TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Holy Land Day 4: Explorations at Ancient Petra

Episode Date: April 29, 2022

Today on TruNews, the team makes their way through the valleys and channels in sandstone to the ancient city of Petra. Join Rick and Doc as they introduce the TruNews audience to one of the Seven Wonders of the modern world. Included in today’s coverage is the Ancient Treasury, the Petra Church, the Great Temple, the Palace of the Lady, and Little Petra. Rick Wiles, Doc Burkhart. Airdate 4/29/22Holy Land Day 1: Ancient Roman City and Elijah's Mountain - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49569185Holy Land Day 2: The City of Aqaba and the World’s Oldest Church - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49573636Holy Land Day 3: Wadi Musa, Moses’ Spring, and the Gateway to Petra - https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49587574

The following program is made possible by the faithful prayers and financial support of listeners just like you. To find out how you can help, visit www.truenews.com. This is True News from the Holy Land in Jordan. I'm Rick Wiles. I'm Doc Burkhart. We are standing in Petra, and what an experience. We'll show you in a few minutes what we saw last night. First of all, before we start, I want to thank the Jordanian government

for its gracious kindness and assistance to True News this entire week. They have gone out of their way to make it possible for us to do things and see things that even the general public as visitors to Petra and to other places in Jordan don't get the kind of access that they have given us. And we're going to get some of that access here in a few minutes as we mount our mules for a ride up the mountain here at Petra. Doc, this site, how many years old? What is this? Well, it was actually built back in the first century. I mean, it's in that time. I mean, when Christ was living, they were carving this out. Yes. And it was by the

Nabateans. A lot of people don't know about the Nabateans. No, but I've learned a lot about the Nabateans and a very intelligent, advanced civilization that lived here. The building behind us is the Treasury Building. So think about that. That was their central bank. Yes. So they were making so much money, they built that bank inside the mountain. But what's, I mean, just amazing, as we were walking down through the corridor here, down through the canyon.

What really stands out is there are trenches about waist high along the walls. On both sides. On both sides. And that is how they carried water down here. Yeah. To the tens of thousands, actually tens of thousands of people lived down in here. Yeah, this was a prosperous city for many centuries. They were trading like frankincense and myrrh. Right. This was a big hub for trading those products, many other products. Again, they made so much money, they had to have a central bank. A big bank. That is the treasury

building. So what Doc was talking about, these trenches carved into the rock, the pathway is called the sick, which in English means the shaft. It's a tunnel. It's not man-made. It's a tunnel through the rocks. And on each side of the sick are trenches. One side was to carry water for planting. The other side carried water for drinking. Yes.

And the Jordanian government has supplied us with what we would call back in America park rangers. Right. And so we have a park ranger with us today who is explaining what we're seeing. And he said that the water came from Moses' spring where we were at yesterday. Right. The dog, that's not close. No, they hand carried it here. That's what he said that the water came from Moses' spring where we were at yesterday. The dog, that's not close. No, they hand-carried it here. That's what he said. He said they hand-carried the water from Moses' spring over to Petra

and then put it in each of the trenches. So I guess the Petra Public Works Department had thousands of workers in it, and they had cisterns. But what amazes me is the technology that they had access to, Rick. I mean, look at this behind us here. This was carved out of the rock. I mean, first of all, you have to think about the technology it takes to measure depth into a rock. Yes.

I mean, that you're going to carve a figure into. And over the years, part of the facade has worn down or it's been broken off. But there were statues that were part of this urn. So as magnificent as this is now, you know, 2,000 years ago, it was, you know, as detailed as you can imagine. And they did it into the rock. Yes. That amazes me more than anything else. And there are 12 columns in the Treasury Building.

What do the 12 columns represent? Okay, so you've got 12 columns, and you might notice some squares along the side and everything there. Light only comes in here, sunlight only comes in here for a few hours a day. But with this, they can measure the day and the month and the year. So this was like their Stonehenge. Right. It's a calendar. They have 12 columns carved into the mountain.

Each column represented a month. So like we have our courthouse in the Times Square with a clock on it and everything. They had a clock. They had this. See, nothing's new. And that's the kind of technology that they had access to. The Romans took over the Nabataeans beginning in the second century, and they kind of got absorbed over the next centuries after that.

So think about it, Doc. We think, our modern civilization, we think that we're smart. Yes. Because we can look at the time on a mobile device in our pocket. Right. But people today wouldn't be able to figure out the time based on the sun. No, they wouldn't. And think about what technology that they had to have and the thinking,

how intelligent they had to be to say, today is April 29th. And you couldn't make mistakes. No. Once you carved it, that was it. That was it. If you were off an hour, you had a problem. So you may, you hear a lot of activity here. Obviously, Petra is open for business again.

