So the Wright brothers weren’t even close to being the first to think of flying and this proves Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is totally wrong.
I see Father, that yes, we do evolve in a sense, but actually all we do is polish what You gave us from the very beginning.
The walls were built between 1535 and 1538, when Jerusalem was part of the Ottoman Empire, by the order of Suleiman I.
The length of the walls is 4,018 meters (2.4966 mi), their average height is 12 meters (39.37 feet) and the average thickness is 2.5 meters (8.2 feet). The walls contain 34 watchtowers and 8 gates.
We can look as far back as we want, and still, in the center of all things is Jesus Christ, He’s the center of history and everything else.
I know a few people read this blog, so…
Ezekiel 16 – The Judgment Upon Israel
1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite.
“Thy birth and thy nativity” – Jerusalem had a centuries-old, pre-Israelite history (Gen 14:18), and the city long resisted Israelite conquest (Josh 15:63). It became fully Israelite only after David’s conquest (2 Sam 5:6-9).
“Amorite” – like the Canaanites, the Amorites were pre-Israelite, Semitic residents of Canaan, who earlier had flourished in Asia Minor during the second millennium B.C.
4 And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
“Thou wast not salted at all” – this practice has been observed among Arab peasants in the Holy Land as late as 1918 A.D.
5 None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.
6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.
7 I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.
8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.
“Spread my skirt” – symbolic of entering a marriage relationship.
9 Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.
“Blood” – menstrual blood, indicating sexual maturity.
10 I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers’ skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.
11 I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.
12 And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.
13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.
14 And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.
15 But thou didst trust in thine own beauty and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.
16 And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colors, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.
“Garments” – all of God’s previous gifts were used by Jerusalem in prostituting herself. Cloths of some kind were needed in the Asherah cult practices. They may have been used as curtains or as bedding.
17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
“Images of men” – phallic symbols or pictures of naked men.
18 And tookest thy broidered garments and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.
19 My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savor: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.
20 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,
“Sons and thy daughters…sacrificed” – laws against child sacrifice are recorded in Lev 18:21, 20:2; Deut 12:31, 18:10.
21 That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?
22 And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood.
23 And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD;)
24 That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee a high place in every street.
“An eminent place…high place” – cultic prostitution was moved from the high places which were outside the towns into Jerusalem.
The figurine was found in a tomb in Galera Spain, probably of Phoenician manufacture (Phoenicians established colonies in Iberia during 1100-900 B.C.)
She sits between two sphinxes and holds a bowl for liquid that poured from two holes in her breasts. The figure shows Egyptian and Mesopotamian influences.
25 Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to everyone that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.
26 Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbors, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.
“Neighbors” – nowhere else in the Old Testament are the Egypt’s called “neighbors.”
“Great of flesh” – the Hebrew is more graphic: “having oversized organs.” The language reflects both God’s and Ezekiel’s disgust with Jerusalem’s apostasy.
27 Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.
28 Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast insatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.
29 Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.
30 How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman;
31 In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as a harlot, in that thou scornest hire;
32 But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!
33 They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.
“Thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers” – Jerusalem’s perversity is here pictured as worse than adultery and ordinary prostitution.
34 And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary.
35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:
36 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;
37 Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them roundabout against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.
38 And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.
“Judge thee” – the punishment was death by stoning or burning.
39 And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.
40 They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords.
41 And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more.
“Burn thine houses” – common form of punishment.
42 So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.
43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast fretted me in all these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord GOD: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations.
44 Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.
45 Thou art thy mother’s daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
46 And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.
47 Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways.
48 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.
49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
“The iniquity of thy sister Sodom” – here social injustice rather than sexual perversion is highlighted.
50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
51 Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done.
52 Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.
53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:
54 That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.
55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.
56 For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride,
57 Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise thee round about.
