The God Culture: Sabbath 2nd Conference

On January 30th, 2021 Timothy Jay Schwab of The God Culture was a guest speaker at the Sabbath 2nd Conference hosted by The Sabbath Believers Congregation at the AFP Commissioned Officers Club inside Camp Aguinaldo. 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=133898745238662&set=pb.100058556118547.-2207520000..&type=3

In attendance and also speaking was "Dr." Butch Belgica.

Timothy and Butch

Oddly enough The God Culture made no mention of this conference on their Facebook page and apparently never informed anyone that they could sign up to attend even though the Facebook page of the group hosting this conference issued a public invitation.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=119042413390962&set=pb.100058556118547.-2207520000..

From the following schedule we see that Timothy was the main speaker being allotted 3.5 hours, with a 30 minute break, to speak between 1 - 4:30 pm. 

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=119042366724300&set=pb.100058556118547.-2207520000..

The fact that Tim was the main speaker at a religious conference belies The God Culture's claims that Tim is not doing religious work in the Philippines. He mostly certainly is doing such work whether he wants to call himself a minister, a missionary, evangelist or whatever. It is direct confirmation of what The God Culture previously said of themselves but which they later scrubbed from their website.

"The God Culture now re-enters the evangelistic ministry in conducting conferences beginning in the Philippines"

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2020/03/god-culture-does-timothy-schwab-have.html

Thankfully a portion of this talk was recorded and uploaded to YouTube by someone who attended the conference. Sadly it's only 47 minutes long. Because this is ostensibly the first public talk Tim has given since the pandemic started and he began publishing his books let's take a look at a few things he says.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdDriHYAgfc

The video description reads as follows:

We attended last Saturday in AFP Convention Center a conference about Ophir in Philippines, it is hard to believe but this man seems to be knowledgeable in what he is saying. Timothy Jay Schwab, is an author of several books including Solomon’s gold, Ophir and a like. Hearing him for the first time gave me a different perspective of our country that according to Timothy, the Queen of Sheba have brought to Israel and gave a lot of gold to King Solomon. Watch this video till the end and you will hear him explain his discoveries about our country Philippines the land of Ophir. Ophir- gold

This is a rather interesting comment from someone who was listening to Timothy speak for the first time. "He SEEMS to be knowledgeable," she writes. And it's true. Listening to Tim speak he does appear to be knowledgeable. He is throwing fact after fact at you so fast that all one can do is take it all in. Fact check? Why bother? Or better yet...how? How does one fact check everything the man is saying when there is so much to corroborate? Who has the time or the know-how? Does the uploader of this video who, according to her Facebook page, lives in China and works at a medical university have the time and the know-how to fact check Tim? 

Timothy Jay Schwab is knowledgeable. The problem is that he does not interpret or put together everything he knows correctly. Sometimes he even leaves out key information. That means he lies by omission. Here is a rather astounding claim he makes in the video:

21:59 Does the Philippines have elephants? Well I don't see any out there right now, right? But you did. In history, in archaeology there are hundreds of elephants that have been found, their bones, that pre-date the Sultanate of Sulu because they try to say elephants were introduced in the 1300s by the Sultanate. That's not true because we've got elephant bones in this nation that predate that and there's hundreds of them and they're all over the archipelago. They're all the way up and Apayao, Cabarruyan, all the way down in Davao, in Manila. Fort Bonifacio they even found a rhino, an ancient rhino there, which is ivory.

Listening to that for the first time who wouldn't be "wowed?" Elephants in the Philippines that pre-date the Sultanate of Sulu? Who knew!? But it's a lie. A lie of omission. A half-truth. Here is the passage in his book "Solomon's Treasure" which discusses this.

However, one must overlook tons of archaeology in order to conclude elephants were not native to the Philippines including the very latin identification of species which is specific to the Philippines such as Rhinoceros philippinensis unearthed in Fort Bonaficio along with Stegedon luzonensis, Bubalus cebuensis, a dwarf buffalo found in Cebu and Elephas Beyeri named after anthropologist H. Ottley Beyer who found these bones on Cabarruyan Island In Luzon.

pg.100

And here is my comment on this passage from my review of his book.

