the servants of Solomon from both countries' ports. The ships ofTarshish sailed extremely long voyages to bring back all kinds of raw materials and items (copper & other ores, flora & fauna samples, "exotic" animals, etc.). (Reference note:2 Ch 9:21 "For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Hiram: every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks".) It would help explain the need of three year journeys if the seamen had to cross the ocean to come to these far off isles in America. The fact that the trading ships of Phoenicia did have docks in ancient America can be proved from inscriptions they left behind. ( See Dr. Barry Fell's book America B.C. and also reading Steven M.Collins The "Lost" Ten Tribes of Israel...Found! is highly recommended) The Los Lunas site is located along the Puerco River which is tributary of the Rio Grande River. The Rio Grande is definitely in the Atlantic drainage. It would have been entirely possible forthe Hebrew-Phonecian sailors to access the area of the stone.

We must realize that our history was written by the Greeks (and Romans) and is told entirely from their self-glorifying viewpoint which sometimes tends to omit other nations' contributions to the world. Columbus didn't discover America. How is it that there were people (some of Semitic features) already living in America for centuries before Columbus? Ancient colonists and prospectors? Why is it that some of the words and alphabet characters of these ancients also resemble Hebrew or Ibunic-Phoenician? How is it that some of the same pagan gods and symbols were worshipped on both ends of the earth simultaneously? And is there any other explanation why the commandments of the God of Israel would be written in the middle of the North American continent in Hebrew characters?



The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone Photograph Dan Raber, Loudon TN

The inscription has been translated by the Epigraphic Society as follows::

I (am) Jehovah [the Eternal] Eloah [your God] who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim [Mizraim or the two Egypts] out of the house of bondages. You shall not have other [foreign] gods in place of (me). You shall not make for yourself molded (or carved) idols [graven images]. You shall not lift up your voice to connect the name of Jehovah in hate. Remember you (the) Sabbath to make it holy. Honor your father and your mother to make long your existence upon the land which Jehovah Eloah [the Eternal your God] gave to you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery (or idolatry).You shall not steal (or deceive). You shall not bear witness against your neighbor, testimony for a bribe. You shall not covet (the) wife of your neighbour and all which belongs to your neighbour.

The Los Lunas Commandment Stone is one of several proofs that exist in America that the ancients of Israel, including both the worshippers of the false gods such as Baal and of the True Eternal God, walked on this continent long before Columbus or any of the 14th century European explorers. It is also another proof that biblical history is accurate. In the past, when a "new" world kingdom came into power they had the option of re-writing how their history and the history of those in subjection to them would be remembered. It was not uncommon to strikeout the good things achieved by a former power that was now in subjection or exile. Or even to ascribe the glory of the former power's conquests to themselves. The Bible, and the history of Israel that it contains, is refreshingly honest in its history of battles won and lost. It does not cover up Israel's mistakes or captivities. God's word is truth. History's word is questionable. It is obvious that the writers of world history knew of these ancient travellers but neglected to tell the story of history from a neutral standpoint. Reality to each of us is what we are taught. Truth is what is absolute, beyond the perception of men and their "reality". History has some explaining to do. This is a witness of our faith as in Joshua 24:27:

"And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God."



"NOW UNTO HIM THAT IS ABLE TO KEEP YOU FROM FALLING, AND TO PRESENT YOU FAULTLESS BEFORE THE PRESENCE OF HIS GLORY WITH EXCEEDING JOY, TO THE ONLY WISE GOD OUR SAVIOUR, BE GLORY AND MAJESTY, DOMINION AND POWER, BOTH NOW AND EVER. AMEN."

JUDE 24:25 40

DID BRITONS VISIT 6th CENTURY AMERICA?

By

Jim Michael, Ancient Kentucke Historical Association, U.S.A.

COPPER Scrolls date from the post-Solomon era. Ancient peoples were not careless, stupid, or forgetful; they did not lose or neglect their records, alphabets, and histories, as those in academic sinecures would have us believe.We have to remember that when English-speaking peoples migrated to North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and elsewhere, they took their language, literature, alphabets, culture, and religion with them.

We are following the migration trail of a people who were first in Egypt until Moses led them out in around 1,360 BC.They dwelt in Israel until the Assyrian Emperors deported them from 730 to 700 BC, and moved them north in the region of Armenia, where they were referred to as the Khumry. Then, around 687 BC, they left in a mass-migration going westwards through the whole length of Asia Minor, arriving at the Dardanelles around 650 BC, when the Greeks called them the Kimmeroi.

From here, half the wandering nation went to Etruria, again about 650BC, and the other half finally sailed for Britain under Brutus around 504 BC. There, they
remained as the Khumry, and today, after 2,500 years, that is the name by which they are still known. They preserved their language and Alphabet, which allows us to trace their ancestral migration trails. The major problem which has confronted epigraphical researchers and archaeologists in the U.S.A. is an apparent set of
evidences which seem to indicate that there were a number of voyages of discovery made to America in remote antiquity.

A large number of claims have been made alleging that several ancient nations had contact with the Americas, and it is an understatement to add that this has made the professional archaeologists wary of the matter to the point of hostility. Anyone who has made a thorough study of ancient British history will realize that the discovery of what looks like a possible Carthaginian and North African presence might be anticipated in Ancient America.

In AD 406, a German confederation of Vandals, Sueves,and Alans crossed the Rhine into Gaul, smashed the Roman army, following up on the wholesale destruction of Gaul. The British King Constantine III, who had succeeded Arthur I, son of Magnus Maximus, assembled his army, and with his general, Gweraint, he
invaded Gaul, just as British forces entered Gaul-France in 1914, and again in 1939.

The objective both in the 5th and 20th Centuries was to restore the Western Empire and keep the German hordes away from the Channel and Britain.Constantine
III decisively defeated the German confederation, then penned it into the south of Gaul, and General Gweraint blocked the passes of the Pyrenees. In 411, he opened the passes, and the whole horde crossed south into Iberia.

The Sueves and the Mans seized much of Spain, the Vandals went further south, and in 422, led by their King Gaiseric, they crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into North Africa. The Vandals quickly seized all of North Africa, and made the cities of Carthage and Hippo their main bases. They built fleets, and, in a very short time, the Mediterranean became a Vandal lake. Rome was forced to surrender, and the German kings became known as the Kings of Africa.

For over a hundred years, the Vandals dominated the Mediterranean until, in 532, the Emperor Justinian of Constantinople seized an opportunity by sending his
general, Belissarius,to attack Carthage.The entireVandal army and fleets were away conquering Sardinia. Belissarius had only boys and old men to oppose him.
The Vandal King returned home with his army and found that he could not enter his own capital.

For fifteen years, a savage war was fought, devastating North Africa, and finally in, 548, the Vandal King gathered his huge fleets. He put his entire nation of some 165,000 men on board, then sailed to Ireland. Vandal war-fleets in excess of 500 ships were commonplace. King Arthur II assembled the British army and crossed over to southern Ireland to assist the kings descended from Ceredig son of Cuneda.

After one battle with the Irish army, the Vandals boarded their ships at night and crossed over intoWales, leaving the British King Arthur II and his armies behind in Africa.The British army followed the Vandals back to their homeland, and a savage campaign of pursuit followed, as the Vandals split up into nine groups in an
effort to secure enough food, while they moved eastwards across South Wales towards LIoegres.

A remnant of Vandals finally got across the river Severn. and moved east to settle in the East Midlands of what is now England, where they became known as the
Mercians. The Vandal-Mercian arrival in 548 means that there were large numbers of European people from Carthage and North Africa present in Britain when the
great island was devastated by comet debris in 562, just 14 years later. It is logical that some of these people would have been amongst the immigrants who sailed to North America with the fleet in 574.

All this is clearly set out in Artorivs Rex Discovered, written and published by Blackett &Wilson, in 1986. The discovery of what appears to be a North African or
Carthaginian presence in North America is both logical and expected. There was not a succession of migrations of discovery into North America in antiquity, but simply one well recorded and fully explained migration. The politically correct Establishment version of ancient British history invented in Oxford and Cambridge during the 1714 to 2004 era is total rubbish and hugely destructive. A large part of the British at the time of the comet catastrophe in 562 were descended from the Ten Tribes of Israel.

It is quite easy to establish an Egyptian connection for these people. Ancient British history is very well and precisely recorded, but it is neither studied nor researched. If the British descended from the Ten Tribes, then before they moved to Palestine under Moses, they were in Egypt. American researchers should not be surprised when they discover pictographs and rock carvings that appear to have a clear Egyptian provenance.