The tourists are back. They had, the park ranger told me last night zero tourism last year during covet and um i gotta fly here i gotta get rid of uh we got uh mules here and uh and mule residue and mule residue and camel residue and a lot of things going on here this is a real place folks yeah but the tourists are here i've been looking looking for Indiana Jones. I haven't seen him yet. But there are a lot of people here visiting. And we will bring you here to Petra in October when we bring our first tour group over to Jordan. So if you're interested in coming with us in October 2022, email us at info at truenews.com. Info at truenews.com. Just say, hey, I'm interested. Keep

me informed. Put me on the list for information. And we'll be sending you the details as we sketch it out in the coming weeks. We're here for the purpose of mapping out our first trip. Rick, Petra here is considered one of the new seven wonders of the world. And I would encourage everyone, make the effort to visit this. It really is impressive. It was even more impressive last night. Yes. So going back to the water, did you notice the cisterns? There were large cisterns carved into the rock.

You were showing me as we were coming down. On each side. Yes. And so they had storage for were coming down. On each side. Yes. And so they had storage for drinking water and storage for planting water. Just amazing, the technology that they used. And did you see the trees growing out of the rocks? Yes.

So, you know, I thought about the parable of the seed, of the sower, and the seed planted on rocky ground. Yes. Okay. So there were a few trees that made it. Yes. You have to be pretty tough to make it. So they are growing here.

Well, at this point, oh, I want to show you what we saw last night. So we walked through the sick last night. In the dark. In the dark. Of course, it was lit, partially lit with candles. And again, the government gave us, they gave us a head start. We had about a 15-minute head start of all the tourists. So we got in first and walked through the S saw um saw petra we when we got here the entire place was illuminated with candles yes and uh there was music uh jordanian music was being played here And then the grand lighting ceremony. Let's go to the very moment.

Yalla, walla, walla. Walla, ya'ayma. There you go. Where we saw Petra lit up at night, it was spectacular. It's hard to describe the experience. You have to be here to see it. But we'll give you a little glimpse of it. Just a little glimpse of it. Yeah. Just a little glimpse of it. Our mules are here and we are going to begin our next journey in this adventure. We're going to be riding up to the top of Petra by mule. Yes. If these mules were smart, they would have called in sick this morning. But obviously, they didn't get the memo. So Doc and I are going to mount these mules

and take the arduous climb up the mountain. It's going to be quite an experience. We'll be back later. We've got more to show you from Jordan, from the Holy Land. We're going to be traveling throughout the day. It's morning here right now, and we have a full day of exploring to do. So we've got more to show you on this edition of True News. Thank you. Well, we've had a slight change of travel plans in the past hour. We have five people traveling with us right now in Petra, so Doc and myself, our cameraman Lee, our tour guide Basam, and a Petra park ranger who has been walking with us throughout the park. And so we

were scheduled to rent five donkeys, five mules to take us to the highest points. And when we first got here, Doc, five mules, all five combined, were going for $100 U.S. By the time we got to the mules, the Joe Biden inflation had hit Petra, and five mules were now going for $700. So there were supply chain issues there. Yes, there's a shortage of mules right now, and so the price went up. But I think, Doc, I think when they saw Americans with TV cameras and tripods, I think that's when the price went up. So we decided we'll walk, we'll climb, And, you know, it's been a nice, it's been a nice journey

to get up here. So where are we right now? We are inside a church, the Petra Church. Badak, originally, it was, it was a, an idol temple with the, with the Nabateans. And then they built it what I guess around the first century. Yes. And then the Christians turned this into a church. During the Byzantium period. So around 450 AD.

Yes. But what's interesting is you've got several layers of floors in here. And you get down to the bottom layer floor, and it's that tile mosaic of that first century. This is incredibly detailed here. So much of it remains, in fact, that, I mean, really, it's just incredible. So, Doc, try to go to Home Depot or Lowe's and get, what, a half-inch tile? Right.

