Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Insurgency: FACT (Filipinos Against Crime and Terrorism)

The war against the insurgency is not only being fought in the Philippines, it is also being fought in the United States. 

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1163861

A group of Filipino-Americans in New York staged a lighting rally on Sunday evening to urge American authorities to investigate United States-based supporters of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) for terrorist financing, recruitment, and other illegal activities.

Chanting anti-communist slogans and carrying Philippine flags and other banners, members of the Filipino-Americans Against Crime and Terrorism (FACT) marched along Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside, Queens, where they distributed leaflets denouncing the CPP-NPA and their supporters in the US on the occasion of the terrorist group’s 53rd founding anniversary.

“US authorities should investigate CPP-NPA leaders, members, and supporters in the US for terrorist financing, recruitment, and other illegal activities given the fact that the Department of State has designated it a terrorist organization as early as 2002,” FACT said in a statement.

FACT is a newly formed Filipino-American grassroots organization based in New York that has been speaking out against the CPP-NPA and its front organizations in the US.

The group questioned the introduction of a bill in the US Congress entitled the Philippine Human Rights Act (PHRA), which seeks to suspend US military assistance to the Philippines because of alleged human rights violations.

The proposed legislation, according to the FACT, would benefit neither the Philippines nor the United States nor the Filipino and American peoples.

“It is unfortunate that supporters of the CPP-NPA here in the US were able to convince American legislators into supporting the PHRA by making them believe the Philippine government is on a rampage and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women, and children,” the group said.

According to their Facebook page this group was formed in July 2021. Their first post says the following:

We note the growing presence of the CPP-NPA in the US through its cadres who are slowly penetrating the Filipino-American Community with the objective of raising funds and recruiting supporters for their terrorist activities in the Philippines. 

We see the need to warn the Filipino-American Community about the activities of individuals and organizations that support terrorism in the Philippines. 

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=103241942036879&id=101357042225369

Bayan-USA, Anakbayan-USA, Migrante-USA, and the Malaya Movement are some of the groups they allege are raising funds and recruiting fighters  for the CPP-NPA.

This group is against the Philippine Human Rights Act which, if passed into law, would stop all military assistance to the Philippines until the human rights situation has been fixed.

https://humanrightsph.org

This website claims that US Foreign Military Financing to the Philippines was suspended in after hearings on EJKs perpetrated by the military were held by Barbra Boxer. That is not entirely true. While the US did deny a paltry $2 million in military aid in 2009 records from the US State Department show that military aid to the Philippines continued. In 2012 US military aid to the Philippines tripled.

FACT is not the only Filipino NGO lobbying the US government. The Malaya Movement is on the other end of the spectrum advocating for the PHRA to be enacted. They describe themselves thusly:

We are building MALAYA: US Movement Against Killings and Dictatorship and for Democracy in the Philippines.  As our name indicates, MALAYA (Filipino for “free”)  seeks not only to broaden our opposition from the U.S. to fascism, but  also to broaden U.S.-based support for the cause of freedom and  democracy in the Philippines. 

Also supporting the PHRA is the Kabataan Alliance. This group is united with Anakbayan-USA which FACT claims is raising fund and recruiting for the CPP-NPA.

In January 2016, Kapit Bisig Kabataan Network with National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON) and Anakbayan-USA organized a national Filipino youth conference called Kabataan Magkaisa (Youth Unite) with the theme Strengthen the Unity of Filipino Youth to Build a Brighter Future. It aimed to bring together Filipino youth across the U.S. to learn about the various issues affecting Filipinos and how Filipino youth can stand united to advocate for changes that improve our communities. 

http://www.kabataanalliance.org/about/history/index.html

Are Bayan-USA, Anakbayan-USA, Migrante-USA, and the Malaya Movement really supporting the CPP-NPA? That is what FACT wants us to believe.

On June 11, 2021, a group of mostly Filipino-American youths staged a demonstration outside the Philippine Consulate General in New York City to commemorate the 123rd anniversary of Philippine independence. The protesters represented various groups such as Bayan-USA, Anakbayan-USA, Migrante-USA, and Malaya Movement.  

During their program, the demonstrators denounced the Philippine Government for alleged human rights violations and called for the overthrow of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. Leaders from each of the groups also took turns demanding an end to United States Government military support for the Philippine Government. 

One of the speakers extolled the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and said that NPA members are the true heroes who the Filipino people should be honoring on Independence Day. This was met by a roar of approval from the demonstrators.  

We in the Filipino-Americans Against Crime and Terrorism (FACT) are aghast by the audacity of these groups to praise the CPP-NPA. They did this in open defiance of the United States Government, which is one of several countries that had designated the CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization.  

Despite the repeated denials of Bayan USA, Anakbayan USA and other organizations of their links with the CPP-NPA, the actions of their members outside the Philippine Consulate last month confirms what we have been saying all along—that cadres of the CPP-NPA are actively operating here in the US. 

