The God Culture: Does Timothy Jay Schwab Have A Missionary Visa?

I did not want to write about the God Culture again so soon but here I am writing about the God Culture again so soon. The impetus is a comment Anna Rose Lipshy or Timothy Schwab or Justin Hester or whoever left on the last entry about Philippine gold jewelry allegedly being found in first century Egypt.

In your attempt to create doubt you further entrench this 1 point you attempt to attack. Foolish. So, not only did the Philippines trade with Egypt 2000 years ago which was our only point on this 1 slide of about 1 minute but so did West Asia/Persia. Wow! That’s even better. This point becomes even stronger in a timeline of concurrent gold trading in the Philippines. The assumptions in these articles that India had to be a mediator between the Philippines and Egypt is illogical and unfounded even by their own admission. That is the exact scholarly false paradigm we have crushed and you are going to have to deal with whether you like it or not. For one to mention the Philippines trading with Egypt and West Asia even recognizing they had the large balangay ships at least (some 80’ long according to Pigafetta and actual archaeology in Butuan some dated as early as 320 AD), is willing ignorance. Professor Adrian Horridge even documents those balangay in operation going to Sri Lanka and India back in 200 BC at least. Wikipedia stakes a claim of Philippines mining gold since 1000 BC and we test that.

http://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-god-culture-philippine-gold-jewelry.html?showComment=1584100051224#c4938809290190470428

Responding to this comment will also give me space to write about another and more important aspect of the God Culture pertaining personally to Timothy Jay Schwab. As Tim says, "We'll get to that."

First of all the commenter says the Philippines traded with Egypt 2,000 years ago as if that is an established fact but that is not what the three sources I looked at claim. While they mention trade contacts between Southeast Asia and Africa they do not say the Philippines traded directly with Egypt or that Filipino balangays sailed to Africa or Egypt. However the content of those sources do not matter to the God Culture because they say the conclusions of those scholars are illogical and unfounded and that they have crushed this "scholarly false paradigm." It's another instance of Tim and the God Culture discarding what a source actually says and substituting their own opinions and inferences despite citing the source as proof of their claims.

Secondly the commenter cites Professor Adrian Horridge as documenting Philippine balangays "going to Sri Lanka and India back in 200 BC at least." This claim is cited in their video "Solomon's Gold Series Part 1D: Testing the RESOURCES of Ancient Ophir, Tarshish, Sheba" beginning at 44:55.

https://youtu.be/gG39WFEYfiU?t=2695

"Now, Professor Adrian Horridge believes that by 200 BC, now we're way back to the same date we gave you for being able to firmly establish that gold was being traded, mined and traded from the Philippines and here you have Austronesian sailors were regularly carrying cloves and cinnamon to India and Sri Lanka. Funny because everybody says Sri Lanka is the origin of cinnamon. Yeah because that's where the Filipinos took their cinnamon.  Does it have a lot still? Yes. Do they grow it there? Yes. No doubt. But does it only come from Sri Lanka? It's another one of those things. No it does not. It may today for instance but it cerintaly did not in ancient times. 

And perhaps even as far as the coast of Africa in sailboats with outriggers he says. I know he must be crazy too except they have built replicas of these ships now and actually this balangay has been sailed all the way around the world. So they most certainly could have taken that journey." 

The source for this quote from Professor Horridge comes from a document titled "The South China Sea Dispute: Philippine Sovereign Rights and Jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea," by Antonio T. Carpio.

Prof. Adrian Horridge believes that by 200 BCE, Austronesian sailors were regularly carrying cloves and cinnamon to India and Sri Lanka, and perhaps even as far as the coast of Africa in sailboats with outriggers.

The South China Sea Dispute: Philippine Sovereign Rights and Jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea," pg.3 

This is another instance of secondhand quoting from Tim instead of using primary sources. If he had followed the footnotes he would have found that Carpio's source for this quote comes from a book titled "The Austronesians: Historical and Comparative Perspectives." A copy of that book can be downloaded here.  On page 146 we read the following:

Although influences from the Indian Ocean were too late to influence the Pacific Austronesians, Sanskrit words and possibly some rigging techniques could have started to spread east of Peninsular Malaysia by 200 BC. Trade routes were also open between Vietnam and eastern Indonesia about 200 BC, as shown by the distribution of the Dong Son bronze drums along the natural sea route dictated by the monsoons in the South China and Java Seas. Recent excavations at Sembiran in Bali have also revealed evidence of drum casting and deposits of South Asian rouletted ware pottery, most likely dated before AD 200 (Ardika and Bellwood 1991). Annual trade between China and India through the Malacca Straits had opened by about 200 BC. Perhaps by that time Austronesian sailors were regularly carrying cloves and cinnamon to India and Sri Lanka, and perhaps even as far as the coast of Africa in boats with outriggers. Certainly they have left numerous traces in canoe design, rigs, outriggers and fishing techniques, and a mention in Greek literature (Christie 1957).

