On tours of the Holy Land over the years, I have found visitors captivated by archaeological ruins but often repelled by churches. Particularly if still in use, they can have all the trappings of religion but lack authenticity. Many evangelical Christians lack enthusiasm for such religious buildings.
This is a shame, as some of the oldest churches in existence have great apologetic value for the historicity and credibility of the Christian faith. Here are my top five, in no particular order, from the Holy Land.
1. Megiddo. In 2005 archaeologists were excavating a prison at Megiddo in Israel. They discovered an early Christian house-church dating from 200 AD. The floor was an elaborate mosaic which included a Greek inscription, “The god-loving Akeptous has offered the table to God Jesus Christ as a memorial.” Some critics dismiss claims to Christ’s divinity as a misreading of Bible texts, and suggest the idea of Jesus being God was a later invention attributed to the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. Nonsense! The archaeological evidence shows that belief in Jesus as God belongs to the earliest layers of Christian history – just as the Bible would lead us to expect (John 1v1; Phil. 2v6; Titus 2v13; 2 Peter 1v1; Mark 2v7).
