Bible Gateway Blog

Archaeology uncovers buried civilizations. What does this contribute to our understanding of the Bible written so long ago by so many different people in so many different cultures?

Bible Gateway interviewed J. Randall Price, who, along with H. Wayne House, is the author of Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology (Zondervan, 2017).

[See the Bible Gateway Blog post, Latest Biblical Archaeology Research]

Explain what biblical archaeology is.

Randall Price: Archaeology in general is the recovery and study of the material culture of past civilizations. Biblical archaeology is as an application of the science of archaeology to the field of biblical studies. Through the comparison and integration of Scripture with the evidence of history and culture derived from archaeology, new insights into the biblical context of people and events, and sometimes the interpretation of the text itself, are possible. In this way archaeology serves as a necessary tool for biblical exegesis and for apologetic concerns.

[Browse the Biblical Archaeology section in the Bible Gateway Store]

What is your personal and professional archaeological experience?

Randall Price: I studied biblical archaeology in seminary as well as the archaeology of Israel at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. During my doctoral work at the University of Texas under archaeologist Harold Liebowitz, I participated in excavation at the Iron Age site of Tel Yinam (in the Galilee), served as a research assistant for Dr. Liebowitz in preparing the archaeological material for his book on Daily Life in Ancient Israel, and taught a course with him in biblical archaeology.

After I received my PhD, I was asked to follow Dr. James Strange in the excavation of the Qumran Plateau (Dead Sea, Israel). I had been a part of the initial work at Qumran in 1996, but served as Director of Excavations from 2002-2102. During that time I also worked at the Kotel Excavations (Old City, Jerusalem) and at the Temple Mount Sifting Project (Emeq Tzurim, Jerusalem), as well as four years in eastern Turkey. I taught courses on the Dead Sea Scrolls in my faculty position in Archaeology and Biblical History at Trinity Southwest University and at Veritas Evangelical Seminary.

Since 2007 I have taught biblical archaeology and conducted field classes in Israel as a professor at Liberty University. In 2017, I began work as co-director (with Oren Gutfeld) of the new Operation Scroll Project seeking to locate and excavate potential Dead Sea Scroll caves in the Judean Desert. I’ve also published four popular and two academic books on biblical archaeology as well as contributed archaeological articles to the New Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible and archaeological articles in two apologetic handbooks as well as academic journals.

Adding to my experience is that of Dr. H. Wayne House, a New Testament scholar with wide experience in the lands of the Bible, who also served as author of the Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology.

How can biblical archaeology add deeper meaning and more reality to a person’s experience with the Bible?

Randall Price: The Bible is an ancient text from an ancient context. We live thousands of miles and thousands of years away from that context, which also represents different cultures. Archaeology is a modern means of revealing both the lost record of the ancient world (inscriptions and manuscript evidence), and the historical and social world of the Bible. While the purpose of archaeology is not to prove (or disprove) the historicity of the people and events recorded in Scripture, it can help immeasurably to confirm the historical reality and accuracy of the Bible and to demonstrate that faith has a factual foundation. Moreover, it serves to illustrate and illuminate the background and context of Scripture so that one may have a realistic faith in the biblical accounts.

What caution should be exercised with archaeological claims?

Randall Price: Archaeology is a science, and like all sciences, has its limitations. For one, archaeological discoveries made in the past centuries have been reappraised and reinterpreted by more recent findings. Some of the older positive claims, as well as most of the negative criticisms of the Bible, have changed, usually for the better. For another, the actual amount of archaeological evidence is quite small. It has been estimated that less than 1% of archaeological sites in the Holy Land have been excavated, and those that have been excavated have only been partially excavated. Therefore, it would be unwise to reject some biblical persons and events simply because we lack archaeological evidence to confirm them. On the other hand, the relatively small amount of data we have gleaned from archaeology has proved to be confirmatory of the biblical account.

What are some limitations of archaeology?

Randall Price: Archaeological excavation is still in its infancy and it’s having a hard time keeping pace with the destruction to archaeological sites as a result of construction expansion, wars, terrorism, and black-market looting. As a result, more of the past may be disappearing than is being exposed by archaeology. Even when a site is excavated (rarely completely), it may take years to decades before the results are fully published (the final report on Jericho took 35 years and the Dead Sea Scroll fragments from Cave 4 took over 40 years). And even when published, they may be in a language or in a technical journal that the average person cannot read. Also, in a site such as New Testament Bethsaida, there are rival claims being made by archaeologists and it may take additional years before the dust of scholarly debate settles and one site is confirmed. Therefore, it’s never safe to make archaeology a priority over the Bible or to expect that in one’s lifetime—or in many lifetimes—all of the historical and chronological problems in the Bible will be solved by archaeology.

How does archaeology offer credence to the Bible’s veracity?

Randall Price: The claim of the Bible’s divine inspiration and infallibility must be accepted by faith, but, archaeology can offer assistance in verifying the historicity of the Bible and that its message was transmitted accurately. If its messengers were competent in reporting matters of history, often as eyewitnesses, should not we respect that they would be equally reliable in matters concerning the faith? In Luke 1:2-4, the apostle affirms to his readers that even when he was not an eyewitness, that he received the facts from eyewitnesses and investigated everything carefully so his readers would know the exact truth. In the same way, the careful use of archaeological evidence can be used today to confirm the accurate context of the biblical writers, giving us new assurance of the trustworthiness of their message.

How is your book organized?

Randall Price: We organized the Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology to follow both the Bible and history.

After an introduction aimed to address issues of concern to biblical students, such as the problem of pseudo-archaeology on the internet, the use of the term “Palestine” and “Palestinian” with reference to ancient Israel and the Jewish People, the different dating systems used in archaeology, a method for using archaeology in biblical studies, and explaining the historical significance of each archaeological period, the contents take a book-by-book approach starting with the Old Testament, transitioning to the Intertestamental period (with a focus on the Temple and the Dead Sea Scrolls), to the New Testament.

