Episode 255 – Archeology and the Bible – Part 10 – The Forest and the Trees
Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.
Script:
After he said this, Jesus … made some mud … he rubbed the mud on the man's eyes and told him, “Go and wash your face in the Pool of Siloam.” … the man went, washed his face, and came back seeing.
The Gospel of John, Chapter 9, verses 6 and 7, Good News Translation

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VK: Hello and welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m Victoria K. This is our 10th and final episode in our series on archeology and the Bible. This is not our final episode because we have exhausted the pool of archeological findings that support the trustworthiness of the Bible. You could do a radio show or podcast every day for the rest of your life and never cover all of that evidence. Instead, in our series we have discussed just a few of the thousands of archeological discoveries that support the accuracy of the Bible’s text. But we hope the examples that we have cited will inspire listeners to do some further exploration on their own. RD Fierro is an author and the founder of Crystal Sea Books and he is in the studio today as we wrap up this series. RD, we could go on for months or years talking about all of the archeological evidence that demonstrates that the history contained in the Bible is reliable. So, why limit this series to 10 episodes?
RD: Well, before we get started I’d also like to welcome everyone to this episode of Anchored by Truth. And, if this is your first time being with us, we’d encourage to you to check out – not only the earlier episodes in this series but all of our previous series because Anchored by Truth is the only radio show that we know of that focuses exclusively on demonstrating the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of scripture. And that’s why we do series like this one on archeology and the Bible. But archeology is only one of the disciplines that support the accuracy of the Bible. While most people don’t realize it because of the Biblically hostile culture in which we live physics, chemistry, biology, geology, paleontology, and many other scientific disciplines – as well as basic logic and reason – support the fact that the Bible is the inspired revelation of an almighty God. In fact, you really can’t have a truly coherent worldview without acknowledging that the Bible is God’s inerrant word. And that’s our purpose – to help people develop not only that awareness but also be able to cogently explain why this is true.
VK: That’s a big statement. I don’t think many people in the world, especially in the western world, would accept the fact that we must accept the truth of the Bible to form a coherent worldview.
RD: It’s a big statement but that doesn’t mean that it’s not true. And in the future we are going to do a series on why forming a coherent worldview necessitates a Biblical worldview. But for today’s wrap up we’re just adding one more piece to the assembly of that much larger puzzle.
VK: What you’re saying is that building a coherent worldview – a truly coherent worldview – isn’t something that can be done in a few minutes, hours, or days – or even months. Building a truly coherent worldview and seeing how and where the Bible fits in takes years. You must build a coherent worldview just as you would assemble a jigsaw puzzle - one piece at a time. But each piece that you put into place enables you to see the larger picture or pattern more clearly. And that’s what we try to do with these series. We keep adding pieces to the larger picture – one episode at a time and one series at a time. This series on archeology is just one piece of evidence that demonstrates the historical reliability of the Bible. It’s just one piece but it is an important piece.
RD: Yes. At Anchored by Truth and Crystal Sea Books our basic formulation for how we can be sure that the Bible is the inspired word of God is centered around four lines of evidence: reliable history, remarkable unity, fulfilled prophecy, and redeemed destinies. So, in this series we have pointed out a number of specific examples of archeological discoveries that have demonstrated that the Bible’s historical record is true.
VK: We’ve talked about the fact that the rediscovery of the city of Nineveh in the mid-19th century confirmed portions of the book of Jonah that were doubted by secular scholars. We’ve talked about the evidence that supports the historicity of the Biblical records contained in both the Old and New Testaments with respect to the city of Jericho. We discussed the fact that the Bible not only gets the big details of history right – such as the names of empires, emperors, cities, and nations – but also smaller details. We talked about how the book of Jeremiah even accurately preserved the name of one of the king of Babylon’s court officers. That’s the kind of historical detail that is easily lost in the sweep of history but the Bible kept it and it’s been validated by archeology.
RD: Yes. And we could have offered many, many more examples. At the start of today’s episode we used a quote from the gospel of John where Jesus restored sight to a blind man. As a part of the process Jesus told the blind man to wash his face in the pool of Siloam. Jesus named the pool he wanted the man to wash in. So, obviously this pool was well known in Jesus’ day. Well, in 2004 a crew digging a sewer line in Jerusalem uncovered some well-dressed stone steps that were covered by more than 10 feet of soil that had washed into a valley. Further exploration revealed that the steps led into a stone-lined pool that was not far from a tunnel that in Old Testament times had brought water into Jerusalem.