“Reproach of the daughters of Syria” – the Old Testament frequently condemns Edom for this. The difference in Hebrew between “Edom” and “Aram” (Syria) is quite small. On occasion the two are mistaken for one another. Most modern versions have chosen the reading “Edom.”
58 Thou hast borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith the LORD.
59 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
61 Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.
62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD:
63 That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth anymore because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.
The Mystery of Ancient Man (Part 2 of 2)
Do we have to see everything
to know it exists?
Did King Solomon have a hot air balloon?
A number of historical characters have been said to have had airships or flying chariots. One of them was King Solomon.
It is assumed that he had a romantic affair with Queen Sheba. According to the Ethiopian’s Kebra Negast (“Glory of the Kings”), which is is a 14th century account written in Ge’ez of the origins of the Solomonic line of the Emperors of Ethiopia. Solomon and Sheba had a son, Makeda, and Solomon would come and visit him by flying in a “heavenly car.”
The king…and all who obeyed his word, flew on the wagon without pain and suffering, and without sweat or exhaustion, and traveled in one day a distance which took three months to traverse (on foot).
Throughout the Middle East are mountains known as the “Thrones of Solomon,” including one in northwestern Iran, a flat-topped mountain called Takht-i-Suleiman (Throne of Solomon). It had been conjectured that these may have been landing bases for Solomon’s airship.
Nicholas Roerich testifies that throughout Central Asia it is widely believed that Solomon flew about in an airship.
Up to now, it the people’s conception, King Solomon soars on his miraculous flying device over the vast spaces of Asia. Many mountains in Asia are either with ruins or stones bearing the imprint of his foot or his knees, as evidence of his long-enduring prayers.
These are the so-called thrones of Solomon. The Great King flew to these mountains, he reached all heights, he left behind him the cares of rulership and here refreshed his spirit.
Did King Solomon have some flying vehicle with which he flew Persia, India, and Tibet? Given the many stories of flying vehicles from the ancient Indian epics, this is not so unusual. Mountains with ruins on their summits do indeed exist all over the world.
That’s a question we’ll never know unless we find one. If we find one then we can say he did.
Yet, can we say for certain that he didn’t have one if we don’t find one? “If a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound?”
How advanced was ancient man? Let’s take a look:
Prehistoric Flight
Flight has been the dream of humankind since they watched in awe as birds soared effortlessly through the sky. But, according to accepted history, it wasn’t until the 1780s that two Frenchmen achieved lighter-than-air flight when they were lifted into the air in a hot air balloon near Paris.
This prototype model is one of the most practically usable of the great inventors’ designs.
The model design is closely related to what we consider to be a glider today.
Then powered, heavier-than-air flight became the goal. And although it was theorized that heavier-than-air flight was possible as early as the 13th century, and in the 16th century Leonardo da Vinci designed winged aircraft and a crude kind of helicopter.
It wasn’t a success until the Wright brothers made their first successful flights at Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903.
Yet, were they the first to come up with the idea? The first to try?
Is it possible that humans developed the technology to fly in early civilizations, in civilizations that are now lost to history?
Some believe that there is evidence – intriguing artifacts, carvings, inscriptions and legends – that they say point to the true record human of flight.
The Egyptian Airplane
In 1898, a peculiar six-inch wooden object was found in a tomb at Saqquara, Egypt that dated back to about 200 B.C. The object had a body or fuselage, seven-inch wings that curved downward slightly, a fixed rudder and a tail.
It looked very much like a modern airplane or glider. But since airplanes had not yet been invented in 1898 (never mind ancient Egypt), it was labeled as a model of bird and stored away in the basement of the Cairo museum.
The object was rediscovered many years later by Dr. Khalil Messiha, an authority on ancient models. According to Messiha and others who have studied the object, it has characteristics of very advanced aerodynamics, much like modern pusher-gliders that require very little power to stay aloft.
The curved wings are today known as reverse dihedral wings, which can attain great amounts of lift. A similar design is employed on the supersonic Concorde aircraft.
