Love For His People: Chris Mitchell

Showing posts with label Chris Mitchell. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

While Iran, US Go Head-to-Head, Iranians Are Turning Their Hearts to Jesus - CBN News Chris Mitchell

While Iran, US Go Head-to-Head, Iranians Are Turning Their Hearts to Jesus

07-16-2019

It may surprise you that the fastest growing church in the world is in Iran. Yet that’s the assessment of those who have seen and heard the remarkable story of millions turning away from Shiite Islam and turning toward Jesus Christ.

The image Iran presents to the world is large demonstrations with shouts of ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’.

Those who have seen Iran from the inside, however, paint a very different picture.

“You can’t believe the images on TV. Because for example, all the protests you see on the streets, those are mostly contrived. They’re young people on the streets and they’ve told us if we don’t go to the streets, we won’t get our grades so we’re forced to go and protest,” one Iranian church worker said.

He spoke to CBN News on condition of anonymity.

He says there are two Irans. The one you see on the news and the other hidden from the world.

“I would say there’s a 10 percent Iran and a 90 percent Iran. Ten percent control the country in a more oppressive manner, hardline, religious manner and then the majority of the people, 90 percent of the people love America. They don’t hate Americans. I think that’s the message that Americans need to hear. They tell us all the time, we don’t hate Americans, we love America.”

He wants Americans to know that forty years after Iran’s Islamic revolution, there’s another spiritual revolution underway.

“Awaken to the truth that we live in a time that’s very special. More people have come to faith in Iran in the forty years than in the previous 1400 years. So, there’s a once, not only in a lifetime, but in history where we have a moment where Iranians are coming to faith at such a rapid rate.”

Frontiers Alliance International (FAI) is producing a documentary called Sheep Among Wolves to introduce the Iranian church to Christians worldwide.

“What’s taking place in Iran right now is spectacular,” says FAI founder and director Dalton Thomas. “It’s the fastest growing church in the world that owns no buildings, has no 501c3’s, that owns no property, that has no bank accounts; that has no centralized leadership; that has no denominational leaning and yet it’s multiplying like crazy … What the Lord is doing there is staggering.”

The evangelism results in intense persecution that Thomas says leads Iranian believers to seek prayer but not in a way you may think.

“Typically, the way we pray is we expect that they want us to pray for the persecution to end and they say, no, no, don’t do that. Persecution is growing the church. When the persecution stops, the growth stops. What we want is the Gospel to spread far and wide and deep in Iran.”

With Iran and the US on the brink of war, Thomas says it’s important to see what’s happening behind the Iranian veil.

“When Muslims from Iran come in contact with the Man from Nazareth, something beautiful happens. And when they realize that they have been bought and saved and purchased with Jewish blood; prophesized by Jewish prophets in a Jewish Bible something crazy happens; something beautiful happens and that’s what we’re seeing take place in Iran.”

Thomas believes one day the world may wake up to find Iran’s church growth in the 21stcentury rivaling that in China and Korea in the last century.

Watch here: Iranians Turning Towards Jesus

Saturday, July 13, 2019

'This is Not Mythology': Archaeologists Dig Up the Bible at Ancient City of Shiloh - CBN News Chris Mitchell

'This is Not Mythology': Archaeologists Dig Up the Bible at Ancient City of Shiloh

07-12-2019

CBN News Chris Mitchell

Help CBN News reach more people with the Christian Perspective on today's headlines – please share this story with your friends.

JERUSALEM, Israel – Driving along the route known as the Way of the Patriarchs in Samaria, the heart of biblical Israel, you'll come to ancient Shiloh.

Aerial view of ancient Shiloh, Photo, CBN News, Jonathan Goff

The Bible says this is the place where Joshua parceled out the Promised Land to the 12 tribes of Israel. It's also where the Tabernacle of the Lord stood for more than 300 years.

Dr. Scott Stripling directs the excavations at Shiloh. Along with dozens of volunteers, he and his crew are digging into history.

Excavation Director Dr. Scott Stripling, Photo, CBN News, Jonathan Goff

"Welcome to ancient Shiloh," Stripling greeted us. "This is the first capital of ancient Israel and it's a sacred spot because the Mishkan was here, the Tabernacle, where people came to connect with God."

Photo, CBN News, Jonathan Goff

"We're dealing with real people, real places, real events," he continued. "This is not mythology. The coins that we excavated today – we're talking about coins of Herod the Great, Pontius Pilate, Thestos, Felix, Agrippa the First, Agrippa the Second. The Bible talks about these people. We've got the image right here."

That 'image' includes a fortified wall built by the Canaanites. The team finds a treasure trove of artifacts there, which includes ancient coins and some 2,000 pieces of pottery a day.

Photo, CBN News, Jonathan Goff

"Now, this one was from yesterday," he said. "It's been washed already so you see the same form right out of the ground in yesterday and those are those handles from the stone vessels. Remember, Jesus' first miracle in Cana? There were stone jars full of water. That's that ritual purity culture of the first century."

An archaeologist like Dr. Stripling looks at these shards as a fine time piece.

"Just like your great grandmother's pottery is different from your pottery that you're using today…once we learn the pottery, then we can use it as our primary means of dating."

Unearthing ancient pottery, Photo, CBN News, Jonathan Goff

Stripling says literally digging into the Bible can change your life."

"You can read the Bible, you can walk the Bible, but the ultimate is to dig the Bible," he said. "You know, when we actually get into the swill, like these students from Lea University. They're literally – it's under their fingernails and in their nose and in their mouth and their ears and they're exposing this ancient culture. It becomes one with you. It's sort of like we came out of the soil and as we dig into the soil, we connect with God and with each other, I think, in a very important way," he said.

Photo, CBN News, Jonathan Goff

Abigail Leavitt, a student at the University of Pikesville, serves as object registrar.
"I love getting my hands dirty. I love digging in the dirt. It's my favorite thing," she told CBN News.

While people of all age volunteer at the dig, the main drivers are students like Abigail.

"It's tiring and exhausting, but it's really rewarding," she said. "It's exciting to find ancient things – things that have been just waiting for us for thousands of years."

Abigail Leavitt, Photo, CBN News, Jonathan Goff

Leavitt says the Bible comes alive in the dirt.

"I read the Bible totally differently than I did before I came here, and I can see when I read the Bible I know the places, I know what's going on. I understand it more deeply, especially where previous archaeologists have claimed the archaeology disproves the Bible. But when we dig here, we find that everything matches. You read it in the Bible. You dig in the dirt and there it is," she said.

Stripling said, "Archaeology doesn't set out to prove or disprove the Bible. What we want to do is to illuminate the biblical text, the background of the text, so to set it in a real world culture to what we call verisimilitude," he explained.

"So, we get an ancient literary description. Now, we have a material culture that matches that," he continued. "Chris, you're sitting where Samuel and Eli and Hannah and these people that we have read about, they came just like us, needing answers, needing to connect with God, needing forgiveness."

Stripling says they dig into the past and find lessons for the present.

"One of the faith lessons for us is that God is the potter and we are the clay. And even if our lives are broken like these vessels are, God told Jeremiah after He had told him to go to Shiloh and see what He had done, He told him to go to the potter's house and look at a flawed vessel and see how the potter puts it back on the wheel and works out the imperfections. So my faith lesson is this: Yes we're imperfect, but if we will allow God, He wants to put us [on] His potter's wheel and make us a vessel of honor."

Stripling often cites Psalm 102.

"O Zion, your servants take delight in its stones and favor its dust." (Ps. 102:14)

"For me this is sacred soil. This is where the Mishkan was that answers the most basic of all human questions: 'How do I connect with God?' And I think that's their most basic question," he said.

"I know I messed up. I know that God is holy. How do I bridge that gap when I sin against other people, when I sin against God. Ultimately, Chris, if the Bible is true, then the God of the Bible has a moral claim on our lives. And as we establish the veracity of the biblical text, I hope that everyone watching would just think about that – that God loves us and He has a moral claim on our lives."

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Temple Mount Sifting Project Unveils Artifacts From the Time of David - CBN News Chris Mitchell

Temple Mount Sifting Project Unveils Artifacts From the Time of David

07-09-2019

CBN News Chris Mitchell

JERUSALEM, Israel – Jerusalem’s Temple Mount has never been excavated, at least publicly.

However, an illegal construction project twenty years ago led to discoveries about its ancient past.

In 1999, the Islamic group responsible for the Temple Mount began construction on a large underground mosque. They broke a law prohibiting unauthorized construction, and during the project dumped tons of debris into the Kidron Valley.

Israeli archaeologists began sifting through the debris in 2005 in hopes of finding artifacts that point back to the Jewish temple that once stood in Jerusalem.

Over the years, The Temple Mount Sifting Project has uncovered a treasure trove of artifacts.

“The Temple Mount Sifting Project is an archeological adventure whose purpose is to find the empirical proof of what was on the Temple Mount thousands of years ago,” Shlomo Zwickler from American Friends of Beit Orot told CBN News.

Throughout its history, more than a quarter of a million volunteers have worked on the sifting project making it the largest archeological project in history.

Since its beginning, the project has uncovered enormous archeological evidence.

“We have until now, approximately a half a million finds … the vast majority of the material is from the first temple period and on, starting in the 10th century B.C., which is the time of David and Solomon. And that goes hand in hand with the biblical account,” the project’s director Gabi Barkay said.

While the sifting project began years ago, a new phase is just beginning.

“Fifty-two years ago right here on this hallowed ground that we’re standing on right now that one of the decisive battles of the six day war took place,” he told CBN News. In fact, it was the battle just before the command was given to descend the Mount of Olives,cross the Kidron Valley and ascend the Temple Mount … for the first time in two thousand years."

Some believe the evidence from the project validates the Jewish claim and connection to the city of Jerusalem.

“It’s very simple. There’s no project that (shows) his better than this one. It proves that everything that we said about it and dreamt about it and prayed about it is true,” said Zvi Koenigsberg

“And we know where we came from of course based on our faith, of course on our heritage but also based on the empirical evidence that we find based on where we were,” explained Zwickler.

Barkay says the importance of the Temple Mount to the Jewish people and to the world is profound.

“First of all, the Temple Mount is the soul, heart and spirit of the Jewish people. It is mentioned and indicated more than twenty times in the New Testament. It is a focal point in the ministry of Jesus. And it should be one of the cornerstones of western civilization … it is also the archeological site number one in the country. And probably one of the most important archeological sites of the world.”

Now they're sending out an open invitation for more to come.

“This sifting project is really going to be a major thing for people from around the world to put their hands into and work through soil that came in from the temple itself from some point in its history,” said Stephen Pfann of The University of the Holy Land.

Zwickler invites people everywhere to “come sift the dirt from two thousand years ago. Come be part of history. What was and also what will be.”

Monday, July 8, 2019

‘Incredibly Significant’: One Man’s Quest for the Ark of the Covenant Takes Him Beneath the Temple Mount - CBN News Chris Mitchell,Julie Stahl

‘Incredibly Significant’: One Man’s Quest for the Ark of the Covenant Takes Him Beneath the Temple Mount

July 5, 2019 CBN News Chris Mitchell, Julie Stahl

JERUSALEM, Israel - For centuries, the search for the Ark of the Covenant has captured the imagination of movie makers, archeologists and even a queen of England. Legends have placed the Ark in such faraway places as Ethiopia or Ireland.

Researcher and author Harry Moskoff took CBN News through the Western Wall tunnels, up to the ramparts of the Temple Mount and into the chambers surrounding Judaism’s holiest site. His book, The A.R.K Report, chronicles his two-decade quest to find the legendary icon.

He says one theory is that it was taken out of the Temple and carried to Jericho eighteen miles away.

“It says in Jeremiah that some of the vessels of the Temple were exited, sort of escaped as it were, through this area at the destruction of the First Temple,” he explained.

Moskoff took CBN News to the spot where he believes the Ark really lies.

Moskoff believes a key clue lies behind a 570-ton rock and says high tech search tools give credence to his theory.

“Two years ago, there were tests done by the University of Nebraska, sonar tests…using electromagnetic waves. They actually found what’s called a storage space across from here,” said Moskoff.

“So actually, there was a purpose for putting this giant stone, this massive slab here. One of the reasons, in my opinion, is to protect whatever it is on the other side. And according to my theory of where the Ark was actually buried by King Josiah, I think it was 568 BC – in back of these boulders, these massive stones,” he said.

Underneath the Temple Mount lie dozens of underground tunnels and chambers.

“Back then, a 150 years ago, Charles Warren went in and actually did a survey,” Moskoff said, adding that political tensions prevent anyone from excavating underneath the Temple Mount today.

“No one’s been allowed to even put a shovel, nothing. But, basically, they were the ones that surveyed the whole area and they were the ones who picked out the tunnels...They couldn’t find the Ark.”

Warren, a British explorer, documented those tunnels at the request of Queen Victoria. He was just one of many throughout history looking for the Ark.

“When people like the Crusaders and the Knights Templar, even the Palestine Exploration Fund, which was originally commissioned by Queen Victoria, came over the centuries to look for the Ark, what they were looking for was a golden box with the staves. But what they really should have been looking for is a room. They could have been right up against the wall and on the other side of the wall is the Ark,” said Moskoff.

Moskoff believes the original Holy of Holies had another chamber directly beneath it.

“Actually, in the blueprint itself of the First Temple, a chamber should be built [exactly] the same [as the] Holy of Holies, exactly the same level of holiness as the one just above it. It was set up right from the beginning to house the Ark, with the golden floor and everything,” he said.

Moskoff explained that Solomon built the Holy of Holies so that the Ark could go below it.

He believes the Ark will be revealed one day.

“Timing is incredibly important, incredibly significant. Obviously, it’s a groundbreaking, game-changing, biblical type of discovery. My personal opinion is that when it does happen it won’t be in a clandestine way. Where we are sneaking through these tunnels, you know what I mean, and we’re bringing it out under the cover of darkness. It will be a great occasion and will help bring the Messiah. It will be something all nations will really rejoice in,” the researcher explained.

Moskoff credits Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark for the renewed interest.

“There are some things they got right about the power of the Ark…and its destructive forces shouldn’t get into the wrong hands."

Moskoff wants the world to know that the Ark is more than just a piece of history.

“It’s a real thing. Just like it did 2700 years ago it still exists today. It’s got the broken tablets that Moses crashed down there at Mt. Sinai and the second tablets. It really does exist. We’re really going to see it hopefully in our lifetime again. It is a catalyst for the Messiah to come."

Until it is revealed, the Ark of the Covenant built by Moses in the wilderness will continue to fascinate the world.

Thursday, June 27, 2019

While Iran, US Go Head-to-Head, Iranians Are Turning Their Hearts to Jesus - CBN News Chris Mitchell

While Iran, US Go Head-to-Head, Iranians Are Turning Their Hearts to Jesus

06-26-2019

CBN News Chris Mitchell

The image Iran presents to the world is large demonstrations with shouts of ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’.

Those who have seen Iran from the inside, however, paint a very different picture.

He spoke to CBN News on condition of anonymity.

He says there are two Irans. The one you see on the news and the other hidden from the world.

He wants Americans to know that forty years after Iran’s Islamic revolution, there’s another spiritual revolution underway.

Frontiers Alliance International (FAI) is producing a documentary called Sheep Among Wolves to introduce the Iranian church to Christians worldwide.

The evangelism results in intense persecution that Thomas says leads Iranian believers to seek prayer but not in a way you may think.

With Iran and the use on the brink of war, Thomas says it’s important to see what’s happening behind the Iranian veil.

Thomas believes one day the world may wake up to find Iran’s church growth in the 21stcentury rivaling that in China and Korea in the last century.

Friday, June 7, 2019

Temple Mount Sifting Project Unveils Artifacts from Time of David - CBN News Chris Mitchell

Temple Mount Sifting Project Unveils Artifacts from Time of David

06-07-2019