Day 13 of Israel & Turkey: We needed to leave Izmir by 8:30am because President Erdogan was arriving and by 9am the traffic was going to be horrendous but we discovered that what we consider horrendous is normal in Turkey and what they consider horrendous is unbelievable. Just getting away from our hotel was more than a difficult task because on the right side of the road was a line of parked cars and on the left side of the road was 2 lines of parked cars leaving only 1 very skinny lane for traffic but the traffic was coming the wrong way and the intersecting roads had the same congestion of parked cars and the same skinny lane for traffic trying to flow in either direction and regardless of how congested the traffic becomes more and more cars just keep trying to push in. Of course the inevitable must happen...arms and hand gestures start appearing and voices rise and for us Aussies the entire thing is an entertaining spectacle. Dell our guide was getting quite frustrated because if no one moves their vehicle out of the way, then no one is able to move at all and everyone thinks theyre in the right and refuse to budge. We all watched with awed fascination, laughed at the comedy of it all and took as many photos of the chaos as we could. Dell said that the only way to drive in Turkey is to be very aggressive or you cant survive and that its really just the Turkish way...then Sorry about that! :-) This is a common phrase that Dell uses when he wants to say that something isnt as it should be. Its a very comical but endearing term he uses regularly. So regardless of our best efforts to leave Izmir by 8:30, the traffic debacle meant we didnt leave Izmir until almost 9am, fortunately the President hadnt hit town and we got away ok. Someone asked the question about wages in Turkey and Dell told us that officially the minimum wage is around $500 per month while the average wage officially is said to be $2000 per month but in reality is really more like $1000 per month. At the moment, the Australian dollar is worth 1.9 Turkish lira so the rate is almost 2 to 1. Asia Minor in the Bible is really the region of western Turkey today and its where the growth and spread of the church exploded out to the rest of the world. It was through Turkey that the Gospel made it up and throughout all of Europe and then down through Africa and further east to the orient and of course all the civil infrastructure that was put in place during the 400 years of Hellenism facilitated that spread. Revelation was written during the time of Emperors Nero and Domitian, both of these Caesars were brutally cruel to Christians and savage persecutors of the church. In order to make themselves understood to the own people, the Jews would speak in types of code so they would know what they were trying to communicate with each other while non-Jews wouldnt really understand what was being said. One of these codes was the number 7, and the number 7 apparently means all, and therefore the 7 churches mentioned was actually a call for all the churches to take the messages given to the 7 churches mentioned and apply them to all churches. These particular 7 churches were also big cities along the very busy and commonly travelled Roman roads that connected the Empire together and this meant the message to the churches could travel quickly and be shared throughout all the Empire as well. There were many churches throughout the area we know today as Turkey and they were all recipients of the message given to the 7 because they were applicable to all. All the churches were Hellenistic with the exception of Sardis and Yeshua was born at the end of the Hellenistic period. There were 3 great growth periods in human history and one of them was during the Hellenistic era and as mentioned, the prepared the world for the arrival of and propagation of the Gospel. Apart from the civil infrastructure that had been established, another very important invention made the spread of the Gospel easier as well and that was the codex; the written word in book form rather than in scroll form. Another thing that assisted in the spread of the Gospel was Pax Romana which means Roman Peace. All that was required of Roman subjects was payment of taxes and Roman government would ensure everything was functioning and they would keep the peace. There was no tolerance of rebellion or uprising; if there was even a sniff of rebellion, the Roman Centurions were sent out crush it. We had a little way to go still to get to our first site which was the ruins of Sardis and then the ruins of the Temple of Artemis so we learned a little more about Turkey. The Turkish flag was designed by Attaturk; its very similar to the original flag but this one has been altered slightly by their former great leader. The Turkish countryside is very fertile and when asked what kind of crops are grown here Dell proudly told us that every kind of fruit and vegetable is grown here except for tropical fruit. 99% of Turks are Muslim though 70% of them are secular. The Christian community makes up just less than 1% but of those there are only about 3000 truly born again believers in this county. Dell also said that there are about 100,000 Jews living in Turkey but most of them have converted to Islam. We need to pray for these people that their eyes will be open and they will come to faith in their Messiah Yeshua and that they will have the opportunity to make Aliya to Israel. Dell believes that the current leader in Turkey - Erdogan - wants to re-establish the Muslim caliphate with Turkey as its head (himself of course) and also he doesnt trust the current leader of the White House (USA) and believes him to be a Sunni Muslim. Its interesting to hear the opinions of those who live in the Muslim world. We arrived at the first ruins of ancient Sardis, we walked along the cardo/agora/shopping street, we came upon Jacobs Paint Store and we wondered why or how they knew it was Jacob who ran it...and then Dell showed us a carving of a Menorah in the