Welcome to Watchman on the Wall, a daily outreach of Southwest Radio Ministries and SWRC.com. God is still on the throne, and prayer changes things. Today, Wayne House continues taking us inside the exciting world of biblical archaeology. I hope you and your family are making plans to join us this summer for the Mysteries of the Bible Verse event, June 7th and 8th in Cincinnati. The lineup of speakers is amazing, and the topics covered will be out of this world. Don't miss the premiere event of 2024. For a complete listing of speakers and topics, and a link to special hotel rates, visit the events page of our website, SWRC.com. Giants, UFOs, dragons, demons, secret societies, topics your Sunday school teacher didn't talk about will all be covered at the Mysteries of the Bible Verse event June 7th and 8th. Registration is now open with a limited number of VIP packages still available. visit the events page of our website, SWRC.com, and register today. You can also register by phone. Call 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. Mysteries of the Bible Verse, June 7th and 8th in the Cincinnati area. Here's today's host, the director of Affirm Apologetics, Clayton Van Hus. Thank you for tuning in to the Watchman on the Wall program today. I am your host, Clayton Van Hus. I am the director of Affirm Apologetics. That is the Southwest Radio Ministry's new apologetics department. And we do a lot of apologetics through archaeology, where we talk about a defense for our faith. So today, we have on the program a special guest. Dr. H. Wayne House, who is an author, a biblical scholar, he has done just about everything. But we're talking to him today about his work with the Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology. We'll talk about that in a bit. But first, let's talk to Dr. House. Dr. House, thank you for joining us today. Good to be with you. Good. So you are working on a current project. I'm very interested, very excited. We talked a little about it yesterday. Can you tell us what this project is and how it will help us with our apologetics ministry? Well, I'm working on something, as I mentioned yesterday, regarding understanding the biblical text passage by passage by passage. And, you know, people read the Bible, but oftentimes don't have the tools in front of them that would be required to cover all these different kinds of subject areas and technologies, or whatever's going on in the ancient world, or the animals, or the mountains, or whatever the text is talking about. I'm trying to make it so that it's understandable. And I got this idea at Caesarea Philippi when I was leaving, as I do, except for Coke Fib, where I lost three tours. I've done tours for many years, and when I go on tours, I try to make sure that what we visit, I can help explain the Bible better by talking about what's there. What we do in this thing called the House Visual Study Bible, named after, obviously, me, House Visual Study Bible, it tries to help the reader as they're reading, let's say, like Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, or the book of Isaiah, or whatever it may be. I try to deal with word studies to explain certain words that might be not known to the person, something about the history of the period, the artifacts that help support understanding the text. or I have videos where I take, you know, for example, in the Colosseum at Beit She'an that a lot of people never even go to. I always go there. I say, that's the only Colosseum a lot of people will ever be in unless they're going to take a trip to Rome. The fact is, everywhere I am in the biblical text, I want to try to explain the kinds of tools that are being used, the ways in which people's lives, you know, what is a farmer, You know, what does it look like? What is a vineyard? And when I talk about John 15, I go and explain the grammar. People get that wrong so often. I have a lengthy article on the question of John 15, which people get wrong so much because of the bad translation that's gone on. I try to show people the vineyards and how it works. The fact is, I'm trying to take people through the Bible, and as they read their Bible online, it's an online kind of program on a phone or on a computer, it will give them understanding of the biblical text of all sorts. I mean, whether it be dealing with Bible doctrine in the text, historical issues in the text, certain kinds of passages that explain meaning, the whole idea, for example, of Joseph and divorce and so forth. I try to answer all the questions I would want to have answered for me, because I'm going through the biblical section. It's easy to get, hvsb.app. Don't type .com, it's .app. HVSB.app, and that takes you, and it's a subscription. You can get it per month or per year, and this helps me to pay for it, and I have a programmer that needs to be fed, and things like this. So take a look at it, see what you think. Yeah, certainly I enjoyed getting to look at it myself. I think this is one of those tools that's going to be useful. And seeing you develop that with all of the things that are going into it, and then to know that you actually put a lot of work into this Zondervan