blog.Tribulationperiod.com

February 15, 2018

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

APRIL 20, 2010

FROM “TRIBULATION BIRTH PANGS FROM THE BOTTOMLESS PIT”

CHAPTER 5- CHALAZA, PUR AND HAIMA

Revelation 16:18-21
And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. [19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. [20] And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. [21] And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

Verses eighteen and nineteen announce the occurrence of great worldwide earthquake activity, and then go on to describe some of its universal (cities of the nations fell) and local (the great city was divided into three parts) effects. Verse twenty then gives a visual observation of what is producing the effects of verses eighteen and nineteen: the visible movement of the islands and mountains atop the great shifting crust of the earth. This great shifting of the crust producing the earthquake activity of verses eighteen and nineteen will simultaneously be creating the phenomenon described in verse twenty-one.

The “hail” of verse twenty-one is not made of ice. These tal­ent approximated chunks of matter are hot volcanic rocks thrown high in the heaven where the birds fly to eventually come down on sinful mankind as a plague of fire. There are three heavens portrayed in the Scriptures: the heaven where the birds fly (atmosphere); the heaven where the sun, other stars, and the planets exists; and the Heaven where God dwells. Verse twenty-one is an observation of those regions of the heav­ens containing this planet’s atmosphere. The King James trans­lators in 1611 correctly supplied the word “stone” rather than “hailstone” to describe the true contextual meaning of the Greek word chalaza.

The word “hail” appears only four times in the entire New Testament, and all four appearances are limited to the book of Revelation. By a process of abridgment the basic meaning of the word chalaza has been lost in a great surge of definition by com­mon usage, which began about the time of the Civil War. The original Greek lexicons of the New Testament were monstrous­ly large, far too enormous to conveniently carry from class to class or place to place. For this reason a historical process of abridgment has gradually reduced the first lexicons to about one fourth of their original size. In order to shorten lexicons to their present day volumes, it was necessary to select those seemingly non-essential Greek words with long definitions for particularly close trimming and chalaza was just such a word; a word appearing only four times in the Scriptures and pos­sessing a lengthy variety of meanings.

In today’s modern era of rapid technological development, vast improvements in the area of creature comfort have slowly given rise to what is now the generally accepted idea: new is better than old. This, of course, is true in most aspects of learn­ing: knowledge of today is better than that of yesteryear. But this idea must be rejected when considering the true meaning of a biblical word. The farther back in time one is able to track the meaning of a word, the closer he or she comes to what the writer meant when he wrote it. In paragraphs that follow, the history of the word chalaza will be unveiled back to the most authoritative lexicons ever written.

Most preachers and commentators after the Civil War began to teach uniformly that the “hail” of Revelation was in the form of ice. Primarily because of this common usage, virtually all new post-Civil War publications simply abridged away the orig­inal basic meaning of the word chalaza. All of the following pop­ular reference publications were abridged in part from post-Civil War sources, and merely list chalaza as “hail”: Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, The Analytical Greek Lexicon, and Strong’s Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament.

Now, please carefully examine the following definitions extracted from pre-Civil War sources from which the post-Civil War sources were abridged.

1857—A Critical Lexicon & Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament by E. W. Bullinger.
(1) Chalaza—something let go, let fall.

1843—A Greek-English Lexicon compiled by Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, based on the work of Franz Passow in his lexicon of 1819.
(1) A pelting shower of anything.

(2) Any small knot like a hailstone.

(3) A knot or hard lump.

(4) A bituminous rock.

1836—A Greek & English Lexicon of the New Testament by Dr. Edward Robinson.
(1) In the proper sense, not figurative, something let go, let fall.

1826—A Comprehensive Lexicon of the Greek Language by Dr. John Pickering.
(1) A precious stone.

1819—A Lexicon of the New Testament by Franz Passow.
(1) Strictly, that which is let loose.

The writings of the early Greeks clearly reveal that the usage of chalaza was not limited to a frozen ball of ice that fell from the heavens. The word chalaza was used by Sophocles, Aristotle, Athenaeus, Theophrastus, Orphica, and Plutarchus to describe the following things:

(1) a knot, (2) a hard lump, (3) a pelting shower of anything, (4) a bituminous rock, (5) a stone that resembles a hailstone, and (6) anything that falls from the heavens.