These again probably result from the migration to North America from Britain recorded in AD562, 573 and 574. To offer one clear example, modern American
researchers have found an assembly of pictographs on rocks that are known as the Rochester Creek Hieroglyphics. These very old illustrations bear a recognizable resemblance to ancient Egyptian figures, and are not unlike a very ancient, similar scene carved on a rock face in Britain. There is, therefore, a possible
link between Egypt and Britain, then on to North America.

This constantly brings matters back to the well recorded discovery of America by the British in the person of Madoc, son of Meurig, in AD562, followed by the exploratory voyage of Admiral Gwenon, and the sailing of a large fleet under King Arthur II son of Meurig in 574. Given the close association of the British with the
Roman Empire for a few hundred years, instead of claims of large numbers of unrecorded "discovery" voyages made by Romans, Carthaginians, Egyptians, "Hebrews," and so on, that have perplexed and angered many academics, there was probably only one well recorded set of voyages.

The cultural links that created the illusion of a long succession of successive discoveries can be demonstrated in detail. The blame lies squarely at the door of the London Establishment, whose representatives were hell bent on creating a new and vainglorious history suitable to the 19th Century. As for "Celts" in America, there were no "Celts" in Britain,and so there were none in America. An over enthusiasm for imaginary "Celts" and for vowelless Ogham has created a situation in which professional academics are unable to work with well-intentioned epigraphers.

It may be worth remembering that without epigraphy, we would know next to nothing of the ancient world, as we would not be able to read the records. An amateur, Georg Friedrich Grottefend, accomplished the near impossible by deciphering cuneiform. Another amateur made the first identification of Cleopatra and Ptolemy, allowing another amateur, Champollion, to make the first in-roads into deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Another amateur, an army engineer
named Rawlinson, deciphered Persian cuneiform. Another amateur, an architect named Michael Ventris, deciphered Linear B from Crete.

It is no accident that Wilson and Blackett are regarded as "amateurs," and yet they can read Etruscan, Rhaetian, Pelasgian,and other indecipherable records. The study of ancient history would be in a sorry state without the dedicated labours and accomplishments of "amateur" epigraphers.

Ancient American · Issue Number 59 §



ISRAEL REDEEMED

"He shall defend thee under his wings" - Psalm 91:4


Glory to Thee, thy God, this night
For all the blessings of the light;
Keep me, 0 keep me, King of kings,
Beneath Thine own almighty wings.

Forgive me, Lord, for Thy dear Son,
The ill that I have done;
That with the word, myself and Thee.
I, ere I sleep, at peace may be.

Teach me to live, that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed;
Teach me to die that I may
Rise glorious at the aweful day.

O may my soul on Thee repose,
And may sweet sleep mine eyelids close,
Sleep that shall me more vigorous make
To serve my God when I awake.

When in the night I sleepless lie,
My soul with heavenly thoughts supply;
Let no ill dreams disturb my rest,
No powers of darkness me molest.

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him,all creatures here below,
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. §

DID KING SOLOMON'S FLEETS VISIT AMERICA?

By

William F. Dankenbring, U.S.A.

IN ancient times, the Hebrews and Phoenicians used very similar scripts. There is a lot of confusion about this, with many believing that the Hebrews got their alphabet from the Phoenicians. At the same time, most scholars assert that Hebrew and Phoenician are virtually identical languages. The reason for the confusion is
the fact that the Phoenicians popularized their own script because of their trade operations throughout the Mediterranean, thus giving prominence, not historical precedence. to the Phoenicians. This has led to the popular but false conclusion that the Phoenican language preceded the Hebrew. Again, historians who do not take the Bible seriously get these things wrong.

In the words of Max Muller:

"The Semitic languages also are all varieties of one form of speech. Though we do not know that primitive language from which the Semitic dialects diverged, yet we know that at one time such language must have existed; but we can well understand how both may have proceeded from one common source. They are both channels supplied from one river, and they carry, though not always on the surface, floating materials of language which challenge comparison, and have already yielded satisfactory results to careful analysers."

The Bible tells us that, before the Tower of Babel incident, the known world had one form of speech. Since civilization sprang from the Garden of Eden into
Mesopotamia, we would have to assume that Adam, Eve, Cain, Seth, Enoch, etc., spoke a common language, which I call proto-Hebrew. The Hebrew people, and the language that they spoke, are named after our patriarch, Eber (Heber). But, of course, the language Heber spoke preceded Heber. Heber learned it from his family, who learned it from their ancestors.

Now, from Easton's Bible Dictionary, we have this statement:

The Phoenicians were the most enterprising merchants of the old world, establishing colonies at various places, of which Carthage was the chief. They were a Canaanite branch of the race of Ham, and are frequently called Sidonians, from their principal city of Sidon


Now, since Ham, Shem and Japheth were brothers, did they not speak the same language in Noah's household? Heber was Shem's great grandson. How much different could the language of the Hebrews and the Phoenicians have been under these circumstances? It was essentially the same language, but historians have assumed that "Phoenician" was the primary language and "Hebrew" the secondary language. Max Mueller is correct, the two languages are essentially dialects of an older language, which was spoken by Noah's family. Of this, there can be no doubt! If anything, paleo-Hebrew would be a purer form of the original speech, uncontaminated by Egyptian influences as the Phoenician certainly was. Therefore, the fact that the Phoenician alphabet achieved greater notoriety in the ancient world is not evidence that the Phoenician language is older than the Hebrew. If anything, the Phoenician is a dialect of paleo-Hebrew, not the other way around.

In the article below, it is obvious that the paleo-Hebrew inscriptions that have been found in America derive from the Hebrew-speaking Israelites of the ships of Solomon.

Did ancient Hebrews reach the shores of the North and South American continents thousands of years before Christopher Columbus? What evidence is there for Hebrew and Israelite occupation of the Western Hemisphere even a thousand years before Christ? Was trans-Atlantic commerce and travel fairly routine in the days of king Solomon of Israel? Read here the intriguing, fascinating saga of the TRUE DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA!

A stone in a dry creek bed in New Mexico, discovered by early settlers in the region, is one of the most amazing archaeological discoveries in the Western Hemisphere. It contains engraved on its flank the entire Ten Commandments written in ancient Hebrew script! Hebrew scholars, such as Cyrus Gordon of Brandeis
University near Boston, have vouched for its authenticity. I visited the site of the huge boulder, near Las Lunas, New Mexico, in 1973 and photographed the Hebrew inscriptions. A local newspaper reporter guided me to the mysterious site, located out in the middle of the New Mexico desert. We watched for rattlesnakes, as we hiked in to the spot where the boulder lies, unmoved and in situ for who knows how many mysterious centuries. Who put it there? Who wrote the incredible inscription of the TEN COMMANDMENTS in an ancient Hebrew dialect?

In his new book The Origins and Empire of Ancient Israel, author-historian Steven M.Collins points out that the "Las Lunas Stone" inscription in archaic Hebrew was written in the Hebrew letters of the style of the Moabite Stone, dated to about 1,000 B.C. This would place the writing on the stone to the time of the kingdom of ancient Israel under its most affluent and powerful king, Solomon, who reigned from 1014 B.C. to 974 B.C. Exactly how old the writing is, however, is not known. George Morehouse, a geologist, studied it and concluded it is between 500 and 2000 years old, based on the weathered patina on the rock. However, the inscriptions have received periodic scrubbings, says Collins, and therefore some of the ancient evidence of weatherisation could have been removed in the process. Collins points out that the punctuation in the inscription matches that found in ancient Greek manuscripts of the fourth century. Dr.Barry Fell states that separation points found in the artefact date to as early as 1200 B.C. Says Collins,

"In view of the above, this Las Lunas inscription predates the arrival of Columbus by at least a thousand years, but it most likely dates to the time of King Solomon for several reasons. The first reason is that the inscription is in the Paleo-Hebrew characters in use from approximately 1200-600 B.C., which includes the reign of King Solomon."

A second piece of evidence is what the inscription says! Since it is an inscription of the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses, it was obviously made by Israelites at a time when they worshipped the God of the Bible. Since the Kingdom of Israel quickly degenerated into pagan practices after the reign of Solomon, it argues that this inscription was made during the reign of Solomon when God's laws were the standard for the nation" (Steve Collins, Origins and Empires of Ancient Israel, pages 218-219).

