In the Garden - King’s Heralds Oh! What a Day When I See Him - Del Delker An Open Bible for the World - King’s Heralds

In the Garden - King’s Heralds Oh! What a Day When I See Him - Del Delker An Open Bible for the World - King’s Heralds

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Voice Of Prophecy

H.M.S. Richards

The Underground City and Other Wonders


Lift up the trumpet and loud let it ring, Jesus is coming again. Cheer up you pilgrims, be joyful and sing, Jesus is coming again. This is the voice of prophecy, a voice crying in the wilderness of these modern days, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Coming again, coming again, Jesus is coming again. From our Voice of Prophecy studios in Los Angeles, California, we welcome you to this half hour of inspiration and music with the King's Heralds, Del Delker, Brad Braley, and HMS Richards, the Voice of Prophecy speaker.

The first song is a testimony of happiness in Christian living. Jesus fills my life with peace and joy. In the midst of turmoil I have peace within, In the midst of sorrow joy divine. On the cross my Savior bore my every sin, And dwells within this heart of mine. Jesus fills my life with peace and joy.

Praise his holy name. He's always just the same. He calms each storm that would my faith destroy. Jesus fills my life with peace and joy. I have found in Him a constant fount of joy.

I have found in Him eternal rest. Storms my soul may threaten but can ne'er destroy. In Him I am forever blessed. Jesus fills my life with peace and joy. Praise his holy name.

He's always just the same. He calms each storm that would my faith destroy. Jesus fills my life with peace and joy. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for Thy mercies which are new to us every day and every week.

We pray that Thou wilt bless this broadcast To every listener and to all of us who take part in it, remember especially those in trouble, those who are sick, those who are far from home, and those who are seeking divine truth. We ask it all in Christ's name. There is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God, a place where sin cannot molest near to the heart of God. Amen. I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses, And the voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses.

And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known. I'd stay in the garden with him, though the night around me be falling. But he bids me go through the voice of woe. His voice to me is calling.

And he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known. And now for the first time on the Voice of Prophecy broadcast, Del Delker presents this song of the Second Coming. Oh, what a day when I see Him! Sometime the dream of my heart shall come true.

Oh, what a day when I see him. Oh, what a day. Oh, what a day. Sorrow and sighing will all flee away. With my Redeemer forever I'll stay.

O glorious day when I see him. If I can bring to him someone in need. Oh, what a day when I see him. That day of joy will be perfect indeed. Oh, what a day when I see him.

Oh, what a day. Oh, what a day. Sorrow Oh what a day! Sorrow and sighing will all flee away. With my Redeemer forever I'll stay.

Here now is HMS Richards, the voice of prophecy speaker. His subject, the underground city and other wonders. Thank you Orville Iverson. Before we tell about the underground city and other wonders of archaeology which substantiate the Bible record, I wish to say that had there been no such science as archaeology and had our modern scientists not been able to dig up proof of the scriptures from the earth itself, I would still believe the Bible to be the Word of God. Why?

First, because it carries its own vindication. It pictures human nature exactly as it is. In the second place, its prophecies prove it to be true. In the third place, anyone who reads the Bible and meditates upon it prayerfully will be impressed by the Holy Spirit that it is indeed true. So we read this fact from God's blessed words, Psalm 119, 160, ìThy word is true from the beginning, and every 1 of thy righteous judgments endureth forever.

Modern discoveries in Bible lands have not so much proved historical statements to be true as they have all illuminated or made more interesting many Bible stories and records. For instance, the discovery of the underground city of Edrei, capital of King Og of Bation. Dr. Joseph P. Free in an article in the Christian Readers Digest tells about this city.

You'll find it also in the Giant Cities of Bashan by Dr. Porter. About all that most people know of this historical personage, Og, the King of Bashan, is that he had an iron bedstead 9 cubits or over 13 feet long, as we read in Deuteronomy 3, verse 11. It was my privilege once to visit the city of Dera as it is called today. The name hasn't changed much in all these years.

We read the story in the Bible in Numbers the 21st chapter and Deuteronomy the 1st chapter. It was the capital city of Og, this mighty king who went out and fought with the Israelites over 3, 300 years ago when Moses and Joshua were leading them toward the land of promise. A modern archaeologist described his visit to this town some time ago. The people there showed him the entrance to the ancient buried city underneath the modern inhabited town. It also goes away back under the mountains and nearby countryside.

He entered through a small hole about 15 inches high, found himself in absolute darkness. The rock everywhere is black volcanic lava. The natives of the district say that this underground city extends for many miles, perhaps 20 or more. No modern scientist has ever explored all of it. It's a real underground maze, a city with room after room, apartments, houses, marketplaces, stores, all cut from the solid rock.