Actually what Tim is describing is not archaeology but paleontology and there are not tons of it but merely a few prehistoric fossils. Instead of proving to the reader how the existence of the fossils of a prehistoric rhinoceros, stegedon, dwarf buffalo, and dwarf elephant proves that the Philippines was teeming with elephants and was a major source for ivory during the time of Solomon, Tim merely states it as a fact and claims he could write a whole book about the subject. He then goes on to record the testimony of Jesuits who wrote of the existence of elephants in the Philippines. But Tim already admitted those elephants were imported to the Philippines by the Sultanate of Sulu from Java in the 1300's which is long after Solomon.

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-god-culture-search-for-king.html

Were elephant bones found in the Philippines? Yes. But Tim neglects to tell his audience that these are the bones of prehistoric animals who were extinct long before the year 1000 B.C. when Solomon sent his ships to Ophir. That is called a lie of omission. A first time listener, such as the lady who uploaded this video, would be amazed at this information but without fact checking Tim they would remain even more ignorant than before they heard him because now they have information which they think they understand but do not. 

Just before this Tim mentions the lack of architecture in Ophir which he claims is the Philippines.

21:00 They want archaeology right? Where's the archaeology? Where's the great architecture? There's no record of any architecture in any story of Ophir that we have ever read. Doesn't say anything about architecture. It says it was a humble people. They’re a people that came from the experience at the tower of Babel who were getting away from that lifestyle and returning to Him from everything that we need which we find in this nation, now even today for that matter.

This is all ad hoc conjecture. There was no great architecture built in the Ophir because the people are humble? How does he know that?  He doesn't!  He is literally making stuff up. Nowhere does the Bible describe the people of Ophir as humble. And what does humility have to do with the lack or presence of architecture? It's a non sequitur. Why would the Queen of Sheba not live in a palace or in a city fortified with walls? Tim makes a big to-do about the Philippines having walls as being a prophetic signifier. 

Again, this is where some attempt to force Britain into this when it is interpreted "young lions." However the word in Hebrew is also defined as "a village covered by walls." Anyone visiting the Philippines quickly notices the entire nation is a walled village. Most properties are fenced in with large concrete walls or the like.

This is a further fit to the rest of Isaiah's prophecies about the Philippines in context as Ezekiel knew as well the significance of this land.

"Solomon's Treasure" pg. 251

Around the world man has built lasting monuments of architecture for various reasons. One of the oldest cities in the world you can visit is Çatalhöyük. Were these people not humble? Do only non-humble peoples build cities and temples and walls like the Great Wall of China and the Roman aqueducts? Was Solomon, who built cities as well as the temple, not humble? How about Nehemiah and those who restored the walls of Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple. Were they not humble?  The idea is nonsense.

The idea is also detrimental to his entire case. In the video, as in his book, Tim starts off proving Ophir existed from an inscription on a pottery shard found in Israel. But he has nothing to prove exactly where Ophir is located. There are no inscriptions on ancient ruins saying, "This is Ophir" or anything similar. The real purpose of Tim saying something so crazy as, "There was no architecture because the people were humble," is to remove the burden of proof from him. Now he does not have to go out into the field and do actual archeological work to prove his claim. His whole case is not based on archeological work. He is no Ron Wyatt. He's an armchair enthusiast who's entire case is built on whatever books and articles he has come across on the internet as well as all the conjecture he concocts about "testing the resources of Ophir." With no concrete proof of the location of Ophir Tim's claim for the Philippines remains a claim. One claim among many. There is nothing irrefutable about it.

Tim says that "there's no record of any architecture in any story of Ophir that we have ever read." Of course there isn't! The stories about Ophir are all about gold and other treasures. He is arguing from silence which is illogical. The absence of evidence is not an evidence of absence. That is, to say that there is a lack of architecture does not mean there never was any architecture. Yet Tim declares the absence of architecture is evidence there never was architecture. That is unsound reasoning.

