Part 2: From Apostates to Apostles
The Dead Sea Scrolls are the wave of records to come forth “out of the dust”. Discovered in 1947 by some Bedouin shepherds who were climbing the hills by the Dead Sea while tending their goats, it wasn’t too long before everyone was combing the hills around Qumran to cash in on the money archaeologists were willing to pay for even the smallest scrap of parchment. Along the journey from discovery to publication, many precious records were lost to underground dealers and treasure hunters before a committee was formed to protect and preserve the discoveries, and to legitimize the appraisal and translating process of the over 800 documents discovered – so far.
Even now, the world has yet to know the extent of what had been uncovered. An elite and secretive group of religious scholars managed to acquire authority over the translation and printing of any of the materials and has held them from the world. For forty years, they were successfully able to deny anyone accept themselves permission to have access to the scrolls or even photograph them. That monopoly was broken in 1991 when the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) took control of the project. Since then a tsunami of scrolls and texts have been released to an amazed and confused public. With the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the knowledge regarding the conditions surrounding Christianity in its infancy during the first Century, has been greatly enhanced.
Included in the scrolls and texts are the following:
The Book of Isaiah
Community Rules
Habakkuk
War Scroll
Thanksgiving Hymn
Genesis
Testimony of Levi
Exodus
Leviticus
Deuteronomy
Judges
Samuel
Ezekiel
Psalms
Micah
Zephaniah
Jubilees
Words of Moses
The Three Tongues of Fire
New Jerusalem
Festival Prayers
Daniel
Job
Ruth
2 and 3 Apocrypha of Daniel
Apocrypha of Moses
Apocrypha Prophecies
Book of Giants
Enoch
Temple Scrolls
Copper Scrolls
(See them at: https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/featured-scrolls)
One of the most fascinating questions about the scrolls is the question, who exactly hid them? Uncovering who these people were, what they believed, and why they buried their records, provides a whole new frame of reference in which to understand and appreciate the scrolls themselves.
Known today as the Qumran community, the excavation of their city ruins was started shortly after the discovery of the scrolls. Slowly, there emerged evidence of a group of faithful Jews who can be best described as “Messianic elite.” They had separated themselves from the evil of their fellow men to purify themselves in preparation for the arrival of the Messiah. For some considerable time (some experts have placed their existence from 200 B.C. to 70 A.D.), they had inhabited desert camps where they were literally expecting to be joined by “Heavenly Hosts”.
Theories abound regarding the origin of the inhabitants. For instance, they were Zealots because they could easily have been part of or the same group who eventually were besieged and met their end at Masada. Or Essenes, Sadducee or Jewish Christians. Regardless, they had established a very pious community just fifteen miles from Jerusalem, calling themselves “saints”. With strict rules of membership, their organization was founded by a leader whose name is never mentioned but who is referred to in the scrolls as the “Teacher of Righteousness”, the mouthpiece of God. He was evidence that the “last days” or the “end of times” of that epoch was upon them. All the prophecies of Habakkuk, Micah, Haggai and Zechariah were about to be fulfilled. After the death of the first Righteous Leader, every prophet after him was called by the same title. They practised baptism (total immersion), the use of the Urim and Thummin is mentioned, and names such as Bishop, The Twelve and Priesthood are referenced.
The effect of the Dead Sea Scrolls upon the teachings of traditional Churches has so far been very minimal. Still, much information has been gleaned. Prior to their discovery, scholars used medieval texts as their references. Now the Dead Sea Scrolls provide writings penned 1000 years earlier. With this new resource, much has been learned about the transition period between the Old and New Testaments, along with the history of various Christian religious sects of the first century. We have learned about their ancient scribal practices, and their inclusion of notes in the texts. With the exception of the Book of Esther, every other Old Testament Book is represented in findings from the caves of Qumran. Other Apocryphal records have also been discovered including Tobit (or Tobias), Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus), Letter of Jeremiah, Baruch, Enoch and The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, along with the Gospel of Thomas.
The people responsible for hiding and preserving the Dead Sea Scrolls have marked similarities with the people who recorded The Book of Mormon:
1/ Both left their communities and went into the
dessert to avoid the evil and corruption of their societies.
2/ Both believed the judgment of God was about to fall on their peoples.
3/ Both strictly obeyed the Law of Moses.
4/ Both followed a righteous spiritual leader
5/ Both leaders had the Priesthood of God.
6/ Both required baptism by immersion for new followers.
7/ Both waited for the imminent coming of their Messiah.
8/ Both kept records of their experiences, which became scriptures.
9/ Both buried these records to come forth in the latter days.
Both groups show that God speaks to more “other sheep” than previously thought. These groups also recorded God’s words and regarded them as scriptures. A comparison of their records serve to show the drift by modern day traditional churches in their understanding of God from how it was understood during that earlier time.
The Law of Moses required two witnesses to bear testimony for a statement to be considered as authentic. The Book of Mormon (the record of the house of Joseph) and the Bible (the record of the house of Judah) in fact fulfill not only that requirement but also the prophecy of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 37: 16, 19 explains as the two sticks (scrolls or records) witnessing the truth of the Gospel come together in the hands of the people they shall reunite and rebuild their two kingdoms into one mighty nation.
Ezekiel 37: 15- 22
The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,
Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions;
And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?
Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.
And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.
And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:
And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and cone king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:
SUMMARY
Since the end of persecutions of the first century to the middle of the 16th century, the scriptures remained a sealed book. Written in a language spoken by a select few and access to its pages controlled, it remained locked to the very people it had been written to serve.
Only after many brave and inspired men gave their lives and their liberty, did the holders of the records begin to grudgingly give up their priceless treasures. The translators, the reformers and the teachers all paid a high price for the scripture’s redemption before the words of those books could fill the world with their glorious messages of faith, hope and salvation.
Today the Bible is printed in more than 200 languages and is distributed to every nation in the Free World to prepare God’s people for the time when the Savior shall return to claim them. Then every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ.
Today many Christian churches have turned off their lights and closed their doors while millions of their members have gone home with hearts that have waxed cold. Nonetheless, the light and truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored and is going forth like described Nebuchadnezzar’s dream which Daniel interrupted as follows:
Daniel 2: 44 – 45
And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
Today, we bear our witness that the Book of Mormon is a “record of the people of Nephi and also the Lamanites. Written to the Lamanites who are a remnant of the house of Israel: and also to the Jew and Gentile”, containing the message to the house of Joseph and the house of Judah. Its express purpose is to bring them and their fellows, the House of Israel, together to their promised Messiah, even Jesus Christ.
We witness to the world that these prophecies are being fulfilled and will continue to unfold until the Savior himself appears and ushers in his millennial reign.