Ark hunters and Bible enthusiasts recently were buzzing with the possibility that the Biblical Ark of the Covenant would be put on display in Rome, Italy. Now, they realize that the leader of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church patriarch Abuna Pauolos could not produce the Ark which he claims to have seen.
The Ethiopian patriarch had been in Rome to meet with Pope Benedict and he told the Pope that the Ark of the Covenant is in Ethiopia and has been there for many centuries and that he had actually seen the Ark which he described to be in very good condition.
Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News
Claims by an Ethiopian religious leader or anyone else that the Ark of the Covenant has been in Ethiopia contradicts the Word of God and sets the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.
For a number of years, Ark hunters have been searching for the most important piece of furniture that was a part of the temple worship in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. The search was motivated by tradition that the third King of Israel, King Solomon, had given the Ark to the Queen of Sheba and she had taken it to Ethiopia, a tradition that Jewish scholars say has no basis of truth. Some Ark hunters do believe the Ark to be in Ethiopia and there are those who even say Israeli commandos raided the Ethiopian church where the Ark was supposedly housed and returned the holy relic to Jerusalem.
According to the Bible, all of these accounts of the Ark being in Ethiopia are totally false. I Kings 8 reveals that King Solomon placed the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies in the Jewish temple that he built 3000 years ago. 400 years later, II Chronicles 35:3 reveals that King Josiah had the Levites place the Ark in a secret secluded hiding place underneath the temple in the 620's BC. During the Babylonian Captivity which took place from 605 BC through 539 BC, the Ark was still in that hiding place in Jerusalem according to Ezekiel 9:3 where it says that the glory of the Lord lifted off of the Ark of the Covenant to go back to the heavens.
Religious Jewish experts claim that the Ark of the Covenant is under the Temple Mount - underneath the Dome of the Rock - and will be brought out when the next temple stands in Jerusalem - according to Bible prophecy that may be fulfilled in the very near future.
Related Links
Has the Ark of the Covenant Been Found? - Bible Prophecy Today (Dr. David Reagan)
Where is the Ark of the Covenant? - The Temple Institute
The Ark is not going to be revealed, says Gebremedhin - Ethiopian Review