The Stones Cry Out

On March 9th, 2022, Calvary Chapel Chino Hills had a guest speaker who shared with the congregation a message on archaeological findings proving what the Bible says can be trusted as truth. Charlie Campbell is the author and founder of ABR Apologetics Ministry (alwaysbeready.com) and the author of the book, “Archaeological Evidence for the Bible“. Charlie has a wealth of knowledge on this topic and some very compelling evidence for the validity of what the Bible teaches. As a believer, and someone who grew up in church, it’s hard for me to imagine that someone wouldn’t trust the Bible as the unerring, unchanging, and everlasting Word of God. However, I know there are many people who may have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and even those who have, but still do not believe. That’s why it’s important for us as believers to spread the Good News of the Gospel to a hurting world in need of a Savior and maybe, just maybe, the Holy Spirit will stir in someone’s heart the desire to read this blog post and listen to Charlie’s message. My prayer is that if you haven’t yet accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior that you would keep reading and listen to Charlie’s video linked at the bottom of this post. None of us are promised tomorrow. We’re all one heartbeat away from eternity. Do you know where you will spend eternity? Now, let’s move on to some very interesting things that Charlie speaks about in his message.

The Ancient Art of Writing

Critics of the Bible used to claim that the age and time of Moses (1500 BC) was a time of illiteracy. Some even claimed that writing wasn’t even invented until 500 years after Moses’ day. Therefore, many concluded that Moses could not have written the first 5 books of the Bible and that the Bible could not be true. However, libraries of written tablets have been discovered dating back to before the birth of Abraham (2165 BC).

The Flood

The first time God destroyed the world for its wickedness was with a great flood that covered the entire Earth. Many have scoffed at the idea that the entire world could be flooded and that Noah and his family were the only ones to escape the devastation. However, archaeologists and geologists all over the world have unearthed billions of dead creatures buried and fossilized inside sedimentary rock made up of sand, mud, and rock that were rapidly deposited by… water. These creatures are being found fully intact with little evidence of decay, which would point to a single catastrophic event. There have even been fossils of fish discovered high on the tops of mountains. There are also ancient accounts across many civilizations of a great and devastating flood and many tablets have been found to prove this. It clearly speaks to one event as described in Genesis in the Old Testament of the Bible.

The Ancient City of Jericho

In Joshua 6 the Bible tells of the Israelites marching around the city of Jericho for seven days before God caused the walls to collapse. Back in the 1950’s a British archaeologist named Kathleen Kenyon found those same collapsed walls at Jericho. The problem was that Kenyon claimed the walls had fallen around 1550 BC while the Bible says this happened closer to 1400 BC. Many critics of the Bible used this to claim the Bible was untrue. However, in 1990 a closer examination of Canaanite pottery proves that Jericho was, in fact, conquered around 1400 BC when the Old Testament dates the crossing of the Hebrew people into Canaan.

David (The Second King of Israel)

Until 1993, there was no documented evidence that David actually existed outside of the Bible. It was for that reason that skeptics discounted the Bible as mythology, saying that if David never existed, then the Bible could not be true. However, in 1993 an inscription that was over 3,000 years old was discovered in the ruins in the city of Dan that mentioned David, the King of Israel.

Nineveh

In the Old Testament, God directs Jonah to go to a city called Ninevah to deliver a message of coming judgement as they were wicked people. With no record of the existence of this city, many believed it was just part of stories told in the Bible that were just that, stories. However, a British archaeologist named Austen Layard put those worries to rest when he discovered a city that had been lost for centuries, buried in the sand. This city was found to be the lost city of Nineveh, which happens to be in Iraq today.

King Hezekiah’s Life Saving Tunnel

During King Hezekiah’s reign, he ordered a tunnel to be built to secretly route water from outside Jerusalem’s main wall into Jerusalem so that people could safely collect water during an enemy attack. In 2015 archaelogists uncovered a 2700 year old clay seal that had imprinted in it an impression of King Hezekiah’s signet ring. The very same ring the King would have worn during his reign. This proved that King Hezekiah did exist, was King, and was the son of Ahaz as the Bible tells us. In addition, before the signet ring impression was found, Hezekiah’s tunnel was unearthed. It stretches approximately 1750 feet and was dug out from each end and an inscription was found at the point where the tunnelers met in the middle to complete the project.

King Nebuchadnezzar & Babylon

It says in the Bible that Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians came against the southern Kingdom of Judah and besieged the city of Jerusalem and took many of the Jews captive, including Daniel, taking them back to Babylon (which is in modern day Iraq). Today the excavated ruins of the city of Babylon can be seen about 55 miles south of Baghdad, including the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar’s palace and many, many more items that are inscribed to show that they are from the time and place of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Archaeologists have also unearthed what’s known as the Babylon Chronicle Tablets that record the siege against Jerusalem, which was also recorded in the bible.

Belshazzar

Belshazzar, who is mentioned in Daniel 5:1, was a King of Babylon. Belshazzar was throwing a big party and during the party saw a human hand writing a message on the wall that no one was able to read. So Daniel was called in to interpret the message and the message was given that Belshazzar’s Kingdom would come to an end and it was that very night that Belshazzar was killed. Many critics of the Bible have said that Daniel’s account of King Belshazzar was false and that he never existed. This was mainly because documentation outside of the Bible showed that the King at the time for that area was Nabonidus. However, it was later discovered in an unearthed Babylonian tablet that not only did Belshazzar exist, he was the son of Nabonidus and was put in charge of the Kingdom while his father was away on a multi-year trip to Tema.

