The God Culture: More Lies About Elephants in the Philippines

At a recent conference The God Culture, Timothy Jay Schwab, spouted off more incredible lies about the existence of elephants in the Philippines. 

https://www.facebook.com/sabbathbc.congregation/videos/848713996196488

4:12:19 Are there elephants in the Philippines? Did you see any elephants on your way here today? Were there any elephants out there dancing with their tribes this morning? Naw, no elephants in the Philippines. Not today, not today. But in Solomon's time absolutely 100%. Now, do you know why we know that? Because of Kalinga. Because you have archeology that proves ancient elephant bones have been found and they pre-date history. You had elephants in this nation all along. They went extinct, again, the fault of the Spanish because they were in charge in the 16th century, 17th century sometime around then. But even then Father Alcino drew pictures of elephants that he saw in that time.    

Even Pigafetta in his journal when Magellan came in 1521 tells you he saw elephants in at least three different islands. They were here. Now, academia will then come along and tell you guys when you go to school  you guys when you go to school, "Well that's because the Sultanate of Sulu, uh, brought 600 elephants to the Philippines." Ok, that's a true statement and a complete absolute lie all at once and this is the trick.

Yes, he brought them to one island the island of Jolo and that's it. Those 600 elephants were there and we can track them. Those elephants then were taken to Sabah, to the kingdom of Sabah. Now, some may have stayed on Jolo but still, why are we finding them in Kalinga?   And the ones in Kalinga are older than the 1300's when the Sultanate of Sulu lifted.

There are three lies in this excerpt from Tim's presentation. Let's take them one-by-one.

1. In King Solomon's time there were Elephants in the Philippines

The whole point of even mentioning elephants being in the Philippines is because the Bible tells us King Solomon's fleet brought back ivory from Tarshish and Tim believes the Philippines is Tarshish as well as Ophir.  In fact he says quite clearly that Ophir and Tarshish are the same area.

4:20:17 Ophir, Tarshish, Sheba are the same area

Luzon is Ophir and Mindanao is Tarshish.

Where is Tarshish? Mindanao, Philippines. This is the Philippines.

Solomon's Treasure, pg. 91

That means what Tim has to prove is not the mere existence of elephants in the Philippines during the time of King Solomon. He has to prove there was a bustling trade in Philippine ivory. This he does not do. He is very quick to show his audience samples of Filipino gold work but not once has he shown any Filipino ivory work which dates to the time of Solomon or earlier. Instead his proof that Solomon's navy sailed all the way to the Philippines for ivory are the bones of prehistoric elephants. 

4:28:26 Ok, uh elephants. By the way not just Kalinga but also Apyao, Cagayan, Pangasinan, Metro Manila, Panay, Palawan. You got some found in Cebu, actually buffalo but same thing they have ivory in their horns and uh also in Mindoro. And then you have Davao, and, uh, Jolo, which they should be found in Jolo, that's the history, that's ok. But even Stegodon the giant dinosaur elephant has been found in the Philippines. Both in Manila at Fort Bonifacio as well as down in Davao. So, ivory in the Philippines? Absolutely. Pre-historic times. 100% 

Pre-historic times? You gotta be kidding me! Tim is using the bones of pre-historic elephants, elephant dinosaurs even, as proof that King Solomon's navy sailed to the Philippines regularly to trade for ivory. But all those animals were dead long beofre they arrived! Suffice to say ancient, pre-historic fossils are no proof that there were elephants in the Philippines during the time of Solomon or that his navy sailed to the Philippines for ivory. 

2. Jesuit Father Alcina Drew Pictures of Elephants in the Philippines

In his book Solomon's Treasure Tim mentions Father Alcina on page 100.

Elephants were still roaming the Philippines in the 17th century according to Jesuit Ignacio Francisco Alcino in his multivolume “Historia de las islas e indios de Bisayas” (1668) in which their “ivory was used for bracelets, ear pendants, daggers and sword hilts, and even jewelry boxes” at that time.

Solomon's Treasure, pg 100

Elephants were still roaming the Philippines in the 17th century? That is actually what Tim's source says though his source is not Alcina's book but an OPINION column by Philippine historian Ambeth Ocampo.

