VBS 2026 - "Archeology" by Bill Dayton - Part 1

In order to teach a class in archaeology,

you've got to look like you're an archaeologist.

I don't wear hats much, but I'll go ahead and try this one.

You've all heard of Indiana Jones.

You've heard of Dora the Explorer.

You've heard of Bill Nye the Science Guy. Oh, that doesn't really fit,

but tonight you got me. It's good to be here.

I pray tonight as we study the scriptures and look at archaeology

that we can come away from this

class looking more towards the scriptures and

how they prove archaeology.

I don't believe archaeology proves the Bible.

I believe the Bible proves archaeology or any other study that

comes our way. And I better put on

my glasses or I'm not going to see my—

we're told in Psalm 85:11

Psalms 85:11

Truth shall spring out of the earth.

And in Psalm 119:89,

Psalms 119:89

forever, O Lord, your word is settled in

heaven. One thing we know: God's

word is sure. It is absolute.

It outlasts human generations.

In his own time, God supports his truth.

When you look at some of these questions that are given,

we see— well, we see that God's

word is absolute, archaeology is not.

But the question I'd like to propose to you: does archaeology

prove the Bible? Yes or no? Does archaeology

support details found

in the Bible? Yes or no?

And does archaeology support

a timeline? There are those who

say archaeology, as I said, proves the Bible,

but the Bible comes with the authority of Almighty God in his word,

and he is greater. Than all else.

Archaeology and the Bible have a complex

relationship. Sometimes archaeological discoveries

support details that are found in the Bible,

while others, they raise questions or

they suggest biblical accounts are more theological,

perhaps, than others.

Archaeology is— it's interesting that it's only really about 200

years old. And many

archaeologists look at what a little study I've done,

they look at a timeline, a historical

timeline, and I'm afraid

it goes back a whole lot longer than what the Bible proves.

They will go back hundreds of thousands of years.

Paleontologists will go back much further than that,

dealing with the dinosaurs and those types of things.

But the Bible timeline, the biblical timeline,

teaches a literal 6,000 years.

If you go through Adam and all the way through and look at the ages

of those who were there, you will come in the, the, uh, of course,

the Mosaic Age, the Patriarchal Age, the Mosaic Age, and the Christian Age,

you'll come up with about 6,000 years. And you can

look at this from a standpoint of

you have creation, you've got corruption,

you've got a catastrophe. Of course, we know what that was at the Tower

of Babel, or, uh, the sin. You've got confusion

at the Tower of Babel. Of course, then you get into Christ And

then you have the consummation when he comes back to claim

his own. So, um,

all of those things are so, so very important.

And I'm sure there are many other events and things that we could look at,

but whatever it is, according to the Bible, we've got to put them

within this 6,000-year timeline.

And of course, until Jesus comes back.

So much of what we teach in Christianity goes back to

the timeline of events. So again, when it comes to archaeology,

it's rather new, as I had already said, only 200

years old. As we explore some of the discoveries that have been made,

you're going to find out that many of them are bogus,

many of them are fictitious, many of them are debated. At the,

at the most, because they're not sure. It doesn't mean they didn't happen

in the Bible, but as far as looking for

sites and discoveries and those types of things, there is a

lot of debate. The accuracy

of the Bible alongside of these discoveries shows— again,

can't say it enough— that God's word is

absolute. It is not subjective. It is not

subject to change. You don't mind if I take this off, do you?

I've had enough of that. Well, I didn't mean for it to fall on the

ground. So what archaeology can

do— what archaeologists do

is study, of course. They study ancient cities.

They study buildings and fornications.

Fortifications, pottery, tools,

coins, inscriptions, and human remains.

Okay, did a particular city

exist? What was daily life like?

Which kings ruled during a certain period?

And how were people organized, whether it was politically or

religiously? And then we looked at some of

the archaeological discoveries from

the Old Testament that are highly debated.

I can't believe how many different things I looked at,

posts and those types of YouTubes and things,

looking at different timelines or

different situations. The Exodus from Egypt Um,

there is no direct archaeological evidence has confirmed.

Of course, we know that's in Exodus.

Again, this— the Bible proves there was an Exodus. We know that.

We know that. But where

it was— the conquest of Jericho, that's an interesting

one. We're going to look at that a little more.

Evacuations have produce differing interpretations

about whether the city's destruction matches the

biblical timeline. Of course, that's out of Joshua 2 through

Joshua 6. Then you've got the conquest

of Ai. The traditional site appears

to have been uninhabited during the period

many scholars associate with Joshua's conquest.

