Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / VBS 2026 - "Archeology" by Bill Dayton - Part 1

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VBS 2026 - "Archeology" by Bill Dayton - Part 1 · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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In order to teach a class in archaeology,
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you've got to look like you're an archaeologist.
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I don't wear hats much, but I'll go ahead and try this one.
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You've all heard of Indiana Jones.
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You've heard of Dora the Explorer.
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You've heard of Bill Nye the Science Guy. Oh, that doesn't really fit,
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but tonight you got me. It's good to be here.
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I pray tonight as we study the scriptures and look at archaeology
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that we can come away from this
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class looking more towards the scriptures and
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how they prove archaeology.
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I don't believe archaeology proves the Bible.
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I believe the Bible proves archaeology or any other study that
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comes our way. And I better put on
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my glasses or I'm not going to see my—
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we're told in Psalm 85:11
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Truth shall spring out of the earth.
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And in Psalm 119:89,
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forever, O Lord, your word is settled in
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heaven. One thing we know: God's
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word is sure. It is absolute.
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It outlasts human generations.
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In his own time, God supports his truth.
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When you look at some of these questions that are given,
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we see— well, we see that God's
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word is absolute, archaeology is not.
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But the question I'd like to propose to you: does archaeology
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prove the Bible? Yes or no? Does archaeology
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support details found
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in the Bible? Yes or no?
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And does archaeology support
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a timeline? There are those who
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say archaeology, as I said, proves the Bible,
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but the Bible comes with the authority of Almighty God in his word,
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and he is greater. Than all else.
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Archaeology and the Bible have a complex
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relationship. Sometimes archaeological discoveries
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support details that are found in the Bible,
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while others, they raise questions or
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they suggest biblical accounts are more theological,
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perhaps, than others.
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Archaeology is— it's interesting that it's only really about 200
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years old. And many
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archaeologists look at what a little study I've done,
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they look at a timeline, a historical
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timeline, and I'm afraid
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it goes back a whole lot longer than what the Bible proves.
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They will go back hundreds of thousands of years.
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Paleontologists will go back much further than that,
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dealing with the dinosaurs and those types of things.
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But the Bible timeline, the biblical timeline,
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teaches a literal 6,000 years.
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If you go through Adam and all the way through and look at the ages
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of those who were there, you will come in the, the, uh, of course,
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the Mosaic Age, the Patriarchal Age, the Mosaic Age, and the Christian Age,
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you'll come up with about 6,000 years. And you can
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look at this from a standpoint of
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you have creation, you've got corruption,
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you've got a catastrophe. Of course, we know what that was at the Tower
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of Babel, or, uh, the sin. You've got confusion
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at the Tower of Babel. Of course, then you get into Christ And
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then you have the consummation when he comes back to claim
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his own. So, um,
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all of those things are so, so very important.
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And I'm sure there are many other events and things that we could look at,
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but whatever it is, according to the Bible, we've got to put them
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within this 6,000-year timeline.
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And of course, until Jesus comes back.
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So much of what we teach in Christianity goes back to
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the timeline of events. So again, when it comes to archaeology,
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it's rather new, as I had already said, only 200
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years old. As we explore some of the discoveries that have been made,
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you're going to find out that many of them are bogus,
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many of them are fictitious, many of them are debated. At the,
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at the most, because they're not sure. It doesn't mean they didn't happen
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in the Bible, but as far as looking for
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sites and discoveries and those types of things, there is a
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lot of debate. The accuracy
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of the Bible alongside of these discoveries shows— again,
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can't say it enough— that God's word is
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absolute. It is not subjective. It is not
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subject to change. You don't mind if I take this off, do you?
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I've had enough of that. Well, I didn't mean for it to fall on the
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ground. So what archaeology can
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do— what archaeologists do
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is study, of course. They study ancient cities.
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They study buildings and fornications.
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Fortifications, pottery, tools,
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coins, inscriptions, and human remains.
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Okay, did a particular city
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exist? What was daily life like?
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Which kings ruled during a certain period?
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And how were people organized, whether it was politically or
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religiously? And then we looked at some of
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the archaeological discoveries from
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the Old Testament that are highly debated.
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I can't believe how many different things I looked at,
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posts and those types of YouTubes and things,
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looking at different timelines or
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different situations. The Exodus from Egypt Um,
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there is no direct archaeological evidence has confirmed.
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Of course, we know that's in Exodus.
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Again, this— the Bible proves there was an Exodus. We know that.
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We know that. But where
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it was— the conquest of Jericho, that's an interesting
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one. We're going to look at that a little more.
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Evacuations have produce differing interpretations
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about whether the city's destruction matches the
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biblical timeline. Of course, that's out of Joshua 2 through
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Joshua 6. Then you've got the conquest
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of Ai. The traditional site appears
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to have been uninhabited during the period
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many scholars associate with Joshua's conquest.
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Though alternative sites,
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site proposals exist. And that's out of Joshua chapter
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8. Mount Sinai. Where is the
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exact location of Mount Sinai? Of course, we know that
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from Exodus 19 and verse 20, or Exodus 19
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and 20. They call that the Mountain of Moses. Of course,
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we know that situation.
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Pharaoh's army, uh, on the bottom of the Red Sea.
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I saw some pictures about that. Some of the wheels of the chariot
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they were showing were bigger than the divers. I don't know how big those
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chariots were, but I know one thing, they were totally destroyed.
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Whether they're there or not, that's highly debated.
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This is interesting. Noah's Ark.
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I believe it's not 2019 but 1959 this discovery
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was made. As you look at the screen and you see what
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looks to be like a boat.
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After looking at some YouTube discoveries of that,
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the dimensions of that formation
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in the ground are the exact dimensions of the Ark.
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And they've looked at the earth underneath that,
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and it's definitely different from the earth that is around
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it. And of course, that's Mount Ararat and one of the mountains there. I'm not
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sure of the location, but, um,
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if you don't want to get into that, of course we can go to Kentucky
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and see the Ark that was done in 2016.
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Perhaps some of you have have been up there, and that's an amazing thing,
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by the way. We've gone through that. We've not gone through the
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Creation Museum, but we've gone through that, and that was 2016.
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I just thought the dates were very interesting.
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But what we've got next— I hope this comes up— I was going
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to talk a little bit about Hezekiah's Tunnel, but I saw
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again a, a YouTube presentation Jonathan Moore did And
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it was tremendous. So hopefully it will come up. Here it
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comes. The tunnels narrow and the water surprisingly
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cold. As we made our way through the
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passages and waterways of a long-ago civilization,
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we were walking back in time to a period once belonging
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to the ancient citizens of Jerusalem and the nation of Judah.
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As we walked, the noise of moving water and
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the chatter of excited voices echoed
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across the tunnel walls and down the long and winding corridor
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of this extraordinary landmark. The sights
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and sounds from this historic waterway were ringing loud and
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clear, and its message was unmistakable.
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As we made our way through the tunnel, we could
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feel the chisel marks. We explored the series of
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long turns. We even experienced a few of the challenges
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of maneuvering through crowded and cramped conditions.
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This long tunnel of water was created over 2,700
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years ago, and it still carries water from Jerusalem's
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Gihon Spring down to the western side of the spur
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of Ophel, where during the time of Christ it ended
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in Pool Siloam. About halfway
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through our journey, we can feel the tunnel begin to line,
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and then make a very sharp turn. The hairpin
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turn was created when excavators digging from opposite ends
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finally approached the plane of rendezvous. A record of
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that meeting was chiseled into the tunnel wall near the southern end.
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The original inscription was removed and is now on
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display at a museum in East Anglia. A replica now hangs
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near the place where it was discovered. Written in ancient Hebrew,
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the inscription reads, while the stonecutters
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were wielding the picks, each toward his coworker,
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and while there were still 3 cubits to tunnel through,
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the voice of a man was heard calling out to his coworker.
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And on the final day of tunneling, each of the stonecutters
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was striking the stone forcefully, So as to meet
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his coworker, pick after pick,
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and then the water began to flow from the source to the pool,
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a distance of 1,200 cubits.
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These ancient excavators began their work just
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beyond the Gihon Spring, near the end of a small tunnel created
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by the Canaanites sometime during the Middle Bronze Age
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period. The Canaanites, or as the Bible calls
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them, the Jebusites, had worked to safeguard and redirect the
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waters of Gihon by digging a small passageway from
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the spring to a nearby rock-cut pool.
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They then directed a portion of the water out through a channel running
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parallel to the Kidron Valley. The channel provided water to
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farmers and residents living outside the city walls.
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During the reign of King David of Judah, this channel
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may have been the means by which Joab and his men infiltrated
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the city when King David captured it for his capital city in
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the year 1004 BC. Both the rock-hewn
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pool and the spring were accessed by a secret underground tunnel
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and protected by massive towers and walls.
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Just west of the tower and spring, and continuing
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on from the Kencock Tunnel, this newer and much longer
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tunnel begins. It meanders east to west some
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580 yards through solid limestone rock at
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depths of some 80 feet below the surface.
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Remarkably, the tunnel floor drops no more than 12 inches
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from the spring to the pool located on the opposite
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end. So if the Canaanites dug the rock-hewn
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pool and water channel situated in Kidron Valley,
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who engineered the extraordinary tunnel traveling underneath the
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city? In the Bible, we find the answer.
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In the 8th century BC, during the reign of King Uzziah,
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Jerusalem expanded westward across
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the Central Valley and on top of present-day Mount Zion.