VK: This water tunnel is called Hezekiah’s tunnel because it was built by the Old Testament king of Judah named Hezekiah as part of his preparations to withstand a siege by the Assyrians. The tunnel itself is mentioned 2 Kings, chapter 20, verse 20 and 2 Chronicles, chapter 32, verse 30. We have a friend who actually walked through the tunnel when he visited the Holy Land. The tunnel was finalized around 701 BC although portions of it may have existed earlier.
RD: Right. Subsequent excavations at the pool revealed coins that the pool dated from around the first century BC and other coins revealed that the pool was still in use during the time of the Jewish revolt against the Romans which lasted from 66 AD to 70 AD. In other words, the pool would have been in use during Jesus’ earthly ministry around 30 to 33 AD. So, Hezekiah’s tunnel and the pool at Siloam are just two more examples of archeological discoveries that are entirely consistent with the Bible record.
VK: And there are countless others that we could cite. Bible critics used to doubt the existence of the greatest king of Israel during the Old Testament period: King David. Due to the Bible’s description of him, he almost seemed to be legendary – a sort of Old Testament King Arthur. But in 1993 a fragment of an ancient stone tablet was found that mentions the “House of David.” This fragment was dated from the late-9th century BC which means it dated about 150 years after the time that David was king of Israel. The fragment also mentions other names of kings that are named in the Bible. Scholars are agreed that 150 years is not enough time for true legends to form so the fragment pointed clearly to the existence of a king named David whose dynastic succession was still in existence at the time the fragment was prepared. Again, this is a clear example of archeology supporting the Bible. So, with all the examples that are available that support the Bible’s records why do you think that so many critics continue to resist the idea that the Bible’s history is accurate?
RD: Well, that’s actually the major subject I wanted to tackle today as we finish our series on archeology and the Bible. We began talking about this last time. It’s somewhat amazing to me how many people will dismiss the reliability of the Bible’s text and then proceed to rely on it as if it were true.
VK: Can you give us an example of what you’re thinking about?
RD: Sure. Last year a friend of mine read James Michener’s book called The Source. He wanted me to read it. So, he got me a copy. The back cover of the version he got me says this: “Michener vividly re-creates life in an ancient city and traces the profound history of the Jewish people – from the persecution of the early Hebrews, the rise of Christianity, and the Crusades to the founding of Israel and the modern conflict in the Middle East.” The hero of Michener’s book is an archeologist named Cullinane. Michener has this to say about his hero: “He was the crop-headed type of new scholar, solidly trained and not given to nonsense.”
VK: In other words Michener’s archeologist isn’t one of those silly people who accept the Bible as being reliable and true.
RD: Right. In one incident Michener writes this: “On his departure from Chicago, loaded with gear, [Cullinane] had been asked by a newspaperman if he expected to dig up any records which would prove that the Bible was true. Cullinane replied, ‘No, we’re not out to help God steady the ark.’”
VK: But then you said that 25 pages after his hero dismissed the Bible’s truth the hero is then finding artifacts and uses the Bible to give them context and meaning as well as citing details about history that come to us from the Bible.
RD: Exactly. Michener does exactly what so many people do – and not just with respect to archeology. They openly contend that the Bible’s text is untrustworthy but then proceed to rely on the truth of the Bible’s reports.
VK: For instance, the back cover talks about “the profound history of the Jewish people” and “the persecution of the early Hebrews.” But we could ask Michener, what constitutes a Hebrew or a Jew? Someone might reply that a Jew is a descendant of the patriarch Abraham.
RD: And that would be partially true. The Jewish people are descendants of Abraham. But there are a lot of other people in the world today who also trace their ancestry to Abraham. For example, many of the modern day Arabic tribes see Abraham’s first born son, Ishmael, as their ancestor. And Abraham had a number of other sons. Genesis, chapter 25, verses 1 through 5 says this: “Abraham had taken another wife, whose name was Keturah. She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan; the descendants of Dedan were the Ashurites, the Letushites and the Leummites. The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanok, Abida and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah. Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.”