We will demonstrate later in this article that sea voyages around the world were fairly common during the time of king Solomon, the son of David, during Israel's "golden age." Solomon's incredible wealth also strongly points to the Las Lunas stone inscription as having been carved during his reign. Financing sailing voyages of discovery and maritime trade is no small feat. Vast sums and investments are required. Solomon was the wealthiest king who ever lived, and undoubtedly had the resources to fund such far reaching and dangerous voyages.Also, during his reign Israel was in league with the other major world powers of the day, including Tyre
and the Phoenicians, and the nation of Egypt (Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh, thus cementing that alliance). Steve Collins writes:

''Another factor powerfully supporting a dating of this ancient Hebrew inscription to the time of Solomon are the economic and logistic realities in the ancient world. Transoceanic expeditions and colonization efforts in the ancient world required a very large commitment of monetary and human resources. The source of such resources had to be the king of a wealthy nation. Because the New Mexico inscription is in ancient Hebrew, the sponsor for that ancient expedition had to be a very wealthy king of the ancient Israelites! Solomon was the wealthiest ancient King of Israel, and he reigned at a time when the Israelites kept the Ten Commandments" (ibid., page 220).

The "Decalogue Tablet"

Another fascinating archaeological discovery in America is an ancient artefact bearing an old Hebrew inscription of the Ten Commandments unearthed in Ohio in 1860.The tablet also includes a scene of an individual-Moses-carved into the front of the tablet in considerable detail, holding the tablets of the Ten Commandments. This artefact was discovered in an ancient burial mound. The Hebrew inscription also has characteristics of the old Phoenician alphabets. Writes Steve Collins on this remarkable discovery:

''A Hebrew inscription with Phoenician features is exactly what ancient Israelite inscriptions should be like. The Israelites were close allies of the Phoenicians and shared a common culture and navy from the time of King David until the fall of Israel circa 721 B.C. Their artefacts would naturally exhibit the traits of both cultures."

Collins continues:

"While this artefact unearthed from an Ohio burial mound cannot be specifically dated, the alphabet used indicates that it was made by ancient followers of God who spoke Hebrew. While it would be tempting to date this artefact to the time of King Solomon, the fact that it was engraved with square Hebrew letters indicates a date several centuries more recent than the Los Lunas tablet, which exhibited the more ancient Paleo-Hebrew letters" (ibid., page 223-225).

The fact that the Decalogue was buried at the ancient grave site may be evidence of a strong Levitical presence with the early Israelite explorers. It was customary in
ancient times for explorers to be accompanied by priests and religious officials, and the Levites were the chosen tribe to officiate in religious matters in the Kingdom of Israel. It was their responsibility alone to conduct Temple services and to perform the duties associated with Temple worship, religious instruction and education, and sacrifice.
..
Evidence of Ancient Egyptians

Literally hundreds of inscribed Phoenician, Celtic and Basque stone grave markers have been found in Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania, dated to 800-600
B.C, over 2,000 years before the fateful voyage of Columbus! It must be said, therefore, that Christopher Columbus did not really "discover" America. Rather, he
and his intrepid sailors rediscovered the "New World"!

Incredible as it may seem, the presence of ancient Egyptians has been found in the writing system of the Wabanaki/Micmac Indians in Maine, a sub-tribe of the
Algonquins. It has even been documented, says Collins, that the ancient Egyptians sailed the Pacific Ocean as far as Polynesia and Hawaii, searching for gold, about 1,000 B.C.- during the very time of Solomon's Empire in Israel.

One proof of this fact is an inscription in ancient Ogam and Libyan - the language of Egyptian merchantmen - found near the Rio Grande River of Texas. The inscription states than an Egyptian-Libyan king by the name of Shishonq visited North America a number of times. It is translated as, ''A crew of Shishonq the king
took shelter in this place of concealment." Says Dr. Barry Fell, several kings of this name ruled Egypt and Libya between 1000 and 800 B.C.

Interestingly, the Bible itself mentions a king of Egypt by the name of "Shishak" ("Shishonq") who invaded the Kingdom of Judah during the time of Rehoboam, son of Solomon, after the kingdom of Israel separated from allegiance to the throne of David. Shishak was no doubt an ally of Jeroboam, the king of Israel, at that time.
He was a mighty king and plundered the Temple and riches of the kingdom of Judah (see I Kings 14:25-26).

Steve Collins declares:

"It is significant that Dr. Fell noted the time period of '1000-800 B.C.' as marking a period of significant Old World exploration of the New World. This time frame exactly parallels Bible records showing international travel and commerce flourished with fleets undertaking multi-year voyages and visiting other continents. This time frame begins with the reigns of Kings David and Solomon, but continues through much of the history of the northern kingdom of Israel, the dominant partner in the Phoenician alliance until Israel fell circa 721 B.C. The conclusion is inescapable that the record of ancient history verifies the biblical accounts. The Bible is not a detailed history of all that happened in the ancient world, but it confirms what archaeology and epigraphy have shown about the real state of commerce and travel in the ancient world" (Collins, page 227, emphasis mine except boldface).

Mystery Hill

More evidence of early Hebrew-Phoenician presence in North America hundreds of years before Christ was found in New England. At Mystery Hill, named for the
"mystery" concerning the origin of the site, in North Salem, New Hampshire, a large temple observatory site of about twenty acres was discovered by early colonial
settlers. It included shrines with dedications to the god Baal, a Phoenician-Canaanite deity condemned by the God of Israel. Dr. Barry Fell dated these inscriptions to about 800-600 B.C., a time of apostasy in ancient Israel. Radio-carbon dating of the site, however, indicates it was also inhabited back to the second millennium before Christ.

Such a site dedicated to Baal should be expected, since most of the kings of Israel, after David and Solomon, worshipped Baal and the Babylonian pantheon,
including Astarte (Easter), and Tammuz.

Early settlers used stones from the site as building materials for their own homes. Nevertheless, Barry Fell found enough conclusive evidence to demonstrate that the ancient site was composed of stone slab chambers and henge stones used for determining summer an winter solstices. Many temple dedications were found in the stone walls. Radio-carbon dating indicates the site was in use for hundreds of years, showing that the Phoenician-Hebrews had a strong and thriving colony in the NewWorld that endured through many centuries.

The Davenport Stele

More evidence of Hebrew-Phoenician explorers being present in the New World comes from a burial mound found in 1877 near Davenport, Iowa. Unfortunately, it was ignored for decades by scholars and historians because no one could read its inscription. Also, it was considered "suspect" because some of the signs on it resembled Hebrew, and others resembled Phoenician, and this was utterly contrary to prevailing scholarly opinion. Barry Fell has investigated this ancient stele and found itcontains joint inscriptions in three ancient languages - Iberian-Punic[related to Phoenician/Hebrew], Egyptian, and ancient Libyan.Why these three languages? During the time of King Solomon of Israel, the leading world alliance of the time was a triple alliance consisting of Israel-Phoenicia, Egypt, and Libya!

Comments Steve Collins, "These are the language groups of the triple alliance that the Bible reveals began in the reign of Solomon! Since this ancient stele confirms that these groups were travelling and working together in the interior of North America, it indicates that this alliance not only existed but also had a global reach!"(Collins, p.210).

Why would there be parallel inscriptions on the same stone, in Davenport, Iowa, in these ancient languages, unless these three nations had been working and exploring together?

Says Dr. Fell, "The date is unlikely to be earlier than about 800 B.C., for we do not know of Iberian or Libyan inscriptions earlier than this date. . . . It seems clear that Iberian and Punic speakers were living in Iowa in the 9th century B.C." (Fell, America B.C., page 268).

The terms "Iberian" and "Punic" refer to languages which are closely related to Hebrew/Phoenician. Dr.Fell noted the Phoenician "character" of the script on both
sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The Iberian peninsula (Spain) was at one time largely settled bypeoples of the tribes of Israel. In fact, the term "Iberian" comes from the Hebrew word "Eber," meaning "Hebrew"!

The Iowa stele indicates that the "triple alliance" begun in the days of Solomon, between Israel, Phoenicia,and Egypt/Libya, continued on into the 800s B.C. It
probably lasted until Israel was carried away into captivity in 721 B.C.by the growing Assyrian empire. The Bible states plainly that the northern kingdom of Israel, ruled by Ahab, was still "in bed" with Phoenicia during his reign, around 850 B.C. Ahab married the daughter of Hiram, king ofTyre, a woman by the name of Jezebel, a priestess of the Baal-Astarte abomination. The Jewish encyclopaedia tells us that Ahab was a very powerful king - one of the four greatest kings of all history! According to the Targum Sheni, four kings reigned over the entire world - and these did NOT include Alexander the Great. They were in order: Solomon, Ahab, Nebuchadnezzar, and Cyrus of Persia.

