The God Culture: Unlocking Hidden Truths With Zen Garcia

Timothy Jay Schwab who is the God Culture, as of this writing no concrete evidence for a God Culture team has surfaced, has given another interview with Zen Garcia.  Let's see what Tim has to say to defend his false teachings. 

Unlocking Hidden Truths with The God Culture - Zen Garcia & Tim Schwab

The title alone is enough to indicate that everything about to follow is going to be pure bunk. There are no "hidden truths" when it comes to the Scriptures or the truth of Christianity. Jesus Christ has come and all things have been revealed. The mystery of the ages finds it revelation in Him. To say otherwise is to make Christ a liar who promised He would build His Church and the gates of hell would not overcome it and that He would send the Holy Spirit who would guide the Church into all truth. The title of this video is a rejection of the promises of Jesus Christ and of the guidance by the Holy Spirt of his Body the Church. 

We see this rejection in the main subject of this interview which is Tim's Levite Bible project. From the description:

Embark on a groundbreaking journey with author Zen Garcia and cohost Tim from The God Culture as we unveil the Levite Bible Series, a revolutionary exploration that challenges established paradigms and sheds light on the biblical treasures hidden in the sands of Qumran.

The gist of it is that modern Bibles are corrupt and Tim is going to restore the Bible based on the Dead Sea Scrolls. However Tim does not talk about that project specifically until the end of the video.

1:51:17 We have ten books published now in the last three years uh and we're just just getting started. We have got a lot more to test. We're testing all of the Dead Sea Scrolls, uh, we're not just taking them at face value just because, uh, the temple priests lived in Qumran and that's where Bible Cannon was kept because something could be thrown in so we need to test everyone but we are so the legitimacy of this when we do publish a Levite Bible because this what this is uh with all of these texts in one it it will be credible um and then we're going to move to eventually we'd love to tackle publishing a full Bible with all of these texts in proper chronological order uh with Hebrew yeah with Hebrew keywords in the margins and all of that it just it it so begs it we need it in this day and age because so many things in our King James uh and other versions the other versions are even worse uh they're just not accurate.

Note that Tim makes a distinction between "a Levite Bible" and "a full Bible." That likely means the Levite Bible will be only the Old Testament. This project is called the Levite Bible because the Levites, specifically those tasked with carrying the Ark of the Covenant, were the custodians of Bible Canon. 

49:55 So, how do you determine Bible Cannon? Who kept it? Who were the custodians of Bible Canon? Well, Moses determined that, uh, and he said that, you know, after he was done writing Torah he gave it to who? To the Levites, to the priests and which priests specifically?The priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant and that, you know, is where they placed it. Uh, they were the custodians of scriptures says the Bible.

Tim bases this claim on Deuteronomy 31.

Apocrypha Test: Part 2: Who Decided Bible Canon? History of the Bible.

It is a wildly ridiculous claim seeing as the point of the Book of the Law being placed inside the Ark of the Covenant was purely symbolic being placed alongside Aaron's rod and a piece of manna. It's not as if that were the only copy and the Levites would not be opening the Ark to take out the law and read. In fact God told the entire nation to write these statutes on their foreheads and right arms. 

Deuteronomy 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

Paul says quite plainly that the oracles of God were entrusted to the Jews meaning the entire nation of Israel and not just a subgroup of the Levites. 

Romans 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?

2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God

This claim that only a subgroup of the Levites are the custodians of scripture is an integral part of Tim's system. This means the history of the Septuagint is really Pharisee propaganda since there were no members of this group on the translation team and none of the other tribes were responsible for translating Scripture. 

53:22 Now, the Septuagint though has this fake story that is made up uh actually way back in the first century uh it's from a letter, letter to, uh, Atrayus or something like that, uh, and basically it makes the claim that six of each of the 12 tribes of Israel were sent to Alexandria, to the occult Library of Alexandria, to work for them, to be employed by them, to translate the Hebrew Bible into Greek. Old Testament. Now, there's one big major massive problem with that. The tribe of Judah, the tribe of Ephraim, the tribes of Israel are not translators. They are not responsible for scripture. There's only one tribe that is the Levites. That's it. So, if the story were true and had any basis in reality, and it doesn't we've vetted it completely in a full video which you see on screen. Um can you see my screen Zen? 

Yes, uhuh.

Oh good so that'll share that's good. 