And get someone to lay tile in your house. One tile at a time. One tile at a time, half-inch squares, and then it needs to be here 1,500 years later. And I need some designs in it, too. Yes, it has to have nice designs. Animals, people uh gods whatever it might be that are listed in there which civilization was the smartest that's previous civilizations or our high-tech civilization well it wouldn't it just uh astounds

me i mean you've got millions you really you count millions of pieces of tile in here. They had to cut each one of these pieces of tile by hand. They didn't have big machines that cut them. It's not like at Home Depot where you peel and stick and everything. Now, we think we're doing some work if we put some tile on someplace. Beautiful work. This is incredible. So outside, we're on a very high hill right now. And looking out from the church,

you can see there's a monastery. Yes. Do you know who built the monastery? Well, it was originally built by the Nabataeans and functions as something else. But during the Byzantine period, it was used as a monastery for monks. You know. They came up here into the mountains. So the Christians took over this area. It was likely they were the ones that ran this church, that oversaw this particular church here. And they were here for several hundred years. And the monastery was parked right next to the former palace. So the queen, my understanding is the queen lived in the palace.

That's what we've been told. The Nabataean queen. And then along, in the rocks, you see caves. Those are really condominiums. Well, actually, I think they're graves and tombs. Oh, those are tombs. Yes. Okay.

But they look like condos because, I mean, it's almost like, I mean, they're pucked into the rock, you know, five, six, seven stories up. Mm-hmm. And so it's pretty incredible. One thing that I learned here about this church is that when archaeologists discovered this church, they found papers. They found parchment. Yes. with historical records of the church. And the Christians who maintained this church were wealthy farmers. And what were they farming? Hey, they had water.

They had running water here. That's right. So they were wealthy farmers who were the pillars of the church. And what that says to me, Doc, so that was in 450 to 650 A.D. in that time period. is that in every age of the church, every century of the church age, God has always had prosperous people. To be a blessing to others. To be a blessing. The churches don't get built.

They're not maintained. The clergy aren't paid. The children aren't educated unless there are prosperous Christians who maintain the expenses of the church. That means there are people who have God's favor on them, whose lives are holy before the Lord. They are honest. They are industrious.

And God blesses the works of their hands because their hearts are generous towards the Lord, and they pay for the work of the kingdom of God on earth. Rick, the Christian community didn't really get established here firmly. I mean, there were Christians here in the first century. But the larger Christian community during the Byzantium period didn't come into here until after the earthquake that occurred in 363. There was a major earthquake, basically knocked down all the major structures here in the area. But then Christians moved in, and they established a community here. When you have a monastery, you have a community.

Yes. Because there are people that are attracted to that. It's like you talk about St. Patrick's. That was going on back in the three and four hundreds. So calamities didn't stop the church. No. It was an opportunity for them to reestablish and to start something new. So imagine the vision that it took to say, you see where that earthquake took place out there? See

that rubble out there? I see a city. Yes. And so the church takes advantage of calamities. God brings judgment on civilizations, wipes them out with a calamity, and the church moves in, establishes the cross, and they preach the gospel for centuries in that area. That's the history of the world. That's the history of the church. Well, we're going to leave this site. I'm not sure where we're headed next. We're following Bassam. He's our guide, and I'm not sure where he's taking us. He just said, I'm taking you to some high places. So without the mules, we're climbing and we're going a little bit slower than we anticipated, but it's quite a journey.

I know how the mules feel now. Yeah, the poor guys. They're happy that we're not on them right now. Okay. Maybe it was the mules that increased the price when they saw us coming, Doc. They said, oh, we're not doing this for a hundred dollars. All right. We'll be back in a minute with some more true news coming from the Holy Land in Jordan. Thank you. Well, this is our last stop today at Petra.

And before we tell you about where we're at right now, I've got to tell you how we got here. So we were down at much farther down than where we're at. We're in much higher elevation right now. So after we left the... Byzantine Church. The church, Petra Church. So we went over to the temple. Right.

We walked to the temple, and this was a Nabataean temple. Not a Christian. It was Nabataean, pre-Christianity. And then from the temple, we went over to, it was called the Palace of the Lady. And I think I said earlier that it was the queen, and that's not true. The park guide told us that it was the daughter of the king. The lady was the daughter of the king, and so that was her palace. And so we got to see all that sight.

And so then something funny happened. You remember what I told you about the price for rent? The $700 mules. $700 mules, how the price of mules went from $100 for five mules up to $700. Well, then as the Bedouin mule rental company saw that we chose to walk, then suddenly there was a price drop. And so the price dropped about 90%. And so we said, no, we're just going to go ahead and walk. We underestimated how far we were walking.

Okay. We've been walking quite a long time just to get from the entrance of the park to the church. Was it what, a two-hour walk? Two-hour walk. Okay. So we've been walking quite a bit. So here's what happened. The word got back to the commissioner, the chief commissioner of tourism, that the price of mule rentals was fluctuating wildly today up and down.

And so he dispatched a government park pickup truck. And so they gave us a ride and again i just i can't say enough about the jordanian government and the tourism bureau they have been so kind they're doing everything they can to make our trip enjoyable and productive and uh and so uh honestly doc truthfully i don't know about you in the pickup truck so doc and i were in the back seat and then our cameraman and bassam were in the back of the pickup truck and that ride up the mountain was i would say 15 20 minutes a good 15 minutes at least that was the ride we were going to do by mules i know i feel so so far so bad for those mules.

Listen, I think it was the Lord. I think it was the Lord that saved us. Honestly, seriously. Because it would have taken an hour. Do you know how many hours we would have been climbing the mountain on mules? And then we had to go back down. Yes. So I am glad that that happened. And our cameraman agrees too. Yes. So we

got a luxurious ride in a pickup truck, and we got here. So now, where are we, Doc? We are at Little Petra. And as you can see behind us here, a lot of similarities to where we were earlier today. This is a completely different feature at the extreme other end of the Petra Park, the archaeological park here. And so I asked the park guide that's been assigned to us, how big is the Petra Archaeological Park? And I told you what he gave me in meters, and you did some quick calculations.

What would you say is the size of this park? The size of the park here is 263 square kilometers, works out somewhere around 160 square miles. That's a big park. It's big. And it meanders through various canyons and seeks, as they call them. These are channels through the rocks that have been carved out by water and by wind over the millennia. And evidence of that is here at Little Petra because there are hollows in all around. It's where the wind has actually carved out the rock itself.

And so I don't know if you notice, the sound here is perfect. Just right here in this little valley. This is a really unusual moment. There's nobody else here at the moment. Except the Bedouin. We have local Bedouin here. The Bedouin are wonderful people. If you, I don't know how much video we've called.

The young Bedouin men wear makeup. Yes. They wear dark eyeliner. They're not gay. They just like to be pretty boys. It's culturally acceptable to them. And so you'll see them with the very dark eyeliners. And they kind of look like Pirates of the Caribbean. Right. So they're wonderful people, very kind, very generous,

and very warm and welcoming. It's been a great time here with them. But they are nomads. They are. In America, we would be like Native Americans, tribal people. They're living out here in, they don't live in the caves anymore. I had read that on the internet. That's not true. They're not allowed to live in the caves here in the park, but they do live outside of the park. Immediately outside. Yes.

Because you can see their tents and everything out here. But they make their living in the park. They have their little shops here where they're selling souvenirs. And all through the seeks here, all through the channels. And they rent donkeys. Yes. And they're good business. Now we know why.

We know why they had the treasury building. Just the money that they made on donkeys was enough to justify the treasury building doc what what the park guide uh told me is little petra uh is one of the oldest human civilizations known on planet earth right this dates back this would go back to just post garden of eden right so if you can imagine this, this little valley here, this little niche, when the oldest recorded traces of civilization was found right here at the base of these caves that are right behind us. And it was the Nabataeans later on that built the columns, of course, back in the first century. But this was old when the Nabataeans got here yes so this was ancient then right and so this has been occupied on and off since the garden of eden basically that's right so something else

i've realized uh you know what we've been taught about cavemen cave people okay so over here these are cave houses right okay we always think of cave people as these hairy creatures that were living back deep in a rock. Folks, these are houses. They're houses. Equipped with shelves and seating areas. Yes, it's a cave, but it's a house. It's a house carved into the rock. So maybe the Flintstones were closer.

Yes, the Flintstones, a better representation of cave people. Doc, they had water. Just like the Nabataeans, they have cisterns. They had the trough for running water. We're talking 6,000, 7,000 years to the beginning of mankind. Right. And so we underestimate a lot. We think we're very smart today just because we have a cell phone or a smartwatch or something like that.

Or we have a vehicle that can take us anywhere we want to go. But the technology, the mind of man was so witty from the very beginning to adapt to particular environments, to create tools necessary to survive. And, I mean, they lived. They raised families. They raised families. They raised crops. They did all these things. And we take it for granted. We think, well, you know, they didn't know anything.

