Hot Potato Beliefs

by

Hossca Harrison

2017

 

Whenever one talks about religion or politics, you end up with a hot potato. For our international audience, a hot potato, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is a situation or subject people disagree vehemently about, and no one wants to deal with these issues. For almost 40 years, I have been talking about hot potato beliefs. I am too old now to stop presenting these hot potatoes, so here I go again.

This hot potato is about the Ark of the Covenant, or as the Hebrews call Ark of the Testimony. The Christians hold a firm belief that God spoke to Moses through a burning bush, giving him the 10 Commandments written in stone. The Ark of the Covenant was the holding place for these stone tablets, as written by God himself. Indeed, many Christians today believe every word in the Holy Bible is the actual word of God. If that is the case, then Christians should know their Bible and what it states. Most Christians believe there are only the Ten Commandments God gave to Moses. But if one is to consider the Old Testament is God’s word, then one must understand and live by all of the commandments which God gave to Moses, which there are 613, not 10.

Some Christians who teach these laws of the Old Testament were done away within the New Testament. It appears many seek to pick and choose which laws to enforce and which laws to ignore. An example, many Christians teach the Old Testament law against homosexuality. Ask yourself this question, why do many conservative Christians preach homosexuality is evil, yet most of God’s other laws are ignored? Laws that state you cannot eat meat with milk. There goes the cheeseburger. Nor can you eat pork or shellfish. Many Christians state these are Jewish laws of the Talmud and do not apply to Christians. Then wouldn’t the old Hebrew laws on homosexuality only apply to the Jews?

Many of these ancient stories were passed orally from generation to generation. It was centuries after the fact these stories were written down, and once they were written down, they were edited, not once but many times through many different filters of beliefs, cultural upheavals, and wars. It is the winner of the wars that get to write history. Stories from the Bible written in first-hand accounts do not exist. Those not familiar with religion’s politics check out the Council of Nicaea in the year 325 AD.

The entire story of Moses is unique among the many stories collected and placed in the Bible. For those who may remember this story, Moses liberated the Israelites from Egypt with God’s help, who bestowed ten plagues upon them. If one knows the story of this time, it does bring into question, was it God who did this, or was it nature causing the ten plagues? Not familiar, watch the Hollywood version of the 10 Commandments with Charlton Heston made in 1956.

Some years ago, when I was on the Greek island of Santorini, which was called Thera in its day of calamity, hearing about an enormous volcanic explosion, perhaps the most significant explosion in recorded human history. As the story goes, this explosion occurred during Egypt’s ten plagues, which potentially caused the ten plagues mentioned in the Bible. This eruption created a tsunami 150 feet high. The power of this explosion was felt from the Mediterranean to the Norwegian countries. The atmospheric plume affected the bristlecone pine in what is now California, affected the bog oaks of Ireland, England, and Germany, and damaged China’s grain crops. We are talking about what insurance companies call an Act of God. Interestingly they still use that phrase.

Of course, there is no absolute proof of this explosion, and the ten plagues of Egypt are the same, although it certainly makes one wonder if there is a connection.

A few years ago, I went to Egypt and spent some time on the Red Sea shore. Seeing first hand this land and flying over the Sinai Peninsula, I wondered how intelligent people today believe Moses took over two million people into this very hostile desert with no water and no food. More so, how could these same people think these two-plus million people got lost for 40 years in the Sinai Peninsula, which is smaller than West Virginia?

Either they were very ill-advised people; all they needed to do was follow the Mediterranean shoreline to the Promised Land, which is now the area of Israel. But on the contrary, I have met many Israelis and Egyptians, and they are not stupid people but are very intelligent and resourceful. But of course, one must take into account that according to the Bible, God kept them lost in this barren desert for 40 years. How would you like to have this guy as your guide?

Let’s look at the nitty-gritty details of how this would have been experienced for those who want to believe this story is true. Can you imagine two-plus million people with their animals all taking a shit every day? If you have never seen the Sinai Peninsula, there are no trees to hide behind to take a shit, no grass, and, worse of all, no toilet paper. If you were in the middle of this herd of people and animals, you have a million people in front of you, guess what you would be walking in, for 40 years!

As a side interest in this story are two of the 613 commandments where God, or also called the Law of Moses, states, “That the evil done to us by Amalek shall not be forgotten,” and the other law, “To destroy the seed of Amalek.” Some historians state the Palestinians are descendants of the Amalek. The Palestinians claim their tribe came from several different tribes, and some also claim Amalek is one of them.

