God’s Imprimatur and the Olive Tree

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Revelation 19:13 speaks of Christ:

And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

As the end of this world as we know it approaches, darkness will deepen—a darkness that only the Word of God can dispel.  Psalm 119:105:

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

A world full of voices, a world full of opinions, full of unbelief and confusion, is fully dispelled by a heart full of God’s Word. 

Have you yet to be what Jesus calls born again—born a second time, this time of the Spirit of God?  Are you ready to shed the confusion, the bondage, and the darkness?  Are you ready for all of life’s answers?  Would you like today to be the best day of your life and for tomorrow to be better?  Today is your day of salvation and the beginning of your eternal adventure.  Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  Click on now!  NOW FOR TODAY'S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Genesis 3:22-24:

22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

GOD SAID, Deuteronomy 8:7-9:

7 For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;

8 A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;

9 A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.

MAN SAID:  Christians are an inferior class of people: so uneducated and so easily led. 

Now THE RECORD.  Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 640 that will once again confirm the inerrant, supernatural accuracy of the Word of God.  All of these glorious features are archived on this site in text and streaming audio for the edification of the redeemed and as ammunition in the battle for the souls of men.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.  Have a question?  Use the GodSaidManSaid search bar, above right.  Type in a key word, hit search and the screen will populate with subjects to peruse.  Have a friend that you would like to have hear a particular subject?  Use the “Tell-A-Friend” feature above.  Why not download to your iPod?   Imagine, nearly 160 hours of audio are available.  Thank you for coming.  May the face of our God shine upon you with Light and Truth. 

How men ridicule what they consider the bizarre accounts in the Word of God, such as a 6,000 year-old earth, the amazing record of creation, paradise, immortality, Adam and Eve, and Satan and the fall!  How they ridicule 911 average year lifespans, fire-breathing dragons (dinosaurs), giants, Noah and the global flood, Jonah and the Whale, and the animalization of Nebuchadnezzar!  How bizarre that a God, the Creator of all, would send His only begotten Son Jesus Christ into the world through a virgin, to preach the gospel of salvation, to be rejected and crucified by the leaders of this world—only to rise again on the third day and now sit on the right hand of the Father.  How absolutely bizarre to the skeptics, but true and righteous altogether to the blood-bought.  Unbeknownst to the willingly ignorant, these bizarre Biblical accounts are proven on this website beyond any reasonable doubt. 

When God puts His imprimatur on anything, wise men and women stand to take notice.  Thousands of years before modern science begins to understand, God’s Word is already there proclaiming inerrant truths that only the Creator Himself could know.  One such example is the amazing olive tree.  Several foundational paragraphs from previous GodSaidManSaid features follow before we update with the latest amazing discoveries. 

From GodSaidManSaid, The Tree of Life:

Could there be any truth to the phenomenal story that there was actually a tree of life that, if you ate of it, you would live forever?  Can we find a remnant of that tree?  Does the Bible give valuable pointers to which tree it was?  Man has been enamored with such an idea since the beginning of time.  It is the quest for our original immortal roots. 

It is interesting to note that God did not remove the Tree of Life from the earth after man had sinned, but instead set Cherubims to protect it from man.  After Adam and Eve had cast off the Word of God, they were cast out of Paradise.  It was at that point that they, their offspring, and all the elements of earth became subject to the law of sin and death, known in science as the second law of thermodynamics.  This law means that all things go from order to disorder—from life to death.  This curse affects everything.

Sixteen hundred-plus years later, a second disastrous happening took place that greatly accelerated the effects of the curse of sin and death.  This second happening, which occurred during the flood of Noah, was the destruction of the water canopy that once encompassed the earth.  The water canopy was suspended above the first heaven, which is the immediate atmosphere that surrounds the globe.  According to the creation science model, the water canopy would have  created a  global greenhouse effect and acted as a filter, filtering out the devastating killer rays from the sun, such as ultraviolet rays and more.  These harmful rays are deadly to all life, including trees, grass, air, water, animals, and humans.  Prior to the global flood in the days of Noah when the water canopy was destroyed, man lived 13 times longer than he does today, reaching the average age of 911 years. 

The massive changes caused by the curse of sin and death affected all of creation and would also have affected the Tree of Life. 

In this feature, we will not prove emphatically which tree was once the Tree of Life, but rather, we will provide the spiritual and physical rationale that strongly supports the idea of such a marvelous record in the Word of God—a record much maligned by carnal skeptics and ridiculed as a fairy tale. 

