12-48 The Mysterious Jewish Sect Behind the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Essenes

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Show Summary: Those “400 years of silence” between the Old and New Testaments? It turns out they weren’t. The Essenes were driven from the priesthood by the Pharisees and Sadducees but kept the faith and kept prophesying. Incredibly accurately as it turns out. Maybe it’s because the Essenes correctly predicted the coming of the Messiah. To the year. A Jewish “Deep State”? Find out why they wanted to bury the Essenes and largely succeeded in driving them from history. Except even that ended up fulfilling prophecy.

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Original Air Dates: Nov 26th & 27th, 2022 | Guest: Dr. Ken Johnson

This Week – The Essenes

Since it’s the start of the Holiday Season, we thought we’d take a break from our usual and bring you a story most people have probably heard little or nothing about. You’ve undoubtedly heard about the Dead Sea Scrolls. But you probably don’t know very much about the Essenes, the mysterious Jewish sect who wrote, guarded them, and then hid them away before disappearing into history.

Many churches today talk about the 400 years of silence between the Old and New Testaments. When God appeared to go silent and no longer talk through His prophets. But it turns out God never stopped talking. It’s just that the Jewish religious authorities at the time, the Pharisees and Sadducees, tried to silence them.

Tune in to hear about the Jewish civil war that happened between the close of the Old Testament and the opening of the New Testament. A war that drove the existing priesthood from power, seized both the religious and political power, and then did everything they could to keep the truth hidden from their own people and the world.

The Essenes: Keepers of the True Faith

This week, we welcome Dr. Ken Johnson, a Dead Sea Scrolls scholar and researcher, who has written 33 books. He walks us through the history of the Essenes and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Dr. Ken Johnson’s personal website is BibleFacts.org

The Dead Sea Scrolls are partial or complete copies of every book in the Hebrew Bible (except the book of Esther). But the Dead Sea Scrolls are not “just” copies of books of the Old Testament. There are tons of extra-Biblical writings as well. Apocryphal books like the Book of Enoch and the Book of the Giants. The Testaments of the Patriarchs, which the Essenes held to be the true doctrine, not the Pharisees’ oral tradition allegedly passed on to them from Moses. The Essenes’ commentary and interpretation on the books of the Bible. Their prophecies. Incredibly accurate ones, as it turns out. And the Essenes’ unique and sacred calendar. In fact, they considered the Jewish calendar, based on a lunar cycle, to be an abomination.

The Essenes’ calendar, divided into seven ages and further divided into various cycles and subdivisions, was central to their belief system. And they used it to make those incredibly accurate prophecies. Which is why you might want to tune in to hear how close we are to the end of that calendar.

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Research, Links Mentioned & Additional Info

• Dr. Ken Johnson’s website is a treasure trove of Dead Sea Scrolls knowledge and information. It can be found at BibleFacts.org
• Dr. Ken does a weekly live stream Monday nights, including a Q&A. Find his channels on Rumble, Telegram, or YouTube.
• Check out Ken Johnson’s appearances on Prophecy Watchers., including the episode mentioned during our show where Dr Johnson showed the calendar “sundial.”
• The Dead Sea Scrolls calendar website. Find today’s date in the Essenes’ reckoning. And see the difference between the Essenes’ calendar and the current Jewish (Pharisee) calendar. They are way off!
• Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library. (Note however that include other caches of scrolls found and lump them in with the Essenes’ scrolls.)
• The Miraculous Timing of the Dead Sea Scrolls Discovery (Charisma News, Nov 1, 2016)
  • “The scrolls remained hidden for anyone to find for nearly 2,000 years. And on the very day, the very day, that Israel’s rebirth was confirmed, a Jewish professor confirms the existence of ancient Israel.”