It seems that elephants roamed the Philippines not just in prehistoric times but as late as the 17th century, as described by the Jesuit Ignacio Francisco Alcina in his multivolume “Historia de las islas e indios de Bisayas” (1668) as a “torre de carne” (tower of flesh) that some Christian saints referred to as “Goliath” because of the size. 

Alcina noted that the Visayan word for elephant was “gadya,” and that the ivory (“garing” in Tagalog, hence one of the attributes of the Virgin Mary, “Tower of Ivory,” is “Torre ng Garing”) was used for bracelets, ear pendants, daggers and sword hilts, and even jewelry boxes.

According to Alcina, elephants were not to be found in the Visayas but in Jolo.

https://opinion.inquirer.net/75278/a-jesuit-elephant-in-17th-century-manila

Can it really be said elephants were roaming the Philippines when they were not to be found in the Visayas? Ocampo is most certainly using hyperbole to describe Alcina's description of elephants and even adds the qualifier "it seems" while Tim gives the impression the Philippines was full of elephants in the 1600's. In fact he accuses the Spanish of causing Philippine elephants to go extinct! Where is the proof of that? He has none of course!

Ocampo also mentions nothing about Alcina making any drawing of elephants. So where does Tim get this idea that Alcina drew pictures of elephants? He does not cite from Alcina and wrongly calls him Alcino. Is that the work or a man doing in-depth research? Is that the work of a TEAM doing in-depth research? Surely if there was actually a The God Culture team one of the members would have been tasked with finding Alcina's book which is available in a 3 volume hardcopy set from UST. What a joke that Tim's "monumental case for the Philippines no one can disprove" is an OPINION column and not the actual primary source. 

Alcina's History of the Bisayas is not fully available online and I do not have access to a hardcopy but it appears he did draw a picture of an elephant.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/elmer_ng_pateros/2240871483/in/photostream/

However seeing as not only did Tim not include this picture in his book or his presentation and also Alcina's History of the Bisayas does not prove King Solomon's navy sailed to the Philippines to trade for ivory all of this is impertinent. The lie here is that the testimony of Alcina means anything for Tim's "monumental case for the Philippines no one can disprove" when it absolutely does not. 

3. Pigafetta Saw Elephants on Three Islands in the Philippines

The third and most stupid lie here is Tim's claim that Antonio Pigafetta saw elephants on three islands.  In his book Tim tells us only that Pigafetta saw elephants in the Philippines. 

Even history agrees as in 1521, Pigafetta witnessed elephants as he mentioned them multiple times especially in Palawan.

“When we arrived at the city (Palawan), we were obliged to wait about two hours in the prahu, until there came thither two elephants covered with silk...” –Pigafetta, 1521

Solomon's Treasure, pg. 102

But now he tells us he saw them on THREE islands. See how the lie has now been embellished?

The fact is he did not see any elephants in the Philippines whatsoever. Pigafetta does not mention seeing elephants until after leaving Palawan and going South West to Borneo. Tim falsely inserts Palawan as the name of the city which completely contradicts Pigafetta. 

Section 110: Going from Palaoan towards the South-west, after a run of ten leagues, we reached another island.

Section 111: When we arrived at the city, we were obliged to wait about two hours in the prahu, until there came thither two elephants covered with silk, and twelve men, each of whom carried a porcelain vase covered with silk, for conveying and wrapping up our presents. We mounted the elephants, and those twelve men preceded us, carrying the vases with our presents

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_First_Voyage_Round_the_World/Pigafetta%27s_Account_of_Magellan%27s_Voyage

It's simply a straight up lie to say that Pigafetta saw elephants in the Philippines when he very clearly did not. But even if he did see elephants that does not prove that King Solomon's navy sailed to the Philippines to trade for ivory or that Filipinos circumnavigated Africa for 1,000 years to trade with Greeks and Israelites as Tim claims. 