The purpose of this format is so the reader can access the archaeological data with respect to biblical texts and understand how this data makes a difference in interpretation. This approach is also enhanced by the use of information sidebars, numerous charts, maps, and a glossary of archaeological terms. In addition, a full-color format with over 240 photos further organizes the contents visually.

How can a person use your book alongside the reading of the Bible?

Randall Price: The book is intended as a resource to be consulted over and over again as needed. The book-by-book approach along with the Scripture index was designed to allow the user to easily find passages of interest. Because of the publisher’s page limitation, only certain passages in each book of the Bible could be addressed; however, if as one reads their Bible they’re aware of the passages that received treatment, they can find useful commentary to explain or illustrate what they’re reading.

Some articles in the media have questioned the appearance of camels in the Bible? Why and how do you answer them?

Randall Price: The issue relates to the appearance of camels in the Bible during the Patriarchal period, around 2000 BC (compare Gen. 24:64; 37:25). Critics often state that the camel was not domesticated for another 500-1000 years, and therefore this is an anachronism (a statement misplaced in time) indicating that the account was written much later in time when camels were domesticated.

While the evidence may support a lack of domestication for the dromedary (single-hump camel), this does not hold for the Bactrian (two-hump) camel, which archaeological evidence demonstrates had a much earlier domestication. Old Babylonian animal lexical lists, finds of clay camels attached to miniature clay carts in Southern Turkmenistan reveal that the Bactrian camel was already employed in the area by 3000 BC. Closer to the Patriarchal period (18th century BC), a cylinder seal from Syria depicts two figures riding astride a Bactrian camel. Given this evidence from archaeology, there is no reason to suggest that the biblical account is in error.

What are three examples of key archeological discoveries you include in your book?

Randall Price: The Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology attempts to prioritize the latest archaeological findings, and in that light, let me mention a new discovery in each of three periods.

In the Old Testament, the site of Gobekli Tepe in eastern Turkey, is one of the earliest sites known to archaeology. It represents a megalithic worship center replete with standing stones decorated with animals and priests with upraised hands. We argue that this site, coming from the time immediately after the Flood and only a couple of hundred miles from the traditional landing spot of Noah’s Ark, may tie that event with the renewal of corporate worship, indicating that such worship did not evolve as a social construct, but was evident from the beginning of civilization.

In the Intertestamental period, the Dead Sea Scrolls stand out as a leading contribution of the Jewish People to our knowledge of the Old Testament text and the beliefs of Judaism before the time of Jesus. These scrolls, which represent our oldest copies of the Bible as well as Jewish religious and sectarian writings from that time, were hidden in jars inside of caves in the region. Recently, new caves have been discovered that contained jars and the search is again on to find more scrolls that will give us greater insight into the beliefs and culture of the Second Temple period into which Jesus was born.

In the New Testament, newly discovered graffiti on walls in the ancient agora of Smyrna (mentioned in the book of Revelation) shows examples of people referring to other people by numbers instead of names. This provides an interesting parallel to the statement in Revelation 13:18 where the number 666 is said to be the number of a man (Antichrist).

How has archaeology deepened your own faith?

Randall Price: As I’ve studied archaeological discovery, what impacts me most is that, despite the ravages of time and the destructiveness of mankind, so much remains in the archaeological record that bears witness to the Bible. God could have simply insisted that we take his Word on faith, and for most of history people have done just that. But he’s allowed these remnants of the past to be preserved, especially for our critical age, in which extra-biblical physical evidence has become crucial in the defense of the faith. While my faith has not depended on such evidences, they have continued to confirm and strengthen my faith and in particular to bring me closer to the world of the Bible to have a realistic faith that’s informed by facts rather than imagination.

What is a favorite Bible passage of yours and why?

Randall Price: My life verse is James 1:12: “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” My life has had many trials and I’ve learned to look at them as part of God’s schooling that will end with my graduation. The motivation is to live well and continue to love the Lord, in spite of the difficulties that I cannot understand, so that on graduation day I will find God’s full approval.

Is there anything else you’d like to say?

Randall Price: As students of the Bible we should embrace the results of archaeology and encourage new archaeological discovery. This field needs an army of archaeologists to be raised up in this generation to both teach and do excavation in the lands of the Bible. The result will be a greater knowledge of the context of Scripture that will help future students and scholars produce even better handbooks of biblical archaeology.

Bio: Randall Price, (ThM, Dallas Seminary, PhD, University of Texas, and graduate work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) is the distinguished research professor in the School of Divinity at Liberty University—where he has taught biblical archaeology since 2007—and is curator of Liberty Biblical Museum. He directed excavations on the Qumran Plateau from 2002-2012 and co-directed the excavation of Cave 12 at Qumran (2017) as a part of the new Operation Scroll. He is author of several popular books on archaeology including The Stones Cry Out: What Archaeology Reveals About the Truth of the Bible, Rose Guide to the Temple, and The Dead Sea Scrolls, and contributed archaeological entries to the New Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible.

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This is the seventh lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.

[Special note… see Mel Lawrenz’s “A Prayer for the Christmas Season” in text, printable PDF, or audio.]

It is hard not to be utterly dismayed by the lack of basic morality in society today. It is a crisis within the lives of individuals, in groups and organizations, and in institutions. And at the highest levels of leadership it is challenging to find men and women of unassailable moral character—not sinlessness, but basic integrity.

Even making this observation runs the risk of drawing ridicule from those who think morality is a quaint notion of a bygone era, or worse, a rigid and repressive self-righteousness, almost always hypocritical.

Yet morality is one of the most essential and highest human characteristics. The belief that there is a difference between right and wrong, between ought and ought-not, or between good, better, and best, is the only thing stopping us from destroying each other. If there is no distinction between what is moral and what is immoral then there is no fundamental difference between nurturing your child and abusing your child. No reason not to rob your sibling. Nothing holding us back from spitting out one lie after another to manipulate, deceive, or dominate.

