More Proof of the Bible

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Sabbath Services here on this beautiful day. It was good to have some rain earlier. The Howl Yard was getting pretty dry. Some new trees we planted needed some water, so that was good. Thank you, Andrea, very much for the special music. Certainly appreciate that on the violin. Thank you very much. The BT Recordings on Wednesday is our last three programs to record before the feast, and then we'll take a hiatus during October and come back again in November. So if you're interested in attending the recordings, let me know. We'd love to have you. We in the United Church of God take very seriously the accuracy of the Bible and its infallible message about the Kingdom of God. From beginning to end, the Bible seamlessly weaves the theme of salvation throughout. In addition, the archaeological record confirms time and time again the biblical stories and their accuracy.

For example, not so many years ago, scholars doubted the story of the Israelite exodus from Egypt.

And they doubted the account of King David of Israel.

But now, so many archaeological discoveries have now proven these biblical accounts, plus hundreds more. During the second week of August this year, several from our editorial department attended a biblical archaeology conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. You may recall that a year ago I attended the same conference where the amazing discovery of the probable location for the ancient city of Sodom was highlighted. The January-February 22 issue of Beyond Today magazine highlighted this discovery and looked at the ramifications for today's world of finding the ancient city of Sodom and the parallels we can draw. This year at the conference, more compelling information and archaeological evidence was presented about this site for Sodom called Tell Al-Hamam. I'm not going to cover that today, but I have something else to show you that was discussed at the conference. Actually, let me just tell you one thing about just going ad lib right here. There was a discussion of the destruction matrix at Tell Al-Hamam. So you know what a matrix is? It's a 3D space that they're discovering, length, width, height of a particular part of the destruction layer. Now, if there's an earthquake, a piece of pottery falls to the ground and breaks, and all the pieces are there in the destruction layer, and they're all on the floor.

And so they can put the pot back together and say, oh, this is from 1300 BC or whatever.

Or if there's a fire, the house burns down, things tumble over, and everything's on the floor, and all the pieces are found together in the same room. Well, the destruction matrix at Tell Al-Hamam, from what appears to be a supernatural event that destroyed Sodom, the matrix has pieces of pottery from the same pot in different rooms of the house and in different buildings from the same pot, from the same urn. And they're not all on the floor. They're suspended in space as part of the debris. And so whatever hit Tell Al-Hamam, whatever hit Sodom, just obliterated things so that pieces of the same piece of pottery are in other rooms, and they're not on the floor. They're suspended within the dirt and the matrix layer for all over. One piece at eight inches off the floor, another piece two feet off the floor, another piece in another room. Some have burn marks on them from the same pottery, and others don't. So anyway, it was just it's an amazing discovery looking at the matrix of destruction at Tell Al-Hamam. Obviously a supernatural event. It wasn't an earthquake, it wasn't a fire, it wasn't the Canaanites coming in and leveling the city. It was very supernatural. So anyway, at this year's conference, two more archaeological finds were highlighted with additional information that proves the biblical record again and again. And this all continues to strengthen our belief in the God of the Bible. One is on Mount Ebal, and the other in Shiloh, both in modern-day Israel. So in the sermon today, titled More Proof of the Bible, Shiloh and Mount Ebal, we're going to take a look at ongoing archaeological work being done on Mount Ebal and at Shiloh, both of which strengthen our faith and belief in what the Bible tells us happened there 3,000 years ago.