stonework and that revealed that the owner (at least at one time) was Jewish, so a Jewish name was given to him and of course Jacob is one of the Patriarchs whose name was changed to Israel and those names are now synonymous. Whether he sold paint is up for debate but the Jewish carving was very interesting. We walked a little further until we entered an ancient synagogue, quite a large one indicating a sizeable Jewish population in Sardis in ancient times. There were some gorgeous and intricate mosaics covering the floors and a beautiful big ornate urn in the centre courtyard. Just beyond that was another section that we were told was part of the gymnasium although there was a long stone altar type table at the end which is curious for a gymnasium. But off to the right of this open ruin was an enormous structure that looked very elaborate with huge columns with ornate capitals on top of them with carvings of faces and high windows, huge archways and our previous tour guide told us this was also the gymnasium however our guide this time said it was probably more for ceremonial events and grand entrances and celebrations with dignitaries. Just through the big arch revealed what looked like a long swimming pool which may have been for people or possibly just for decoration. Whatever this building was used for it must have been spectacular when it was built and functioning. We ended our time there and drove a short distance to the ruins of the temple to Artemis. Artemis was a goddess of fertility, the Romans adopted this goddess and named her Diana and she was known in different forms. As Artemis she was supposed to have fallen from heaven as a black stone (which was her base) and her top half was a woman festooned with many breasts. As Diana she was pictured as a beautiful woman draped in robes. The ruins showed very large and very tall stone pillars with ornate bases and huge Ionian capitals, the stonework and craftsmanship of the carvings was amazing. The size of these buildings and the stonework were huge and it begs the question of how they moved them to the site and also how they lifted them to make the pillars as tall as they were because the pillars are all in sections. There was an altar that was framed by a huge stone frame and it was set to view a stunning mountain scape. Its amazing that some of the most stunning and beautiful places in all creation were chosen to worship satan in his many forms. A tragedy. Pagan idolatry either appealed to the physical senses or preyed on fear. Worship and sacrifices were given to appease the gods to either satisfy the flesh or ward off disease or disaster of some sort. There is no love, compassion or redemption in paganism or any other religion; love, compassion and redemption are only found in Yeshua who as God Himself, actually paid for the redemption of man. There is no other religion or faith or deity who has or could or would do such a thing. We left and headed for a traditional Turkish lunch which consisted of seared ripe tomatoes and long hot chillies and kaftas which are meat balls formed in the hand, so they come out looking a little bit like short sausages. They were all very tasty, and we finished with a sweet dessert that was soaked in syrup and served with tahini all over it, and either Turkish tea or coffee. It was in a lunch diner beside the road where most of the locals eat and it was lovely. Back on our bus again and we headed to our next stop which was the site of the church of Philadelphia. There are no ruins of any city to speak of but there are the ruins of 3 huge pillars that were part of an ancient church in the city of Philadelphia. Its a very small site set in lovely gardens. The church of Philadelphia was very committed to their faith in Yeshua, they were committed to each other and the unity of their faith and extremely committed to the preaching and spreading of the Gospel. In His letter to them in Revelation, Yeshua had no criticism of this church, but He said they would be pillars in His temple and it seemed only right that the only remaining evidence of this particular city was 3 pillars. It was a small site so our time there was quite brief, there were a number of stone carvings and sarcophagi with ornate carvings, some with crosses, so we hopped back on our bus and headed off to find the ancient city of Colossae. We passed lots and lots of farms and when asked what kind of things Turkey grows, Dell said everything but tropical fruit with the exception of bananas. All other fruits and vegetables, cotton and the raising of all kinds of animals (except pigs of course) and he said that really, Turkey had no need for trade with any other nation because she produces absolutely everything she needs. He then said that left a question over the poverty that is experienced in the nation and he puts it down to a curse over the land and the people and most likely because this nation had such a strong and visible Christian influence when the Gospel was first spread through the ministry of Paul and Silus and Barnabas and others who travelled with him, that they really have no excuse for rejecting Yeshua and His gift of salvation. By embracing Islam theyve brought a curse upon themselves. Interesting. One of the men commented that as we passed through different towns there seemed to be very many men sitting around smoking, talking and drinking coffee and he wondered why they werent working, to which Dell responded by saying the work was all done by the women, both on the farm and in the home. Basically, the women do all the work and the men sit around. We arrived at Colossae, and this ancient city is still buried underground. We pulled up beside a large tel and we proceeded to walk to the top of it, the view all around was spectacular. Paul never actually travelled to Colossae but from Rome he wrote to the church at Colossae and we read the first chapter of Colossians on the bus, its a fabulous chapter that talks about Yeshuas pre-eminence in all of creation and that without Him