C. S. Lewis said the sense of morality in the human race—uneven though it is—may be the strongest “proof” for the existence of God. There just is no reason men and women would have any sense of ought and ought-not unless there was a Creator whose essential character is moral.

We are naturally disappointed when long-standing Christians or even leaders in the church are exposed in scandals of gross immorality. We ought to be disappointed when leaders relinquish their moral standards in order to support someone on their side who is guilty of scandal. We ought to ask: How can this be? How can things get so twisted? What hope is there for any of us to have integrity?

We might be tempted to think that if we knew the texts of the Bible better such things would not happen. But biblical illiteracy is not the core problem here. Most people with any Christian background know the Ten Commandments prohibit adultery, thievery, and murder—yet that knowledge does not prevent moral failure.

Living the Bible means being able to hold to standards of basic morality and ethics, but this shaping of character happens over a lifetime and through many processes. Paul describes one person of notable character, the young Timothy, when he wrote to him:

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:14-17).

The core idea is this: the “sacred writings” are able to make us wise for the rescue and preservation of our lives. “Faith in Christ Jesus” is the power. The process takes a lifetime (for Timothy, “from childhood,” but it can begin at any time). The truth of Scripture is taught by people who are living it themselves (for Timothy, it was his grandmother and mother; see 2 Tim. 1:5). Living the Bible means to “continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed”—in other words, a lifetime commitment based on an informed and firm faith.

Paul is specific in how the Scriptures shape a life. The word of God, “breathed out” by God himself (not merely a human book), is profitable in four ways:

For “teaching”—so Scripture shows us what it true.
For “reproof”—so it convicts us when we fall short, which is merciful, not cruel.
For “correction”—meaning that Scripture shows us how to recover.
And for “training in righteousness”—which means gaining the skills and patterns that keep us in a right relationship with God.

And that leads to moral character. When we come under the “teaching,” “reproof,” “correction,” and “training” of Scripture as a lifestyle, we will be shaped by it. Along the way we experience suffering in its many forms, and that too shapes character, driving us back to the breath of God.

Morality is not really the highest goal in life. Being in a right relationship with God is. Keeping our focus there makes true morality possible and keeps us humble, which is our only protection against flaunting morality which is like wearing a thin mask that will inevitably fall off one day.

[Get Christmas Joy–A Devotional by Mel Lawrenz to read in December]

[If you believe this series will be helpful, this is the perfect time to forward this to a friend, a group, or a congregation, and tell them they too may sign up for the weekly emails here]

Mel Lawrenz (@MelLawrenz) trains an international network of Christian leaders, ministry pioneers, and thought-leaders. He served as senior pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, for ten years and now serves as Elmbrook’s minister at large. He has a PhD in the history of Christian thought and is on the adjunct faculty of Trinity International University. Mel is the author of 18 books, including How to Understand the Bible—A Simple Guide and Spiritual Influence: the Hidden Power Behind Leadership (Zondervan, 2012). See more of Mel’s writing at WordWay.

By Julia Attaway

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” —Luke 9:23 (NIV)

Our daughter Maggie was being admitted to a psychiatric hospital. It wasn’t a surprise. Her mood hadn’t budged past “I’d rather not be alive” for months, and now she was flying into rages several times a day. My husband, Andrew, called from New York City with the news while I was trudging through snow in the Midwest from our daughter Elizabeth’s apartment to the hospital where she had been admitted.

After visiting with our 79-pound daughter, who was on an IV and a heart monitor, I stopped in at Elizabeth’s church to pray. I’d gone there the year before, during her first battle with anorexia. At that time I’d pleaded desperately, “What do you want me to do, Lord?”

The answer came back clearly: “Love her. Pray for her. Draw her close to Me.” It wasn’t what I expected, but it made sense.

This time I knelt without words, without thoughts, without tears. My whole being consisted of heartache encased in skin. I waited, but no sudden lightening of my load occurred and there were no messages of encouragement or hope. I didn’t feel stronger or wiser or comforted. I knew my children were hurting, knew they were God’s, knew things might not be okay in the end. That was it.

Yet in that nothingness I grew curiously certain I was doing all that I could, all that God expected of me. That was an enormous mercy. For to accept my limits and accept my tasks gave me freedom. It meant I could tap into the energy I might have spent railing against my sense of helplessness.

Lord, keep me from fighting the cross You have given me and help me to use that energy to carry it instead.

Digging Deeper: John 19:17; 2 Corinthians 1:5

________

Taken from Daily Guideposts 2018: A Spirit-Lifting Devotional. Click here to learn more about this title.

Daily Guideposts, America’s bestselling annual devotional, is a 365-day devotional from the Editors of Guideposts that will help readers grow in their faith every day of the year.

Daily Guideposts 2018 centers on the theme “Unfailing Love” from Psalm 33:22, and is filled with brand-new devotions from 49 writers. Each day readers will enjoy a Scripture verse, a true first-person story told in an informal, conversational style, which shares the ways God speaks to us in the ordinary events of life, and a brief prayer to help focus the reader to apply the day’s message. For those who wish for more, “Digging Deeper” provides additional Bible references that relate to the day’s reading.

Enjoy favorite writers like Debbie Macomber, Edward Grinnan, Elizabeth Sherrill, Patricia Lorenz, Julia Attaway, Karen Barber, Sabra Ciancanelli, Marion Bond West, Brian Doyle, and Rick Hamlin.

In just five minutes a day, Daily Guideposts helps you find the spiritual richness in your own life and welcomes you into a remarkable family of over one million people brought together by a desire to grow every day of the year.