The Israelites were on a journey to the Promised Land, the Canaan land, where many different tribes lived. These tribes of Canaan did not give up without a fight because some God promised their land to another tribe of people, the Hebrews. It reminds me of the story of Christopher Columbus and his discovery of America, by accident. He claimed the land even though it was occupied by what we now call Native Americans taken as slaves, their young men and children murdered, their women raped, their land taken away, and put on reservations. Beyond all the hype and misinformation about Christopher Columbus, did he believe he was the modern-day Moses of his time? He did get lost, just like Moses.

The following written in the Christian Bible in Deuteronomy, chapter 7

1: “When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which you are entering to take possession of it and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Gir’gashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Per’ izzites, the Hivites, and the Jeb’usites, seven nations greater and mightier than yourselves,

2: And when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them; then you must utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.

3: You shall not make marriages with them, giving your daughters to their sons, or taking their daughters for your sons.

4: For they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.

5: But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and hew down their Ashe’ rim, and burn their graven images with fire.”

6: “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth.

16: And you shall destroy all the peoples that the LORD your God will give over to you, your eye shall not pity them; neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.”

Some Christians state this story is symbolic. If this is true, then how many other stories throughout the Bible are allegorical?

What does this have to do with the Ark of the Covenant? According to Wikipedia, the size of the Ark of the Covenant is 2½ cubits in length, 1½ in breadth, and 1½ in height, approximately 131×79×79 cm or 52×31×31 inches. According to writings in the Bible, the Ark was constructed of acacia wood and gold. The Bible states it held the Ten Commandments, but there were 613 commandments, so how could all of this have fit into the Ark of the Covenant?

If the Bible and Torah never existed, would the Ark of the Covenant exist in the consciousness of man today? How many of our beliefs exist today based on ancient religious beliefs?

What about the New Age teachings and specific Egyptian teachings about the Ark of the Covenant? Was the Ark of the Covenant built by Moses to house the Laws of Moses? Did the exodus exist? If it existed, were there two million people, or just a hand full of people? Did Moses steal what is now called the Ark of the Covenant from the Egyptians and run to get the hell out of there. Were Moses and the Ark of the Covenant’s stories an elaborate scheme to forever hide his Egyptian treasure? If it existed, what happened to it? Where is it? So many questions.

The Ark of the Covenant looks very Egyptian, but then again, Moses and his people had lived under Egyptian rule for 400 years so that they would have carried Egyptian consciousness. What about the Egyptian hieroglyphs of the Ark of the Covenant in the Egyptian temples? Indeed, a question to ask, could Moses have stolen the Ark of the Covenant when the natural disasters were occurring? What if what he took was not called the Ark of the Covenant, but instead changed its name to Ark of the Covenant claiming ownership. Jonah has stated in years past; there were three people with Moses’s name during that time, so, which one was which?

The Middle East is a land of many mysteries. Look at the pyramids and how they were constructed. Look under the city of old Jerusalem to find large, perfectly cut stones. Stones so large there is only one crane on earth in Northern Europe that would have the power to lift some of them. So many questions of ancient history unknown, or is it?

Would it not be ironic if the Ark of the Covenant still exists and is buried deep in a cavern called Well of Souls under the Temple Mount, which the Muslims call Noble Sanctuary and Dome of the Rock, under the center of old Jerusalem. This location is considered one of the holiest pieces of real estate on earth. Perhaps this is something Jonah was speaking about in his message “Jerusalem”? This message was recorded in Amman, Jordan, in 2011, and is available at www.Jonahlifestore.com.

Jonah has often taught the ancient Egyptians were not Egyptians, but rather Atlanteans who fled to Egypt. What if these ancient Atlanteans brought with them alien technology, which gave them many abilities, establishing the tribes’ beliefs in the area when they were indeed gods to be worshiped? Science fiction? Perhaps not. How would a farmer from the 1800s who lived in Kansas react to a laptop computer, a jet plane, or any other type of technology we take for granted today?

There are many questions, perhaps more questions than answers, at least for the time being.

If we look beyond humanity’s limited beliefs, perhaps we will find humanity’s destiny written long ago. We are not alone, and we have never been alone. The mind is often like a parachute; it does not work unless it is open.