VK: So, the point is that a lot of tribes and national groups were descended from Abraham. Well, then as a further qualification we might say that the Jewish people are descended through Abraham’s son Isaac.
RD: And that would also be partially true. But Isaac and Rebecca had two sons, Esau and Jacob (who was later renamed Israel by God). And Jacob wasn’t the only one who founded a nation that persisted for hundreds of years. Esau was the ancestor of the Edomites who are mentioned frequently in the Old Testament, often as an enemy of Israel and Judah. After the southern kingdom of Judah was taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar the Edomites moved into some of the vacant territory into the region of the former city of Hebron. The Greeks and the Romans called this region Idumea. And the Idumeans were present in the time of Jesus. Herod the Great was the son of an Edomite father and a Jewish mother. So, just because someone was descended from Isaac wouldn’t make them a Jew.
VK: In other words, to be considered Jewish someone would have to be descended not only from Abraham and Isaac but also Jacob. And we learn from the book of Genesis that Jacob – who was later renamed Israel by God – was indeed the father of the 12 men who gave rise to the 12 tribes of Israel. But I think I see where you’re going. The back cover of Michener’s book says that it is going to discuss the “profound history of the Jewish people” but how would you even know where that history begins if you eliminate the Bible or if you discount the accuracy of the Bible’s reports?
RD: Exactly. Michener’s hero discounts that he will find anything that will be relevant to the Bible’s truth but then must presume that truth in order to even make sense of a great many of the artifacts he unearths. And that’s what a great many people these days do. They tell us the Bible is a dry well for truth but then return to that well many, many times when they need to fill in the gaps of what they see in the earth. I was watching a public television documentary recently about the history of writing and the alphabet. In general, it was very informative. But part of the narrative said that human beings had been around for 300,000 years but writing had only been around for the last 5,000 years.
VK: But even that period of human existence of 300,000 years isn’t agreed upon by secular scientists. Many discussions of the history of humanity have our specific species dating back as much as 800,000 or even a million years ago. And our “near ancestors” are sometimes dated to as much as 2 and a half or 3 million years ago.
RD: Correct. Secular science wants to find a long period for human existence but is forced to acknowledge that common attributes that mark human civilizations like building and writing can only be dated to thousands of years ago. Even if we accept secular science’s dating of the oldest ruins on earth they only date to about 10,000 years before Christ.
VK: And as we have discussed in other episodes in this series those dates are assigned not measured. There is no way to directly measure an ancient date. And the assigned dates are all dependent on a set of unprovable assumptions.
RD: Right, but notice something. The observable evidence is all entirely consistent with a Biblical time period. The Biblical time period says that the earth is roughly 6,200 years old and the flood of Noah occurred about 1,500 years after creation. I’m using round numbers here for the sake of simplicity. This means that the oldest human structures or trees (which are the longest living land plants) would be just shy of 5,000 years old. This time period is entirely consistent with observations that we make about the world as we see it today.
VK: And for anyone who wants to go deeper into more of the problems with deep time and uniformitarianism they can go to our website, crystalseabooks.com, and locate our series on “10 facts every Christian needs to know.” In that series we have a lengthier discussion than we can undertake today about the scientific problems with the secular ideas about deep time.
RD: Yes. So, one of the big ideas we want people to remember as we close out this series on the Bible and archeology is that the observations we can make today through available evidence are consistent with the Bible’s reported time frames. But when you start using secular conventions of millions and billions of years you run into some real issues.
VK: Such as “where are all the dead human bodies?” If human beings have been around for hundreds of thousands of years, or more, where are all the bones of the people who supposedly existed during that period? There are extraordinary fossils of very small creatures that supposedly died millions of years ago and we see their remains but we find very few, if any, human remains. And those that are supposedly human, or pre-human, have numerous problems with the identifying the skeletons as being truly human.
RD: Right. And it’s not as though secular scientists aren’t aware of the problems that arise with their time frames and alternative explanations. They are. But in order to resist the obvious conclusion that evidence from human and natural history is entirely consistent with the Bible they have to find reasons to disagree with what the Bible is telling us.
VK: And some scientists have become willing to admit that they do so. Harvard evolutionary biologist and geneticist Richard Lewontin wrote: “We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failures to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”
RD: Lewontin said the quiet part out loud. Science does not require a materialistic explanation but secular scientists do. And, sadly, they are aided in their quest to cast doubt on the Bible’s records by liberal so-called theologians who bring an anti-supernatural bias to the Bible. There have been a number of groups who have supposedly wanted to find the “authentic Jesus” or “the real history” behind the Bible’s plain declarations. So, they admit that the city of Jericho existed and that the walls fell but they must doubt the dating of when the walls collapsed. They admit that there was a dynastic succession of kings in the southern kingdom of Judah but then dispute who was the founder of the succession despite the Bible’s record of the life of King David. They admit that the book of Daniel reports accurately the succession of empires that controlled the Middle East in Biblical times but claim that the book of Daniel must have written 400 years after the date that it was.
VK: And, as you said, they do all of this because they must resist the conclusions that are inescapable if the Bible is what it says it is – the Word of an almighty God. Because that word of God doesn’t just contain statements about history, culture, and nations it also contains ethical and moral prescriptions. The Bible is a unique book in human history and human experience. As some people have noted, “most of the time people judge books. The Bible is a book that judges people.”
RD: Yes. Archeological findings provide a great deal of support for the accuracy of the Bible’s historical records. Thus, any fair evaluation of the Bible must be that it is a generally reliable historical record. But this generally reliable historical record goes on to record not just ordinary history but also an extraordinary, redemptive history. The Bible records God’s superintendence of redemptive history including His direct intervention at times to keep His plan on track. God’s superintendence and intervention is an anathema to modern man that wants to believe that man is the penultimate actor in the universe. And God’s presence in the universe means there is an ultimate Judge who will one day hold all people accountable for their lives and actions.
VK: This is why so many people resist the obvious conclusion that the Bible contains a reliable record of the history it chooses to report. If the Bible is trustworthy when it comes to history it is likely also trustworthy when it comes to its enduring ethical pronouncements and its warnings about the consequences for ignoring or disobeying God. The same God that brought down the walls of Jericho, also brought down the Babylonian Empire. He also destroyed the city of Nineveh so completely it was lost to history for almost 2,000 years and He allowed the city of Jerusalem to be destroyed for rejecting His Messiah.
RD: Yes. Our God is a God of mercy and salvation but He is also a God of justice and holiness and we see evidence of all of His attributes in human history especially the history of Israel and the Middle East. Michener’s fictional hero wants to study the history of the Jews but he doesn’t want to learn anything from that history. Like so many today Michener’s hero thinks that the horned-altar he finds in the mound he is excavating is just another ancient relic. He fails to recognize that among the God of Israel was not the same as the gods of the surrounding cultures. Michener’s hero has failed to make a critical distinction – between the One True God of the Bible and the false gods invented by men to avoid acknowledging the True God. The Bible is a single story about creation, fall, and redemption. Archeological discoveries affirm the accuracy of many of the events in that redemptive history. But redemption would be irrelevant and unnecessary if the fall had not occurred. And that is what is so dangerous about us not preparing ourselves to effectively advocate for the One who provides redemption – because the effects of the fall will one day sweep away everyone who has not turned to the God of salvation.
VK: And that is why we all need to study the Bible and study enough about the Bible’s settings and history to help our friends and family. Archeology helps us do that. And there a lot of good resources that can give us a good, basic understanding of how archeology helps reinforce our confidence in the Bible. We should know enough to be able to help our kids and grandkids understand and avoid the pushback from a world that doesn’t want them to live a life of saving faith. Knowing a little bit about archeology can help with this greater goal. God has given us ample evidence His word is true. He expects us to exercise our minds and wills to become familiar with the evidence and to incorporate into our lives and faith. As we close, today let’s listen to a prayer of adoration for our Creator God. God not only created everything that exists, He also maintains it by His infinite power. As the Apostle Paul said to the Athenians “in [God] we live and move and have our being.” Surely, such a God is always worthy of adoration of Him.
---- PRAYER OF ADORATION OF THE CREATOR
VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.”
If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!”
(Bible Quote from the Good News Translation)
The Gospel of John, Chapter 9, verses 6 and 7, Good News Translation