Oh, um Justin has been live streaming it but um yeah we he, he is live streaming it as well. 

Okay cool that's cool yeah that's just for the live stream folks but uh so if anybody isn't watching this you know on the live stream uh you could check it out there uh we we have the support. I'm about to show you some maps and so you'll see them uh on screen. So we, we exposed this as a fake Pharisee history uh this story is contrived it's made up it doesn't mean that the Septuagint is false no it's it's actually a pretty good Greek translation the Septuagint is fine.

Newsflash to Tim but nobody takes the legend of the Septuagint literally. It is indeed a fantastical story and likely not true at all except in the kernel which is that Israelites translated the Torah into Greek for Ptolemy. He is giving us nothing new here except for his reasoning which is that those who translated it were not responsible for Scripture. How is the Septuagint a fine translation if, according to Tim, those who "are not translators they are not responsible for scripture" are the ones who translated it? Tim does not say. He rejects the history of the Septuagint but embraces the translation because he can use it for his nefarious purposes. 

Tim also claims that way out in the desert temple sacrifices were ongoing by the Qumran Community. 

1:07:45 So, they call it the Dead Sea Scrolls. The reality is it's the Bethabara Scrolls. They are found in Bethabara and this was a community where the temple priests lived and continued the temple rituals, the temple sacrifices, all of that continued in this community. Just read their writings and it's very clear they were all about the law they were all about Covenant. They were all about keeping the Commandments and teaching it.

Again Tim, the self-proclaimed expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls who claims he has done more research than anyone else especially scholars, is wrong. There were NO sacrifices taking place in Qumran. The community itself was the sacrifice. Sacrifices were spiritualized. In his introduction to the Complete Dead Sea Scrolls Geza Vermes writes the following:

The second issue has to do with the sect’s attitude towards the Temple and Temple sacrifice. While some Essenes, notwithstanding their vow of total fidelity to the Law of Moses, rejected the validity of the Sanctuary and refused to participate (temporarily) in its rites (cf. Philo, Omnis probus 75; Josephus, Antiquities XVIII, 19), they evaded the theological dilemma in which this stand might have placed them by contending that until the rededication of the Temple, the only true worship of God was to be offered in their establishment. The Council of the Community was to be the ‘Most Holy Dwelling for Aaron’ where, ‘without the flesh of holocausts and the fat of sacrifice‘, a ‘sweet fragrance’ was to be sent up to God, and where prayer was to serve ‘as an acceptable fragrance of righteousness’ (IQS VIII, 8-9; IX, 4-5). The Community itself was to be the sacrifice offered to God in atonement for Israel’s sins (IQS VIII, 4-5; 4Q265 fr. 7 ii).

The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls, Gaza Vermes, pg. 83

The Community Rule says:

In the Council of the Community there shall be twelve men and three Priests, perfectly versed in all that is revealed of the Law, whose works shall be truth, righteousness, justice, loving-kindness and humility. They shall preserve the faith in the Land with steadfastness and meekness and shall atone for sin by the practice of justice and by suffering the sorrows of affliction.

Vermes, pg. 108-109 

When these become members of the Community in Israel according to all these rules, they shall establish the spirit of holiness according to everlasting truth. They shall atone for guilty rebellion and for sins of unfaithfulness, that they may obtain loving-kindness for the Land without the flesh of holocausts and the fat of sacrifice. And prayer rightly offered shall be as an acceptable fragrance of righteousness, and perfection of way as a delectable free-will offering.

Vermes, pg 110

The second citation is more than plain that no animal scarifices were happening in the Qumran Community. 

How could Tim get this so wrong? It's because he is blinded by his own false paradigm. He has magnified the Qumran Community into something it is not. According to Tim they did not abscond to the wilderness merely because the temple was defiled but also to prepare the way for Christ. 

1:31:48 There's another Prophecy in the Community Rule, uh, and it says when these become members of the community in Israel according to all these rules they shall separate from the habitation of unjust men and shall go into the Wilderness to do what? What are they doing?They're fulfilling Isaiah uh 50 verse 3 or no 40 verse 3 okay so they shall go into the Wilderness to prepare there the way of him as it is written prepare in the wilderness the way of blah blah blah blah make straight in the desert a path for our Elohim.

