Chad Knudson at The Road to Emmaus blog has posted a helpful summary for each of the twelve minor prophets, including how their message points towards Christ and the New Testament.

I think some difficulty people have when learning the message of the prophets is the key themes and ways in which each book points to Christ. Thus, I would like to focus on the twelve minor prophets and provide a summary statement along with Scriptures of how each book points to and finds its fulfillment in Christ.

Chad runs an excellent blog with articles focused around the theme of Biblical Theology, or as Chad describes it: “the unfolding revelation of Scripture as it finds its fulfillment and consummation in the person and work of Jesus Christ (Luke 24:1ff).”

Related articles:

• Reading the Prophets (1)
• Reading the Prophets (2)
• Reading the Prophets (3)
• Blogging with Habakkuk series

SourceFlix Productions has put together an excellent 3 minute video interviewing five biblical archaeologists on site in Israel. Here are some of their answers to the question: “Is the Bible relevant to archaeology?”

“You can’t do archaeology in Israel without the Bible.” (Dr. Aren Maier)

“Serious scholars, even if they’re not believers, even if they do not think this is a sacred text, still consider it to be history, because things match up so well … As it’s coming together, there isn’t anything to contradict or anything to make me wary of the testimony of Scripture.” (Dr. Steven Ortiz)

“I can’t ignore the Bible because the Bible is our main text relating to the periods that we excavate … I need some texts to refer to, and the Bible is, of course, the main one.” (Dr. Amihai Mazar)

“You cannot exclude the Bible from archaeology in this part of the country, in this particular period. You can, but then you are missing a very, very important tool … And you are missing not only this, then you are dealing with pots and pans and bones and dust. You lose the soul.” (Dr. Amnon Ben Tor)

(Note: Dr. Gabriel Barkay is also interviewed.)

There is more on the video. If you’ve got three minutes, I encourage you to visit SourceFlix and listen to these men talk on site about their work in archaeology and the Bible.

HT: BiblePlaces Blog

Overheard from another pastor:

We know from the Bible that Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. Some think this may be the reason why Peter later denied Christ.

(With apologies to all you great mothers-in-law out there – especially mine!)

The Desiring God $5 book sale has started. I was just over at the site and not only are all the books on sale for $5 each, so are their study guides and Bibles. These guys are going all out! You can even pick up an ESV hardcover, Classic Reference Edition (list $24.99) for just $5.

Update: Well, the ESV hardcover, Classic Reference Edition was on sale for $5 earlier today, but it looks like that offer is no longer available. You can still get the paperback, Life Discovery Edition for $5 though. Also, here’s an update from the Desiring God blog: “If the store is working slowly for you, please consider continuing your order a little later. There’s a rush this morning, but the sale goes through Thursday at midnight so there is plenty of time to get your order in.”

The online sale is two days only – Wednesday and Thursday, June 27 and 28. Click here for book recommendations.

Pastor Mark Roberts is posting a number of excerpts from his new book, Can We Trust the Gospels? Investigating the Reliability of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Roberts studied at Harvard University, receiving a B.A. in Philosophy, an M.A. in the Study of Religion, and a Ph.D. in New Testament and Christian Origins. As a pastor and New Testament scholar, Roberts wears both hats well in providing this readable and well-reasoned defense of the reliability of the gospel documents.

Here are some of the questions Roberts addresses in his book:

• Can we know what the original Gospel manuscripts really said?
• Did the evangelists know Jesus personally?
• When were the Gospels written?
• What sources did the Gospel writers use?
• Did early Christian oral tradition reliably pass down the truth about Jesus?
• What are the New Testament Gospels?
• What difference does it make that there are four Gospels?
• Are there contradictions in the Gospels?
• If the Gospels are theology, can they be history?
• Do miracles undermine the reliability of the Gospels?
• Do historical sources from the era of the Gospels support their reliability?
• Does archeology support the reliability of the Gospels?
• Did the political agenda of the early church influence the content of the Gospels?
• Why do we have only four Gospels in the Bible?
• Can we trust the Gospels after all?