Both Carpio and Tim cite Horridge wrong.  Professor Horridge does not say that Austronesian sailors were regularly sailing to India. What he says is perhaps they were. That word perhaps is very important and Carpio and Tim both omit it. Perhaps is very different than I believe. Professor Horridge is speculating and not stating a fact. Horridge's reference to Christie is also very important because it leads to a discussion of the Periplus which is a central text to Tim's thesis.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/610248?seq=1

The obscure passage in question is the following:

60.   Among the market-towns of these countries, and the harbors where the ships put in from Damirica [=Limyrike] and from the north, the most important are, in order as they lie, first Camara, then Poduca, then Sopatma; in which there are ships of the country coasting along the shore as far as Damirica; and other very large vessels made of single logs bound together, called sangara: but those which make the voyage to Chryse and to the Ganges are called colandia, and are very large. There are imported into these places everything made in Damirica, and the greatest part of what is brought at any time from Egypt comes here, together with most kinds of all the things that are brought from Damirica and of those that are carried through Paralia.

https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/periplus/periplus.html

This brief paper says that some consider this passage in the Periplus to be corrupt. The problem lies in the interpretation of the word highlighted above, colandia. Anthony Christie spends nine pages identifying what kind of ship a colandia is even investigating Chinese documents concerning these ships.  Needless to say he does not identify it as a balangay or anything Filipino. In fact both Horridge and Christie use the all encompassing term Austronesian which could mean any number of people groups and not necessarily Filipinos.

It is interesting to note that the commenter says Professor Horridge documents Filipino balangays as making trips to India and Sri Lanka in 200 BC when he does not mention balangays at all. That is an addition the commenter makes because Tim makes the connection with his slide. Now in the mind of the commenter, as well as the mind of anyone who watched the video, Professor Horridge is saying that Filipino balangays made the trip to India in 200 BC. It's a very subtle trick Tim has played on his unsuspecting audience to associate the balangay with the quote from Professor Horridge. It's an instance of personal biases and inferences becoming fact.

It's the same kind of trick Tim played in his video Clue #3 where he says Philippine gold jewelry was found in Egypt, asks how did it get there, and then proceeds to talk about Philippine ships. Anyone watching that video would think Filipinos sailed to Egypt even though Tim never says that.

Taken as a whole along with the paper by Anthony Christie Professor Horridge does not support Tim's thesis that balangays were making ports of call to India by 200 BC. Tim is also wrong when he says that a balangay has sailed around the world. The Balangay Voyage project did build a balangay but they only sailed to China and around Southeast Asia.  They did not circumnavigate the globe.

Thirdly the commenter says "Wikipedia stakes a claim of Philippines mining gold since 1000 BC." Here is the reference:

Mining in the Philippines began around 1000 BC. The early Filipinos worked various mines of gold, silver, copper and iron. Jewels, gold ingots, chains, calombigas and earrings were handed down from antiquity and inherited from their ancestors. Gold dagger handles, gold dishes, tooth plating, and huge gold ornaments were also used. In Laszlo Legeza's "Tantric elements in pre-Hispanic Philippines Gold Art", he mentioned that gold jewelry of Philippine origin was found in Ancient Egypt. According to Antonio Pigafetta, the people of Mindoro possessed great skill in mixing gold with other metals and gave it a natural and perfect appearance that could deceive even the best of silversmiths. The natives were also known for the pieces of jewelry made of other precious stones such as carnelian, agate and pearl. Some outstanding examples of Philippine jewelry included necklaces, belts, armlets and rings placed around the waist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining#Classical_Philippine_civilization

Right away this reference is suspect because it also includes the false claim that Legeza mentions Philippine gold jewelry being found in ancient Egypt. He does not. He says it appears this is so and he does not source his claim. The source for the claim that mining in the Philippines began in 1,000 BC is traced to a defunct Geocities page. 

Mines dating back to at least 1,000 B.C. have been found in the Philippines. When the Spanish arrived the Filipinos worked various mines of gold, silver, copper and iron. They also seemed to have worked in brass using tin that was likely imported from the Malay Peninsula. The iron work in particular was said to be of very high quality in some cases, and occassionaly in some areas, even better than that found in Europe. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20071201054321/http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Temple/9845/tech.htm#jew

This website appears to be the personal blog of Paul Sekai Manansala who is the author of "Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan" which is a revisionist history about the Nusantao. This guy even believes Prester John was a real king! Seeing as this page was first captured in the internet archive back in 1999 it would seem likely that it is the source of the erroneous citation of Peralta which is among the three sources cited to prove that Philippine gold was found in ancient Egypt.

Paul neglects to provide a source for his claim that mines dating to 1,000 BC have been found in the Philippines. Who discovered these mines and where are they located? The Wikipedia page also does not quote Paul correctly. Wikipedia says mining in the Philippines began around 1,000 BC while Paul only says mines dating to 1,000 BC have been found in the Philippines.

If mining began in the Philippines in 1,000 BC that would not be enough time for Filipinos to become miners of international renown whose gold King Solomon coveted.  King Solomon's dates are 990-931. Yet Tim takes this Wikipedia article as Gospel even mapping it out on a timeline.

https://youtu.be/gG39WFEYfiU?t=1371

"Again Wikipedia says the Philippines has been mining gold since 1000 BC..." 

I am not going to deny that Filipinos were mining gold back in 1,000 BC but Tim needs a better source to prove his claims than what Wikipedia is "staking." As it stands a date of 1,000 BC for the beginning of mining in the Philippines is too late for the Philippines to have been recognized as the land of gold to where King Solomon sent his ships. For the Philippines to be the premier land of gold in the way Tim claims it is the mining industry needs to be much, much older. Tim offers no proof or suggestion that this is the case but sticks with the date 1,000 BC.

I can imagine the commenter reading all that and thinking its a big nothing burger and that I am a fool who is nitpicking and being a libeling communist agitator yada, yada, yada. But getting your sources right is very crucial and time and again we see that Tim gets his sources wrong. In this same video Tim says:

https://youtu.be/gG39WFEYfiU

This is why gold jewelry of Philippine origin was found in a dig in Egypt dating first century AD.

I have already looked at the three sources cited to make this claim and shown it to be vastly overstated. It's funny that Tim adds the detail about the jewelry being found in a dig. None of those sources mention such a thing. It is very clear that Tim has not even read these three sources but is citing them secondhand just as he uses some sources but twists what they say to fit his paradigm. Thomas Suarez, Charles Nowell, and Rev. Thomas Stackhouse are three examples of men from whose writings he "gleans" what supports his thesis and ignores the rest. I have made it abundantly clear in these posts about the God Culture that Tim is not an honest or objective researcher. He has an agenda and shoehorns in the facts to support it. As they say, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story."

Now let's talk about Timothy Jay Schwab. He claims he is challenging tradition and is not part of any organization or denomination.

We are The God Culture, a group of independent researchers with no affiliation to any denomination nor organization whatsoever. 

The God Culture is a group of independent researchers not affiliated with any denomination nor organization. This team focuses solely on relationship with the Father through His Son testing all things using scripture as it’s foundation.

https://www.thegodculture.com

Yet he also claims he is here in the Philippines conducting conferences as part of an evangelistic ministry.

They chose the platform of YouTube to share their research initially in order to gather a following and after 2 years and over 5 million views from 214 countries on a teaching channel, The God Culture now re-enters the evangelistic ministry in conducting conferences beginning in the Philippines as much of the geography the Holy Spirit has restored leads to that land. Married to a Filipina, Timothy desires to spend much more time in the Philippines, the land of Ophir and the Garden of Eden (try to disprove it) and on their first tour, The God Culture already has over 15 conferences booked in their first month in May 2019 alone from North Luzon to Visayas to Mindanao

https://www.thegodculture.com

(EDIT and UPDATE) The God Culture has deleted this passage from their website.  Here is the original:

Anna Rose Lipshy even says that she and Tim were evangelists touring the USA.

We used to be evangelist touring the US for a number of years conducting altar calls consistently (oh forgot, we don't have any ministry experience according to this ignorant blog) and our experience in follow up was a whole lot of people who did not continue in relationship. 

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-god-culture-100-clues-philippines.html?showComment=1580699091074#c7458184243698567772

If Tim is doing the work of an evangelist in the Philippines surely he has a missionary visa, right? I don't think so.  He has said he is not part of any organization, not part of any denomination. That means no one sent him to do religious work in the Philippines. By his own admission he stands completely outside of the Church.

Here are the requirements of a missionary visa. I admit this is not the Bureau of Immigration's webpage but it is from a company who specializes in assisting people to obtain Philippine visas and is more forthright and clear than the information on the BI's webpage.

This visa is issued to a foreigner who: 

1. is a member of a religious denomination that is a bonafide non-profit organization in the Philippines  

2. is a minister or a religious worker of a non-profit religious denomination 

3. is requested by his religious organization to carry out a religious occupation in the Philippines 

4. is going to study a fixed curriculum in order to accomplish and undergo a proper formation training

http://dbmsconsultancy.com/missionaryvisa

Do any of those four qualifications apply to Timothy Schwab? Not according to what he says about himself. He is a foreigner having no affiliation with any religious organization yet he is in the Philippines acting as a missionary. His webpage shows him posing with Bishop Rod and Ruth Cubos at a conference in Davao.

In fact it appears that all of his conferences are held in tandem with a local church as this video shows:

The God Culture deleted the video above in order to cover their tracks. Clearly they do not want people to know that they are doing missionary work in this country. But someone uploaded it on Facebook so here it is:

 

Despite the fact that Tim is obviously involved in missionary work it is very doubtful he has a missionary visa. If he does have one that would mean he either belongs to a religious organization, which he admits he does not, or someone invited him to the Philippines which seems unlikely because his ministry is that of a wandering evangelist and he is interacting with a wide variety of Filipino churches and pastors. The only way to be sure is to actually see his missionary visa. I dare him to post it if he has one. I dare him to tell us what organization he belongs to and sent him here or who requested that he come to the Philippines to evangelize. If he doesn't have a missionary visa then he is in flagrant violation of Philippine immigration law for doing the work of a missionary without the proper and necessary credentials.

That's is it for the God Culture. I don't want to bore my regular readers with this "cult" and I don't want to harp on these guys either. I have said basically everything that needs saying about them. The only things left to do in regards to the God Culture are to review their book when it is published and to post a write-up after attending a conference. Hopefully the coronavirus pandemic doesn't cancel any of their upcoming conferences. 

The God Culture: Team of Researchers?

I know I said no more God Culture posts but I just can't help myself. These guys are such low hanging fruit and their silly historical revisionist views about the Philippines and Filipinos as well as their manifestly shoddy research skills are both entertaining and comical. I have no idea which representative of the God Culture is posting comments on my blog posts but whoever it is they are crazy as a loon. They also refer to Tim as "our leader."

Our Leader

I do not know Tim at all.  I have never met the guy. But I imagine he is a sane and reasonable person with whom I could hold a rational conversation. Over coffee I am sure we could discuss his research and all the holes I have found in it without either of us raising our voices. It might be a little spirited and heated. We might talk past each other and will likely have to agree to disagree. We also might find common ground. There would be nothing wrong with any of that. That's just how discussions go.

The person representing the God Culture who continues to post comments on this blog is the complete opposite of my imagined picture of Tim. This person is rude, ill-informed, illogical, and ignores the substance of what I have written by sticking out his tongue and going "na-na-na-na you are dumb." Is that the kind of person the God Culture's leader Timothy Jay Schwab wants to represent his organization? Does Tim really desire to have such a childish person represent him and his team?  Maybe he does!  But I don't think so.

