GOD'S Teacher Of Righteousness: Jesus, the Messiah, came as man, was rejected, and was crucified. The fall of the visible Image then materialized as Hadrian evicted the Jews from Jerusalem. Now Christianity and Islam, the two witnesses, emerge -- both professing to be followers of Jesus. Both recognize Him as the Messiah, the virgin birth, etc.; yet, both reject the whole Word of GOD, Jesus Christ (Revelation 19:13) as they substitute myriad man-made laws and doctrines for GOD'S laws and His testimony (Isaiah 8:16,20).

A. Jesus The Messiah came as man, was rejected, was crucified, died, resurrected, and reappeared to people.

B. The Ten Tribes Of Israel, dwelling without the Glory Of GOD, may well have been visited by Jesus during the 17 unaccounted years of Jesus' presence on earth (4013-4030). Records of such a visit may possibly be found when the hidden Temples North of the Caucasus Mountains and along the Volga River Valley are opened.

C. Jewry, the behind-the-scenes world rulers, rejected Jesus and demanded His crucifixion and death. Jewry's third Temple, built by Herod, was then destroyed (4074; 70 AD) and Jews were banned from the Holy City for 190 years (4138-4328). Yet, even today Jewry rejects Jesus both in spoken and written word (the Talmud) and by their actions. Thus, Jewry has played the role of AntiChrist!

D. The First Witness, Christianity, emerged following the historic resurrection and reappearance of Jesus.

E. The Second Witness, Islam, emerged from amongst desert tribes and within 100 years had conveyed the name of Jesus far beyond the realm of Christianity which had encompassed only Europe, Asia Minor, and the Holy Lands. Yes, in their initial 100 years, Islam had spread from Arabia through Persia to the fringes of Mongolia and China, to India and Indonesia, across Africa to Spain, and even into Asia Minor.

The Moslems in 711 AD had crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, continued through Spain, crossed over the Pyrenees, and by 732 AD had reached the Loire River Southwest of modern Paris. It was there in 732 AD at the city of Tours that Charles Martel, the Frankish ruler of Austrasia (Eastern France, Western Germany, and the Netherlands), stopped the Moslem advance and drove them back across the Pyrenees.

Islam then established a Western Caliphate centered at Cordoba, the capital of Granada. Eventually, at the end of 870 years, this Western Caliphate was driven out of Spain in 1492 AD. Thus, the fall of the Kingdom of Granada in 1492 AD marked the end of an 870 year era of Islamic renaissance wherein libraries, schools, and universities had been established from Baghdad to Cordoba.

During this era the Moslems reigned over the Holy Lands and Jerusalem for 333 continuous years (4641 thru 4973) and had built their two mosques atop the phony temple mount. Thereafter, the Druse of Egypt (a Christian-Moslem union) reigned for the next 102 years until driven out of Jerusalem by the Seljuk Turks in 5075 (i.e. 1071 AD). This brings one into the Sixth Day when the Druse retook Jerusalem only to be faced with the bloody crusades and a whole host of events.

F. The Seven Churches emerge as this 1,000 year interval evolves (Revelation chs. 2 & 3). The "seven" refers to all or total; "churches" refer to places of worship, i.e. synagogues, churches, mosques, etc.: some good, some not so good, but only one "Philadelphia" that "hast kept My Word, and hast not denied My name" ... "The Word Of GOD" (Revelation 3:8; 19:13). Therefore, obedience versus disobedience are the true witnesses.

G. Founding The Byzantine Empire: Following Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity (c. 324 AD), Constantine in 330 AD established the Eastern Roman Empire. Subsequently, this Empire was more commonly known as the Byzantine Empire apparently because its capital Constantinople (now Istanbul) was built by Constantine upon the site of the Greek city of Byzantium. Then, even after the fall of Western Rome (476 AD) to Odoacer, the Byzantine Empire continued until conquered and made part of the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD.

Note: Byzantium ruled over the Holy Lands for 290 years, from Constantine (c.324 AD) until the Persian Sassanids (Bactrians) under Chosroes I invaded (614-617 AD) and killed 60,000 occupants and took 35,000 more as slaves while looting and destroying the city of Jerusalem. Then Byzantine Emperor Heraclius together with a great army including Khazar horsemen lay siege to the Sassanids. Chosroes II then killed his father, seized the throne, and negotiated peace with Heraclius. Thus, Heraclius returned in triumph to reenter Jerusalem (c. 617-618 AD) via the Golden Gate (now exposed beneath the Damascus Gate) to return the captives, the stolen booty, and much tribute.

During the subsequent 20 years (617-637 AD), as cleanup and reconstruction of Jerusalem proceeded, the site excavated by Bar Kochba, whereupon Roman Emperor Hadrian had built his pagan temple (132-138 AD), was used as a dump site. Meanwhile, Helena, Constantine's mother, had appropriated building materials from Hadrian's pagan temple to build her Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Church of the Nativity (Jerusalem and Bethlehem).

Therefore, after a total of 310 years of Byzantine reign (290 + 20) over Jerusalem, the Moslem Caliph Omar (Sultan Omar ibn al Khattab, the second Caliph) seized Jerusalem for Islam. At that time Sophronius, the vanquished Christian (Byzantine) Governor, identified the phony stone in the dump site as the Temple site. And ever since 637 AD the Moslems have continued to build upon and protect the phony temple mount while the ruse instigated by Bar Kochba in 132 AD to mislead Roman Emperor Hadrian lived on and on. Meanwhile, the preserved remains of each of the three Temples have remained well hidden until these End Times. Remember, the Solomonic Temple's preserved remains rest West of the Valley of Ben Hinnom (Jeremiah 19:2 KJV).

H. A Major Division Of Secular History: The fall of Rome occurred when the German General Odoacer entered Rome and deposed Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

I. Begin Holy Roman Empire: A union of Germanic States in Central and Western Europe including Northern Italy formed the Holy Roman Empire when Otto I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII in 962 AD. This historic empire spanned the Crusades to the Middle East and subsequently remained until officially renounced by Francis II of Austria in 1806 AD.

Note: Napoleon I had declared himself Emperor of the French in 1804 AD and had undertaken a series of conquests, the Napoleonic Wars, which resulted in Napoleon's 1814 AD exile to Ebla from where he escaped and culminated with the defeat of his armies at Waterloo in 1815 AD by British and Prussian forces. Napoleon Bonaparte was then exiled to Saint Helena Island in the South Atlantic where he remained from 16 October 1815 until his death on 5 May 1821 at age 52.

J. The Masoretes (c.600? to 900? AD): The early Scriptures were written without vowels and diacritics. However, the Masoretic school of Jewish scholars "modernized" those ancient Scriptures by adding vowels and diacritical marks. The original Scriptures used by the Masoretes were then stored but remain lost.

Now note: The Byzantines reigned over the Holy Lands from c.324 AD thru 637 AD excepting the three years of the Sassanid invasion (614-617 AD). Prior to 324 AD the Jews had been banned from the Jerusalem region for the preceding 190 years. Then from 637 AD the Moslems reigned over Jerusalem for the next 333 years only to be followed by the Drusé reign that lasted for the next 102 years. So, where did the Masoretic scholars meet?

The answer appears to be: Amongst the Jewish Khazars that dwelt in the region North of the Caucasus Mountains. This is apparently where the Jews settled following their eviction from the Holy Lands by Roman Emperor Hadrian c.134 AD.