The Church of the Beatitudes was funded by Mussolini. It was designed by Lucado and is entitled, "The Applause of Heaven." It is octagonal shaped for the 8 beatitudes. The church was built on the top of the large hill that overlooks the valley.



This is the land right next to the Church of the Beatitudes, the area where our Lord gave the Sermon on the Mount. Experts studied the layout of this valley and determined it is a natural auditorium, the geography lends itself to acoustics similar to a concert hall. Interesting how science again proves the truth of the Bible, I had wondered how the "great crowds" heard what our Lord was saying.




There was a church service going on when we arrived, so we peeked in the windows while our guide tried to find Mother Superior. She eventually gave up and herded us into this little garden area on the side of the church which had a little sign, "Do Not Enter." Our guide passed a hat and asked us for donations of $1 or $2, so we all threw something into the hat. We all listened to Dr. Ron talk about the Sermon on the Mount, and just as soon as he finished, who comes running over but Mother Superior, really angry to see people sitting in the little "do not enter" garden. Our guide ran to intercept her, saying "Sister Sister, It's me, It's me, these are my people, I tried to find you, here is a small contribution they wanted to make to the church," etc. etc. It worked, but we were all just waiting to be kicked out. We teased Dr. Ron, what if the elders at Immanuel could see us now!

God Winks

God Winks - that's what my friend calls it when little coincidences or prayers are answered and you think, wow, thanks Lord, You are with me in the big and the little. So, here's my story. While we were in Tiberius, I had been taking notes on everything, didn't want to forget anything we saw or were told. When we woke up on our last day in Tiberius and were packed and ready to go down to breakfast, I could not find my notebook to save my life. We were in this little hotel room, everything was packed up, we looked in every drawer and under the beds and stripped the beds and in each piece of luggage and zipper and pocket until there was absolutely no place else we could look. I was really bummed, and felt silly feeling so bummed, we were on vacation and I didn't want to be sad, it was such a little thing to get upset about. After breakfast, I went back up to the room and prayed, oh Lord, please help me find my notebook. I bent over and looked under the bed, and there it was. Right there, clear as could be, right there. Call me crazy, but I believe. There are no coincidences.

First Century Boat

So, our last stop for the day was at the museum that houses the first century boat, discovered in 1985. It has been carbon dated and is about 2,000 years old.



and here is where the boat was discovered.




We spent about 1 1/2 hours at the museum, which by the way consists of the boat. Nothing else, except for a shop. There is only so long you can look at the boat. Pretty good way to increase sales, keep folks sitting there with nothing else to do, look at the boat or shop.

And that was the end of Day 2 - busy busy. We headed back to the hotel and had the opportunity to try beef tongue. Just couldn't do it, didn't look good, didn't smell good, not at all appealing. The good news is that our hotel had great food, a big buffet every night, and there was always plenty to eat.

Lunch every day was pretty routine. We usually were offered Falafel, which is fried balls made from ground chickpeas and/or fava beans and served in a pita, and you can add lots of veggies to it, or eat with sauces. About 80% of the folks on our tour just loved falafel, so when the guide said where do you want to eat, well, wherever they serve falafel. So, it's not beef tongue, I thought, I'll eat this. Not so great, took a couple of bites and was glad I had a bag of nuts in my pack. Next day for lunch, falafel, or something else I can't recall - but not any better. Third day, falafel. Tim rebelled, said he just couldn't do another falafel, so he goes off on his own and finds food. He said he bought a hamburger, knows it wasn't beef, more of a mystery meat, but hands down better than falafel. Several of us were wondering at his courage, at least we knew they were taking us to clean places, but Tim was determined not to eat it again. As for me, I made sure I had nuts along.

Mt. Carmel

The Carmelite Church is built on the site believed to be where Elijah faced off with the Baal and Ashoreth priests (1 Kings 18:17-40), and Mr. Carmel does fit in with the geographical details in the bible. In Israel, churches or monuments are built on the sites where supernatural events are believed to have occurred.) Baal and Ashoreth were fertility gods.



I tried to capture the view off Mt. Carmel, these pictures can't do it justice. there were sand storms out in the desert, so though Israel doesn't get the winds common in the sand storms, the air gets very thick.

Nazareth

After Tel Megiddo, we traveled to Nazareth. Today, Nazareth has a population of about 70,000, Christian (mainly Greek Orthodox) and Muslims (majority now). Back in our Lord's time, it was very small, and there was only one well for the town.



Here we are walking up to the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annuciation. There were a lot of tourists here, there was an elderly priest who was watching everyone come in and out. He nailed us coming out, gave lots of grief to our tour guide. She said she usually puts in a few dollars in the plate, but thought about doing it on the way out instead of on the way in, he must have thought no donation was coming.



The aprophrical tradition is that the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary at the Natural Spring, and the Greek Orthodox built a church on top of this spring. It's open in the church (picture) and folks stop and pray and throw in pennies.