The fulfillment of that prophecy falls squarely on the shoulders of John the Baptist. The Gospels are clear on that. It was not a community preparing the way for Jesus, it was his cousin John the Baptist. It is the voice of ONE calling not the voice of a community calling out. Again, he gets everything wrong because of his false notions about the Qumran Community. 

Tim takes it a step further and claims that Jesus was not baptized at the temple in Jerusalem because the real temple practice was taking place near the Dead Sea. 

1:42:38 Genesis 10 actually puts these together as a people group and they're the same people group that attacked the temple in 165 BC and took over the whole paradigm which is why, notice this, Yahusha did not launch his ministry at the temple. Now that's weird. Why, why wouldn't he have John the Baptist baptize him there? Why did he start his ministry in Bethabara? Because that is where the temple practice remained. That's where the canon was kept and that's what we have to follow through history.

Why exactly would Jesus need to be baptized in the temple? Tim does not say. Where exactly would John have baptized Jesus in the temple? Remember thousands of people were flocking to him in the wilderness. Where would he have gotten all that water? And what is meant by "launching his ministry?" Tim seems to think that entails baptism only but Jesus did not even begin to preach until after his 40 days of temptation in Capernaum which is not Bethabara!

Matthew 4:13 And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: 

14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, 

15 The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; 

16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. 

17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

It is amazing how this man who has been in the ministry for 30 years continually gets EVERYTHING wrong! 

The truth is at no time in his ministry does Jesus ever call the temple priests impostors or the temple ceremonies corrupt or instruct people to go into the wilderness in order to participate in true temple worship. In fact he tells people he heals to go offer the proper sacrifices at the temple. 

Luke 5:12 And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 

13 And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him

14 And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

Lest Tim cavil that this verse does not say go to the temple I ask where else were they going to show themselves to a priest and offer up a sacrifice?  Not into the wilderness of the Qumran Community who were not sacrificing that's for sure. 

One final thing to note in this interview is that Tim says point blank Jesus did not finish his work on the cross. 

33:12 There's only one day of judgment and that's when all souls are judged. All of them. Billions. Uh, Messiah's greatest work is to come. Uh, the cross was wonderful and very significant no doubt but he did not complete his work on the cross and no scripture actually says he does. That comes out of our pulpits but actually his greatest works are to come.

What a lot of nonsense. Jesus himself said IT IS FINISHED.

John 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost

God incarnated as a man, kept and fulfilled the law, and defeated sin, hell, death, and the devil. There is nothing more for him to do. To say the last judgement has not come therefore "he did not complete his work on the cross" is unbiblical and blasphemous. 

This interview is a lot of the same stuff Tim says elsewhere but compacted into two hours. It's really not much of an interview though as Zen rarely interrupts Tim to ask pertinent questions or put him on the spot by asking anything challenging. But then again Zen Garcia is mostly ideologically aligned with Tim so why would he do that? 

Let's conclude by taking a look at some of the comments. First up is this doozy:

@RestoringReality: Tim is soo proud of being soo wrong about soo many things that I had to drop his channel because I just couldn't stomach the arrogance and insults any longer.

Funny that Tim had no response to this commenter.

However, he did have a response for the next one. 

@fartnoisesloud: Tim’s channel is clear that he loves to ban people, threaten to ban people, accuse everyone of being illiterate and also like to ban people. Other than that he’s quite charming

@TheGodCulture: Your fart noises are far more offensive than a YouTube Channel that actually moderates it's comments which is called responsible. Their giving you a warning so you understand when you are banned. You however, are not a real commenter nor viewer. You are an illiterate, because you prove you can't read, who deserves far worse including prison for your law breaking offense, TGC addresses this exact kind of stupid many times because you are exactly that. 

Tim deleted this comment but did leave a reply to the person claiming he was "ranting about us flat earthers."

@sarafenton9288  You are a liar. Anyone who has actually watched TGC, knows we do not rant against Flat Earthers. They are welcome in our format and anyone watching our Restoring Creation Series knows we do not teach a ball earth cosmology. Of course, let us not pretend we do not know this fake account is another by the same illiterate blogger who is too poor to pay attention. So obvious.

Ah, there it is! Tim assumes both of these accounts, @fartnoisesloud and @sarafenton9288, are mine. He added the following comment a few days later. 