You know what else we don't read about in any story of Ophir? How their society was constructed. Did they not have a society? What kind of foods they ate. Did they not eat? How they mined the gold. According to Tim they did not mine the gold by digging deep into the earth. It was mainly alluvial deposits with perhaps a few nuggets "just below the surface!"

16:47 But whatever this land is would have to have what we call alluvial deposits. They would have to have gold on the surface or just below the surface. The Philippines does, did in history throughout and I'll cover a little bit of that.

Again this is all conjecture. Tim does not know how the people of Ophir or even Filipinos in the year 1000 B.C. were mining gold. He has no evidence and is making stuff up. To say that Ophir would HAVE to have alluvial deposits is totally ad hoc. Why does the land HAVE to have alluvial deposits? How long would it take for them to pan rivers to come up wth billions of dollars worth of gold and continue to do so over 3 millennia? How deep is "just below the surface?" Tim does not say even though the nature of gold mining is a very important detail. 

His book is not any more enlightening on the subject.

Most of the gold in the prehistoric and early historic periods would, however, undoubtedly have been extracted by panning alluvial sediments, a technique requiring little capital investment in equipment and no specialist technology, but unfortunately leaving no discernable archaeological signature.

https://journals.openedition.org/archeosciences/2072

Except for two sentences on page 96 this is the only word on the subject of ancient gold mining techniques in his entire book! And it's a throwaway quote at the end of a chapter on page 94 which he does not even discuss. It is also a very general statement and not specific to the Philippines. The article this quote is from also mentions ancient mining shafts being found in Vietnam.

There is some evidence of ancient gold mining in Southeast Asia – ancient shafts have been reported in Central Vietnam at Kham Duc (pers. comm. local villagers), an area which is linked by the river to the protohistoric sites of Go Ma Voi, and at Go Mun, 65 km southwest (Nguyen Kim Dung et al., 1995; Nguyen Kim Dung, 2001).

This is evidence that ancient peoples did know how to extract minerals from deep in the earth. Why wouldn't ancient Filipinos have done the same? Why could there not have been lode mining in the Philippines or Ophir? It seems there was. Antonio de Morga testified there was lode mining in the Philippines when he wrote the following:

All these islands are, in many districts, rich in placers and mines of gold, a metal which the natives dig and work.

Some placers and mines were worked at Paracali in the province of Camarines, where there is good gold mixed with copper.

These natives possess rich mines, many of gold and silver mixed.

There are also many gold mines and placers in the other islands, especially among the Pintados, on the Botuan River in Mindanao, and in Sebu, where a mine of good gold is worked, called Taribon.

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7001/pg7001.html

That information is not discussed in Tim's "Monumental case for the Philippines no one can disprove" though Tim does provide two of those quotes. The first quote is found on page 150 and the second on page 154. Tim comments as follows:

When the Spanish arrived, Filipinos already had and possessed knowledge to mine gold in a gold rush from antiquity and work it with great skill. Gold mines were found all over the archipelago and this was widely reported by Spanish chroniclers.

pg. 155, "Solomon's Treasure"

The testimony on pages 154-155 contradict Tim's assertion in his presentation and earlier in his book that the mining must have been primarily alluvial. Here we have testimony from eyewitnesses and historians, as well as an admission from Tim, that Filipinos knew how to mine gold and not just by panning rivers. So why not include that information on page 96 where he "tests" the resource of gold and discuss how Filipinos were both lode and placer mining before the time of Job? The two sentences on page 96 I referred to above are:

Above Pigafetta describes from two different translations, though pretty much the same, that the King of Butuan was able to secure a gold nugget the size of a chicken egg or walnut by simply sifting the earth or seeking in the ground. This actually fits with what would have to be the case in the ancient land of gold from at least 1000 B.C. as there was no major mining equipment in that era.

p. 96, "Solomon's Treasure"

What a non sequitur. "There was no major mining equipment in that era" therefore the gold would have to be found easily on the ground or in rivers. The conclusion does not follow the premise. There was also no major construction equipment when the Pyramids and Stonehenge were built either so I guess they don't exist, right? It's typical fallacious and unsound reasoning from Timothy Jay Schwab.