Handbook. And by the way, for our listener, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, it really belongs on any Bible scholar's shelf, any layman's shelf. It's a book-by-book guide to archaeological discoveries related to the Bible. That helps us with our apologetic. It helps us with our understanding. You talked yesterday, Dr. House, about how the Bible was written for us, but not necessarily to us. And that's something that we had pounded into our heads in seminary. Can you tell us just a little bit about that concept again? What does that mean? Well, there are a lot of people who think that somehow the Bible is written to them, but it's written to the people that the text says it was written to. It was not written to me. It was written for me. What does that mean? If it were written to me, I would, first of all, it would be in Greek or in Hebrew. It wouldn't be in English, right? That's what the people who received the biblical text from the apostles and prophets have. I mean, that's what they worked in. So I wouldn't have to learn the language if it was to me, because I would be of that native speaking group. The fact is, it's written for my benefit. But see, so much of the ancient world is outside our personal experience. I mean, 21st century America, you know, it's not is not thinking about the same kind of things. It has a different life around us. I mean, trying to read an ancient book, which is still valid in its theology and meaning for us, is difficult for a person that's not living in that setting. I think I give you an example about the people at Wycliffe who contacted me. They said, you know, we're training people to have a written language. I mean, these people don't have a written language, so they teach them a written language, and then they translate the Bible into it. But the guy said they don't have a clue what the text is saying, even though we've given them the language now to read it, because their context culturally and geographically is so unique and different from the biblical. They don't understand what a camel is. They don't understand what a sheep is. They don't understand mountains. I mean, you know, the fact is, it's not part of their experience. What it is is as we read the Bible as it's written for us, we recognize that we have to study the Bible. It's not like a book we just pick up and read in English. And so it's a process, and a lot of people don't want to spend the time to do that, but that's where Christian growth comes from. That's right. As we interact with the Bible and understand more about what God is saying, then all of a sudden we grow as Christians that way. So if we want to be lazy, we cannot read the Bible or read it in some kind of major paraphrase that usually isn't translated well. My first trip to Israel completely changed the way I read the Bible. And I know that our listeners, not everyone is able to go. And right now, we've got things like we've got the war going on, and it's hard to get there sometimes. So what we need is we need it brought to us, which is what you're doing with your commentary or what you're working on. And it's also what's going on in this Zondervan handbook of biblical archaeology. It's bringing us the culture and the context. Yeah, I mean, obviously in a book like the handbook, it has some very nice pictures, by the way, and it has good discussion. It's up to date. But when you look at the handbook, there's so many things that you read about in the Bible. If you've never studied it, you wouldn't have a clue about what it's talking about any more than if you were trying to read, if you didn't know French and you had a French document in front of you, how would you deal with it? You have to learn the language. But what we've done, is translate that language, so to speak, for you in such a way that you can see what the text is saying. When it talks about Caiaphas, you can see the information on him, his name on the side of the ossuary. Or if we're discussing something about, for example, the synagogue, you can visit one in Israel, but you may not be able to visit one now. Maybe you can't go. I always tell people, when you go back home after having been in this kind of tour we're doing, you will never read your Bible the same way again. And the reason why is because you understand by seeing what the text is saying, and that comes with some time. And a handbook like this, or stuff like my study Bible, has the same purpose. It tries to help make understandable each passage of the Bible that you read. That's what our function is. Now, the handbook, obviously, based on the nature of it, can't cover as much as I'm covering in the study Bible, but it has some wonderful large pictures that connect to biblical text. You'll see, actually, the biblical text quoted, and then it will be a discussion that either I or Randy has made, Dr. Price, my co-author. We've made about that and connecting it to archaeology, either a site, a biblical site, for example. What is, in fact, when it talks about the idea of Corazin in the Bible, that it would never, it said Jesus cursed that city. He said, you will never be built up again. Go to Corazin today. It