The Bible was written by real people, to real people, in real places, and who experienced real events. This website is dedicated to telling the story about these people and the places they lived, visited, and ministered in. It is the goal of this website to expound the Scriptures and bring to life the lands and the peoples of the Bible through the background material that bear on the events of these passages.
by Gordon Franz
Introduction
Let’s be honest, we do not live in a perfect world, nor is our homeland Paradise. There is a Millennial Kingdom coming when King Jesus will rule from Jerusalem with justice and righteousness, but that day is still in the future. We live in the nasty, here and now where Murphy’s Law is [...]
by Gordon Franz
Harold Camping, the founder and president of Family Radio in Oakland, CA, is batting 0 for 2 in his predictions for the return of Christ and judgment day. In 1992 he published a book entitled 1994 (Vantage Press), in which he predicted that the Lord Jesus would return in October of 1994. That, [...]
by Gordon Franz
Introduction
On Tuesday, April 12, 2011, filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici held a news conference in Jerusalem. In it, he claimed that two nails, excavated more than 20 years ago, were the ones hammered into the hands of Jesus at His crucifixion. The nails, which had “disappeared” soon after the excavations, were recently rediscovered in the [...]
by Gordon Franz
Recently, a pastor in Florida burned a copy of the Koran (also spelled Quran). His stated reason was “to make an awareness of the radical element of Islam.” Unfortunately his actions led to tragic consequences. Riots ensued in Afghanistan because of what some termed “blasphemy against the Koran” and this violence led to [...]
by Gordon Franz
Introduction
The Lord, in His permissive will, allowed Satan to afflict “a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and the man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1, all Scripture quotes from the New King James Bible).
The Patriarch Job lived in the Land [...]
by Fredrick Tatford
If an illustration were required of the truth of Isaiah 55:8, no more striking one could be found than the 4th chapter of John. In the heat of the noontide sun, the Lord Jesus Christ sat upon Jacob’s well discussing – not with learned doctors of the law but – with a poor [...]
by Gordon Franz
Introduction
If King David were teaching a class on “Worship 101” today, he might begin the first lecture by saying: “Please unroll your third Psalm scroll toward the end, to the 145th psalm, and let’s see what lessons we can learn about worship from this psalm.” Perhaps he brought out his harp and sang [...]
by Gordon Franz
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aharoni, Yohanan
1979 The Land of the Bible. 2nd edition. Trans. by A. Rainey. Philadelphia, PA: Westminster.
Albright, William F.
1945 The Chronology of the Divided Monarch of Israel. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 100: 16-22.
1953 New Light from Egypt on the Chronology and History of Israel and Judah. Bulletin of the American [...]
by Gordon Franz
THE CHRONOLOGY OF ISAIAH 1-39
There are four chronological indicators in the first half of the book of Isaiah (Isa. 1-39). They are, the “year that King Uzziah died” (Isa. 6:1), the “days of Ahaz” (7:1), the “year that King Ahaz died” (14:28), and the “fourteenth year of King Hezekiah” (36:1). Using these as [...]
by Gordon Franz
CONCLUSIONS
Review
The two major views which permeate the scholarly community, with regards to the Sennacherib / Hezekiah chronology problem, have been found wanting. Both have serious flaws in them and should be abandoned.
This paper set forth a new reconstruction for the life of King Hezekiah and his two encounters with Sennacherib. Hezekiah came to [...]