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.