Julia Attaway is a freelance writer, homeschooler and mother of five. She is the editor of Daily Guideposts: Your First Year of Motherhood, a book of devotions for first-time moms. She lives in New York.

God is called Father, Lord, Friend, and Savior. But when we delve into the perplexing bits of Scripture, we discover God cannot be pinned down, explained, or predicted. Is it possible that we’ve missed the Bible’s consistent teaching that God is other, higher, stranger?

Bible Gateway interviewed Krish Kandiah (@krishk) about his book, God Is Stranger: Finding God in Unexpected Places (InterVarsity Press, 2017).

What message are you communicating in the title of this book?

Krish Kandiah: I sometimes find myself in the middle of a church service struggling with the strangeness of God. Everyone else seems to be enjoying the singing or deep in prayer or lost in wonder and I just feel lost. The Bible is supposed to be a solace in those times, but sometimes it seems to make things worse. I read of the God who turned the whole of humanity into refugees from Eden, or the God who turns up incognito to Abraham, or the God that rains down fire and brimstone on a whole middle eastern village. I read those stories and I wonder if the God of the Bible is the God I was taught in Sunday school. I wanted to write a book first of all to help people who like me find God strange, and sometimes feel that God is a stranger to them.

What are typical assumptions about God that mislead people which your book addresses?

Krish Kandiah: I was given a highlighter pen when I first became a Christian. I was told to highlight the parts of the Bible that were helpful or encouraging. Whether you use a highlighter pen, bookmarks, or a search engine, for many of us there are parts of the Bible that are deemed ‘safe’ while much of the rest of it remains unread and unexplored. God Is Stranger strays out of the confines of safe zones, away from the highlighted passages and into the dangerous territory of the strange parts of the Bible. I want to help people to meet God in all of his wonder, all of his strange beauty. This might mean an uncomfortable journey, but we’ll know that we haven’t edited God down to size to suit our tastes or desires; we’ve met with the true and living God.

What do you mean that we cannot know God if we skip the uncomfortable parts of the Bible; and what are those parts?

Krish Kandiah: Imagine that your friends decided to only listen to you when you were complimenting them and would just switch off if you told them how you were feeling, or the struggles you were having. I don’t know about you but I’d begin to doubt if my friends actually cared about me at all if they only paid attention to positive messages about them.

The temptation for many Bible readers is that we highlight the promises that make us feel better and ignore the rest. That sounds like narcissism rather than discipleship to me. Like the mythical figure that fell in love with his own reflection, often our culture encourages us to become so absorbed with ourselves that even Christians have little time to actually, genuinely, know and understand God. God remains a stranger to us.

One of the most frightening parts of the Bible is when God describes the last day and people who had performed miracles, exorcisms, and even prophecies in God’s name and God says to them: ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:23). There’s an urgency for us to make sure we really know God, and not just a twisted view of him from a selective reading of the Bible.

How does the Bible portray God to be radical and unpredictable?

Krish Kandiah: I’ve always struggled with God who, for example, chooses to pick a fight with Jacob in the middle of the night in the middle of a river. God wrestled with Jacob the renegade who has lied, cheated, and stolen his way through life. God is an announced stranger who permanently disables Jacob so that he walks with a limp for the rest of his days. It’s a familiar story to many of us but God is strange in the way that he operates in this story.

Or what about the God who asks Ezekiel to lie on his left side for 390 days, shave off half of his beard, and cook his food using dung. Who gives Ezekiel a vision where God finds an abandoned child, brings her up as his own daughter, and then marries her, and then promises that she’ll be stripped naked and hacked to pieces by an angry mob because of her infidelities. The Bible is packed full of stories where God is strange—unpredictable—and these difficult passages are ignored by most of our preaching and teaching or our own personal Bible study.

How is God most clearly revealed in the difficult parts of the Bible?

Krish Kandiah: I am brown skinned. When I step up to a pulpit, I often see people surprised that when I speak I have an English accent and not an Indian one. I sometimes see people amazed that I speak English at all. Some people have judged me before they have met me. When I’m out with my family, we often get strange looks as my wife is Caucasian and my seven children look very different from both my wife and I. They don’t know that some are our birth children, while others are adopted. People make all sorts of comments, assuming they know from a glance everything about me. Brown people are foreign, people with lots of children are weird. I hate it when I come across this kind of prejudice.

But I wonder how God feels, when we take something that we know about God and assume that we have God understood. We read about the promise that God is going to bless us and we turn that into the idea that God is like a turbo-charged Father Christmas. We need to let the whole of the Bible inform our views about God, not just our selectivity.

How should readers of the Bible glean truths from odd and unfamiliar Bible stories?

Krish Kandiah: I think we need to recognise that God does not fear our questions. We need to acknowledge that worshipping God does not mean we switch off our brains. Being faithful to God does not mean we protect him from our doubts, questions, and queries, but instead we bring them to him. God is not afraid of our questions because he’s Lord of Heaven and Earth. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans that he finds God difficult to understand; he does not see this as a problem, but something to be celebrated:

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments,
    and his paths beyond tracing out!
    ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord?
    Or who has been his counselor? Romans 11:33-34 (NIV)

Why is the very act of wrestling to know an uncontainable God vital for growing one’s faith?

Krish Kandiah: Our minds were made to love God. We’re commanded to love God with our heart, soul, and mind. Contemplating the riches of God is what our minds were designed for. Just as you’re unlikely to become an Olympic swimmer by limiting yourself to paddling in the shallows, you’re unlikely to become a mature Christian by limiting your knowledge of God to familiar Bible promises. All of Scripture is God breathed and useful (2 Timothy 3:16); that means the parts of the Bible we’ve been intentionally or unintentionally avoiding are useful for our spiritual development. It’s time we dive in to the difficult texts!

How does your book challenge xenophobia in the lives of Christians?