Was this just a child’s toy? Or was it a scale model of an aircraft the Egyptians planned to build or did build? If they did build a full-scale version of the aircraft, no evidence exists for it. No full-size airplanes have been found in any pharaoh’s tomb to fly him to the land of the dead.
The Carvings at Abydos
Although no airplanes or parts have ever been found from the ruins of ancient Egypt, is there corroborating evidence that they constructed aircraft?
Even more controversial than the model airplane are the enigmatic carvings found in the temple of Abydos, Egypt by Dr. Ruth Hover. Dr. Hover photographed a wall panel which had been revealed when a newer overlaying panel crumbled and fell off. The older panel contained embossed images that resemble modern aircraft as seen in profile.
In these images, one bear is a striking resemblance to a modern helicopter, while others could be interpreted as aircraft, hovercraft or even flying saucers. When the photos of these carvings first surfaced, it was assumed that they had been digitally altered to create a sensational hoax.
And indeed some of them had been retouched to more clearly show aircraft-like features. But even unaltered photos seemed to show the very modern-looking figures.
Perhaps looks are deceiving, however. The official take from archaeologists is that the strange carvings are palimpsests – the result of two or more overlapping carvings that combine to look like something else.
The “aircraft,” they say, are merely combinations of overlapping hieroglyphics. Is that the only evidence?
From Babylonian Mythology:
the Story Etana,
Who Flies on a Giant Eagle:
One of the earliest preserved records of flight is in a Babylonian set of laws Halkatha, which contains the passage:
“To operate a flying machine is a great privilege. Knowledge of flying is most ancient, a gift from the gods of old for saving lives.”
The Babylonian “Epic of Etana” describing his prehistoric flight is preserved for us in a fragmentary text and cuneiform dating back to a period between 3,000 and 2,400 B.C.
From Greek mythology:
the Story of Daedalus and Icarus:
In Metamorphoses, the Roman poet Ovid describes Daedalus as a highly skilled architect and the designer of the Cretan maze. On its completion, he became homesick, and fearing king Minos would prevent him returning, he decided to build a flying machine.
Extract from Metamorphosis:
“The king may block my way by land or across the ocean, but the sky, surely, is open, and that is how we shall go…..With these words, he set his mind to sciences never explored before, and altered the laws of nature.”
He eventually completed two flying craft, one for himself and the other for his son Icarus. It is said that Daedalus prepared his son with the rudiments of flight, and cast a watchful eye over him whilst in the air. They then headed out from Crete across the Aegean Sea.
The story climaxes with Ovid’s memorable description of Icarus ignoring his father’s instructions and soaring ever higher, till the wax of the wings began to melt and he was “swallowed up in the deep blue waters, which are now called after him.“
Even if this particular story by Ovid is not based on a memory of a real event, it certainly conjures up the idea that flight was considered possible at that time.
The Columbian Planes
Considered to be well over a thousand years old, this tiny gold object certainly has a similar appearance to a modern aeroplane. Thought to come from a pre-Incan culture, it measures just two inches long.
Its explanation states: “gold artifact, a stylised insect, from the Quimbaya culture, Antioquia province, Columbia, ca. 1000-1500 A.D.
Apart from the obvious overall similarity to a plane, the object has several interesting features. What is most noticeable about this object is the tail-fins, never seen in nature, but specifically placed for aerodynamics.
There is also what appears to be a cockpit, and it is said that the resemblance to a modern plane was complete even to the existence of an insignia on the tail fin which has been likened to the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet (first of the Torah)- the letter Beth.
A Great Deal of Attention is Given to
The Engravings in the Temple of Seti I
at Abydoss, Egypt.
Their apparent similarity to modern vehicles is impelling, but it has now been reasonably demonstrated that they are the product of two sets of hieroglyphs, one superimposed over another…and however unusual that may seem, the idea seems borne out by looking further along the beam… (note the Ankh in the central image).