These false claims about elephants in the Philippines form a core part of Tim's argument for the Philippines being Tarshish and Ophir. He calls this part of his "resource test" and he acts like he is the only one who has ever made this test. Samuel Purchas, a historian Tim absolutely despises and slanders, did this same test and came out with India as the winner. Even Tim claims India has all the resources of Ophir. But Ophir is not Tarshish and the ivory came from Tarshish. It is very clear from the Bible that Tarshish and Ophir are not the same region or place and that Tarshish is to the west of Israel somewhere within the Mediterranean basin. 

Despite wherever Tarshish was located the fact remains The God Culture, Timothy Jay Schwab, continues to lie about elephants in the Philippines. 

The God Culture: Kalinga Hebrew Youth Ministry Conference

Timothy Jay Schwab of The God Culture, recently gave another secret conference talk in conjunction with Baguio's Sabbath Believer's Congregation. It was not strictly secret but he sure did not bother to advertise it which means he did not want his audience to know he was going to be giving a lecture.  

https://www.facebook.com/sabbathbc.congregation/videos/848713996196488

Tim only has a few basic messages: faith in Christ is not enough the Law is what redeems us, the Philippines is Ophir and every other mysterious Bible locale including Sheba and Tarshish, and the restoration of true Philippine history combined with the restoration of the Law which was abolished once Christ came and fulfilled it will lead to the Philippines rising against the New World Order and condemning it. This same message was repeated at this conference. 

2:13:51  Because Jesus, Yahusha, said Himself that the Philippines will rise in the last days and stand against the New World Order, the one world government. The Philippines! Can you imagine that? Start. Because it's coming soon. His prophecies never return unto him void. 

That lie is based on Luke 11:31 which reads:

“The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.” 

Tim's false interpretation of this verse is that because Cebu is the Biblical land of Sheba from whence the Queen of the South came to visit Solomon therefore this is a prophecy about the Philippines. It's total nonsense but his audience eats it up. Practically everything Tim says is a continual praising of the Philippines and Filipinos as the most favored land and people on the face of the earth. 

3:03:52 Now, this place Ophir, that's just the Bible name for the land of gold and it is the ancient name of the Philippines. Specifically Luzon. You're from Kalinga. No. You're from Ophir! Your from the land of gold. The greatest land in all of history literally in every way. 

4:51:16 These are things that scholars should have figured out a long time ago and they're not. And they only reason they're not is because they live in a box and in their box Filipinos don't exist. In their box you are noting. In His you have no box and you are the most important people of the end times.

But of course you won't learn this stuff in high school or college. 

4:56:27 You didn't learn this in high school did you? You didn't learn this in college did you? Why not?

Well thank goodness Timothy Jay Schwab, aka The God Culture, is here.

2:30:58 But we're working on a textbook. A real textbook. A four year course that will teach, especially Filipinos but people all over the world, the foundation of the Bible which includes the Philippines. Because it includes the Garden of Eden which is here. You don't get a more significant land than that of the Garden of Eden, the very land of creation itself. So, we're working on that project right now and we hope to get that out in time. 

A real textbook? One can only wonder if it will include the noted contributions of the supposed God Culture Team or if it will only bear Tim's name as the author. Will we ever see evidence The God Culture is anything but a one man show? Just imagine what nonsense will be in that textbook. It will be nothing but lies. Lying comes so easy to Tim. In this first lecture he expounds on his lie about Pigafetta seeing elephants in the Philippines. Now Pigafetta saw elephants on three islands in the Philippines. 

4:13:19 Even Pigafetta in his journal when Magellan came in 1521 tells you he saw elephants in at least three different islands.

That statement is such an incredible lie. Pigafetta saw elephants on Borneo and in Siam. He did not see them in the Philippines. 

There are two more sessions for the afternoon but I don't really care enough to listen to them. It will undoubtedly be the same old nonsense which, contrary to Tim's claims, I have shown to be false time and time again.

2:39:08 We don't have a single person who can go toe-to-toe with these facts and prove to us the Philippines is not Ophir nor can they prove that it's anywhere else. That's a problem because if you want to say "oh well that can't be the Philippines" ok what is it? Come on. Where is it? You don't know? Then you can't say "nu-uh." You can just say "duh, I don't know." 