Tel Megiddo

Day 2, we traveled from Tiberius to Tel Megiddo, and on the way we saw this first century tomb, cut into the rock on the side of the road.




Tel Megiddo was a large city established about 3000 BC. The great powers at that time were Egypt and Mesopotamia (Babylon), and Megiddo was the main junction on the trade route. It's a large plain, surrounded by hills. More battles have been fought on this plain than on any other place on earth.

"Tel" more or less means many levels of civilization, built on top of each other that grow and turn into a great mound, or hill (tel). At Tel Megiddo, archaeologists have found 23 different layers of civilization. The Hill of Megiddo ["Valley of Jehoshaphat," Joel 3:1 - 15; "Valley of Armageddon," Revelation 16:16] - is identified as the location for the last battle. Joel says that the king of Kings will win at the end of the battle and reign for a millennium.



Solomon (and many others) had a fortress on the Tel and housed an army of horses. There are still ruins of the stables and the mangers (Latin for feeding trough). Our Lord was born in a stable and laid in a manger - picture below - absolutely not what I've pictured all my life, but makes perfect sense.



Inside the fortress walls, they dug wells so when attacked they did not need to go outside of the walls. Today, there are stairs going all the way down to the bottom. We were told that if you have heart issues, knee or walking issues, go back to the bus and don't attempt all these stairs; if you are in good health, the bus will pick us up at the bottom. No one ever said that after the first few flights, it turns into catwalk-type stairs, and it was a long long way down. For those of us with height phobias, it was tough going, but I got control and made it through!





Just a little more Hebrew - "Polis" means city, "necro" means flesh, "acro" means top. Necropolis - city of flesh, Arcopolis, top of the city. "Aviv" means spring, Tel Aviv means Hill of Spring. Megiddo = Add "ar" and "don" (Greek) gives you armageddon.

Caesarea Maratima

We traveled to Caesarea Maratima on our first full day in Israel. Though many of us didn't sleep very well the night before, we were all so excited and raring to go on our first big day. Caesarea Maratima was a pagan city on the coast(http://www.caesarea.landscape.cornell.edu/). Herod the Great, King of Israel and appointed "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate, constructed the third largest harbor in the world at that time (about 20 BC), a major feat in ancient times. The harbor was built to lure shipping and business to the area and improve Israel's economy, something Herod had promised the Romans he would do. Herod was an extremely smart guy, his projects unparalleled in ancient times, but also ruthless. He killed his wife, Maryamne, because he thought she was unfaithful while he was away in Rome, and then killed two of his sons because he thought they would try to take over.



Caesarea Maratima also was the first artificial harbor in the world at that time. Although Josephus Flavius (www.answers.com.topic/josephus) had written all about the harbor, no one knew where it was located because it had sunk into the sea. The harbor was discovered in the 1950s. Our guide said that until fairly recent times, Josephus and his writings of the events and history of Israel were not taken too seriously because he was Jewish. Historians and archaeologists have found that Josephus's writings are accurate, down to the exact measurements of the size of the harbor. He was the only individual who documented the 3-year battle at Masada. The son of a Sadducean who lived in Rome, Josephus came back to Israel just as the Jewish rebellion was getting started (about 66 AD). Josephus actually talked with those who knew Jesus.

There currently are vast archaeological studies ongoing in the Caesarea Maratima area. The picture, below, is our view of the ruins of Herod's palace, taken while we were sitting in the theater. You can see some rocks in the middle of the picture, there are many more off to the left and outside of the picture. The archeologists are faced with a giant puzzle, attempting to match up and rebuild these buildings that were altered by earthquake and then buried.



The Roman procurator, Pilate, was stationed here at Caesarea Maratima. He traveled to Jerusalem the week of the Jewish Passover celebration because of concerns regarding potential Jewish uprising and riots. The archaeologists recently discovered a stone plate from one of the buildings that lists Pontius Pilate as the Roman procurator during this time. This stone, now housed in the History museum in Tel Aviv, provides solid evidence of the existence of Pontius Pilate as Roman Procurator at this time.

The below picture shows Herod's indoor swimming pool, also a recent discovery. All of Herod's palaces were known for their luxury.



The following picture shows the ruins of a room in the palace that historians and archaeologists believe may have served as the administration room in this palace. You can see the fire pit in the center of the room. Historians believe this very room was the likely place where Paul was tried. Cornelius (Acts, Chapter 10) lived somewhere in Caesarea. Cornelius was the first non-Jew (Gentile) baptised here in Caesarea, the baptism spurring great growth in the church.



This last picture is of the aqueducts built by Herod the Great in Caesarea.



It's so exciting to see all that they are discovering, today, in 2010. Unbelievable that excavations and research only started after Israel became a state in the late 40s, and incredible what they are finding, clear evidence of the truth in the Bible and the writings of Josephus, who actually spoke with those who knew Jesus.