The Aggagah declares that Ahab was one of three or four kings who will have no portion in the world to come (Sanhedrin 10.2). Over the gates of Samaria he placed the inscription: "Ahab denies the God of Israel." Influenced by his wife Jezebel, he became an enthusiastic idolater like none before him. He left no hilltop in Israel without an idol before which he bowed. He substituted the names of idols for the divine Name of God in the Torah. Ahab is said to have ruled over the "whole world" and "his dominion extended over 252 kingdoms" (Encyclopaedia Judaica, "Ahab", vol.1, p.439).

Thus during the 800s, Israel was still a very powerful kingdom, and the triple alliance forged by Solomon with Phoenicia and Egypt was still going strong, in the hands of Ahab. An inscription noting this alliance, by being in three languages of the three kingdoms, found in Davenport, Iowa, attests to the fact of this continuing
and powerful entente. Ahab was a worldly despot whose wickedness was only surpassed by his foolishness. Nevertheless, he was still the most powerful monarch in the world during his time, and the triple alliance brought Israel great wealth and might. Writes Steve Collins:

"A date of 800-700 B.C. for this stele confirms that the triple alliance of Israel, Egypt and Phoenicia lasted long after the lifetime of King Solomon. The Bible records that the ten tribes of Israel forsook worshipping the Creator God after Solomon's death, and adopted the religious customs of Egypt, Tyre and Sidon. Biblical accounts show that Israel and Phoenicia were still very closely allied during the reign of King Ahab of Israel (circa 850 B.C.), and there is no evidence that their alliance suffered a breach until approximately 721 B.C., when Israel ceased to be a nation in the Mideast. . . . Therefore the Iowa stele showing that these ancient nations were still working together around 800 B.C.in the New World is consistent with biblical accounts" (ibid., p.212).

In addition to these discoveries, another stele exhibiting the ancient Egyptian-Libyan script was unearthed on Long Island, NewYork. Dr. Barry Fell states that it also probably dates to around the ninth century B.C. Still another amazing discovery was made in Oklahoma, where another stele was found which contained references to the gods Baal and Ra, with an inscription which was "an extract from the Hymn to the Aton by Pharaoh Akhnaton." Although the dating of
Akhnaton is purported to be in the 13th century B.C., new Egyptian dynastic dating methods indicate he was much closer to 800 B.C. Immanuel Velikovsky points out that Akhnaton was a member of the 18th dynasty in Egypt, which co-existed with the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah during the 800s B.C. He was a contemporary of king Jehoshaphat in Jerusalem, and reigned from 870-840B.C. (see Ages in Chaos, p.229). This Oklahoma stele is written in Iberian-Punic, a language descended from Phoenician-Hebrew, and Barry Fell declares that it is "scarcely older than 800 B.C." (see Collins, p.212, Fell, America B.C., p.159).

Peruvian Discoveries

In December, 1989, itwas reported that an American explorer in Peru's highland jungles had found evidence that indicated king Solomon's legendary goldmines may
have been in that region. The explorer, Gene Savoy, declared that he had found three stone tablets containing the first writing found from the ancient civilizations of the Andes. The inscriptions, he reported, are similar to Phoenician and Hebrew hieroglyphs! The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

"The hieroglyphs on the tablets are similar to those used in King Solomon's time and include one identical to the symbol that always appeared on the ships he sent to the legendary land of Ophir, which the Bible described as the source of his gold, Savoy said" (December 7, 1989).

Savoy is no newcomer to archaeological discoveries. He was the discoverer of the last Inca city of Vilcabamba in 1964. Savoy declared that the three tablets each weigh several tons and measure about 5 by 10 feet. They were found in a cave near Gran Vilaya, the immense ruins of the Chachapoyas Indian civilization which he discovered in 1985.

Hebrews in the Americas 1,000 B.C.?

In 1973, while travelling to do research for an article I was writing for The Plain Truth magazine, I visited with Dr.Joseph Mahan in Atlanta,Georgia, an expert in ancient Indian ethnology of the south-eastern Indians of the United States. He showed me samples of pottery uncovered from the waters around the Bahamas, and
told me of Indian legends, including that of the Yuchis, stating they had migrated to the area of Florida and Georgia from the region of the Bahamas. According to
their legends, the island sank beneath the sea and they fled for their lives.

These same Yuchis later migrated to the Oklahoma territory, where they eventually settled down. Amazingly enough, they show strong evidence that they had contact with the Old World in historic times. They have a custom which is unique among the American Indians. They are racially and linguistically different from their neighbours. Every year on the fifteenth day of the sacred month of harvest, in the fall, they make a pilgrimage. For eight days they live in "booths" with roofs open to the sky, covered with branches and leaves and foliage. During this festival, they dance around the sacred fire, and called upon the name of God. The ancient Israelites had the virtually identical custom, in many respects. In the harvest season in the fall, on the 15th day of the sacred month of harvest (the seventh month), they celebrate the "festival of booths" for eight days. During this time they lived in temporary booths, covered with branches, leaves, fronds. This festival goes back to the time of Moses and the Exodus from ancient Egypt (Leviticus 23).

How is it that two totally separated peoples observed the identical custom? The chances of this occurring by pure "accident" are equivalent to the chances of survival
of a snowball in hell!

Dr.Cyrus Gordon, of Brandeis University in Boston, was privileged to sit in on one of the fall harvest festivals of the Yuchi Indians, and listened to their chants, songs, and sacred ceremonies. An expert in Hebrew, Minoan, and many Middle Eastern languages, he was incredulous. As he listened, he exclaimed to his
companion, "My God! They are speaking the Hebrew names of God!"

Dr.Joe Mahan is a strong believer in cultural contacts between the Indians and the East, long before Columbus. He showed me a small tablet containing ancient cuneiform writing of the Babylonians. "This," he said, "was found not long ago by a woman digging in her flower bed, here in Georgia.The inscription appears to be genuine. There is no reason not to believe it is authentic."

Perplexing Mysteries

In "Quest of the White God", Pierre Honore points out similarities between the ancient Minoan writing and the script of the ancient Mayas. Independently of him,
other scholars have noted striking similarities between Aztec glyphs from Mexico, and Cretan glyphs on the Phaistos Disc from the island of Crete in the
Mediterranean. More and more, scholars are coming to admit that peoples from the Middle East reached the New World long before Columbus or the Vikings.One
stone, found at Fort Benning, Georgia, has unusual markings all over it. It is called the "Metcalf stone" in honour of its discoverer. In 1968 Manfred Metcalf was
looking for slabs to build a barbeque pit. Several strange looking, flat rocks caught his eye; he picked up a large flat piece of sandstone about nine inches long, brushed it off, and noticed odd markings on it. I saw the stone myself, and took photographs of it. Professor Stanislav Segert, professor of Semitic languages at the University of Prague, has identified the markings on the stone as a script of the second millennium before Christ, from the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete!

The inscription on the stone, Dr. Cyrus Gordon asserts, is in the writing style of Canaan, the promised land of the Hebrews. Concludes Gordon, whom I interviewed at his old, New England style home in the suburbs of Boston:

"There is no doubt that these findings, and others, reflect Bronze Age transatlantic communication between the Mediterranean and the New World around the middle of the second millennium B.C."

He said such discoveries prove beyond doubt ancient Jews came to the Americas long before Columbus!

Metcalf gave the stone to Dr. Joseph B. Mahan, Jr., Director of Education and Research at the nearby Columbus Museum of Arts and Crafts at Columbus, Georgia. Mahan sent a copy of the stone to Cyrus Gordon. Gordon reported:

"after studying the inscription, it was apparent to me that the affinities of the script were with the Aegean syllabary, whose two best known forms are Minoan Linear A, and Mycenaean Linear B. The double-axe in the lower left corner is of course reminiscent of Minoan civilization.The single vertical lines remind us of the vertical lines standing each for the numeral 'I' in the Aegean syllabary; while the little circles stand for '100'."

Concluded Gordon: "We therefore have American inscriptional contacts with the Aegean of the Bronze Age, near the south, west and north shores of the Gulf of Mexico.This can hardly be accidental; ancient Aegean writing near three different sectors of the Gulf reflects Bronze Age transatlantic communication between the Mediterranean and the New World around the middle of the second millennium B.C."

The middle of the second millennium B.C. would have been around the time of Moses and the Exodus of Israel out of ancient Egypt!

Gordon offers the exciting thought, "The Aegean analogues to Mayan writing, to the Aztec glyphs, and to the Metcalf Stone, inspire the hope that the deciphered scripts of the Mediterranean may provide keys for unlocking the forgotten systems of writing in the New World. A generation capable of landing men on the moon, may also be able to place pre-Columbian Americas within the framework of world history" (Manuscripts, summer of 1969).

The Brazllian Paraiba Stone

Further proof that transatlantic travel and communication existed in the BronzeAge, in the middle of the second millennium B.C., during the time of David and Solomon, and before, comes to us from South America. In 1872 a slave belonging to Joaquim Alves de Costa, found a broken stone tablet in the tropical rain forests of Brazil's Paraiba state. Baffled by the strange markings on the stone, Costa's son, who was a draftsman, made a copy of it and sent it to the Brazilian
Emperor's Council of State. The stone came to the attention of Ladislau Netto, director of the national museum. He was convinced of the inscription's authenticity and made a crude translation of it. Contemporary scholars scoffed. The very thought of Phoenicians reaching Brazil thousands of years before Columbus was viewed with disdain. Few scholars took the stone at all seriously. Ninety four years later, in 1966, Dr.Jules Piccus, professor of romance languages at the University of Massachusetts, bought an old scrapbook at a rummage sale containing a letter written by Netto in 1874, which contained his translations of the markings on the stone and a tracing of the original copy he had received from Costa's son. Intrigued, Dr.Piccus brought the material to the attention of Cyrus H. Gordon. Dr. Gordon, the head of the Department of Mediterranean Studies at Brandeis and an expert in ancient Semitic languages, as well as author of some 13 books, was amazed. He compared the Paraiba inscription with the latest work on Phoenician writings. He discovered that it contained nuances and quirks of Phoenician style that could not have been known to a 19th century forger.The writings had to be genuine!

Gordon translated the inscription as follows:

"We are Sidonian Canaanites from the city of the Mercantile King.We were cast up on this distant shore, a land of mountains. We sacrificed a youth to the celestial gods and goddesses in the nineteenth year of our mighty King Hiram and embarked from Ezion-geber into the Red Sea. We voyaged with ten ships and were at sea together for two years around Africa. Then we were separated by the hand of Baal and were no longer with our companions. So we have come here, twelve men and three women, intoNew Shore. Am I, the Admiral, a man who would flee? Nay! May the celestial gods and goddesses favour us well!"

The Navy of King Solomon

Cyrus Gordon believes the king mentioned in the script can be identified as Hiram III who reigned 553-533 B.C. The inscription seems to verify an unusual statement found in the Old Testament. We read in the first book of Kings:

"And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon" (I Kings 9:26-28).

In the days of Solomon there was an alliance between Hiram, the king of Tyre and the Israelites under Solomon. They were not only allies, but very friendly toward one another (IIChronicles2:2-12). Israelites and Phoenicians even worked together to build the Temple of God in Jerusalem (vs.13-18).This alliance included shipping together, although the Phoenicians were known to jealously guard the secrets of oceanic navigation from other nations.We read in II Chronicles 8, beginning verse 17:

"Then went Solomon to Ezion-geber, and to Eloth, at the sea side in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent him by the hands of his servants ships, and servants that had knowledge of the sea; and they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and took thence four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon" (v.I 7-18).

In the heyday of Solomon silver was "not any thing accounted of" (II Chronicles 9:20).We read,

"And the king made silver in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar trees made he as the sycamore trees that are in the low plains in abundance"(v.27).

Solomon had his own personal fleets and dominated world trade.

"And king Solomon passed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom" (v. 22).

There is archaeological evidence, in fact, that the fleets of Solomon and Hiram of Tyre circumnavigated the globe, sailing from Ezion-geber, a port at the terminus of the Red Sea, near modern Aqaba or Eliat! Hebrew customs, discovered by the early English settlers in the Americas,were found among some of the Indian tribes,
including the wearing of phylacteries!

Minoan and Phoenician coins have been found, and inscriptions of ancient Phoenician and Minoan scripts, in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and the Star of David
was even found in an ancient ruin of the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico! In the middle of the second millennium, B.C., and down to the time of Solomon, circa 1000B.C., oceanic travel by maritime powers in the Middle East seems to have been fairly common.

Steve Collins points out that there were a number of remarkable developments that occurred in the Middle East around 1000 B.C.- the time of King Solomon. At
that time Phoenicia suddenly developed new types of pottery that had no prototypes in the Late Bronze Age. At the time of king Solomon, the skills of the Phoenicians took a giant stride forward! Technology leaped forward during the time of Solomon. In fact, Solomon's genius launched a "Golden Age" for Israel and her chief ally, Phoenicia! The Bible tells us that "all the earth consulted Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart" (I Kings 10:24).The fact that technology suddenly surged forward at that same time speaks volumes of the influence and effect of Solomon's genius - he was a Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Isaac Newton, Robert Fulton and Albert Einstein all rolled into one!

Significantly, the modern alphabet - Greek, English and all European writing - can be traced back to the Phoenicians, who carried it wherever they travelled 3,000
years ago. The names of the Phoenician letters are Semitic - the Hebrew aleph, bet, gimel, dalet, etc., all correspond with the Greek alpha, beta, gama, delta, and the English A, B,C, D, and so forth. Phoenician has been shown to be nearly the same language as Hebrew! Declares Steve Collins,

"It is significant that 'in their earlier forms,' the Phoenician, Hebrew, Moabite, and North Aramean alphabets are 'practically identical.' When the phonetic alphabet was invented in this region around 1000 B.C., King Solomon ruled the Hebrews, Moabites and North Arameans [Syrians], and King Hiram of Tyre was his loyal ally. It would be logical that, at the time of its implementation, the alphabet would be virtually identical because these territories were all ruled by Israelite kings. The phonetic alphabet 'was developed and diffused' by the Phoenicians (the Israelite alliance with Tyre, Sidon, etc.) when they were the world's dominant alliance under Kings David and Solomon" (Origins and Empire of Ancient Israel, p.234).

This great explosion of knowledge, world exploration, and advancement occurred around 1000 B.C. - precisely at the time of the great Solomonic Empire in Israel, which extended its grasp and reach around the globe! The evidence is staggering - and phenomenal.

Amazing Discoveries in Mexico

Were Hebrews in the Americas long before Columbus? More evidence comes from the investigations of Dr. Alexander von Wuthenau, whom I interviewed at his home in Mexico City. His living room was filled to overflowing with terracotta pottery figures and objects d'art. In his book The Art of Terra Cotta Pottery in Pre-Columbian Central and South America, Dr.VonWuthenau published scores of photographs of these art objects. He tells of his astonishment, when he first noted that in the earliest, lower levels of each excavation he encountered - not typical Indian heads - but heads of Mongolians, Chinese, Japanese, Tartars, Negroes, and "all kinds of white people, especially Semitic Types with and without beards" (p. 49).



At Acapulco, von Wuthenau found that early Semitic peoples lived in considerable numbers. "The curious points about these essentially primitive figures are that, first, there is an emphasis on markedly Semitic-Hebrew features," he declared (p. 86). Female figures found in the region are also markedly Caucasian, with delicate eyebrows, small mouths and opulent coiffures.

Cyrus Gordon, who has studied the collection, points out:

"In the private collection of Alexander vonWuthenau is a Mayan head, larger than life-size, portraying a pensive, bearded Semite. The dolichocephalic ("long-headed") type fits the Near East well. He resembles certain European Jews, but he is more like many Yemenite Jews."

Near Tampico, the early Huastecan culture reveals portrait heads with a predominant Semitic, white element, but also Negroid features appear. At Veracruz,
meanwhile, a figurine of a female dancer possesses the features just like those of a Frenchwoman of Brittany! She wears a headdress reminiscent of Phoenician
fashion.Also at Veracruz a figure with a false beard, styled like an Egyptian beard, had a snake-like protrusion on the forehead. Again and again, figures with definite
Semitic features have been found. A sample of Maya ceramic painting shows a lady with a flower who has an undeniable Negroid character.

The figure has an affinity with Egyptian painting, says Wuthenau. yet it was not found along the Nile, but in Central America! On the Pacific coast of Ecuador, also,
evidence for the presence of early Hebrews has been found. Also discovered was a figurine of a lovely girl who wore a headdress with a remarkable Phoenician affinity. Other Ecuadorian heads show definite Semitic features. Clearly, the Semites penetrated a large part of the American continent in "prehistoric" times!