You can go to each God Culture post and read the comments for yourself. Most of them are longwinded, incoherent, and pointless. I'm going to post a few here that are representative of the disjointed ramblings of the God Culture.

Take this comment from The God Culture: Does Timothy Schwab Have a Missionary Visa?

Well stupid, you asked. So don't ask if you don't care. What a trashy person you are. Timothy can do whatever he wants and it is none of your business. His lawyer got him the visa he needed and you are not a lawyer nor a scholar nor a theologian so stop pretending to be. You are a fraud whose opinion has 0 value. You have not produced any credentials, no name for your viewers, no agenda. Are you a communist? You sure do act like one. 

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2020/03/god-culture-does-timothy-schwab-have.html?showComment=1584521284242#c328801674141807724

Does Tim approve of such infantile name calling? Would the leader of the God Culture want their name associated with this comment? If we were in public would Tim call me trashy, stupid, a communist, and a fraud? Would he do so in private? Is that his style? 

From the same blog post:

A judiaizer is a Zionist fool. There is no such thing as a judaizer who is not and you are ignorant yet again. You just have one brain fart after another. So clueless. 

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2020/03/god-culture-does-timothy-schwab-have.html?showComment=1584533153667#c1651514787108346926

This comment reveals the commenter's complete ignorance of what a judaizer is. In a previous post I called Tim a judaizer because he admits he wants people to keep the biblical feasts. That is to say he wants Christians to incorporate Jewish practices into their worship. My exact comment was:

Because Tim is at heart a Judaizer. He takes his Christianity scattered, smothered, and covered with Judaism and he encourages others to do the same. Timothy Schwab's message is not simply that Filipinos are members of the lost tribes but that they must also worship God in a Jewish manner.

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-god-culture-jewish-fables.html

A Zionist is a person who supports the modern day state of Israel. Zionism is a political movement dating back to the 1800's. Judaizing goes back to the time of the Apostles and has to do with adding Jewish forms of worship to Christian worship. Big difference. Not the same at all. The Apostle Paul writes all about this issue in his letter to the Galatians. It's pure ignorance on the part of this commenter. 

After a lot of back and forth with this person he finally snapped. He went berserk and posted the following gobbledy-gook.

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2020/03/god-culture-does-timothy-schwab-have.html?showComment=1584634626809#c609820347794874797

Just try to read that. I dare you. I gave up after about two sentences.  Is this the kind of nonsense Timothy Jay Schwab, leader of the God Culture, approves? Can he honestly read this and say, "This comment accurately represents myself and my organization." It's complete balderdash and drivel. He posted this same rant on The God Culture: Philippine Gold Jewelry Found in 1st Century Egypt.

This commenter also disparages one of the God Culture's most important and oft quoted sources, Thomas Suarez.

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-god-culture-philippine-gold-jewelry.html?showComment=1584195525058#c7011209112326719045

Suarez is wrong. We do not quote his conclusions because they are ignorant and loaded with propaganda as well and we do not consider him a true scholar as he tows the Rothschild line inheriting such from the likes of Samuel Purchas who was employed by the East India Company specifically to hack up this topic as a matter of record and confuse people with propaganda.

Is this what Tim thinks? Does he think Thomas Suarez is not a true scholar and is merely an unwitting agent of the Rothschilds (how ridiculous a notion!) or is this the singular opinion of the commenter? If he does think that then why is Suarez listed in the PDF of approved sources? Why does the God Culture use Suarez in at least five other videos to bolster their claims? Why not chuck him to the curb entirely and find a new source for Mela and the Turin map if the man is not a true scholar? Why associate the pure names of the God Culture and Timothy Jay Schwab with a deceiver?

https://f2568e15-4b6b-4cbb-b68a-3d729eeed9e4.filesusr.com/ugd/e23929_c5850fbfa12d4a3390a6a541db01540d.pdf

It's truly a bizarre comment to associate Thomas Suarez with the banking family known as the Rothschilds. The commenter's associating of Samuel Purchas with the Rothschilds betrays an astounding ignorance of their history as well. Purchas' dates are 1577-1626. The Rothschilds did not come into power until the late 1700's!  Has the commenter read all 20 volumes of Purchas or at least volume 1? Just what propaganda is he talking about? There is also no evidence the man worked for the East India Company according to historiographer Sir William Foster. Yet we read just the opposite in their PDF of supporting research sources.

5. Samuel Purchas. 

“Purchas His Pilgrimes.” Book 1. Samuel Purchas. Page 18-48 at least. Purchase has a very long dissertation on Ophir bought and paid for by the East India Company (Rothschilds) and never traveled more than 200 miles from Essex in his own words thus he is no explorer according to: Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pilgrimes, Contayning a History of the World, in Sea Voyages, & Lande Travels, by Englishmen and others by Dr James Robert Wood, Trinity College Dublin. Also, Purchas did not know where Ophir was nor did he actually put up an argument against the Philippines which he does not address. Purchas was peddling a British mindset and never proves anything nor did he locate Ophir as no scholar fully did until Magellan.

Sorting out this mess will have to be left for another blog post. You can read that here.

This is all part of the God Culture's conspiratorial mindset. They believe that once the whole world knew the Philippines was Ophir. Then around 1891 it got covered up!  All that information was intentionally withheld from Filipinos so that they would not know who they are.  But did Filipinos ever know who they are or were descended from?

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

Magellan knew that the Philippines was the land of Ophir but an Augustinian friar who lived in the islands amongst the Filipinos in 1720 testified that the natives could tell nothing of their origin. Does that make sense?  How does that figure in the God Culture's extensive and deep historical research?