The 1819 lexicon by Franz Passow is recognized as the grandfather of modern day lexicons even though it was based on the 1797 lexicon of Johann Gottlob Schneider. The noun cha­laza comes from the verb chalao, which means “to let down from above.” Chalaza is whatever happens to be let down from above. Passow’s 1819 definition states its full, basic meaning best:

“Strictly, that which is let loose.”

The four occurrences of chalaza in Revelation do not picture balls of ice being let down, but rather stones of fire from mas­sive volcanic eruptions produced by a fantastic shifting of the plates. A further validation of this statement may be made by an interpretation of Revelation 8:7:

Revelation 8:7
The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

Please note in figure 3 that many of the great cracks in the crust of the earth pass across large segments of the earth’s dry land mass. What John observes as recorded in verse seven is the opening of these plate boundaries to allow massive showers of hot, burning pyroclastic material to shower down upon the dry land masses. The word chalaza appears as “hail” in this verse, but this chalaza is not made of ice, for ice does not mix with the literal Greek word used for “fire” (pur), nor does it burn up trees or green grass. Because God sent a plague of hailstones and fire against the Egyptians in the Old Testament as one of the ten plagues, most commentaries link this verse in Revela­tion to that event and thereby identify the fire as lightning. I can see the reason for this common interpretation, but I hearti­ly disagree with it. The reason for my disagreement is dramat­ically portrayed by what appears in the preceding two verses of chapter eight.

Revelation 8:5-7
And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. [6] And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. [7] The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

Please note in verse five that the word “lightning” appears. This is a translation of the Greek word aetrapai, which means “vivid flashes of static electricity,” a very common phenomenon produced by volcanic eruptions. Why am I so sure that the word “fire” in verse seven is not lightning? Because an entirely dif­ferent word from astrapai is used in verse seven as God’s Holy Spirit causes John to use the word pur, which means, “a visible heat flame evolved by ignition and combustion.” The Holy Spirit would not have caused John to use astrapai for light­ning” in verse five and then suddenly cause him to use an unre­lated word like pur for lightning in verse seven. John reported exactly what he saw. He saw lightning in verse five and he saw fire in verse seven.

The Greek word for “blood” in verse seven is haimati, which can mean any one of three different things: (1) real blood, (2) the blood-red color taken on by an object, (3) any form of liquid hav­ing a blood-red color. The Hebrews had a habit of identifying any color from orange to reddish black as “blood.” The following passages from the Old Testament show that the word “blood” was often used in a figurative sense.

Deuteronomy 32:14
Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.

Genesis 49:11
Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:

Certainly grapes do not contain real blood, but many vari­eties contained a blood-red liquid. The Hebrew was familiar with the many various shades of blood from the wounds of the battlefields. They had seen blood from the heart area of an extremely light reddish hue and blood from the femur veins that was almost blackish. Not only is there a tremendous dif­ference in the shades of blood within each individual, but also differences between individuals. Anytime that John observed a color from orange to deep dark red he simply reported the color as “blood.” You will not find the color orange in the Scriptures. In Revelation 6:12 we are not told that the moon will actually turn into real blood, but rather that it will take on a blood-red color (orange to deep red) from volcanic lithometers in the lower stratosphere.

Revelation 6:12
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood,

In Revelation 8:5-7 John observed an angel take fire from the heavenly altar and then cast it into (eis) the earth to produce the following phenomena: (1) voices (phonai—literally, sounds), (2) thunderings, (3) lightnings and (4) an earthquake. The sounds that John heard were the terrifying sounds generated by movement along the pressurized plate boundaries. The thun­derings were from massive thunderstorms formed by wide­spread uplifting of moisture in hot convective currents above vast volcanic eruptions. The lightning he observed was from vivid static electricity produced by both thunderstorm and the volcanically induced heat component of friction. As a meteorol­ogist and physical scientist, I assure you that sounds, thunder­ ing, lightning and earthquakes are common occurrences in all major volcanic eruptions. And may I also assure you that the sounds, thunderings, lightning and earthquakes occur in conjunction with, and are followed by, chalaza, pur and haimati. The word translated as “mingled” among these seven frightening phenomena is memigmena, and it means to be mixed in with something, as one would dip a garment in red dye.

Now, armed with all this information, let us carefully exam­ine what John saw in verse seven. He saw chalaza (something let go, let fall). He observed objects being cast upon the earth. These objects were pur (fiery) and they looked like they had been dipped in haimati (a blood-red liquid). The objects were fiery volcanic rocks that looked as if they had been dipped in blood, and that blood-red liquid was lava. This is a perfect figu­rative description of a literal volcanic eruption.

The linguistics of verses five and seven describe massive vol­canic eruptions, but the effect on the dry land is the final proof of the pudding. Please note that all the green grass is destroyed, but only one-third of the trees. Why not all of the trees? Because in all major volcanic eruptions the grass is destroyed over a vast area due to the shallowness of its roots, but only the trees in the immediate vicinity of the eruption are destroyed due to the much greater depth of their tap roots. In virtually all-volcanic eruptions you will find within the same area that all the green grass is destroyed, but only about one-third of the trees are killed, those being the trees nearest the volcanic cone.

TO SEE THE FIGURES REFERENCED IN THIS BLOG CLICK ON “BIRTH PANGS FIGURES,” WHICH APPEARS UNDER “BIRTH PANGS” ON OUR WEB SITE MENU FOUND AT:
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

CHAPTER 4, WHICH FOLLOWS, WAS EXTRACTED FROM “BIRTH PANGS FROM THE BOTTOMLESS PIT,” A BOOK I WROTE IN 1979.

CHAPTER 4 – FLEEING MOUNTAINS AND ISLANDS
To know that more than 95% of all earthquakes are associated with movement of the world’s tectonic plates, as outlined in BIRTH PANG NUMBER 1, can help us to better understand Revelation 6:12A & 14B, along with Revelation 16:18B & 20.

Revelation 6:12A
“And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake;” and

6:14B
“And every island and mountain were moved out of their places.”

Revelation 16:18B
“And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great,” and

16:20
“And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.”

There are several interesting correlations between God’s tectonic plates, his mountains and islands he formed on them, the earthquakes they produce, the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of the islands and mountains that ride on them as they float on subterranean lakes of magma, and scriptures referring to islands and mountains in Revelation. Mountains and islands are mentioned TOGETHER only twice in the entire Book of Revelation, once in 6:14 and again in 16:20. The correlations are as follows: (1) The first earthquake in Revelation occurs on the opening of the sixth seal. (2) The last earthquake in Revelation occurs on the pouring out of the seventh vial of God’s wrath. (3) All the terrifying earthquakes, fire, and brimstone of the tribulation period occurs between the sixth seal and the seventh vial. That is not by chance, accident, or coincidence! (4) All the mountains and islands begin to change their latitudinal and longitudinal positions on the opening of the sixth seal (the first earthquake), then continue to move in association with earthquakes from the seventh seal through all seven trumpets, and up to the seventh vial of wrath (the last earthquake). All the islands and mountains reach their final geographical positions on the pouring out of the seventh vial of wrath.

God will suddenly accelerate worldwide tectonic plate movement on the opening of the sixth seal. This will produce the fantastic holocaust described by John in Revelation from the first earthquake in Revelation 6:12 to the final earthquake in Revelation 16:18. The fleeing islands in Revelation 16:20 does not mean all the islands of the earth sank below sea level. It means literally what it says. A fleeing man is a moving man. It means the islands moved. Also, verse 20 does not mean all the mountains on the earth were leveled. It simply means they were not found in the same precise geographical location after the great shaking, which occurred between Revelation 6:12 and 16:20.

The first unleashing of a pattern of worldwide earthquakes begins in the Jordan River Valley, and eventually causes two things to occur: a noticeable movement of the tectonic plates on a worldwide basis, which produces horizontal movement and geographical relocation of all mountains and islands in microseconds. Just how can every island and mountain on the earth’s crust be moved to new locations? The answer is found in the realization that every mountain and island is firmly attached to the earth’s crust, anchored to a fixed set of latitudinal and longitudinal geographical location coordinates, which are measured in degrees, minutes, and seconds. Every mountain on this earth has a central peak set of geographical coordinates, and every island has a central focus set of location components. There is only one way that every island and mountain can be moved to a new location. The microseconds of the geographical coordinates must be changed. That is precisely what will happen when God begins to noticeably shift these massive tectonic pieces of the earth’s crust during the last three and on-half years of the tribulation period.

MORE THAN 11,000 INJURED AND DEATH TOLL UP TO 1,144

IN THIS WEEK’S 7.1 EARTHQUAKE IN COMMUNIST CHINA!

TO SEE THE FIGURES REFERENCED IN THIS BLOG CLICK ON “BIRTH PANGS FIGURES,” WHICH APPEARS UNDER “BIRTH PANGS” ON OUR WEB SITE MENU FOUND AT:

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

CHAPTER 3 – BIRTH PANGS FROM THE BOTTOMLESS PIT

Extracted From Book Written In The Late Seventies

Daniel 12:4 – But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

God advises us through Daniel that a particular circumstance will occur “at the time of the end,” specifically that “many shall run to and fro,” and, as a result, man’s “knowledge shall be increased.” Man, in his running to and fro, both across the earth and in space, did, in the twentieth century, accrue more knowledge about the earth than he grasped in the thousands of years from Adam’s creation until the beginning of that century. The data from hundreds of satellite eyes in space, used in spectrographic color analysis of the earth’s crust, has been allied with seismological data by a worldwide linkage of computer technology to allow man to discover an endless array of facts about the external and internal structure of the earth. Within the last thirty years man has more than doubled his factual knowledge of the exterior and interior of the earth, yet he has barely scratched the thin outer veneer of the unlimited knowledge of God, as prophesied by Daniel. This “time of the end” knowledge has begun to unseal many of the prophecies, and to open the “shut up” words of latter day events.

Today, when you look at the tectonic plate structure, found in countless numbers of books, you see thousands of miles of lines between tectonic plates, which represent cracks in the earth that weave their way erratically down through the earth, eventually making contact with great underground lakes of red-hot melted rock called magma. These geological faults are not the figment of scientific imagination. They are no longer based on theory or hypothesis. They have, within the past hundred years, advanced from hypothesis to theory to fact. They are tremendous cracks in the crust of the earth that have the full potential to fulfill many of the terrifying events in the book of Revelation. Because these deep geological faults interconnect, they have separated the outer surface of the earth into vast chunks of crust called tectonic plates. These plates are usually named for the geographical area that lies atop them, and they are responsible for the earthquake and volcanic activity in these areas. Just as a ship floats on water, so do these vast pieces of the earth’s crust float on deep oceans of hot liquid rock. They float in slightly different to opposite directions at differing speeds. Movement is perhaps only a few centimeters every year in some zones, but can be several per year in some places, and, at times, can suddenly move several feet in a local area. They move to produce over ninety-five percent of the world’s earthquake activity, as well as more than ninety percent of the world’s volcanic activity. Seismic topography, along with horizontal surface and vertical satellite laser beam measurements, has now proven without question that the plates exist and move to produce most of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. As the plates of the earth press against one another horizontal and vertical tectonic pressures often freeze vast zones together. As the plates strain against one another in titanic combat something finally snaps, and they break free in a local area. This abrupt loosing produces the massive vibrations we identify as an earthquake.

The Lord indicated “and great earthquakes shall be in divers places” in the last days. Man, in his running “to and fro,” has now gained the increase in knowledge to understand how earthquakes and volcanoes are produced by God’s creation. The same Christ, who uttered “and great earthquakes shall be in divers places,” already knew what man was to discover more than 1900 years later. The prophecy, “and knowledge shall be increased,” was fulfilled in the last century. The Holy Spirit, who inspired these words of Daniel and all the other prophets, will use his prior creation, the earth, to fulfill these prophecies of earthquake, fire, and brimstone, and he will do it by his own power. The horrifying scenes of destruction and chaos presented by John in the book of Revelation, and by the Old Testament writers are largely descriptive of a tremendous geological upheaval of the crust of the earth by the power of its Creator.

Begin Excerpt from THE INDEPENDENT via World News

China mourns as death toll tops 1,100

AP

Saturday, 17 April 2010

Tibetan monks prayed yesterday over hundreds of bodies at a makeshift mortuary next to their monastery after powerful earthquakes destroyed the remote mountain town of Jiegu in western China and left at least 1,144 people dead.

More than 11,000 people were injured, and more than 400 remained missing yesterday as rescuers neared the end of the 72-hour period viewed as best for finding people alive. They continued to dig for survivors in the rubble, often by hand.

The official toll was likely to climb further. Gerlai Tenzing, a red-robed monk from the Jiegu Monastery, estimated that about 1,000 bodies had been brought to a hillside clearing in the shadow of the monastery. He said a precise count was difficult because bodies continued to trickle in and some had already been taken away by family members.

Hundreds of the bodies were being prepared for a mass cremation this morning. Genqiu, a 22-year-old monk, said it was impossible to perform traditional sky burials for all. Tibetan sky burials involve chopping a body into pieces and leaving it on a platform to be devoured by vultures. “The vultures can’t eat them all,” said Genqiu, who like many Tibetans goes by one name.

A 13-year-old Tibetan girl was pulled from the toppled two-storey Minzu Hotel yesterday after a sniffer dog alerted rescuers to her location. The girl, identified as Changli Maomu, was freed after a crane lifted a large concrete block out of the rubble. Her condition was good and she was taken to a medical station for treatment.

I believe this Hezekiah Spring will burst forth on the surface sometime around 2020 to begin it’s 1750 foot drive down Hezekiah’s Tunnel.

August 12, 2005

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Dardanelle MBC

The ancient Pool of Siloam, which was fed by the same spring that now runs underground through Hezekiah’s tunnel under the Old City of Jerusalem of King David’s time, has been uncovered.

Priests were required to go down into a cavern under Herod’s temple to immerse nightly in a spring that flowed under it. It was mandatory they do so before coming on duty the following day.

Their self-immersion was a mikvah, or ritual bath, without which they were not allowed to participate in the three daily sacrifices.

For the last 29 years I have lectured about the spring that ran from the southwest to the northeast under the temple on the northern end of Herod’s temple foundation. It continued northeast into the old Pool of Siloam outside the northeastern corner of the temple mount, then east, then southeast, then south down the Kidron Valley, and finally became visible by walking down two flights of stairs to step into the water that flowed south through Hezekiah’s Tunnel for some 1750 feet.

This is the spring that will be cut off when the land is lifted from Geba to Rimmon, and thereby surface on the temple mount to flow some 4000 cubits to the east through the divided Mount of Olives. You will find details on it in Archive Prophecy Updates 183B and 185A, and Figures of it under Archive Birth Pang Figures 42 through 48. During the non-rainy time of the year, when the water table of springs and wells dropped in Israel, additional water was supplied to the spring by a conduit of water that was brought northward to western Jerusalem from springs to the south and west of Jerusalem.

Zechariah 14:10
All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses.

Zechariah 14:8
And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.

Ezekiel 47:1-5
Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. [2] Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side. [3] And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ancles. [4] Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins. [5] Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.

The spring that ran under the temple mount northeastward to feed the biblical Pool of Siloam had been archeological unearthed just outside where the northeastern wall of the temple mount stood.

The following article from the Los Angeles Times by Thomas H. Maugh describes this recent discovery.

BEGIN LOS ANGELES TIMES ARTICLE

Biblical Pool of Siloam Uncovered in Jerusalem

Tuesday, August 9, 2005

By Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times

Workers repairing a sewage pipe in the old city of Jerusalem have discovered the biblical Pool of Siloam, a freshwater reservoir that was a major gathering place for ancient Jews making religious pilgrimages to the city and the reputed site where Jesus cured a man blind from birth, according to the Gospel of John.

The pool was fed by the now-famous Hezekiah’s Tunnel and is “a much grander affair” than archaeologists previously believed, with three tiers of stone stairs allowing easy access to the water, according to Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archeology Review, which reported the find yesterday.

“Scholars have said that there wasn’t a Pool of Siloam and that John was using a religious conceit” to illustrate a point, said New Testament scholar James H. Charlesworth of the Princeton Theological Seminary.

“Now, we have found the Pool of Siloam … exactly where John said it was.” A Gospel that was thought to be “pure theology is now shown to be grounded in history,” he said.

The discovery puts a new spotlight on what is called the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, a trip that religious law required ancient Jews to make at least once a year, said archaeologist Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa, who excavated the pool.

“Jesus was just another pilgrim coming to Jerusalem,” he said. “It would be natural to find him there.”

The newly discovered pool is less than 200 yards from another Pool of Siloam, this one a reconstruction built between A.D. 400 and 460 by the empress Eudocia of Byzantium, who oversaw the rebuilding of several biblical sites.

The site of yet another Pool of Siloam, which pre-dated the version visited by Jesus, is still unknown.

That first pool was constructed in the eighth century B.C. by the Judean King Hezekiah, who foresaw the likelihood that the Assyrians would lay siege to Jerusalem and knew that a safe water supply would be required to survive it, now they are trying to re constructed using the same structure, with the best contractors and tools, find a Rockwell Shaper for sale and much more tools for your construction utility.

He ordered workers to build a 1,750-foot-long tunnel under the ridge where the City of David was located. The tunnel connected Gihon Spring in the adjacent Kidron Valley to the side of Jerusalem less vulnerable to an attack.

The first Pool of Siloam was the reservoir holding the water brought into the city. It presumably was destroyed in 586 B.C., when Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar razed the city.

The pool of Jesus’ time was built early in the first century B.C. and was destroyed by the future Roman emperor Titus about A.D. 70. The pool was discovered last fall by a repair team, supervised by Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiques Authority, that was excavating a damaged sewer line.

As soon as Shukron saw two steps uncovered, he stopped the work and called in Reich, who was excavating at the Gihon spring. When they saw the steps, Shukron said, “We were 100 percent sure it was the Siloam Pool.”

With winter approaching rapidly, the two men had to hurry their excavation, so the sewer could be repaired before the rainy season.
As they began digging, they uncovered three groups of five stairs each, separated by narrow landings. The pool was about 225 feet long, and they unearthed steps on three sides.

They do not yet know how wide and how deep the pool was because they have not finished the excavation. The fourth side lies under a lush garden — filled with figs, pomegranates, cabbages and other fruits — behind a Greek Orthodox Church, and the team has not yet received permission to cut a trench through the garden.

“We need to know how big it is,” Charlesworth said. “This may be the most significant and largest ‘mikvah’ [ritual bath] ever found.”

END LOS ANGELES TIMES ARTICLE

Zechariah 14:2-4
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. [3] Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. [4] And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

PERIL 2 – For 2 plus years Jerusalem is trodden down by non-Jews under their control.

Revelation 11:2
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot 2 plus years.

PERIL 3 – Israel flees into the Negev Wilderness, where she remains for three and one half years.

Revelation 12:6
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there 2 plus years

PERIL 4 – Israel is boxed in on three sides on the borders of the Negev during the 2 plus years

Daniel 7:25
And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws:

PERIL 5 – God delivers Israel from Negev Captivity at the battle of Armageddon

Daniel 12:1
And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

Jesus foretold of all these Perils on the Mount of Olives just before he was arrested and delivered to the Romans for Crucifixion.

Matthew 23:37-39
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! [38] Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. [39] For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Daniel 11:40
And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

Jesus gave Israel up for some 2000 years but, at the end of her final period of travail for rejecting him, he returns as her Messiah at his 2nd Advent and she receives him as her Lord and King.

Micah 5:3,4
Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. [4] And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.