Secrets from Beyond The Grave

Asphalt and the Sea

There is strong geological evidence that there are subterranean fires under the Dead Sea. The waters of the Dead Sea contain about twenty-one minerals, twelve that are found in no other sea or ocean in the world. The salt content is high at 31 percent. Another odd feature is that in the past, the sea occasionally spit up black-looking asphalt, a tarlike substance, into small pebbles from deep crevices under the water. After earthquakes, chunks of asphalt as large as a house have appeared on the lake, giving it a nickname of Lake Asphaltites!2 In the year 312 there were Greek mercenaries making money from the jellylike crude oil that surfaced from the waters in the center of the Dead Sea. Arabic tribesmen with reed rafts would be on shore waiting as these bulls of jellylike crude oil were collected. The Greeks carried them off like the plunder of war, and fights would break out over who obtained the substances. Once this black substance collected on shore, three men would chop it with axes and cover the sticky substance with sand, then placing in bags. Camels then carried the valuable crude oil to Alexandria, Egypt, where it was sold and used as a fuel for lighting fires.3 The Dead Sea--the "Spiritual Link" The spiritual link of biblical events occurring at or near the Dead Sea is more than just the location of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The wilderness of Judea, whose mountains run parallel to the Dead Sea on the Israeli side, is the site of the temptation of Christ. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. --Matthew 4:1 The traditional location of this wilderness testing is the mountain directly behind the modern oasis of Jericho. From this mountain facing east, Christ would have seen the city of Jericho (Josh. 2); Gilgal, where Israel camped prior to the conquest of Jericho (Josh. 4:19); the plains of Moab, where Moses was buried (Deut. 34:6); the area where Elijah was translated alive into heaven (2 Kings 2:5-14); as well as the place at the Jordan River where Joshua crossed with the Israelites (Josh. 4:3-20). It was in this region of Israel that Christ had a head-on confrontation with Satan during a forty-day fast. In the days of the temple, on the Day of Atonement the infamous scapegoat was led from the temple into the heart of the wilderness (Lev. 16:10), where it was pushed off a cliff to its death. An interesting verse in the New Testament reveals that when an unclean spirit is expelled from a person, the demonic entity walks through dry places: When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. --Matthew 12:43 Years ago during a Holy Land tour in Israel, I was reading this passage when I turned to my personal guide, Gideon Shore, and asked how his Hebrew Bible translated the phrase "dry places." After searching, he replied, "It would be the same meaning as the wilderness of Judea." At that moment I recalled another incident mentioning the wilderness, where a man possessed by evil spirits "was driven by the demon into the wilderness" (Luke 8:29). In the Old Testament of