Who is the God Culture's team of researchers? That question is actually very important. We know Tim is the leader and his wife is also involved. What we don't know is who is on this alleged team of researchers. What are their qualifications? They say they will be publishing a book soon. Who will be the credited author? Tim? The God Culture? If it is "The God Culture" who will get authorial credit? Will Tim then introduce us to his team of researchers?

The God Culture is a group of independent researchers not affiliated with any denomination nor organization. This team focuses solely on relationship with the Father through His Son testing all things using scripture as it’s foundation. In recent years, their focus on restoring Biblical geography alone has led to the restoration of Ophir, Sheba, Tarshish, Havilah, Garden of Eden, Land of Creation, location of the Lost Tribes of Israel, home of John the Baptist and more and the restoration of prophecy follows. Don’t believe it? Try to prove it wrong. Their handle on scripture combined with their deep research including history, geography, archeology, science, language, etc. leads to a greater understanding of the original intent of the writers of the Word and as we read in comments all the time, leads to deep commitment for many thousands as they now see the brilliance behind the Word as it leaves many geographic markers and hints when comprehensive research is conducted especially in restoring the Hebrew meaning. 

https://www.thegodculture.com

History? Geography? Archeology? Science? Language? Do these researchers have degrees in those fields? Have they studied history, geography, etc.? Most academics have affiliations with organizations of one kind or another but apparently these people do not. We will never know anything about them unless these researchers come out of the shadows.

What kind of team engaged in groundbreaking research "restoring biblical geography" keeps their identities and CV's a secret? Anonymity is not a proper stance for anyone engaged in honest scholarship to take. Maybe Tim just wants people to focus on the facts and not the people because he is so humble. Such would be a false humility as there are no such things as neutral facts. We come to the facts with all our presuppositions, paradigms, and worldviews.

Science is a unified, central body or committee of enlightened, rational authoritative collective that inhabits the hallowed halls of academia, all reporting the neutral facts of empirical experience to come to objective conclusions, who then present them matter-of-factly to peers and the public. Nothing could be further from the truth. Scientists are individual humans with desires and worldviews and opinions like the rest of us—and some of them have an agenda. 

https://jaysanalysis.com/2014/06/17/the-cult-of-scientism-and-nikola-teslas-aether/

Tim is not merely presenting naked facts. He is interpreting them according to his own worldview and agenda. So are his teammates. I have shown in previous posts how he has done this by cherry picking his sources, taking what fits his thesis, and tossing anything that does not fit. The God Culture owes it to their viewers, readers, and listeners to tell who is doing the research and what their academic qualifications and religious beliefs are. As I will show in the next post (yes I know I said no more but...) much of their "research" has been copy/pasted from the blog AncientPhilippines.

The God Culture: Philippine Gold Jewelry Found in 1st Century Egypt

The God Culture claims that Philippine gold jewlery has been found in 1st century Egypt. This claim is just one of the many Timothy Schwab and his gang have made in order to prove that the Philippines is the land of Ophir, the Garden of Eden, and that Filipinos are members of the lost tribes. Here is the original unedited screenshot from their video Clue #3 in the 100 Clues Series.

It is important to use this unedited screenshot because it lists all the sources they use to substantiate their claim.

1. Laszlo Legeza, "Tantric Elements in pre-Hispanic Philippines Gold Art," Arts of Asia, July-Aug, 1988, pp 129-136 

2. J.T. Peralta, "Prehistoric gold ornaments from the Central Bank of the Philippines," Arts of Asia 1981, no.4, p 54 

3. Ramon N. Villegas, "Ginto: History Wrought in Gold", Manila: Bangko Central ng Pilipinas", 2004

These same sources are also cited across the internet on various blogs which make the same sorts of claims about the Philippines as the God Culture does. These blogs include the following:

http://ancientphilippines.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-lost-tribe-of-israel-is-found.html 

https://mythworld.fandom.com/wiki/Chryse 

https://sightedmoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/The-Philippines-is-the-ancient-Ophir.pdf 

http://moments-salamera.blogspot.com/2013/02/philippines-old-name-is-it-ophir.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chryse_(placename) 

This post will therefore not be directed towards the God Culture alone but to all who utilize these three citations to assert that Philippine gold jewelry has been found in first century Egypt.

All three sources are out of print. In each of the above blogs source 2 is cited incorrectly and none of them, including the God Culture, show what is in these sources to verify their assertion that Philippine gold jewelry has been found in first century Egypt. Source number three is also cited in all places aside from the God Culture in the following way:

"Legeza, Laszlo. "Tantric Elements in pre-Hispanic Philippines Gold Art," Arts of Asia, July-Aug. 1988, pp.129-136. (Mentions gold jewelry of Philippine origin in first century CE Egypt)" 

What I aim to do in this post is set the record straight by revealing what these sources actually say.  I  ordered the two out of print articles from Arts of Asia and have in my possession PDF files of these documents. I also have a PDF file of the relevant material from "Ginto: History Wrought in Gold." They are available upon request.

Send me an email using the contact form on the sidebar and I will send them to you for the low, low price of a "please" and "thank you." Do they give proof of Philippine gold jewelry being found in first century Egypt? Do they say something else entirely? Let's find out.

I will start with source number 3 and work backwards to Legeza which is the most important source allegedly having the strongest proof of Philippine gold jewelry being found in Egypt.