Let's begin by looking at the layout of the Promised Land at the time when ancient Israel first entered under the leadership of Joshua. Here we see how each tribe was assigned their portion of the Promised Land, and right in the middle is the land assigned to Manasseh and Ephraim. Manasseh was one of the larger tribes. You see a second land portion from Manasseh up in the northeast, in the top right of the map. Now, throughout the sermon today, those of you watching online, and welcome to those watching online, those at home may have the best view of these slides. You can look at it on your big screen TV at home. Here we've got the two monitors on the wall. So, of particular interest for us today is the city of Shechem in Manasseh, with two mountains to its west, Mount Gerizim and Mount Ibal. And below that in the land of Ephraim is the city of Shiloh. The first half of our sermon today will be about Mount Ibal, and the second part will be about the ancient city of Shiloh. So, let's first consider Mount Ibal and its significance for us today. What has been considered a cursed tablet has been found today on Mount Ibal. In Judonamie chapter 11, which I have on the screen here, we see instructions for setting up the blessings and cursing ceremony when the Israelites would enter the promised land. So, 1129 from Judonamie, now it shall be when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess. Here's what you're supposed to do once you get there. You should put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ibal. Verse 31, for you'll cross over the Jordan, go into possess the land which the Lord your God has given you, and you'll possess it and dwell in it. Here's a photo of Mount Gerizim and Mount Ibal today, taken from the city of Shechem. The Israelites camped at Shechem and had an unobstructed view of both mountains. And when Israel first entered the promised land as commanded by God, they built an altar on Mount Ibal. In Judonamie chapter 27, verses 4 and 5, we see instructions for the altar to be erected on Mount Ibal once the Israelites got there.

Judonamie 27, verse 4, we read, therefore it shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that on Mount Ibal you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, and you shall whitewash them with lime. In verse 5, there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones, you shall not use an iron tool on them.

This altar, built by Joshua, has now been excavated and shown to be legitimate. A larger altar was eventually built over the top of Joshua's altar, more as a memorial site. Now, if you read the rest of Judonamie, Judonamie chapter 27, going on into Judonamie chapter 8, you'll see the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin were to stand on Mount Gerizim, and shout blessings for obedience to God. And the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali were to stand on Mount Ibal to announce curses for specific items of disobedience. So here we have then the section of scripture called the blessings and cursings passage or section. Here is how the excavated altar looks today on Mount Ibal.

Archaeologist Scott Stripling, who spoke to us in Albuquerque, has done major excavation at this site. It's been excavated over the last couple of decades, but Scott Stripling has gone deeper and more thorough with his seasons of excavation at this site. What we see here is actually a much larger altar than what was originally built by Joshua in the 15th century BC. Later, a bigger memorial altar was built on top of Joshua's altar. We're going to talk about that in a minute.

The main altar is the square section on the left with ramps up to it on the right side.

This isn't just any archaeological site. This is the site of the altar built by the Israelites upon crossing the Jordan under the leadership of Joshua, as now shown by a number of ancient finds at the site. Pottery and lots of other things. And each of the stones are whole. They've not been hewn by iron tools.

And so then the book of Joshua in chapter 8 records God's previous instructions actually being carried out by Joshua and the Israelites, and an altar was constructed. Joshua 8 verses 30 and 31. Now, Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal. As Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, quote, an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool, end quote.

And Joshua says, they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. Then in verse 33, then all Israel with their elders and officers and judges stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord. The stranger as well as he was who was born among them.

Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Judonim told was said they were supposed to do, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before that they should bless the people of Israel. Then in verse 34 of Joshua 8 and afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings according to all that is written in the book of the law. Did this really happen? Or is the Bible a mix of fables and made-up stories?

Yes, the Bible is accurate, as we'll see here in a moment with some of the new discoveries at this site. Here again is the altar as found today on Mount Ebal. The main altar is on the left with the ramps up to it on the right. Archaeologist Scott Stripling showed us how a smaller round altar underneath appears to be the original altar of Joshua's, and we'll talk about this in a moment.

So soon after entering the Promised Land, Joshua gathered all the people of Israel to the site of Shechem. The reason of historical significance here is that centuries earlier than this, centuries earlier than Joshua, this was the place, Shechem, where God first repeated his promises to Abram, or Abram, when Abram moved from Ur to this area of Canaan. It's a very special place, and Abram himself built an altar in Shechem. So the fact that an altar was here when Joshua crossed the Jordan River with Israelites is kind of fits the pattern of this being a special place.

We read in Genesis chapter 12 verses 6 and 7, Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the Terribinth tree of Mora and the Canaanites were then in the land. In verse 7, then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, quote, to your descendants I will give this land. And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him.