When I was in college I read a similar book by F.F. Bruce called, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? which greatly increased my understanding and strengthened my confidence in the New Testament texts. Bruce’s book became somewhat of a classic on the topic, and I expect Roberts’ book will help a whole new generation come to grips with the reliability of the Biblical gospels.

Well, it’s not quite the Holodeck, but it still sounds pretty interesting. Has anyone ever heard about the Visualization Portal at UCLA before? I came across this in some reading this weekend.

A 40-seat theater with up-to-date virtual reality technologies located on the 5th floor of the Math Science Building, the facility is literally a portal into other times, places, and experiences. The Portal is used for both instruction and research, and has particular foci on Historical Architectural Monuments, Scientific Visualizations and Digital Technologies for the Performance Arts …

The historical architectural models shown in the Portal are an experiment in using virtual reality to recreate a place and time that no longer exist. Used both for research and instruction, there are currently 42 models under development to improve the understanding of the original historical site and to develop new applications that will ultimately heighten the research and instruction experiences.

Rhett Smith shares about his experience touring the Second Temple in the Visualizaton Portal. (The Second Temple was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem which stood between 516 BC and 70 AD. Solomon’s Temple, also known as the First Temple, was destroyed in 586 BC.)

Bel Air Presbyterian attender and UCLA Chair for the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures Bill Schniedewind was our host, as he walked us through the Second Temple. In just that short time the Bible was brought to life for me in ways that I could not have imagined. I have been to Israel, Syria and Jordan before, but even being there in person didn’t compare to walking through the Second Temple in practical “virtual reality.” Dr. Schniedewind also walked us through Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls which was also very, very fascinating.

You can view a sample video of the Portal here. The video takes you on a brief virtual reality tour of the Second Temple, the Coliseum, Port Royal, the Roman Forum, and of course a virtual UCLA campus. The video also includes samples from some of the scientific visualizations such as simulations of the creation of the universe, weather models, antibodies, etc. This sounds like a fascinating project and well worth a visit if you are ever in the area.

Ben Witherington was in Turkey last week and offers some pictures and commentary from the town of Harran. Modern-day Harran is the site of the Biblical Haran where Abraham and his family settled before moving to Canaan. (“Together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.” – Genesis 11:31.) This is a picture of an ancient astrological tower located in the ruins of Harran.

From this very tower in the second century B.C. the distance between the earth and moon was correctly calculated. Ancient astrologers were not tawdry palm readers– they were mathematicians scanning the heavenly realms and making calculations. Think of the wise men in Matthew’s Gospel. For someone on a spiritual journey, coming to Harran was like finding the ultimate ancient GPS device– you fell right into the lap of the greatest stargazers and mystics available. It is no surprise then that Gen. 12.1-3 depicts Abram himself as receiving a revelation in this very place to move on to Canaan. As a crossroads town, Harran was an important watch and signal post as well, and they sent messages by means of trained birds to the next caravanserai– trained birds like small hawks and carrier pigeons, just like the ones still nesting in the tower today. Imagine my surprise when I huffed and puffed up the tower only to find such birds still nesting there. Also in the center of the ruins was a huge reflection pool, also used for stargazing as in the movie ‘The Nativity’.

I thought the reflecting pool in The Nativity Story was awesome, so it is very cool to know these things actually existed. You can visit Ben’s site for more background information and more pictures from his trip.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a missionary Bible translator? I have always been fascinated with missionary organizations like Wycliffe and New Tribes Mission that focus on translating the Bible into the languages of unreached people groups. Missionaries go and live with the people, learn their language, put the language into writing, translate the Scriptures, and then teach the people how to read the Bible in their own language. It is an awesome task.

Wycliffe U.K has put together a set of interactive puzzles where you can actually try your skills at translating a foreign language.

