ANOTHER Q&A WITH ELISHA

Just another quick post before moving on with the Aklatan. Elisha posted some thoughts and answers to questions on the official website today (find it HERE). Without reposting the whole thing here, I'll give some of the highlights and let you check out the details, but there's been a lot of discussion recently on the Twelve Women, so that's a running theme throughout.

Intro
A Record of the Twelve Women will be published in two parts after the Twelve Women are found, meet together, and read it.  Three have been identified already (I won't post their names here) based on the Prophecy of the Prophetess Liwan, Elisha's vision of these women, and some sleuthing by interested parties.

Do you know anything more about the 12 women?
The Prophecy of the Prophetess Liwan and A Record of the Twelve Women are the main sources of information about them. Elisha wrote inspired personal prophecies for them in 1993 but sealed them in envelopes and "can't remember for sure what is in them."

Are the 12 women given priesthood authority?
The power of God in the universe has both a male and female portion. The 12 women will act unitedly in their portion of the holy order. (We'll be discussing this in depth later on.)

Do you know how old the 12 women are?
He saw their faces in vision, but doesn't know if that matches their age when gathered.

Will the Maharlika and those who join them be safe from the calamities of the last days?
Faith leads to safety but not freedom from hardship. (Sounds like D&C 63:34--"the saints also shall hardly escape", 38:30--"if ye are prepared ye shall not fear", 87:8--"stand ye in holy places, and be not moved," etc.)

Is the coming of Christ and the destructive events a planetary/cosmological catastrophe?
"The coming of Christ will be witnessed on all scales."

Do you know anything about the fall of America as prophesied in the Aklatan?
The unpublished Great Scroll of Suran contains prophecies of many nations.

Do you expect miracles and gifts of the Spirit to be abundant among the followers of Christ and the Aklatan? Are they experiencing these things now?
Yes, but the Aklatan is only part of Christ's work.

Approximately how many followers or "believers" are there presently that are known?
He has preached all over the Philippines and knows of others throughout the world and estimates a few thousand or so. (The official Facebook page HERE has over 3500 likes as of today.)

Where is Elisha when he is preaching?
He's been traveling all over the Philippines as inspired by the Lord.

Has Elisha had any contact with the leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
He can't speak about Mormons at the moment.

Is Elisha familiar with Mormon history or has he been one in the past?
His thoughts on or relationships with Mormons aren't central to the work at this time.

What is the abomination spoken of in the Life of Suran?
Basically, it's a secret combination that's gained politico-economic power in the US and whose influence is felt worldwide (cf. Nephi's "great and abominable church". I was going to post a bunch on this, but he beat me to the punch ; )

What are we to understand about the Book of the Lords, as written by Ahkman?
There's more information in unpublished portions of the Aklatan, and these Lords will be identified after the Twelve Women have been gathered.

Are there "other sheep" that you are aware of that have other records, promises, temples, gathering places?
The Book of Mormon peoples are the most prominent, though he can't speak on that. Others he knows of are among Islamic Arabs, Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews), Chinese, British Islands, etc.

Would you like bilingual persons to translate the Aklatan into other languages?
Yes, but the English text needs to be cleaned up first.

Why is the very last verse from the Selections of Ezekiel different than from the KJV?
He was instructed to copy those passages from a specific Bible. (*cough* JST *cough* ; )

Do you have, or have you had, other visions, dreams, revelations, etc. that you have not published and may we know about them?
Yes, the Aklatan is just part of his calling, and the rest will be published in due time.

Where are we when it comes to the work and the unveiling of more books?
The primary effort still needs to be in gathering believers, establishing Maharlika, and identifying the Twelve Women. The next three books to be published will probably be A Record of the Twelve Women (after many of the women begin traveling around to share the Aklatan), The Prophecies of Telemek (after the first pilgrimage), and the Book of Datara (after the Warriors of Darkness are re-established).

In the Lesser Gospel Written by Buka, Christ created a group of 12 men and a group of 12 women. We know that the group of 12 women will be recreated, but will the group of twelve men be recreated too?
The gathering of the 12 women is central to his calling, but he was not called to do the same with a group of men.

When might the copper sheets be tested as spoken of by Oleeha?
After the temple and Kingdom are established.

Were you given authority to baptize, lay on hands, or ordain priests?
He was given authority to accomplish everything related to his specific work of establishing Maharlika.

Who were the three men who baptized and ordained you?
Can't say yet.

How can we reach a representative of the colonies (Okinawa, CA, etc.), or does Elisha need representatives?
There are none yet, but volunteers are welcome : )

Do you have any plans or blueprints for Zion communities to be established?
Just general plans that he might discuss later.

RE-VISIONING THE BLOG

Hi all. We're still alive here. With my last awesome, super-long post lost somewhere in the ether of the interwebs, my external reading list growing by the day, and time constraints related to family, study, work, etc., I felt it was a good time to re-evaluate the blog, or at least the content and how it gets published.

I love preparing these posts and delving into the subjects addressed, but oftentimes I get bogged down in the publication process and how to adequately present my monkey-minded trains of thought. (It's my personal cross to bear ; ) The main purpose of the blog is to bring hidden things to light--these modern apocryphal texts--and talk about some fun and interesting things, but ultimately allow the readers to study things out for themselves and see what truths they can find and apply to their individual circumstances and life-paths. There's also a lot that I'd like to get to and through.

So, I've figured that I'll try to cut down on my long-windedness and summary of the text, and work under the premise that each visitor has read that portion of the text. In this way, I'll be able to quickly touch on some of the more intriguing tidbits and interject some thoughts (while avoiding ramblings... ; ), and then we can move on.

How's that sound?

SURAN 1 - SECRETS OF THE ANCESTORS

Our story begins with Suran, a good man who follows his heart, hunting and gathering in the mountains. His old, wise uncle, Ngameke, follows him to share an important secret with him concerning their ancestors and teach him about the laws and commandments of God. As a fervent animist or polytheist, Suran has no idea what Ngameke's talking about, but he's curious so he follows him into the jungle. 

This name, Ngameke, is intriguing to me; it seems to be unique in the Aklatan, or at least it's unique sounding. For fun, I tried to see if I could make any sense of it. (I don't know any of the Filipino languages.) In Cebuano, nga = "that", meke = a type of noodle dish. In Maori, nga = "breath/to breathe" or simply "the", meke = "to punch/hit". In Mapuche (indigenous Chilean), nga = participle/"the", meke = "busy". Filipino and Polynesian languages belong to the same Austronesian language family, so we should expect some similarities and cognates. Also, there have been some cool archaeological, linguistic, and genetic discoveries over the past decade or so showing ancient connections between Polynesians and Mapuche peoples, but we'll have to save going into that for another time : )

In any case, Suran and Ngameke travel along jungle trails for several days until they come to the base of a cliff hidden by vegetation with water flowing down from the top, when Ngameke produces a bamboo container. He removes the stopper and pulls out several records written by their ancestors. Suran is amazed and reads them, which contain the history of a group of people--a branch of Shem--who traveled to the islands long before. (Incidentally, Suran, a polytheistic hunter-gatherer from several centuries BC is literate. Usually writing systems and literacy follow the advent of agriculture and more complex forms of social organization.)

As with any good history from the ancient Middle East, it begins with the genealogy of the participants to give context to the events--in this case, Shem's lineage for several generations down to Ophir. This is part of what is know as the Table of Nations in the Bible. The genealogy here in Suran 1 is nearly identical to the those found in Genesis 10, 1 Chronicles 1, and Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews. However, it is unique in many ways. (I was going to list off the main differences, but here's a nice little chart instead ; )

Reading the ancestral records, Suran learns that some of Ophir's sons (a "band of ten") traveled for many years until they reached the northern shores of the islands, where they established a righteous order (i.e., priesthood order) among the people and adopted many islanders into it. But after many years, the people returned to their animism/polytheism, and the righteous band dwindled until there were few of them. After many years a broken branch of the tribe of Levi also came to the islands (we'll talk more about this later), and Ruman interjects that he's recorded many more things concerning the ancestors in the Aklatan. But finally, Ngameke admits he is now the last of this righteous lineage.

I spent weeks of research going down this Ophir (and Tarshish, and Havilah, etc.) rabbit hole, and then the holidays came, which is why this post is two months late. From the Biblical tradition, we find that Ophir is a foreign land to the east accessible by the sea and laden with gold and other precious items. (Later traditions equate it with Yemen, India, Pakistan, etc.) David had set aside gold from Ophir for the temple he'd never see. Solomon's servants went with Hiram's navy to fetch gold, sandalwood (almug/algum), and precious stones from Ophir for the temple. (The type of sandalwood mentioned is only found in the east Indian Ocean and Pacific Islands.) Jehoshaphat tries to send ships to Ophir for gold, but they're wrecked in port (Gulf of Aqaba). Job, Psalms, and Isaiah all mention the glory of the "gold of Ophir". We'll talk more about the traditional geography of Tarshish and Havilah in Suran 6.

However, there's another fun tradition of Ophir that aided Magellan in his journey to and through these east Asian islands. Volume 3 of Coleccion General de Documentos Relativos a las Islas Filipinas contains the official documents of Magellan's voyage and his captain's logbook. Document 98 (AD 1519-1522) (pp. 112-138) describes how to locate the land of Ophir, saying it was "in front of China towards the sea, of many islands where the Moluccans, Chinese, and Lequios met to trade." According to this account, Ophir would be found somewhere between mainland China and the Indonesian archipelago of Maluku. (Hint: the Philippines are the only islands directly between the two.)

But this document and other Spanish books of the time mention these enigmatic "Lequios", who have been identified by modern historians as Okinawans, Koreans, Vietnamese, etc. The Lequio ships were favorite targets of the Spanish East Indian navy during the latter end of the 16th century, as they were always laden with gold and silver. However, Document 98 describes Lequios as large, bearded, and light-skinned (features uncharacteristic of SE Asians) and only interested in trading gold and silver at Ophir. Those Spaniards with some Biblical knowledge believed them to be remnants of Hebrew or Phoenician sailors and/or merchants (i.e., from the time of Solomon and Hiram) who established permanent trading posts in and around Ophir.

I found one author who claims that this Spanish transliteration "Lequio" could be a derivation and/or corruption of the Hebrew verb LAQAT or one of its forms, meaning "to gather, glean, collect, assemble", a fitting title and description of the servants of Solomon and sailors of Hiram sent to gather gold and precious things for the temple. (Or as a fun aside, it could be a derivation of Lehi, with a hard H shifting to a K sound, meaning Lequios are Lehites ; ) But more than likely Lequios is connected to Lekas island mentioned in Suran 6.