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that the "Shekinah" was departing from the Holy of Holies. In War VI, 290 he stated "that a
GREAT LIGHT shone over the altar for thirty minutes at 3 o'clock in the morning (a week before
Passover in A.D. 66) and then it DEPARTED. He said the sacred scribes interpreted this sign as a
bad omen for the Temple. It was like the Shekinah Glory moving away from the Tabernacle in the
wilderness as a sign to disassemble the Tabernacle and transport it to another location" (ibid.).

Josephus goes on to say that "a few days later (during Passover itself) the enormous brass
gates of Nicanor, requiring twenty men to open and close them, opened at midnight of their own
accord (War VI, 293-295). This was also interpreted as showing a desolation coming upon the
Temple. And then, about fifty days later, on Pentecost, the final sign was given which definitely
showed that the Shekinah Glory was departing the Temple as the other signs indicated (ibid.):

Moreover, at the festival which is called Pentecost, the priests on entering the inner court
of the Temple at nightfall, as their custom was in accomplishment of their ministrations,
stated that they first became aware of a commotion and a roar, and after that the voice of
a great multitude saying "We are departing hence" (War VI, 299).

When we couple Josephus' information with that of Rabbi Jonathan (also an eyewitness)
we can see that the "Shekinah" went directly to the Mount of Olives and remained over the top of
the mountain for 3 and 1/2 years -- from late Spring in 66 A.D to about December of 69 A.D, some
eight months before the Temple was destroyed by the Romans. It then went back to heaven and had
not returned to earth up to the time he wrote.

These miraculous events had much more significance to the early Christians than may meet
the eye today. Eusebius, as we have just seen, mentioned the importance of this removal of the
Shekinah glory. It was clearly a sign that Yehovah's physical presence had departed from the Tem-
ple on the western hill of Jerusalem and had retreated to the MOUNT OF OLIVES on the EAST as
the new place of His divine residence. This event of the "Shekinah" glory leaving the Temple and
residing on the Mount of Olives became highly significant to the early Christians because this is
the mountain where God's holy "Shekinah" will RETURN in the near future!

Christ's Death On the Mount of Olives

We now come to an event that proves conclusively that Jesus Christ the Messiah was NOT
the Yehovah (YHVH) of the Old Testament -- nor His "Shekinah" presence as many seem to think.
I have been carefully tracing the history of God's "Shekinah" presence to bring us to this point and
to this proof:

When a careful study of the New Testament is made, along with secular and apocryphal lit-
erature, it becomes evident that Christ was executed on the MOUNT OF OLIVES FACING THE
EASTERN ENTRANCE TO THE TEMPLE. Writes Ernest Martin --

he was led from the Antonia past the Temple on his right, out the EASTERN GATE of
the Temple, over the two-tiered arched bridge, up to the summit of the Mount of Olives.
But instead of being killed at the Miphkad Altar, he was taken a short distance south (to
where criminals could be executed "IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD," that is, IN SIGHT

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