Leather-bound 'gospel' which Iran claims will bring down Christianity and shake world politics
A leather-bound religious text, thought to date from the fifth century but discovered only 12 years ago, will cause the collapse of Christianity worldwide, claims Iran.
The book, written on animal hide, apparently states that Jesus was never crucified and that he himself predicted the coming of the Prophet Muhammad, according to the the Iranian press.
Written in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the gospel even predicts the coming of the last Islamic messiah, the report adds.
Turkish authorities believe it could be an authentic version of the Gospel by Jesus's disciple Barnabas, and the Iranian press report has claimed that its contents will trigger Christianity's downfall by proving that Islam is the final and righteous religion.
Others have dismissed the Iranian claims as 'laughable' anti-Christian propaganda.
The Basij Press claims the text was written in the 5th or 6th century and it predicted the coming of the Prophet Muhammad and the religion of Islam. It says the Christian world denies the existence of such a gospel.
Basij claims that Chapter 41 of the Gospel reads: 'God has hidden himself as Archangel Michael ran them (Adam and Eve) out of heaven, (and) when Adam turned, he noticed that at top of the gateway to heaven, it was written "La elah ela Allah, Mohamad rasool Allah",' meaning Allah is the only God and Mohammad his prophet.
Turkish authorities seized the text in 2000 in a crackdown on a gang who were charged with smuggling antiquities, illegal excavations and the possession of explosives.
But excitement at the find only peaked in February this year, when it was reported that the Vatican had made an official request to view the book. It is not known whether the request was granted.
Its origins are unknown, but National Turk reported that the book had been kept in the Justice Palace in the Turkish capital, Ankara, and was being transferred under armed police guard to the city's Ethnography Museum.
Phil Lawler, writing on the Catholic Culture website, described the claim as a 'laughable Iranian challenge to Christianity'.
He said: 'If the document was written in the 5th or 6th century, it couldn’t very well have been written by someone who was traveling with St. Paul about 400 years earlier.
'It must have been written by someone claiming to represent St. Barnabas. Should we accept that claim? Another good question.
'Keep in mind that the dating of the document is critical. By the 7th century it didn’t take much foresight to 'predict' the appearance of Mohammad.'
The Basij report suggests that the discovery is so immense that it will shake world politics.
'The discovery of the original Barnabas Bible will now undermine the Christian Church and its authority and will revolutionize the religion in the world,” it states.
'The most significant fact, though, is that this Bible has predicted the coming of Prophet Mohammad and in itself has verified the religion of Islam.'
Although Turkish authorities believe the text to be genuine, other observers have questioned its authenticity.
Erick Stakelbeck, a terrorism analyst and a close observer of Iranian affairs, told WND.com: 'The Iranian regime is committed to stamping out Christianity by any means necessary.
'Whether that means executing Christian converts, burning Bibles or raiding underground churches.'
Phil Lawler, writing on the Catholic Culture website, described the claim as a 'laughable Iranian challenge to Christianity'. - dailymail
The suppressed Gospels and Epistles of the original New Testament of Jesus the Christ, Volume 7, Barnabas
The Gospel of Barnabas
Ancient Epistle of Barnabas: His Life and Teachings
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Moon rock chips returned to NASA
It's been a long, strange trip for what appears to be several tiny chips of lunar rock that found their way into a casino mogul's hands after being collected by the first men on the moon.
If they're real, they were plucked from the lunar surface by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, given by then-President Richard Nixon to former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Garcia, pilfered by a Costa Rican mercenary soldier-turned Contra rebel, traded to a Baptist missionary for unknown items, then sold to a flamboyant Las Vegas casino mogul who squirreled them away in in a safety deposit box.
Now, more than 2½ years after Bob Stupak's death, an attorney for his estate has sent to NASA officials in Houston a tabletop display featuring the four gray chips the size of grains of rice.
They're magnified in a Lucite dome about as big around as a U.S. 50-cent piece set with a small blue and white Nicaraguan flag.
Combined, the chips weigh 0.05 grams.
A NASA spokeswoman, Renee Juhans, confirmed Tuesday that the agency was "taking steps to authenticate" the display it received from attorney Richard Wright. Juhans declined to say what would happen after that.
Wright said he expects that if the chips are authentic, they'll be returned to the people of the Central American country. If not, he said they should be sent back to him.
"I told them it was either Stupak's or Nicaragua's," said Wright, who said he counseled Stupak when ownership questions were raised more than a decade ago not to try to sell or auction the display.
The tiny rocks can be considered priceless or worthless, said Joe Gutheinz, a retired NASA investigator and moon rock hunter who has spent decades on a quest to find 160 missing moon rock samples around the world.
"In a sense, they're worthless because you can't sell them," Gutheinz said by telephone this week from his law office in Friendswood, Texas. "But for people who love space, you can't put a price on it."
They're part of a limited supply of about 842 pounds of rock collected by U.S. astronauts in six missions between Apollo 11 in 1969 and Apollo 17 in 1972. The Soviet Union collected about 300 grams of rock, or about two-thirds of a pound, during unmanned probes to the moon.
Gutheinz said the U.S. distributed 270 moon rock samples in the 1970s as a goodwill gesture to countries around the world. States received 100 samples and territories received six. The United Nations received a sample from the Apollo 11 mission.
The tiny chips that made their way to Stupak by 1987 apparently came from Nicaragua.
