Spirit-Digest
Ark of the Covenant: The Most Important Archeological Find In History
by Judy D. Gassett @ Spirit-Digest.com
This study of five articles has been leading to the climax in this article (4th in the series). The last article will discuss the miraculous Precious Blood. The story is logical and sublime. Christ's Precious Blood was found on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant 20 feet beneath old Jerusalem (45 feet beneath the current city). It was far too precious to be absorbed by the earth and returned to dust, so God harvested it in a most unique, appropriate, and holy way! It fell through a crack in the bedrock which a massive earthquake opened immediately after Christ died, right next to the cross and drained below to the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant which waited for centuries below to receive it.
This discovery showed how the Old Covenant was completed and sealed with the Precious Blood. The implications are dazzling, mind warping, leaving believers, such as myself, blown away. Even Ron Wyatt was stunned to find this. This is an earth shattering story of one outside of the Catholic faith, loved no less, who made one of the most significant discoveries of both Christianity and Judaism in1982, linking the beliefs of two major religions that enjoy one God.
As discussed in a previous article ( 2 of 5), after the high priest spread the blood of a goat on the Ark's right side in ancient Israel, God looked with favor on the animal victim whose death had reconciled Him with the nation's sins for the past year. He then moved from His seat of judgment to His Mercy Seat which was on the Ark between the cherubim. The vicinity radiated God's magnificent Shekinah Glory. The Savior's blood on the Mercy Seat can only mean that God accepted Christ's atoning sacrifice and He has been seated between the cherubim in love and mercy presiding over an ungrateful world full of evil and perdition for 2,000 years.
God granted unique graces to a godly amateur, an American and Protestant, (Seventh Day Adventist) of uncommon humility, to discover his Holy Ark of the Covenant, January 6, 1982 around 2 PM. The discoverer, Ron Wyatt, died on August 4, 1999. There is no physical evidence or pictures to confirm his incredible story, only his word. The Lord even arranged for his two sons who were helping him with the excavation to became ill separately and return to the U.S. within a couple days of each other the week of the discovery. They otherwise would have been with him to witness this discovery just like his past discoveries. I see the hidden hand of God working in all of this. The most stupendous find in history, more precious and valuable than the Atocha, and no witnesses, not even family members and no pictures. Why??
Most, but not all miraculous revelations of the nature of God and/or supernatural wonders manifested to the faithful have come through the holy Catholic Church. Discoveries made by worthy Protestants are rarely mentioned by the Church (I am aware of none). In fact, the Catholic Church, itself, has done little in the way of biblical archaeology despite its very venerable old age (giving it a head start), and world's best access to the ancient documents. This may reflect the Church's attitude that only she holds the depository of findings and wonders worthy of belief and must censor such things for the faithful. This is a statement, not a criticism, for the Church must continue to zealously interpret the supernatural for the faithful. We understand the reasons .
If you reject the story below because a Catholic did not make the discovery, or the Precious Blood miracle, (discussed in the next article), was not given to a Catholic, you have less understanding than you thought about how God moves and how he dispenses graces and miracles to his beloved commandment keepers who are not always Catholics. I have carefully discerned the account below for months before publishing the story to Spirit-Digest.com.
He got into antiquities hunting because he was greatly bothered by modern theorists who repudiated the Bible and called biblical wonders "a collection of fables", especially the topic of Noah's Ark and the Red Sea crossing. History Channel airs a yearly program which explains that the Israelites crossed the "Sea" of Reeds" in ankle deep water. Pharaoh's army was drown in a flash flood in a freak of nature.
The year JP II was elected pope,1978, Ron Wyatt was having a friendly conversation with an administrator from the Israeli Antiquities Authority about his discovery of the site of the Exodus crossing on the Gulf of Aqaba. He had contacted them because there was a ancient monument, (thought erected by Solomon), at the site of the crossing and developers were about to blast the area. The Antiquities Authority stopped the work and saved the stella. He was also well known to them as having plenty of recognition from other fantastic biblical discoveries including, Noah's Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, the Holy Sepulcher. Ron Wyatt often pondered why all of these amazing discoveries, which confirmed the Bible, came to him, an amateur with no formal training. Every single discovery contained a supernatural intervention in some way, encouragement, and help with impossible obstacles after sincere prayers. An example was at The Sodom and Gomorrah site. After months of searching, the Lord sent a very rare drenching rain in a desert where in never rains. This revealed brimstone and pure sulfur pellets on the ground.
During the conversation with the Antiquities official Ron Wyatt noticed the distinctive features
of a skull rock outcropping, not so marked at the time, as Golgotha. The
place had been turned into an overgrown city rubbish dump and was located
outside the city northern gates, some 15-20 feet below today's Jerusalem. Suddenly, Ron pointed and declared in the imperative, "That is Jeremiah's Grotto, and the Ark of the Covenant is in
there!"
