Have you ever been told that the Bible is a complete fiction made up of different fairy stories and that it cannot be true?  Does this sound familiar to you? This is something that's been said to me, and to be honest I had no answer, because all the events that are depicted in the Bible took place between 4,000 and 2,000 years ago - and how can you possibly prove any tradition that's that ancient? Well believe it or not, you can.

About nearly 200 years ago, people first became interested in finding out about the sites written about in the Bible, to see whether their historical foundations could be established.  A guy called Edward Robinson did his homework, gathering all the information about these places - landscapes, place names and the events that are described there.  He then asked the locals what they called the various places.  Believe it or not, the names of many of the places have been preserved by modern day Arabs.  Robinson managed to identify 1700 Biblical sites by finding out this information.   Finally, he used archaeology to establish whether the ground will witness to the stories.

In the book of Joshua, there is the story of the conquering of Hazor and other citiesin the region of Megiddo.  Hapzor was razed to the ground, but Joshua 11:13 states that "Israel didn't burn any other cities that stood on their mounds, except Hazor alone."  What's significant about this? Archaeologists knew to look for artificial, man-made mounds, not hills.  They also needed to look for evidence of destruction and, more importantly, burning.  They found it.  Then they needed to establish the time that this all took place, to see whether it corresponded with what we know from the Biblical account, so they found fragments of pottery and could ascertain what kind of pottery was in use at the time, and from that you could date it reliably.   It all fitted with what the Bible tells us about what happened.  The Bible is accurate, it wasn't telling porkies.  There are lots of other examples where research has led to such discoveries. 

What about Jesus - where does he fit in to all of this? What evidence is there for him? Yesterday we were sitting and standing on some steps by the south wall of the Temple Mount. 



These steps were only recently discovered, by archaeological digs that took place around the area of the temple.  These steps were built by Herod when he constructed the magnificent temple.  They led to a gate to the temple.  Why is this so significant? If they were built by Herod, then Jesus would have walked up these steps.  He could have sat on those steps, taking in the view of the City of David that they offered.  Maybe he sat there with his disciples, chilling out and chatting with them.  Maybe he, the most dynamic teacher the world has ever seen, taught from those steps.  I know that these little details are speculative, but it is certain that these steps were there when Jesus was there, and more than likely that he walked up them regularly.  And to cap it all off, we finished our day at the Pool of Siloam, which has now been revealed to be the way it was again at the time of Herod, and therefore at the time of Jesus. 



This was where Jesus healed the man born blind (John 9:1-7, but read the whole chapter - it's a fabulous story!) - it's true - again, the Biblical account has been been borne out by archaeology!  There was something earthy about these sites.  They were free from the trappings of religion.  It was much easier to imagine Jesus there, changing lives, changing the world.

All of this stuff has completely blown my mind!  It has increased my awe and wonder at the fact that God entered into history and he did it here.  This stuff is real, our faith is real and historical, so don't let anyone tell you otherwise - let them come to Israel and find out for themselves.

Jesus said that if his disciples fell silent, then "the stones will cry out" (Luke 19:40), and believe it or not, this prophecy is not as crazy as it seems, because that's exactly what they are doing here.