Dead Sea Scrolls

In 1947 a young shepherd boy who was tending to his father’s sheep in Qumran went after a lost goat that had wandered into a cave. Inside the cave, the boy uncovered large, clay jars that had not been touched for approximately two thousand years and inside those jars were found leather manuscripts that turned out to be the Dead Sea Scrolls or handwritten manuscripts of the Old Testament dating back as far as the third century before Christ. With the exception of the book of Esther, copies of every book of the Old Testament has been found.

King Herod

King Herod was the King of Israel at the time of Jesus’ birth and was the King who tried to have Jesus killed shortly after He was born. Many items have been uncovered that confirm the existence of King Herod including his wine jug with an inscription, coins with his name on them, and discovery of his various palaces.

John the Baptist

The New Testament tells us that John the Baptist was cast into prison and then later beheaded for calling out an adulterous relationship between Herod Antipas (Herod the Great’s son) and his brother’s wife. This story was corroborated outside the Bible in a book written by Flavius Josephus called “Antiquities of the Jews” where he tells of the same account of these things taking place. In addition, archaeologists have unearthed the very palace where John the Baptist was killed.

Caiaphas

Caiaphas was the Jewish High Priest at the time of Jesus’ life. He presided over the trial where Jesus declared Himself to be the Messiah, which ultimately led to His death on the cross. In 1990 a water park was being constructed near Jerusalem and a team of construction workers accidentally came across a first-century Jewish burial cave containing the remains of Joseph Caiaphas with his full name inscribed on the side of the ossuary.

Pontius Pilate

Pontius Pilate was the Roman Governor over Judea who oversaw the trial of Jesus and sentenced Him to death by crucifixion. While archaeologist were clearing away the ruins of The Roman Theater at Caessarea, they found a limestone block mentioning in Latin that Pontius Pilate was, in fact, the Governor of Judea.

Jesus

Many have questioned who Jesus was. Many often ask if He just a great man? Was He just a prophet? How was He viewed long ago around the time of His life and death? There is plenty of evidence pointing to the existence of Jesus that mention Him within 150 years of His lifetime. But did the people in those days also know the He was the Messiah? Well, in 2005, an inmate in Israel at a maximum-security prison uncovered the remains of one of the oldest Christian churches ever known, which also contained a large mosaic floor with the inscription below that showed the building had been built in memory of The God Jesus Christ. This also proved that the earliest Christians did believe that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh.

First Century Crucifixion

According to the New Testament, when Jesus was crucified, this hands / wrists and feet were nailed to the cross. Bible skeptics at one time believed that this could never have happened because nails could not hold a body up onto a cross. However, it was found later that a construction crew in Jerusalam came across an ancient Jewish cemetary that contained the remains of several men killed in approximately 70 AD. One of the bone ossuaries found contained the skeleton of a man whose name was Yohanan Ben Ha’galgol who still had an iron spike driven through his heel bone. Normally these were removed due to the value of the iron, but this one had bent and could not be removed so it was left in place inside of his bone.

Persons and Places Mentioned by Luke

In the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, Luke tells of the spread of Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome and mentioned several details about how this happened. Many scoffers, including Hans Conzelmann who wrote a book on the subject, have said that the Book of Acts could not be verified and was simply made up beginning to end. One of the things Luke accounts was a man by the name of Lysanias who was tetrarch of Abilene. For many years, scholars pointed to the fact that history told us that Lysanias was not a tetrarch, but instead the ruler of Chalcis half a century earlier than the time Luke is describing and hundreds of miles away. However, it was later discovered that there were two men named Lysanias. Archaeologist John McRay uncovered an inscription from the time of Tiberius from AD 14 to 37 which does name Lysanias as tetrarch of Abila near Damascus, so Luke was proven to be exactly correct. In addition, to date, more than eighty details have been confirmed from the Book of Acts through Archaeological research.

So, as you can see, there is a wealth of evidence still here on this Earth that points to and proves what’s written in the Bible, the unerring Word of God, to be true. I can only imagine what else is still buried that will eventually be brought to light and revealed by God to man as archaeologists and construction workers continue to dig in Israel.

I’ve tried to highlight some of the major items that Charlie taught about in this sermon. It’s undeniable that God speaks to us through discovery and it’s amazing that no matter how many times people set out to disprove the Bible as the Truth, there always ends up being a discovery or something that changes their mind, whether they like it or not. Not only that, but many whom have set out to disprove the Bible have eventually come to discover their Faith in Jesus Christ throughout the process. The Bible, the Word of God, the Truth as we know it doesn’t need to be defended. It stands on its own, now and forever.

I invite you to take a deeper dive and a more detailed look at Charlie’s message in the YouTube video I’ve embedded below. May God bless you on your journey of discovery.

Note: All screenshots and data presented in this blog post were taken from The Stones Cry Out sermon by Charlie Campbell as presented at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills on March 9th, 2022.