Discoveries About Christianity

How about something amazing today?

Let's first review the connection between the two destructions of the Israelites' temple in ancient times and the two major splits in the Christian Church in more modern times.

The original temple, at Shiloh, was destroyed by the Philistines in 1050 B.C. Shiloh was never rebuilt because it was replaced by Solomon's Temple, in Jerusalem. That temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, ruled by King Nebuchadnezzar II who then took the Jews into exile. The Babylonian siege of Jerusalem that resulted in the destruction of the Temple began in 587 B.C.

From 1050 B.C. to 587 B.C. is 463 years.

The Book of Daniel, Chapter 9, has the famous "weeks of years" prophecy. There are to be 70 weeks of years, 70 x 7 = 490. But one of those weeks is reserved for the seven years that the Antichrist will be allowed to reign. That leaves 483 years.

These 69 "weeks of years" refers to the time between the completed reestablishment of the Temple, the so-called Second Temple after return from the exile in Babylon that replaced Solomon's destroyed temple, to the death of the promised messiah. This was marked by Ezra being sent to Jerusalem to instruct in proper worship in the newly-completed temple. The biblical Book of Ezra describes this.

The date that Wikipedia gives for the sending of Ezra to Jerusalem is 457 B.C. Jesus was almost certainly crucified in 26 A.D., being born in 7 B.C. and believed to be 33 years old at crucifixion. This is amazing. From 457 B.C. to 26 A.D. is exactly 483 years.

Now, let's go to more recent times. There have been two major splits in the Christian Church. The first was the Great Schism of 1054 that resulted in the splitting of what is today the Eastern Orthodox Church from the Catholic Church. The second is the split of the Protestants from the Catholics, due to the Reformation that began in 1517.

Jesus is to return, to end the reign of the Antichrist and establish the Millennium, when the world will finally be the godly paradise that it was always intended to be. No one knows the exact day but a secular millennium began in 2000 which is during the general timeframe as we see in the posting on this blog, "The End Of The World As We Know It".

What I noticed one day is that from 1054 to 1517 is 463 years, and from 1517 to 2000 is 483 years.

No one had ever pointed that out. I refer to it as "The Ancient-Modern Parallel". It is described in section 25) of "The Aztec Prophecy", on this blog, and I thank God that I was the one that was allowed to notice this.

CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE

With that review here is what I noticed to add onto it. I find this to be absolutely amazing.

Constantinople was founded in the year 330 by the Roman Emperor Constantine as the capital of the eastern half of the Roman Empire. It would later be the place where the split, known as the Great Schism of 1054, would take place. This is when the eastern domain of the Catholic Church would split away to form the Eastern Orthodox Church. This is one of the most momentous events in western history. After that, in 1453, Constantinople would be conquered by the Ottomans and renamed as Istanbul.

From the founding in 330 to the split of 1054 is 724 years.

The Holy Roman Empire was founded by the pope in the year 800. Charlemagne was crowned as it's first emperor. The purpose of the Holy Roman Empire was to rein in the wayward eastern Christians, who were questioning the authority of the pope and would later split away to form the Eastern Orthodox Church. Despite the name the Holy Roman Empire was more centered on what is now Germany and would become more of a rival to the papacy than an ally. In 1517 the second great split in the Catholic Church, the Protestant Reformation, began in the Holy Roman Empire over the urgent need for reform in the church.

From the founding in 800 to the split of 1517 is 717 years.

What do you notice here about the times between each founding and split? The two figures, 724 and 717 are close but there is a 7 year difference. Just like the "Weeks of Years" prophecy in the Bible described above, there are still seven to go for the Holy Roman Empire. We know that the Antichrist's base of operations will be a united Europe, which is a reviving of the Holy Roman Empire. These remaining seven years will be the seven years that the Antichrist is allowed to reign, as described in the Book of Revelation.

I find this to be absolutely amazing and again I thank God that I was allowed to be the one to point it out.

THE CRAB NEBULA AND THE GREAT SCHISM OF 1054

Another thing that I was amazed had never apparently been noticed is that the great explosion in the sky that formed what we now see as the Crab Nebula was taking place just as the conference in Constantinople was going on, in 1054, that would lead to the splitting away of the Eastern Orthodox Church from the Catholic Church. July 4, 1054.

The Crab Nebula today is considered as the classic example of a supernova. At the time, the explosion was so brilliant that it shone brightly even in the daytime. Could it have been a warning from God of the trouble that was coming because the east-west divide ever since, from the Eastern Front of the two world wars to the nuclear standoff during the Cold War, were secular manifestations of that split. This is described in section 1) of "The Aztec Prophecy".

But, as far as I could find online, it had never been pointed out that this great explosion in the sky was going on at the same time as the ill-fated conference in Constantinople and, once again, I thank God that I was the one to be allowed to point it out. it doesn't seem that Europeans paid much attention to the supernova, although it was recorded by Arab, Chinese and, Japanese observers.

THE MARK OF THE BEAST

I won't go into detail here but in the posting "The End Of The World As We Know It" I described why I think the fabled "Mark of the Beast", in the Book of Revelation" is actually phones.

It has become the stuff of folklore that people in the Last Days will have a "mark" put upon them without which they will not be able to buy or sell. I am sure that this refers to phones. Remember that St. John was an ancient man without the slightest concept of modern technology. God gave him a vision of the distant future and he described it as best he could.

WAS JESUS FORETOLD BY NAME ?

The prophet Zechariah, in the Old Testament of the Bible, has well-known references to the life of Jesus, more than five hundred years before his time.

References to a potter and price of thirty pieces of silver, which are also in the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, as well as the coming king entering Jerusalem "riding on a donkey", Zechariah 9:9, which was quoted in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 21, in the Gospel of Mark 11: 1-11 and the Gospel of John, Chapter 12.  Jesus made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem riding on a borrowed donkey.

Zechariah also has a vision about people "mourning for the one who they pierced". We know that as Jesus was being crucified, a Roman soldier thrust his spear into Jesus' side to be sure that he was dead.

But what about the visions of Zechariah in the first seven chapters of his book? In these seven chapters are nine separate visions. Two of the visions are about a high priest named Joshua, who was the first high priest following the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem following the return from exile in Babylon.

In one of the visions, in Chapter 3 of Zechariah, Joshua has his rags replaced with clean clothes. It states that Joshua will "take away sin in one day". Another vision, beginning in Chapter 6 Verse 3, is about Joshua being given a crown.

The thing that is so striking is that nowhere else do the prophets treat the religious establishment with such reverence. God himself is revered, but the religious establishment is usually portrayed as corrupt and hypocritical. The way that the high priest is revered here is very much an exception for all of the prophets.

But here is something that might explain it.

The Book of Zechariah was written well before the Hellenistic era. The name "Jesus" is actually the Greek form of the name "Joshua". Notice that, in the Old Testament, there are others named Joshua but no one named Jesus.

The Old Testament Book of Joshua, about the leader who succeeded Moses, was a different Joshua and his story took place centuries before this.

Other examples of Greek names introduced in the Hellenistic period, which began with the conquests of Alexander the Great and continued after his empire broke into pieces, with the Ptolemies ruling Egypt and the Seleucids ruling what is now Syria and Palestine, are the names of the three pyramids of Giza, within what is now Cairo.

The three pyramids of Giza were built by a succession of three Egyptian pharaohs, who were father, son and, grandson. The original Egyptian named of the pyramids were Khufu, Khafre and, Menkaure. The Ptolemies, of which the queens were named Cleopatra, took on the trappings of Egyptian pharaohs but continued to speak Greek. The pharaohs who had built the three pyramids more than two thousand years before took on the Greek names of Cheops, Chephren and, Mycerinus.

For that matter, Thebes as well as Egypt are actually Greek names.

Considering this, doesn't it seem that the two visions of Joshua by Zechariah are actually prophecies of Jesus by name? Even though it is true that the first high priest after the rebuilding of the Temple after return from exile in Babylon was also named Joshua?

Remember that Jesus paid the price for sin, "taking away sin in one day", as in the vision of Zechariah. If an ordinary high priest could "take away sin in one day" it wouldn't be necessary for the ritual sacrifices to keep going on.

Also Jesus comes twice, the first time as Savior to pay the price for sin and the second time as king to actually rule over the world, making it the paradise that God had always intended it to be. The first vision of Zechariah about Joshua was having his rags replaced by clean clothes, and "taking away sin in one day", this was about the Savior role. The second vision of Zechariah about Joshua was of him receiving a crown, this was about the king role.

Each of these two visions of Joshua in the Book of Zechariah also refers to a servant of God in the future, known as "The Branch". In the first vision regarding Joshua, it is "The Branch" who will "take away sin in one day". In the second vision, it is "The Branch" who will reign as a king blessed by God.

"The Branch" was a prophecy of Jesus. If God is represented as a tree then Jesus is a branch. 

THE BOULDER LANDING ON THE FEET OF THE STATUE

The second chapter of the Book of Daniel has the famous prophecy of the statue that, from top to bottom, represent the four successive dominant empires of the future. These are Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece and, Rome. By the time this prophecy was made, the time of Egypt and Assyria as the greatest powers had passed. But a great boulder, not the work of humans, will land on the feet of the statue and shatter it.

