The Legacy of

The Legacy of

God's People

(Part-A)

Holy Land Tour

(Part-B)

Mrs.&Mr.Sundara Rao Ts.

For Copies:

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P.O.BOX.415, VIJAYAWADA-520 002.

1

The Legacy of God's People

(Part-A)

Holy Land Tour

(Part-B)

First Edition :

November, 2008

Published :

Mrs. & Mr. Sundara Rao Ts.

All Rights ReservedC

Printed at:

Spandana Offset Printers,

Vijayawada-520 002, A.P., INDIA

Ph: 0866-2430148

Cell: 94402 80158

200/-

Rs.

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FOREWORDFOREWORDFOREWORDFOREWORDFOREWORD

M

r. Sundara Rao Tsappidi worked as Lecturer in English for about 30 years at K.B.N. College, Vijayawada. As Lecturer he was very popular with his students. He was a man of discipline and dedication. He also worked as treasurer of St.Peters West Parish, Vijayawada for many years and served God.

I have great intimacy with Mr.T.S.Sundara Rao for about thirty years. His scholarship is highly appreciative. He takes great interest in doing God’s work. After his retirement he went to America with his wife, Smt. Grace Vijaya, to live with his children. During his stay in America he had the vision of God. Due to ill health he lost 40% of the eye sight. The American libraries provided him with many books regarding Biblical aspects. When he came to India he used to tell me all about his reading and the information looked strange to me. It gives me immense pleasure that he is writing a book out of the knowledge he has acquired from various sources. I have gone through the manuscript of his book, “The Legacy of God’s People”. It contains 25 chapters. Each chapter is very informative and unique of its kind. For example Melchezidec. His history is unknown to many people as the Bible mentions a small reference in the book of Genesis 14:18 as King of Salem. His writing, “The Legacy of God’s People” is the work of the Holy Spirit who has guided him to write the book instead of his stay in America idle but ideal for many. It is my privilege to hear him a good number of times about his vast reading of books and the information he has gathered.

His Holy Land tour with his wife was a turning point in his life. It enabled him to collect a lot of information by reading various books and it motivated him to collect information about the Bible and God’s People.

Mr.Sundara Rao’s intention is not to earn money by publishing this book but make others know about the Lord Jesus Christ and guide them to the feet of the Lord to attain salvation as he is instructed in his vision while walking with the Lord.

I hope this book will attract a wide readership. I earnestly pray to the Lord to bless him to come out with many more books of this kind. May the Holy Spirit guide him to achieve his goal. May the Lord anoint him with good health.

D.S. Sundara Rao

Lecturer in English

S.A.S.Degree College

Vijayawada -1, A.P., India

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I

NTRODUCTION

F

irst of all, I am thankful to God for giving me this blessed

and unique opportunity to present a book about some people in the

Bible and some general topics. As you know preparing a book is not

an ordinary task.

I ventured this due to the following reasons. I have been staying

in the United States for some years with my children. When I was

with my daughter in Pittsburgh, I dreamed a dream in March 2006.

It was an uncommon dream. As per the dream, I died and went to heaven. I saw Jesus Christ in white garments. He saw me and came to me. He caught my hand and we both walked together for about half a mile. The road we walked along was in golden color. There were houses also on either side of the road. We walked till the end of the road where we saw a church. Then Christ asked me to look at the church. He told me to go back to my place., and tell the people about God and about salvation. He also told me to guide the people to go to the church and to read the Bible, so that they too can become the children of God and come to heaven after their death. I woke up from my dream and found myself on my bed, and looking around strangely.

I responded to my dream by constructing a church at a village where it was needed. The name of that church is Jehovah Jireh (Genesis: 22:14) means God is our provider”. Since then I have decided to do some service as far as I can till God permits me. This incident reminded me to honor the motto “service to humanity is service to divinity”.

The next reason is God gave me a chance to visit the Holy Land along with my wife and went to Turkey, Israel, and Palestine. Turkey is important for seven churches described in the book of revelation because Bethlehem is in Palestine now, we have to visit that country also and then Israel for Jerusalem. We visited most of the biblical places and collected some material about the history of a few places.

The third reason is I was 70 years old and found out that I am 40 percent blind. And then, I was made aware of the “library for the blind”, where we can get books in large print. I

4 contacted them and have been getting books about the Bible and they presented me the Holy Bible in large print in three volumes. I found some new information from these books and collected it.

