Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Paul Weaver: Faith Affirming Findings From Biblical Archaeology

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Paul Weaver: Faith Affirming Findings From Biblical Archaeology · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

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  Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
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  defending biblical Christianity, no topic, off limits.
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  And now, here's your host, David Firazzo.
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  Friends and family in Christ, thank you so much for tuning in.
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  God bless you.
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  We appreciate your support and sharing the podcast.
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  Very exciting topic today.
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  I love archaeology and I love how it encourages our faith.
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  And there's a phenomenal new book out.
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  I've got it right here in my hand.
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  I'm going to tell you the book before I even introduce the author.
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  It is called Faith Affirming Findings.
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  And it's 50, 50, archaeological discoveries that validate the historicity and reliability
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  of Scripture by Dr. Paul Weaver.
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  He is an associate professor of Bible Exposition at Dallas Theological Seminary.
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  Prior to this, he was the academic dean of the Word of Life Global Bible Institute.
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  And before that, he served overseas as a professor of Bible and Theology for 13 years at the
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  Word of Life Hungary Bible Institute.
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  Dr. Weaver is also the host of the Bible and Theology Matters podcast and the creator of
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  Faith Affirming Findings videos.
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  And he's going to tell you more about how you can access those and the book.
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  I can't wait to dive into this.
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  Paul Weaver, thank you so much for your time today.
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  Welcome to World New Matters.
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  Well, thank you so much.
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  It's such a great privilege to be here with you.
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  Oh, my goodness.
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  I love your book.
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  Thank you, thank you.
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  Thank you for writing it.
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  And that's my first question.
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  I don't want to waste any time because there's so much in here.
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  I mean, 50.
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  You squeezed 50 archaeological findings in here.
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  So what inspired you to put this kind of book together with your theological background
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  in your history and ministry, archaeology, tell us about that.
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  Yeah, I have two real passions.
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  I could say that one is to help people to love the Word of God and the God of the Word.
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  And so I've been teaching Bible and Theology for over 20 years now.
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  And so at the college and seminary level, but second is to affirm people's faith in the
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  history and reliability of scripture and biblical archaeology does both of those things.
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  It helps us to get excited about the Word of God as we see the Bible come to life in
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  the culture and setting that we learn from the archaeological record.
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  And then time and time again, the truth of scripture is affirmed in a very real way
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  in all of these archaeological discoveries.
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  And by the way, that's why I chose these 50 because they affirm people, places, events
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  and things recorded in the scripture.
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  Wow.
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  I mean, overall, it seems like there is so much overwhelming evidence that supports
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  the Bible, the Word of God.
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  And you think about skeptics or atheists or people that they won't even look at this.
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  And I think one of the reasons is they don't want to believe.
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  Do you find that to be true?
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  Yes, for sure.
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  There's definitely those that are skeptics who just dig their hills and no matter amount
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  of evidence will sway them from their position.
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  So there's a spiritual component.
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  But I do think there are those out there that are seeking, that are, if they will look
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  at this evidence and they'll realize, yes, the Bible is historically reliable.
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  And if it's true about the people, places, events, and things in scripture, can we also
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  trust it for the theological principles and teachings that Jesus is the Christ, that
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  Jesus is God, that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for us in, and that we can have salvation
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  by placing our faith in Christ.
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  And I think the answer is, of course, yes.
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  Amen, brother.
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  So I just want to mention so many wonderful men of God endorsed the book.
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  I mean, some of them we've had on the podcast, J. Warner Wallace, Dr. Irwin Lutzer, they've
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  been on the podcast.
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  It's also endorsed by Frank Turk.
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  I haven't spoken with him in years.
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  Dr. Mark Hitchcock, Paul Tuttle, and so many more who gave a glowing endorsement of
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  the book.
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  Before we dive into it with more questions, I want to give the website.
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  One is Bible and TheologyMatters.com.