nothing was made and He holds all creation together. Also, at Colossae is a vast source of cold water and at the base of the tel across the road was a fast flowing stream beside the road which was actually very cold and very fresh. A farmer was there on his tractor and was very happy to meet some tourists and then offered us some quinces to share as we headed off to our next destination. Our next stop was to be the ancient city of Laodicea and we arrived just in time for the sunset. The site is quite extensive but its still very much a working site with cranes being used to move the large stones and enormous amounts of new marble is being brought it to aid in the restructure and restoration of much of the site in order to show what it looked like thousands of years ago. There is an incredible amount of carved ornate stonework all over the place with arches and roadways and we walked through what is called the Syria Gate and then up Syria St which would probably have been the main area of the shopping district. Laodicea had 2 absolutely huge theatres cut into the hillsides both is fairly poor condition but easily identifiable and one of them could seat at least 12,000 people. We saw stonework with crosses in some places so thats proof of a Christian community and we also saw a section of a marble pillar that had a menorah, a cross and a shofar together showing that the majority of believers at that time were in fact Jewish that they didnt stop being Jewish or reject the Jewishness of their faith at all, which is very much against the teaching and policy of the Gentile church which became virulently anti-Semitic from its earliest years. We also walked to Temple A, archaeology hasnt revealed which particular god was worshipped there, but whichever one it was they were given a magnificent building with lots of marble columns and arches, large white marble steps up and spectacular views of the mountains round about. This particular church mentioned in Revelation 3 had nothing good said about it, it was very wealthy as was the city itself, the people were materially very comfortable and their religion was comfortable and easy. There was a great deal of compromise in this church and they didnt do anything that would draw attention to themselves from the authorities. They had a form of religious piety which they thought was validated by their wealth which they believed was proof that God was pleased with them and approving of them. However, in His letter to this church, Yeshua was situated outside, `\and the famous verse of Rev 3:20 that churches today use regularly in alter calls to compel people to come to faith in Yeshua is actually being spoken by Christ to the people inside the church who already claimed to be believers. Behold I stand at the door and know and if anyone hears my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me. Many people miss this fact; the Lord wasnt calling non-believers to faith, He was actually calling upon so-called believers to repent and come out of that church to have fellowship with Him! Another point often missed is the fact that material wealth isnt proof of Gods blessing and approval. The Smyrnian church experienced absolute beggary and the Lord was very pleased with that church and they suffered terribly for their faith. The truth is that neither material wealth or lack thereof are evidence of Gods favour or disfavour, the real difference between both these churches was the condition of their heart and their priority in their devotion and dedication to their Messiah. In practical terms though, open confession and commitment to Yeshua can and has led to believers losing their jobs, homes, professions and social position and this continues even to this very day. For the Laodicean church, they duped themselves into believing that they were being faithful when really they were not. Dell asked a question of us all. Why 7 churches only to be mentioned in Revelation 2&3? He went on to answer the question hed asked. All 7 churches and their particular culture and condition is completely and utterly reflected in all churches everywhere in every country and every generation and its incumbent upon individual believers to examine both their own hearts and the church in which they belong to see how they measure up with the letters Yeshua gave in the book of Revelation. Its very likely that there will be elements of all these churches within each church body. The light was fading fast and we were going to find it very difficult to see much more and we were all very tired after what was a huge day and a lot of travel so we decided to get straight to our hotel. We were a little later than anticipated because when we were almost there we discovered the road had been closed due to roadworks and we had to take a detour which seemed to be around the world and back again, but maybe thats just how it felt. We finally got to our hotel, checked in and had dinner and then those who were keen took the opportunity to soak in the hot indoor thermal pool which was in fact as hot as a really hot bath and the steam in the room made it feel somewhat like a sauna. It was very relaxing and perfect for us just before heading off to bed which we did with great enthusiasm. In Israel, all the sites we visit and very close to each other and it can be quite tiring climbing on and off the bus at very regular intervals, but here in Turkey, the distances between the sites is much greater because its a much more vast country so we sit for much longer periods of time between sites, and long distance travelling can be just as exhausting and on and off buses all day. It has to be said though that these sites are quite spectacular and the history and Biblical application of the message Yeshua gave to these churches is well worth the effort of getting there. Tomorrow well be heading to Heiropolis and then Ephesus in the afternoon. Shalom
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 18:46:24 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015