I read some historical books also. I collected some interesting information. All this matter from various sources that I collected prompted me to venture to put that matter in black and white, so that some people may find interest in this new information

I am thankful to the authorities of the “Library for the Blind” for sending me valuable books and also the writers of the following books mentioned below :

2. Jewish Traditions

3. The roots of Mount Ararat

4. The secret of happiness and Angels by Billy graham

5. The greatest story ever told by Fulton Oursler

6. The story of Mary and Joseph by Marjorie Holmes

7. Where God was Born

I thank my three children especially my eldest son David Ravi who spared his weekends in computerizing the manuscript. I owe my better half Smt. Grace Vijaya for her valuable suggestions and encouragement. I express my gratitude to Prof.R.R.K. Murthy, Dr.Devasahayam, the Dandala Brothers and Spandana Publishers, Vijayawada. I also thank Sri.D.S.Sundara Rao, Leturer in English, Vijayawada for rendering his help in correction, proof reading and writing foreword for this book.

I humbly praise and thank God for this opportunity to share this book with you and may the Lord bless us all.

Tsappidi Sundara Rao

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CONTENTS

Introduction

1.Adam and Eve, and their genealogy

3.Noah’s Genealogy

The Roots of Mount Ararat

4.Melchezidec

5.Abram – The Hebrew (Genesis 14:13)

6.Beersheba

Some important points

7.History of Jerusalem

The Mount of Olives.

Its importance

Mountain Moriah

Its importance

Gethsemane garden

Its importance

Via Dolorosa

Its importance

Jericho

Its importance

Nazareth

Its importance

Capernaum

Its importance

Bethlehem

Its importance

Hebron

Its importance

Western wall or Wailing Wall

The Sea of Galilee

Its importance

The Dead Sea

8.Gideon

9.King David

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3

6

7

8

9

12

13

16

17

18

19

19

21

21

22

22

23

24

25

25

25

25

26

26

27

27

29

29

30

30

31

32

33

36

10.King Solomon

11.Daniel comes to judgement.

Belshazzar

12.Jonah, a rebellious prophet

13.The importance of the River Jordan

Its importance

Elijah

Elisha

Naaman

14.Childhood of Joseph and Mary

Joseph and Mary

Zacharias and Elizabeth

Joseph and Mary – Journey to Bethlehem

15.The mission of Christ

16.Jesus - Barabbas

17.King Herod

18.Masada

Masada heroism and tragedy

19.Pontius Pilate

20.Disciples of Christ

21.Emperor Constantine – 325 A.D.

22.Happy are Ye! (1st Peter: 4: 14)

1. Happiness through poverty

2. Happiness through love

4. Happiness through suffering

5. Happiness through repentance

6. Happiness through persecution

7. Happiness through purity

8. Happiness through peace - making

23.Angels – The apostles of God

24.Some facts from the Bible

When you are in persecution

For happy living

Some words from the Bible

25.Importance of No.40 in the Bible

HOLY LAND TOUR

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40

42

45

47

50

51

52

53

53

54

55

60

68

69

69

70

71

71

73

75

79

82

83

83

83

83

84

84

85

85

87

90

90

90

91

93

98-108

A

1.DAM AND EVE AND THEIR GENEALOGY

A

ccording to the Bible God created everything in nature wonderfully including man and woman. God called them Adam and Eve. But by the evil guidance of Satan they disobeyed the command of God and ate the fruit of knowledge. There by sin came into the world. As a result they were sent away from the Garden of Eden. But they were blessed with two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain murdered his brother, Abel out of jealousy. There was no evidence in the Bible whom Cain married for the continuity of his genealogy.

As per the historical evidence a shepherd boy by name Bedouine found some jars in “Qumran’ caves” near the “Dead Sea” in 1947. These books were

1) The Book of Enoch 2) The book of Jubilees and 3) The Complete Old Testament in Hebrew Language by Prophet Isaiah. These three books were very valuable.

According to the book of Jubilees Adam and Eve had nine children. They were both boys and girls. Cain married one of his sisters. This book of Jubilees was like the Bible to the people of Ethiopia for many years. It was believed that this book was existed even before our Bible. It was considered to be next to the Bible according to the sources. The book of Jubilees was also called “The Little Genesis” In the Quoran also it was said God cursed only Satan for misleading Adam and Eve as they repented for what they had done. Because they realised their fault. God simply sent them away from the Garden of Eden.