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  That's Paul Weaver's website, Bible and TheologyMatters.com.
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  Also his YouTube channel, and you can get that at Bible and Theology Matters over on YouTube.
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  Plus, the book is available on Amazon, Kindle, Hardcover, Faith Affirming, Findings.
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  Guys, I've been going through this book the last several weeks, and it is such a jolt
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  to my faith personally when I see so much information and evidence.
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  Every time they dig up something over there, I think an atheist kind of goes, Doc, on it.
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  If they're honest, you know, right?
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  So let me just start with the beginning then, Paul.
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  What made you decide?
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  How could...
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  I don't know how this process works.
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  How did you decide on the very first chapter, and that is the Sumerian King list?
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  I didn't know what that was, but how did you decide to put that first out of 50 archaeological
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  findings?
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  Yeah, so the way I approached this, I first began by thinking, okay, in my own mind,
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  what are the...
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  If I could narrow it down to 50, what are the 50 most important?
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  And of course, it's difficult, but I reached out to a bunch of different Bible scholars
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  and archaeologists as well, and reached out to them and said, hey, what would be the
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  50 that you choose?
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  And I probably reached out to 20 or 25 different people, and got their list, and surprisingly,
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  about 40 of the 50 were similar for everybody, but of course, different people have different
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  interests, whether a New Testament scholar or Old Testament scholar, or a specialist
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  in papyri, or that changed some of the last 10 of the 50.
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  And so the 40 of the 50 were pretty similar, but those next 10 were the ones where I narrowed
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  it down and decided, okay, what do I think will be a firming of people's faith?
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  So I don't just want to give background and customs, but also details that affirm the
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  biblical record.
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  And so then I tried to do it by period of time.
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  So I organized the book based upon the pre-Kingdom era.
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  That's where this one falls.
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  Then the kingdom era, then the exilic period, and then the time of Jesus, then the time
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  of the Apostles.
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  So I try to make it...
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  So that's why it's first because it's in this first era, one of the earliest discoveries
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  relating to some of the earliest passages in the scripture.
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  And this is a king's list, right?
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  A list of kings that had a period of time where they had long lifespans.
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  Samarins was an early group of early civilization, one of the most early civilizations.
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  They had large lifespans of these kings.
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  Then there was a worldwide flood.
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  And then the size of lifespans diminished drastically.
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  Well, that's what we see in the Bible as well.
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  And so there's a lot of things that are dissimilar, but the similarities here is that there's
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  this memory of large lifespans, a global flood, and then diminished lifespans.
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  And that, of course, is what the biblical account describes.
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  And this first chapter, or this first one, the Samarins king's list, it's mentioned in
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  four different chapters in Genesis, or alluded to, correct.
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  So if you got the scripture passages there, real quick, go back a little bit.
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  Let's talk about the difference between archaeology and biblical archaeology.
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  Yeah.
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  So archaeology is the discipline where you're trying to understand people,
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  places, events, ancient civilizations by excavating the record, what's underneath the ground.
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  Biblical archaeology goes beyond that.
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  It's a subdiscipline within archaeology.
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  It's focusing on the biblical places and events.
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  And during the time frame that the biblical events take place.
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  So we're not just interested in the land of Israel.
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  We're interested in the time period when the nation of Israel is there, or when
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  Paul was in Corinth, or when the captivity occurred in Babylon.
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  So we're interested in, specifically, people, places, events, and things recorded in the Bible.
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  Okay.
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  Well, talk to us about, there's got to be some misconceptions about approaches on how
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  people approach biblical archaeology.
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  What would be some of those misconceptions that people have?
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  Well, certainly that it's all exciting.
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  And, you know, we see movies that describe archaeologists in that way.
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  Of course, it is exciting, but it's more about writing.
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  It's more about actual long six to eight weeks of digs.
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  I have friends that are in Shiloh right now doing that, and then documenting what you discover.
