Preview of Taylor University Tour of Turkey 2014

This blog is a shout-out to those who will accompany Joyce and me on a Taylor University sponsored tour of Turkey March 31 through April 9, 2014. It's also an invitation to come join us! There is still time to sign up.

Greetings fellow travelers to Turkey!

You are in for one of the most significant experiences of your life! Turkey is an awesome country. As our brochure advertises, it's really the "other holy land" because so many places are connected with New Testament passages. And you will share this opportunity with a wonderful group of people.

I want to whet your appetite with a brief preview of a very important site on our tour schedule, the ancient city of Ephesus. Of all the ancient sites we visit, this one is the best preserved and recalls more episodes from the New Testament than any other.

Of the many specific locations we visit at Ephesus, probably pride of place goes to the magnificent theater. This 25,000 seat theater allows you to gaze westward along the Arcadian Way and imagine you see the Apostle Paul with his traveling companions making their way from the first century harbor to the city center. Of course, the most memorable mental image this theater evokes will probably be a moment of high drama, recalling the end of Paul's remarkable two year ministry in Ephesus. As Dr. Luke records in the book of Acts, Paul's ministry resulted in many coming to faith in Christ and renouncing the sorcery that bound them in its dark grip (Acts 19:11-19). Because Ephesus was a magnet to the larger Mediterranean world as a pilgrimage site with its renowned Temple of Artemis and many other pagan and imperial temples, this generated a sizable income for priestly functionaries, wardens, trinket and souvenir makers, innkeepers and shop owners. When a large number of Ephesians embraced Christ as Savior and Lord, the result was a significant drop in revenue. According to Luke, a certain silver shrine maker by the name of Demetrius strongly reacted against Paul's ministry and led a riot to protest his preaching and presence. After an impassioned tirade against Paul, we read, "Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed together into the theater. Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater" (Acts 19:29-31). We may be thankful Paul heeded their advice. Paul's prison epistles and pastoral epistles would otherwise probably not have been written!

Here is a picture of the theater at Ephesus and the Arcadian Way. (Courtesy of Todd Bolen's Bible Places).

     
Many more amazing sites await those who make the journey with us.

Hope to see you there!



     

Mountain Top Theology

Dear Friends,

It's been a while since I've posted a new blog. Here's an update of sorts.

I'm currently working on a book called Mountain Top Theology. It's essentially a selection of basic biblical doctrine organized around and based on events that took place on mountains in the biblical world. Each chapter first surveys the geographical-historical background of the mountain and then discusses the continuing theological significance of what happened or was said there.

Here is a snippet from my chapter on Mount Ararat, the mountain in Turkey that is traditionally connected with Noah's great flood.

Significance

The wrath of God is real. This sinks in when you stand on top of Mt. Ararat. It’s like surveying the scene of a historic battlefield like Gettysburg. From the heights of Ararat, one recalls the great flood of Noah as recorded in Genesis 6–8. You try to comprehend the awful loss of life. You ask yourself, Why? Grappling with this question is what the metaphorical climb is all about.

The Righteous Wrath of God

Judge Judy puts things to right and people in their place with panache! But I’d rather not think of God sitting on the bench, because, frankly, he knows too much incriminating stuff about me. He’s got me dead to rights. Anyone who’s in their right mind admits the same. And he carries a lot more clout than Judge Judy! For obvious reasons, I’d rather focus on God’s love and forgiveness than his righteous wrath against sin.

Ascending Mt Ararat, however, reminds me that God gets angry and sometimes he lets that be known—big time. The landscape of redemptive history is pockmarked by some pretty big divine craters, the biggest being Noah’s flood. Readers may be familiar with the as yet unsolved mystery that occurred in Siberia, Russia on June 30, 1908, called the Tunguska Event. A vast area (about 830 square miles) of this isolated (thankfully!) landscape was devastated by something extremely powerful. The majority opinion is that a huge meteor or comet slammed into earth’s atmosphere and exploded over this region. The resulting explosion, the equivalent of 1,000 Hiroshimas, obliterated everything, leveling about 80 million trees in the process. As extensive as that destruction was, it pales in comparison to the flood. The Bible uses expansive terms to describe its extent (“all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered . . . . Every living thing that moved on the earth perished . . . . Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark” (Genesis 7:19, 21, 23). On any reckoning, it involved a massive loss of life.

Mount Ararat reminds me just how fortunate the human race is to be alive on good old planet earth. Several modern explorers recount harrowing stories of near disaster on the slopes of Mt. Ararat. But on a vastly larger scale, this mountain recalls a very close call for the entire race. Noah’s flood didn’t happen because of global warming; it happened because of global sinning. The movie “Evan Almighty” trivializes the biblical account.

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If you like this and think it might be a helpful book, drop me a line. In the meantime, everytime you see a rainbow, thank the Lord for his mercy and grace.