One does not have to give proof for an alternate location of Ophir in order to show that Tim's entire system is 100% wrong. He misuses sources, does not understand them, and quite often gives bogus interpretations like the City of Manila being mentioned on a map from 1492. His standard of proof is quite low and includes Greek mythology to prove that Filipinos circumnavigated Africa to trade with Greece and vice versa. I have gone toe-to-toe with his "facts" in depth. It is Tim who cannot go toe-to-toe with the  actual facts I bring up. Nor can his audience who, judging by the comments they leave on my YouTube page, are some of the most ignorant people on the face of the earth. 

One last thing to mention here and that is Tim does not appear in any of these videos except for when he briefly walks into frame. 

The whole time the camera is focused on this tarp which means anyone watching the live stream would not have been able to see Tim's presentation. Why is that? Why does Tim not want to appear on camera anymore? Whatever the reason it's a genuine disservice for those watching from home because they do not get to see Tim's entire media presentation. 

The God Culture: Does Timothy Jay Schwab Have a Worker's Visa?

Does Timothy Jay Schwab have a worker's visa which would allow him to sell his books online in the Philippines? Apparently he needs one to sell books via Shopee and through his website Ophir Institute. Take the case of vlogger Penelope Pop.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1391613/vlogger-penelope-pop-faces-deportation-over-immigration-rules-breach

Vlogger and social media influencer “Penelope Pop” is facing a deportation case for allegedly performing “gainful activity” without the necessary permit and visa.

In a charge sheet made public on Wednesday, Special Prosecutor Emmanuel Anthony Vera Jr. accused the internet celebrity of engaging in the online retail trade of lifestyle products such as notebooks, bags, and toiletries via www.theeveryday.ph without the required alien employment permit. Vera said Wang holds a special investor resident visa.

Penelope Pop is also known as Winnie Wong while her real name is Wang Yun-I/Yun-I Wang.

According to Vera, Wang’s involvement in the online retail business is a violation of the Commonwealth Act or the Philippine Immigration Act, which controls and regulates the immigration of foreign nationals in the country.

Bureau of Immigration (BI) Deputy Commissioner Tobias Javier has also ordered the inclusion of Wang in the immigration watchlist with remarks “Charged: engaging in gainful activity without a visa/permit.”

Foreigners cannot be involved in online retail without the necessary "alien employment permit." Does Tim have such a permit that would allow him to offer his books at a discount rate through his website Ophir Institute and Shopee?

This issue is actually a little complicated. First of all Tim is selling books he has written through his website Ophir Institute. Second of all we know that it is HIS website and business because he admits in his biography that he and his wife founded the Ophir Institute together. 

https://www.thegodculture.com/our-founder

Timothy Jay Schwab, with his Filipina wife Anna, is the author of the books The Search for King Solomon's Treasure: The Lost Isles of Gold and the Garden of Eden, Instruction Edition: The Search for King Solomon's Treasure, and Ophir Philippines Coffee Table Book, all supported by a 300-page SOURCEBOOK of very credible sources no one can disprove. They have founded the Ophir Institute in the Philippines to restore this knowledge. 

That information is not to be found on the Ophir Institute's "about" page. According to that page Tim and Anna are only partnering with the Ophir Institute.

Therefore, the Ophir Institute has proudly partnered with author, researcher, singer, former minister, and successful publisher Timothy Schwab and his wife, Anna Zamoranos-Schwab, a Filipina, who lead a team of researchers who tackled this topic. They published their findings on YouTube first with over 10 million views and now, even deeper research is available in book and eBook form. As of recent, this list of publishings includes, The Search for King Solomon's Treasure, INSTRUCTIONAL EDITION: The Search for King Solomon's Treasure, Ophir Philippines Coffee Table Book, and The Book of Jubilees: The Torah Calendar. 

Though we are a group, these authors' writings largely resemble the core of our mission to educate Filipinos about our lost history.

https://www.ophirinstitute.com/bio

Normally one would call this a lie. But in this instance it is actually a shrewd business move. Now Tim is only tangentially connected to the Ophir Institute as a partner. They are using his writings as their core mission and they are selling those same writings. He and his wife Anna are merely a disinterested third party. Of course one will have to ignore that little bit about he and his wife founding the Ophir Institute which is a part of the biography he has posted across several pages including Amazon.