These CPP-NPA cadres are right here in our midst. They are actively recruiting members and sympathizers from the Filipino-American Community and raising funds to support their goal of overthrowing the Philippine Government through their so-called armed struggle. In case the Filipino-American Community is not aware, the ultimate objective of the CPP-NPA is to install a communist dictatorship in the Philippines.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=115260864168320&id=101357042225369 

This post was accompanied by pictures of the NPA in full combat dress.

https://www.facebook.com/Filipino-Americans-Against-Crime-and-Terrorism-FACT-101357042225369/photos/pcb.115260864168320/115259324168474

Now, I do not know if the speakers praised the CPP-NPA and called them heroes as there is no video footage of the vent available. But I do know the pictures accompanying this article are a lie. They are from the CPP's 50th anniversary celebration in 2018. Here is an actual picture of the event in NYC.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=4227924357230323&set=pb.100064516307069.-2207520000..

What a difference. There is no one here dressed up in combat fatigues and no one is brandishing any weapons.

This event was called Duterte, Wakasan Na! End Dependence and the reason is was held was to protest Duterte's inaction over the West Philippine Sea.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=188381846509720&set=pb.100069395761328.-2207520000..

Join us TOMORROW, June 11th @ 5pm for Duterte, Wakasan Na! End Dependence Rally at the Philippine Consulate in NYC as we commemorate Philippine Independence Day and take a stand against Duterte’s failure to assert Philippine sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea against China’s aggression. 

Now, why would groups who are allegedly communists denounce China which is a communist country? 

So what we have here is, possibly, another front group for the AFP operating in the USA to fight the insurgency. But there are also Filipino groups linked to alleged communist fronts also operating in the USA. Now, why are they allowed to do so? Can you imagine an American based group doing the same in the Philippines? Do you think the Philippine government would allow an American activist group to protest American policies in front of the embassy? No, they wouldn't and rightfully so. The Philippine government would never stand for the same crazy immigration policies the USA tolerates. This is just another instance of how the Hart-Celler immigration law has completely destroyed the fabric of American society.

Since this is the beginning of the year let's indulge in a little speculation for what 2022 will bring us. I believe it is highly likely that the AFP will declare the insurgency to be officially over not long before Duterte leaves office in June.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1164319

Armed Forces of the Philippines chief-of-staff, Gen. Andres Centino, said the military remains focused on ending the communist-terrorist threat this year and vowed to keep the upcoming May elections orderly and peaceful.

In a statement over the weekend, Centino urged military personnel to take on the challenges of the new year, saying that 2021 had its share of difficulties and victories but the organization accomplished much despite limitations and restrictions brought by the pandemic.

"As we move forward onto 2022, I urge every officer, enlisted personnel, and civilian human resource to carry on with the winning momentum into the New Year, and to focus on accomplishing our two most urgent tasks — firstly, in ending the local armed conflict by June 2022; and secondly, in ensuring the conduct of a fair, secure, and peaceful national elections," he said.

He earlier rallied military elite units to intensify their operations to put an end to the decades-long communist insurgency.

He noted that unlike in the past when the campaign against insurgency only reaches a certain point, the intensified operations to end local communist armed conflict has gained steam onward to 2022, also the year President Rodrigo Duterte steps down from office.

The narrative here is that the AFP's gains versus the NPA have gained momentum rather than plateau and fizzle out. No doubt most of this momentum is due to the government's bribery program. That is what DND Secretary Lorenzana claims.

https://mb.com.ph/2021/12/25/dnd-afp-confident-cpp-will-be-defeated-by-end-of-dutertes-term/

The once influential Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) is supposedly slowly fading into irrelevance due to the whole-of-nation (WON) approach of the government in addressing communist insurgency.

The Department of National Defense (DND) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) made similar declarations on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, ahead of the CPP’s 53rd founding anniversary, as the two agencies expressed confidence that the communist group will be defeated by the end of President Duterte’s term in 2022.

“As we celebrate the Christmas season, we are also reminded of the national cancer that continues to ravage our country – the Communist Party of the Philippines. For more than five decades, the CPP has brought nothing but misery, loss of lives, destruction of property, and denial of a bright future for many Filipinos,” DND Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement.

But the Defense Chief said the CPP’s “long years of futile resistance” should be “more than enough for them to realize that they will never succeed in forcing their unchristian ideology and communist principle on our people.”

“The influence of the CPP will continue to diminish as the government implements a whole-of-nation (WON) approach, where the people themselves are in the forefront of the fight,” he said.

The so-called WON approach was launched by Duterte in December 2018 when he created the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) with the ultimate goal of ending the country’s insurgency problem before he steps down from office in 2022.

Lorenzana said that goal is now within reach.

“Since the WON was started in 2018, we saw the flood of surrenderees and capture or killing of ranking NPA cadres. At last the people are fed up and are rising up against them,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Andres Centino, AFP Chief of Staff, said the CPP suffered an “irreversible” damage this year as government troops “continued to gain tactical and strategic victories” against the enemies.

Centino said several ranking leaders of the CPP were “neutralized” or killed in various military operations. Perhaps most prominent of them was Jorge Madlos alias “Ka Oris,” commander and spokesperson of New People’s Army (NPA) National Operations Command, who died in a firefight in Bukidnon on Oct. 31.

Centino also said that 21 guerilla fronts were dismantled while 14 others were “weakened” by the military this year. It also cleared 340 conflict-affected barangays and confiscated 579 unexploded anti-personnel mines in anti-communist operations.

