Aramaic Herald

World's oldest Monastery Threatened

The Turkish State Treasury may soon repossess most of the grounds occupied by Mor Gabriel monastery since 397. In 2008, the treasury filed a land registration suit, claiming that the Syriac Monastery did not legally own the land and pay taxes for it. In July, the Supreme Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the treasury. Mor Gabriel now must appeal to the European Court of Human Rights if it hopes to retain the property. (Christianity Today, October 2012)

Mor Gabriel is a Tur Abdein monastery. This is one of the ancient centers of Aramaic Christianity-of both the Assyrian Church of the East and Syrian Orthodox Church.

Militant Islam threatens the survival of Aramaic Christianity. Our president's pro-Islam policy empowers radical Islam and endangers us all.

What do we do? We must expose actions, like the one mentioned above.

I believe that is the patriotic duty of Americans-as Americans and as human beings to oppose the evil of radical Islam-even when it is being promoted by the president of the United States.

I will discuss the reelection of Barry Soetero (AKA Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.) later.

New Pope Selected in Egypt

CAIRO: A blindfolded boy selected the new Pope for millions of Coptic Christians in Egypt on Sunday, becoming his mother's pride and joy in the process. Nearly 2500 eligible voters, made up of Coptic public officials, MPs, journalists and local councillors, preselected three candidates to succeed Pope Shenouda III, who died in March at the age of 88. They were Bishop Rafael, 54, a doctor and the assistant bishop for central Cairo; Bishop Tawadros of the Nile Delta province of Beheira, 60; and Father Raphael Ava Mina, the oldest of the five original candidates at 70. Their names were written on separate pieces of paper and placed in a box on the altar of St Mark's Cathedral, for God to guide the boy's hand towards the winner - according to the beliefs of the church and the faithful. Bishop Tawadros, an aide to the acting pope, was selected to become Pope Tawadros II, replacing the charismatic Pope Shenouda III who spent 40 years at the helm of the church. ''A lot of families propose the names of children, that's why we lay down precise criteria and ensure the faithfulness of the family and the child to the church,'' said Bishop Pola from Tanta, in the Nile Delta. On Saturday, the interim head of the church, Father Pachomius, chose 12 boys to be invited to the ceremony. The following day one was blindfolded to choose a piece of paper bearing the name of the 118th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa in the Holy See of St Mark the Apostle. Bishop Pola told reporters strict measures were taken to ensure there was no foul play: the three pieces of paper are all the same size, tied up the same way and placed in a transparent box. The process takes place before a large congregation and is televised live. The Coptic Pope serves as the spiritual leader of the country's Christians, who make up between 6 per cent and 10 per cent of Egypt's 83 illion people.

The Barnabas Fund

Please check out the past two editions of the Barnabas Fund magazine. I think that the Barnabas Fund does a marvelous job of exposing the persecution of Middle Easter Christians and informing the world of the motivations of radical Moslems.

The past issue listed country by country the Christians of the Middle East, their percentages and describes the level of persecution.

Radical Islam is a global threat and we need to view the church as one global Christian community and do what we can to protect the continued existence of Christianity in the Islamic world-by challenging Islam here-where we can-while we can.

Spring Fever: The Illusion of Arab Democracy by Andrew C. McCarthy

The first fundamental truth about the "Arab Spring" is that there never was one. The salient fact of the Middle East, the only one, is Islam. The Islam that shapes the Middle East inculcates in Muslims the self-perception that they are members of a civilization implacably hostile to the West. The United States is a competitor to be overcome, not the herald of a culture to be embraced.

Is this self-perception based on objective truth? Does it reflect an accurate construction of Islam? It is over these questions that American officials and Western intellectuals obsess. Yet the questions are irrelevant. This is not a matter of right or wrong, of some posture or policy whose subtle tweaking or outright reversal would change the facts on the ground. This is simply, starkly, the way it is.

Every human heart does not yearn for freedom. In the Islam of the Middle East, "freedom" means something very nearly the opposite of what the concept connotes to Westerners – it is the freedom that lies in total submission to Allah and His law. That law, sharia, is diametrically opposed to core components of freedom as understood in the West – beginning with the very idea that man is free to make law for himself, irrespective of what Allah has ordained. It is thus delusional to believe, as the West's Arab Spring fable insists, that the region teems with Jamal al-Madisons holding aloft the lamp of liberty. Do such revolutionary reformers exist? Of course they do . . . but in numbers barely enough to weave a fictional cover story. When push came to shove – and worse – the reformers were overwhelmed, swept away by a tide of Islamic supremacism, the dynamic, consequential mass movement that beckons endless winter.

That is the real story of the Arab Spring – that, and the Pandora's Box that opens when an American administration aligns with that movement, whose stated goal is to destroy America.

New Books:

I have finally finished the "Epic of Baal." It turned out to be about 240 pages long when I finished! The idea is to explain the cultural background of the Old Testament by explaining Canaanite mythology. I will explain more later.

The Epic of Baal the God of Thunder (upcoming)

Thousands of years ago there was a great conflict that has affected the lives of everyone living today. This conflict was between the worshipers of the Baal pantheon and the worshipers of Jehovah (Yahweh) in Canaan. In this region, the worshipers of Yahweh ultimately prevailed. This struggle is alluded to in several places in the Holy Bible. Now, due to archeological discoveries, we are able to reconstruct many of the beliefs of the pagan Canaanites. Knowing these stories helps us to understand the story of the Bible fully and in a way it enables us to read the Bible like the ancients. There is a great deal of confusion regarding and also false information about the Canaanite gods that are mentioned in several places in the Bible. Due to archeological discoveries we now know that Dagon was a god of grain and not a fish god. (The rabbis made this mistake because a Hebrew word for "fish" is "dag.") Tammuz was a shepherd god and not a sun god. Baal was a god of thunder and of the rain and not a sun god. Asherah was a mother goddess and the Asherah pole was most likely a sacred tree or a symbol of a sacred tree and not a phallus symbol. These misunderstandings of Canaanite religion often cause people to be confused in their reading of the Bible and knowing the Canaanite myths can clarify some Bible stories.

The Israelites worshiped God and called him El or Elohim and identified him with Yahweh. The Canaanites also worshiped God, whom they also called El, but they had a different conception of who God was than that which was preached by certain of the Israelite prophets.

Outside of the land of Israel, Canaanite religion continued. The "Baal Cycle" and other Canaanite myths were discovered in the ancient Canaanite city of Ugarit. (The city of Ugarit was destroyed around 1200 BC and the Canaanite texts discovered there date to that era.) One Roman Emperor, named Elagabalus, attempted to make Canaanite religion the religion of the Roman Empire. Fragments of a Canaanite religious text written by a Canaanite priest named Sanchuniathon have been preserved by the early fathers of the Christian church.

The Ennead

It's awesome! Everyone should buy it and its like so awesome that it should be developed into a motion picture- its that cool! I had someone who reviewed it and they agreed with me that my book "the Ennead" is like totally awesome. Seriously, it explains ancient Egyptian culture and helps people to understand this great ancient civilization. The story of the Ennead-the Nine gods of Heliopolis-was a central myth in ancient Egyptian. This story explains the ancient Egyptian beliefs about the nature of creation, the nature the gods and their relation to humanity, and the nature of the afterlife-about why Egyptians mummified their dead. The gods of the Ennead are Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys. The story of Horus, which is an integral part of the Ennead myth, explains the theological and ideological background of the Pharaoh and his role as a god among men. This book makes the mysterious ancient Egyptian civilization more accessible. (The Art of the Ennead contains color illustrations. The illustrations in "The Ennead" are black and white.)

The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq (Hardcover) Book review by Me!

I was deployed to Iraq twice. I was in Basra when this story is purported to have taken place. When I returned from Iraq, I was substitute teaching and I read this book. This book is an attack on me and all the soldiers who served in Iraq. I believe it is all a vicious lie-and anti-American propaganda. I think this book can be emotionally harmful to children. Children in an American classroom could have a parent, sibling, or aunt or uncle who has served or is serving in combat and this book portrays our heroes as vicious monsters terrorizing an old woman and burning down libraries. I was in Basra, and I can tell you from experience, we weren't burning down libraries there. Its a darn lie. How do you think a child feels when the teacher tells them that their family member, whom they love and admire, are doing all of these terrible things? In response to this book, I wrote "A Soldier in Iraq" for children, so that they can know what we were really doing in Iraq and what it is like to be deployed, so I can explain it to them at a child's level and perhaps calm their fears and anxieties. I rate this book "NO STARS"-its garbage. Drawings of our American heroes in this book gives them a demonic appearance. This book can be emotionally harmful and damaging to children whose family members serve in the armed forces and I know from experience-it is not a true story

The Complete Works of Stephen Andrew Missick

The Words of Jesus in the Original Aramaic: Discovering the Semitic Roots of Christianity (Xulon Press, 2006)

Mary of Magdala: Magdalene, the Forgotten Aramaic Prophetess of Christianity (Xlibris, 2006)

Treasures of the Language of Jesus: The Aramaic Source of Christ's Teaching (Xlibris, 2006)

Aramaic: The Language of Jesus of Nazareth (Xlibris, 2008)

Christ the Man (Xulon Press)

The Hammer of God: The Stories of Judah Maccabee and Charles Martel (Xulon Press, 2010) ( Charles Martel: The Hammer of God and Judas Maccabeus: The Hammer of God (Createspace 2011) are also available.

The Ascents of James: A Lost Acts of the Apostles (Create Space 2010)

The Second Adam and the Restoration of All Things (Create Space 2010)

Saint Thaddeus and the King of Assyria: The Aramaic Origins of Christianity (Create Space 2010)

A Soldier in Iraq (Createspace 2011)

The Lord's Prayer in the Original Aramaic (Createspace 2011)

Jesus the Poet (Createspace 2011)

The Ennead and The Art of the Ennead (Createspace 2011)

The Secret of Jabez (2011)

The 613 Commandments (2011)

The Assyrians: The Oldest Christian People (Createspace 2011)

KINDLE BOOKS

(These books are also available in hard copies.)

The Language of Jesus: Introducing Aramaic (2010)

Judas Maccabeus: The Hammer of God (2010)

NOOK BOOKS

Christ's Language: Spiritual Insight from Aramaic (2011)

ARTICLES

(Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies www.jaas.org)

The Assyrian Church in the Mongol Empire, Mar Thoma: The Apostolic Foundation of the Assyrian Church in India, and Socotra: The Mysterious Island of the Church of the East which were published in the Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies (Volume XIII, No. 2, 1999, Volume XIV, No. 2, 2000 and Volume XVI No. 1, 2002).

VIDEOS

(Crossover Videos: www.thecrossoverproject.org)

Iraq's Christians in Crisis

The Armenian Genocide

COMIC BOOKS

The Assyrians: The Oldest Christian People

Chronicles: Facts from the Bible

The Hammer of God: Character and Historical Reference

The Hammer of God Coloring Book

The Hammer of God Mini-Comic

The Hammer of God: The Battle for Religious Freedom

The Ennead 1

The Ennead 2

Maccabee (createspace, 2011)

Reverend Stephen Andrew Missick is the author of The Assyrian Church in the Mongol Empire, Mar Thoma: The Apostolic Foundation of the Assyrian Church in India, and Socotra: The Mysterious Island of the Church of the East which were published in the Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies (Volume XIII, No. 2, 1999, Volume XIV, No. 2, 2000 and Volume XVI No. 1, 2002). (See www.jaas.org.) He is the author of The Words of Jesus in the Original Aramaic: Discovering the Semitic Roots of Christianity, The Secret of Jabez, Saint Thaddeus and the King of Assyria, The Ascents of James: A Lost Acts of the Apostles, The Hammer of God: The Stories of Judah Maccabee and Charles Martel. He is an ordained minister of the gospel. He graduated from Sam Houston State University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Rev. Missick has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and has lived among the Coptic Christians in Egypt and Aramaic Christians in Syria. He also served as a soldier in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and 2004. While serving as a soldier in Iraq he learned Aramaic from native Aramaic-speaking Iraqi Assyrian Christians. Rev. Missick is the writer and illustrator of the comic book "The Assyrians: The Oldest Christian People," the comic strip Chronicles: Facts from the Bible and the comic book series The Hammer of God which are available from www.comixpress.com. The Hammer of God comic book series dramatizes the stories of Judah Maccabee and Charles Martel. He has also served as a chaplain in the Army National Guard in Iraq during his second deployment in 2009 and 2010. He participated in an archeological excavation of Bethsaida in Galilee in 2011 and went on a missionary trip to Uganda in 2012.

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