Though alternative sites,

site proposals exist. And that's out of Joshua chapter

Joshua 8 · chapter mention

8. Mount Sinai. Where is the

exact location of Mount Sinai? Of course, we know that

from Exodus 19 and verse 20, or Exodus 19

and 20. They call that the Mountain of Moses. Of course,

we know that situation.

Pharaoh's army, uh, on the bottom of the Red Sea.

I saw some pictures about that. Some of the wheels of the chariot

they were showing were bigger than the divers. I don't know how big those

chariots were, but I know one thing, they were totally destroyed.

Whether they're there or not, that's highly debated.

This is interesting. Noah's Ark.

I believe it's not 2019 but 1959 this discovery

was made. As you look at the screen and you see what

looks to be like a boat.

After looking at some YouTube discoveries of that,

the dimensions of that formation

in the ground are the exact dimensions of the Ark.

And they've looked at the earth underneath that,

and it's definitely different from the earth that is around

it. And of course, that's Mount Ararat and one of the mountains there. I'm not

sure of the location, but, um,

if you don't want to get into that, of course we can go to Kentucky

and see the Ark that was done in 2016.

Perhaps some of you have have been up there, and that's an amazing thing,

by the way. We've gone through that. We've not gone through the

Creation Museum, but we've gone through that, and that was 2016.

I just thought the dates were very interesting.

But what we've got next— I hope this comes up— I was going

to talk a little bit about Hezekiah's Tunnel, but I saw

again a, a YouTube presentation Jonathan Moore did And

it was tremendous. So hopefully it will come up. Here it

comes. The tunnels narrow and the water surprisingly

cold. As we made our way through the

passages and waterways of a long-ago civilization,

we were walking back in time to a period once belonging

to the ancient citizens of Jerusalem and the nation of Judah.

As we walked, the noise of moving water and

the chatter of excited voices echoed

across the tunnel walls and down the long and winding corridor

of this extraordinary landmark. The sights

and sounds from this historic waterway were ringing loud and

clear, and its message was unmistakable.

As we made our way through the tunnel, we could

feel the chisel marks. We explored the series of

long turns. We even experienced a few of the challenges

of maneuvering through crowded and cramped conditions.

This long tunnel of water was created over 2,700

years ago, and it still carries water from Jerusalem's

Gihon Spring down to the western side of the spur

of Ophel, where during the time of Christ it ended

in Pool Siloam. About halfway

through our journey, we can feel the tunnel begin to line,

and then make a very sharp turn. The hairpin

turn was created when excavators digging from opposite ends

finally approached the plane of rendezvous. A record of

that meeting was chiseled into the tunnel wall near the southern end.

The original inscription was removed and is now on

display at a museum in East Anglia. A replica now hangs

near the place where it was discovered. Written in ancient Hebrew,

the inscription reads, while the stonecutters

were wielding the picks, each toward his coworker,

and while there were still 3 cubits to tunnel through,

the voice of a man was heard calling out to his coworker.

And on the final day of tunneling, each of the stonecutters

was striking the stone forcefully, So as to meet

his coworker, pick after pick,

and then the water began to flow from the source to the pool,

a distance of 1,200 cubits.

These ancient excavators began their work just

beyond the Gihon Spring, near the end of a small tunnel created

by the Canaanites sometime during the Middle Bronze Age

period. The Canaanites, or as the Bible calls

them, the Jebusites, had worked to safeguard and redirect the

waters of Gihon by digging a small passageway from

the spring to a nearby rock-cut pool.

They then directed a portion of the water out through a channel running

parallel to the Kidron Valley. The channel provided water to

farmers and residents living outside the city walls.

During the reign of King David of Judah, this channel

may have been the means by which Joab and his men infiltrated

the city when King David captured it for his capital city in

the year 1004 BC. Both the rock-hewn

pool and the spring were accessed by a secret underground tunnel

and protected by massive towers and walls.

Just west of the tower and spring, and continuing

on from the Kencock Tunnel, this newer and much longer

tunnel begins. It meanders east to west some

580 yards through solid limestone rock at

depths of some 80 feet below the surface.

Remarkably, the tunnel floor drops no more than 12 inches

from the spring to the pool located on the opposite

end. So if the Canaanites dug the rock-hewn

pool and water channel situated in Kidron Valley,

who engineered the extraordinary tunnel traveling underneath the

city? In the Bible, we find the answer.

In the 8th century BC, during the reign of King Uzziah,

Jerusalem expanded westward across

the Central Valley and on top of present-day Mount Zion.

But its main water source at the Gihon Springs still lay

outside the main city walls.