It has perfect ventilation, but the entrances to these ventilators were camouflaged with piles of volcanic stones. As the whole country is covered with these rocks, It's easy for them to be hidden. The average depth of the city below the ground level is 75 feet. They had wells as a source of constant water supply. In the days of the Crusaders, the army of King Baldwin was in desperate need of water but when they let down their buckets into these wells, somebody in the underground city would always take the buckets from the ropes.

The crusaders were not able to get any water. The inhabitants had fled to the underground city and simply disappeared from the face of the land. According to the Holy Scriptures, Og the king of Bashan ruled over 60 cities when the Israelites came into that country. All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars. Besides many unwalled towns, a great many.

A hundred years ago, many Bible critics denied that any such city or cities could exist in the barren country east of the Sea of Galilee. Someone asks, ìHow could they be preserved for so long?î Some of the towns up stairs and some down stairs below the ground. Well, the reason the walls of the towns which were above ground were made of solid stone 8 feet thick, and the roofs, walls, and floors, All of the town including the stone doors still swinging on their pivoted hinges are all made of stone. The Israelites had wandered for 40 years in the wilderness where God gave them the 10 Commandments written on tables of stone. Then they came up to the east side of the Dead Sea, and 1 of the last battles they fought was with this Og king of Bation, just before they crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land.

This country ruled over by Og was known as the Land of Bation, now called Transjordan, much in the news today by the way. Some Bible maps call it Gilead. Let us read the contemporary story as found in the Bible. Deuteronomy 3, 1 to 6. Then we turned, and went up the way to Bation.

And Og the king of Bation came out against us, he and all his people, at battle at Edreai. And the Lord said unto me, Fear him not, for I will deliver him and all his people into thy hand, his land. So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og the King of Bation and all his people, and we smote him until none was left to him remaining. And we took all these cities at that time. It was not a city which we took not from them.

3 score cities, all the region of King Og. Someone asks, ìWell, if Og had this underground city, why didn't he retreat into it as the people did in the days of the Crusades? I've already read the answer to you. The Bible says that Og the King of Bashan came out against us. He left his cities, came out to battle there at Adriai.

So as our bus was puffing up the hill from the custom station a few years ago, along that very road, lined on both sides with black blocks of volcanic stone, we were traveling over the very battlefield where Moses led the Israelites to a smashing victory over this great opponent of God's work. Og himself was a giant. His cities were giant cities but he went down in defeat before the hosts of God, and His cities are mostly uninhabited today. What was the reason for the victory? The scripture writer says, ìThe Lord our God delivered into our hands Og.î And so His Kingdom with all His cities and His 13 foot iron bedstead was turned over to the victorious people from the land of Egypt.

We must remember that not only then, but today, believers must trust in God and not in man for deliverance. Let us turn now to some other wonders which sustain the scriptures. Destructive critics of the Bible some years ago found fault with the Old Testament. But not only with that, with the New Testament as well. They said very learnedly that the language of the New Testament wasn't ancient classical Greek.

Neither was it modern Greek. It was just some unheard of jargon. In fact, they strongly intimated that no such real language ever existed. But what do you suppose happened? 2 young Britishers, Grenfell and Hunt, went down to Egypt looking for tombs of ancient kings.

They thought they probably would find a gold mine of wealth buried there in some of those tombs. They went into the region of Tebtunus and here in these ancient tombs they expected to find the mummies of the kings. They began digging and they found a lot of mummies, but not of kings and queens. What do you suppose they found, friends? They found thousands of crocodile mummies, yes, thousands of crocodile mummies.

The people in those ancient times kept crocodiles in their temples and worshipped them as gods. When they died, they reverently made them into mummies, just as they did their kings and queens. 1 after another, these crocodile mummies were pulled out of the ancient tombs. 1 day, 1 of the young men in a fit of anger picked up 1 of them by the tail and smashed it against the tomb. Was he surprised?

Out came rolls and rolls of papyrus or the ancient paper. Grenfell and Hunt broke open other crocodiles. They found actually tons of waste paper, notes, letters, discarded documents of ancient times, wills, deeds, receipts and so forth, even found love letters. They got in touch with the British Museum, sent these tons of paper to London. Scholars began to decipher them and were they surprised, a new language, the very same language used in the New Testament, the common language of everyday talk, what we'd call newspaper language today.

This proved the New Testament was written not in classical Greek or modern Greek, but in the everyday language of the people in Jesus' time. So here we find that even crocodile mummies prove the authenticity of the records of Holy Scripture. Here's another interesting report. Proprietor of some land just outside the wall of the city of Rome not long ago, began to dig in his market garden trying to enrich the soil. He dug deeper than usual.

He struck some stone slabs which proved to be the roof of an ancient tomb or vault for the burial of the dead. And when it was opened, they found this inscription, a vault for the members of Caesar's household. By the way, those are almost the same words used by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 4.22, where he speaks of certain saints of Cedars household. But the most interesting thing about this discovery is that inside the vault, they found many tombs with inscriptions dating from about the time of the birth of Christ to the death of St. Paul.

