No 1

(An overview)

This is the first of many studies that we will be doing in this often-neglected area of God providence. Just as fossils give us a blueprint of what happened to God’ s creation in antiquity, archaeology maps for us an outline of what transpired many, many centuries ago in the areas of religion, politics and culture. The Bible that we hold in our hands today did not just fall from heaven. It was put together by dedicated scholars who, under the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, assured that following generations would have God’s Word and that it would be genuine. By genuine, I mean that it would follow the many thousands of pieces of papyrus, the scores of scrolls and the many stones that were etched in Biblical times that contained God’s Holy Word. In Jesus’ time, we read in the four gospels of persons who were called “scribes”. These persons would painstakingly copy word for word, letter for letter the text of the Old Testament on scrolls and would hide them in safe places. Many centuries later, we would find these documents in dusty corners of ruins and caves and thus confirming God’s Word. Similarly, the Early Church letters of Paul and the Apostles were preserved for future believers. Archaeological findings have proved, beyond doubt, certain supposedly “unbelievable myths” to be God’s perfect Word.