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World-wide Politics

This is something I have been meaning to write about for a while now. Being overseas during this time of economic crisis and especially during this huge election season, my eyes have really been opened to how stock the rest of the world puts in the USA. American politics, economics, etc. effect the rest of the world in ways of which I had no idea. I never realized just how much prevalence the American presidential elections have throughout the globe. I guess growing up in small-town America, my worldview was limited to that which was directly around me. Now that I am out of the US, I am beginning to realize the extent of American influence.

Something else I find interesting is that some Americans are the only people in the world who think John McCain should be elected. Everybody, and I mean everybody, I have talked to – from waiters to street vendors – wants Obama to become president. In other words, if the rest of the world could vote in this election, Obama would win by a landslide. I’m not exactly sure why this is, to be honest. Every person gives a different reason – from economic and foreign policies to the way he carries himself in public and during debates. But one thing is clear: Americans are alone in the world in thinking that McCain stands a fighting chance.

Just something to think about.

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Alexandria – Home of the Ultramodern, Fireproof Library

This fortress is built over the foundation of the ancient lighthouse.

Th New Library of Alexandria


Alexandria was the first city we visited after flying into Cairo. The city was built along the coastline of the Mediterranean by the Greeks and named after, who else?, Alexander the Great. It was not technically part of “Egypt” when it was built because “Egypt” as a nation only consisted of “Black Soil Around the River Nile” as our tour guide, Osman, emphasized quite a bit.

Alexandria was once home to one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World – the Lighthouse of Alexandria. It’s not there anymore. It fell down a long time ago and a fortress was built over its foundation.

We also got to see (but didn’t go in) the new library. If you remember your world history, Alexandria was also home to the largest library in antiquity until some moron burned it down in some sort of protest- destroying much of the world’s compiled knowledge up to that point. I sure hope this new library is fireproof…just in case.

Also, since Alexandria was a Greco-Roman city, there are extensive catacombs below the street, comparable to Rome or Paris. Early Christians used these catacombs as secret meeting places during times of persecution. And I thought our church buildings were uninviting…

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Faith building in the land of Egypt

It’s incredible how much can happen in 8 days. The land of Egypt is so rich, so saturated with history and stories that it would be nearly impossible to take it all in, even with decades of study. Our tour guide, Osman, (who is one of the best men I have ever met) is by far also one of the best tour guides in all of Egypt. He is professional Egyptologist, tour guide, hieroglyphics teacher, and Biblical historian. Not only did he take us around to all the famous sites, but at each one he did his best to tie in all the geography, temples, etc. to the stories in the Bible. I never realized just how much Egypt had to do with the development of Judaism and ultimately Christianity.

I would like to start my summary of our trip by recording some of the things I learned that my Sunday school teachers never knew:

– The pyramids were seen by Abraham, Joseph (and his entire family), Moses, and Jesus

– There is technically more than one Temple. When Judea was overrun and many Jews taken captive and Solomon’s Temple was destroyed, many Jews escaped to Egypt and built a full-scale replica of the Temple, complete with priests and a sacrificial altar. In fact, a second full-scale replica was built on an island in the Nile called Elephantine Island (which archeologists are excavating right now). What’s more, the Egyptians built a temple of their own called the Temple of Philae which is based off of those other two replicas of Solomon’s Temple.

– The Ark of the Covenant probably wasn’t a big box. It would have been shaped like a small boat with a shrine area in the middle and two cheribum on either end. (I will post a picture later) How do we know this? Because in the Egyptian temples (which included a “Holy of Holies” where the god was and only the high priest could enter) the god was kept in an “Ark” which was a small boat with two long poles on either side which the priests used to carry the ark. Also, the 14 Commandments of Egypt were kept on display inside the ark. Moses, growing up around the main temple complex in Luxor, would have seen this ark taken out of the temple on many occasions.

– When the Israelites were encamped around Sinai and built a golden calf, it was most likely a representation of the goddess Hathor, one of the main goddesses worshiped in the time of their enslavement.

– The Egyptians had a god in their pantheon named Set, who was the god of chaos, evil, and the wilderness. From the name of Set, the Jews derived the name for Satan.

– The Egyptian priests made a practice of removing their sandals when they were inside the Temple, which was considered “holy ground”. God told Moses to remove his sandals, for he was standing on holy ground.

– The only exception to this practice of removing their sandals was during a time of war, when every man had to be prepared for fight of flight. God told the Israelites on the night of the Passover to keep their sandals on as they ate the meal, for they were getting ready to run. Paul told Christians in Ephesians 6 to keep our shoes on, which is the preparation of the gospel of peace, during a time of spiritual warfare.

– Early Christians made it a practice to use pagan symbols as their own symbols of the faith. For instance, they ancient Egyptians used a symbol called an ankh, which was the “key of life” carried by all the god, representing the Nile river. It looks like a cross with a circle on the top. Early Christians in Egypt used this symbol as their own to represent the life which we have in Christ.

OK, I’ll stop here for now. There’s more I could talk about, but I’ll leave that until the actual trip summary. I wanted to go ahead and write this stuff down before I forgot about it. All of this goes to show that God, in His infinite wisdom, has no problem with reaching people on their level. He used the things which the Israelites knew. He met them where they were and showed them the way to himself. Our God truly is an awesome God.

Posted on

Faith building in the land of Egypt

It’s incredible how much can happen in 8 days. The land of Egypt is so rich, so saturated with history and stories that it would be nearly impossible to take it all in, even with decades of study. Our tour guide, Osman, (who is one of the best men I have ever met) is by far also one of the best tour guides in all of Egypt. He is professional Egyptologist, tour guide, hieroglyphics teacher, and Biblical historian. Not only did he take us around to all the famous sites, but at each one he did his best to tie in all the geography, temples, etc. to the stories in the Bible. I never realized just how much Egypt had to do with the development of Judaism and ultimately Christianity.

I would like to start my summary of our trip by recording some of the things I learned that my Sunday school teachers never knew:

– The pyramids were seen by Abraham, Joseph (and his entire family), Moses, and Jesus

– There is technically more than one Temple. When Judea was overrun and many Jews taken captive and Solomon’s Temple was destroyed, many Jews escaped to Egypt and built a full-scale replica of the Temple, complete with priests and a sacrificial altar. In fact, a second full-scale replica was built on an island in the Nile called Elephantine Island (which archeologists are excavating right now). What’s more, the Egyptians built a temple of their own called the Temple of Philae which is based off of those other two replicas of Solomon’s Temple.

– The Ark of the Covenant probably wasn’t a big box. It would have been shaped like a small boat with a shrine area in the middle and two cheribum on either end. (I will post a picture later) How do we know this? Because in the Egyptian temples (which included a “Holy of Holies” where the god was and only the high priest could enter) the god was kept in an “Ark” which was a small boat with two long poles on either side which the priests used to carry the ark. Also, the 14 Commandments of Egypt were kept on display inside the ark. Moses, growing up around the main temple complex in Luxor, would have seen this ark taken out of the temple on many occasions.

– When the Israelites were encamped around Sinai and built a golden calf, it was most likely a representation of the goddess Hathor, one of the main goddesses worshiped in the time of their enslavement.

– The Egyptians had a god in their pantheon named Set, who was the god of chaos, evil, and the wilderness. From the name of Set, the Jews derived the name for Satan.

– The Egyptian priests made a practice of removing their sandals when they were inside the Temple, which was considered “holy ground”. God told Moses to remove his sandals, for he was standing on holy ground.

– The only exception to this practice of removing their sandals was during a time of war, when every man had to be prepared for fight of flight. God told the Israelites on the night of the Passover to keep their sandals on as they ate the meal, for they were getting ready to run. Paul told Christians in Ephesians 6 to keep our shoes on, which is the preparation of the gospel of peace, during a time of spiritual warfare.

– Early Christians made it a practice to use pagan symbols as their own symbols of the faith. For instance, they ancient Egyptians used a symbol called an ankh, which was the “key of life” carried by all the god, representing the Nile river. It looks like a cross with a circle on the top. Early Christians in Egypt used this symbol as their own to represent the life which we have in Christ.

OK, I’ll stop here for now. There’s more I could talk about, but I’ll leave that until the actual trip summary. I wanted to go ahead and write this stuff down before I forgot about it. All of this goes to show that God, in His infinite wisdom, has no problem with reaching people on their level. He used the things which the Israelites knew. He met them where they were and showed them the way to himself. Our God truly is an awesome God.

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Out of Egypt

Well, here we are again. Done with yet another trip.

Egypt is…where should I start? Beautiful, awesome, inspiring, incredible, amazing, exilerating…you get the point. We got to experience everything from Alexandria to Abu-Simbel. We entered a pyramid at Giza, stared into the mummified face of Ramses II, rode camel across the Nubian desert, cruised along the Nile, and sat in the place where Moses went to school as a prince – jus to name a few of the highlights.

There will be more to come about these, but I simply wanted to let everyone know that the trip went well. No one got sick, no one got injured, and everyone had the time of their lives.

Posted on

Out of Egypt

Well, here we are again. Done with yet another trip.

Egypt is…where should I start? Beautiful, awesome, inspiring, incredible, amazing, exilerating…you get the point. We got to experience everything from Alexandria to Abu-Simbel. We entered a pyramid at Giza, stared into the mummified face of Ramses II, rode camel across the Nubian desert, cruised along the Nile, and sat in the place where Moses went to school as a prince – jus to name a few of the highlights.

There will be more to come about these, but I simply wanted to let everyone know that the trip went well. No one got sick, no one got injured, and everyone had the time of their lives.

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Thermopylae – yes, like in the movie 300.

Just imagine, 250,000 Persians gathered on those hills raining arrows down on the 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians.

This is the monument built in honor of King Leonidas of Sparta.

Thermopylae:
Ok, so everyone probably knows the story of this battle site, but I still find it amazing that 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians defended the pass from 250,000 Persians for 3 days while the rest of Greece was able to gather their forces together and eventually send the invaders back home with their tales tucked between their legs.

This is the site of arguably the most important battle in the history of Western civilization. It is theorized that if the Persians had broken through any sooner, the rest of Greece would not have been able to regroup and drive them out. If the Persians had simply swept through Greece as they were intending, the rest of Europe would have been in danger of falling under Persian control as well, and Western Civilization as we know it would have been completely destroyed.
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So that wraps up our tour of Northern Greece. We did make quick stops in Kavala (ancient Neapolis where Paul entered Europe for the first time) and Berea, but we didn’t really spend enough time in either of those places to write much about.

Next up is our trip to Egypt. We leave this Tuesday, so keep us in your prayers. I may not be able to update until we get back because I’m not sure if we’re taking our laptop with us. So it may be a little over a week before I get back to this.

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Thessaloniki – in the shadow of Olympus

The remains of the Roman forum in downtown Thessaloniki

Monument in honor of Alexander the Great, the founder of the city.

Looking down on the city from the Acropolis. You can see Mount Olympus in the background.

Thessaloniki:
You may not realize it, but Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece and had pretty much always been about as important as Athens. At many times throughout its history, Thessaloniki has acted as a sort of second capital. It was established by Alexander the Great in honor of his sister.

There aren’t as many historical excavations taking place in Thessaloniki simply because it is difficult to excavate a city which has 2million people living on top of it. They are working hard to dig up the places they can, like the Roman forum in the top picture.

It was amazing to see how close Mount Olympus is to the city. I never realized where exactly the mountain of the gods was. It is a beautiful range of mountains directly across the bay from the city, and on a clear day it can be seen towering majestically over its surroundings.

We really didn’t get to spend as much time in Thessaloniki as I had hoped, but it was still cool to see how much the city has continued to flourish throughout its history of over 2000 years.

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Philippi – I think the Macedonians are calling.

This is the possible location of the River in which Lydia and the Jailer were baptized.

To the right of those steps is the traditional site of the jail in which Paul and Silas were held overnight.

This is really the main part of the city. This is all that remains of the Roman forum and the Agora. In the background you can see the remains of a gigantic basilica that was built ca. 400 AD.

Philippi:
When we first got to Philippi, we started at the river which would have been located outside the western wall of the city. This is the traditional cite where Lydia and other Jews were meeting for worship regularly. It could possibly be the river in which the first European converts were baptized, but it is certainly the river in which thousands of Christians have been baptized over the last several centuries. This is a place of pilgrimage for thousands of Christians of every denomination. A formal baptistery has been built into part of the river with a small theater on one side for people to witness the baptism. It was incredible being able to wade around the river and sing songs like “As the Deer”.

The main city, as you can see, is still in ruins. Very few parts of buildings are standing. It is mainly just foundations and rubble. The coolest structure still partly standing was one of the basilicas, which still had its four corners standing at least 50 feet high. But this was only one of three or four gigantic church buildings in the ancient city.

As you may know, the famous Via Egnatia runs straight through the city. It was a road built by the Romans that stretched about 350 miles or so, from the port city Neapolis, through Philippi, and on through Berea and Thessaloniki. We got to walk along the road which we know for a fact that Paul walked along as he traveled through this part of Europe.

The city also has a pretty good size theater which is undergoing a massive restoration effort. In this theater people would watch everything from plays and choral performances to gladiatorial battles and executions. I guess that’s all part of being a free Roman colony.

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Vergina – I don’t think that hill belongs there.


The next historical hot spot we visited was Vergina, the home and burial place of King Philip II of Macedon. If you remember your Western Civ., King Philip II was the guy that conquered all of Greece and united the Hellenes under one rule for the first time in their long history. After Philip was assassinated (in a theater no less), his young son, Alexander, took control and conquered the rest of the world, or at least the rest of the Persian Empire.

What’s cool about this site is that everything is underground. There are parts of the city, mainy burial chambers, that have been excavated and preserved by keeping them hidden under a huge mound of earth, just as they were discovered by the original archaeologists. Apparently they just came across a hill that looked like it wasn’t supposed to be there, and they started digging. Among the excavations, though, is a full fledged museum displaying beautiful artifacts – golden wreaths, decorative armor and weaponry, intricate ivory carvings, and so on. We weren’t aloud to take any pictures, though, so all I have are pictures of the outside.