These dates awakened a lot of interest. They wanted to see if they could find any names mentioned by the Apostle Paul in this tomb and sure enough to the delight of many Christian hearts, they found the names of Trophina, Trophosa, Urbane, Hermas, Patrobus, the very names used in the Book of Acts and Romans inscribed upon 5 different tombs. All of these names are found in the 16th chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans in fact. Those people lived in that very town. Now a final report.

Mrs. Richards and I had the privilege of riding in a taxi from the town of Mosul in Mesopotamia to the ancient mounds which cover the ancient biblical city of Kala, 1 of the oldest cities in the world. Excavations were carried on there by Layard back in 1845 when he found the famous black obelisk of Shalom and Esar 3. On that great rock inscription there was discovered a picture of King Jehu of Israel paying tribute to Shalom and Esar. So here we find the name of 1 of the kings of Israel mentioned in the Bible actually written on a monument by 1 of the kings of Assyria who forced him to pay tribute.

You can see that big obelisk now in the British Museum. Here at Cala we saw excavations being made by Professor M.E.L. Malowan. We climbed the star-pointed little hill which is really the ruins of the ancient temple of Cala. And there we could look down upon the outline of the whole city.

We could see the famous winged bulls and lions which had been uncovered by the scientific diggers. In the Assyrian language these winged animals were called karabo which Dr. Siegfried H. Horn, professor of archaeology at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, tells us is the equivalent of the Hebrew word cherubim. No doubt this shows that the ancient peoples from the very beginning must have been acquainted with the fact that the way to the tree of life in the Garden of Eden was guarded by cherubim, Genesis 3 24.

Professor Maloan had just found an important monument of King Asher Nasherpal II which describes a great feast given by the King to the people of the city when he completed his palace. 69, 000 people were fed for a whole week. This reminds us of the great feast of King Belshazzar mentioned in the fifth chapter of Daniel, and also the feast of King Xerxes mentioned in the first chapter of the Book of Esther. By the way, that was celebrated for 180 days. Quite a feast.

But 1 of the most interesting finds was many beautiful carved ivory plaques which evidently had covered the walls of Ahab's palace at 1 time. The startling thing about it was that these ivory plaques had clearly been taken as loot from the destruction of Ahab's palace in Samaria and the Holy Land. In 1st Kings 22 39 we read of Ahab's ivory house which evidently was lined with these beautiful ivory carvings. When the city was looted by the Assyrians in 722 B.C., these plaques were torn from the walls and carried away to Assyria. The broken pieces were discarded and have been discovered in Samaria by excavations there within the last few years.

Now the majority of the unharmed plaques have been discovered hundreds of miles away in Cala where we were visiting that day. They were used to decorate the palace of the victorious king of Assyria. In turn to be torn from the walls again about a hundred years after they had been placed there by the invaders who captured Kela and pillaged it and burned it. So we see that 1 discovery after another sustains the authenticity of the Bible statements. The mysterious buried city of Og in Bashan, the tons of papyrus from the Egyptian mummies, the Assyrian inscriptions of Kela, the stolen ivory plex.

Friends, the Bible is true. Why not read the Bible? Why not study it? Believe it. Accept its teachings.

Meditate upon its truths. Find your life change for good and your hope enriched and strengthened for a little better life to come. Won't you read the Bible this week? Yes, it'd be good to study the Bible through the Voice of Prophecy Bible Correspondence course. Read God's Word, believe it, and find salvation there.

For the world. May this our glorious motto be, on every breeze the truth unfurled shall scatter blessings rich and free. Blest word of God, send forth thy light on every land and every sea. Till all who wander in the night Are led to God and Him by thee. It offers rest to weary hearts.

It comforts those who sit in tears, to all who faint its strength imparts, and yields with hope the eternal years. Blessed Word of God, send forth thy light on every land and every sea, land and every sea, till all who wander in the night are led to God and Him by thee. May the God of heaven ever watch over you as you look up and go forward in faith. And now here with a final word for you is HMS Richards, a Seventh-day Adventist minister. Have faith in God, his word in rock and sky.

Have faith in God with heart and mind and eye. Have faith in God. His truth can never die. Have faith, dear friend, in God. Now friends, something very important happens at the Voice of Prophecy every Thursday at 08:00 in the morning.

Our worldwide prayer service begins here and radiates out over the world in the homes and hearts of thousands of people who join us in prayer at that time. So Thursday mornings, whether at the exact hour or not, join us in prayer for yourselves, for others, for all who listen to the voice of prophecy, for the peace of the world, for health and salvation. Thursday is prayer day at The Voice of Prophecy and around the world. So we say to you and to everyone that we trust that this program of ours is bringing blessing and help to you. And we invite you to join us again next week at this same time for another broadcast brought to you by the Voice of Prophecy.

The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Amen. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

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The Underground City and Other Wonders

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