I think humans are getting dumber. Yes. Just go on social media. That ought to be enough right there to tell you intelligence levels going down. But it still astounds me, Rick. You look at little Petra here. How they carved this out of the rock. And we were

talking to one of our guides earlier today. He was quizzing us. How do you think they did that? Do you think they did it bottom to top, top to bottom, side to side? And we were just kind of guessing. He said, well, you start at the top and you work down and carve it out on the

rock. But it's more than that. It's more than just carving a facade. You're carving a depth into the rock. That takes some high math. I mean, not little math. That takes some really complicated math to measure depth into a rock. They had

hallways and rooms in the rock. The buildings were square inside the mountains. Going back to Main Petra, where we first came in, we showed you the treasury building there. And we told you that the columns represented the 12 months and that they could tell time. They knew what month it was. They also knew what day it was by the engravings that they had in the stone because the way the light and shadow was on the engravings. So they had seven wine goblets along one of the ledges,

and there were 31 laurels around the one goblets. And so what were the seven goblets? Seven goblets were the seven days of the week, and the 31 laurels were for the days of the month, calculating days of the month up to 31 days within a month. I mean, really, it's just really amazing the high level of thought that people had. And they didn't have a car. That's right. And they didn't have internet did they didn't have phones the other thing that our guide told us was um so there were uh tombs uh dug out below right and we could look down and see the tomb

but there were two rooms uh left and right. The room on the left was really their funeral parlor. It's where they prepared the dead bodies. And then the room on the right basically is where they did the religious ceremony. And then there were two engravings of winged horses. The winged horse on the left would carry the souls to hell. The winged horse on the right carried souls to heaven. Now, remember, this is pre-Christianity.

So they had knowledge. They had an understanding of morality, understanding between right and wrong. God had already spoken to the Nabateans at some point in the past. Now, they may have, you know, taken that and done other things with it, but they had a basic understanding that there were some things that would send you to heaven, some things that would send you to hell.

And even people today, you know, they have a basic understanding of right and wrong. God has written that. He's written it in their hearts, really. And, you know, you look at all the things that have been written in stone over the millennia here, and then you get to thinking about what's been written on man's heart about there's a right and there's a wrong. Seek God in the midst of it. That's right. I think the gospel has been preached to mankind since the Garden of Eden. Well, and I absolutely believe that too. And so you have no excuse. If you're, if you're an atheist and agnostic, you have no excuse. You already know what's right and wrong, and you already know there's a heaven and hell. Yes. So, um, get on board and, uh, believe on the name of Jesus Christ

and, uh, be saved. The Lord will save your soul and you don't have to be concerned about where you're going to go when you're placed in a tomb. Well, Rick, I came to Petra anticipating, you know, to see wonderful things. I'm far beyond expectations. Amazing. I really hope that we're able to bring people here and share this wonderful experience. It really gives you a framework of the mindset. All these carvings here were about the first century.

So that was when Christianity was just springing to life all through the Middle East. And so this was the, you know, the pot, if you will, the melting pot of culture and, you know, the kingdoms and the Roman Empire and languages and trade that birthed that seedbed of Christianity. And so this is an essential part of a knowledge of our faith. That's right. Because it's a raw faith. It's a genuine faith.

It's an original faith. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that we've added to it over 2,000 years. That's right. So Little Petra, very few tourists get to see Little Petra. Yes. Again, we thank the Jordanian government for their kind, gracious assistance and how they welcomed us here. And they want you to come. They have told us many times they want the Christians of America to come to Jordan and see the Holy Land.

So if you're interested in coming with Doc and me in October of 2022, please email us at info at truenews.com, info at truenews.com. You don't have to make a commitment. Just say I'm interested. Keep me informed. Send me information as you get it. Doc and I are here to scout out the lay of the land. And, you know, we're trying to look like here at Petra. Some part of the trip would be more arduous and difficult for a lot of tourists.

And so we're trying to figure out what parts of this trip would fit everybody. Right. And for the more adventurous, we might be able to make a way for you to get you here. But don't think, don't think if you come here, you've got to climb mountains and ride mules.

You don't have to. There are ways to get you into places of the park that are a lot easier than what we have done on this trip. Thank you so much for watching. This is our first week in Jordan. We have another week coming up and a lot of biblical sites that we're going to. One of them I'm very interested, I can't wait to go see, is Mount Nebo,

where Moses saw the promised land. And that's going to be coming up next week here on True News. We love you very much. Thank you for watching True News throughout this week. Again, if you're interested in going with us, email us at info at truenews.com. Just tell us you're interested, you'd like more information, and we will keep you informed in the weeks ahead about our first tourism trip to the Holy Land in Jordan. God bless. See you on Monday. God bless you. The preceding program was made possible by the faithful prayers and financial

support of listeners just like you. To find out how you can help, visit www.truenews.com.