@timlandegent3536 Indeed, we love, or is it like, to ban people with a username "fart noises loud." Clearly a fallacious agitator and not a serious commenter on anything vomiting on screen to attempt to place stumbling blocks in the way of viewers. Understand this is the same guy or group who came in under different usernames they make up such as the one above, now removed, which created the username the day before his comment as if we do not all know what that is. This name is a joke to ever be taken seriously. A clear liar. They do it on our book reviews even illegally and in fraud, on our channel regularly and even write the dumbest blogs one could ever read telling you a sentence doesn't say what it clearly says for those who can read of course, a map they don't know how to read doesn't point to what a child can recognize, a book with 1,000 scriptures doesn't have enough Biblical evidence, the land with the most gold in all of history somehow does not have enough gold, and one of our favorites is their admission they read only the eBook of our first book and they accused Amazon, who prints the book, of poor quality that pages fell out when it was delivered except it was an eBook, duh!, etc.They simply don't care how stupid they look as they are anonymous and paid to agitate in any way they can. Losers. Yah Bless.

As I have pointed out before Tim is very, very paranoid about this blog. I don't have a myriad of sock accounts and the comment I posted on this interview was never posted which means I have been banned from that channel from the get-go probably on Tim's advice to Zen. But it is good to see I am not the only one who recognizes Tim is an incredibly rude liar. 

This next comment is probably typical of how many of Tim's viewers think about criticism of The God Culture.

@alx42013 Tim is phenomenal and just by all the fake backlash and stupid fraudulent remarks and false things you see on Google and YouTube,that are trying to soil his name ,his biblical facts,awesome research and deep studies and remarkable work, proves that Satan and the wicked woke powers that be, they're trying to silence him and soil or delegitimize the word of God and his Unbreakable research and studies . For me... that just totally legitimizes and cements him as one of the number one teachers deciphers and smart researchers of this era, and I will continue to support,learn and back his work and promote and show all my friends and family all his awesome discoveries and points of scripture

Following this person's logic, being met with opposition means someone is actually in the right, one would have to conclude that the Pharisees were right and Jesus was wrong and that every false prophet who had his critics, from Joseph Smith to William Branham, was actually on the side of truth. That is, of course, quite ridiculous. Being opposed does not mean one is in the right. 

There is simply no winning with these people. How can anyone hope to make them see Tim's lies when they are thoroughly steeped in ignorance? Given how uncritical his audience is it is no wonder that Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture has a channel that continues to grow. 

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." 

The God Culture: Follow the Method

Timothy Jay Schwab of The God Culture has a new 52-week study series about the apocrypha. It is based on his two-volume set of books which claims to test the apocryphal books. I have written an article on each volume showing forth Tim's awful and uneducated methods defending or rejecting the apocrypha (vol 1, vol 2). It is this method which I would like to further explore. 

Apocrypha Test: Part 2: Who Decided Bible Canon? History of the Bible.

In a comment on this video Tim says one should follow his method to find out the truth. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEHB3rowk8I&lc=UgzStsCHOWRh56weQzV4AaABAg

@jawnatutorow: Ok, I have a question. If the pharisees at Jesus time were imposters, why did Paul respect them when they told him Ananias was the high priest, and Paul apologized and said it is written you should not speak even of a ruler of your people?

@TheGodCulture: You mean Paul when on trial with his life in the hands of the Pharisees? Can you read? Are you really incapable of the comprehension of a child? When you try to quote a scripture, quote it and do so in context. First, Paul rebukes the Pharisees many times and the illiterate modern church thinks he is rebuking Moses when he taught Moses' Law but rebuked Pharisee application. Why do you think he ended up in front of them on trial? How do you not know? In this account you try to cite inaccurately in context, Paul invokes he was a Pharisee by birth thru his father likely, yet he was a Hebrew thru his mother which are 2 different things if you new how to read Paul. If he did not show respect to the Pharisee ruler publicly especially when in chains and on trial in front of them, which is rather sad to think you do not know any of Paul's story it appears, he would be dead far earlier. Paul was not stupid. How is it you do not know that is the actual question here? Some of them still wish to kill Paul even so but understand he publicly covered himself by showing respect for what was a recognized position though Paul well knew the Pharisees were fakes. He warns of their Jewish Fables and endless genealogies in 1 Timothy 4. Read all of that chapter and he lays out the Pharisees guilty of old wives' fables as well. In 2 Timothy 4, he predicts many will fall for these Jewish fables of the Pharisees. In Titus 1:14, Paul says: " Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth." The real question here is how is that you think that his rebuking the Pharisees accusing them of propagating the commandments of men and lies turning men away from the truth somehow equals his endorsing their righteousness when he never did. Yes, when on trial, he invokes his Roman citizenship by birth, his Pharisee bloodline from his father, his Hebrew blood from his mother, and his learning from a very famous Pharisee at a young age in his defense while on trial. His defense was accurate and it worked that time especially. However, you see that as his endorsing those he rebuked? Really? This is an extremely illiterate way to read anything. Follow the method on this channel and you will learn to fix this. Attempt further debate in ignorance as you certainly do not know Paul and do not represent his words, be muted. Our channel, our rules. Yah Bless.