Discoveries in South America

In the past century, several Brazilians have found inscriptions on rocks along the Amazon river. Over a period of 50 years, four men, including two who were
scientists, uncovered inscriptions which they independently concluded were Phoenician in origin.The first man, Francisco Pinto, in 1872 found over 20 caves deep in the Brazilian jungle and uncovered about 250 strange inscriptions upon the rocks. He thought they were Phoenician, and Brazil's Director of History and Geography corroborated his suspicions. A German philologist who studied the markings in 1911 felt they were genuine.

In the 1880s, Ernest Ronan, a French scientist, combed the jungles and found several more inscribed stones. In the 1920s a scholar by the name of Bernardo da Silva discovered many more inscriptions along the Amazon. It makes good sense. It explains why the Mayans, who considered Quetzalcoatl as the bringer of their arts and laws, depicted him as being unusually blond!

When the Spaniards discovered the New World in the early sixteenth century, perhaps fifty million inhabitants lived in the Western Hemisphere, speaking over 900 languages. Such linguistic diversity has long puzzled scholars, and logically attests to a diversity of origins. Carleton S. Coon reported that the conquistadores "commented on Montezuma's light skin, but did not remark that this ruler rarely exposed himself to the bright sun." Coon adds: "George Catlin, in his portraits of the Mandan Indians, depicted some of them as blond. . . . Another case of allegedly aberrant Indians is that of the Pomo, Hupa, and neighbouring tribes in north-central California whose beard growth seems to have been Caucasoid when they were first seen" (Coon, The Living Races of Man, p.154).

Another mystery to ethnologists is the existence of a white skinned, red-bearded tribe discovered by builders of Brazil's Trans-Amazon Highway. Called the Lower
Assurinis because they live south of the route of the highway, they have ear lobes (which is uncharacteristic of other tribes), and their language differs from
traditional dialects in the region.

Sir Walter Raleigh in his History of the World mentioned that the Indians he encountered used many Welsh words long before the Welsh were known to have
come toAmerica. Linguistic studies prove that the Welsh language is very closely akin to ancient Hebrew!

The Mystery of New Zealand's Maoris

There is evidence among the Maori and people of eastern Polynesia that the sun was deified as Tane and that Ra, the sun god, was the tutelary god of Borabora. The Maoris, also, made use of ancient solar observatories.

''At Keriken, in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, there is a miniature Stonehenge, the blocks standing about 7 feet out of the ground; and near Atiamuri, north of Taupo, there are other great monumental blocks - some fifty of these still standing erect" (Maori Symbolism, p. 137).

Interestingly, ancient Maori traditions relate that since antiquity the Maoris have observed ceremonial and dietary laws very similar to those of the ancient Hebrews.
They even kept the seventh day "Sabbath" as a day of rest! Also, every 7 times 7 years - or 49 years - they observed a Jubilee Year similar to that of the ancient
Hebrews. These similarities simply cannot be explained away as "mere coincidence"! The Maoris, like the Hebrews, even had a "sacred month" given over to
Harvest thanksgiving, corresponding to the Hebrew month of Tishri and the Festival of Tabernacles.

Howcan these fascinating facts be explained? Such similarities must be more than mere coincidence. Like the Yuchi Indians of North America, the Maoris, at some
very early stage of history, must have come in contact with ancient Hebrew mariners, roaming the seven seas, who taught them Hebrew customs and left behind signs of Hebraic influence!

How was this contact achieved? Was the ancient world covered by a global cultural continuity, indicating a globe-girdling civilization?

Ancient Maps of the "Sea Kings"

In his book Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, Charles H. Hapgood tells of the Piri Re's map of 1513 A.D. Studies of this map show that it correctly gives latitudes and longitudes along the coasts of Africa and Europe, indicating that the original mapmaker must have found the correct relative longitude across Africa and across the Atlantic to Brazil .This amazing map gives an accurate profile of the coast of South America to the Amazon, provides an amazing outline of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico (supposedly not yet discovered!), and - incredibly enough - shows a part of the coast of the Antarctic Continent which was not discovered, in
modern times, until 1818!

This map does not stand alone. A world map drawn by Oronteus Finaeus in 1531 gives a truly authentic map of Antarctica, indicating the coasts were probably ice free when the original map was drawn (of which Oronteus Finaeus' map was a later copy). The Oronteus Finaeus map was strikingly similar to modern maps of
the Antarctic. How could this be?

Another fascinating map is the map of Hadji Ahmed of 1559. It is evident that the cartographer had some extraordinary source maps at his disposal. Says Hapgood:

"The shapes of North and South America have a surprisingly modern look, the western coasts are especially interesting. They seem to be about two centuries ahead of the cartography of the time. . . . The shape of what is now the United States is about perfect" (p.99).

Another map of the Middle Ages, the Reinel Chart of 1510 - a Portuguese map of the Indian Ocean - provides a striking example of the knowledge of the ancients. Studying the identifiable geographical localities and working out from them, Hapgood was astounded to find that "this map apparently shows the coast of Australia. . . The map also appeared to show some of the Caroline Islands of the Pacific. Latitudes and longitudes on this map are remarkably good, although Australia is shown too far north" (ibid., p.134).

How can such remarkable accuracy on these ancient maps be explained? Obviously, at an earlier period of earth's history, seafaring nations must have travelled
around the world and accurately mapped the major continents, and fragments and copies of their ancient maps survived into the Middle Ages and were copied again. Concludes Hapgood:

"The evidence presented by the ancient maps appears to suggest the existence in remote times. . . of a true civilization, of a comparatively advanced sort, which either was localized in one area but had worldwide commerce, or was, in a real sense, a worldwide culture" (p.193).

How advanced was this ancient culture? Says Hapgood,

"In astronomy, nautical science, mapmaking and possibly shipbuilding, it was perhaps more advanced than any state of culture before the 18th Century of the Christian Era."

He continues: "It was in the 18th Century that we first developed a practical means of finding longitude. It was in the 18th Century that we firstaccurately measured the circumference of the earth. Not until the 19th Century did we begin to send out ships for purposes of whaling or exploration into the Arctic or Antarctic Seas. The maps indicate that some ancient people may have done all these things" (Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, p.193).

What Ancient Society Could Have Been Responsible?

The evidence is overwhelming. The Semitic features discovered in Mexico and South America, the Hebrew and Phoenicians inscriptions, the Hebrew religious
customs found in the Americas, and similar customs in far off New Zealand among the Maoris of ancient times, all attest to the fact that worldwide oceanic travel, trade and commerce was occurring during the time of the Solomonic Empire!

Hapgood says such mapmaking would indicate economic motivations and vast economic resources. Further, organized government is indicated, since the mapping of a continent such as Antarctica implies much organization, many expeditions, and the compilation of many local observations and maps into a general map under central supervision. He adds that it is unlikely that navigation and mapmaking were the only sciences developed by this ancient people. Such a comprehensive
enterprise could only have been achieved during a relative time of world peace, and by a very powerful and extremely wealthy kingdom! What ancient kingdom
could have accomplished this?

Biblical Evidence Confirms It

Based on Biblical evidence, from the Scriptures, there can be no doubt. The ancient Israelite kingdom of king Solomon, noted for its wealth, peace, and power, and
incredible trade empire, must have laid the foundation for a global commercial maritime culture extending its reach around the world. Traces of this ancient world - wide culture have been found almost everywhere - worldwide evidence in archaeology, inscriptions, monuments, Hebrew customs, language similarities, and
religious practices.

God spoke of ancient Phoenicia to the prophet Ezekiel, about 600 B.C.,

"And say to Tyre, O you who dwell at entrance to the sea, who are merchants of the peoples of many islands and coastlands. . . The inhabitants of Sidon and [the island] of Arvad were your oarsmen; your skilled wise men, O Tyre, were in you, they were your pilots.The old men of Gebal [a city north of Sidon] and its skilled and wise men in you were your calkers; all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in you to deal in your merchandise and trading" (Ezekiel 27:3, 8-9).

"Your rowers brought you out into the great and deep waters; the east wind has broken and wrecked you in the heart of the seas. . .When your wares came forth from the seas, you met the desire, and the demand, and the necessity of many people; you enriched the KINGS OF THE EARTH with your abundant wealth and merchandise. Now you are shattered by the seas. . ." (vs.26, 33-34, Amplified Bible).

This sounds like the description of a globe-girdling nautical nation - one which brings its wealth from afar!- one which travels throughout the entire earth in its quest for material goods and trade!

During the time of Solomon, we also read in the Bible:

"For the king [Solomon] had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks" (I Kings 10:22).

It is significant that Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigated the globe, requiring three years - from 1519-1522. It is also meaningful that Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world, took three years to do so (1577-80). Their voyages required three years to complete - just like Solomon's fleets!

"You Resemble a Sinner of Canaan!"

Mariano Edward Rivero and John James von Tschudi in Peruvian Antiquities (1857) point out that after the most thorough examination and minute comparison, the religious rites of the American Indians plainly present many points of agreement with those of the Hebrew people (p.9). Continue these authors:

"Like the Jews, the Indians offer their first fruits, they keep their new moons, and the feast of expiations at the end of September or in the beginning of October; they divide the year into four seasons, corresponding with the Jewish festivals. . . . In some parts of North America circumcision is practised. . .There is also much analogy between the Hebrews and Indians in that which concerns various rites and customs; such as the ceremonies of purification, the use of the bath... fasting, and the manner of prayer. The Indians likewise abstain from the blood of animals, as also from fish without scales; they consider divers quadrupeds unclean, also certain birds and reptiles, and they are accustomed to offer as a holocaust the firstlingsof the flock" (ibid.).

Amazing - but true! All these parallels cannot be mere coincidence! Can anyone in their right mind consign these incredible "links" and "similarities" to be nothing more than mere "accident"?

Say Rivero and von Tschudi: "But that which most tends to fortify the opinion as to the Hebrew origin of the American tribes, is a species of ark, seemingly like that of the Old Testament; this the Indians take with them to war; it is never permitted to touch the ground, but rests upon stones or pieces of wood, it being deemed sacrilegious and unlawful to open it or look into it. The American priests scrupulously guard their sanctuary, and the High Priest carries on his breast a white shell adorned with precious stones, which recalls the Urim of the Jewish High Priest: of whom we are also reminded by a band of white plumes on his forehead" (p.9-10).

These two reputable scientists of the last century also point out,

"The use of Hebrew words was not uncommon in the religious performances of the North American Indians, and Adair assures us that they called an accused or guilty person haksit canaha, 'a sinner of Canaan'; and to him who was inattentive to religious worship, they said, Tschihaksit canaha, 'You resemble a sinner of Canaan'" (ibid.).

Why Should It Seem Strange?

Though such evidence does not prove that the Indians themselves were Jews or Israelites, it does show that long before Columbus, Hebrews had reached the New World and had left their imprint upon its inhabitants. There undoubtedly was intermarriage. Such incredible parallels are beyond the remotest possibility of being due to mere chance!

Why should it seem strange that peoples of the ancient world - in particular Phoenicians and Hebrews - reached the New World and travelled to South America, and even crossed the Pacific? Is it really so incredible? The trouble is, most of us of the present generation have been brainwashed to think that the ancients were merely superstitious savages, terrified of sailing out to sea lest they fall off the edge of the earth.

But the Phoenicians had already sailed out beyond the "Pillars of Hercules" (Straits of Gibraltar) by 1200 B.C. They developed the keel, streamlined their ships, covered the decks, and improved the sail. Their ships were from 80-100 feet long and used a single square sail besides oars. Their ships could average 100 miles in a day's time (24 hours). They were busy traders. Commerce was their principal aim. Tyre and Sidon, their home ports, were cities of immense wealth. Did ancient Phoenicians reach the New World? The evidence is inescapable. Also interesting is the fact that the Quichua word for the sun, Inti, may very likely be derived from the Sanscrit root Indh, meaning "to shine, bum, or flame" and which corresponds to the East India word Indra, also meaning "the sun." It is also significant that the pre-Incas worshipped the invisible, Creator God, the Supreme Being, by the appellative Con, very similar to the Hebrew Cohen, the word for "priest," from the root Kahan meaning "to meditate in religious services, to officiate as a priest."

When all is said and done, Rivero and von Tschudi declare:

"It cannot be denied, that the above tradition of the creation of the world, by the invisible and omnipotent Con, the primitive happy state of men, their corruption by sin, the destruction of the earth, and its regeneration, bears a distinct analogy to the Mosaic chronicle of the earliest epoch of the history of the human race ..." (Peruvian Antiquities, p.149).

The Gold of "Ophir"

In the book of Isaiah we read the enigmatic statement:

"I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir" (Isaiah13:12).

Where was the legendary "Ophir"? What was this "golden wedge"?
..
The Hebrew word for "wedge" is leshonah and refers to a "tongue," an instrument of some kind. The wedge of gold was, then, a bar or instrument of gold - literally, a "tongue of gold." What could this "tongue" of gold have been? The gold of Ophir was not a scarce commodity since Solomon received 44 tons of it in a single year. Ophir was a place famous for its gold. Could it be that Isaiah was referring to a particular instrument of gold - something famous in Ophir?

The Inca Empire was famous for the quantity and quality of the gold it produced. The Incas of modern Peru have a tradition that their earliest king was Pirua Paccari Manco. In modern Quichua Pirua means a granary or storehouse. The first dynasty of kings, called the Pirua dynasty, included the first eighteen kings in the king list.One of the commonest titles of the early kings was Capac which means "Rich." One of the first kings was Manco Capac who founded the city of Cuzco ("Navel" in the special language of the Incas). Manco Capac is generally regarded as the progenitor of the Incas.

Legends of the Incas tell us that he got rid of his three brothers and led the people of Cuzco. Says Markham,

"He took with him a golden staff. When the soil was so fertile that its whole length sank into the rich mould, there was to be the final resting place" (Markham, The Incas of Peru, p.50, 53).

Another story calls this golden staff a "sceptre of gold about a yard long and two fingers thick" (Markham, Royal Commentaries of the Incas, p.64). Could this have been the "golden wedge" or "tongue" of Ophir?

John Crow relates another tradition of the ancient Incas.

"It is the story of "the Golden Wedge", according to which the Sun, wearied of the crude, barbaric ways of the uncivilized Indians, sent two of his children, a son and a daughter, to lift them from their primitive life. Placed on the earth near the banks of Lake Titicaca, these two children of the Sun were given a golden wedge which they were to carry with them wherever they wandered; and on the spot where this wedge sank without effort into the ground and disappeared they were told to found their mother city. When the divine pair reached the vicinity of Cuzco, their talisman slid into the earth and vanished from sight" (The Epic of Latin America, p.25).

Was this mysterious talisman - this "golden wedge" - the same thing mentioned by the prophet Isaiah - the "golden wedge of Ophir"? There is a close resemblance between the Pirua dynasty and the Hebrew word Ophir. In Hebrew, Ophir ("ph" can be pronounced either as an "f" or a "p") was the name of a place rich in gold (I Kings 9:28); sometimes the term Ophir was used for gold (Job 22:24). Ancient Peru would certainly fit the Biblical description of Ophir. It was famous for its gold. In the Temple of the Sun in Cuzco was a fantastic display of wealth. The four inside walls were covered with paper-thin sheets of gold. A giant golden figure of the Sun hung suspended over the main altar.

A huge silver room was dedicated to the Moon. Surrounding the Temple of the Sun and several chapels was a huge stone wall, covered with a cornice or crest of gold a yard wide. Inside the Temple were decorations of gold and silver flowers, plants and animals. The Spaniards sacked the Temple and seized all the gold and
silver ornaments.

From 1492 to1600 about two billion pesos' worth of gold and silver flowed out of Spain's New World colonies - at least three times the entire European supply of
these precious metals up to that time. The total production of gold and silver in the Spanish colonies between 1492 and 1800 has been estimated at six billion
dollars.

Historian Fernando Montesinos visited Peru from 1629-1642, a century after the conquest by the Spaniards. He travelled fifteen years through the country collecting
material for a history of Peru. Montesinos wrote Ophir de Espana, Memorias Historiales y Politicas del Peru. He believed Peru was the Ophir of Solomon. He contended that Peru was first settled by Ophir, the grandson of Noah (Genesis 10:29).