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  And so we should also know, your listeners should also know, not all archaeologists are the same.
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  There are those that we call minimalist that do not believe the Bible is
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  reliable, and they're going to accept, I call this, I say this way, they are anti-bible,
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  and some, many of them.
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  And so they're going to, they are going to only accept that, which is found in the Bible that's
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  also affirmed outside of the Bible.
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  They're only going to accept the minimal amount in the Bible that's affirmed outside of it.
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  They're minimalist.
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  Well, we're maximalists.
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  I believe that the Bible is true, and what it records is accurate and what's found in it.
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  So you, not all archaeologists are the same.
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  So you can't just pick up any book by any archaeologist.
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  You want to make sure you're reading one from a conservative perspective that believes the
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  reliability of scripture.
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  And of course it's affirmed time and time and time again.
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  Okay, so now I want to jump around a little bit and just some of the chapters that I earmarked here.
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  Let's go to the Jesus boat.
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  I found this to be very interesting that they actually found
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  wood from a boat that was in the mud, because otherwise wood would never survive.
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  This is number 32 in the book out of 50 findings.
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  So tell us about the Jesus boat.
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  That's very interesting, isn't it?
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  Yeah, so this gives us a better understanding of the first century.
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  And this boat that was discovered actually is large enough to house 12 to 15 people,
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  which of course is the size of the disciples in Jesus.
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  So it's called the Jesus boat, probably to sell tickets, but it definitely is a first century
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  boat from the Sea of Galley.
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  It was discovered there.
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  And so as you know, and as your listeners know, and viewers, there are many passages that involve
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  Jesus and boats.
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  Jesus called Peter, Andrew James and John, who are fishermen in the Sea of Galley.
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  Jesus taught from a boat.
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  Jesus slept on a boat when he was walking up and combed a storm from a boat.
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  So what happened was there was a drought for two years.
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  A drought occurred in 1986, 1985 and 1986.
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  And that caused the Sea of Galley to go down.
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  When most people were concerned about that, we had two brothers, the Lufan brothers,
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  who saw it as an opportunity to look for hidden treasures.
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  And so they go down by the Sea of Galley and they're walking along the side as it's,
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  you know, they can walk on what was under the water is now visible.
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  And they found some coins that were croded.
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  Then they found some nails that were croded.
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  And then they saw the sign of some wood above the murk and mire of the Sea of Galley.
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  And so you're right for something to survive.
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  Antiquity, it's usually etched in stone or in clay and hardened in an oven,
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  but wood does not normally survive.
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  But because it was in the murk and mire of the Sea of Galley,
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  that preserved it.
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  And yes, indeed, they took about 10 years to not, it was quickly taken out,
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  you know, carefully, but it took about 10 years to preserve it in such a way that it's now
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  able to be on display in near the Sea of Galley.
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  Okay, now I'm jumping all the way to number 48.
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  And that's Leo de Sia.
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  What fascinates me about this, first of all,
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  if you look at any of the cities in Asia Minor from Revelation two and three,
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  Ephesus, Smirna, Pergamum, Thyatira, and others, Leo de Sia is also in there,
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  but the comparison with the lukewarm church, and I think what's happening in our world today
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  in America and the state of the church, it's interesting that all that's left
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  from all these churches is just a little bit of, like some columns and stones.
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  And that's very interesting to me because these were thriving churches in the first couple
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  years after Christ ascended, correct?
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  So tell us about Leo de Sia and why you decided to put that in the book.
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  Yeah, the ancient city of Leo de Sia was in what's called the Likus Valley.
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  It was near Hierapolis and also a near Klaasa right there in this valley.
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  And it was hit by repeated earthquakes.
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  And Leo de Sia was a very wealthy city just as Revelation describes.
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  Jesus describes Leo de Sia.
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  But, you know, Strabo refers to a Cicero and Tacitus all mentioned that Leo de Sia was so wealthy
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  that they did not want the help of Roman authorities, once they were hit by earthquake,
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  to help them rebuild.