Krish Kandiah: There’s a double meaning in the title of the book. “God is a stranger” because we don’t understand him—often because we have not wrestled with the difficult parts of the Bible. But Jesus tells us that on judgment day, he’ll come to us and say “I was a stranger.” There will be two responses on that day. To some Jesus will say, “and you welcomed me in;” to others he’ll say, “and you did not welcome me in.”

Our response to strangers is used in Scripture as a marker of our salvation. The Bible confronts xenophobia—the fear of the stranger—in the strongest possible way. God Is Stranger helps readers allow Jesus’ powerful message to transform our fears—our prejudices—so that we might truly welcome him into our lives.

What’s a favorite Bible passage of yours and why?

Krish Kandiah: The Bible passage that has most recently both challenged and blessed me is Isaiah 58:6-9 (NIV):

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter –
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
    and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: here am I.

What are your thoughts about Bible Gateway and the Bible Gateway App?

Krish Kandiah: I love the way that Bible Gateway makes the Bible accessible to anyone who has an internet connection. I love the number of translations that are available. It helps me to dig deeper into Scripture wherever I am.

Bio: Krish Kandiah (PhD, Kings College London) is the founder and director of Home for Good, a charity finding homes for foster children and young refugees. An international speaker, he teaches regularly at Regent College and Portland Seminary, and is the author of several books, including Paradoxology: Why Christianity Was Never Meant to Be Simple and Home for Good: Making a Difference for Vulnerable Children.

Krish is the vice president of Tearfund, a Christian relief and development agency. Previously, he was president of London School of Theology and also on faculty at Oxford University. He has also worked with students in the UK with UCCF, and in Albania with IFES. Krish lives with his wife, Miriam, and their seven birth, adopted, and foster children.

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The most-popular Bible verses on Bible Gateway for 2017 divide the United States into two camps: states in which the most-popular verse (aside from John 3:16) is Jeremiah 29:11 (“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,” NIV), and states in which the most-popular verse is Philippians 4:13 (“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” KJV).

[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, Bible Gateway 2016 Year in Review]

If Jeremiah 29:11 were a US presidential candidate, its 32 states would carry the election with 302 electoral votes, or two fewer than President Trump received in 2016.

[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, The Three Kinds of Popular Keyword Searches on Bible Gateway]

Here’s the breakdown by state:

This data excludes John 3:16, which was the most-popular verse in every state except Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina.

In all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the top three verses were, in some order, John 3:16, Jeremiah 29:11, and Philippians 4:13. So the above map exaggerates divisions—in reality, the reading of popular Bible verses is remarkably uniform across the country.

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How does the entire Bible fit together? How do so many individual books connect, despite being written by different people over thousands of years? What does a sweeping aerial overview of the landscape of God’s Word look like?

Bible Gateway interviewed Skip Heitzig (@skipheitzig) about his book, The Bible from 30,000 Feet: Soaring Through the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation (Harvest House Publishers, 2017).

Explain the composition of the Bible and the purpose of your book.

Skip Heitzig: The Bible is actually 66 books written by about 40 different authors from various backgrounds and written over a 1,600-year time period. Some of the authors were shepherds; others were fishermen, military men, and farmers. One was a Gentile physician and another was a Jewish rabbi. You couldn’t find a more diverse bunch. They also wrote about the most controversial subjects ever, like the origin of the universe, the purpose of life, and the destiny of mankind. Yet the cohesion and agreement about these subjects are remarkable. I wrote The Bible from 30,000 Feet so readers could know with certainty what God wanted people to know from every single book of the Bible and how to apply its principles to their daily lives.

Why is it important for readers of the Bible to go beyond reading merely verse by individual verse?

Skip Heitzig: Context is everything. A text separated from its context can become a pretext (a reason or idea that’s not the real reason or idea). When people read their Bibles, they need to understand that the author wrote that book for a reason. The reader needs to know that reason. Before I can determine what the Bible is saying to me personally, I must determine what the original author wanted the original audience to understand. Most false teachings and errant ideas about God come from isolated verses forced into an understanding that wasn’t the original meaning.

How is your book different from, and similar to, a Bible handbook?

Skip Heitzig: In a word—application. The Bible from 30,000 Feet isn’t just a book of facts and details, but rather it’s a book that includes factual information and a few details, because it’s seeing the big picture of the story. Think of it as facts that are leading somewhere—and that “somewhere” is right to your heart. When God’s revelation turns into personal application, at that point, it has value.

What is the “FLIGHT” plan format of your book?

Skip Heitzig: The FLIGHT format is based on an acronym F-L-I-G-H-T that stands for: Facts, Landmarks, Itinerary, Gospel, History, and Travel Tips. So first the basic facts are given: who wrote this particular book and when. Landmarks: a brief overview of major themes of this Bible book. Itinerary covers the key points, distinguishing topics, and memorable moments. Gospel shows how Christ is seen or anticipated in every book. History provides a bit of the historical context for each book. Travel Tips: the big applicational points of the book for personal consideration.

How is it that you say the gospel appears in every book of the Bible?

Skip Heitzig: Because essentially the Bible itself has its own theme. It’s not 66 individual stories, though each book has a major subject and purpose. Yet seen as a whole, the Bible is a book about one Person and two events. The Bible is God’s redemptive plan in Jesus Christ—he’s the one Person that’s threaded throughout the Scriptures. The two events are his first coming (in which he came to deal with sin) and his Second Coming (in which he comes to rule with those who’ve been cleansed of it).

How are the Old and New Testaments intricately connected?

Skip Heitzig: The Old Testament anticipates the New Testament. Augustine put it best: “The New is in the Old contained; the Old is in the New explained.” One is incomplete without the other. To just read the Old Testament is to read a book of promises without a fulfillment. To read only the New Testament is to read a book of accomplished promises without any reference.

Your book offers Bible teaching in a colloquial style. For example, why do you identify Deuteronomy 32 as “the country music song of the Old Testament”?