still hasn't, it's just a bunch of rubble of rock. Having this information helps you to understand the biblical text. It does, it does. And like you mentioned, there are some beautiful pictures. I've actually got it open right now to a picture of the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim. And there's a picture of you shaking hands with a Samaritan priest. I assume that's on Mount Gerizim. I want to shake hands with a good Samaritan. This guy, his dad is a priest there and he was the next one in line. He may still, he actually may have taken the position by now. but a very nice person. There's only a couple of thousands of Americans around there, basically gone out of existence. And it's interesting to be, say, I could talk to someone who has a culture that basically is going under. I mean, you know, there's just, I think, 2,000 in the entire state of Israel and all that area. So anyways, it's to get into the history and understand the text. And they have a good museum to look at. Unless you go there, you can't get all of this, but we can try to give you as much as possible to make the text better understood. Yes, yes, absolutely. So we're talking with Dr. H. Wayne House today. He's the co-author of the Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology. He's a scholar, professor. He's done some work in his own right. If you're interested in the book, and I do highly recommend it, you can visit our bookstore at swrc.com. That's swrc.com. You can give us a call at 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. And this book is not just for scholars. I have this book on my bookshelf. I use it all the time. When I was in seminary, it was my favorite textbook. It's got beautiful color pictures, and those helped me. It's got all sorts of charts and information. You guys did a great job in putting this book together. And it's not just for the scholar, it's for anyone who wants to know more about the context of the Bible. Speaking of context, and we learn this through all sorts of things, studying the text, but also digging. You've had some experience digging as well, haven't you? Yes, I've enjoyed archaeology right inside the land. Not just in a book, but actually digging the dirt up. It's a fascinating field. You have to understand the process by which you go through it. Right. And one of the interesting things, I think archaeology is such a great tool for apologetics. When I got into archaeology, I thought, you know, I'm just, I want to know more about the Bible. I want to be able to teach more about the Bible. I want to be able to study. But what I have found is what I use archaeology for more than anything else. is for apologetics reasons. People have questions, they have concerns about the Bible, maybe they make claims about it, and I'm able to take what I have learned about the history and the context where scripture was written, and I'm able to use that as a defense against the claims of skeptics. Have you come across that sort of thing yourself? Oh, all the time. Of course, I'm always involved in doing research and writing. That's just what I do. The fact is, I see all sorts of claims being made by individuals who either are unaware of what has been found since they started making their claims, or they're ignorant. They've never really done the study But anyone who really gets themselves into the Biblical text and into Biblical archaeology will recognize that, first of all, you're not going to find everything to support every issue because you'd have to dig up the entire world almost. There's not a ton of money. I mean, you can't…if I come to a Biblical site like Achish up in the southern area that was taken over by the Babylonians and Assyrians and so forth, the fact is It's still a mound, but you find pieces of things here and there that the biblical text talks about. Sometimes you find extremely important pieces, and I will use that as an example, because they found letters that were being written by individuals who were under the siege of the Assyrians. And these things have been covered over. And then they found information that gave insight into what was happening historically at that place. Right, and that is really interesting. The Bible talks about Sennacherib moving his Assyrian army into Judah. The Assyrians had already conquered northern Israel, now they were down in Judah. And it talks about him coming in, and at Lachish we find those letters, and they are terrifying. Because the letters are being written by these people who are being besieged, and you see things about the signal fires of Azekah have gone out. So they know that the Assyrians are getting closer and closer, and their doom is upon them. And then of course the Bible records where Sennacherib conquers Lachish, goes on to Jerusalem, to face Hezekiah, and then God does a miraculous thing and sends the angel of the Lord to wipe out 185,000 Assyrians. But we see this in the record. What a terrible experience for Sennacherib. You have an entire army, and you brag about how you've taken all these other places in the southern Judah area, and all these things I've taken. I'm going to take you, too, and the next