wall street mjournal article about billy graham

“Christianity was not an official religion in the second century families and groups who accepted Christianity generally took shelter in underground cities to escape the persecution of Rome,” Tarkan told LiveScience. The underground complex also includes a number of places researchers think were used as places of worship, including one with a Star of David carved near the ceiling. Halil Ibrahim Sincar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

One of the chambers is believed to have been used as a synagogue. In the areas that have been studied, researchers have found silos, coins, and lamps, as well as human and animal bones. They have found 49 chambers so far-less than 5 percent of the estimated underground city. and was later used as a catacomb and wine-manufacturing facility when residents moved back above ground, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Researchers believe the complex was inhabited through the sixth century C.E. The city is “the only one in the world,” Gani Tarkan, director of the Mardin Museum and head of the excavations, tells Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency (AA). The complex has been named Matiate, which means “city of caves” in ancient Assyrian. After discovering a hidden entrance to a cave, workers took a passage that led them to the massive complex. Situated beneath the city of Midyat, the complex was found in 2020 during routine restoration work on the city’s historic houses, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Joseph De Avila. Researchers believe the city, estimated to cover an area of over 4 million square feet, was used as a refuge by persecuted Jews and early Christians. The city is thought to have housed roughly 70,000 people in the second and third centuries C.E., Live Science’s Tom Metcalfe reports. Archaeologists have found evidence of a massive subterranean city they believe was designed for just that purpose. Graham has never endorsed a presidential candidate.Persecuted by the Romans, early Christians in what is now Turkey went underground-literally. The ad does not specificly endorse Romney, but Romney opposes abortion in most cases and is opposed to same sex marriages. I urge you to vote for those who protect the sanctity of life and support the biblical definition of marriage between a man and a woman.' 'I believe it is vitally important that we cast our ballots for candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles and support the nation of Israel. 'As I approach my 94th birthday, I realize this election may be my last,' Graham says in the ad. Graham's organization also took out an ad in the Wall Street Journal today, in which a letter from Graham asks people to vote for socially-conservative candidates. 'We removed the information from the website because we do not wish to participate in a theological debate about something that has become politicized during this campaign.' 'Our primary focus at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has always been promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ,' Ken Barun, chief of staff for the association, wrote in a statement. The move comes just a week after Romney visited Graham at his home in North Carolina. Graham's Evangelistic Association removed the word Mormon from its website, where it used to be listed along with Jehovah's Witnesses and Scientology as a cult. The prominent Christian evangelist Billy Graham has taken public steps to embrace Mitt Romney for president this week, removing Romney's Mormon religion from a list of cults on his website and taking out an advertisement that appears to urge people to vote for Romney.

Wall street mjournal article about billy graham