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But its main water source at the Gihon Springs still lay
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outside the main city walls.
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Nearly 75 years later, when the new king of Jerusalem,
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Hezekiah, rebelled against the foreign rule of the Assyrians,
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he embarked upon a campaign to fortify and organize his city's
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In preparation, the Bible says that Hezekiah
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commissioned the building of a reservoir and tunnel to bring water
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inside the city walls, thus protecting Jerusalem's most
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precious water source and making it more
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accessible to its citizens on the western hill.
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The preparation paid off when in 701 BC, the Assyrians Assyrian
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general and ruler Sennacherib marched through the territories of
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Israel and Judah and conquered most of their cities.
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The famed 7th century prism discovered in 1830 by
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Colonel Robert Taylor reveals that Sennacherib was limited to
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have only encircled Jerusalem, caging it like a
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bird. He did not conquer it. Both the Bible and
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the annals of history reveal that this famed military genius
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failed to conquer Jerusalem.
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Hezekiah was successful in part because the tunnel
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had provided a flourishing water supply,
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and thus the citizens of Jerusalem could remain indefinitely within
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the city walls. Jerusalem and the nation of Judah
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had trusted in God. As a result, they were
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spared the ruthless and humiliating treatment
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endured by neighboring cities like those of Lankish, whose city
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had been destroyed once earlier. Eventually,
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the use of the tunnel was abandoned and forgotten, but rediscovered
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by Edward Robinson in the year 1837.
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The tunnel today stands as credible testimony to the accuracy
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and reliability of the Bible. Not only does the tunnel
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exist, just like the Old Testament reveals, but the
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Bible accurately pinpoints its location and
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perfectly describes the direction in which it flows.
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Truly, the message coming from Hezekiah's Tunnel is clear and
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reminds us of yet another example of the connection
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between fact and faith, right here in the places and
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passages of the land of the Bible.
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Isn't that amazing?
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700 years before Christ.
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And you saw in there the Pool of Siloam. Keep that in your mind when
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we look at something in the New Testament.
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Next we go to burn layers. Which are traces
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of judgment, yet echoes of God's grace.
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Burn layers tie us to a specific point in the past
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when civilizations collapsed.
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Shiloh, for example, has a burn layer dating
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to around the rise of the Philistines in the 11th
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century BC, likely corresponding with the
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events 1 Samuel chapter 4.
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But Shiloh was later rebuilt. New generations
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lived on top of the destruction,
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unaware of— unconcerned of what they had
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become. The layers beneath their feet were forgotten,
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and so were the warnings that were given.
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One of the most debated burn layers in biblical archaeology
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is Jericho. Scholars found remarkable
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correspondence between the site's destruction and
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the biblical account found in Joshua chapter
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6. Their excavations uncovered large
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stone jars that were filled with charred grain,
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evidence, of course, of a sudden conquest during spring
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harvest not a prolonged siege.
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Mud brick walls had collapsed outward,
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consistent with the biblical account of the walls that fell flat and
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the people went up into Jericho.
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Houses built against the city wall, if you remember,
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like Rahab's, were also found,
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and the city had been consumed by fire exactly the
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way the scriptures reveal. So whether caused by conquest,
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whether caused by divine judgment or civil
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unrest, a burn layer says
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with quiet certainty, something ended here.
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Yet sometimes, even through the soot and the
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ashes, we witness the grace of God.
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Rahab, a woman once far from righteousness,
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was saved. She and her family. Why?
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Because she believed and she
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obeyed. Her deliverance was not an accident
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of war, but an act of grace.
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She trusted the word of the Lord, and in the middle of
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judgment, She found mercy.
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One day all human
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kingdoms will fall, but there
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is a kingdom that will never fall, and there
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is one whose grace can still save us.
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We're receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, Hebrews 12:28,
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and there is only one foundation that will never become a layer of ruin.
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And that's the one of the eternal King.
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Perhaps one of the most remarkable discoveries that has been
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made are the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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Anywhere from 1947 to 1956,
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these ancient manuscripts contain the
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oldest copies of the Hebrew Bible. Perhaps you've
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seen them on display in certain situations or areas. And offer
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a fascinating glimpse into Jewish lives and
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belief during the times of Jesus,
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discovered in a series of caves near the ruins of Qumran,
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an ancient settlement in the Judea Desert.
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From what we know, a Bedouin shepherd stumbled upon the first
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scrolls when he threw a rock into a cave and he heard the
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sound of breaking pottery. This accidental discovery
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led to the excavation of 11 caves
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revealing over 900 manuscripts written
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in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
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The scrolls, carefully preserved in clay jars,
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had been hidden away for almost 2,000
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years. They contain fragments of
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nearly every book of the Hebrew Bible except
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one, and that's Esther, as well as other Jewish
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writings from the Second Temple period, 50 or
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51, 506 BC to 70 AD.