morning you woke up without an army. What does he do about that? He still brags because we have his own writing where he says, oh, you know, I conquered 42 cities or however many in Judah. And then as for Hezekiah, their king, I locked him up in his royal city of Jerusalem, like a bird in a cage. Never mentions that he lost his army, but we know that immediately he left and went back to back up into Assyria. Yeah. He did, and we find the information there, which is so fascinating, because he didn't take his whole army from Assyria down to Israel to be able to say, I locked somebody up in a cage. To take it over. Exactly. And if you look at his palace at Nineveh, the art in that palace is all about the siege of Lachish. That was the crowning jewel of his Judean campaign. It was not Jerusalem, it was Lachish. Yeah, so it matches up. You know, the Bible always comes out. We can look at it and we can trust it. I haven't spent my life studying scripture. I'm 75 now, and I have spent—since I was a child, I've been studying scripture. And my confidence has grown and grown and grown all these years because God—first of all, I accept the Bible as the Word of God. It's not lying to me when it says that. And secondly, I have done investigations both in reference to language and literature and history and all these areas. And the Bible hasn't come up missing. It's always when time comes in and you have the research come in, the Bible is substantiated by the information. That's right. Always. The Bible has proven itself over and over. You mentioned the Hittites and Hattusha. In fact, on the Zondervan Handbook, we have on the cover, I believe there's a picture, cherubim from the gates of Hattusha. The winged lions. Yeah. Those lions didn't do those Hittites any good. Those lines didn't keep anybody out. No, no. But see, but there you go. See, you're referencing these guardians, these guardian entities. We read about them in Scripture, but now we have material culture to understand what they were and how they function. And that helps us with Bible study and with teaching. Would you take this time to just encourage our listeners as to the veracity of Scripture and what this sort of resource can do to help them in their studies? Well, you know, the one thing I guess needs to be understood first is that you come to the Bible with a presumption. When you come to it, you either come innocently to want to learn, or you can come to it to be a skeptic. And as we have come to know Christ and know that He is, in fact, true and was a historical person who died for us, as we understand that, then we approach His Word in a way that helps us to understand it, because the Scripture is written for our information, our understanding, our knowledge, so that we might become closer to God, the one who actually created the world and is still in charge of it. Absolutely. So the book is Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology. You can find it at swrc.com. You can give us a call at 1-800-652-1144. 1-800-652-1144. Our guest today has been Dr. H. Wayne House. And Dr. House, we want to thank you for coming. We look forward to the future talking to you about more projects. Thank you once again. Do you have one parting word for us? It's been a pleasure to be with you, my first time with you, and I look forward to future times. The complete two-day radio conversation with Wayne House discussing Biblical Archaeology is now available on CD. Simply call 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. An excellent resource in your study of Biblical Archaeology is the Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology. The Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology allows you to explore significant archaeological discoveries pertaining to every book of the Bible. Anyone looking for a current and comprehensive biblical archaeology resource needs to look no further. The Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology provides a wealth of information that supplements the historical context of the Bible, providing a window into the past that will enhance your understanding and enjoyment of biblical text. The Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology by Randall Price and Wayne House is ready for you today. Order your copy when you call 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. You can also order online at SWRC.com. a book-by-book guide to archaeological discoveries related to the Bible. The Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology. 