Joshua’s Altar

Your Bible says a lot about archaeology. Notice this end-time prophecy: “For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory” (Psalm 102:14-16).

Archaeology plays a key role in introducing Jesus Christ to the world at His Second Coming!

Joshua’s altar was discovered on Mt. Ebal in Israel on April 6, 1980, by the late Prof. Adam Zertal. He was a secular archaeologist who didn’t think it was possible to verify the Bible. He certainly didn’t want to heed God’s Word. But even he couldn’t deny the evidence: The altar was dated to fit the Bible narrative, and the bones of animals sacrificed on that altar were also discovered. Zertal was stunned.

“The problem now was how to present what we’d found. My academic background made it difficult for me to accept the idea of Joshua’s altar being a tangible reality,” Zertal wrote in A Nation Born. “After all, Moses is not a historical figure [he thought before the discovery], and the Torah lacks any substantive archaeological support. In the end, I was obliged to overcome each of my thousand-and-one doubts, for it seemed that we had made a discovery as unlikely as finding Sodom and Gomorrah. … If we have found material evidence of a story as early as Joshua’s, who knows how far back the archaeological record can take us?”

“If this is really what it looks like it is, we all have to return to kindergarten,” Harvard professor Lawrence Stager wrote in 1984.

In 2019, while wet-sifting in the same area, Dr. Scott Stripling discovered a “curse tablet”—an artifact even more sensational, explosive and electrifying!

It is the oldest Hebrew inscription ever found. Scholars thought people couldn’t even write back at that time. The curse tablet proves them wrong and the Bible right. Sadly, archaeology has pushed God out of the picture, which makes the entire field less inspiring.

The tablet reads:

Cursed, cursed, cursed—cursed by the God yhw
You will die cursed
Cursed you will surely die
Cursed by yhw—cursed, cursed, cursed.

This is a poetic message—the strongest warning possible.

What is this all about? Before Israel took the Promised Land, Moses told Joshua a very specific activity to carry out once they arrived: Put six tribes on Mt. Gerizim and six on Mt. Ebal to sing back and forth to each other (Deuteronomy 27:11-13). The Promised Land is a type of the Kingdom of God, so this song is about something that will happen just before Christ establishes the Kingdom on Earth.

Imagine being down in a valley while two choirs sing high above your head. What a resounding sound! This event was etched into Israelite minds for a lifetime.

Mountains of Decision

Why did Joshua build the altar on Mt. Ebal? God knew that Israel would forsake Him, so the altar belonged on the mountain of curses (Deuteronomy 27:13).

In this end time, Israel has forsaken God yet again—both spiritual Israel (God’s Church) and physical Israel (primarily America, Britain and the Jewish nation in the Middle East). (Request our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy to prove the biblical identity of Israel.)

Throughout the Bible, God warns strongly against Mt. Ebal. We must go to Mt. Gerizim for the blessings and joy that come from obeying God (verse 12).

We have to choose one mountain or the other—the way of curses or the way of blessings: “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19). God urges us to choose life and blessings!

Our nations and God’s own Church—and each one of us—have a serious decision to make. Physical and spiritual lives are at stake! God says, Choose Mt. Gerizim. Don’t go to Mt. Ebal!

“That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life …” (verse 20). This physical life is only a chemical existence—all die after a short while. But God offers eternal life and eternal glory. God is your life!

Those who come out of the world now and support God’s work will receive the greatest reward of all, ruling with Christ on David’s throne and helping all mankind turn to God. Choose Mt. Gerizim!

Shining Brightly

The book of Joshua, which describes Joshua’s altar (Joshua 8:30-35), is part of the section of the Bible called the former prophets. The former prophets consist of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, and they contain prophecy for this end time! Prophets wrote these books. They did what prophets do: prophesy!

This means we need to learn a powerful lesson from the mountains of decision. The lesson applies directly to us. It is part of the history of ancient Israel, but it is also prophecy for the modern nations of Israel and God’s Church.

Let’s read the curse tablet inscription again:

Cursed, cursed, cursed—cursed by the God yhw
You will die cursed
Cursed you will surely die
Cursed by yhw—cursed, cursed, cursed.

Why so much emphasis here? Ninety-five percent of the members of God’s own Church—99 percent of the ministry—rebelled against God just a few decades ago. (Request my son’s free book Raising the Ruins for the full story.) America, Britain, the Jewish nation and the other descendants of ancient Israel have also rejected God. Spiritual and physical Israel must be warned!

Our nations have discarded their birthright blessings from God. Like Esau, they have essentially forfeited these blessings for a bowl of soup! They don’t credit God for all they have, so God pronounces curses on them!

God makes sure we understand the message of Mt. Ebal just before His Kingdom is set up over all the Earth. His Family is about to enter His Kingdom and teach all mankind during the Millennium. Soon, we will be born again into that Family!

Joshua’s altar is prophetic! Its warning is for us today. God is pleading with us to heed. It is almost time to possess the Promised Land—the Kingdom of God (Deuteronomy 11:29-31). Jesus Christ is about to return to stop mankind from annihilating ourselves with nuclear bombs (Matthew 24:21-22). Even prophecies of bad news are actually good news when you look at them that way.

“And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice” (Daniel 9:12-14).

Daniel is an end-time book (Daniel 12:4, 9). The Prophet Daniel warned against rejecting the law of Moses, who wrote the first five books of the Bible—where Moses recorded the instruction about Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim. This is end-time prophecy!

God will reward us marvelously if we choose Mt. Gerizim. “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever” (verses 2-3).

If we support God’s work and deliver His message before Christ’s return, we will receive the ultimate reward! Shortly afterward, all other humans will have an opportunity to shine brightly too.

Choose Mt. Gerizim over Mt. Ebal. See the blessings and joy that God will give to you. Choose correctly now, because time is running out.