Part of the shrewdness of this move is Anna using the surname Schwab in both of those biographies. At the bottom of each page we read the following:

© 2020 by Ophir Institute. DTI Registered as Ophir Publishing.

Searching for that registration we find this:

https://bnrs.dti.gov.ph/search?keyword=ophir+publishing&criteria=exact&sort_by=business_name&sort_order=asc

The Ophir Institute is registered as Ophir Publishing and is owned by one Anna Rose Gacayan Zamoranos. This person is not a Schwab. Officially there is no connection to Timothy Schwab or Anna Schwab in the registration. 

However it should be noted that Ophirinsititue.com is registered in Florida, USA.

https://ph.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=ophirinstitute.com

It is also hosted on the same server as TheGodCulture.com which is most definitely registered to Timothy Schwab from Florida, USA

Name Server: NS10.WIXDNS.NET

Why is a website which is registered to Timothy Schwab in Florida, USA registered as a business in the Philippines to a woman apparently unrelated to him?

From this we can draw two conclusions.

1. Timothy Jay Schwab does not need a worker's visa because he is not involved in any gainful activity in the Philippines via the internet because he does not own the company selling his books, Ophir publishing. Someone else does. The owner is not a Schwab and appears to have no connections to Timothy though her name is suspiciously similar to the name of the divorcee he married. 

2. Because the owner of Ophir Publishing is not a Schwab it cannot be said with any certainty that Tim, as the brains behind both the God Culture and the Ophir Institute and the author of several books being sold by the Ophir Institute, is conspiring with his wife to circumvent Philippine law on a technicality so he can sell his books without having to procure the proper visa.

Of course if both of those conclusions are true then we must also conclude that Tim is not making any money from selling his books online in the Philippines. Is that a realistic conclusion? More importantly why is there all this chicanery as regards who owns what? We see have seen this same nonsense in his trademark registrations where ALL of his God Culture related materials are registered to an address in Florida.

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-god-culture-past-and-future-projects.html

But Tim has not lived in Florida since at least 2019. So, why is he registering everything to Angie Myers in Boca Raton, Florida? Who is this lady? She is Tim's former employee. See the link under the picture for more information. 

I suppose it all makes sense though. Tim is dishonest in his books and videos telling flat out lies about Philippine history, ancient maps, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Bible Canon, and the divinity of the Holy Spirit among so many other things. It would only be consistent for Timothy Jay Schwab of The God Culture to not be above board in his business practices.  

The God Culture: Valid, Credible Archaeology That the Philippines is Ophir, The Garden of Eden, etc.?

Timothy Jay Schwab of The God Culture has issued a direct response to a video I made about him titled The God Culture Admits There is No Archeological Evidence for Their Claims About the Philippines. That video was based on two interviews Tim did with Zen Garcia and Jon Pounders. Tim was asked by both of them for archeological evidence for his claims and he was unable to offer any. In this rebuttal video Tim tells us exactly what kind of archaeology we are to look for in order to locate Ophir, the land of gold. 

Philippines Valid, Credible Archeology: Isle of Gold and Garden of Eden. Solomon's Gold Series 16H

Tim begins this video by stating I falsely claimed he said there was no archaeology to prove his claims about the Philippines being Ophir. 

0:55 Isn't there archeology that proves the Philippines is ophir? Well, we certainly have seen some somewhere, gee, I don't know, uh, well, we've seen it in Solomon's Gold Series. Oh how about that. Yet again we were falsely accused of saying something in an interview that while we didn't say.

Now it is perfectly true that in neither of the interviews he gave did Tim say the exact words, "There is no archeology to prove my claims." But neither did he offer archaeological proof for his claims when asked by the hosts to provide it. Tim is also on record in his book The Search for King Solomon's Treasure, and in this new video as we shall see, claiming there is no archaeology in the Philippines to prove it is Ophir. 