While searching for this miraculous tree we find in scriptures, in history, and in science, one tree stands as a giant above all others, even while enduring the life-ending curse of sin.  This proverbial tree is the olive tree. 

In the Holy Word of God, there is no tree like the olive.  After the great flood, Noah knew that the waters were drying up from the earth when the dove he released returned to the ark with an olive leaf in its mouth.  The olive leaf or branch today is the symbol of hope.  Ancient law forbids the destruction of any olive tree, even if it belongs to an enemy.  The olive tree and its oil are endorsed hundreds of times in the Word of God.   It was olive oil that fueled the holy flame that burned continually before the veil of God’s most holy place (Exodus 27:20).  Once a year, on the day of Atonement, the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies, beyond the veil.  The two doors at the entrance were made of the wood of the olive tree (I Kings 6:32).  Above the ark of the covenant, which was the spiritual center of the tabernacle of God, were the wings of two Cherubims, also made of the olive tree (I Kings 6:23-28).  Thus, the verse in Psalm 57:1 and many others:

Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.

Hosea 14:6 reads:

His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

Zechariah 14:11-14 reads:

11 Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?

12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?

13 And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.

14 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

The sweet psalmist of Israel wrote in Psalm 52:8:

But I am ever like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.

In James 5:14, the elders in the house of God are directed to anoint the sick with oil and pray the prayer of faith.

Salvation and entrance into the body of Christ are compared to the olive tree in Romans 11:16-18:

16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.

17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

There is no tree in the scriptures like the glorious olive. 

Medical science continues to uncover the tremendous marvels of this God-endorsed tree.  The following excerpts are from an article published in Energy Times titled, “Olive Leaf Extract: Nature’s Antibiotic:        

The source of olive leaf’s strength is a phenolic compound called oleuropein, the active ingredient extracted from the leaves of olive trees.  According to Dr. James R. Privitera in the article titled Olive Leaf Extract: A New/Old Healing Bonanza for Mankind (NutriScreen), oleuropein works in a number of ways.  Importantly, it interferes with the critical amino acid production that is essential for viruses and bacteria to thrive, and directly penetrates infected cells to stop viral replication. 

Dr. Morton Walker notes in his book, Olive Leaf Extract (Kensington), that olive leaf can greatly help strengthen the immune system and fight all types of infections such as HIV, Epstein-Barr, herpes, the flu, sore throats, and chronic sinusitis. 

Again, the article reads:

Today, the Hungarian government has adopted olive leaf extract for its Medicare system as its official anti-infectious disease remedy.  Walker reports in Olive Leaf Extract that Dr. Robert Lyons, OMD, MS, of the Robert Lyons Clinic in Budapest, has been critical in developing innovative treatments in Central Europe, including the use of olive leaf extract. 

Lyons conducted an extensive clinical study on 500 patients with a variety of infections such as tonsillitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, herpes, and bacterial skin infections.  After being treated with olive leaf extract, the rate of improvement and recovery was approximately 98 percent.  All patients were found to have a strengthened immune system and no side effects were recorded.

Finally, this news about HIV:

Olive leaf extract is a natural source of substances known as protease inhibitors, which may help people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS.  In the Spring 1996 issue of Positive Health News, Mark Konlee states that protease inhibitors are rapidly changing the lives of people with AIDS who experienced difficulty taking the drug called AZT.  Olive leaf extract, combined with drugs called immune modulators, has produced positive effects for people with AIDS.

In one case study, Konlee reports that an AIDS sufferer reduced his viral load from 160,000 organisms per mL of blood down to 30,000 in two weeks.  After 11 weeks, the patient’s viral load was reduced to 692.  A viral load decrease this dramatic is rarely (if ever) attained through the use of AZT alone. 

In another case, a person with HIV found his viral load dropped from 37,000 to 19,500 in three-and-a-half months while taking olive leaf, a significant development.  (Of course, if you suffer from AIDS, consult a health practitioner and do not stop taking your medication.) [End of quote]

The following excerpt is from the publication Better Nutrition:

Relatively new to the modern American botanical scene is Olea europaea, or olive leaf.  For centuries, the olive tree has been revered as the “tree of life.”  In this century, most of us know it as an international symbol of peace, and as the source of a healthful and delicious culinary oil.  Additionally, it seems the leaf of the olive tree may well have significant value as an immune-enhancing herb. 