I want to analyze this comment and response and show that the method used by Timothy Jay Schwab is only going to lead one into ignorance. 

@jawnatutorow: Ok, I have a question. If the pharisees at Jesus time were imposters, why did Paul respect them when they told him Ananias was the high priest, and Paul apologized and said it is written you should not speak even of a ruler of your people?

Now, this person echos the very same question I have said about Tim's assertion that the Pharisees were impostors. Nowhere in the scripture does Jesus, or in this case Paul, ever condemn them for being impostors. They are condemned for hypocrisy but never for being Samaritan impostors. It's a deadly blow to Tim's claims. 

But watch how he uses his method to make the question irrelvant. I am going to take this a section at a time. Someone should tell Tim to punch the enter button once in a while and start a new paragraph. There is no need for unreadable blocks of text. 

@TheGodCulture: You mean Paul when on trial with his life in the hands of the Pharisees? Can you read? Are you really incapable of the comprehension of a child? When you try to quote a scripture, quote it and do so in context.

The very first part of Tim's method is to mock and ridicule the commenter. This is the same method he uses when discussing the work of Dead Sea Scrolls scholars. They are dismissed as illiterate buffoons. 

First, Paul rebukes the Pharisees many times and the illiterate modern church thinks he is rebuking Moses when he taught Moses' Law but rebuked Pharisee application. Why do you think he ended up in front of them on trial? How do you not know?

The second part of Tim's method is to twist facts and erect straw men. It is true that Paul rebukes the Pharisees but it is NOT true that the Church thinks or teaches Paul rebuked Moses. That is simply nonsense. Paul says very clearly he upholds the law but at the same time he is very adamant that the law leads us to Christ and because Christ is come it is now done away with. That is why the Church does not teach the law of Moses except insofar as it leads men to Christ. We are no longer under the law but under grace. That dichotomy of law versus grace, of the old versus the new covenant, is Christianity 101. 

In fact, Paul did not end up on trial for rebuking the Pharisees but because the Jews thought he brought a Gentile into the temple and that he was teaching against the law. 

Acts 21:27 And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,

28 Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.

29 (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)

 

Acts 22:21 And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.

22 And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live.

Acts 24:5 For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes:

6 Who also hath gone about to profane the temple: whom we took, and would have judged according to our law.

7 But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands,

8 Commanding his accusers to come unto thee: by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things, whereof we accuse him.

9 And the Jews also assented, saying that these things were so.

 

Acts 25:7 And when he was come, the Jews which came down from Jerusalem stood round about, and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove.

8 While he answered for himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all.

See that? The charges have NOTHING to do with Paul rebuking the Pharisees. In fact the Pharisees were ready to let Paul go when he spoke of the resurrection!

Acts 23:9 And there arose a great cry: and the scribes that were of the Pharisees' part arose, and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.

Tim calls this commenter illiterate but one must really wonder about his reading skills. 

In this account you try to cite inaccurately in context, Paul invokes he was a Pharisee by birth thru his father likely, yet he was a Hebrew thru his mother which are 2 different things if you new how to read Paul.

The third part of Tim's method is to apply to the enemies of Christ twisted and ridiculous bloodlines. In his view everyone who is not with Christ is a nephilim of some variety. Here we see Tim referring to the Pharisees as some sort of bloodline different from that of the Hebrews. The fact is the Pharisees were a SECT of Judaism which has nothing to do with genetics. There are NO genetic Pharisees just like there are no genetic Catholics, Buddhists, or Muslims. 

If he did not show respect to the Pharisee ruler publicly especially when in chains and on trial in front of them, which is rather sad to think you do not know any of Paul's story it appears, he would be dead far earlier. Paul was not stupid. How is it you do not know that is the actual question here?