And now the archaeological record is providing evidence of Abram's descendants entering this promised land, building an altar, and each of the 12 tribes receiving their portion of the inherited land. So getting back to our story, six of Israel's tribes stand on the slopes of Mount Gerizim, while six stand on the slopes of Mount Ebal, both mountains rising above the valley where Shechem rests.

The Levites then declare with a loud voice each of the blessings Moses had spelled out that would come as a result of following the covenant and the curses that would come along for not doing so. And after each, all the people respond with Amen. So thousands and thousands of Israelites all say Amen. And now on Mount Ebal today, while it was the larger rectangular altar that gathered most of the attention with the archaeologists, it was a less talked-about structure at the site that interested archaeologists Scott Stripling the most. Beneath the exact center of the rectangular altar are the remains of an older circular stone altar that was about six feet in diameter, has been dated to one generation earlier than the large rectangular altar.

Dr. Stripling, who believes like us in the Exodus occurring around 1446 BC, believes the more recent altar belongs to the middle of the Judges period. So the big one is from the period of the Judges. And the circular altar is dated much earlier. And of course, this can be dated through all kinds of things found at the site, pottery and other things. Here is what he said to patterns of evidence on February 4 of 2022. Stripling says, I think the round altar is actually Joshua's altar. The rectangular one, which everybody's in love with, is a memorial altar that is protecting the real valuable one that is beneath it, which makes sense because the Bible doesn't suggest there was an ongoing ceremony on Mount Ibal, just that the altar was built for that ceremony.

It's like Joshua's altar was used just for the blessings and cursings. He says, I have determined that the earlier pottery is from what we would call late bronze 1b to late bronze 2a horizon, so around 1400 BC, which of course fits very nicely with the biblical date, he says. And now, here is an amazing piece of evidence in addition to the ancient pottery already found. It's an archaeological find that helps date this site with the original round altar back to the time of Joshua.

And it helps prove that this is indeed the Mount Ibal that represented the cursings for disobedience. Not only does it appear Joshua's altar has been found, but now a tiny lead amulet has been uncovered at the site. It matches a category of finds known to archaeology as cursed tablets. Why do you think a cursed tablet will be found on Mount Ibal?

What did we just read in Deuteronomy and the book of Joshua? Are those words accurate? Well, it certainly seems so, doesn't it? The lead amulet is folded in half, and most exciting is the breaking news just this year that x-ray scans done by scientists in Prague show inside the amulet ancient proto-Hibre writing inscribed with a tiny stylus. So note, this amulet is very small, about one inch square, very small.

Amazingly, this amulet made of lead has been discovered at the site known as Joshua's altar on Mount Ibal. Inside, ancient Hebrew writing shows up on the scans. The amulet has to be scanned because when Dr. Stripling tried to open it up, it began to break. See, it's folded in half. They tried to open it up, and it started to break on the corner, so they stopped. Instead, sent it from Israel off to the Czech Republic for scanning. So here in this sketch is how the amulet is found. Here is how YHW, or Yahweh, is seen on the scan. Remember, you read Hebrew from right to left. This is early Hebrew from Moses' time.

So on the right is the Y in the middle is the H, or the H, which looks a bit like a person here, and then the W, which looks like a W. This is actually the beginning of the world's alphabets that came out of Egypt with Joshua and the Israelites.

Joshua, the Israelites, and now Joseph. It has also recently been noticed that some faint writing is on the outside of the amulet. They thought it was just stippling or damage, but now they realize there's some Hebrew writing on the outside. So this yet has to be scanned and deciphered. And just a short while ago, the proto-Hebraic writing has been translated.

It's a curse summary in early Hebraic script. Cursed, cursed, cursed, cursed by the god Yahweh, you will die cursed, cursed you will surely die, cursed by Yahweh, cursed, cursed, cursed. I don't want anybody to read that one to me. It's rather definitive what happens if you receive the cursing from God for disobedience. The amulet contains 40 proto-Alphabetic letters, 11 of which are aliph. The first letter in the Hebrew alphabet is aliph, A.