“The CPP has nothing to celebrate on its December 26 anniversary. The year 2021 was the most successful period in our fight against insurgency,” Centino noted.

The AFP claims that 2021 was the most successful year in the fight against the insurgency because they dismantled sacral fronts and neutralized several leaders. Also there is the success of the NTF-ELCAC. But with all the financial irregularities plaguing the NTF-ELCAC how can the public really know just what they have accomplished? And what about alleged CPP-linked groups both here and abroad? Does the AFP think only defeating the NPA, the military wing of the CPP, means the end of the insurgency? How about the hundreds of thousands of communists the NICA alleges have infiltrated the government? There are a lot of factors here that it seems the DND and AFP are not considering. 

Hopefully the AFP does not declare victory against the CPP-NPA in 2022 without there actually being a victory. Sure, doing so would make the Duterte administration look good but the security of the nation is more important than one man's ego.

Monday, January 3, 2022

The God Culture: Did The Lost Tribes of Israel Sail From Qatar to the Philippines?

Timothy Jay Schwab, the soul murdering charlatan who is the founder and head of the Philippine-based online cult known as The God Culture, has published two hour long videos rehashing his Lost Tribes series. These videos deal especially with where the Northern Tribes went. Spoiler alert: some sailed to the Philippines and became Filipinos while others stayed behind and became Kurds. The Southern Tribes migrated to Central Africa, magically transmogrified into Hamitic negroes, and were sold in the transatlantic slave trade in a targeted attack against the Lost Tribes of Israel.

Tracking the Lost Tribes of Israel. Part 2: The Destination. Answers In 2nd Esdras 22B

1:05:12 The Southern kingdom migrated into Africa. That was its only choice at that time, in Egypt, Pathros, and modern Sudan and  Kush or, uh, Ethiopia, essentially, but not the little modern country which is a small sliver of ancient Ethiopia according to abundant maps we cover, at least 20 of them, but all of ancient Ethiopia which is all the way over to what was called the Slave Coast. Ding, ding ding! Yeah, That's why the colonialists went there and that's why they targeted those people. They were targeting Lost Tribes of Israel

That's exactly the kind of history they don't teach in school because it is absolutely false. The truth is Hamitic Africans captured and sold other Hamitic Africans as slaves to Jews, Europeans, and Arabs. Everyone's hands are dirty when it comes to the African slave trade. They don't teach that in school either.

At the end of part two Timothy tells us that these two videos will serve as a nice shorter version of the longer series.

Tracking the Lost Tribes of Israel. Part 2: The Destination. Answers In 2nd Esdras 22B

1:13:43  This will serve as a nice shorter version specific to answers in 2 Esdras

But he also tells us we should check out the rest of his main Lost Tribes series to get the whole case in detail. However, one does not need to do that. In these two videos there is enough bad history, jumping to conclusions, and out right lying and deception that if one is paying close attention they will throw Timothy's message in the burning pile of garbage right where it belongs. As I have written elsewhere, if Tim cannot deal honestly with his sources here he won't be dealing honestly with them there either.

In this article I propose to look at just a few of the historical, linguistic, and interpretive errors Tim makes. I have gone over many of his errors in detail elsewhere but these particular ones I have not. Let's dive into this history from Clown World and see exactly where Tim is wrong and is actually lying on purpose.

Where to begin? Let's start with his exposition of 2 Esdras 13:41-42.

https://youtu.be/aHt107c1JxY?t=900

15:00 "Where never mankind dwelt." Now, some get confused by that so basically they will land in a desert where no man lives. That's pretty simple and it will prove out to be so. Looking for a country that was not inhabited at the time is a really illiterate way to read that and nonsense. "That they might there keep their statutes which they never kept in their own land." Essentially these are taking the oath of a Rechabite history will even tell us and we will find a humble lifestyle among these people when the colonists make it to this land. We will not find the great society which is a nephilim aim yet what most are looking for especially academics and scholars it's called willing ignorance my friends. They don't even know who these people were or how they operated and they're looking for a society that could not exist in there in the manner in which they operated. It just doesn't work.

This passage in 2 Esdras 13 says that the destination of the lost tribes was very far away to a place "where mankind never dwelt." There is nothing here to indicate it is specifically a desert. The text is straightforward and literal. These people are going to an uninhabited land. Tim's calling this a desert rests on his reading of Thomas Stackhouse's interpretation of Abraham Farissol which he mentions in part 2.

https://youtu.be/ycaELOSRMf4?t=3017

50:17 So he said they migrated there, Ferrissol, from Assyria by ship, imagine that! And then they land in a desert to which name does not survive, Chabor. Chabor. This is the Philippines as there is only one desert there on which to land and guess where it is?

If the name of the desert does not survive then how does Tim or Farissol know its name is Chabor? Read or listen to what Tim says and look at the quote in his slide. It says Farissol places the Desert of Chabor on the Indian Sea. That's not the Philippines! Indeed elsewhere the Desert of Chabor is placed closer to Saudi Arabia. I have written a whole article quoting the entirety of Chapter 14 of Farissol's book. The story he relates of a lost tribesman visiting Rome via the Desert of Chabor bears no resemblance to anything Tim has said. The Desert of Chabor is placed nowhere near the Philippines. I urge Tim to read what Farissol actually wrote and stop relying on secondhand hostile witnesses to bolster his claims. Contrary to Tim's assertions the writings of Farissol are not dead but are studied to this day especially by Jewish scholars. That is why I was able to find an English translation of chapter 14.

Tim's interpretation of this verse continues by telling us that in the land they migrate to they will be keeping their statutes "which they never kept in their own land" means they "are taking the oath of a Rechabite." That is a reference to Jeremiah 35 where the Rechabites have taken an oath to live in tents and never drink wine.  

6 But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever:

7 Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers.

Tim does not get this interpretation from the the text of 2 Esdras 13 but from Thomas Stackhouse's interpretation of Farissol who says that the lost tribes live after the ancient manner of the Rechabites. 

Others he places in the desert of Chabor, which, according to him, lies upon the Indian sea, where they live, in the manner of the ancient Rechabites, without houses, sowing, or the use of wine. 

Indeed Farissol does write the following in chapter 14 of his book:

As understood from his own assertions, this Jew was from the company of the two tribes, and he farther said that he was an inhabitant of those deserts, and, like the Rechabites, dwell in tents, and that his station was in the Desert of Chabor, which is in Asia Major. Beneath them were the rest of the ten tribes, near to the deserts adjoining Mecca and Gjudda, which are adjacent to the Red Sea. They have each and all of them their chiefs and princes, and the people are as the sand of the seashore for numbers. They raise spices, pepper in particular, as also medical drugs ; and, indeed, they possess many excellent things, as we shall show hereafter. 

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-god-culture-sinai-in-luzon-and-lost.html 

Again, this looks like nothing Tim is saying. The Desert of Chabor is located in Asia Major in such a place that Mecca is to the south. That's NOT the Philippines. Not to mention Filipinos do not live in tents and they do drink wine. Tim has no support at all from the text of 2 Esdras to say that these lost tribes lived in the Philippines like Rechabites. There is also no support from Farissol to say that the Lost Tribes "are taking the oath of a Rechabite." Farrisol says they lived in tents like Rechabites not that they had actually taken the oath of a Rechabite. There is a big difference. It's the same as saying Timothy Jay Schwab lives like a Filipino vs Timothy Jay Schwab is a Filipino.

The real reason Tim says these people took the oath of a Rechabite is because he thinks it takes the burden off him of having to find proof that an ancient Hebrew society existed in the Philippines. 

Essentially these are taking the oath of a Rechabite history will even tell us and we will find a humble lifestyle among these people when the colonists make it to this land. We will not find the great society which is a nephilim aim yet what most are looking for especially academics and scholars it's called willing ignorance my friends. They don't even know who these people were or how they operated and they're looking for a society that could not exist in there in the manner in which they operated. It just doesn't work.

What exactly is a humble lifestyle? Tim never defines that and he is apparently forgetting the Boxer Codex which he uses prominently to prove that the Philippines is the land of gold, Ophir. Do people living a humble lifestyle dress like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Codex

In the Boxer Codex even slaves are depicted as wearing gold! Is that humble? Do people living a humble lifestyle live in large houses or palaces?

Those who saw Soliman's house before it was burned, say that it was very large, and that it contained many valuable things, such as money, copper, iron, porcelain, blankets, wax, cotton, and wooden vats full of brandy; but everything was burned to the ground with the house.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13616/13616-h/13616-h.htm

The houses and dwellings of all these natives are universally set upon stakes and arigues [i.e., columns] high above the ground. Their rooms are small and the roofs low. They are built and tiled with wood and bamboos, and covered and roofed with nipa-palm leaves. Each house is separate, and is not built adjoining another. In the lower part are enclosures made by stakes and bamboos, where their fowls and cattle are reared, and the rice pounded and cleaned. One ascends into the houses by means of ladders that can be drawn up, which are made from two bamboos. Above are their open batalanes [galleries] used for household duties; the parents and [grown] children live together. There is little adornment and finery in the houses, which are called bahandin. 


Besides these houses, which are those of the common people and those of less importance, there are the chiefs' houses. They are built upon trees and thick arigues, with many rooms and comforts. They are well constructed of timber and planks, and are strong and large. They are furnished and supplied with all that is necessary, and are much finer and more substantial than the others. They are roofed, however, as are the others, with the palm-leaves called nipa. These keep out the water and the sun more than do shingles or tiles, although the danger from fires is greater.

There is not enough space here to continue citing eyewitness reports from the 1500's. The fact is Tim is wrong when he says, "We will not find the great society" in the Philippines. First of all what does that even mean? Second of all the Philippines was divided into nobles and chiefs and commoners. The Spanish did indeed find a great society which was stratified like societies elsewhere. Chiefs and nobles were decked out in gold and jewels and the chiefs threw lavish parties complete with coconut wine. Pigafetta wrote about those parties


Aside from that there was no monolithic kingdom in these islands comparable to what Tim claims when he says the Philippines is Sheba. Here is a map rendering what these islands looked like before the Spanish landed here.


https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/otwukd/precolonial_map_of_the_philippines/


Tim is a complete moron. What he really means by saying the lost tribes sailed to the Philippines and lived a humble lifestyle is that he does not actually want to investigate and do archeological research to prove his claims. 