There is another problem related to gold mining and that comes from the Book of Job.

Solomon's Treasure, p. 30

The gold of Ophir was renowned in the scripture even before the days of Solomon as Job first writes of it.

Job 22:24 KJV  

Thou shalt lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of brooks.

Job 28:16 KJV 

It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

Many scholars agree the Book of Job was written before the days of Moses and is the oldest book of the Bible. Here Job is aware of Ophir even in his time as having the most valuable gold and he even ties in onyx just like Genesis 2 which is no coincidence. Job knew what this region represented and likely, where it was at least generally in direction as Noah and his sons were conscious because they once flourished there and cherished the memory of Ancient Havilah. 

Furthermore we read on page 136 of "Solomon's Treasure" that Job knew of Ophir despite having no ships. Tim then deduces that the Ophirians, Filipinos, had to bring goods to Israel for trade. This poses quite a lot of problems which Tim does not seek to resolve. Let's view it on a timeline which many have used and still use. Job is placed here between 1700 and 1600 B.C.

https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~226099~5505934:Composite--Adams--Synchronological-

On this same map, which is Sebastian C. Adams’ Synchronological Chart of Universal History, we see Joktan, the father of Ophir and Havilah, dated a few hundred years earlier between 2230 and 2100 B.C.

 

Bishop Usher in, "The Annals of the World," does not significantly differ from this map planing the birth of Ophir between 2247 and 2234 B.C. For Job he gives the date 1628 B.C. Both chroniclers give a margin of about 600 years between the birth of Ophir and Job. 

That might seem like a perfectly long enough time for a nation to become world-renowned for its resources and to have built a mighty shipping army to deliver them around the world. Certainly the USA did it in less than 200 years but they possessed technology ancient people did not. In his book Tim posits a timeline where Filipinos were sailing to Vietnam by 1500 B.C.  Notice also that he gives 2200 as the date for when Ophir allegedly returned to the Philippines with his brothers. 

pg. 168

The source for his claim about such early trade with Vietnam comes from a paper titled, "Coastal Connectivity: Long-Term Trading Networks Across the South China Sea." This is a paper about trade amongst nations across the China sea. But this paper is not relevant to whether or not Filipinos were sailing all the way to Israel for trade in the time of Job which would predate trade with Vietnam. Tim offers no proof that Filipinos were sailing anywhere in the year 1500 B.C. except to neighboring lands. It appears he is arguing that if Filipinos were trading with Vietnam then they were also trading with Israel. The second claim does not follow from the first and is an invalid argument. Without proof it would be unwise to follow Tim in that ad hoc speculation. That something could have happened does not mean it did happen. The unfalsifiable claim that Filipinos were sailing to Israel in the time of Job is even more reason to scoff at the slogan of his book which is "The monumental case for the Philippines no one can disprove."

Finally there is the issue of gold mining. If Job knew about the gold of Ophir and its worth 600 years after Ophir was born that would mean that within that timeframe a huge mining industry had sprung up as well as trade networks. Why should we think such industry would be primarily alluvial and not lode mining as Tim claims? There would need to be a massive amount of gold pulled out of the land and panning rivers alone isn't going to cut it. Then you would need a craft industry to mold the gold into statues and jewelry and whatever else. Then there would have to be a shipbuilding industry to construct the large boats to move the goods. Just how exactly did Ophir and his brothers get to the Philippines? Where did they get the technology to build ships and sail them? It cannot be Noah because Noah did not sail his ark. He was shut inside and the flood took him where it pleased. Noah was by no means a sailor.

Tim offers zero proof for such large scale mining, crafting, trade networks or shipbuilding prior to 1500 B.C. His timeline places gold mining at 1000 B.C. but even he acknowledges that mining would have to have begun long before that date if the Philippines is Ophir. Tim's timeline does not fit his own claims.