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What do they contain? They contain biblical texts.
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They include the earliest copies of books from the Hebrew Bible—
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Genesis, Isaiah, Psalms, and Deuteronomy—
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which proves the accuracy and the preservation of
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Scripture. You also have apocryphal and
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pseudepigraphal— if I say that right— writings.
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These are religious texts that are not included in the biblical canon.
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They're widely read in Jewish communities the Book of Enoch, and so
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many others. Also,
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community and sectarian writings.
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These texts provided insights into the beliefs and daily life
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of the community that preserved the scrolls,
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the Essenes, which were a Jewish sect
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that lived in isolation.
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Qumran. They are a remarkable gift to
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the world. They affirm the truth of
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God's Word, fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy,
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and the rich historical background of the New Testament.
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Their discovery allows us to see how God,
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His sovereignty preserved in the scriptures,
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he ensured that his truth remained unchanged throughout
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the ages. You see, it doesn't matter if you're a scholar,
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a believer, or just someone who's curious about
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history. The Dead Sea Scrolls stand as a powerful
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testimony to the reliability of the
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Bible and the unfolding of God's
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divine plan for humanity.
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And there you see it again, the Pool of
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Siloam, seen in 2 Chronicles
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chapter 32, as we just did, but also seen
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in John chapter 7, where Jesus healed
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the blind man. John 9:1-11.
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We have the Pilate Stone that provides
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archaeological evidence supporting Pontius Pilate,
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who we know handed over Jesus to be crucified.
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This was discovered in 1961.
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This was interesting. The heel bone of
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Yehonah, the son of Hagat, a man
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crucified in the 1st century.
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The nail was still embedded in his heel
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bone that testifies to the violent
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death. Farrell Jenkins found this in 1968.
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And then you have the Galileo inscription from Delphi,
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Greece that confirms Galile was a
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proconsul of Achaia and dates to the spring of
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AD 52. You'll remember in Acts 18:2,
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the Apostle Paul spent a year
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and a half in Corinth on his second missionary journey.
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And in Acts 18:2, we read, but when Gallio was
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proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on
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Paul and brought him before the tribunal.
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Archaeology has confirmed many
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historical facts that are found in the Bible.
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There might be some that are debated as far as where they were, what was
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going on, But when you read of these,
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and you will find many that are bogus— I was reading one just,
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a friend of mine in Alabama kept sending me all these situations,
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and they said, we finally found the body of Jesus.
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Really? I don't think so.
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In fact, I know not, did not happen.
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But you see, such as existence of certain kings,
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cities, officials cultural practices.
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Archaeology continues to refine our understanding,
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it really does, of which parts are well supported by
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the physical evidence and which remain uncertain or
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disputed. What will be found next?
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What will be found next?
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We need to keep digging. We need
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to dig for the treasures that are found in God's Word.
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And if God permits and God wills,
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perhaps there'll be some other discoveries that'll come our way.
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But they all prove one thing. They prove
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the Bible is absolute truth.
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God is not a God of confusion. If you could get on In fact,
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well, that wasn't the slide I wanted. Go on YouTube
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and look for Jonathan Moore. Go on YouTube and look for Apologetics
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Press, where you'll see Kyle and Jeremy Butt and David Miller and Jeff Miller
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and so many others that bring all of this to light.
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And they have done so much work on this, and I appreciate their efforts
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and their time.
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I'm not going to leave any time for questions because I'm not sure
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I could answer them. There are some in this room I know
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who have been over on these parts of the world.
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In fact, I think Neil is also getting a group together
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sometime in October, is it? They're going back
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over to Israel if, you know, it's a safe thing
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to do. Given the world situation right now. I don't
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really have any desire to do that. I'd rather watch YouTube channels and
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hopefully find the truth that's there. Any comments or questions?
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Good, I'm glad. No, I know Doris is gone
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and there's others that have gone that might be able to give you
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better. Isn't it amazing though? Isn't it
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amazing? Recently I saw one where they found the,
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uh, oh,
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I can't think of the name of it, the, uh, Ark,
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the Ark of the Covenant. They think they know where that is. They, when Noah's
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Ark, they found, they used this deal like it looks at pictures underground and
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they were looking at things and now they think they found the Ark
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of the Covenant. I'm not sure what's left. I hope
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we don't dig it up and worship it or anything like that, that's for sure.
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But I do appreciate your time. I think we're just about out of time.
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Hope it was good for you as it was for me.
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It definitely got me out of my comfort zone. That's the first time in over
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40 years I've taught a class on archaeology, so I've learned
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a little bit, and I hope I can go on with that. Thank you for
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your attention. I believe we're