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E

2.NOCH

H

e was faithful to the creator. He was the son of Ja’red, who lived for 962 years. He walked with God after Methu’selah was born. After Adam and Eve Enoch was the 7th generation. He was a great Scientist and Astrologer. He wrote a book called “The book of Enoch” with 108 chapters. It was in two parts. It was about heavenly bodies and their movements and about the fallen angels.

The first part was about wars between the earthly men and giants may be the fallen angels whose leader was Lucifer in heaven and Satan on the earth. It is said their height would be about 25 to 30 feet. The second part was about the stars and other heavenly bodies. He gave wonderful information about them accurately, because he was a great Astrologer in those days. He lived for 365 years and God took him. By faith Enoch had planned he should not see death and was directly taken to heaven.

Enoch also prophesied “Behold the Lord Cometh with ten thousands of his saints”

Due to some reason his book was not included in the Bible. His son Metheselah lived for 969 years and was the longest lived in the Bible. The Book of Enoch was also found in the Qumran caves along with other books like the original Hebrew Manuscript of the Old Testament by prophet Isaiah etc.

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N

3.OAH’S GENEALOGY

M

elchezidec wrote the book, “The Roots of Mount Ararat”. He was the great grandson of Noah who described the history of Mount Ararat and the genealogy of Noah’s family. It is in the form of conversation between Melchezidec and a servant boy “Ali” in his house in Salem, which later became Jerusalem. Noah was the only righteous man in his generation.

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The land around Mount Ararat was called “Adlandia” or “Atlandis” which means the land of Adam. God noticed that the people of this land became wicked and wanted to destroy them except the family of Noah. God asked Noah to build an Ark for his family to save themselves and for some spices because he wanted to kill everything on the earth with flood. Noah took about 100 years to build the Ark with the help of his brother Jaseth and his father Lamech, who lived for about 777 years. People laughed at their work of building the Ark as they did not know what was going to happen to them.

God found a perfect righteous man in Noah in his generation. He walked with God also. So God wanted to save him and his family (Genesis 6:9)

The measurements of the Ark were given in cubits. A cubit is about 17 to 22 inches. The length of the Ark was 300 cubits, means about 450 feet, width 50 cubits means about 75 feet, Height 30 cubits means about 45 feet.

The height of the rain water after 40 days and 40 nights was 15 cubits means about 23 feet. The water remained on the earth for about 150 days.

After the floods, Noah’s family occupied a village called “Heston, which means the village of eight survivors. All the members of the family led their lives as heathens except Noah who believed in Yahweh” (God). He had three sons.

The Roots of Mount Ararat

Noah’s wife Naamah

First Son is Shem andSecond son is Ham and his Wife Carise.Third son Japheth wife – SindraHe had four sons and one daughter.and his wife Elsbeth Are called Shemites orCanaan, wife ShelahCush (means black)Japhethites Shemitites Terah, wife- AmediaSidonNimrod Melchezidec – wasHe was called kingEuropeans, Asians.Abram, wife – sarah called the king ofof Shenar, king ofJapanese, Chinese,.His descendants salem, king ofsouth. HisNative Americanswere north, king ofdecendants wereand Eskimos.Hebrews, Arabs, righteousness. HisHamites,Persians, decendants wereBabylonians,Assyrans, Jewish called Canaanites,Egyptians, Africans,Nation

sea people,Samarians.

Phoenicians

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About Noah: He was the only God fearing man in his family. He was a great writer also. What all he wrote in his early days, he maintained a record of everything in the form of scrolls, books and Journals and kept them in clay jars and covered them with salt bags, so that they would not be spoiled.

One day Noah took his eldest son, Shem and showed him all that he had written and how he covered these with salt bags. Shem was surprised to find his father as a great writer and astrologer. Noah asked him to take care of all these things in future and keep some of them in his grave for the future generation. Noah slept with his fathers and was buried in “Huber” in the land of Ararat. He was called the Prophet, the Preacher of Righteousness, the Writer and the Astrologer. He lived for 950 years.

Ham: He happened to see his father in naked condition in heavily drunken state. For that Noah cursed his son Canaan by saying “Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants” (Genesis 9:29). Children suffer for the sins of their parents. Ham had 4 sons and one daughter by name “Kelah”. For some time Ham lived in Shinar with his wife Carise and children, and came back to Noah to find out a girl for Canaan for marriage. Canaan finally married Japheth’s daughter “Shelah”. After that he worked like a servant in the house of Japhith, Noah felt sorry for it because it was only due to the curse.