Nearly 75 years later, when the new king of Jerusalem,

Hezekiah, rebelled against the foreign rule of the Assyrians,

he embarked upon a campaign to fortify and organize his city's

In preparation, the Bible says that Hezekiah

commissioned the building of a reservoir and tunnel to bring water

inside the city walls, thus protecting Jerusalem's most

precious water source and making it more

accessible to its citizens on the western hill.

The preparation paid off when in 701 BC, the Assyrians Assyrian

general and ruler Sennacherib marched through the territories of

Israel and Judah and conquered most of their cities.

The famed 7th century prism discovered in 1830 by

Colonel Robert Taylor reveals that Sennacherib was limited to

have only encircled Jerusalem, caging it like a

bird. He did not conquer it. Both the Bible and

the annals of history reveal that this famed military genius

failed to conquer Jerusalem.

Hezekiah was successful in part because the tunnel

had provided a flourishing water supply,

and thus the citizens of Jerusalem could remain indefinitely within

the city walls. Jerusalem and the nation of Judah

had trusted in God. As a result, they were

spared the ruthless and humiliating treatment

endured by neighboring cities like those of Lankish, whose city

had been destroyed once earlier. Eventually,

the use of the tunnel was abandoned and forgotten, but rediscovered

by Edward Robinson in the year 1837.

The tunnel today stands as credible testimony to the accuracy

and reliability of the Bible. Not only does the tunnel

exist, just like the Old Testament reveals, but the

Bible accurately pinpoints its location and

perfectly describes the direction in which it flows.

Truly, the message coming from Hezekiah's Tunnel is clear and

reminds us of yet another example of the connection

between fact and faith, right here in the places and

passages of the land of the Bible.

Isn't that amazing?

700 years before Christ.

And you saw in there the Pool of Siloam. Keep that in your mind when

we look at something in the New Testament.

Next we go to burn layers. Which are traces

of judgment, yet echoes of God's grace.

Burn layers tie us to a specific point in the past

when civilizations collapsed.

Shiloh, for example, has a burn layer dating

to around the rise of the Philistines in the 11th

century BC, likely corresponding with the

events 1 Samuel chapter 4.

1 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

But Shiloh was later rebuilt. New generations

lived on top of the destruction,

unaware of— unconcerned of what they had

become. The layers beneath their feet were forgotten,

and so were the warnings that were given.

One of the most debated burn layers in biblical archaeology

is Jericho. Scholars found remarkable

correspondence between the site's destruction and

the biblical account found in Joshua chapter

Joshua 6 · chapter mention

6. Their excavations uncovered large

stone jars that were filled with charred grain,

evidence, of course, of a sudden conquest during spring

harvest not a prolonged siege.

Mud brick walls had collapsed outward,

consistent with the biblical account of the walls that fell flat and

the people went up into Jericho.

Houses built against the city wall, if you remember,

like Rahab's, were also found,

and the city had been consumed by fire exactly the

way the scriptures reveal. So whether caused by conquest,

whether caused by divine judgment or civil

unrest, a burn layer says

with quiet certainty, something ended here.

Yet sometimes, even through the soot and the

ashes, we witness the grace of God.

Rahab, a woman once far from righteousness,

was saved. She and her family. Why?

Because she believed and she

obeyed. Her deliverance was not an accident

of war, but an act of grace.

She trusted the word of the Lord, and in the middle of

judgment, She found mercy.

One day all human

kingdoms will fall, but there

is a kingdom that will never fall, and there

is one whose grace can still save us.

We're receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, Hebrews 12:28,

Hebrews 12:28

and there is only one foundation that will never become a layer of ruin.

And that's the one of the eternal King.

Perhaps one of the most remarkable discoveries that has been

made are the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Anywhere from 1947 to 1956,

these ancient manuscripts contain the

oldest copies of the Hebrew Bible. Perhaps you've

seen them on display in certain situations or areas. And offer

a fascinating glimpse into Jewish lives and

belief during the times of Jesus,

discovered in a series of caves near the ruins of Qumran,

an ancient settlement in the Judea Desert.

From what we know, a Bedouin shepherd stumbled upon the first

scrolls when he threw a rock into a cave and he heard the

sound of breaking pottery. This accidental discovery

led to the excavation of 11 caves

revealing over 900 manuscripts written

in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.

The scrolls, carefully preserved in clay jars,

had been hidden away for almost 2,000

years. They contain fragments of

nearly every book of the Hebrew Bible except

one, and that's Esther, as well as other Jewish

writings from the Second Temple period, 50 or

51, 506 BC to 70 AD.

What do they contain? They contain biblical texts.

They include the earliest copies of books from the Hebrew Bible—

Genesis, Isaiah, Psalms, and Deuteronomy—

which proves the accuracy and the preservation of

Scripture. You also have apocryphal and

pseudepigraphal— if I say that right— writings.

These are religious texts that are not included in the biblical canon.

They're widely read in Jewish communities the Book of Enoch, and so

many others. Also,

community and sectarian writings.

These texts provided insights into the beliefs and daily life

of the community that preserved the scrolls,

the Essenes, which were a Jewish sect

that lived in isolation.

Qumran. They are a remarkable gift to

the world. They affirm the truth of

God's Word, fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy,

and the rich historical background of the New Testament.

Their discovery allows us to see how God,

His sovereignty preserved in the scriptures,

he ensured that his truth remained unchanged throughout

the ages. You see, it doesn't matter if you're a scholar,

a believer, or just someone who's curious about

history. The Dead Sea Scrolls stand as a powerful

testimony to the reliability of the

Bible and the unfolding of God's

divine plan for humanity.

And there you see it again, the Pool of

Siloam, seen in 2 Chronicles

2 Chronicles 32 · chapter mention

chapter 32, as we just did, but also seen

in John chapter 7, where Jesus healed

John 7 · chapter mention

the blind man. John 9:1-11.

John 9:1–11

We have the Pilate Stone that provides

archaeological evidence supporting Pontius Pilate,

who we know handed over Jesus to be crucified.

This was discovered in 1961.

This was interesting. The heel bone of

Yehonah, the son of Hagat, a man

crucified in the 1st century.

The nail was still embedded in his heel

bone that testifies to the violent

death. Farrell Jenkins found this in 1968.

And then you have the Galileo inscription from Delphi,

Greece that confirms Galile was a

proconsul of Achaia and dates to the spring of

AD 52. You'll remember in Acts 18:2,

Acts 18:2

the Apostle Paul spent a year

and a half in Corinth on his second missionary journey.

And in Acts 18:2, we read, but when Gallio was

Acts 18:2

proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on

Paul and brought him before the tribunal.

Archaeology has confirmed many

historical facts that are found in the Bible.

There might be some that are debated as far as where they were, what was

going on, But when you read of these,

and you will find many that are bogus— I was reading one just,

a friend of mine in Alabama kept sending me all these situations,

and they said, we finally found the body of Jesus.

Really? I don't think so.

In fact, I know not, did not happen.

But you see, such as existence of certain kings,

cities, officials cultural practices.

Archaeology continues to refine our understanding,

it really does, of which parts are well supported by

the physical evidence and which remain uncertain or

disputed. What will be found next?

What will be found next?

We need to keep digging. We need

to dig for the treasures that are found in God's Word.

And if God permits and God wills,

perhaps there'll be some other discoveries that'll come our way.

But they all prove one thing. They prove

the Bible is absolute truth.

God is not a God of confusion. If you could get on In fact,

well, that wasn't the slide I wanted. Go on YouTube

and look for Jonathan Moore. Go on YouTube and look for Apologetics

Press, where you'll see Kyle and Jeremy Butt and David Miller and Jeff Miller

and so many others that bring all of this to light.

And they have done so much work on this, and I appreciate their efforts

and their time.

I'm not going to leave any time for questions because I'm not sure

I could answer them. There are some in this room I know

who have been over on these parts of the world.

In fact, I think Neil is also getting a group together

sometime in October, is it? They're going back

over to Israel if, you know, it's a safe thing

to do. Given the world situation right now. I don't

really have any desire to do that. I'd rather watch YouTube channels and

hopefully find the truth that's there. Any comments or questions?

Good, I'm glad. No, I know Doris is gone

and there's others that have gone that might be able to give you

better. Isn't it amazing though? Isn't it

amazing? Recently I saw one where they found the,

uh, oh,

I can't think of the name of it, the, uh, Ark,

the Ark of the Covenant. They think they know where that is. They, when Noah's

Ark, they found, they used this deal like it looks at pictures underground and

they were looking at things and now they think they found the Ark

of the Covenant. I'm not sure what's left. I hope

we don't dig it up and worship it or anything like that, that's for sure.

But I do appreciate your time. I think we're just about out of time.

Hope it was good for you as it was for me.

It definitely got me out of my comfort zone. That's the first time in over

40 years I've taught a class on archaeology, so I've learned

a little bit, and I hope I can go on with that. Thank you for

your attention. I believe we're