3. Ramon N. Villegas, "Ginto: History Wrought in Gold", Manila: Bangko Central ng Pilipinas", 2004

I was unable to get hold of a physical copy of this book so I did the next best thing. I found a place on the internet where the text is searchable, I searched for the words Egypt and Egyptian, and then I went to my local library and had the librarian contact the library in Manila where a physical copy is and send me pictures of each of those pages.  Surprisingly there were only two pages where the word Egypt showed up, 45 and 48, and one where Egyptian showed up, 78. Chryse does not show up at all.

pg. 45

Some of the non-Indian borrowed designs found only in their original sources and in the Philippine area suggest direct linkages with other cultural currents from the Indian Ocean. Among these are kamagi necklaces (Aldred 1978: 105) and penannular, barter rings which both show Egyptian influence (Aldred 1978: 20, 94). The earliest insular Southeast Asian products reached the Mediterranean through a port on the Arabian Gulf, which were transported overland to the headwaters of the Nile, then shipped down to Alexandria. Austronesian traders are also known to have reached Madagascar (Miller 1969; Taylor 1976), so the African connection is an established fact.

pg. 48

A related Philippine aesthetic principle was articulation, or the movement of joined parts. A prime example is the penannular earring with multiple pendants of floral forms. Ear ornaments constructed on the same principle, made of glass beads and similar cut-out forms in shell and sheet metal, are still made and worn by isolated mountain groups in northern Luzon, and eastern and central Mindanao (Ellis 1981: 234, 244, 246, 248; Rodgers 1985: 306-68). Very similar barter ring and pendant types are also found in Egypt (Aldred 1978: 111.94; Wilkinson 1971: ills. XLV and XLVI).

pg. 78 

This spread: Massive pennular gold farther runs. Rings, also in other metals, were used for exchange since Egyptian times in Africa. The form reached the other side of the Indian Ocean, up to East Asia. The great value of these barer runs suggest a major transaction, perhaps a dowry for a royal wedding. Note the wave-like engraving reminiscent of the sea.

Not one of these citations from "Ginto: A History Wrought in Gold" says a word about Philippine gold jewelry being found in Egypt. Taken as a whole these three brief statements tell us only that Egyptian influences made their way to the Philippines and were incorporated into Philippine gold art. Page 45 does make the claim that Austronesian traders had reached Madagascar and that the connection between Africa and Southeast Asia via trade routes is an established fact but says nothing about what was traded or how it was traded. We are certainly not told that Philippine junks sailed to Egypt which is a claim Timothy Jay Schwab of the God Culture makes.

How did the gold get there? Well, you will know by the end of this series because the Philippines had ancient ships that are gonna blow your mind.

https://youtu.be/Sc6sJB3t_As

Actually they don't make the exact and specific word-for word claim that Filipinos sailed to Egypt but it is explicitly implied that such is the case. What they do claim is that Filipinos had large ocean going ships and traded with China which is disputed by neither me nor anyone else.

https://youtu.be/Sc6sJB3t_As

The video for Clue #3 does not prove that Filipinos sailed to Egypt or explain how Philippine gold jewelry ended up in Egypt or that Philippine gold jewelry was even found in first century Egypt. All in all it's a rather pointless video that does not fulfill its promise.

Likewise "Ginto: History Wrought in Gold" does not support the claim that Philippine gold jewelry has been found in first century Egypt either. Admittedly we can infer from it that there might have been because of the trade routes mentioned but anything definite cannot be drawn from this book.


2. J.T. Peralta, "Prehistoric gold ornaments from the Central Bank of the Philippines," Arts of Asia 1983, no. 4, p. 51 

This article does not mention Egypt whatsoever. Instead Peralta discusses trade between China and the Philippines. Filipinos trading with the Chinese is an established fact and is not under dispute.

3. Laszlo Legeza, "Tantric Elements in pre-Hispanic Philippines Gold Art," Arts of Asia, July-Aug, 1988, pp 129-136 

There are two references to Egypt in this article.

pg. 129

Historically, our starting-point has to be a brief reference to the rich sources of natural gold in many Philippine islands, like Mindanao and Samar, and the desperate search, mainly by Indian maritime traders, to find fresh sources of gold as the Hellenistic Roman empire's resources ran dry in West Asia by the first century A.D. Hellenistic trade beads of West Asiatic and Egyptian origins found in early burials in many places in the Philippines, prove that such early trade contacts, no matter how irregular, existed between the Philippine archipelago and West Asia by the first centuries of the first millennium A.D. The earliest Carbon 14 date of A.D. 320 for one of the Butuan balangays (native seafaring boats) provides evidence of early Filipino participation in this trade.

pg. 131

Apart from India and China, Butuan is known to have had extensive trading connections with Arabia and in all probability with Sumatra and Java. The locally produced gold necklaces comprising of dentate interlocking beads seem to have reached Egypt, later to be mistakenly identified by European collectors as Egyptian.

Legeza is in agreement with Villegas in discussing established trade routes between Southeast Asia, West Asia, and Arabia. They also agree in telling us that Egyptian gold made its way to the Philippines. While Villegas only mentions Egyptian influence on Philippine gold art Legeza tells us that actual artifacts of Egyptian origin are to be found in Philippine burial sites.

The claim for Philippine gold jewelry being found in first Egypt rests solely on a cursory reference on page 131. But Legeza does not write that Philippine gold necklaces were found in Egypt, only that they seem to have been found. While he does state that trade contacts were established between the Philippines and West Asia by the first centuries of the first millennium A.D. he does not give a date for the jewelry allegedly found in Egypt. He provides no support for his claim. There are no references and no pictures to back up what he writes. The whole assertion that Philippine gold jewelry has been found in first century Egypt is based on a single sentence, or rather two sentences pages apart, which has no proofs. That is a very shaky foundation on which to make this claim.