So, what we see is a palimpsest, something that never was intended to be seen like it is now. It used to be that only one set of hieroglyphs had been visible, first one then the other. Then the plaster fell out of the stone.
The Indian sacred scriptures make numerous references to flight. Incredibly, the most ancient and sacred texts discuss high speed manoeuvres, invisibility, and even a flight to the moon.
India has a particularly rich tradition of ancient flying machines. An ancient collection of sacred Hindu books, the Samaranga Sutradhara, contains over 200 hundred stanzas concerning almost every aspect of flying.
In the Ramayana both the words “Vimana” and “Ratha” have been used:
* Kamagam ratham asthaya…nadanadipatim (3. 35. 6-7). He boarded the aerial vehicle with Khara which was decorated with jewels and the faces of demons and it moved with noise resembling the sonorous clouds.
* You may go to your desired place after enticing Sita and I shall bring her to Lanka by air. So Ravana and Maricha boarded the aerial vehicle resembling a palace (Vimana) from that hermitage.
* Then the demons brought the Puspaka aerial vehicle and placed Sita on it by bringing her from the Ashoka forest and she was made to see the battle field with Trijata.
* This aerial vehicle marked with Swan soared into the sky with loud noise.
The International Academy of Sanskrit research conducted a special study into this work and published its findings in a book entitled Aeronautics, a Manuscript From the Prehistoric Past. What emerged was a knowledge of aviation – machines, and equipment, that came astonishingly close to what we know today.
These ancient texts speak of the flying machines as Vimanas. They possessed “carefully welded joints”, and were heated and driven “by controlled fire from the iron containers…”. This sounds remarkably like modern jet powered planes, even down to the noise that they made.
This was like “the roar of a lion”, by which the whole thing was set in motion so that “the traveller sitting inside the Vimana may travel in the air, to such a distance as to look like a pearl in the sky.”
The Hindu Samaranga Sutadhara contains 230 stanzas that are devoted to flight. It describes in detail, every possible aspect of flying. The International Academy off Sanskrit Research in Mysore, India, conducted a study of the ancient texts and published its findings in a book called “Aeronautics, a manuscript From the Prehistoric Past.”
A few translated excerpts from the text:
The aircraft which can go by its own force like a bird – on the earth or water or through the air – is called a Vimana. That which can travel in the sky from place to place is called a Vimana by the sage of old.
The body must be strong and durable and built of a light wood [Lagha-daru], shaped like a bird in flight with wings outstretched [mahavinhanga]. Within it must be placed the mercury engine, with its heating apparatus made of iron underneath.
In the larger craft [Daru-vimana], because it is built heavier, [alaghu], four strong containers of mercury must be built into the interior. When these are heated by controlled fire from the iron containers, the Vimana possesses thunder power through the mercury.
The iron engine must have properly welded joints to be filled with mercury, and when the fire is conducted to the upper parts, it develops power with the roar of a lion. By means of the energy latent in mercury, the driving whirlwind is set in motion, and the traveller sitting inside the Vimana may travel in the air, to such a distance as to look like a pearl in the sky).
Chinese Mythology Contains Some of the
Earliest References of Flight:
In 1766 B.C. the Emperor Cheng Tang apparently succeeded in having a flying craft built. He subsequently ordered its destruction to prevent anyone else discovering the secret of flight.
In the 3rd century B.C. the Chinese poet Chu Yun made a detailed aerial survey of the Gobi desert, giving special praise to the durability o
f his craft over wind and sand storms.
Written records of oral traditions from Nepal also mention powered flight. They also acknowledge that the real secrets of flight were known only to the Yavanas.
Taketonbo: The “Bamboo dragonfly”) is a Chinese children’s toy invented around 400 B.C. It essentially consists of a propeller on a stick, and rolling the stick in the right direction spins the propeller, causing the toy to “take off” when it is let go of.
…I want to show them a few things I think are amazing.