You ever wonder why we call it the alphabet? It's the aliph bet. And it is from Hebrew that our modern alphabets came. So the aliph bet begins with aliph. And in the 23-word English transcription of, or translation of the inscription, the word curse appears 10 times, lest there be any doubt, and Yahweh appears twice. Now, why again would a cursed tablet be found today on Mount Ibal, dated to 1400 BC?

Why if this was not the actual mountain of the biblical cursings? It's an amazing find that verifies once again the biblical record and the Word of God. This practice of using lead to write on small amulets is mentioned by Job in his writings. And note, with this amulet being less than an inch square, the writing revealed by the scans is tiny.

There's 40 letters on that little one-inch square.

And it's been inscribed using a tiny iron pen stylus, a very pointy piece of iron, like a sharp pen, to inscribe into the lead the 40 letters. Look at Job chapter 19, verses 23 and 24. Job says, Oh, that my words were written, Oh, that they were inscribed in a book, that they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead forever. This was a common practice in ancient times of leaving a message with an iron pen or stylus. And lead. So from Job, we see how this practice was not uncommon.

So that's Mount Ebal for now. Let's move to part two of the sermon and look at what's being discovered at Shiloh, which also impacts our biblical understanding. Here we see the location of the ancient city of Shiloh. There in the area of Ephraim. There's also a modern town there now as well. But amazingly, for the most part, the new town has not been built directly on top of the ancient city. It's a dream come true for archaeologists, because normally cities are built on top of each other over the centuries and over the millennia, crushing the city underneath, putting new buildings on top, reusing the rocks, reusing the quarried materials.

Not here. The new town is off to the side, leaving this site free to be excavated.

These days, they'll be putting up a new skyscraper, right? And then they'll be digging down deep, and then they find archaeological remains that have been under there for a long time, and then just put the skyscraper on top of it. And it's lost forever.

This has allowed for major archaeological excavations to take place at Shiloh. There's even a visitor center, museum, and viewing tower on the site. It's a large area in which many ancient artifacts have been found dating back to the Israelite period of 2500 to 3000 years ago, and even earlier during the Canaanite period. And it's all in the museum.

The entire excavation site for Shiloh is quite large. It has a visitor center plus multiple sites for tourists and Bible scholars to visit and study. And as I said a moment ago, thankfully, the modern city has not been built directly on top of the ancient one. So what is so significant about ancient Shiloh?

What new discovery has been uncovered there? And how does it apply to our biblical knowledge and proof of the Bible?

When we read scripture, we find that Shiloh is the city used for 305 years, with 1399 BC to 1094 BC, as the location of the tabernacle, God's house.

The tabernacle was 100 cubits by 50 cubits by 5 cubits in size, and it housed the Ark of the Covenant, amongst other things.

In Exodus 31, we find a list of the skilled craftsmen who were to be the ones to construct the tabernacle. And all of this, of course, is a precursor to Solomon's temple hundreds of years later. Exodus 31 verse 1, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, See, I have called by name, B'zalal, the son of Uri, the son of Ur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in cutting jewels, for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship. And then in verse 6 and 7, And I, indeed, I have appointed with him, a holy ab, the son of Ahistomach, of the tribe of Dan, I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you the tabernacle of meeting, the Ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furniture of the tabernacle.

And so the Israelites, when they went into the wilderness for 40 years, had this tabernacle that they carried around with them and set up, each time the pillar of fire stopped or the pillar of smoke stopped and the Israelites had to camp, they set up the tabernacle again, and they did this for 40 years in many different locations in the wilderness. In Exodus 27, we find the size of the tabernacle given, 100 cubits by 50 cubits by 10 cubits. I'll read for you here, Exodus 27 verse 11, likewise along the length of the north side there shall be hangings 100 cubits long, with his 20 pillars in their 20 sockets of bronze, and the hooks of the pillars in their bands of silver. Along the width of the court on the west side shall be hangings of 50 cubits, with their 10 pillars and their 10 sockets, and the width of the court on the east side shall be 50 cubits. So, after eventually entering the promised land, 40 years later, Joshua oversaw the setting up of the tabernacle at Shiloh. Joshua 18 verse 1, now the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the tabernacle of meeting there. Can we believe the biblical record that a tabernacle was once in Shiloh? In fact, for 305 years at Shiloh? Here's a model of the tabernacle built at the Timna Valley Park, a tourist area in Israel today. You can see that it was quite rudimentary at first, but inside were precious metals, fine wood furniture, of course the Ark of the Covenant, and the other special items there. An estimate of size in today's measurements would be 150 feet long, 75 foot wide by 15 foot high. So, a little bigger than a suburban lot today. Here's a recent photo of Shiloh with excavations well underway, not the location of the tabernacle, but other parts of the city. And many layers from various civilizations have been uncovered, dating all the way back to 1400 BC and earlier.