Ron Wyatt was in wonder and shocked at what was coming out of his mouth for without realizing, and certainly before he could stop it, he had uttered prophecy.. The antiquities official with Ron immediately said, "That is wonderful! We want you to excavate. We will grant you your permits, put you up in a local hotel, and even provide your meals!" ( This offer was quite unusual for being so immediate without any paper work or requests) . Ron was exhausted from his recent discovery of the Red Sea crossing, was in Jerusalem for some R and R, and had never planned to undertake any more archaeological research.
Ron knew that his unexpected, unrehearsed declaration for the Ark's location was supernatural event and he wanted to study his approach to the holy task, starting with what the real thing looked like. He returned home to the USA, and began to research the history of the Ark of the Covenant. Ron discovered that the last reference of the Ark of the Covenant in the Bible is in the following verse: "Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built," (2 Chronicles 35:3.).
Ron Wyatt reasoned that the Ark of the Covenant may well have been hidden by the Jews in the myriad of caves and communicating passages underground, in the "no-man’s land" near the Damascus gate. This would have been outside on the north side of the city walls but under the city, and would be the perfect place to hide this precious artifact, where the Babylonians were least likely to look. Remember what these pagans did to the other Temple furnishing they took back to Babylon?
Ron started excavation in 1979 on the newly discovered Golgotha escarpment uncovering
remains dating to the first century, likely the site of an early Christian
church, judging from the collapsed walls under hundreds of tons of trash and
fill.
Nearby was a huge round stone which Ron felt was the megalith that sealed the
Sepulcher.
Thus,
the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, were the miracle of the fire occurs each year,
is not where Ron thought the Savior was buried.
Directly under this first find they uncovered were three 'bookshelf-like' recesses cut into the cliff face. Ron's thought was that these could be the recesses that held the signs that the Romans put in the cliffs above the crosses of crucified criminals, including Christ. It was Ron's opinion that even though there were large signposts set into the rocks above the crucified, there was still a titulus nailed on the cross This signage made the crimes more visible to passers by who would not want to approach the stinking remains after the death.
After months of digging further down the face of the cliff, Wyatt felt he discovered the exact site of the crucifixion and found the holes worked by tools in solid bedrock where the crucis stipes could be erected, along with the holes that held crosses for other criminals, four holes altogether. Within inches of the hole that seemed centered between two others was a crack in the solid bedrock from what Ron felt was an ancient earthquake. In this crack was a very dark dried, flaky substance. Ron suddenly decided to take some scrapings. Please note that Ron was digging for the Ark, not the site of the crucifixion. At the time he did not know how the two could be intertwined in place, time, and biblical prophecy. This was a very interesting, if not a profound find, but Ron was searching for and the Antiquities Authority was paying for, the discovery of the Ark of the Covenant.
Wyatt knew that this was likely the place of Christ's cross because the hole seemed showcased for the "featured criminal" given its central location with other similar holes around about. . It even had a hand carved lid of limestone with finger holes that fit inside the cross hole when it was not in use. When one of Ron's sons lifted this out, the bottom of the hole had a coin with Tiberius' image on it! Apparently, Golgotha at the time of the biblical account, was the "county seat" for executions and this included stoning. Ancient human arms and hand bones were found which makes sense if they were separated from victims during stonings. It was likely St. Stephen was stoned here. The Roman likely invented provisions that made execution by crucifixion faster and easier such as reusing the holes and keeping them covered when not in use.
During the long search for the Ark, Wyatt was sick, and discouraged, a man fighting exhaustion, pneumonia, strains, bruises, insects and dust. One day, sick with a fever, out of money, and exhausted, a princely handsome man appeared suddenly clad as an ancient Hebrew in a highly restricted area. The man called Ron by name to encourage him and tell him that the Lord was pleased with his work and said," God bless the work you are doing". The loving kindness in the man's beautiful eyes and the fact that the man said that he was going to the 'New Jerusalem' convinced Ron that this was Jesus, Himself. (The "New Jerusalem" is only spoken of in Revelation). No one else saw the man.
Ron believed that St. Stephen was stoned here when he had a vision with Christ at the head of the stairs extending into heaven. Since this was also nearby where Ron saw Christ in person, Ron was all the more encouraged and felt that he was working on the "gate to heaven".....More than you could possibly know, Ron!
Ron was running out of money and the search was taking much longer than anyone thought. Ron was no longer funded by the Antiquities Authority so he had to return to the States, get money and come back later. Ron worked as a nurse-anesthetist, which paid good money.
At the next expedition after 4 years of exhausting working and no longer funded, Ron finally came to a point where he had to quit digging down from the top because to continue digging down was a grave risk for cave-ins and failure of the escarpment. Originally, Ron started the dig about 22 feet above the old city. So he was essentially working on 2,000 years of fill. After praying about what to do, Ron saw bees coming out of the side of the cliff face so he started tunneling along the escarpment wall looking for caves or tunnels. This slow, exhausting, dirty, work took months. One day he broke through the rock facade near the crucifixion site and into an area riddled with tunnels which took months to explore. One of these tunnels terminated in a chamber holding the Ark. But which one? Ron's son had suddenly become so sick they had to return to the states within a week of finding the Ark. With the sons back in the states on sick leave, Ron needed help and asked a small Arab man to crawl inside one of the tunnels. Moments later the man returned (crawling), screaming in terror. Ron noted that this was divine supernatural fear of God, so he knew he had found the right tunnel.