The world is familiar with the famous Mediterranean diet.  A large percentage of the dieter’s calories in this way of eating are from fats, and in the Mediterranean diet, the principle fat is olive oil.  The general results are a healthy heart and trim body, plus so much more. 

Stacks of scientific information continue to pour in touting the powers of the products of the olive tree.  An excerpt from an article in People magazine follows:

In a recent study at the Athens School of Public Health, women who ate olive oil more than once a day had a 25 percent lower risk of breast cancer than women who had it only once.  In Spain, researchers at the Escuela Nacional de Sanidad found that women who consumed the most olive oil were 40 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than those who ate the least. 

Why?  For one thing, olive oil is rich in a group of antioxidants called polyphenols, which seem to fend off heart disease and cancer.  It also teems with substances called squalenes, which in animal studies have slowed the growth of colon, lung, and skin cancers, according to Chin Rao, a researcher at the American Health Foundation.  Japanese physicians now use a purified form of squalenes to boost the tumor-killing ability of chemotherapy.  “As far as food goes,” says Rao, “olive oil appears to be the only significant source.” [End of quote]

Oleuropein (ah-leh-YOUR-ah-peen), a compound found in the olive tree and isolated from its leaf, is credited with the phenomenal long life of the olive tree, which is said to be able to live for thousands of years.  This bitter compound protects against nearly every insect and bacterial predator. 

In the test tube, olive leaf extract has been found to be effective against nearly 90 viruses, retroviruses, bacterium, parasites, yeasts, protozoans, fungi, molds, and other microbes and diseases.  Just a few that you may be familiar with are anthrax, botulism, chicken pox, chlamydia, Ebola, Hepatitis A, B, and C, and more. 

Based on patient and physician reports, olive leaf extract, which researchers claim is not a cure but an immune system booster, is reported effective in helping the body fight nearly 125 conditions. 

Could this olive tree, whose fame spans all of time, have been the original Tree of Life that sat in the middle of the Garden of God?  Could today’s olive tree be the remnant of this Tree of Life?  We have cited many Biblical pointers, but cannot answer “yes” emphatically. But we can emphatically answer “yes” to whether there was once such a Tree of Life in the Paradise of God—because the Word of God declares it.  Those who are washed in the blood of Christ shall see this tree again.  Jesus Christ declares in Revelation 22:1-2:

1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

[End of quotes]

Excerpts from the June 2013 feature, “Unexpected Benefits of Olive Leaf Extract,” in Life Extension magazine follow:

Important Precaution The proven blood pressure-lowering effects of olive leaf extract are potent enough to warrant caution if you are taking prescription blood pressure drugs.  If you are on blood pressure medication, it's essential that you speak to your prescriber before starting supplementation.

Scientists have isolated the unique molecule that provides olive oil with its multitude of health and life-extending benefits.  Known as oleuropein, it is the polyphenol that can help lower bad cholesterol and blood pressure, prevent cancer, protect against oxidative damage, and help guard against cognitive decline.  Oleuropein provides the distinctive tangy, pungent, almost bitter flavor found in high-quality extra virgin olive oils.  It’s also responsible for most of olive oil’s antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and disease-fighting characteristics.  In fact, when oleuropein was given to animals with tumors, the tumors completely regressed and disappeared in 9 to 12 days. 

The olive tree (olea europaea) produces oleuropein abundantly in its leaves as well as in the olive fruit itself, and special processing techniques now allow for the extraction of a stable, standardized form of oleuropein.  That means that consumers can have access to one of the most beneficial components of olive oil without the necessity of consuming excessive amounts of olive oil.

Olive leaf extracts and their oleuropein constituents are best known for their blood pressure-lowering effects, but the latest studies reveal their health benefits extend well beyond that.  Additional anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties offer promise in fighting atherosclerosis, diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and even arthritis. 

Blood Pressure

One particularly fascinating study was conducted among identical twins with borderline hypertension (blood pressure in the range of 120-139 mmHg [millimeter of mercury] over 80-89 mmHg).  Studies of identical twins virtually eliminate genetic variations which may impact study results.  After 8 weeks, placebo recipients showed no change in blood pressure from baseline, but patients supplemented with 1,000 mg/day of olive leaf extract dropped their pressures by a mean of 11 mmHg systolic and 4 mmHg diastolic.  The supplemented patients experienced significant reductions in LDL cholesterol. 