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  Who does that?
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  No one certainly knows that he would do that today, would they?
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  And they want the government funds to help rebuild.
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  Well, Leo de Sia was so wealthy that an independent that they did not want the assistance.
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  This is in modern day Turkey, and so it fits perfectly with the biblical description
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  in the book of Revelation.
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  When Jesus uses some very highly figurative language, when he says, you are well,
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  they were wealthy, but he says, you may be physically wealthy, but you're spiritually poor.
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  He says, you may have this fine wool industry, which we know they did, but you are naked.
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  You may have this thriving banking industry, which they did, but you need gold refined by fire.
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  And then, again, this prideful independence that they didn't even want the help of anyone to
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  rebuild their city.
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  That same mentality seems to infiltrate the church.
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  And Jesus is knocking at the door.
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  This is the seventh of the seventh church of the book of Revelation.
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  And Jesus is saying, let me in, right?
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  I'm no longer the center of your life.
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  And that's when Jesus mentions that you're neither hot nor cold, and you're lukewarm,
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  and I want to spit you out.
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  It's a warning for us, Revelation 3.20.
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  Jesus is not talking to unbelievers.
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  Some people use that for a passage for evangelism, but he was knocking on the door of his own
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  church that went by his name and let me in.
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  So I'm going to take a brief pause here.
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  We're with Dr. Paul Weaver.
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  The book, again, is called Faith Affirming Findings.
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  I absolutely love it.
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  This is such a great topic, and I love going through this so much information and so much
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  to encourage your faith.
• 15:30
  But so we'll continue this in a minute.
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• 16:16
  Okay, so what are some instances?
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  I know there are a lot, but help us narrow this down, Paul, where archaeology has proven
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  skeptics and critics wrong.
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  I know this has got to be a massive list, but give us a few bullet points.
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  Yeah, so the House of David Steeley is a significant, right?
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  In 1993, 1994, three portions of the Steeley was discovered.
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  And Steeley is a monument would have been erected by this king from Amon
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  that is declaring his victory over this city of Dan.
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  And it mentions the name, it mentions House of David.
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  And it mentions several other kings from the House of David as well.
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  Why is this significant?
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  Because before that, there were those skeptics, we call them minimalists, those who only accept
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  minimal amount found in the Bible, and they denied that David even existed.
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  It's just a fictional made up character.
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  And this House of David Steeley proved them wrong.
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  If there's a dynasty of David, there must be the king of David.
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  And there's a lot of their details in the House of David Steeley that affirmed that as well.
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  Then there's the Nabonitis Cylinder, Nabonitis Chronicle, which may not be familiar with the name
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  Nabonitis or listeners, but they're definitely familiar with Belshazzar, chapter five.
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  And skeptics said Belshazzar never existed for a longest time.
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  Again, just a figment of the Jewish people's imagination.
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  Well, the Nabonitis Cylinder and Nabonitis Chronicle, which are named after the father of Belshazzar,
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  Nabonitis is the father of Belshazzar.
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  Now, the biblical text speaks of Belshazzar being the descendant of Nabokinesar.
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  So the word there, if someone's reading the text, that just means a male descendant.
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  So there were kings between Belshazzar and Nabokinesar.
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  And so Belshazzar's father was Nabonitis.
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  And this Cylinder, if you want something to survive, you put in clay and put it in a heart
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  in an oven. And this Cylinder mentions a prayer by Nabonitis regarding his son.
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  And it's to his Babylonian god, godhead.
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  And he mentions himself, Nabonitis and his son, Belshazzar.
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  And so this silenced the critics.
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  They had to eat a little crow there as well.
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  And what must be frustrating to people like yourself and a lot of us is when those critics
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  or mockers are proven wrong, what's their response? Oh, never mind.
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  And they just move on, right? There's no, well, they don't expect them to apologize,
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  but there's no change of heart. There's no, hmm, maybe I should consider the evidence.
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  No, there's very rarely any of that. And that's just because it's a spiritual battle.
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  It's an act of the will. But anyway, I know a lot of people are going to be encouraged by this.
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  Let's jump ahead to number 23 in the book is the Cyrus Cylinder.
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  And I find this fascinating. Of course, you can find this in second chronicles.
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  Ezra Isaiah, Jeremiah Daniel, Nehemiah, tell us about the Cyrus Cylinder and its significance.
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  So yeah, Cyrus is mentioned many times in scripture. He's prophesied about in Isaiah,
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  the book of Isaiah. And of course, he's mentioned in the book of Isaiah 100 years before he is born.
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  So that's why these anti-supernatural, you know, that's what most minimalists are.
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  They don't believe in the supernatural. So anything found in the Bible that records a supernatural
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  event or like Daniel prophesies about events that come to fruition. They try to discount
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  or do discount because they're coming from a bias that the that there is no such thing in supernatural.
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  So Isaiah, they attack often because it mentions this Cyrus, who's going to rise to power.
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  He's mentioned in Daniel three times the Cyrus that Daniel lived under his reign.
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  But the Cyrus Cylinder is magnificent because it affirms what we are told in Ezra
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  and prophesied about Isaiah that he will allow this people group that are in exile, the
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  Jewish people to return to their land and to rebuild their temples. And so this discovery,
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  this Cylinder, it's a clay cylinder, about 8.7 inches long, three to four inches in diameter.
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  It has this writing on it, this in in Cuneiform script, ancient Babylonian language,
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  and it records Cyrus's rise to power, his military conquests, and the decrease that he had
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  to political reforms to allow people to return to their lands. And that's magnificent because it
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  affirms what we know from extra biblical other extra biblical sources. But the Bible itself that
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  Cyrus allowed the people to return to Jerusalem to rebuild. And that fulfills Jeremiah's prophecy
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  that Jeremiah's the weeping prophet, Ramariah, he told the Judeans that they're going to go
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  into captivity for 70 years. But then there'll be one that will rise to power that will allow you
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  to return. And of course, that is recorded in the Cyrus Cylinder. Fascinating. And I mean,
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  Bible prophecy itself does a lot for our faith. And I know people, if you don't believe in God,
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  or don't believe in the Bible, they look at prophecy and they just think it's a prediction,
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  they don't understand, they don't think it's accurate. They're just not open to the facts or
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  reading or actually studying what Bible prophecy is all about. It actually is astounding to me.
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  It's so encouraging to our faith. But anyway, I want to jump ahead to Jesus time and just give you
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  an opportunity. We're running out of time here, Paul. I knew it would go by fast. A few highlights that
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  you would like to discuss from the time of Jesus that you included in the book.
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  Yeah. So surrounding the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, right? The most important
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  events of human history are three incredible discoveries, once a Pontius Pilate stone that was
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  discovered at Cessary and Maritima. It was a repurposed stone. But it mentions the name Pontius Pilate
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  and he was building a shrine really to honor Tiberius, and it is called the Tiberium. But it was
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  his inscription, but he mentions Tiberius' name and his own name. And so this is the very first
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  inscription that has the name Pontius Pilate in it. And then it was repurposed when that building
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  fell, you know, was less used. And it was actually discovered at the theater there in Cessary
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  and Maritima. So that affirms one more person in these most important events of human history,
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  the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And then you have the Caius Auxuary, another
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  incredible story as to how that comes to fruition, how they find it. By accident, they were
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  making a water park in Israel. And it's expensive to build in Israel because not just the materials
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  or the labor, but you may discover you're bearing you are building on an ancient burial site. That's
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  what happened. Their tractor fell into this ancient burial site. They have to stop everything,
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  go and get Israel antiquities authorities to take a look at it. Anyhow, it was Caius' Auxuary,
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  the Caius that led the religious trials of Jesus. And we have lots of good reasons to believe that.