Ron was very excited. He enlarged the entrance to this chamber and crawled in. He found himself crawling across rocks that were piled up almost to the roof of the cave. Ron was becoming increasingly tired, but began to move the rocks aside, to reveal what was underneath them. He uncovered some old wooden boards that were dry and decomposing. When he moved the wooden boards away, he saw animal skins.....Also in that cave Ron found a Menorah, the seven branched candlestick, a giant sword (with no inscriptions, but possibly Goliath's), an ephod (high priest's ceremonial breast plate), the wilderness tabernacle (tent), and the Altar of Incense, among other artifacts
Ron first discerned a table under animal skins with the top of solid gold, and identified the Table of Showbreads. Behind the table of showbreads Ron found the Ark in a limestone box with a split lid very close to the ceiling of the chamber. Ron says he entered the chamber at 2 p.m. and went into some sort of unconscious or ecstasy state for 45 minutes when he beheld the Ark .
Ron found a dark brown substance pooled on the left (west ) side of the Mercy Seat, possible because the limestone box which held the Ark was cracked on the left side directly under a crack in bedrock above. It was at this point that Ron realized the significance of finding the hole for the crucis stipes and the adjoining split in the bedrock. He suddenly connected the dots and realized the hidden hand of God had ordered his findings sequentially, the first of which was finding the cross hole, then the crack in the bedrock, and now the Mercy Seat of the Ark Itself, about 20 feet below those items and 45 feet below today's modern city. The dark substance was the Precious Blood of the Messiah! The Blood from God's own heart (and possibly the spleen) which gushed forth when a lance opened these hugely engorged organs. A copious amount of blood was available with the Saviors last wound so that it and flowed down the vertical stipes into the just opened bedrock crack onto the Mercy Seat of the Ark. Ron was overcome with wonder of the glory of God. He then wept for joy for many minutes and sat just stunned.
Even more amazing was the rabbinic tradition that the Messiah, Himself, would sprinkle his blood on the LEFT (WEST) side of the Mercy Seat. Jewish priests used the right side up to 586 B.C. after which the Ark was hidden from men. God took care to make sure that His Precious Blood flowed to the Mercy Seat, itself since the limestone box in which the Ark resided had the lid cracked on the left side.
The Israeli Antiquities Authority secretly confirmed Wyatt's find but forbid any publication or discussion of the find. For his own records, Wyatt wanted at least a photograph. But every time a picture was attempted the print was foggy or otherwise indiscernible. Wyatt even tried fiber optics using a flexible endoscope type instrument, but that produced blurry results as well. Antiquities Authority tried moving the Ark (since is was underground on the PLO side), and all six of the persons (Levites!) attempting it were killed on the spot for trying to move the most holy relic of their faith. No one could enter the "Holy Place" or Ark chamber but Ron. The Antiquities Authority gave him long baskets and asked him to remove the bodies of the slain Levites. A story was planted in the press that they had been killed in a car accident.
Finally, just before Ron was ready to pack it in and return to the U.S., the four holy angels guarding the Ark permitted a 8 mm movie also showing themselves Ron was given to understand that this movie was to be left with the Ark in Jeremiah's Grotto. In His perfect timing, God would reveal all to the world. So minus his sons and death to all others who entered the Jeremiah's Grotto and no photos, we have no documentation other than Ron Wyatt's word.
The adjuration not to publish by the Israeli Antiquities Authority was not done so much from hostility as for the safety of the three major faiths with a claim on Jerusalem. When the find leaked out in the early 80's riots broke out on the Temple Mount. Further, others have died within hours before scheduled news conferences to publish the finding, such as the journalist who died the night before he called a press event to make the findings known to the world. Ron, in an interview given to World Net Daily, five days before he died, said that since the discovery of the Ark, 14-16 persons had perished trying to reveal its location, relocate it or publicize the story. The Lord, in His wisdom, did not permit Ron to retain any photographic records to testify to the discovery, save the movie which is housed in the same chamber as the Ark. Finally, Ron was given one last chance to recant or change his story before he died of cancer and he decline. His detractor and competitors called him a "charlatan" and "liar" but could never prove those claims according to World Net Daily.
Ron Wyatt's web site has little documentation of the find and after his death his original recollections were removed since he was not alive to review and update them. His site says, "We cannot conclusively prove that Ron Wyatt discovered Ark of the Covenant below the crucifixion site in 1982. Nobody can prove otherwise, either. Ron ended his studies of the site always maintaining that the Ark of the Covenant will be revealed in the future, but only in God’s perfect timing.
Next: The dark scrapings are analyzed: Jesus has 24 Chromosomes
World Net Daily interview with Ron Wyatt 5 days before he died
Collection of wonderful You Tube videos on Spirit-Digest with Ron Wyatt discussing the Ark
Link to previous article (first article in study)
Link to previous article (second article in study)
Link to previous article (third article in study)
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