Sidon was born to Canaan and Shelah and from Sidon’s family came “Melchezidec Noah was unhappy for cursing his grandson, Canaan. One day he called him and said, “A curse often contains the seed of blessing”. He blessed him and said “A King of Righteousness would be your seed and a priest of the most high God Almighty.

Accordingly a boy was born in the family of Sidon after some time. Noah named him Melchizidec which means King of Righteousness.

Nimrod: He was the son of Cush and Cush was one of the four sons of Ham. Cush means black. Nimrod means “Mighty or Strong”. He became mighty and powerful before God (Gen 10:8-9). He was a strong and intelligent man but hater of man. He used to say “Blood is no enemy to me”. He also said “I will reach heaven, with other man’s blood”. He was a cruel man.

He challenged wars with his own people, but God was with them and Nimrod faced defeat always. He waged wars for some years and the family was divided in the following manner for the war.

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Noah, Jupethitis, Canaan

and Melchezidec were on one

side Ham, Cush, Nimrod were

on the other side.

Nimrod after utter defeat

in the wars left the land of

Ararat and settled at a place

called Shinar. He made it a big

city and became its king. After

fifteen years gap, he decided to

build a city and a tower that

should touch heaven.

“Let us build a city and

tower

Whose tops may touch

unto heaven” He said

(Genesis 11:4)

Nimrod took about 30 to

40 years to build the tower with

20 thousand hands, and

sacrificed 10 thousand people.

On the dedication day, he

climbed certain height of the

tower and felt happy. He began

to give a long speech as if he succeeded in his attempt of reaching heaven. He called the Tower “Babilu” which means “gate of heaven”. But God had his own plans against this kind of people.

While he was speaking there was a shock then trembling and the tower began to fall. There was confusion among people. They were trembling and afraid of the situation. In utter confusion, they began to run “helter skelter”. They spoke in strange languages, which nobody understood. In fear and confusion, they moved unto different places on the earth with that incident many languages came into existence. Today we have about 6500 languages all over the world. The Bible is available in about 2450 languages. “So, the Lord Scattered them into all parts of the earth” (Genesis 11:8)

Nimrod also built the city of “Nineveh”

He was called “the King of Shinar”

and also “the King of South”

He was a great builder.

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M

(Gen 14:18)

H

e was from the family of Sidon and grandson to Canaan. He was a shepherd boy. He knew only feeding the sheep and nothing else. God was with him and liked his innocence. He won the wars with Nimrod. God had chosen Melchezidec from all generations of men as God chose Mary among all women for the purpose of the birth of Christ. He chose Melchezidec and anointed him to be the High Priest of the Almighty. Then God asked him to go to a distant place which he would show and build a city in his name. As per the Word of God, Melchezidec left his duty of a shepherd boy and traveled a long distance. He laid a foundation for a new town which he called Salem, that later became Jerusalem. He became the king also to that city. Melchezidec, ‘King of Salem’ (Genesis 14:18)

He remained there permanently and served bread and wine at the Altar of high God. He found the surrounding place as a place of milk and honey and called it Canaan the name of his grandfather Canaan. The place was given to Abraham later, as a promised land to his seed Israel. Melchezidec was called the King of Salem. The King of North and the King of Righteousness.

Once, Abraham met Melchezidec while he was returning from the battle with other kings who took Lot his brother’s son. Melchezidec was happy to see Abraham. He blessed him and served him with bread and wine. He also gave Abraham the shepherd stick of his young age as a presentation.

Abraham in return gave 10th part of his property to Melchezidec which he got from the Kings. So, giving tiths to God started from Abraham... Since then Melchezidec remained in

Salem permanently serving

bread and wine on the altar.

It was he, who laid the

foundation for the present

Jerusalem. It was he who gave

the name Canaan to the land

of milk and honey. As a

narrator he told the whole

story about the genealogy of

Noah’s family to his servant

boy “Ali” and Jerusalem was

in existence even at the time of

Abraham who lived in about

2200 B.C.

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A

(Genesis 14:13)

A

bram, the Hebrew means “stranger”. He was called “stranger” for the first time in the Bible as he was the only God fearing man, among his people including his parents. His parents were (Terah, and Amedia) an idol makers. Their livelihood was to make idols, and king Nimrod happened to be one of their customers. So Abram's parents knew king Nimrod

well. It is said Abram lived during 2200 B.C.