Many seek this architecture in demand to prove this narrative and they are stuck in a false paradigm. There is none to be expected nor has any other nation on earth produced such nor will they.

Ancient Ophir is never described as having temples at all whether alone ones of gold, it is never recored to have great infrastructure in any sense just a mega-abundance of resources. The humble lifestyle of the Filipino even fits the oath of a Rechabite as Farrisol said.

pg. 128-129

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-god-culture-search-for-king.html 

Tim thinks this interpretation of the lack of evidence for his claims takes the burden of proof off him but it does not. There is no evidence that there was a great kingdom named Sheba in the Philippines nor is their evidence that a Hebrew society existed here. Tim says that's because they did not leave any evidence of their existence. It's totally ad hoc reasoning. He is making stuff up. Tim's history of the Philippines is exactly like the invisible fire breathing dragon living in Carl Sagan's garage.

Your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true. Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I'm asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so.

http://people.whitman.edu/~herbrawt/classes/110/Sagan.pdf

One further thing to note about Tim's interpretation of this passage, that the Lost Tribes lived like Rechabites, is that it ignores the plain reading of the text. The text says:

"That they might there keep their statutes which they never kept in their own land."

This passage obviously means they will be observing the Mosaic Law. The Rechabites lived in a manner that was not prescribed to the whole of Israel. The Rechabites were only one family and their manner of living was by no means the statues given to Israel but was handed down by their own familial patriarch. What Tim should be looking for is not a people living a "humble lifestyle" like Rechabites but a people keeping the Mosaic Law.  Is there a record of any people in East or Central Asia who kept the law of Moses and lived like Jews or Isrealites? No. Certainly not in the Philippines. There is no record of a people observing the Mosaic Law in these islands. There is no record of an ancient Hebrew culture in any of these islands.


It's funny how this man constantly rails against the Rabbis and the Jews and yet believes what the Jewish Rabbi Abraham Farissol has to say about the Lost Tribes. Could Timothy Jay Schwab be any more of a hypocrite by rejecting the Midrash and Talmud and yet believing in the Talmudic Jewish Fables of Abraham Farissol?


Let's take a look at Tim's linguistic method. Linguistics is a big part of what he does. If a place name has a Hebrew sound and he can wrest a meaning from it that fits, then it fits, logic and sense be damned. So, the Lost Tribes miraculously made their way across the Euphrates as God parted the river like he did the Red Sea. Then they sacrificed in worship. Now, this act of sacrificing is not stated at all in the text of 2 Esdras but Tim gets a precedence for sacrificing from the exodus from Egypt and the return from Babylon. These Israelites have just been delivered across the Euphrates River by God so they had to sacrifice. According to Tim we can know this from place names in the vicinity.


https://youtu.be/aHt107c1JxY?t=1937

32:17 Now, let's fast forward for a moment though but again we're going to give this more definition as we go. Here is the third exodus we're in the second exodus in Ezra right now but this is the third  this is when the southern kingdom migrates from Babylon back to Judea that's what this account  is about and this is from Ezra the same guy. Now, what did they do on the way back to Judea? Well, they also made smoke sacrifices burnt offerings unto Yahuah this is the precedence  established by Moses and repeated, remember this is Ezra 2, by Ezra in both of these migrations.  The Northern Kingdom in which we are dealing and the even the next one the Southern Kingdom return to Judea they do the same thing. So can we find a place near the Euphrates which could fit such a designation that perhaps survives linguistically? We believe we can strongly.


So, here's where we left off we cross the Euphrates at al Ashar defined as such in Hebrew even a crossing essentially going forward. Now, where did they go? And Asher of course  a lost tribe of the northern kingdom even. They would not be able to go deeper into Saudi Arabia  as that was controlled by Ishmael's descendants and they would not have allowed a mass migration through their land they're the enemy. We see this even in the first exodus with the descendants of Lot and remember these are mortal enemies. The sons of Lot, Ishmael, and Esau are enemies of Israel. We see that in Psalm 83 and several other places. The lost the uh actually the temple priests uh also identify that in the Dead Sea scrolls.


So, that would be hostile territory and it just wouldn't fit uh their destination. They weren't going to uh return to Mount Sinai and their land and homes in northern Israel were already occupied  by the Samaritans so that ain't happening, their enemies who became their replacements even in infused religious practice for that matter. We track those Samaritans and Babylonians. To this day we today we call them Jews. That's a fact. Go back and watch that part of the series.


So, where did they go well they went to a place still named smoke sacrifices. That's right to this day this nation called Qatar or Qatar or however you want to pronounce it doesn't really matter but the Hebrew means to make sacrifices of smoke as an act of worship. Boom! There it is! That's exactly what we are looking for and it's right there in this region. There you go. No one knows how it got its name. Interesting. We believe we do. It's Hebrew and the Lost Tribes likely named it. Specifically within this area is a city called Dukhan right on the coast right where there'd be a nice port in fact where they discovered oil  in Qatar so and what does Dukhan mean al-Dukhan it means smoke. How about that?

First of all Tim expects us to believe that the neighborhood in modern day Basra, Iraq known as al-Ashar was anciently named by the Lost Tribes as they passed through. As if Moselms would retain that name for over a thousand years. It beggars belief. Not to mention no one stayed behind. According to Tim everyone left going forward towards the Philippines. Al-Ashar does not mean "going forward" nor is it a reference to the tribe of Asher. It is not even Hebrew! It is Arabic for wise. Basra was not even founded until 638 AD as a garrison so there is no way wandering Israelites founded a city in this region or gave the place a name which has stuck for over 2,000 years.

The same goes for Tim's etymology of Qatar. The Hebrew is actually pronounced kee-tor and it has NOTHING to do with "sacrifices of smoke as an act of worship." This word is used 4 times in 3 verses. Here they are.

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h7008/kjv/wlc/0-1/

There is nothing about "sacrifices of smoke as an act of worship" in any of these usages. Why would they name the place they sacrificed to God "smoke." Think of all the place names designated by the Patriarchs in the Old Testament like Bethel and Peniel and Jehovahjireh all of which incorporate the name of God. Why wouldn't these Israelites give a name to the place where they worshipped God which incorporates His name? It does not make any sense.

Lastly, Tim is lying when he says no one knows how Qatar got its name. Why would the Muslims who inhabit this region keep a Hebrew name for their land? They would not. The truth is the name is quite ancient and has nothing to do with the Lost Tribes. It has to do with the name of the inhabitants of the region.

Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer, documented the earliest account pertaining to the inhabitants of the peninsula around the mid-first century AD, referring to them as the Catharrei, a designation which may have derived from the name of a prominent local settlement. A century later, Ptolemy produced the first known map to depict the peninsula, referring to it as Catara. The map also referenced a town named "Cadara" to the east of the peninsula. The term 'Catara' (inhabitants, Cataraei) was exclusively used until the 18th century, after which 'Katara' emerged as the most commonly recognised spelling. Eventually, after several variations – 'Katr', 'Kattar' and 'Guttur' – the modern derivative Qatar was adopted as the country's name. 

Every claim in that paragraph from Wikipedia is sourced. The fact is Tim is wrong about the etymology of Qatar being Hebrew and he is lying when he says, "No one knows how it got its name." Can he not do a simple Google search to discover the etymology of Qatar? Apparently not or maybe he did and he selectively omitted this fact in order to make his claim look good. I would not put that past him.

At this point in Tim's story the Lost Tribes have made it to Qatar and are now waiting for passage to sail to....where? The Philippines of course but 2 Esdras does not say they sailed to the Philippines. In fact it does not say they sailed anywhere. On its face 2 Esdras says they crossed the Euphrates and kept going. There is nothing about going south to Qatar.  Tim's route bears no resemblance to the text. He says they crossed the Euphrates at the most narrow point going WEST and then they went south along the border of Arabia. The text implies that these people crossed the Euphrates going Eastward and continued walking Eastward for a year and a half. Though of course no cardinal directions are named.

The text says they eventually made their way to Arsareth.

So what is Arsareth and where is it?

Tracking the Lost Tribes of Israel. Part 2: The Destination. Answers In 2nd Esdras 22B

9:16 First, what is the word Arsareth? Does it really never exist in scripture otherwise?  Not only does it, this is a very specific place. Asah erets, Arsareth. Yes same Hebrew word or words together into one. It appears in Genesis chapter 2 verse 4. Here it is right here. This is the very land where Yahuah created. Where he “arsarethed” “made the earth” in English.  It's identified as Arsareth, made the earth, right there and this is no mystery at all. So, we're looking for what is known in scripture as the land of creation.

On what basis does Tim claim Arsareth is a Hebrew compound word? He does not tell us. He just jumps right in and squishes these two words together in an unholy matrimony, much like his own. Does it make linguistic sense to take two words from the middle of a sentence in Genesis 2:4 and cram them together to make a place name? He is lying when he says Arsareth appears in Genesis 2:4.  The two words asa and eres are there in the middle of a sentence but the proper place name Arsareth is only to be found in 2 Esdras 13:45. This is another example of Tim's inept and confused Hebrew linguistics and more deception in order to reel in gullible viewers who do not check up on him and test what he says.

And what about the Book of Jubilees which gives the name of Elda to the land of creation? If Jubilees is scripture and the author of 2 Esdras, whom Tim thinks is actually Ezra, was aware of this book, which Tim claims is very ancient and is in fact the Book of Jasher, then why would he not use the name Elda? 

https://youtu.be/ycaELOSRMf4?t=875

14:35 Now, Jubilees however tells us that this land formerly was named Elda and that it is the very land of creation where Adam and Eve were exiled after the Garden. This really tells us how we should have read Genesis 3:23 all along as it is literal. Adam would literally till the adamah. That's  actually the same word as the the dirt, the soil, the dust from which he was created. Red soil. Same place imagine that. Now, when we found Havilah and Ophir and the Garden of Eden, they're all in the same area, same region uh we also found the land of creation. That's just fact. Again, review that case. We're moving forward here so our series. "Where he made the earth" Arsareth is the Philippines. Done.

If Arsareth really means "where he made the earth" and really indicates the land of creation why not use the name Elda so everyone would know exactly to where he was referring? Why make up the name Arsareth out of two Hebrew words found in the middle of a sentence? It does not make any sense and this inconsistency seems to have slipped past Tim.

What if Arsareth means something completely different? According to the Jewish Encyclopedia it does. But note how Timothy Jay Schwab cites the entry for Arsareth.

https://youtu.be/ycaELOSRMf4?t=1399

That is HALF OF THE ENTRY!!!  Here is the other half.

The name, it has been suggested by Schiller-Szinessy, is taken from Deut. xxix. 24-27, "Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord . . . and went and served other gods . . . the Lord rooted them out of their land . . . and cast them into another land [ereẓ aḦeret] as this day." This passage is made to refer (in Mishnah Sanh. x. 3) to the Ten Tribes (compare Tosef., Sanh. xiii. 12; Bab. ib. 110b; Yer. ib. x. 29c; Ab. R. N., ed. Schechter, A, xxxvi. 108, and Bacher, "Agada der Tannaiten," i. 143). But different opinions are expressed by Akiba and Eliezer—the traditions are rather confused as to the names—whether the Ten Tribes may be expected to return or not, since this point is not determined in the Scriptural verse. One of them takes the words "as this day" to signify that "as the day goeth, but doth not return, so shall they who are cast off not return"; the other explains the words: "as the day begins with the darkness of the night, but turns into day, so shall the darkness of their banishment be turned into bright daylight" (Mishnah Sanh. l.c.). The fourth Book of Esdras took the latter view, which was adopted also by R. Judah ha-Nasi in the Tosefta (l.c.), who refers to Isa. xxvii. 13.

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1867-arzareth

Tim in all his dishonesty neglected to cite this alternate definition. Funny, as he is quick to dismiss what Rabbis say and there are several references here to Rabbinical writings. He missed an opportune moment to once again mock Rabbinic interpretations he does not understand. Let's go a little deeper here and find out more about this difficult word Arsareth.

Even a cursory reading uncovers that Esdras is referencing the core story in 2 Kings, the exile by Shalmaneser. He also clearly alludes to the Deuteronomic verse foretelling the exile of the tribes to “another land.” The first usage merely echoes the verse in Deuteronomy (29:28) and speaks of an unnamed land, an “other” land—in Hebrew, Erez Ahereth. It is simply a land other than the land of Israel. As opposed to known locations of exile (“the rivers of Babylon,” “Egypt”), it is unknown. Recall that Deuteronomy had addressed the lostness of the tribes by emphasizing the total anonymity of their new place of dwelling. Esdras, however, names the place by converting the Hebrew words Eretz Ahereth into one designator: Arzareth (the replacing of the “e” with “a” is because when not in construct state, the Hebrew word Eretz reads Aretz). That “other land” of Deuteronomy, previously defined only by what it was not, becomes a real and concrete entity with a proper name: “a region which is called Arzareth.”

From a theological standpoint, Arzareth is of course a metaphor, an imaginary and pristine place juxtaposed with our mundane and tainted world. Yet, at the same time, it is presented as a real location, reached via familiar and known geographical markers. The word itself is simply a mis-translation of the Hebrew term for “another land.” Esdras’s insistence on turning “another land” into an actual place (as the reconstructed Hebrew would have it, “it is a land which is called ‘another land’”) obscured the possibility of mistranslation for a strikingly long time. “Arzareth” wasn’t taken as a simple error, a mistranslation or mistranscription or simple garbling of Erez Ahereth. Over the course of centuries, attempts to identify Arzareth, to pinpoint it on a map, and to understand the meaning of the name only underscored its presumed realness. 

The possibility of mere mistranslation was raised only at the close of the nineteenth century, by William Aldis Wright (1831–1914), a leading British philologist and noted Bible and Shakespeare scholar. “Is not the Arzareth of our Apocrypha simply Eretz Ahereth (‘another land’) of that passage, corrupted by an ignorant translator into a proper name?” He concluded: “Arzareth of verse 47 is the ‘terram aliam’ [other land] of verse 40.” 

The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History, pgs. 62-63

The interpretation of Arzareth by William Aldis Wright as being a mistranslation of "another land" shows up in the Journal of Philology, vol. 3, 1870, pgs. 113-114.



Journal of Philology, vol. 3, 1870

Is not the Arzareth of our Apocrypha simply Eretz Ahereth (A. V. ‘another land’) of that passage, corrupted by an ignorant translator into a proper name?

The conjecture has the double merit of ingenuity and simplicity, and will appear even more probable than it does at first sight if we refer to ver. 40, where the same phrase occurs, 'et translati sunt in terram aliam! 

Indeed, calling a land in which no man ever dwelt to which the Lost Tribes were led by God "another land" is not as convoluted as making a compound word out of two words in Genesis 2:4 and saying the Israelites were making their way to "the land of creation." Verse 45 where Arzareth occurs also calls back to verse 40 which says:

Those are the ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanasar the king of Assyria led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, and so came they into another land.
These are things worth considering which, in all his ignorance, Tim passes by.


One of Timothy Jay Schwab's most important sources for all his erroneous and unhistorical claims about the Philippines is the 1492 Erdapfel Map drawn up by Martin Behaim.


Tracking the Lost Tribes of Israel. Part 2: The Destination. Answers In 2nd Esdras 22B

37:29 Here is Chryse, or Crisis, identified even by shape and location as Luzon Island Philippines. The main or large island. Manila is there, the capital city, and Maniola written in on this map even really is referring to Manila.

Look at that jumbled mess of garbage. Are we really supposed to believe that is the Philippines? It does not look a thing like the Philippine archipelago. But what really takes the cake is Tim actually claims this map has a reference to Manila. That's right. This map from 1492 mentions a city the Spanish would found in the 1570's. This reference is also in the middle of the sea and not to a city on any island but somehow it's referring to the City of Manila. 

What a crock! This assertion shows how absolutely ignorant Tim is. Yes, there is text on the map referring to Maniole but that is a reference to ten magnetic islands first described by Ptolemy. Did Tim even think to translate or to find a translation of the German? What a lazy blockhead.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/RavensteinBehaim.jpg

difer jnfell findt zehen gehaifen maniole dafelbft mag kain fchiff faren das eifen an hat umb defs magnet willen der dafelbft wechft (K 5 s).

There are ten of these islands called Maniole. No ship having iron in it dare navigate near them because of the magnet which is found there. 

Ptolemy (VII 2) has "Maniolae insulae decim, quarum incolae sunt anthropophagi, in his gignitur magnes." These Magnet Islands of Ptolemy, however, are placed in the Sinus Gangeticus, whilst Behaim's legend is shifted to the east of the mainland. On fabulous Magnet Rocks, to be dreaded by mariners, because on approaching them the iron nails flew out, and the ship fell to pieces, see Peschel's essay in 'Abhandlungen zur Erd- und Völkerkundes,' Leipzig, 1877, p. 44 .

http://globemakers.com/facsimile/globe_behaim.html

Here is the full citation from Ptolemy:

There are said to be other islands here adjoining, ten in number, called Maniolae, from which they say that boats, in which there are nails, are kept away, lest at any time the magnetic stone which is found near these islands should draw them to destruction. For this reason they say that these boats are drawn up on the shore and that they are strengthened with beams of wood. They also say that these islands are occupied by cannibals called ManioliThere are means of approach from these islands to the mainland.

Geography pg. 157

Ptolemy says the cannibals occupying the Maniolae islands are called Manioli. Imagine that. How will Tim twist that information?

There is nothing on this map from 1492 referring to Manila or the Philippines. For Tim to say otherwise is "willing ignorance" or perhaps he knows what the reference is to and he is intentionally lying to his audience again. Either way he is wrong. The Behaim map does not support his thesis that Chryse and Argyre are the Philippines. His utterly false and ignorant interpretation of this map underscores the fact that he is constantly twisting information to fit his paradigm. It is far worse than Tim not knowing what he is talking about. He is not merely an ignoramus. Timothy Jay Schwab is intentionally lying to his audience.

Now, I could continue but I think I have covered enough here. Tim repeats the same lies about Pomponius Mela, Dionysius Perigretes, the Periplus of the Erythean Sea, Dr. Craig Austin, and Professor Adrian Horridge. I have written at length about every single one of those subjects. If this article and everything else I have written about Timothy Jay Schwab's shoddy research is not enough to convince you that he is a liar and has no idea what he is talking about then I don't know what to tell you.

Let me conclude by saying something about "proof." Just because one has pulled out a lot of old maps and books and says, "See here, it says so," does not mean one has proven anything. Just because one states a "fact" does not mean one has proven anything. One has especially not proven anything if they twist the maps and books they are using to fit their agenda like Tim constantly does. Tim also says and writes stuff that he simply declines to prove. The most egregious thing in his book which he states as a fact without proving is that Filipinos and Greeks were circumnavigating Africa to trade with one another. 

Tim does not explicitly write that the Greeks were sailing "the long way around Africa" to the Philippines but that is implied when he writes:

The Greeks traded with the Philippines for gold and silver roughly around 800-150 B.C. and Mela retained this from the "olden writers" of Greece.

p.43

The sentence from page 43 implies the Greeks circumnavigated Africa because, as Tim mentions in the paragraph from page 136, the Red Sea port was broken. Even if it weren't broken the Greeks did not control that territory so it would have been impossible for them to sail out of that port.  

Tim offers ZERO PROOF for his claim that the Greeks and Filipinos traded with one another by circumnavigating Africa and when he was asked for proof he declined to give it. So, yes there are things in his book that he states without proving. He is lying when he says otherwise. His books and videos are chock full of many errors, some of which he asserts without proving, which I have discussed at length on this blog. 

These two videos about the Lost Tribes are awful. They are filled with error of every sort both historical and theological. It seems everything Tim does is a massive deception of some sort. It's sad because this man resettled in the Philippines with his thrice married second wife and started hawking his lies uninvited. Filipinos don't deserve to have some middle-aged American immigrate to their country for the express purpose of hunting their souls. Filipinos do not deserve to be subject to the lies of Timothy Jay Schwab.