Skip Heitzig: That’s just my style. The book is meant to be engaging and simple; encouraging and personal. I called Deuteronomy 32 that because I’ve had an ongoing jab at country music. There’s an old joke that says, “What do you get when you play country music backwards?” Answer: you get your wife back, your house back, you dog back, and your life back! The joke highlights the often-recurring theme in many country songs of loss and rejection. Deuteronomy 32 is a long song written by Moses covering all the failures and foibles, losses and longing of God’s people, the Israelites.

Why do you call Isaiah “the Shakespeare of prophets”?

Skip Heitzig: Isaiah has a very eloquent and elegant writing style, revealing that he was probably well-educated. Probably having access to the royal courts of the Judean kings, Isaiah wrote a lengthy poetic document that inspired and influenced leaders and encouraged the masses.

What book of the Bible was the most difficult for you in writing your book?

Skip Heitzig: Well actually, it was most difficult trying to squeeze three Gospels into one of the chapters. The first three Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptics because of their similarity in covering the life of Christ. They all deserve their own treatment in a chapter but since there are four Gospels, I decided the first three needed to be together to get a quick view of their similarities and differences and to be able to cover the Bible in 52 weeks. After all, I promised at the beginning of the book, “Give me a year and I’ll give you the Bible!”

What book of the Bible surprised you the most in writing your book?

Skip Heitzig: The most surprising book of the Bible is perhaps the book of Esther because God is not mentioned even once in the book, but his fingerprints are all over it. It shows, perhaps more than any other book, the providence of God—that God often operates behind the scenes, but he moves all the scenes that he’s behind.

How should readers use your book in conjunction with their Bible reading?

Skip Heitzig: Keep it as a companion to your Bible for a year. Just begin reading The Bible from 30,000 Feet and use your Bible to look up the verses referred to. This will broaden your understanding of the big picture of Scripture. A companion study guide is also available asking key questions that will enhance your experience, especially with a group. Give special consideration to the travel tips at the beginning of each chapter and use them as prayer points. If you just go through one chapter in the book in a week, by the end of one year, you’ll have an overall understanding of God’s plan through the ages.

What is a favorite Bible passage of yours and why?

Skip Heitzig: It’s always been 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 because it’s been my life verse. God looks for simple, common, and even weak things (and people) and uses them in a way that gives him fame.

What are your thoughts about Bible Gateway and the Bible Gateway App?

Skip Heitzig: The Bible Gateway App is easy to access and very helpful. The Bible Gateway keyword search is my favorite feature of the main website.

Bio: Skip Heitzig ministers to over 15,000 people as senior pastor of Calvary Albuquerque. He reaches out to thousands across the nation and throughout the world through his multimedia ministry including the nationwide half-hour radio program, Connect with Skip Heitzig. He’s the author of several books including Defying Normal: Soaring Above The Status Quo, You Can Understand the Book of Revelation, and How to Study the Bible and Enjoy It. Skip and his wife, Lenya, and son and daughter-in-law, Nathan and Janaé, live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Skip and Lenya are the proud grandparents of Seth Nathaniel and Kaydence Joy.

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This is the sixth lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.

[Special note… see Mel Lawrenz’s “A Prayer for the Christmas Season” in text, printable PDF, or audio.]

Some people live their lives disconnected from reality. There is nothing solid beneath their feet because their view of life is based on some fantasy. They may have been raised on lies and so they perpetuate the pattern, believing that there is no one who tells the truth, so why even try to find truth? Or their fantasy-based lives might be a way of escape. Or it could be that they are so afraid of the world, or of themselves, that they create a make-believe world over which they have control, which is, of course, impossible. You can’t control a dream.

Bible Open in Hands Illustration

Not living in reality—being truly “in the dark”—is one of the most dangerous ways to live. It is to be oblivious to both our greatest dangers and our greatest potential. A false view of ourselves can come out of pride and arrogance, or it can be based on doubt or self-loathing, or it can result from hearing lies your whole life. Any false view of the self can only lead to disappointment.

This is why we need truth. Not just “truths.” The core truth about you is more than the sum of the “truths” of the date you were born, and the location, whether you’re married, have children, work a certain job in a certain organization, etc. The deepest truth about each of us is that we were created by a good God, who also has reached out to save us from all our lethal enemies.

We have access to biblical truth because of revelation. God the Creator has spoken truth in history, through the words of the prophets and the apostles, and, in fullness, through his Son. What we gain is truth that gives us a clear vision of reality, which is the basis for healthy and good living.

This is why we should want to “live the Bible.” It is the only way to live in reality.

This view is the exact opposite of the idea that the Bible is a book of fantasies. Some people say that they value the Bible even though they view it as a collection fantasies, because they are good fantasies or myths. But here is the fundamental question: Is the God of the Bible real? If not, no response is necessary. If so, the only thing that matters in life is how we respond.

The same logic applies to every other reality. Is it true that human beings are spiritual creatures able to have a dynamic relationship with the true God, or not? Is sin real or not? Did Jesus say he was the way, the truth, and the life, and if so, was this more than a fantasy in his head? Is the biblical description of evil an entirely correct vision of reality? Is there really a purpose in life to be found in Christ? Does following Christ lead us into ever clearer understandings of reality?

If the main assertions of Scripture are fantasy, then we should not put our weight on it any more than we should cross a bridge that is full of fractures and gaps. But if we believe the Old and New Testaments are revelations of the way things really are, then we can and should trust.

Living the Bible is about gaining a grasp of reality, and living in that reality at all times, including the unpleasant truths.

We can face the harsh reality of sin when we hear the corresponding reality that God has given a way of forgiveness and restoration. Imagine you go to the doctor and he says, “I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that you have a dreaded and even lethal disease. The good news is that with a single injection, you will be cured.” It may be unpleasant to admit to the bad news, but the good news about the cure overwhelms the bad.

Being Scripture-trained realists makes us sober-minded, but also full of hope and joy. Not based on fantasy, but reality.

The final words of 1 John speak about the hard reality of sin and the domination of evil in the world, but also of the absolute protection of God and the promise of an eternal quality of life:

“We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” 1 John 5:18-20 (italics added).

This understanding of reality makes believers realists, not fools. As 1 John puts it, knowing “the true God” is to know “eternal life.” This is the reason to live the Bible.

[Get Christmas Joy–A Devotional by Mel Lawrenz to read in December]

[If you believe this Blog series will be helpful, this is the perfect time to forward this to a friend, a group, or a congregation, and tell them they, too, may sign up for the weekly emails here]

By Jodie Berndt

“Mike, I want William to come home,” Lauren said softly.

“I think he should,” Mike agreed, “but we can’t make him do anything. He’s literally living the life of the prodigal son—he got us to give him some money, and then he went away to a distant city and squandered it all in wild living. For all we know, he has been eating with pigs!”

Lauren knew the story Mike was talking about. It was a parable in Luke 15, one Jesus used to illustrate the heavenly Father’s love and the power of redemption. In that story, the son finally comes home, confessing his sins and giving up any claim he had on the family name. “I am no longer worthy to be called your son,” he says. “Make me like one of your hired men.”

Lauren loved that parable—especially the part where the father sees the son in the distance and, throwing dignity to the wind, runs out to embrace his boy in a very public, very emotional reunion. It was perhaps the best illustration she knew of to show how God feels about us, and how utterly ecstatic he is when we acknowledge our own unworthiness and turn to him.

Missing from the story, though, was an account of the prodigal’s mother. Surely, she had longed to hear from her boy, to receive some word that he was at least alive. And certainly, when she heard the sound of his greeting, her heart would have leaped right along with her husband’s. Who knows? She might have even beaten him down the street. Lauren knew the story wasn’t about a literal, historical family, one with a real mom and dad. But if it had been, Lauren knew one thing for sure: that mama would have been praying.

Listening to Lauren and Mike, I was reminded of any number of similar accounts people shared with me as I worked on this book. Mothers and fathers told me about their kids’ faith; how they’d grown up in the church, attended Christian camps, or gone on mission trips; and read The Chronicles of Narnia at bedtime. These parents, like so many I interviewed, had done everything in their power to produce Christian kids—and sometimes, as one parent put it, “A plus B really did equal C.” But sometimes (a lot of times, actually), it didn’t.

As we partner with God and pray for our prodigals, let’s keep a few key points in mind:

First, God knows our pain. He knows exactly what it’s like to love a child, to teach him to walk, to feed him, and to kiss his cheek—and then to have that child grow up and walk away, choosing a world marked by bondage, destruction, and violence. All of the grief, anger, and frustration that we experience as parents are bound up in his heart as well. And, despite how the story of the prodigal son plays out in Luke (with no “mom” in the picture), it’s not just the love of a father that God understands. Consider this lament, and how it reflects the way mothers are wired: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”

God knows what it’s like to ache for a child. He knows our pain.

Next, God loves our kids, even more than we do. Lauren told me that, as she cried out to God on William’s behalf, it was hard to get past the fact that it was her son who had done all of this awful stuff. As she sat there, wondering what she had done wrong or how her boy could have gone so far afield, God interrupted her thoughts. William is my son too, she sensed him say, and my love for him is not diminished one bit by anything he has done or will ever do.

God loves our kids, no matter what.

Third, God really has given us “great and precious promises”—promises specifically designed to enable us to live godly lives. When we pray these promises—praying God’s Word over our children—we can do it with confidence, knowing that he is patient, “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” And if you worry that your kids missed out because maybe you were not a praying parent when they were young or because you never took them to church or whatever, consider what Jesus said: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Your child is a sinner? Hooray. He or she is the one God came to call. That’s the whole point.

God’s promises are true. Let’s use them with confidence.

And finally, as we consider how to behave toward our children, particularly as we try to navigate the thin space between discipline and grace and as we wrestle with our own feelings of anger and hurt, let’s take our cue from our heavenly Father. It’s not just our kids who have wandered: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray.” We’ve all walked in the prodigal’s shoes (“I am the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found,” writes Henri Nouwen), and we all need God’s mercy and grace. And God, in turn, has shown us exactly how to live. We must, he says, be “joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

Let’s ask God to help us do that—to be joyful, patient, and faithful in prayer. Let’s ask him to help us see our kids through his eyes and love them the way he does. And let’s, in faith, look forward to the day we’ll join our voices with our heavenly Father’s, saying, “We had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

________

Adapted from Praying the Scriptures for Your Adult Children: Trusting God with the Ones You Love by Jodie Berndt. Click here to learn more about this title.

Jodie Berndt knows what it’s like to ache for an adult child who has left the nest but not the heart. In Praying the Scriptures for Your Adult Children, Jodie offers biblically-based prayers and encouraging stories to guide you in hope-filled trust that no matter what, your grown child is never out of God’s reach.

Each section focuses on a different aspect of adulthood, with encouraging stories from experienced parents who are praying their children through rocky marriages, health concerns, financial challenges and other real-life issues. At the end of each chapter, you’ll find personalized prayers for your children taken straight from Scripture. Each chapter also includes verses for you to pray for yourself as you take the challenging step of trusting God to care for your children in ways that you can’t.

Whatever you are praying for, you will find confidence and peace in these powerful prayers for your kids. Praying the Scriptures for Your Adult Children guides you to the bedrock of God’s promises as you release your children to God’s shepherding care.

