Page 14 - Holyland Magazine - 2017 Edition

The Garden Tomb
Dr. McCann’s group from St. Luke Baptist Church Garden Tomb or the Holy Sepulchre is the
charge of the Garden that day. He came to
me and said, “Nicholas, you must stop this!”
I looked around. All of our Pilgrims were very
involved with the Holy Spirit, praising God
and speaking in tongues. There was no way
I was going to interrupt. Turning to him, I
said, “General White, I don’t have the power
to stop this, but you can try.” General White
looked around, paused, and said, “Nicholas,
you are right; we will wait for the power of
God to settle them.” Eventually, the people
grew quieter, the service continued, and
communion was shared. It was here, at this
point, on this day, that I realized Jerusalem’s churches were to commemorate the events
importance to Christians. Whether the
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exact spot, Jerusalem, itself, is the place
where Jesus, our Lord, ministered, and most
importantly, suffered for us, died and rose
again.
Jerusalem, the Holy City, is a universal city,
the capital of two peoples, and the shrine
of three faiths. For many, it is also the site
of Judgment Day. Jerusalem is central to
the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Its history spans millennia. Helen, mother
of Constantine, came from Constantinople
(modern day Istanbul) to Jerusalem with the
idea to build churches in the 4th century. The
in the life of Jesus. For this reason, Christians Fr. Roy Regaspi of St. Joseph Church
from every denomination on earth visit
Jerusalem and these very churches and sites.
The significance of Jerusalem to Christians
cannot be separated from the significance
of Jerusalem to the Jewish people. We
are intertwined through our scriptures and
spiritual bonds, and we share this heritage in
Jerusalem as our spiritual capital while Israel
also claims it as her national capital. For
almost two thousand years, Christians have
made pilgrimages to Jerusalem, to deepen
their faith, to encounter the Holy Spirit in the
places where Jesus preached and taught,
suffered, died and rose again. When the
Church was born on Pentecost so many
years ago, the Holy Spirit appeared to Peter
and the disciples, giving them the ability to
speak in other languages. They began to
gather a crowd, preaching to each in his
own language. Today, not all Christians who
come to Jerusalem will speak in tongues,
but all can know the Holy Spirit as they
experience the birthplace of Christianity and
foundation of our faith.