The God Culture: Lost Isles of Gold Small Group Study Guide

Four years after publishing The Search for King Solomon's Treasure Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture has finally released his promised small group study guide. 

https://issuu.com/thegodculture/docs/lost_isles_small_group_study_ebook

This study guide is being released in conjunction with the launch of The God Culture app. The reader is instructed to follow along using the app. 

Use this 13-week Small Group Study Guide and follow our new Lost Isles of Gold Live Series free on The God Culture App, YouTube, Rumble, Instagram, Facebook, SubStack, Brighteon, Odyssey, etc. In some cases, your Pastor or leader will present the content as well which we strongly encourage and offer our support to assist them in bringing this explosive research to you. All video links at TheGodCulture.com. 

The format of the book is a series of 13 chapters divided into several questions. The student is supposed to write the answer based on what he hears Tim say during the course of the accompanying video series. Now, keep in mind this is supposed to be a teaching tool. In fact, the cover blurb declares:

The End of Colonial Propaganda In Geography

What is "colonial propaganda in geography?" It's a loaded term. There is nothing neutral about that phrase. Perhaps a better phrase would be:

Learn About the Biblical History of the Philippines

That phrase informs the student of what he is about to learn. Tim's blurb is biased and sets him against everyone else. He is right and they are wrong. This stance is quite nakedly apparent in the questions Tim asks as it is in all his other books and videos. 

There are 212 questions but I shall only take a look at a few of them. Everything Tim teaches is the same. His books and videos merely repeat each other. The information Tim teaches in this guide has been refuted many times on this blog so there is no need to refute him again point by point.

Let's start with the very first question. 

1. Does archaeology prove that Ophir existed as a land abundant in gold?

The answer is an unambiguous NO! Tim has said as much several times. You can read about that here. According to Tim there is no archaeology proving anything about Ophir and anyone who asks such a question is stuck in a false paradigm. This is not a simple question about an 8th century B.C. pottery shard being found in Israel. We already know Tim thinks the Philippines is Ophir and we see where this question leads in questions 6 and 7.

6. Does the fact that an academic colonial paradigm that chooses to ignore massive history gets to use their admission of ignorance as evidence against the very history and maps they ignore? 

7. If the Philippines is proven factually to have been labelled Ophir and Tarshish of the Bible historically, on maps, and ultimately in the Bible itself, how does this impact our thinking? 

What is "an academic colonial paradigm?" Tim does not explain what it means but it is loaded language.  It's not very different from the kind of empty language used by critical race theorists. As for question seven, why is Tim asking this hypothetical? It is not only a leading question but an appeal to emotion as Tim asks, "how does this impact our thinking?" That is a totally subjective question that has no place here if Tim is actually trying to teach a history of the Philippines based on factual evidence. 

Already the book is off to a horrible start. And there are 12 more chapters to go!

Chapter 2 is about the location of Ophir.

3. How can one calling themselves a scholar not know that the King of Spain hired explorer after explorer to head to Tarshish in the Orient demonstrating Spain historically knew it was not Tarshish?

Again, this is another loaded question meant to guide the student into disdaining anything academics and scholars have to say about the location of Tarshish. There are a lot of factors not counted in here such as tin, a commodity from Tarshish, being found in Israel that dates to the 13th century BC and whose provenance is Britain. Also the Septuagint translates Tarshish as Carthage which is not in the Far East. 

Not to mention it does not follow that because the King of Spain sent explorers to find Tarshish in the Orient means they were right in thinking Tarshish was in the Orient. It's as wrongheaded as Tim's assertion that because Magellan thought something about Ophir that thing was true.

Chapter 3 has more leading questions and bias against scholars. 

1. With the resources of Ophir and Tarshish being the same, how could an academic even suggest they are thousands of km apart?

Not only is this bias against academics but it is a non-sequitur. It does not follow that if Ophir and Tarshish have the same resources they are the same place. Tim is on record saying India has all the resources of Ophir but he denies it is Ophir. According to Tim the Philippines has the same resources as Ophir. Obviously India is not the Philippines but if it has the same resources as the Philippines then, according to Tim, we should be able to say India and the Philippines are the same place. But that would make no sense because they are different places. Likewise it is readily apparent Ophir and Tarshish are different places if one reads 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles closely. 

The same reading shows it is not true that Tarshish and Ophir have the same resources. 

1 Kings 10:11 And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones.

2 Chronicles 9:21 For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram: every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.

In question 9 Tim suddenly thinks the Jesuit scholars who helped colonize the Philippines are credible. 

9. Who were the "principal settlers" of the Philippines according to credible Spanish history in 1601, 1627, 1663, and even 1891, among others?

The answer is in the quote above the question. But why is this "credible Spanish history?" So much for  "the end of colonial propaganda in geography." How is it Tim distrusts the Catholics on everything they write, claims they burned Philippine historic documents (not true see here for more), and yet now appeals to them for his own revisionist history project? Here is a rebuttal from Fransiscan Juan Fransisco de San Antonio who wrote in the 18th century. 

For to endeavor to determine the first settlers of these lands, whence and how they came, whether they were Carthaginians, Jews, Spaniards, Phoenicians, Greeks, Chinese, Tartars, etc., is reserved for God, who knows everything; and this task exceeds all human endeavor. And if such study obtain anything, it will amount only to a few fallible conjectures with danger of the judgment, and without any advance of the truth or of reputation.

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, Vol. 40, pg. 296-297 

And here is a second witness from Gaspar de San Augustin who was an Augustinian missionary and historian in 18th century Philippines.

42. They are so ignorant that they do not have the slightest knowledge concerning the origin of the ancestors from whom they descend, and whence they came to settle these islands. They do not give any information concerning their paganism, which is not the worst; and they only preserve in certain parts some ridiculous abuses, which they observe at births and sicknesses, and the cursed belief that persuades them that the souls of their ancestors or the grandfathers of the families are present in the trees and at the bottom of bamboos, and that they have the power of giving and taking away health and of giving success or failure to the crops. Therefore, they make their ancestors offerings of food, according to their custom; and what has been preached to them and printed in books avails but little, for the word of any old man regarded as a sage has more weight With them than the word of the whole world.

http://www.philippinehistory.net/views/1720sanagustinb.htm

So, question 9 is a fallacious appeal to authority and of no weight. What should be of weight and concern is fact, not the conjecture of the Jesuits or Timothy Jay Schwab.

Chapter 3 also has the following error.

Two question 4s! Someone call an editor. 

Chapter 4 is all about maps.

1. As the First Century shift to Greek in maps is attested by the same in the New Testament, are there actual maps that still identify Ophir in its original Hebrew form? 

Where in the New Testament is there anything about maps? Nowhere! The rest is the same nonsense I have refuted at length. Read it here. 

Chapter 10 is about how the three kings or wise men who visited Jesus Christ actually came from the Philippines.

12. Why did Daniel call his wise men in the Greek Septuagint Sophos and not Magos in Greek?

What is this supposed to prove or clarify? In the New Testament the word translated wise men is Magos. The word Sophos, which is Strongs's G6480 is used several times in the New Testament to describe wise men. Magos, G3907, is used several times to describe sorcerers such as Elymas the sorcerer in Acts 13:8. The word Magos tells us more about these three men than the word Sophos. It tells us they were astrologers from the East, likely from Persia. This is a terrible question that doesn't offer anything except proof that Timothy Jay Schwab is no linguist. 

Chapter 11 is about Columbus and has the following two questions involving one of Tim's stupidest errors.

4. What Globe/Sphere is identified as the source for Columbus and Magellan in Columbus' and Pigafetta's Journals?  

5. Who paid for and commissioned the 1492 Behaim Globe? 

The answer to 4 is in the fifth question, the Behaim Globe. The answer to 5 is the City of Nuremburg. Tim will say Portugal which is so obviously wrong and rectified by a simple Wikipedia search but Tim doesn't care. He remains entrenched in his ignorance and passes it along on to others. 

Why does Tim continue to repeat this lie? Why is he willing to die on this hill? Is it really that important to his project? It is a mystery. For a complete, thorough, and final rebuttal to this false claim read this article.

Question 9 is rather representative of many of the questions in this study guide.

9. Did Honshu, Japan move 2,700 km South into the South China Sea only to return back to modern Japan (Nippon), or is Luzon actually Luzon? 

This question is based on Tim's teaching that the Philippines is Japan, specifically it is the land Marco Polo called Zipangu. First of all that is completely wrong and you can read about that here. Second of all the question is not only unnecessarily sarcastic and leading but it betrays a misunderstanding of the Behaim map which has a depiction of Zipangu.

Tim thinks this whole area is the Philippines because the islands appear to have the shape of some of the Philippine Islands. Never mind the Behaim globe was made in 1492 long before any European had visited the Philippines. That fact does not matter to Tim. It's the shapes that matter. Question 9, in conjunction with the following questions, is designed to make the reader feel stupid and think Zipangu can't be Japan because Tim has already lead them to think so in Chapter 4 questions 13-15.

Look at that! There are two question 15s. Tim needs an editor. 

Also take a look at the first question 15.

why is called Japan by the West when the locals call it Nippon or Nihon?

The answer is simple. Japan is based on the name Cipangu and that name is based on what the CHINESE called Japan!

Marco Polo called Japan 'Cipangu' around 1300, based on the Chinese name, probably 日本國; 'sun source country' (compare modern Min Nan pronunciation jít pún kok). In the 16th century in Malacca, Portuguese traders first heard from Malay and Indonesian the names Jepang, Jipang, and Jepun.

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

This is a misleading question and just goes to show that Tim is not interested in truthful history but in pushing his own false narrative about the Philippines. 

Chapter 12 is about Hebrew in Philippine place names and has the following questions. 

3. With chaggiyah literally meaning "feast of Yah" and yan as "Yah's grace," how do you believe this name was applied to multiple sites throughout the Philippines? 

4. If Cagayan referred to a river, as some scholars attempt, why would the name appear on an island without a river at all? 

7. Is it a coincidence that the pronunciation of Igorot is the same in Hebrew "eeg-ge-roht, iggerOt" meaning "letter, epistle?" 

8. Why did American Archeology and Ethnology conclude Igorot law "ranks fairly with Hebrew law?" 

10. When Panay in Hebrew means "front of, overlooking" and pana "before the face of God," is it likely a linguistic association can be inferred? 

11. When Solomon's navy landed in Ophir, would it not be appropriate for them to identify the plentiful saba meaning "abundant, fill to satisfaction" in Hebrew? 

15. Is it possible that God allowed the name Pili Pinnah as a name for this land which in Hebrew means "miraculous cornerstone" matching its history as the land of Creation? 

Can you see the problem here? "How do you believe", "is it a coincidence", is it likely", "would it not be appropriate?" Those are subjective questions. They do not lead to anything substantial or factual regarding Hebrew being in Philippine place names. Philippines is not Pili Pinnah. It's named after King Philip II and Philip means horse lover. Never forget Tim is not a linguist nor does he wish to be one. 

5:06 We are not linguists nor do we care to be

Lost Tribes Series Part 2F: Decoding the Butuan Ivory Seal - Evidence

The last chapter is titled "End Times Prophecy of the Philippines?" We shall only look at the last eight questions. 

8. How could Jesus (Yahusha) have known that Cebu would call itself the “Queen City of the South” with Iloilo bearing a similar nomenclature?

9. How did he and Isaiah both know Ophir, Philippines would fall and need to rise?

10. Did Jesus (Yahusha) know the geography of the world when He placed the isle of the Queen of Sheba’s origin in the uttermost parts of the Earth?

11. What does it mean to you to “rise up in the judgment” with the End Times generation and “condemn it?”

12. How can a conquered nation be restored as the judges of the Earth?

13. Do the words of Jesus(Yahusha) ever return to Him void? Can His prophecy every fail?

13. How do you believe this will occur?

14. What will your role be in the rising of the Philippines in these Last Days?

15. Are you ready to rise?

Look at that. There are two question 13s! So, that's two question 4s in chapter 3, two question 15s in chapter 11, and two question 13s in chapter 13. Tim really needs an editor. That is more proof there is no God Culture Team.

All of these questions are based on a wrong interpretation of Matthew 12:42. 

That verse is not a prophecy of the end times. It is a condemnation of the people listening to the preaching of Jesus Christ and rejecting Him. Jesus says the men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah and the Queen of Sheba heard the wisdom of Solomon. He says the men of Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba will rise up IN THE JUDGEMENT and condemn those who rejected Christ because one who is greater than both Jonah and Solomon had come. 

The rising up of the Queen of Sheba and Nineveh will not be in the last days but IN THE JUDGEMENT. They will not be condemning the beast, the antichrist, or the New World Order but those who refused to repent and believe on Jesus Christ. 

The last question is arguably the most important because it sums up what Tim's whole project is about. It's all about "restoring prophecy" which has nothing to do with Israel but everything to do with the Philippines. The question indicates this study guide is not for non-Filipinos. According to Tim Filipinos will "rise up" in the last days to condemn the New World Order. That is where this study guide wants to lead its users. 

However, if one pays attention to how these questions are worded and does the most basic Bible study and historical research they have to reject this conclusion. The study guide will only accomplish Tim's goal of leading Filipinos into believing his nonsense if they do not do what he says and test all things including himself. Sadly so many of Tim's listeners fail to take the time to fact check him. 

If you didn't notice the front cover has a Fedora floating in the ocean.

It seems this Fedora is so important it appears three times throughout the book on the front and back covers as well as the title page. That's because Tim is equating his historical revisionism project with Indiana Jones. From the back cover:

You are about to embark on the most monumental journey of all archaeological discoveries in this 13-Week Small Group Study by The God Culture, a group of independent researchers. A 3,000-year gold rush documented so many ways it will make your head spin. The mother lode that would cause the likes of Indiana Jones to salivate.

Yes, fiction appealing to fiction. How appropriate. 

Tim has previously said he is working on a textbook to promote his ideas in the classroom. 

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. 

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-god-culture-kalinga-hebrew-youth.html

If this study guide is any indication Filipinos who take the course will only be dumber and more ignorant thanks to Professor Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture.