This page is for the love of Israel & Gods Land & Only Gods! Leave it alone!
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Preacher Hagee on Israel & our leaders.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGETKRu8tQ8&p=A5D85767EA62A4C9&index=34&playnext=2
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PM Netanyahu speaks at the opening
ceremony of direct
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APMbEDSovaw&feature=player_embedded#!
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Holy Fire Goes out in Jerusalem on Easter Saturday
This is also a good read for muslims as well.
This Holy Fire Saturday 2009,
For the fifth year Israeli forces
The celebration procedures are part of a Law that has been in place since 300 years.
The lack of coordination between the different Churches in Jerusalem is coming to
It is becoming obvious that local Palestinians and especially Christian Palestinian
The number of Palestinian Christians who arrive to the Old City for Easter
The local Christian community were all blocked today to pave the way
How It Happens!
I enter the tomb and kneel in holy fear in front of the place where Christ lay after
His death and where He rose again from the dead... (narrates Orthodox Patriarch Diodor - ed.).
I find my way through the darkness towards the inner chamber in which I fall on my knees.
Here I say certain prayers that have
been handed down to us through the
centuries and, having said them, I wait.
Sometimes I may wait a few minutes,
but normally the miracle happens immediately
after I have said the prayers. From the core
of the very stone on which Jesus lay an
indefinable light pours forth. It usually
has a blue tint, but the colour may change
and take many different hues. It cannot be described in human terms.
The light rises out of
the stone as mist may rise out of a lake — it almost looks as if the stone is covered by a moist
cloud, but it is light. This light each year behaves differently. Sometimes it covers just the stone,
while other times it gives light to the whole sepulchre, so that people who stand outside
the tomb and look into it will see it filled with light. The light does not burn —
I have never had my beard burnt in all the sixteen years I have been Patriarch
in Jerusalem and have received the Holy Fire. The light is of a different consistency
than normal fire that burns in an oil lamp...
At a certain point the light rises
and forms a column in which the fire is of a different nature, so that I am able
to light my candles from it. When I thus have received the flame on my candles,
I go out and give the fire first to the Armenian Patriarch and then to the
Coptic. Hereafter I give the flame to all people present in the Church."
While the patriarch is inside the chapel kneeling in front of the stone,
there is darkness but far from silence outside. One hears a rather loud
mumbling, and the atmosphere is very tense.
When the Patriarch
comes out with the two candles lit and shining brightly in the darkness,
a roar of jubilee resounds in the Church.
The Holy Light is not only distributed by the Archbishop, but operates also by itself.
It is emitted from the Holy Sepulchre with a hue completely different
from that of natural light. It sparkles, it flashes like lightning, it flies
like a dove around the tabernacle of the Holy Sepulchre, and lights
up the unlit lamps of olive oil hanging in front of it.
It whirls from one
side of the church to the other. It enters some of the chapels inside the
church, as for instance the chapel of the Calvery (at a higher level than the
Holy Sepulchre) and lights up the little lamps. It lights up also the candles of certain
pilgrims. In fact there are some very pious pilgrims who, every time they
attended this ceremony, noticed that their candles lit up on their own accord!
his divine light also presents some peculiarities: As soon as it
appears it has a bluish hue and does not burn.
At the first
moments of its appearance, if it touches the face, or the mouth,
or the hands, it does not burn. This is proof of its divine
and supernatural origin. We must also take into
consideration that the Holy Light appears only by the
invocation of an Orthodox Archbishop.
The miracle is not confined to what actually happens inside the little tomb,
where the Patriarch prays. What may be even more significant, is that
the blue light is reported to appear and be active outside the tomb.
Every year many believers claim that this miraculous light ignites candles,
which they hold in their hands, of its own initiative.
All in the
church wait with candles in the hope that they may ignite
spontaneously. OOften unlit oil lamps catch light by
themselves before the eyes of the pilgrims.
The blue flame is seen to move in different places in the Church.
A number of signed testimonies by pilgrims, whose
candles lit spontaneously, attest to the validity of these ignitions.
The person who experiences the miracle from close up by
having the fire on the candle or seeing the blue light usually
leaves Jerusalem changed, and for everyone having
attended the ceremony, there is always a "before and after"
the miracle of the Holy Fire in Jerusalem.
How old is the wonder?
The first writtenaccount of the Holy Fire (Holy Light) dates
from the fourth century, but authors write about events that
occurred in the first century. So Ss. John Damascene and
Gregory of Nissa narrate how the Apostle Peter saw the Holy
Light in the Holy Sepulchre after Christ's resurrection.
"One
can trace the miracle throughout the centuries in the many
itineraries of the Holy Land." The Russian abbot Daniel, in his
itinerary written in the years 1106-07, presents the "Miracle
of the Holy Light" and the ceremonies that frame it in a very
detailed manner. He recalls how the Patriarch goes into the
Sepulchre-chapel (the Anastasis) with two candles.
The
Patriarch kneels in front of the stone on which Christ was laid
after his death and says certain prayers, at which point the miracle
occurs. Light proceeds from the core of the stone - a blue,
indefinable light which after some time kindles unlit oil lamps as
well as the Patriarch's two candles. This light is "The Holy Fire",
and it spreads to all people present in the Church.
The ceremony surrounding "The Miracle of the Holy Fire"
may be the oldest unbroken Christian ceremony in the world.
From the fourth century A.D. all the way up to our own time,
sources recall this awe-inspiring event.
From these sources it
becomes clear that the miracle has been celebrated on the same
spot, on the same feast day, and in the same liturgical
frame throughout all these centuries.
Every time heterodox have tried to obtain the
Holy Fire they have failed. Three such attempts are
known. Two occured in the twelfth century
when priests of the Roman church tried to
force out the Orthodox church but by their
own confession these ended with God's punishment.
But the most miraculous event occured in
the year 1579, the year when God clearly
testified to whom alone may be given His miracle.
"Once the Armenians (monophysites - ed.)
paid the Turks, who then occupied the Holy Land,
in order to obtain permission for their Patriarch
to enter the Holy Sepulchre, the Orthodox Patriarch was standing sorrowfully
with his flock at the exit of the church, near the left column, when the
Holy Light split this column vertically and flashed near the Orthodox Patriarch.
A Muslim Muezzin, called Tounom, who saw the miraculous event from an adjacent
mosque, immediately abandoned the Muslim religion and became an Orthodox Christian.
This event took place in 1579 under Sultan Mourad IV, when the Patriarch
of Jerusalem was Sophrony IV.(The above mentioned split column still
exists. It dates from the twelfth century. The Orthodox pilgrims
embrace it at the "place of the split" as they enter the church).[
Turkish warriors stood on the wall of a building
close to the gate and lightning-struck column .
When he saw this striking miracle he cried that Christ
is truly God and leaped down from a height of about ten meters.
But he was not killed-the stones under him became as soft as wax
and his footprint was left upon them. The Turks tried to
scrape away these prints but they could not destroy them;
so they remain as witnesses .
He was burned by the Turks near the Church. His remains,
gathered by the Greeks, lay in the monastery of
Panagia until the 19th century shedding chrism.
Muslims, who deny the Passion, Crucifixion and
Resurrection of Christ, tried to put obstacles in the way of the miracle.
Well known Muslim historian Al Biruni wrote:
"… a (note: Muslim) governor brought a copper wire instead
of a wick (note: for the self lighting oil lamps),
in order that it wouldn't ignite and the whole thing would fail to occur.
But as the fire descended, the copper burned."
This was not the only attempt. The report written by the
English chronicler, Gautier Vinisauf, describes what happened in the year 1192.
"In 1187, the Saracens under the direction of Sultan Salah
ad-Din took Jerusalem. In that year, the Sultan desired to be
present at the celebration, even though he was not a Christian.
Gautier Vinisauf tells us what happened: "On his arrival, the
celestial fire descended suddenly, and the assistants were
deeply moved...the Saracens... said that the fire which they
had seen to come down was produced by fraudulent means.
Salah ad-Din, wishing to expose the imposter, caused the lamp,
which the fire from Heaven had lighted, to be extinguished, but
the lamp relit immediately. He caused it to be extinguished a
second time and a third time, but it relit as of itself.
Thereupon,
the Sultan, confounded, cried out in prophetic transport:
'Yes, soon shall I die, or I shall lose Jerusalem.'
A miracle that is unknown in the West
One can ask the question of why the miracle of the Holy Fire
is almost unknown in Western Europe. In Protestant areas it may,
to a certain extent, be explained by the fact that there is no real
tradition of miracles; people don't really know in which box to
place the miracles, and they rarely feature in newspapers.
But in the Catholic tradition there is vast interest in miracles.
Thus, why is it not more well known? For this only one
explanation suffices: Church politics. Only the Orthodox
Churches attend the ceremony which is centered on the miracle.
It only occurs on the Orthodox date of Easter and
without the presence of any Catholic authorities.
The question of the authenticity of the miracle
As with any other miracle there are people who believe it is a fraud and
nothing but a masterpiece of Orthodox propaganda. They believe the
Patriarch has a lighter inside of the tomb. These critics, however, are
confronted with a number of problems. Matches and other means of
ignition are recent inventions. Only a few hundred years ago lighting
a fire was an undertaking that lasted much longer than the few minutes
during which the Patriarch is inside the tomb. One then could perhaps
say, he had an oil lamp burning inside, from which he kindled the candles,
but the local authorities confirmed that they had checked
the tomb and found no light inside it.
The best arguments against a fraud, however, are not the testimonies
of the shifting Patriarchs. The biggest challenges confronting the critics
are the thousands of independent testimonies by pilgrims whose candles
were lit spontaneously in front of their eyes without any possible explanation.
According to our investigations, it has never been possible to film
any of the candles or oil lamps igniting by themselves. However,
I am in the possession of a video filmed by a young engineer from
Bethlehem, Souhel Nabdiel. Mr. Nabdiel has been present at the
ceremony of the Holy Fire since his early childhood. In 1996
he was asked to film the ceremony from the balcony of the
dome of the Church. Present with him on the balcony were a
nun and four other believers. The nun stood at the right hand
of Nabdiel. On the video one can see how he films down on the crowds.
At a certain point all lights are turned off - it is time for the Patriarch
to enter the tomb and receive the Holy Fire. While he is still inside
the tomb one suddenly hears a scream of surprise and wonder
originating from the nun standing next to Nabdiel. The camera
begins to shake, as one hears the excited voices of the other people
present on the balcony. The camera now turns to the right, whereby
it is possible to contemplate the cause of the commotion.
A big candle, held in the hand of the Russian nun, takes
fire in front of all the people present before the patriarch
comes out of the tomb. She holds the candle with shaking
hands while making the sign of the Cross over and over
again in awe of the miracle she has witnessed.
Holy Fire video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaI2hXyg-fM&NR=1
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See the tomb area of Christ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv__jC5s8zE
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( ISRAEL ) Beautiful Video! Beautiful Place! Learn More! Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81sLwzW70oE
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