The Search for King Solomon's Treasure pgs. 128-129

Many seek this architecture in demand to prove this narrative and they are stuck in a false paradigm. There is none to be expected nor has any other nation on earth produced such nor will they.

Ancient Ophir is never described as having temples at all whether alone ones of gold, it is never recored to have great infrastructure in any sense just a mega-abundance of resources. The humble lifestyle of the Filipino even fits the oath of a Rechabite as Farrisol said.

What is meant by archaeology? A number of things including but not limited to artifacts such as inscriptions, pottery, and ruins. 

Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology

However, it appears that Tim is hyper-focused on the ruins of cities both in his book and in this video.

2:50 Well, this is the real question that numerous academics and scholars just dismiss, uh, this because well they require, and this is typical in such disciplines, they require us to find a city with a street sign that says Ophir of course and if you don't you can't prove it's Ophir right? I mean talk about ignorance.

What's ignorant is everything about what Tim says. Who exactly is looking for a city with a street sign that says "Ophir?" Sure, that's hyperbole on Tim's part, hopefully, but there is more to archaeology than the ruins of ancient cities. Tim is purposely limiting himself here knowing full well there are no ruins of ancient cites in the Philippines on the level of Angkor Wat, Chichen Itza, Persepolis, or Nineveh. 

According to Tim this kind of evidence, the ruins of ancient cities, is not to be found in the Philippines or anywhere else Ophir might be because the Bible, when describing Ophir, never mentions cities or architecture. 

7:12 How many times does any biblical or historical reference ever define Ophir as having great architecture or any architecture for that matter at all? Is architecture even a note or a side note in any of these narratives? Yes, that is what they mean when they say archeology typically by the way. They want ancient civilizations. They ignore the archeology of gold but just want civilizations of who? Of Cain. The answer is zilch, nada. Here they are on screen all of the references that say there's great architecture in Ophir and the Garden of Eden 

This is a strawman argument. There is actually NO description of the land of Ophir or its inhabitants whatsoever! Does that mean there are no people in Ophir? Following Tim's logic that would be the case. The Bible does not even call Ophir, or any land for that matter, the land of gold.  All we get is a list of resources brought back from Ophir and these same resources can be found in India as even Tim admits.

The only other coherent claim as far as resources are concerned is India yet it’s own history says it had a source of ancient gold and silver, isles to the East thus none of these make any sense except the Philippines. 

 Every resource of Solomon tests as native to the Philippines and all other claims fail in this chapter except India whose claim already failed the test of it’s own history. 

Solomon's Treasure, pgs. 110 and 115

Is Tim unaware that India is said to be loaded with gold? Herodotus in book 3 sections 102-105 relates how the Indians would gather the gold in their country. India's source of gold was itself. Even Josephus says Ophir is part of India.

4. Moreover the King built many ships in the Egyptian bay of the Red Sea; in a certain place called Ezion-geber. It is now called Berenice; and is not far from the city Eloth. This countrey belonged formerly to the Jews; and became useful for shipping, from the donations of Hiram King of Tyre. For he sent a sufficient number of men thither for pilots, and such as were skilfull in navigation: to whom Solomon gave this command, that they should go along with his own stewards to the land that was of old called Ophir, but now the Aurea Chersonesus: which belongs to India: to fetch him gold. And when they had gathered four hundred talents together, they returned to the King again.

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/ant-8.html

According to Timothy Jay Schwab the only true measure, for finding Ophir, the land of gold, is...gold!

6:21 I mean think about it if you had never heard of this and someone asked you how do you find the land of gold would not your first answer be gold itself first in history in archeology etc.? Well of course it would.

27:30 The question for the land of gold is who has the most gold in the ground now.

38:09 But we don't need this. We don't need it to show on mining gold reports for production. The report that matters is untapped gold in the ground now.