Let's not forget that Enoch 8:1, which Tim thinks is scripture, says Azazel made known to men the metals of the earth and taught them the art of working them. In 8:3 we are told that other Nephilim revealed the secrets of the constellations, sun, and the course of the moon which are things all ancient sailors would need to know or else they would get lost.

1. And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals 〈of the earth〉 and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures.

3. Semjâzâ taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, Armârôs the resolving of enchantments, Barâqîjâl, (taught) astrology, Kôkabêl the constellations, Ezêqêêl the knowledge of the clouds, 〈Araqiêl the signs of the earth, Shamsiêl the signs of the sun〉, and Sariêl the course of the moon.

 https://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/boe/boe011.htm

This would mean that Ophirians, Filipinos, by mining gold and other materials and fashioning them into various ornaments and then becoming able sailors who necessarily used the stars, sun and moon to guide their course were doing the evil work of the Nephilim. In his videos Tim repeatedly mentions and rails against the Nephilim. But here he crows about and counts it as a good thing that Ophir, the Philippines, is the land of gold and the people are doing the evil work of the Nephilim by mining and working gold. He calls it a 3,000 year gold rush and a sign of prophecy.

Tim also claims that the gold of Ophir is special because Adam, who he says was in Ophir and thus the Philippines offered up gold, frankincense, and myrrh as an atonement.

9:58 You see, Solomon wasn't just going to some land that had grains of gold. He was going to the Genesis 2 land of gold. The land of Adam and Eve where you see Adam made a sacrifice of atonement the next day when he was exiled from the garden. Do you know what that sacrifice was? Gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

This is a lie. His sources for this claim are the Book of Jubilees and the Cave of Treasures. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cryY2whGYm0

Jubilees 3:27 And on that day on which Adam went forth from the Garden, he offered as a sweet savour an offering, frankincense, galbanum, and stacte, and spices in the morning with the rising of the sun from the day when he covered his shame.

Cave of Treasures: And Adam took from the skirts of the mountain of Paradise, gold, and myrrh, and frankincense, and he placed them in the cave, and he blessed the cave, and consecrated it that it might be the house of prayer for himself and his sons. And he called the cave "ME`ÂRATH GAZZÊ" (i.e. "CAVE OF TREASURES")

Neither of these passages says anything about gold being offered up as an atonement. Jubilees does say Adam offered up incense and VanderKam's commentary refers this incident in Jubilees to Exodus 30.

The details that v. 27 supplies regarding the sacrifice direct the reader to Exodus 30, where, as Moses is on Sinai, God reveals to him the rules for the incense offering.

pg.228 VanderKam's Junbilees Commentary

Is the incense offering an atonement? No! It represents the prayers of the saints.

Rev 5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.

8:4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.

You can read more about it here: What was the significance of the altar of incense?

Maybe Timothy Jay Schwab is unaware that ONLY BLOOD makes an atonement for sin. That's why according to "The Legends of the Jews" Adam sacrificed a unicorn.

The first time Adam witnessed the sinking of the sun be was also seized with anxious fears. It happened at the conclusion of the Sabbath, and Adam said, "Woe is me! For my sake, because I sinned, the world is darkened, and it will again become void and without form. Thus will be executed the punishment of death which God has pronounced against me!" All the night he spent in tears, and Eve, too, wept as she sat opposite to him. When day began to dawn, he understood that what he had deplored was but the course of nature, and he brought an offering unto God, a unicorn whose horn was created before his hoofs, and he sacrificed it on the spot on which later the altar was to stand in Jerusalem.

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1493/pg1493.html

Now if you do the research you will find out that Louis Ginzberg who wrote "The Legends of the Jews" uses the Life of Adam and Eve and the Cave of Treasures in compiling his collection. Tim in his book calls the Cave of Treasures factual though he does not admit it to be scripture. The Cave of Treasures is based largely on The Book of Adam and Eve which Tim lists on his source page.

https://www.ophirinstitute.com/sources

It's strange Tim only lists the Second Book of Adam and Eve when the first book contains information about the Cave of Treasures. In that book's telling of the story the angel Michael brings Adam golden rods, Gabriel gives Adam incense, and Raphael gives him myrrh. Adam then gathers these and places them in the Cave of Treasures. There is nothing about an atonement being made. In fact they are tokens of God's covenant with Adam.  That can all be read here starting at chapter 29.