Given that there was a trade connection between Southeast Asia and the Roman Empire it is likely that Philippine gold jewelry did make its way to the West. But that is only to be inferred from these two sources. Absolute proof of Philippine gold jewelry being found in first century Egypt as well as an explanation of how it got there such as Filipino junks sailing to Egypt or Philippine artifacts being traded across Asia until they reached Egypt will have to be looked for elsewhere. I will not be expanding beyond the bounds of these three sources.

It is not my intention to speculate here in order to prove the claims of the God Culture and others. My intention is only to look at the three sources commonly cited to prove that Philippine gold jewelry has been found in first century Egypt. Anyone who has read these sources could not honestly use them alone to support that claim. Even if the claim were true that does not prove the Philippines is Ophir. 

It is beyond dispute that the Philippines is a land full of gold. There is much testimony to that fact. But is the Philippines really the mythical islands of gold and silver, Chryse and Argyre, as Timothy Schwab of the God Culture claims? Reading through Legeza and Peralta's articles we find that it is Mindanao where most gold has been found. Butuan in particular is a source of many golden artifacts. That would mean of all the islands in the Philippines Mindanao is the isle of gold. However Timothy Schwab says the opposite.

Tim designates Luzon as the island of gold and Mindanao as the island of silver. Tim puts a lot of faith in the existence of the non-existent mythical islands of Chryse and Argyre as being proof that the Philippines is Ophir and Tarshish. They both play a key role in his list of proofs. Chryse and Argyre are essential puzzle pieces in the God Culture's mythology. In a recent video Tim uses, along with the descriptions of Dionysius Perigetes, Martin Behaim's map of 1492 to prove that Chryse and Argyre are the Philippines.

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

On this map we see the same mistake that Mindanao (Argyre) is the island of silver while Luzon (Chryse) is the island of gold. Mindanao is also erroneously placed below the equator. But dare I say that Martin Behaim was not thinking at all of the Philippines or depicting them because they had not yet been discovered by Magellan? Behaim had never even been to this part of the world. Undoubtedly what was in his mind was not the Philippines but Chryse and Argyre as known in legend and myth. He also contradicts Mela's map by placing them in a very different location, much further to the East. Aside from depicting these two mythical islands his map also includes the equally mythical St. Brendan's Island and the dragon's tail which is a non-existent peninsula in East Asia. Needless to say Martin Behaim's map is worthless for telling us about the real world.

Instead of relying on old and unreliable maps to give us a true picture of our world let us quote the words of a man who has actually been to Chryse and Argyre. That is Sir John Mandeville.

"On the East there are two islands near this one, of which one is called Oriell and the other Arget [Pliny's Chryse and Argyre]; in those two isles the earth is full of gold and silver ore. And they are near the Red Sea, where it enters the Great Sea Ocean. And in those isles no stars can clearly be seen shining, except for one they call Canapos [Canopus]; nor can the moon be seen there except in the second quarter."

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, translated by C.W.R.D. Moseley, Penguin Books, pg 182-183 

No stars shine in the islands of Chryse and Argyre and the moon is only seen in its second quarter. Every night the stars shine big and bright over the Philippines. The moon is also seen in each of its stages as it passes overhead. Does Mandeville's description of Chryse and Argyre's night sky match that of the Philippines? As Tim would put it: " Ugh. Nope, that's not it! So really this is not rocket science folks."

This same Sir John Mandeville also tells us the exact location of the lost tribes!

In this same land are the hills of Caspian which are called Uber [ubera aquilonis, ‘breasts of the north wind’, the Caspian mountains]. The Jews of the Ten Lost Tribes are shut up in mese hills; they are called Gog and Magog, and they can get out on no side. King Alexander drove them here, for he intended to shut them up with the work of his men. When he saw he could not, he prayed to God that He would finish what he himself had begun. And although he was a heathen, God of His special grace heard his prayer and closed the hills together, and they are so big and high that they cannot be passed. And on the other side is the Caspian Sea; but no one can escape on that side because the sea comes up out of the earth under these hills, and runs on one side of the country through a great desert, reaching as far as the land of Persia. 

Even if it is called a sea, it is not one in fact, but a lake, the biggest in the world. So if the folk that are enclosed there desired and attempted to cross that sea by ship, they would not know where they would arrive and would not understand [any language except their own. And so they cannot get out]. And know that now the Jews have no land of their own to live in in all the world except among those hills. Even so they pay tribute to the Queen of the Amazons, and she has those hills guarded very well so that they do not cross them into [her] country, which borders those hills. Nevertheless it sometimes happens that one of them climbs over those hills and gets out, but no great number of them could climb out together because of the great height and the difficulty of the climb. And there is no other way out except by a little [path] made by men’s diligence. That track is about four miles long, and then there is a great desert where no water or shelter is to be found for men because there are dragons and snakes and other poisonous animals; so except in winter no man can travel that way. 

This narrow path they call Clyrem; and as I said the Queen of the Amazons has it guarded very carefully. If it should happen that any of them get out, they can speak no language except Hebrew and so cannot speak with other men when they come among them. Folk in the country nearby say that in the time of Antichrist those Jews will sally out and do much harm to Christian men. And so all the Jews in the different parts of the world learn to speak Hebrew, for they believe that the Jews who are enclosed among those hills will know that they are Jews (as they are) by their speech when they arrive. And then they will lead them into Christendom to destroy Christian men. For those Jews say they know by their prophecies that the Jews enclosed among the hills will issue out and the Christians will be under their sway, just as they have been under Christian domination. And if you would know how they will find a place to get out, I shall tell you what I once heard said. 