A foreign language is just like a code that needs to be broken especially where you have no textbooks, trained teachers or linguaphone courses…

A new language may seem daunting but try and solve the puzzles – you’ll be surprised at what you can do!

Apart from aptitude, there are two qualities that are needed to learn another language: adequate time to learn, and the motivation. Obviously those can’t be tested here!

These puzzles though will give you a good idea of your aptitude. Even you don’t do particularly well at this, if the other two factors are in your favour then you’ll still be able to make some headway.

Looks like fun! If you do give this a try, come back to the comments here and let us know how you made out.

Dutch contractor Johan Huibers has built a massive replica of Noah’s Ark in the town of Schagen in the Netherlands. Huibers’ ark is 2/3 the length of a football field and as high as a 3-story house. That may seem huge, but Noah’s Ark as described in the Bible is actually 5 times larger!

Inside Huibers’ Ark are life-sized models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison, and other animals. There is a petting zoo on the top deck and also a 50-seat theater where children can watch the Noah’s Ark segment from the Disney film Fantasia.

Huiber hopes that his ark will help bring renewed interest in Christianity to the Netherlands, where churchgoing has been in decline for decades. “I would really like to inspire people to search for God and to begin to read the Bible,” he said. Huibers’ ark is fully functional, and he plans to sail the ark to major cities in Belgium and Germany in the near future.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace activists are building an ark of their own on Mount Ararat. Mount Ararat is the location where the Bible records Noah’s Ark resting after the flood. The Greenpeace Ark is a much smaller model than Huibers’. (Huibers’ Ark measures 230ft x 45ft x 30 ft; the Greenpeace Ark will measure 32ft x 13ft x 13ft.) The Greenpeace Ark will be unveiled to the public on Thursday, May 31 as part of a demonstration against global warming.

So that makes for a grand total of three arks now – Noah’s, Hubiers’ and Greenpeace’s – unless it’s true about Noah building two arks. Oh, you didn’t hear about that? Rumor has it that Noah actually built two arks, but he built the first one in the basement and couldn’t get it out. 🙂

HT: PastorBlog

A couple weeks ago I posted on Reading the Bible with Non-Christian Friends. Mr. Dawn Treader shares about doing exactly that over at his blog. See his post on Opening the Bible with an Unbeliever here.

Does the Bible have anything to say about the weather? One of the biggest debates about global warming today (other than, “Does it exist?”) is whether or not it is caused by humans. Can you really blame climate change and wacky weather patterns on mankind?

Buster Wilson from American Family Radio answers “Yes,” but it is not what you think. Buster blames the weather problems in our world, not on current human activity, but on prior human sin and the fall of man. He quotes Paul from the book of Romans in this regard:

“For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope, that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” (Romans 8:19-22)

Says Buster, “That’s the Bible answer to what’s happening with the crazy weather, earthquakes, tsunamis, et al. It’s the creation crying out for God the Father to set all things right.”

Whatever your views on global warming and climate change, Buster makes a great theological point here. When we talk about problems in the created order, we must not forget to take into account the fall of man. You can read the whole article at Buster’s blog here.

Bible helps. A Cincinnatti man charged with credit card fraud was released on bond after reciting scripture in the courtroom. When the man’s attorney described his client as a church-goer, the judge asked the defendant to recite the 23rd Psalm. The man promptly recited all six verses, and the judge released him on a $10,000 appearance bond.

The Green Commandments. How many lightbulbs does it take to change a Christian? That is the title of a new booklet published by the Church of England aimed at encouraging Christians to become more environmentally conscious. Among the lifestyle changes suggested in the booklet are: carpooling to church on Sundays, vacationing locally, and using a toaster instead of a grill.

Finishing college in one year. 19-year old Nicole Matisse is on track to graduate from the University of Michigan this summer with a bachelor’s degree of psychology after only one year of studies. She entered the university last fall as a junior after passing eight advanced placement courses and completing eight community college classes. She took 19 credits in the fall semester and 27 credits this semester. She plans to start law school in the fall.