Arterial Health

Polyphenol compounds found in olive leaves have been shown to help directly prevent the formation of arterial plaques (and thereby reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke) in two ways.  First, they reduce the production and activity of a series of “adhesion molecules.”  These substances cause white blood cells and platelets to stick to arterial walls, resulting in early plaque formation.  Second, they reduce platelet aggregation (clumping) by multiple mechanisms, which reduces the risk that tiny clots will form at sites of plaque to produce a stroke or a heart attack. 

Diabetes

In a dramatic head-to-head study, diabetic rats were treated with either olive leaf extract or glyburide (Diabeta®), a common glucose-lowering drug.  By the end of the study, the antidiabetic effects of the extract proved superior to those of the drug. 

One intriguing study showed that when lab rats were fed a high-fat, high-carbohydrate diet, they developed all the signs of metabolic syndrome (excessive abdominal fat, hypertension, abnormal lipid profile, and impaired glucose tolerance).  But when animals were fed that unhealthy diet along with olive leaf extracts, virtually all of the metabolic abnormalities improved or, in some cases, normalized. 

Human studies reveal that supplementing with 500 mg of olive leaf extract once daily resulted in significant reductions in hemoglobin A1c levels, the standard marker of long-term exposure to elevated blood sugar in diabetic people.  Supplementation also lowered fasting plasma insulin levels, an important point because chronic insulin elevations may contribute to diabetics’ higher cancer risks. 

Cancer

Oleuropein and olive leaf extracts have numerous other mechanisms of action against cancer:

• • They help prevent inflammation, another major promoter of tumor growth.
  • In breast cancer cells specifically, oleuropein reduces malignant cells’ ability to respond to estrogen, the female hormone that many breast cancer cells depend on for their survival. 
  • Oleuropein inhibits the production of the “protein-melting” enzymes that cancer cells need in order to invade healthy tissues and metastasize to distant parts of the body.

These mechanisms have now been shown in laboratory and animal studies to reduce the rates of occurrence, and subsequent development, of a broad variety of cancers, including those of the brain, head and neck, breast, liver, bladder, prostate, and skin, as well as leukemia. 

In one especially vivid study, mice with a high spontaneous cancer rate were orally supplemented with oleuropein.  The tumors completely regressed and disappeared in 9 to 12 days.  When the tumors were examined before they vanished, they were found to have a disordered, crumbly consistency, and no cancer cells remained alive within. 

Neuroprotection

Olive extracts help protect the brain and central nervous system from the destruction brought on by strokes and age-related degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.  They accomplish this by suppressing inflammation and reducing the damage done by oxidative stress. 

Researchers found a number of positive effects in animals that were pre-treated with olive leaf extract and then induced with a stroke.  Compared with untreated animals, the treated animals experienced a sharp reduction in markers of oxidation and an increase in normal cellular antioxidant systems.  Microscopic examination of brain tissue revealed a similar decline in injury to brain cells and up to a 55% decrease in the volume of dying brain tissue.  Similar results are shown in experimental spinal cord injury in animals pretreated with oleuropein.

Arthritis

Olive leaves and their extracts have long been used in the Mediterranean as folk remedies for arthritis.  Now, scientific evidence has proven that olive leaf extracts can, in fact, interfere with the development of several different kinds of arthritis, including gout, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthritis. 

Oleuropein has also been found to help prevent and treat symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.  When administered at the earliest sign of arthritis in animal models, oleuropein prevented symptoms from developing and also produced marked improvement in the microscopic appearance of joint tissue from affected animals.  When administered after arthritis was fully developed, there was significant improvement in inflammatory changes to joints, compared with untreated animals.

Oleuropein had similar benefits on osteoarthritis.

Summary

The Mediterranean diet reduces your risk for virtually every condition associated with aging.

Now, scientific evidence has shown that these extracts have a remarkable impact on blood pressure and heart disease—and they can help protect against other age-related chronic conditions as well.  Convincing evidence now shows that oleuropein-rich olive leaf extracts help prevent many of the underlying factors leading to diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, and arthritis. 

Extra-virgin olive oil and olive leaf extract should be considered an important component of one’s health and longevity program.  [End of quote]

When God puts His imprimatur on anything, wise men and women stand and take notice. 

GOD SAID, Genesis 3:22-24:

22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

GOD SAID, Deuteronomy 8:7-9:

7 For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;

8 A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;

9 A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.

MAN SAID:  Christians are an inferior class of people: so uneducated and so easily led. 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

Everson, J., “Unexpected Benefits of Olive Leaf Extract,” Life Extension, June 2013

GodSaidManSaid, The Tree of Life

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