1-800-652-1144. June 7th and 8th in Cincinnati, our first ever Mysteries of the Bible Verse event will take place. Josh Davis will be there, speaking on the explosion of artificial intelligence. With a preview, here's Micah Van Hus and Josh Davis. The Mysteries of the Bible Verse Conference will take place in Cincinnati, Ohio this year, June 7th and 8th. Come out to the Mysteries of the Bible Verse Conference and hear the speakers talk about the topics that your Sunday school teacher didn't. We'll be having Derek Gilbert, Rudy Landa, Michael Hoggard, Greg Patton, Mac Dominick, Josh Davis, and myself, Micah Van Hus. I produce Marginal Mysteries for Southwest Radio Ministries, and today I have with me Josh Davis, and we're going to tell you a little bit about what we are talking about at the Mysteries of the Bible Verse. How are you doing today, Josh? Doing great, Micah. Thanks for having me on. Awesome, so you are gonna be speaking at the mysteries of the Bible verse in Cincinnati on the topic AI extinction level event is imminent. So tell us a little bit about that discussion Revelation chapter 13 talks about the image of the beast and how that they gave life to the image of the beast. And I know you speak about that in secret societies. There are some different interpretations of what that possibly could be, some different ideas of what that could be. I think that it could involve some kind of AI technology that is empowering this beast to help control I think that the Antichrist, the beast, the false prophet are going to use AI technologies in some way, whether or not it's in the image of the beast, but they're going to use it in some way to control people. It's like flipping a switch. They're going to promise all the beautiful things, the wonderful things, the awesome things that AI can bring about, all the freedoms, and then one day the switch will be flipped and they'll be using AI to control people, to limit what they can do, where they can go, what they can buy, what they can sell. When you talk about the mark of the beast at the end of Revelation 13, I think that AI is definitely going to be involved with some of those kinds of things to help just navigate all this data and all this information of people and monitoring where people are, what they're doing, what they're buying, what they're selling constantly. As we move toward a central bank digital currency, AI is going to be this powerful tool that enables them to do all these things. And so that's why we're talking about this AI extinction level event being imminent. The technology is here right now, and our world is moving in this direction right now. Josh will be speaking on. AI extinction level event is imminent. Josh, give us a little more flavor on this AI stuff you're going to be talking about. Yeah, absolutely, Micah. I think that Christians need to open their eyes to everything that's happening around us, that we have, and we are put here for such a time as this. God wants us to be armed with this knowledge. I don't view this Marginal Mysteries Conference as just being something on the side or something that we're doing just to have a good time, but I think God wants to equip His people with the knowledge that they need to have discernment in these days that we live in. The church, we as Christians, are put here for such a time as this, and this is the time for us to get off the sidelines, to educate ourselves, to understand, to open our eyes to what's happening around us. We need to be aware of AI. We need to warn others, and God wants us to be a witness to others and to help others to see the reality of eternity and where they're going to spend eternity. When we think about demons and we think about all these kinds of things that we're going to be discussing, we have a real enemy. And it's not one political party versus another, no, but it's a spiritual battle that we're fighting. We're going to be exposing some of those things at this conference, and we are praying that there will be a great move of God as a result of what happens at this conference. And I'm excited to be part of it in Cincinnati with you, Micah. And Jesus says himself, be ready for his return, that it comes as a thief in the night. Jesus also says, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man. So I think it is quite important that we know what it was like in the days of Noah. So come join Josh Davis and myself, Micah Van Hus. and many other speakers at the Mysteries of the Bible Verse event in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 7th and 8th of this year. You can register at marginalmysteries.com, marginalmysteries.com, or call Southwest Radio Ministries. Immerse yourself in the world of the Bible with the Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology. Go inside the Bible for a book-by-book guide to archaeological discoveries related to the Bible. The Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology allows readers to visit ancient sites and historical places while remaining in the comfort of their own homes. The Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology by Randall Price and Wayne House is ready today. Order your copy when you call 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. You can also order at our website SWRC.com. The Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology provides a wealth of information that provides a window into the past that will enhance your understanding and enjoyment of biblical text. The Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology. 1-800-652-1144. Be sure to tune in on your favorite radio station or by listening at OnePlace.com, SermonAudio.com, and now at Prey.com. Watchman on the Wall is a production of Southwest Radio Ministries and is supported by faithful listeners like you. Visit SWRC.com.