The point is that all the books about the Life of Adam and Eve are legends. The Cave of Treasures was written hundreds of years after Christ in the seventh century by a Christian and necessarily has Christian symbolism in it. To call legendary material factual is ridiculous and Tim might as well teach that Adam sacrificed a unicorn for atonement if he's going to consider The Cave of Treasures historical.

Let's look at the final thing which really seals the deal. This is Tim's sales pitch once you have been bombarded by his propaganda. At this point in the presentation he has recited a lot of facts and he has revealed a conspiracy to conceal those facts. He says:

38:59  They don't want you to know because prophecy says when you do know you will rise.

This is based on a wrong interpretation of Matthew 12:42. From his book we read:

Matthew 12:42 KJV (Parallel in Luke 11:30) 

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

The Queen of the South still remains a designation of Cebu and Iloilo to this day and she will rise up. This means Messiah knew she would be put down for a season. She will judge this generation which is the final generation as in the passage, He defines this era where people will be seven more times demon possessed. Who came to hear the wisdom of Solomon? The Queen of Sheba. This is the Philippines which ascends to a position on the world amphitheater . It ill have a say in the judgement of the world and it's hierarchy. this is significant. We believe we are already beginning to witness the grass roots moment which will lead to this fulfillment. Ezekiel confirms the timing as Sheba, Tarshish and DDN, Philippines will rise up early in the narrative not at the end.

pg. 252

Tim interprets this passage to be a prophecy that the Philippines, personified as the Queen of the South, will rise up in the end times, reestablish God's law, and condemn the New World Order.

These isles in the East will judge the New World Order and the final generation not on Judgement Day but now. In order to become a judge one must have an adherence to the law or they have no measure by which to judge. Wait til you find out Yahuah will restore His law in the archipelago.

pg. 245

That is really all nonsense. The problem with all this is to be found in the preceding verse of Matthew. It seems Tim has completely overlooked Matthew 12:41.

Matthew 12:41 

The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

If Tim is going to be consistent then the nation of Iraq, which is where Nineveh is located, will also rise up and condemn the New World Order by restoring God's law. Of course that's not going to happen. Neither is the Philippines going to restore God's law for the law is a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ and Christ has come. The law is no more. That is the message of both Hebrews and Galatians. Tim's message that Filipinos will restore God's law is fundamentally anti-Christian.

The simple message of Matthew 12 is that those people who demanded a sign from Jesus are condemned for not believing the miracles and signs already given. It is Jesus who is greater than Jonah and Solomon yet those wicked men refused to believe on Him without a sign to their liking while Jonah and Solomon were believed on even without signs. Therefore at the judgement day the Queen of Sheba and the Ninevites will rise up and condemn those wicked people for their unbelief. Why would Jesus, in the midst of condemning those people, give a prophecy about the Philippines in the end times? He wouldn't and he doesn't.

Faith in Christ is not enough! The law is what redeems us!

Now put yourself in this lady's shoes. You never heard of The God Culture, you never heard the claim that the Philippines is Ophir. But now you are presented with all this information by a white man in a Hawaiian shirt who is speaking authoritatively and seems to know what he's talking about. He is in fact the main speaker at the conference you are attending which means others definitely believe what he teaches and this instills him with some authority as an expert. He even shows you three books he is selling where you can read all this information for yourself in detail. You are overwhelmed with amazement and wonder why you never heard this stuff before. Tim gives you the answer. It's been hidden from you on purpose because once you know you will be empowered to Rise Up. How could you not succumb to his spell and believe his spiel? It would be very hard not to believe. Maybe you would reserve belief until you have fact-checked him. But as evidenced by the scores of people who believe he is speaking truth, not many have actually done that even though Timothy says "Test all Things."