Montesinos has been ridiculed and derided by historians. But since the early settlers of Peru were white-skinned and red-bearded; since there was abundant gold in the region; since the name of the Pirua dynasty corresponds to the Hebrew Ophir; since the voyages of Solomon's fleet took about three years to complete; and
since the "golden wedge" of Ophir could very well correspond to the "golden wedge" of Manco Capac; and since there is so much overwhelming evidence of
cultural contacts betweens the ancient Peruvians and the Israelites, with close affinities in cosmology; and since there is definite evidence of the presence of ancient
Semitic peoples in Peru, Equador, and the Western Hemisphere - the evidence is very compelling that Montesinos was right on the mark! There is strong reason to believe that Peru was the ancient Ophir of the Bible! Why Such Ignorance?

When we examine all the evidence, the picture comes startlingly clear. Ancient Hebrews sailed to the Western Hemisphere 2,500 years before Columbus. Much of this knowledge has been lost to mankind. But now a great deal of it is being rediscovered. The ancient Israelites were here before us! They left signs of their presence everywhere - in customs, language, religious similarities, archaeological artefacts, and even the Ten Commandments inscribed on a remote stone in a dry
creek bed in New Mexico!

Why is the modern world so intolerably ignorant of all these astonishing facts and discoveries? Why are modern scholars still hiding their eyes from the truth, and burying their heads in the sand of ignorance? Could it be because they don't want to admit the incredible authenticity and reliability of the Scriptures, the Word of
God?

Could it be because they are filled with pride and arrogance, and don't want to admit that they have been wrong - so very wrong - all these years and decades?
Could it be because of their human heart, of which Jeremiah states:

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah17:9, NIV).

Could it be - as the apostle Paul warned and wrote so plainly - because modern scholars and historians are afflicted by a terrible spiritual "virus"? As Paul declared, speaking of the world's most eminent historians and scholars,

"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all godlessness and wickedness of men WHO SUPPRESS THE TRUTH by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are WITHOUT EXCUSE.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish heart was darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, THEY BECAME FOOLS and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen" (Romans 1:18-25, NIV).

God says of those who refuse to accept the hard evidence, the clear proof, of His Word and how true history and archaeology confirm and support His divine
revelation in the Scriptures,

"But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God will give to each person according to what he has done" (Romans 2:5-6).

It is a fact that it is probably ten times more difficult to unlearn an error than to simply learn the truth. When people have been steeped in error and false reasoning and erroneous concepts for decades, it is hard for them to get the cobwebs and blinders from their eyes, and to admit the plain, clear, convincing, compelling, and crystal pure truth!

Dr. Barry Fell has stated that some archaeologists are so deeply in denial about the realities of ancient America that they tried to dismiss ancient writing and inscriptions as being nothing but "accidental markings made by ploughshares and roots of trees" and "colonial stone cutting drills" (America B.C., p.50-51) Large boulders piled on top of one another as ancient dolmens or megalithic monuments - found throughout New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massachusetts, paralleling similar monuments found across the Atlantic in Europe - have been ridiculed as being nothing but glacial "erratics" (Fell, ibid., p. 130-131).

As Steve Collins says,

"It is unfortunate that some in modern academia have resorted to such unscholarly, fanciful extremes to maintain a state of denial regarding the evidence of Old World civilizations in ancient America. As a result, the exciting story of ancient America's history has been largely withheld from the American public" (Collins, p.208).

He goes on,

"Unfortunately, the concept that 'Columbus discovered America in 1492' has become such a cherished dogma that it now commands an almost superstitious devotion from modern academics. Columbus was a very brave mariner, but he was clearly preceded by other discoverers and colonists from the Old World who settled the New World millennia before Columbus. Columbus' voyage was a courageous effort re-establishing NewWorld links after the Dark Ages, but it is now known that such links commonly existed prior to the Dark Ages" (ibid.).

· Why does the world stand in denial of this awesome discovery?

· Why does modern academia ridicule this subject, or shove it under the rug and ignore it?

· Why, indeed!

Paul declares,

"Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife,deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them" (Romans 1:28-32, NIV).

There is a day of judgment coming - a day of reckoning - in which every human being will have to give account. Those who suppress the truth will be held accountable. Those who study it, accept it, and proclaim it, will be wonderfully rewarded. Speaking about the blindness of our modern age, the apostle Paul speaks of those who are "always leaming but never able to acknowledge the truth" (II Timothy 3:7). He warned that "evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived" (II Timothy 3:13). Many people will "turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths" (II Timothy .4:4)When God separates the lovers of truth from followers of lies - where will you stand?

The Oronte Finaeus Map of 1531

The Oronte Finaeus world map was drawn in 1531, just 49 years after Columbus discovered America! Obviously, nobody would have been able to draw a world map at that time - unless they had access to ancient maps of a long-forgotten age of mapmaking and world discovery and exploration. The map reveals an
astonishing outline of the continent Antarctica, amazingly similar to modern maps. Where did this amazingly accurate knowledge come from?

Charles Hapgood, who discovered these ancient maps, says they were created by an ancient worldtravelling kingdom or culture - a civilization that obviously spread its influence around the world and made the original maps showing the seas, oceans, and land masses of the earth at that period of time. What civilization or culture could it have been? Such travel and exploration requires not only an adventuresome spirit, and courage, but knowledge of shipbuilding, navigation,and immense treasures of wealth to support such ventures. Could it have been the immensely wealthy kingdom of Solomon, son of David, who reigned for forty years over Israel about 1,000 B.C., during a time of world peace? His allies of that time, solidified by marriage, were the kingdoms of Egypt and Phoenicia. This tripartite alliance circumnavigated the globe, and fostered a "golden age" of world peace, world trade, commerce, and cultural advancement.

The Piri Re'is Map of 1513

The Piri Re'is map correctly provides longitudes and latitudes along the coasts of Africa and Europe and an accurate profile of the coast of South America to the
Amazon River and provides an astonishing outline of the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, not yet "discovered" by contemporary explorers.

Ancient Buache Map of Antarctica and the Southern Polar Region

This ancient map dating from the Middle Ages shows cartographic knowledge far ahead of its time. Charles Hapgood, in "Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings",
demonstrates that maps similar to this one must have been created by ancient mariners who circumnavigated the globe of the earth in their exploration and quest for
riches. This particular map is known as the Buache map. Notice that when this map was originally drawn, there was a water passageway through the middle of the
continent of Antarctica!

Professor Charles Hapgood states,

"The evidence presented by the ancient maps appears to suggest the existence in remote times. . . of a true civilization, of a comparatively advanced sort, which either was localized in one area but had worldwide commerce, or was, in a real sense, a worldwide culture."

Could this "true civilization" not have been the Solomonic empire of the kingdom of Israel, which ruled the world as the most advanced nation on earth about the beginning of the first millennium before Christ? Other spine-tingling evidence of archaeology supports this conclusion. Charles Hapgood was definitely onto something - something extraordinary!

Amazing Discoveries

The Davenport Stele, found in a mound near Davenport, Iowa in 1877, is similar to the Rosetta stone found in Egypt in that it contains three parallel languages
from the Old World -Iberian-Punic, related to Hebrew, Egyptian and ancient Libyan.

The Long Island Inscription also contains Egypto-Libyan script and, according to Dr. Barry Fell, dates to about the ninth century B.C. Fell noted clear similarities between the written script of the Algonquin Indians and ancient Egyptian.

The Ten Commandments Engraved in Ancient Hebrew Script on the Las Lunas Stone, found in New Mexico

In a desolate region of New Mexico near Las Lunas, early explorers discovered a bizarre, unique stone engraved with peculiar script lying in an ancient riverbed.
Dr. Cyrus Gordon of Brandeis University, an expert in ancient Middle Eastern languages, pronounced the script as being authentic ancient Hebrew! The script is
an ancient rendition of the Ten Commandments, suggesting that early Hebrew explorers reached the interior of New Mexico in their explorations, and left this
monument - as tell tale evidence of their passing through. The stone inscription most likely dates to circa 1,000 B.C., the time of king Solomon, who was the
wealthiest monarch in the world and whose sailing fleets circumnavigated the globe, taking three years to complete a voyage. Solomon was a great genius, an avid
explorer of the secrets of nature, and his ships brought back incredible treasures from around the world. Dr. Barry Fell states that the script on the Las Lunas Stone was written in script of Hebrew identical to that on the Moabite Stone which dates to about 1,000 B.C., the time of king Solomon. Nuances of the ancient Hebrew on the stone prove the script was not carved as a modern day hoax by practical jokesters. During the reign of Solomon ancient Israel was still a God-fearing and worshipping kingdom, and Levitical priests undoubtedly accompanied explorers on their far-flung expeditions of discovery and trade.