The fourth part of Tim's method is to take a familiar Bible story and twist it all out of proportion. In his hands Jonah is no longer swallowed by a fish as the text actually says but he was swallowed by Leviathan and taken all the way around Africa. In this story Paul knew these Pharisees were fakes but deferred to them as being legitimate in a cowardly bid to save his life. Just look at how Tim defames Paul by calling him a dissimulating liar who was looking out to save his life rather than die for the truth as he proclaims he is ready to do in his letters. Incredible. 

Some of them still wish to kill Paul even so but understand he publicly covered himself by showing respect for what was a recognized position though Paul well knew the Pharisees were fakes. He warns of their Jewish Fables and endless genealogies in 1 Timothy 4. Read all of that chapter and he lays out the Pharisees guilty of old wives' fables as well. In 2 Timothy 4, he predicts many will fall for these Jewish fables of the Pharisees. In Titus 1:14, Paul says: " Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth."

This is more of Tim's fourth method. Now 1 Timothy becomes a warning against the Pharisees. In fact, according to Tim most of what Paul writes is against the Pharisees because they were the main number one enemy then and now. Case in point Tim says that Paul only knew the false Pharisee way of keeping the law and he had to relearn how to keep it the correct way. 

https://youtu.be/9Id0VB5fM5M?t=1821

30:22 However Paul kept the Pharisee law in his teachings back then but Pharisee teachings. Ok? Those do not attribute to him keeping the actual law because the Pharisee law is not the law. Therefore having been a Pharisee it did not mean Paul understood the law or the Bible any better than anyone else. He would have to relearn, really unlearn first, and then relearn the entire law because they had leavened pretty much all of it and turned it against, so Paul was learning really a new law when you think about it.

It is simply false that Paul had to relearn the correct way to keep the law. As a Pharisee of the Pharisees he kept it quite correctly and he taught, especially in Galatians and Hebrews, that the law had passed away because it's fulfillment in Jesus Christ had come. 

The real question here is how is that you think that his rebuking the Pharisees accusing them of propagating the commandments of men and lies turning men away from the truth somehow equals his endorsing their righteousness when he never did. Yes, when on trial, he invokes his Roman citizenship by birth, his Pharisee bloodline from his father, his Hebrew blood from his mother, and his learning from a very famous Pharisee at a young age in his defense while on trial. His defense was accurate and it worked that time especially. However, you see that as his endorsing those he rebuked? Really? This is an extremely illiterate way to read anything. 

Here we several of Tim's methods come to the fore. There's the nonsense about Pharisee bloodlines, there's calling the commenter illiterate, and we also have Tim misrepresenting the original question. 

The commenter did not say Paul endorsed the righteousness of the Pharisees. That is NOT the question. What the commenter asked is: 

If the pharisees at Jesus time were imposters, why did Paul respect them when they told him Ananias was the high priest, and Paul apologized and said it is written you should not speak even of a ruler of your people?

There is not a single word about endorsing their righteousness. What is being endorsed is their position as leaders and teachers of Israel and especially the High Priest being legitimate. 

Here is what Paul says in Acts 23: 

1 And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

2 And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth.

3 Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?

4 And they that stood by said, Revilest thou God's high priest?

5 Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.

6 But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.

Jesus says much the same thing.

Matthew 23:1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,

2 Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:

3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

Jesus rebukes the Pharisees but he NEVER calls them impostors. He says they "sit in Moses' seat" and are thus the legitimate rulers and judges of Israel. That is the issue here and Tim simply does not want to deal with it honestly. 

Follow the method on this channel and you will learn to fix this. Attempt further debate in ignorance as you certainly do not know Paul and do not represent his words, be muted. Our channel, our rules. Yah Bless.

Finally Tim concludes his non-answer to the question as to why Paul did not call the Pharisees impostors. He says following his method will lead to right conclusions and then he warns the commenter to not comment again "in ignorance" or he will be muted. And what is Tim's method? It is:

1. Insult the inquirer.

2. Misrepresent the question.

3. Twist the scriptures.

4. Reduce everything to bloodlines.

5. Warn any inquirer to never ask a hard question again or else be muted.

That is no method to get to the truth. It is a method to conceal the ignorance of Tim who cannot be bothered by hard facts which prove his teachings to be false. This method is used in all his videos, books, and comments. If you are interested in truth don't follow this method and certainly do not follow Timothy Jay Schwab of The God Culture.