If children are innocent, why the children?  I’ve heard other commentators suggest that Agag’s family-tree eventually led to Yasser Arafat and that if Saul had followed God’s command, today there would be no Palestinian issue haunting the Jews.

A. In Exodus 17:8-16 the Amalakites attacked the Israeiltes and were defeated, but the Lord swore vengeance on them and said He would completely blot out the memory of them.  The fact that it took supernatural power to defeat the Amalekites and the severity of the Lord’s pledge to destroy them indicates there was more going on here than the text reveals.

When Saul was chosen as Israel’s first king he was told to completely destroy the Amalekites as an instrument of the Lord’s vengeance (1 Sam 15:3).  He botched the assignment which cost him his position.  Although Saul later killed King Agag, he allowed others from the Amalekites to escape (1 Chron. 14:43).  The descendant of one of these was Haman the Agagite who almost succeeded in destroying the Israelites in the time of the Persian Kingdom.  The Book of Esther records this story which is memorialized in the feast of Purim.

Since then, evil men who have in mind the destruction of the Jews are often said to be Amalekites.  Adolph Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Yasser Arafat, and Iranian Pres. Ahmadinejad are the ones most often mentioned. I think the association is more based on the similarity of their intent than on actual blood lines.

A. There’s nothing in the Biblical record to tell us if or when the disciples were baptized, but they received the Holy Spirit on the night of the Lord’s resurrection (John 20:22).  The thief on the cross was not baptized nor do the scriptures say he received the Holy Spirit and yet, as you say, he was saved.

A. As far as I know there’s no talk of re-creating the Ark of the Covenant.  Temple Institute leaders believe that since the Ark was neither lost nor destroyed but is hidden, God will reveal its location to them when the time is right, so there’s no need to build another one. According to their web site, “This location is recorded in our sources, and today, there are those who know exactly where this chamber is. And we know that the ark is still there, undisturbed, and waiting for the day when it will be revealed.”

A. It’s my understanding that the Sphinx is a memorial to the Hebrew Mazzaroth, which we call the Signs of the Zodiac. In the Hebrew language the 12 signs of the Zodiac tell the gospel story, and are said by some Hebrew scholars to have been named by Adam, Seth, and Enoch as a way to communicate the promise of a Redeemer to our earliest ancestors.  (The names by which we know these signs  came from Babylon and are not true to the original language.)

The Sphinx is a probably composite of two of the signs, with the head of a woman (the Virgin, Virgo) and the body of a lion (Leo).  These were probably the first and last signs in the Mazzaroth.  It was most likely built in the time before the flood, since some experts believe its visible erosion patterns indicate that it may have spent some time completely submerged. A book by J.A. Seiss entitled “The Gospel inThe Stars” contains more detail on this.

A. The story of the Maccabean revolt and Temple cleansing is not in the Bible because it happened in 165 BC during the time between the Old and New Testaments.  You can read about it in the First Book of Maccabees which is found in the Apocrypha, a collection of books included in Catholic Bibles and other places.  Remember, these books are not considered to be inspired by the Holy Spirit and are not always theologically sound, but they can give us added insight into history.  Jesus made mention of Hanukkah, which celebrates the miraculous Temple cleansing,  in John 10:22-23, calling it the Feast of Dedication.

A. Thank you.  By Jewish History or Jewish tradition I mean information I’ve picked up from official Jewish writings that aren’t part of the Bible.  History books and commentary on the Old Testament, plus the so-called oral tradition that Jews believe God gave to Moses but wasn’t included in the Bible. These include the Mishna and Gemara, which together make up the Talmud. The Jews believe these are second only to the Bible in their authority.

A. The Christian Baptism is an adaptation of the centuries old Jewish Mikvah, which is what John the Baptist was performing.  It was (and is) a ritual purification by immersion in water, undertaken before the Sabbath and other Holy Days.  It also marked both the beginning and end of significant  periods in a person’s spiritual life.  John used it to symbolize the beginning of a person’s spiritual preparation to receive the coming Messiah.  As Christians we use it to symbolize the new birth after we’ve already received Him.  Therefore the purpose of John’s baptism was different from the one that we practice in Christianity.

A. I teach that this has never been revoked because it never has been.  Paul taught it to the Church in Corinth 20 years after the cross, during the Age of Grace, to be done out of respect for one’s spouse as well as for the unseen visitors who join the congregation for worship.  Therefore, comparing it to circumcision seems more than a little extreme.  Also, the so-called 2 witness method is not appropriate for deciding whether to accept or reject something one of God’s Apostles has taught while under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

A. BC means before Christ, but AD stands for Anno Domini, Latin for the Year of our Lord.  It supposedly began at His birth so there aren’t any missing years.

Why does it say he died two different ways?

A. When Judas tried to return the money, the priests couldn’t take it back because it was tainted, so they used it to buy a field from a potter. It was money belonging to Judas that paid for the field, so indirectly, he bought it. This transaction was prophesied by Zechariah about 500 years earlier. (Zech. 11:12-13)

Tradition says that Judas hanged himself on a tree above an embankment. Either the branch or the rope broke sending his body over the edge. When he hit the ground he burst open. It’s not clear whether this happened at the point of death or sometime later after his body had begun decomposing.