How the Restoration of Ancient Babylon Is Drawing Tourists Back to Iraq

And here he is could be doing something so much more valuable … than giving this idiot (me) a “tour”.

I am appreciative that I met him. And that he was my guide. But my money didn’t give him an income. It took away the finite resources of his country.

We had a second tour guide for a different area. He was not an archaeologist. But he was like one of those nerdy guys who study the subject really well and then explain it. His passion and tour guiding was very different than the first, more academic in nature.

In effect, tourism just absorbs talented manpower. Thailand has a huge dearth of educated people doing world shattering stuff because so many went the tourist route. Sure it stops the other braindrain with ex-migration.

Let's look at it real quick:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2024&ve...

Proper interpretation starts with the opening, or thesis statement. The chapter you're citing opens with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. It had Herod's support. So, it was unlikely Rome would destroy it. It's unlikely not stones would he left given its strength of construction. Yet, that's exactly what happened after they killed Jesus and in the lifetime of some present ("this generation").

Then, the topic changes partly during a private conversation. Now, we have multiple comtexts. Jesus refuses to tell them the timing. Instead, He focuses them on the behaviors of people and key circumstances to watch out for.

He says many false prophets, including fake versions of Jesus, will show up first. Watch out for those. We've since seen many claim to be the reincarnation of Jesus or warped versions of Christianity that elevate mere humans to equal or have priority over Christ and His teaching. Catholicism, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, Prosperity Gospel, Social Gospel... it keeps happening.

We will see some dramatic increase in wars, famines, and earthquakes. That's vague. In the past 100 years, we have seen the world go to war, famine in the richest nation during COVID, and scientists speculating about why earthquakes increased.

He says that's "the beginning of the birth pains." So, these happen before other things. In Hebrew and Greek styles, this also tells us Jesus is describing a process more than a specific event in time. At any point, His words might be referring to some aspect of the process or a specific event. Be careful of that if interpreting.

He says "you" will be delivered up to tribution, be hated for His name's sake, and betray and be hated by one another. This happened in the Apostle's time. It also happens today where Christianity is illegal in many countries, censored in many more, and mocked in others. The Gospel is persecuted more than any other religion. In my area, rap songs about dumping women you use for sex or murdering people in your neighborhood are played openly in stores but they ask us to quiet down about Jesus to not offend people. "Or leave."

And then the Gospel will be proclaimed to all nations "and then the end will come." There's a specific criteria where all people groups, which is what the Greek word meant back then, must hear the Gospel to cause or finish what He is saying.

Then, the rest references more details of the overall process. That generation did see the process begin with some fulfillment. He said people standing there would see Him come in glory. The next chapter or soon after is The Transfiguration where people saw Him in glory. So, that happened already.

Evangelicals want the rest to happen. We're doing our part. Of 7,000 people groups, we have gotten the Gospel to around 4,000 with 3,000 left. The Bible was translated to 2,000+ languages. Even Facebook AI team used it for mass-multi-lingual since no other book is as widely translated as the Bible (as predicted).

The one work God said was His proved to be the most inclusive and globally impactful with same positive changes, answered prayers, anf miracles happening. As before, even enemies of Christ persecuting Christians met Him and were transformed. It keeps proving out.

"Essentially much of what you wrote can be traced to much older sources, countlessly translated, and very probably distorted, because there is always loss in translation."

Your claim assumes that whatever published document appears to be older was (a) older than any oral traditions, (b) the original claim, and (c) true, or more true than the later one. Then, any published works that come later are inventions or distortions rather than the truth. We have literally millions of counterexamples today disproving all of those premises.

Today, we see most people racing to be first to publish or to market often do shoddy work or lie or scheme to succeed. The people who move more slowly and carefully are often more accurate.

Most traditions and stories don't even get published. They're almost all oral traditions among friends. This was more true back in ancient days with their transmission done carefully. Whoever wrote something first had more money. We see today that whoever has more money for publishing isn't the first or most honest in many cases. The corporate media dumps out so many lies we can't count them.

The polytheistic works show many changes as they morphed from a few to thousands of gods and mythical stories. The Bible is firstly monotheistic which was a mind-blowing concept in that region. People are jailed or killed for claiming only one God even today. Next, the Bible gets extended in a backwards-compatible way by over a dozen authors from different walks of life and time periods. Then, it has history backing it up which was often challenged by atheists before that history showed up.

Then, there's the miracles. They have multiple witnesses, some who were skeptical or enemies of Jesus Christ, backing up His miracles. We've seen these follow the real church for a long time in areas where the Hindus and Buddhists say they never saw miracles before. Further, Jesus Christ had perfect character, didn't sin by using people for sex as you claimed to, and also never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever which is comforting given His promise of salvation never changes for those who repent.

Most of what you described wouldn't come from God. It's out of character for Him. All of those encounters, done in Christ and righteously, would've instead been a nice testimony of loving, upbuilding acts. It's instead just hedonism that might be severely punished by God. That would mean you got your power from the Devil, lied about it, or imagined it. I've prayed you repent and are healed of whatever is going on with you.

I don't care about 'followers', groupies, fans, admirers, 'disciples', publicity and fame. Never did.

They are distractions. And a potential hassle.

As the metaphor of some allegedly crucified guy shows very well, doesn't it? :-)

Rome at peak power around year 100. And why? To finally see the gladiators Zuckerberg vs Musk celebrity deathmatch obviously.

You may have meant immoral. But amoral puts it better.

From the perspective of common heritage, it’s better at the British Museum. From the perspective of ethnonational self determination, it should be returned to its origin even if that means its destruction.

I personally tend towards the latter for newer artefacts and the former for older ones. (The logic for the people living somewhere today having exclusive domain over something made millennia earlier falls apart if the present occupants may be barely more related to those forerunners than someone on another continent.)