When Abram was born it appeared that

a big star in heaven swallowed four small

stars. This was seen by king Nimrod. He

thought that Abram one day would become a

great man and cause troubles to his kingdom.

Therefore, the king wanted to buy Abram

from his parents. He wanted to keep him in

his house.

The king called Terah and told him that

he wanted to buy his son. But Terah arranged

some other boy and sent Abram with his

mother to an unknown place for some time.

From his early days, Abram was a close

observer of the stars and other heavenly

bodies. He used to wonder at their

movements, how these stars were giving light

and twinkled during night and not to be seen

during day. His observation and thinking about

the stars increased from time to time. He thought that there must be some invisible power in heaven controlling all those things and that invisible power should be God, he concluded. Through close observation, he acquired more knowledge about astronomy and he gave this information to Egyptians and after some time they gave that to Greeks. For his knowledge about astronomy people called him the “Father of Western Science”.

As he grew he understood that his parents were heathens. One day he threw away all the idols in the house and broke them. His father got angry and took him to the King Nimrod.

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Abram found many idols

in the palace of the king

also. He took all of them

and broke them. The

king got angry and gave

him a severe

punishment. He was

fastened with ropes and

thrown into the fiery

burning flames like

Shadrach, Meshach and

Abednego. But the ropes

were burnt and the

flames became water to

cool him. The king was

surprised at this incident.

Abram was a stranger

among all his people. He

believed in the supreme

power in Heaven called

God. In return, God

guided him and his faith increased from time to time. One day God asked Abram to leave his place called “ur”, the land of Chaldeans and go to a place which he would give to his seed. God promised him the land called Canaan to his people. For his faith and belief Abram was called the “Father of Western Religion”

One day God sent three angels to the house of Abram to tell the news that he was going to have a son and also the angels told it to Sarah.

According to Genesis 17:5 God blessed him and said he would become the father of many nations. At the same time God changed his name from Abram to Abraham. Prior to the birth of Isaac, Abraham had another son by name Ishmael born to his servant maid Hagar. When Abraham was about 99 years old, Isaac was born to him. But God wanted to test his faith. He asked Abraham one day to sacrifice his son. Abraham was only a listener of the words of God. By faith, Abraham tried to sacrifice his only begotten son, Isaac and God acknowledged his faith and blessed him abundantly. So he was called “the father of faithful.” Abraham was the first man in the Bible to under go circumcision along with Ishmael and Isaac. His relatives followed it latter. So he was called “the father of circumcision”

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God was with Abraham always. He blessed his family who later became Israelites like countless stars in heaven or sand particles in the ocean. So, many nations after Ishmael and after Jacob came into existence .and Abraham was called the “Father of Many Nations”

Abraham

bought some land

in Mechpelah for

400 sheckles of

silver as a burial

ground near

mamre for his

family. When

Sarah died at the

age of 127 years,

she was buried in

that place. After

herdeath Abraham

married Keturah

and had six sons

through her.

When Abraham died at the age of 175 years, he was also buried there. After the death of Abraham, the burial ground of Mechpelah and the Beersheba well had become important tourist centers for both Jews and Muslims for one thousand years. People visited those two places regularly. After some time, both Jews and Muslims began to quarrel among themselves regarding their visit. Finally they compromised and decided that each community should go six months. Only after the construction of God’s temple, in Jerusalem, after 1000 years, people began to visit Jerusalem instead of Mechpelah grave yard and Beersheba well.

There was a story among the people in those days. As per the story, one day a good number of people as a group visited those places. While returning, one of the visitors missed his sword in the grave yard. He went back to find out his sword. While searching for it, to his surprise, he saw Abraham was moving among the graves in a white dress.

According to Genesis 22:12, 17 Abraham was the most faithful man that God admired and honored him saying “I know that thou fearest God seeing thou have not with held thy son thy only son from me” and God blessed him abundantly

Those who have faith like Abraham were called the children of Abraham (Luke 19:9). Abraham through righteousness became a friend of God. By faith Abraham moved to many places like a wanderer. Without faith it is impossible to please God so we can look to Abraham to follow his faithful life and by looking unto Jesus we can run the race to reach our eternal goal.

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