Stupak was a wheeler, dealer and gambler of the first order. He won a $1 million wager on Super Bowl XXIII and a World Series of Poker championship bracelet, both in 1989, nearly died in a motorcycle crash in 1995, and lost a bid in 2006 to become lieutenant governor of Nevada.
For a time, Wright said, the lunar stones were displayed at the Moon Rock Cafe at Bob Stupak's Vegas World casino, which featured a rocket ship logo and big sign declaring "Sky's the Limit." The display went into storage after Stupak replaced the place with the tallest structure on the Las Vegas Strip, the 1,149-foot Stratosphere tower resembling the iconic Space Needle in Seattle.
Stupak bought the rocks for $10,000 and 200,000 shares in his casino from Arizona preacher and businessman Harry Coates, according to documents provided by Wright and the recollections of Coates' widow, Silvina Coates Harry Coates, a Baptist minister and missionary, met his wife in 1985 during a mission to Costa Rica. He died in July 2005 in Arizona at age 85.
Silvina Coates, of Casa Grande, Ariz., recalled Tuesday that her husband had lots of side business deals, including one with a man in Costa Rica for the moon rock display. She couldn't remember what the trade involved.
Wright has a copy of Stupak's $10,000 check to Harry Coates' business, Midway Development Inc., along with an affidavit describing how Coates acquired the display from a man named Bob Stone of Golfito, Costa Rica.
The display had been picked from a pile of looted items by an unnamed Costa Rican mercenary fighting with Nicaraguan soldiers when a Somoza compound dubbed "El Retire" was sacked "at the time of the revolution in Nicaragua," according to the affidavit.
It said the mercenary later switched sides to fight for the Contras, before returning to Costa Rica in 1979.
"Bob bought it in good faith," Wright said. Stupak wanted to sell the display a little more than a decade ago. He offered Wright 10 percent of the proceeds if he could help, then upped the offer to 25 percent.
Wright counseled him that he couldn't auction or sell it, because whether it had been lost or stolen, it wasn't clear that Stupak had any legal right to own it.
After Stupak died, Wright contacted NASA and the Nicaraguan consulate about returning the display.
Wright obtained a written promise in April from NASA attorney Cedric Campbell that if the rock display is authentic, "NASA will return the rock to the people of Nicaragua."
Gutheinz, who teaches an online University of Phoenix course and enlists student sleuths to find missing moon rocks, said the sample sounded authentic. He said he expects an ownership fight in Nicaragua.
But that'll just provide another chapter for one of the many stories Gutheinz tells about moon rock samples. He says his students have helped find the 79 displays since 2002.
Governors took them home in Colorado, West Virginia and Missouri, he said. A display given to then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton turned up in archived materials after Clinton became president.
"Here, the attorney did the right thing," Gutheinz said. "He told NASA and they're in the process of turning it over properly. We can only hope that Nicaragua gets its property back." - cbsnews
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UFOs: Abducted stray cats, shopping carts and a Hardees meal
Lake City FL - 5/20/2012 - unedited:....they were practicing a cone like formation, taking turns landing and beaming stray cats. none of the beamed cats were returned and electrical devices and systems were not functioning and it seemed like gravity was really light weight. they had multicolor lights and beam systems that were able to lift objects. they also took a few shopping carts and a Hardees meal. - MUFON CMS
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Flying Humanoid / Strange Light Beams
The incredible variety of different types of UFOs reported – from disc shape, spheres and orbs, splitting UFOs, triangular and tubular, plasma and the spectacular cluster sightings – certainly provide any serious researcher an important graphic dossier to make studies and analyses of this phenomenon.
One of the most curious types of sightings – and quite rare – are those of human-like beings that fly.
Is it possible that the dark figure on the photographs taken in the grounds of Balmerino Abbey, Scotland, is a dark Flying Humanoid figure?
Besides this rare Humanoid figure, you see a kind of haze / ghost figure floating among the trees as well as a beam of light (probably caused by the Sun?) - thetruthbehindthescenes
Click for video
Hidden Realms, Lost Civilizations, and Beings from Other Worlds (Unexplained Phenomena the Para)
Unearthly Disclosure
The How and Why of UFOs
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Navajo Rangers...UFO Hunters
The Navajo Rangers have been modestly performing their duties on the reservation for more than fifty years now. The group has seen their numbers decline due to funding, but have remained dedicated to the needs of their people. Jonathan Dover and Stanley Milford provide law enforcement, public education, preventive patrols, and regulatory enforcement to the reservation as Navajo Rangers. And they keep open minds when unique cases come forward. Their investigations have included UFO sightings, paranormal cases, and big foot. Examining these occurrences has led to an array of skepticism from other law enforcement agencies.
A short time ago, the two Rangers attended the 2012 International UFO Congress and gained attention from a local TV station, which ran a story on what they’ve been investigating. This has sparked more interest in the pair, and how they go about their investigations. Dover and Milford carry on case by case though, listening intently to the witnesses and recording the evidence. Recently, the two presented on their experiences and investigations at a monthly meeting held by the Phoenix Chapter of MUFON. In the future, Open Minds will be travelling north to ride along with the Rangers for a glimpse of their practices, investigation techniques, and the affect this has on their people. - openminds
Click for video
The Book of the Navajo
Diné: A History of the Navajos
Top Secret/Majic: Operation Majestic-12 and the United States Government's UFO Cover-up