At present, renewed excavations are being carried out under the leadership of Dr. Scott Stripling, who I mentioned earlier was at the conference, and he's doing this on behalf of the Associates for Biblical Research. Dr. Stripling is the man on the right, Dr. Gary Byers on the left, Dr. Scott Stripling on the right, at the Shiloh excavation site. And of particular interest to them is the location of the tabernacle itself. Gary Byers was the organizer of the conference we attended in Albuquerque in August. Scott Stripling and Gary Byers are also senior archaeologists at the site of Tell El-Hamam, where the site of Sodom is believed to be, and at Shiloh. And here is where the location of the tabernacle is presumed to be based on all that has been found in very recent years. And one major item is an actual rock platform on which the tabernacle eventually stood, not just on the dirt like when they're in the wilderness, but with a rock floor. And in addition, we see in 1 Samuel chapter 3 that some doors were eventually constructed and retaining walls placed around the tabernacle, and evidence of these can be seen at Shiloh. So what is so significant about these finds at Shiloh? How do we know that it is truly the site of the Israelite tabernacle? Do we now have further verification and proof of the Bible?

Well, in seasons 1 to 4, Scott Stripling found four main items, a monumental building platform that happens to be the size of 150 feet by 75 feet, two horns from an altar, clean animal bones, mostly from the right side of the animal, and ceramic pomegranates.

And as already discussed, Dr. Stripling and his team have uncovered a large platform, number one, on the site at Shiloh, which matches the dimensions of the tabernacle given in the Bible. So is this just a coincidence? For example, in other places in Shiloh, there are remains of unclean animal bones. There are remains of pig bones in other parts of Shiloh, dated earlier than 1400 BC, from earlier inhabitants of the land.

No pig bones here in this tabernacle site. In Leviticus 7, we see explained what portion of the sacrifice was to be for Aaron and his sons for the priesthood. Leviticus 7, verse 31, we read, and the priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be Aaron's and his sons. Also, the right thigh you shall give to the priest as a heave offering from the sacrifices of your peace offerings. He among the sons of Aaron, who offers the blood of the peace offering and the fat, shall have the right thigh for his part. So, once again, is it a coincidence? The animal bone refuse pile not far from the tabernacle platform contains only clean animal bones and mostly the priestly portion of the sacrifice, the right side of the animal. What else could this be?

What we are seeing unfold at Shiloh is verification once again of the scriptural record.

Our Bible is factual and accurate. Many scholars scoff for decades, saying the biblical account is untrue. It's a list of fables and stories written later, but more and more finds are showing the opposite. The January-February 2022 issue of Beyond Today listed 12 such finds on pages 26 and 27. Archaeological discoveries are regularly made in and around the land of Israel, Egypt, and Jordan that relate directly to the Bible. And here in Beyond Today, we annotated a list of 12 reports of such finds from just the past three years alone. 12 important discoveries from just the past three years. And of course, there are hundreds more discoveries from the past 150 years of excavations. It's mostly in the last 150 years that the Promised Land, the Holy Land, Israel today has been excavated. It's fairly recent in human history, these excavations. Within the last 150 years is when they began, and now of course it's really ramped up here of late.

Also found at the ancient site of Shiloh is evidence of when in 1075 BC the Philistines burned Shiloh down. A burn layer is evident in the city remains. And the prophet Jeremiah warns in chapter 7 that the same fate will befall Solomon's temple, as befell the tabernacle hundreds of years before that if the Israelites don't quit misbehaving. Look at Jeremiah 7 verse 12. Jeremiah warns the Israelites, but go now to my place which was in Shiloh. You know, go take a look at Shiloh where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. Verse 14, therefore I will do to Solomon's temple, the house which is called by my name now, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers as I've done to Shiloh. So watch out. I don't bring the whole temple down next if you Israelites don't start behaving. Remember what happened at Shiloh? Well, here in Jeremiah and in no other scripture are we told who destroyed Shiloh in 1075 BC.

But the archaeological record adds evidence of the Philistines being the ones God used to do so. And there's a burn layer dated to 1075 BC, which is right in the middle of the period of the tabernacle being on site there. So the archaeological record adds even more detail to the biblical account. The Bible says that Shiloh got destroyed. It doesn't say who did it. Go back and check out the rocks and the dust and the stones and find out it was the Philistines, the evidence of Philistines doing it, from what they left behind after the attack and destroying much of Shiloh at the time. So what about evidence of an altar at the ancient tabernacle site at Shiloh? Dr. Stripling has found evidence of the city burning down, sacrificial animal bones, and horns from an altar. Two, in fact. Here you see a photo of one of Stripling's altar horn finds.

This unique piece is about 20 centimeters across or eight inches across. Scott Stripling reported this in Bible Archaeology Report on May 8th of 2020, that, quote, in our first three seasons we have made several important discoveries. First, we now understand the stratigraphy, which includes two strata from the period of the tabernacle. And to help us accomplish this, why would there be two strata, by the way? It's because the city was there, then it got destroyed, then it was built up again. The Philistines leveled it in the middle. Two strata from the period of the tabernacle To help us accomplish this, we've pioneered wet sifting technology in the field. We now have evidence of a Philistine destruction at Shiloh. Altar horns and ceramic pomegranates are among our important cultic finds. He mentions wet sifting here, which is something new that he pioneered. So, in the last 150 years, when archaeologists have gone into Israel, into Jordan, to start digging and looking for ancient evidence, they go through all the dusty rocks, they get the brushes out and start brushing off the pottery, and then all the dust and rocks that aren't anything important, they're thrown into a refuse pile alongside. And they say, there's nothing left in that now, we've got everything out of it, and here's all the pieces of pottery, we'll glue those together. Oh, this is a Philistine pot, this is an Israelite pot, this is a Hittite pot, and they start dating things. Well, Scott Stripling has been going through the dump piles of previous archaeologists, and putting all the rubble, the dust and rocks, into a sieve, and blasting it with water, and cleaning it off, washing the dirt away. And they are finding all kinds of things that got missed before. One of them was that lead amulet, by the way. That's how they found it. It was in a dump pile. The early archaeologists from 20 years earlier, when they first were on Mount E-bolt, missed it. Scott Stripling is finding a lot of new things now, and he's so excited to go back. So I mentioned he found ceramic pomegranates at the Tabernacle site. The pomegranate was an important cultic item sewn into the hem of the priestly garments. And we read about it in Exodus chapter 28. So they're not finding banana peels, they're not finding apple cores, you know, they're not finding peach pits, they're finding pomegranates. Why would that be?

Exodus 28 verse 33. And upon its hem, the the the ephods hem, the priest, garment hem, you shall make pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet, all around its hem, and bells of gold between them all around. So verse 34, a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the robe all the way around the bottom. And verse 35, it shall be upon Aaron when he ministers, and its sound will be heard when he goes into the holy place before the Lord, and when he comes out, that he may not die.