41:32 I mean you don't get more valid than Antonio Pigafetta, uh, and he's really he's the only eyewitness uh to what the Philippines was when the Spanish came. Uh, he came with Magellan and he was his historian and he wrote this stuff so, uh, this is fact folks. In the island belonging to the king who came to the ship, this is the king of Butuan, there are mines of gold which they find in pieces as big as a walnut or an egg, a chicken's egg, a nugget of gold that's pretty big by seeking in the ground. That's not talking about massive equipment to mine gold deep which the Philippines didn't have and shouldn't have yet it was the land of gold. How is that? Because the gold was far easier to get to it was sitting on the ground it was close to the surface and it was in the shallows of the streams and rivers. Seeking in the ground does not require massive mining equipment so to look for it is rather ridiculous is it not? These are alluvial deposits that is the key here and this is huge valid credible archeology. What?  

Yes this is archeology of gold by the king of Butuan who handed it to Magellan. There you go. As a gift. That's what this is. So yes there is valid archeology of the right kind of archeology in the Philippines indeed.

There you have it. What should we be looking for when it comes to finding Ophir? According to Timothy Jay Schwab the ONLY valid archaeology of the right kind to find the land of Ophir is to look for the amount of gold currently sitting under the ground. Is he so bereft of sense as to not realize he is talking about GEOLOGY and not archaeology? How exactly does the amount of gold currently sitting UNDER THE GROUND indicate that said land is Ophir? Tim never says.

The Bible records TONS of gold being brought to Jerusalem from Ophir. That indicates there would not be much left in the ground. The fact that there is so much gold currently untapped in the Philippines ought to give Tim pause. So should the fact that Pigafetta records natives told him that they did not have the iron to dig out the gold!

They showed me certain valleys, making signs that there was more gold there than hairs on the head, but that as they had not iron to dig it out, it required great labour to acquire it, and which they did not choose to undergo

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_First_Voyage_Round_the_World/Pigafetta%27s_Account_of_Magellan%27s_Voyage

If they did not have the iron to dig out the gold in 1521 why should we think they had that technology during the time of Solomon? Tim's solution is that they did not and all the gold brought back from the Philippines to Israel was found by panning streams and picking it up off the ground! Alluvial deposits are what Tim claims is key and is the only valid archaeology. 

These are alluvial deposits that is the key here and this is huge valid credible archeology. 

Are we really to believe that BILLIONS of dollars, TONS of gold, was panned from rivers or picked up from the ground and not MINED from within the earth? It is not believable in the slightest. Where are the ancient gold mines in the Philippines? Tim cannot produce them. Nor can he point to any history of gold mining in the Philippines which would produce the vast quantities brought back from Ophir because, as he so conveniently notes, alluvial mining does not leave an archeological trace!

21:12 Should we really have to explain this to academia and scholars? I mean evidently we do but we shouldn't have to. Think. A technique requiring little capital investment in equipment and no specialist technology but unfortunately leaving, what's that word, NO not even a little, none, discernible archaeological signature so why are you looking for something that can't even be there? Wow. We all know what none means right?

There you have it! According to TIM there is NO ARCHEOLOGICAL evidence that ancient Filipinos were mining gold, let alone shipping it to Israel, and thus NO ARCHEOLOGICAL evidence for his claims that the Philippines is Ophir. His only archeological proof offers no archeological proof! Outstanding. 

It's not as if there isn't an abundance of archeological evidence which tells us about the ancient Philippines. Tim simply chooses to ignore it all and points only to gold because no archeological find will back up his claims. Are we really to believe that there was an ancient Hebrew civilization in the Philippines and no remains were left behind? Are we really to believe that the Biblical kingdom of Sheba was in the Philippines and there is not a trace of it to be found? Are we really supposed to believe that the Philippines engaged in trade with Greece and Israel for a thousand years by sailing around Africa and not a single witness to that trade route remains? According to Tim we are and that is utter folly. More than that it is madness and stupidity.  What physical evidence exists that proves there was any great kingdom in the Philippines which united all these islands be it Ophir or Tarshish? There is none. Tim can produce NONE except to say "look at the gold." 

That is not archaeology that is GEOLOGY!!  The difference is vast. Geology is all about rocks and minerals. Archaeology is all about the remains of civilizations. It is archaeology and not geology that is wanting in Tim's scheme. Therefore Timothy Jay Schwab is admitting that there is no archeological evidence the Philippines is Ophir when he points to gold under the ground as valid and credible archaeology to back up his claims.