This represents the failure of the godless and idolatrous empires and nations, before God sends Jesus back to run the world directly. But why would God choose to illustrate it with imagery such as this, a boulder landing on the feet of a statue? Remember that the Book of Daniel is very old, from the Babylon-Persian era and well before it was known that there would be great European powers, Greece and Rome.

Since the order of empires moves from top to bottom on the statue, this means that the feet represent the Roman Empire, which was centered on the Italian Peninsula. In the following image from Google Earth notice that, on a map, the peninsula is in the form of a boot and Sicily is in the form of a boulder about to land on it.

ST. PETER'S SQUARE IS OF THE SAME SHAPE AND DIMENSIONS AS THE COLOSSEUM 

The rest of this posting is about how the Vatican has been set up in secret alignment with the Colosseum and Arch of Titus, on the other side of Rome. This has never been pointed out.

Have you ever wondered why St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, is actually shaped like an oval?

As it turns out there is a simple answer. I cannot find anything about this being documented but am not quite sure whether to believe that I am the only one today that knows this.

St. Peter's Square, inside the Colonnades, is exactly the same size and shape as the Colosseum, which is about 3.5 km away. This is St. Peter's Square. St. Peter's Basilica is to the left so that the two together have the shape of a key, with the oval form of the "square" being the handle of the key.

Image from Google Earth

Here is the Colosseum, shown from the same altitude. Although the directional alignment of the two is not the same, you can right click and select the "Measure Distance" feature to see that the dimensions of the Colosseum are exactly that of the internal diameter of the Colonnades that give St. Peter's Square it's oval form. Part of the structure of the Colosseum along it's long axis is missing but both measure about 190 meters, or 625 feet.

Image from Google Earth

The oval form of both is not an extreme ellipse, the ratio of the long axis to the short axis being about 1.2 or 6/5.

Clearly, St. Peter's Square was constructed to exactly match the Colosseum but this has never been made public.

THE CENTER OF ST. PETER'S SQUARE IS LOCATED EXACTLY ON THE LONG AXIS OF THE COLOSSEUM, AND ALSO THE LATERAN PALACE

There is more to the hidden relationship between St. Peter's Square and the Colosseum. By using the right click and "Measure Distance" option on Google Maps, it draws a straight line between the two points that are clicked on. If we choose the first point as the obelisk in the center of St. Peter's Square and the second point as the far side of the long axis of the Colosseum, the southeastern end, we find something else amazing that has never been made public.

The direction to St. Peter's Square from the Colosseum is exactly along the extension of the long axis of the oval form of the Colosseum.

So St. Peter's Square was not only constructed to match the dimensions of the Colosseum, it was also located to be aligned with the long axis of the Colosseum, although the directional alignment between the two is not the same.

Images from Google Earth

That is not all. The original center of the Catholic Church was not the Vatican, as it is today, but the Lateran Palace. The papacy moved, for some time, to Avignon in southern France. When it returned to Rome, the Lateran Palace had been damaged by fire and was relocated to the Vatican instead. The Lateran Palace is still officially the headquarters of the church.

As it turns out the Lateran Palace is located on the opposite side of the Colosseum, which is from ancient Rome and was built before either, from the Vatican. This means that the Lateran Palace was also located on the extension of the long axis of the Colosseum, but in the opposite direction to that of the Vatican with St. Peter's Square.

The Lateran Palace is a large complex, but that means that we can draw a straight line with the Google Maps "Measure Distance" feature from the obelisk in St. Peter's Square to a point in the Lateran Palace complex, and the line will go right along the long axis of the Colosseum.

But what could these alignments mean? It is reminiscent of the Historical Axis of Paris, but that is no secret. I have searched and searched and cannot find that this alignment in Rome has ever been made public. The Colosseum is the best-known structure from ancient Rome, is the symbol of the modern city of Rome as well as it's geographical center.

It seems clear that this alignment with the Colosseum is an effort by the church to link itself with the power of the Roman Empire, but not to be made public. It could be a symbolic sympathy for those Christians who were martyred by the Roman Empire but it is not clear how many were martyred at the Colosseum, as opposed to the nearby Circus Maximus.

THE CENTER OF THE DOME OF ST. PETER'S IS ON THE AXIS THROUGH THE ARCH OF TITUS

Putting down the Jewish uprising against Roman rule, which resulted in the destruction and looting of the Temple, had not been an easy battle for the Romans. When it was over, the Arch of Titus was built next to the Colosseum, to memorialize the victory. The engravings on the Arch illustrate the wealth being taken from the Temple which went to build the adjacent Colosseum.

Jews who visit Rome are not supposed to walk under the Arch of Titus.

The amazing thing is that there is not only the above described axis, through the long axis of the Colosseum, there is also another axis that runs close-by and parallel to it. The center of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica is located exactly on the axis that runs through the Arch of Titus.

Images from Google Earth