Old Jerusalem....

January 3, 2008
Jerusalem - the City of Peace. Today we go inside the walls of Old Jerusalem which is divided into 4 sections, Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Armenian. Jean and I have been inside, the group hasn't. We go through security at the Western Wall (we didn't have to do this in the Christian area). We went to the wailing wall(which was originally built as a retaining wall in 19CE - (common error as used by the Jews. BCE and CE we say BC and AD) to support the extensive renovations by Herod the Great. The Jews pray for the Messiah to come. There are caper bushes protruding from parts of the wall, they are crying bushes. This wall is what is left of the Holy Temple. There is a male side and a female side, and the men must have a head covering on before going to pray at the wall. We go to the wall and pray and leave notes in the wall. I believe when the notes fall out they are collected and burned. I have left several notes in the wall - notes of prayers. So here we are at a historical and sacred site and what to we see? Rabbi's with cell phones - talking on them at the wall! We then move on to go to the old temple mount. Just to remind you that there was a temple here, and it was destroyed and they the second temple was built. Jesus was here at the second temple. It was destroyed and the Muslims put up a mosque. It has a gold dome and the marble on either side of the doors to enter oddly looked like mirror images of an evil one! Remember too that the Koran mentions nothing about Jerusalem, however, Jerusalem is mention well over 400 times in the BIBLE! The Koran I believed started out as a Jewish book. Mohammad went to Medina and approached workers about this new book and the pagans accepted it and became muslin, once they did Mohammad went to Mecca and said "make me a prophet". In order to be a prophet you have to be Jewish! Muslims must pray 5 times a day, Fast on the Sabbath, Swear to Ala, give to the poor, go to Mecca once and they must purify before praying. We saw the arches from the Crusaders and we see the Arch of the Covenant and the Holy of Holies((Kodesh Hakodashim), it housed the two tablets of the Ten Commandments the inner sanction of the tabernacle. You can not pray here or make the sign of the cross in this part of Jerusalem(because the Muslims are here)....hmmmmmmm but I'm sure people do have there ways in which to do so.... There is a person here that is on a Hamas hit list we spoke with him, and when he and a group were praying behind us as were getting information from our guide, a big deal was made by a man that came out screaming and security came, and the group broke their circle. I guess this is how wars break out! I believe in Isaiah 56:7 it mentions about a 3rd temple being build. The Golden Gate (gate of eternal life)is impressive. The Muslims have blocked the gate where Jesus is to come back through (if that'll stop him!) The Muslims call this the Mercy Gate, where the just will pass during Judgement Day! It is interesting to see the ways in which people try to stop a power that is far greater than they are. Jaffa Gate faces towards Tel Aviv, Lions Gate(Eastern Gate)has a lion in the facade but is also known as Sheep's Gate because sheep where brought in to the market here.Armed guards are visible here. We walked along the Via Dolorosa. This is where Jesus walked to his Crucifixion. There are 14 stations and they are marked. The first one you really can't see because it is on a wall of a Muslim School. Others have a round tarnished bass marker with a Roman numeral with a markers or carved image. We end at The Church of the Holy Sepulcher (aka the Church of the Resurrection)this is where the Golgotha or Calvary and the tomb of Jesus. We then went to the Jewish section and part of the Armenian section. Later we went to an area in Jerusalem that had a model of how the city looked. Some of us went to take an underground walk at night. Along the outer face of the Herodian western wall of the Temple Mount, a long narrow tunnel was dug slowly under the supervision of archaeologists. As work progressed under the buildings of the present Old City, the tunnel was systematically reinforced with concrete supports. A stretch of the Western Wall — nearly 1,000 ft. long — was revealed in pristine condition, exactly as constructed by Herod. It is impressive! In this confined space, we were walking on the original pavement from the Second Temple period and following in the footsteps of the pilgrims who walked here 2,000 years ago on their way to participate in the rituals on the Temple Mount. Imagine that! At the end of this man-made tunnel, a 65 foot (20 meters) long section of a paved road and an earlier, rock-cut Hasmonean aqueduct leading to the Temple Mount were uncovered. A short new tunnel leads outside to the Via Dolorosa in the Muslim Quarter. The parts of the wall from Herods time where over 5 tons and it only took 6 men and several pulleys to put them in to place. Will anything in our current time be able to last that long?