In the time of Antichrist a fox will make his earth in the very place where King Alexander had the gates of the hills shut up, when he enclosed this people. And this fox will dig for so long in the ground that at last he will emerge among those people. When they see him, they will marvel at him greatly, for they never before have seen an animal like that. (Nevertheless they have all kinds of animals except the fox among them.) They will be so intrigued by this fox that they will chase him hither and thither; and they will pursue him until they come to the hole whence he came out. Then they will dig after him for so long that they will come to the gates that Alexander had stopped up with great stones and cement, and then they will break down these gates and find the way out.

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, translated by C.W.R.D. Moseley, Penguin Books, pg. 165-167 

Is Timothy Schwab ready to give credence to Sir John Mandeville? Columbus did. Even Leonardo da Vinci had Mandeville in his library. Mandeville is the first to mention a possible route to circumnavigate the globe so it is certain that Magellan read him and took him to be truthful.

Today we know Mandeville's description of the world is utterly fantastic. It is only people like Timothy Schwab, Anna Rose Lipshy, and the God Culture who, unlike the rest of the world, but just like Dionysius Perigetes, Sir John Mandeville, and Martin Behaim, grasp at the legends of Chryse and Argyre as being true. Why doesn't Tim use Sir John Mandeville as a source to prove his claims about the Philippines being Ophir and Filipinos being part of the lost tribes? Because his eyewitness descriptions do not conform to Tim's agenda.

It's better if Tim forgo Mandeville and every other legendary travelogue altogether for some good old fashioned common sense.

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 

Indeed Timothy Schwab’s wild and unfounded speculations about the Philippines and Filipinos amount only to fallible conjectures without any advance of the truth. 

The God Culture: Eclipses Occur When The Sun Gets In Front Of The Moon

Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture has a completely wrong explanation for eclipses. Tim says lunar eclipses are caused when the sun gets in front of the moon. He gets his wrong information not from observing the moon and the sun but from the pseudepigraphal book of Enoch. Let's listen in.

The Error of the Moon for Days, Weeks, Months and Years. Part 2. Answers In First Enoch Part 44 

31:13 This movement of the moon is very hard to chart, uh, and we're not going to do it but it's not necessary in order to understand. Once again the opportunity for eclipses arises as the moon turns back and recedes behind the sun. This would cause an eclipse uh in a certain area of the world at certain times, uh, of, you know, certain moments. Uh, both lunar and solar eclipses are explained by this dynamic as the moon could be in front at some times and the sun could be in front at some times, uh, from a certain perspective. Remember they are the same size according to Enoch we'll show you those scriptures in a second, well in a few minutes. Another time the sun in front of the moon. So, in both cases you got an eclipse. If the perspective catches them in the same exact position at that moment, which is what would have to happen, it's what we call a full eclipse, right or otherwise it's partial. Pretty easy to understand.

Eclipses do not debunk Enoch. Uh, actually, they debunk modern scientism who actually has a very poor explanation for this dynamic. Enoch accounts for them and very well and very scientifically.

First of all the sun NEVER gets in front of the moon. NEVER. That has never happened and it will never happen because the sun is stationary sitting at the center of the solar system which the earth and moon orbit. Enoch does not say in chapter 74 that the moon recedes BEHIND the sun. It does not even make sense to say "the moon turns back and recedes behind the sun" because for that to happen the moon would have to be moving TOWARDS the sun and thus it would not be receding. This is an addition inserted by Tim. Verse 6 does say the moon "recedes from the sun" which means the moon moves AWAY from the sun, not BEHIND it. A prior slide shows this verse.

25:06

Again, he is making the text say what it does not say. This is a common tactic for Timothy Jay Schwab which I have documented in his usage of the Perpiplus of the Erythean Sea and his usage of Thomas Suarez. When the facts don't fit Tim has a penchant for making them up. It's completely dishonest.

Second of all SOLAR eclipses occur when the moon passes in front of the sun while LUNAR eclipses occur when the earth passes between the sun and the moon. During a lunar eclipse the shadow of the earth is cast on the surface of the moon. Those are facts. What Tim is saying is not fact but unscientific garbage. 

Tim will next go on to "prove" his theory that Enoch charts out the course of eclipses by showing us a chart computing solar eclipses for the next ten years. Admittedly, within Tim's Enochian Sun and Moon schema it sounds plausible that the sun and moon moving through portals with the moon moving backwards until the twain meet could provide the explanation for solar eclipses. But it is quite telling that Tim has NOTHING to say about lunar eclipses.  Here is a chart from the same website as his solar eclipse chart. 

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/list.html?starty=2020

How does Enoch explain that there are less lunar eclipses than there are solar eclipses? If Enoch accounts for there being 2-5 solar eclipses per year, a number Tim gives at around 26:31, how does he account for there being years without lunar eclipses? Tim does not say. He does not say a single word about lunar eclipses in this video. Neither Tim nor Enoch offer an explanation for lunar eclipses except to say:

Uh, both lunar and solar eclipses are explained by this dynamic as the moon could be in front at some times and the sun could be in front at some times, uh, from a certain perspective.

That is totally ridiculous as the sun NEVER gets in front of the moon. That has never been observed any where or any time.  Tim doubles down on this nonsense in the comment section.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58rrHPFc7Ek&lc=UgwPOBXO-hP1AtZtjO94AaABAg

This commenter wants to know how lunar eclipses happen and instead of explaining how the moon goes dark during a lunar eclipse Tim repeats his talking points and then when pressed stops responding. That's because he has NO answer to the question of how lunar eclipses occur.

This is the kind of nonsense one gets when they latch on to non-scriptural books like Enoch. Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture has no idea how eclipses occur.