So the pomegranate and their little gold bells was like a rattle, with seeds inside that announced the arrival of the high priest into the holy place. And ritual ceramic pomegranates have been uncovered here at Shiloh, at the location of the temple site, once again adding evidence to the biblical account of God's tabernacle being set up at Shiloh being true. So as a reminder, in seasons 1 to 4, Scott Stripling found first the big monumental building platform, two horns from an altar, clean animal bones, mostly from the right side of the animal, and ceramic pomegranates. Stripling has now completed a fourth season at Shiloh, finding even more artifacts dated from 3,000 years ago. Examples include bullae, seal impressions, beads, scarabs from Egypt, and coins. And much of this will be published later this year in archaeology journals. It's going through peer review right now, double-checking everything it is writing and doing. Very thorough process to have your paper go through peer review. In Bible archaeology report, Stripling adds this, at least five more seasons will be required to answer my original research questions. Much attention will focus on our monumental building from the period of the tabernacle that we've partially revealed. Who's having to find a lot more yet at the location, believed to be that of where the tabernacle stood for 305 years. So he's going to go back. He hopes for five more seasons. They had a bit of a lull during COVID, but this past season they went back again for a fourth season. And he wants to continue to do it each season. He gets really excited about this when he's talking about it. And he's a speaker that speaks in churches and at conferences and archaeology events, like he did for us. But he talks about getting up in the morning to go on the dig. And so I don't know if any of you have ever been on an archaeological dig. I was in Israel in 1981 at the location of the old city of David, digging there in 1981. So you get up early. Scott Stripling says he gets his team up at 4am. He gives him a cup of coffee and an aspirin. He says, let's get going. So they have a cup of yogurt and they all get on the bus and head off to the dig site at Shiloh, wherever it is, as they leave their hotel.

And then they get out the Bibles and they start singing hymns and praising God and saying, let's get to work here. Almost like a little church service in the bus on the way to the dig site. Actually, it kind of sounds like fun to me. Kind of exciting. And then they dig until noon and then crash and get up at 4 o'clock the next morning and take their aspirin and do it all over again. It's hard work in the sun. I don't remember how hot we got. And lifting these goofers of dirt and putting them in the refuse pile, hoping you'd find something important. I didn't find anything important. One of the other students on the dig found a tiny little pottery shard and everyone got so excited, you know. But that was at the old city of David. So again and again, the Bible is vindicated in its recording of not myth but fact and history. And today we've looked at just two of hundreds of finds proving the accuracy of the Bible.

First, we outline evidence of Joshua's altar built on Mount Ibal when Israelites first entered the Promised Land. And of course, Mount Ibal across from Mount Gerizim was set aside as the place for reminding the Israelites of the curses for disobedience. Cursed, cursed, cursed you'll be, right? And a cursed tablet has been found at that site along with a small altar underneath a larger altar dating to the time of Joshua. And secondly, evidence of the tabernacle location itself has been found at Shiloh with sacrificial animal bones, horns from an altar, pomegranates, and other cultic items. The tabernacle, in use for 305 years at Shiloh, was the precursor, as I said, to Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. Reminded of what Jesus prayed to his father before his crucifixion. This is a passage we read at the Passover each year as Christ prayed to the Father before he was to be crucified. And he said, Father, your word is truth. And it is! What we have in the Scriptures, what we have on our, you know, apps on our phone, the Word of God is truth. You can bank on it. You can trust that the story of salvation, the promise of eternal life, is accurate. It is there. And if we repent of our sins, we follow Jesus Christ, if filled with the Holy Spirit, we can bank on those promises. So just more evidence for us to be encouraged by. Yes, the biblical accounts can be relied upon. Time and time again, archaeologists find ancient ruins and artifacts that verify the accuracy of the Bible, and even shed additional light on what it was like to live in biblical times, like that destruction layer at Shiloh. Who did that? Well, figure it out, it was the Philistines. Here's an interesting final quote I'd like to read from Stripling. After 150 years of archaeology in Israel, hundreds of synchronisms or connections between the material culture and the biblical text have been established. It's not maybe. At this point, it takes more faith to believe that the Bible is not true than to believe that it is true. And that's from Dr. Scott Stripling. From beginning to end, the Bible seamlessly weaves the theme of salvation throughout, and the archaeological record verifies time and time again how the biblical stories are accurate and truly happened. So have a good rest of the day on this holy Sabbath.