Jodie Berndt is the author or co-author of nine books, including the popular Praying the Scriptures series, Generous Living, and a funny and touching memoir called The Undertaker’s Wife. A speaker and Bible teacher, Jodie encourages people to pursue joy, celebrate grace, and live on purpose. Jodie and her husband, Robert, have four grown children and two sons-in-law. They live in Virginia Beach but can often be found up the road in Charlottesville, Virginia, cheering for their beloved U.Va. Cavaliers. Find Jodie writing at JodieBerndt.com, or on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Have you considered that perhaps God not only uses parents to influence their children, but that he uses children to change their parents? Could it be that parenting is a school for adult spiritual formation?

[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, Sacred Marriage: An Interview with Gary Thomas]

Bible Gateway interviewed Gary L. Thomas (@garyLthomas) about his book, Sacred Parenting: How Raising Children Shapes Our Souls (Zondervan, 2017).

[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, The Most Important Thing for Our Children guest post by Gary Thomas]

Why have you seen a need to update this book from when it first appeared in 2004?

Gary L. Thomas: It’s astonishing how quickly cultural references change. Each new generation of parents grows up with a new slate of cultural understanding, television shows, and unique parental issues. The biblical principles remain the same, however, so this was a slight reworking, not a major overhaul.

Explain your statement, “The process of raising children requires skills that God alone possesses.”

Gary L. Thomas: Ideally, as parents we’d have unlimited energy, the ability to manage tricky emotions like fear and anger, vast stores of wisdom to answer complicated but important questions, love that never grows tired, patience that never ends… Every parent would like to have all of these, but God alone possesses them fully. Parenting reminded me of what I lacked more than it ever made me feel equipped. But there’s a spiritual purpose in that!

In what ways is parenting a spiritually transforming journey?

Gary L. Thomas: When God entrusts his children to us (for they’re all ultimately his), he knows what we lack, he knows where we’re weak, he knows how we tend to sin, yet still he places these children in our households and under our care. Parenting changed for me when I finally realized it’s not about being a perfect parent trying to raise perfect kids, but rather, family life is a collection of sinners slowly growing together toward Jesus Christ as we rub shoulders, yield to his grace, ask for forgiveness and offer forgiveness, and are shaped accordingly. I’m inspired by Paul’s words to Timothy to “let everyone…see your progress” (1 Tim. 4:15). I can’t give my kids a perfect parent, but I can give them a “progressing” parent—if, that is, I recognize that parenting is a process in which God is growing the parents as well as the children.

Why is it important to understand that couples are “called to bear and raise children for the glory of God”?

Gary L. Thomas: A large part of parenting is about managing weariness and motivation. Much of the success of parenting is about avoiding the sins of “omission” as well as “commission.” You can feed, clothe, and house your kids and not really parent them. When we raise kids for selfish reasons (to feel proud, to have people love us and appreciate us), if they disappoint us we’ll pull back. But when we realize that God has called us to raise godly children (Malachi 2:15) and God is always worthy to be obeyed, we have a motivation that goes beyond our own pride and our own comfort. Our children may, at times, make parenting very difficult. Sometimes, we might be tempted to say, “Fine, I’m done with you!” But God is never done with them and we’re still called to be their parents. Motivation is half of parenting.

What is the single most important thing for our children?

Gary L. Thomas: The older I get the more I realize that a significant portion of a parent’s happiness or sadness in middle-age will be directly impacted by how closely our children are walking with the Lord. More than we care about their “success,” vocation, or financial status, our hearts will be encouraged when our kids are faithful followers of Christ, and our hearts will be distressed when our kids appear to reject the Christian faith. So, the most important thing is transferring our kids’ allegiance from us to Christ, raising faithful disciples who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

How does parenting tempt us into becoming cowards?

Gary L. Thomas: Fear is intensified by passionate love. The more I care about someone, the more I’m concerned about their welfare. The less we have to lose, in one sense, the easier it is to be “brave.” As a single man, I read the story about Joshua and Caleb boldly proclaiming that they could defeat the occupants of the Promised Land and I wanted to be a Joshua or Caleb. As a married man with children, I could finally understand why ten of the spies said, “They’re big. They’re ruthless. If we lose, they’d have their way with our wives and children.” I wasn’t quite so confident that I would have sided with Joshua and Caleb. Having children made me confront my true fears and trust in God many times over in a much more intensified manner.

Briefly explain the section in the book titled “A Very Boring Chapter in the Bible.”

Gary L. Thomas: It refers to Genesis Chapter 5, in which there’s basically just a long citation of men, how long they lived, who their children were, and then they died. It’s a shockingly honest portrayal of the human condition. We seek worldly fame but the reality is, almost none of us will be remembered centuries from now. We think people will at least remember Presidents, but when I ask people, out of context, who Chester Arthur was (the 21st US President), very few can answer. Who was governor of California in 1900? Who was the MVP of the World Series in 1947? Fame is so fleeting, which is why Genesis 5 tells us to humbly accept that we are born, have children, die, and will be forgotten—so focus on the people you leave behind. Love your God and your family and you’re making an eternal investment. Family life will continue in the New Heavens and the New Earth, but even the most amazing accomplishments on this earth will quickly fade. Genesis 5 teaches us to prioritize people over accomplishments.

Sacred Parenting: How Raising Children Shapes Our Souls is published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., the parent company of Bible Gateway.

Bio: Gary Thomas is Writer in Residence and serves on the teaching team at Second Baptist Church, Houston, Texas. He’s the author of 18 books that have sold over a million copies worldwide and have been translated into a dozen languages, including Cherish: The One Word That Changes Everything for Your Marriage, Sacred Marriage (Zondervan, 2015), Sacred Influence: How God Uses Wives to Shape the Souls of Their Husbands, Sacred Parenting: How Raising Children Shapes Our Souls, The Sacred Search: Couple’s Conversation Guide, Pure Pleasure: Why Do Christians Feel So Bad About Feeling Good?, and Every Body Matters: Strengthening Your Body to Strengthen Your Soul. He and his wife Lisa have been married for more than 30 years.

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