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  And then finally, this ankle bone that was discovered first century crucified victim under Pontius
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  Pilate, crucified under Pontius Pilate in the first century. And it silenced the critics who said
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  nails were too expensive to be used. Well, this ankle bone still has a nail embedded in it. And they
• 24:02
  said that crucified victims would never be given a proper burial. Well, the Bible speaks of both
• 24:08
  of those for Jesus. He was given a proper burial. And he was nailed to a cross because of the
• 24:14
  interaction with Thomas. Look at my hands, right? So those are three incredible discoveries relating
• 24:20
  to Jesus's death, burial and resurrection. And we're still hearing news stories today of things
• 24:25
  that they're finding over their paths. What is the pilgrim road or pilgrim path? Is that what that's
• 24:30
  called? Not sure which one you're referring to. The steps, I think they go up to the temple or
• 24:38
  up to the pool of Salam or one of the two. I remember just seeing a new story on that. But before I
• 24:42
  do that, we've got three minutes left. I want to jump right to the end. I just wanted to explain
• 24:46
  you to explain. This is fascinating. Number 50 is the John Ryland's fragment. Explain what this
• 24:53
  is because when I found this and I started looking at how some letters are missing, but they can
• 24:59
  actually put it piece it all together from the manuscript. Tell us about this real quick, Paul.
• 25:06
  Yeah, the John Ryland's manuscript. I actually have it here with me as well. Not the original,
• 25:12
  of course. Yeah, but I'm collecting these. But this is a small, it's about the size of a credit card.
• 25:20
  But there were those, again, there are skeptics who say John could never have written the book of
• 25:25
  John, the gospel of John, it must have been someone written much later. Well, the John Papyrus
• 25:31
  was discovered in oxyrincus and it took another many years for it to be discovered because it was
• 25:37
  amongst a bunch of other manuscript fragments in the John Ryland's museum. Well, a young man in his
• 25:46
  20s, a student discovered it and it's a codex. It's front and back of a page, a leaf in the Bible,
• 25:54
  the gospel of John, John 1831-33 on one side, John 1837-38 on the other. And this, again, dated to
• 26:04
  around 100 to 125 possibly, which is, you know, if John wrote around 85, 95, this isn't very long
• 26:11
  after that. And so it silences the critics to say it could never have been written by a first
• 26:17
  century John, the apostle. Friends, the title of this book is True Faith Affirming Findings. And I
• 26:25
  want to give you the website again. You can go to Bible and theology matters.com. You can also get
• 26:33
  this on Amazon. Make sure to check out Paul's YouTube channel. But also there are some
• 26:40
  videos that you put together that people can watch. Tell us about those real quick, Paul.
• 26:45
  Yeah, so I want this to be a usable resource for pastors, teachers, Bible, state leaders,
• 26:50
  and the everyday person that wants to study it. So I provided six to 10 minute videos,
• 26:54
  there are cure codes in each chapter, 51 videos, six to 10 minutes, and there are more pictures
• 27:00
  that you can than anyone book and contain. And for those that purchase a book, my email
• 27:05
  address is in the introduction. And I'll send you 51 PowerPoint presentations that can be plug
• 27:10
  and play in your Bible stays teaching preaching and personal study. Wow, just thank you so much for
• 27:16
  this. It's such an important thing to just find things ways to encourage people's faith in this.
• 27:22
  You don't have to dig too deep because the digging is done, right? In archaeology, they did the
• 27:27
  digging. We just benefit from the research. But Paul, we thank you so much for your time today.
• 27:32
  We appreciate you and your ministry. It's a great pleasure. Thank you for having me.
• 27:36
  You're most welcome friends. Share this one and encourage the body of Christ. God bless you. And as
• 27:41
  always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter.