Ian Heard's Blog - Until we see

WHERE WAS THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON?

25/4/2019

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It's not difficult to know! Again and again the Psalms tell us where it was!

It was in the MIDDLE of the City!

For example, in Psalm 116 the Psalmist says where he will offer his thanksgiving and worship and pay his vows (vv.17-19)...'in the courts of the Lord's house, in the MIDDLE of you, O Jerusalem.'

The City of David at that time was on the neck of land near the Gihon Spring, the site where David had erected his temporary tent for the Ark of the Covenant, the site known through the ages as HaMakom, THE PLACE. (It's visible in the above 1910 aerial photo of Jerusalem, as the neck of land south of the alleged Temple Mount enclosure).

The Hebrew word TAVEK clearly means midst, middle or centre as the following few scriptures (among many) attest...
Joshua 8:22, Ezekiel 48:15, Numbers 35:5, 1 Kings 3:20

The Temple was not outside the city—The City of David—it was WITHIN it, as its heart. Not on the alleged ‘Temple Mount’ but as the centre-piece of the City of David at the site known throughout the Bible as HaMakom—THE PLACE.

Read the enthralling story of HaMakom in 'THE PLACE, HaMakom; where Jerusalem's temples stood.'
Available in Paperback or e-book

WHAT MAKES THE JEWS SO SPECIAL?

28/3/2019

'Special' derives from the Latin word, ‘species’, which means a type or sort distinguished by difference.

The Jewish people were special because they were marked off by God to complete a specific (also deriving from species) role in history. Not because they were especially better than other groups, but because Yahweh found in Abraham a man who could be the progenitor of a new ‘species’—a people group who would learn to trust God, obey Him and be dependent on Him. It was a bumpy journey, but through them and from them and their faith-filled champions, Yahweh derived the lineage through which He would become one of us—to defeat sin and death!

(And, today, many of these special people are realising today that they can stop looking in anticipation--their Messiah has already come and they are embracing Him!)

It is a remarkable story; one now re-told in a new and ‘special’ style in Ian Heard’s book...
‘THE PEOPLE: the sons of God (through the eyes of a Watcher)’

Get your copy now in paperback or Kindle: see details at Base Camp on this site.

'A PEOPLE HAS COVERED THE FACE OF THE EARTH'

21/3/2019

Said King Balak of Moab to Balaam, ‘look a people has come from Egypt. See they cover the face of the earth...!’ (See Numbers 22:5)

Who were these people of whom Balak and other kings were in such dread?

They were those who became known as The People, chosen by Yahweh to demonstrate Truth and Wisdom in the earth.

Discover who they were and why these people known in the Hebrew Bible as Bene Elohim, the sons of God, were chosen. And what of those known as benei adam, the sons of men?

'THE PEOPLE: the sons of God (through the eyes of a Watcher)' is, to quote Barry Buirski of Celebrate Messiah Ministry '...deep and powerful. You have the ability to illustrate the characters of your work through your words. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this and trust that it is read my many.'

For further reviews and details about availability click here.

Get your copy in paperback or Kindle now for an exciting journey along God’s plan through time.

THE ALTAR IN THE CITY OF DAVID!

14/3/2019

Isaiah knew where the temple stood. It stood in the City in which David lived which he had named: The City of David!

In warning of judgement woe to come,
the prophet Isaiah said this...
(Isaiah Chapter 29:1-2 NIV)

‘Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel,
    the city where David settled!

Add year to year
    and let your cycle of festivals go on.

Yet I will besiege Ariel;
    she will mourn and lament,
    she will be to me like an altar hearth.’

Ariel in Hebrew means hearth of God*—hearth meaning where a fire is set. Isaiah is of course referring to the altar of sacrifice where the offerings were made and to the cycle of festivals held there.

Playing on words he warns them that the whole city will become like an altar hearth if God sends judgement. (Note that the same Hebrew word, ARIEL, is used of the altar hearth in Ezekiel 43:15 & 16).

It is unequivocal in this passage and context that the ‘hearth’--the altar at the Temple was IN the City where David dwelt--the City of David (see 2 Samuel 5:7&9)--not remote and hundreds of metres up the hill away from the City where David dwelt!

Read 'THE PLACE HaMakom: where Jerusalem's temples stood' for the full story...

From the Publisher Here

or from Amazon Here

* Ariel can also be translated 'strong lion' but clearly in this context it cannot have that meaning.

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THE SPRING OF ISRAEL?

9/3/2019

Psalm 68 is attributed to David, who by faith is seeing what God has put in his heart—the temple in Jerusalem (v.29).

David had erected a special tent at Gihon to house the ark of the covenant. He put it there as a kind of faith marker for the permanent temple that God had put in his heart.

Gihon Spring entrance painted by David Roberts 1841

In Psalm 68 David envisages that temple as a reality, even though it would not be him but his son, Solomon, who would build it. Nevertheless, David prepared the way and prepared plans and materials. He often spoke, by faith, as though it was a reality.

Here he sees Israel’s enemies defeated and he sees the procession carrying God’s presence in the ark together with the singers and worshippers going to the temple to proclaim God as king over them. Even the enemies see it (v.24). He envisaged it as being just as it had been when he brought the ark to the temporary tent in the City of David, and housed it there, at Gihon.

But...notice what he says about the spring. It’s in verse 26 where he sees the congregation blessing the Lord, ‘FROM THE FOUNTAIN OF ISRAEL’ (NKJV).

That’s Gihon, the spring (Hebrew MAQOR, a spring or fountain) where David had erected the tent for the ark. That was ‘ground zero’, the ‘X’ that marked the spot—the sacred spot—known throughout the Old Testament as THE PLACE HaMakom.

That is where Solomon built the temple, near to and above the Gihon Spring, where the temporary tent had stood—not several hundred meters away up the hill on what erroneously became known as Temple Mount. The water from Gihon (meaning Gushing) was piped up into the temple precinct as several historic sources testify. This 'fountain of Israel' was the type, or illustration of the true 'Living Water' that Jesus later spoke of on that great day of The Feast, at the temple (the day when the water was poured--see John 7:37-39).

Read the entire gripping story of this site in 'THE PLACE, HaMakom: where Jerusalem's temples stood.'
Also vailable from Amazon

David prays that his sin does not spoil God's plans for a temple IN ZION!

28/2/2019

Psalm 51:18/19

There is no doubt that this Psalm describes the repenting heart of David following his sin with another man’s wife—Bathsheba.

After his confession and plea for mercy there is a series of requests that include being washed and cleansed and that God will not remove his Holy Spirit from David.

But David is also concerned about the vision that God had given him for Zion, the City of David, where he knew the temple (the plans for which he was giving to his son Solomon) was to stand--

‘Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion;
Build the walls of Jerusalem.

Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
With burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar’ (vv18/19)

David, when he had bought Araunah’s threshing floor had said, like Jacob long before him, “This is the house of the Lord God” and added, “and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel”
(1 Chronicles 22:1).

There was no doubt in David’s mind that all the activity of the altar was to be centred in Zion...that is, the City of David (see 2 Samuel 5:7) and near that ancient water source (the living water that represented the flow of life from God), the Gihon Spring.

The picture above is an artist's impression of the ancient City of David with the protruding wall protecting the Gihon Spring. It was above this, within the City of David, that Solomon built the temple. The karst type spring gushed (that's what Gihon means) and the water was piped up under its natural pressure to serve the purposes of the temple and sacrifices.

Read the fascinating history of the biblical site that became known as The Place, in '
THE PLACE HaMakom: where Jerusalem's Temples stood'

Click here to purchase from the publisher, or here from Amazon as paperback, or here as an eBook

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THE RIVER OF LIVING WATER IN ZION...

7/2/2019

Babylon had the Euphrates. Nineveh had the Tigris.

And Jerusalem? Oh yes, there was a stream—the 'river' or stream that David said ‘made glad the city of God’! (see Psalm 46:4).
It was called the ‘Bursting Forth’ or Gihon, and it sprang up on the eastern slope of the southern ridge of Mt Moriah. It was a powerful, karst type, spring (similar to Crystal Geyser, the cold water geyser pictured left at Green River Utah, USA) and its waters were piped up into the Temple and the City of David.

It provided the ‘living water’ that was necessary to represent the Presence of God—and David also had this to say about it in relation to those who put their trust in God: ‘...they are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of your house AND you give them drink from the river of your pleasures, for WITH YOU is the fountain of life’ (Psalm 36:8 & 9).

WITH HIM! There, where his presence dwelt in the holy place, within the City of David. The requirement for living water at the place of his presence DEMANDS that the temple be located in the City of David, otherwise known as Zion!

THE NEPHILIM: freaks or failures?

3/2/2019

There has been much fanciful speculation about the Nephilim of Genesis 6, with some concluding they were the product of the mating of male angelic beings and human women.
I don’t believe so. For starters, there is no scriptural evidence for gendered angelic beings.

To conclude this is a stretch as the statement in Genesis 6:4 that there were Nephilim in the land is not the conclusion of the statement in 6:2 about marriage of the ‘sons of God’ to the daughters of men. They are two separate statements of fact. It cannot be concluded that one is the result of the other.

The Hebrew word from which Nephilim derives is NAPHAL meaning 'to fall, be cast down, fail' (see Strong’s 5303 and 5307). Note that Young’s Literal Translation states it that way, ‘The fallen ones were in the earth in those days...’

The NEPHILIM were fallen and corrupted men who were committed to following their corrupted desires, away from God.

SO...who were/are 'the sons of God' in the Bible?

Read ‘THE PEOPLE: the sons of God (through the eyes of a Watcher)’ See more details on this site, AND...
Available from Wipf and Stock Publishers
Or from Amazon in Paperback or on Kindle

CAN THE OLD TESTAMENT BE DISCARDED?

21/1/2019

Here's a response from Shaqaad, The Watcher in my new book
'THE PEOPLE: The Sons of God (through the eyes of a Watcher)"

'We see that many in your day seem to make far too much of the difference between the two, that is, what you have called the Old and the New. For in the view of Yahweh they are simply two parts of a whole—all of a piece. It is merely the fact that for you, the arrival, the act of becoming-one-of-you, necessarily had to occur at a particular moment along the line you call Time. For you who read, the arrival occurred something a little over two thousand of your years, in your past. You are pointed back to it, but that moment was simply the start of his bringing into their fullest expression and meaning all the previous special feasts and celebrations of the benei ha Elohim (the sons of God)!'

For more information on 'THE PEOPLE...' and where to buy it, click here.

THE SONS OF GOD SAW THAT THE DAUGHTERS OF MEN WERE BEAUTIFUL, AND...'

1/1/2019

Yes, they took them as wives. They SAW and they took. It’s a quote from Genesis 6 and already in these early times there were two streams—just as there are today. Those who, like Abel, followed the inner promptings from God and those, like Cain who were at best half-hearted toward God and preferred to follow their own desires.

It was when those known as sons of God, were tempted, compromised their standards and tried to bring together what did not belong together that they invited God’s displeasure. It was downhill from there until we read later in the chapter, ‘Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth...’

Read the ensuing history of those known throughout your Bible as the sons of God and those known as the sons of men. It’s an exciting story, told in enthralling style in....

‘THE PEOPLE: the sons of God (through the eyes of a Watcher).’ See availability and some reviews here.

Location

Beautiful Newport Beach,
Sydney, AUSTRALIA

What people who've read THE PLACE are saying...

Marilyn Sams - author of The Jerusalem Temple Mount Myth: Ian Heard’s book adds a unique ....aspect to the growing movement of people accepting the City of David location for the temples in Jerusalem. His perspective .....brings many insightful possibilities to the table. Especially moving are his heartfelt expressions of faith in and love for the prophets and the Savior of the world'.
Pastor, Luke Yeghnazar of the Iranian Church of Los Angeles: Wonderful book. I trust it will be distributed widely. I read it with excitement. The reader will want to know what happens next. An exciting book to be read by Christians, Jews and others.

What readers of THE PEOPLE are saying...
The People is an enthralling and innovative approach, not only to telling old familiar stories but using narrative to portray, in a subtle but powerful way, the truth of good and evil in our world . . . There is good and evil, God and Satan, and in every human relationship/interaction and behavior a choice is to be made. The consequences, for those with the spiritual eyes to see, are clear. It is an exceptional and well written piece of work.” Allan Bull, Macquarie University, Sydney.