Can you believe the Bible? And does it really matter? How can you be sure that the Bible is all it's cracked up to be? Join David Curry, a pastor, author, and worldwide traveler, as he shares his knowledge of many biblical places throughout the Middle East. He will take you on a journey through numerous archaeological finds that prove the validity of the biblical narrative, showing that you can believe what many have rejected. Welcome to the biblical wonders in the Middle East.
Here is your host, Pastor David Curry. Thank you for being with us today on this program. Last time I was with you, we commenced a journey into Turkey.
We talked about the Hittites and the remarkable finds over the past 100 years. Today we're going to continue our journey in Turkey and visit the seven churches the Apostle John writes about in the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. The seven churches were in seven towns called Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.
The names of these plays have changed, as we'll notice, but the original plays are still where they were when John, under inspiration, wrote to them. Well, we left isma the city where I had lost my coat in a taxi and found it again under the real blessing of God, who answered my prayers in a wonderful way. As I mentioned last time, our first port of call was to a place called Seljuk.
Here is an old church known as the Basilica of John the Apostle. In its yard, outside of the buildings themselves, is the supposed grave of John the Apostle. I say the supposed grave because the church was not built until the time of Justinian I in the 6th century.
So this is a long time after John's death and burial. Historians are not sure whether this is a reputable site or not. However, I must say that the grave is well kept.
Also in the church grounds is a large Baptistry in the shape of a cross. I suppose it's not all that large, but one or two people could be baptized in it at a time. This baptism was by immersion, which is the only baptism taught by the Scriptures.
We are baptized into Christ Jesus. Baptism represents the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus. You see, when a person dies to the old man of sin, as Paul calls it, he really dies.
He's put under the water and for a moment his breathing has to stop. It's like a burial, and then he's raised up to newness of life. This, of course, is a very fitting right for a person to become a Christian.
Across the road from the Basilica of John the Apostle is a museum. One of the main things to see here is a model of the temple of Diana, which was built just outside the city of Ephesus. The model is small, but it's a true replica of the original.
As you look past the many pillars of this temple, you can see a small statue of the multibrested goddess Artemis, or as the Romans would call her, Diana. The original was a very old temple which began to be built in 550 BC. It's a marble building that took something like 120 years to build.
Like most temples to the goddess in the Greek world, it was located a short distance from Ephesus, as Artemis or Diana was thought to preside over wild vegetation, animals and nature in general. According to Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, the temple was huge. Can you just imagine this building? 129 and a half meters long and 68 and a half meters wide.
It's almost double the size of the fifth century BCE parthenon at Athens. When going there, I thought that was large enough, but here you have this temple of Diana, twice as large altogether. It had something like 127 columns.
These in themselves were 18 and a half meters high and just over 1 meter in diameter. That's a pretty large column, isn't it? These columns were arranged in double rows on all four sides. These columns on their facades were decorated with relief figures from Greek mythology.
Diana was the goddess of fertility and was covered with so many breasts. In Acts the 19th chapter, Luke writes about the commotion in the Ephesus theater brought on by Demetrius a silversmith. He made silver statues of Diana and he maintained that the preaching of Paul was helping the silversmith to lose out on their prophet.
In the preaching of the Gospel, there was no place for gods made with hands. Let me read you a couple of texts from Acts the 19th chapter, verses 25 to 27. He that is Demetrius called them together with the workers of similar occupation, and said, men, you know that we have prosperity by this trade.
Moreover, you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods made by hands. So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship. Well, this speech caused an uproar in theatre and the whole city appeared to be upset.
The town clerk had to come in and bring order out of this chaos. When visiting Ephesus today, you can see where the temple of Diana was. Its foundations are still there and one of its many columns is still standing.
When you think that those foundations were placed there 2500 years ago, you get an idea of what good builders they were at that time. About a half a kilometer further on, that is, past the old foundations of the temple, there's a modern day marketplace. You know, there are several advertisements which read this way genuine fake watches.
Can you imagine an advertisement like that. Genuine fake watches. Well, I purchased a Rolex for $20.
It still works many years later. A real Rolex would probably be at least $2,000. Well, this marketplace has many goods, many Turkish clothes.
Many other Turkish items are for sale. After leaving this modern market area, one arrives at the harbor installations of old Ephesus, which was at one time right on the banks of the Casea River. Boats would come up this river from the Mediterranean Sea and tourists from all around the Mediterranean would visit Ephesus and in particular, come to worship at the Temple of Diana.
The river is now a long way off. In fact, you can't even see it anymore from Ephesus. As you walk up the harbor installations toward the city, you get a very good view of the theater that we have just mentioned.
This also is made of marble and is probably the most impressive structure in Ephesus. Do you know that at that time it could seat about 24,000 people? Opposite is the old marketplace, or Agara as it is called in the Greek language. Just past the Agara is a newly put together facade of the library of Celsus.
This is a very beautiful facade. It's two or three stories high and been rebuilt in modern times. In fact, when I was first there, it wasn't there.
But in going back later times, it has been rebuilt and it does reflect the beautiful buildings that were of Old Ephesus. From the Celsius library, you go up a hill with buildings on either side. These include the Temple of Hadrian and the Fountain of Trajian.
Near the top, there have been diggings, which would you believe it open up into sewage drains for the old city. There are also two smaller theatres, and if you continue further on, quite a way, in fact, you come to a church where they believe Mary, the mother of Jesus, was buried. This is a strong possibility because you may remember that Jesus placed his mother into John's keeping and John came here and he was the pastor in Ephesus for some time.
And no doubt when he came here, he brought Mary with him. Paul the apostle wrote a beautiful letter to the church at Ephesus. It's probably one of the most sublime of all of his Epistles.
Why don't I share several beautiful verses I'm reading from the New Living translation and we start at Ephesians two and verse one. In fact, this is my wife's favorite chapter in the whole Bible. Paul starts off by saying, once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins, you used to live in sin just like the rest of the world.
Obeying the devil, the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He's the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that wave, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature.
By our very nature. We were subject to God's anger just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy and he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Jesus from the dead.
It is only by God's grace that you have been saved. Paul puts our relationship to God in a very beautiful way in these verses and many more that we could read. Well, we could read much more in this wonderful Epistle written by Paul to the members of the church in Ephesus.
But, you know, over the years, the people changed. And when John wrote this letter to the church, probably 40 years or so later, just note what he says. Jesus speaking through John and he says, but I have this complaint against you.
You don't love me or each other as you did at first. Look how far you have fallen. Turn back to me and do the works you did at first.
This is Revelation two, verses four and five from the New Living translation. God's mercy is so evident in the Book of Ephesians, and now when the church has forgotten its first love, god is still wooing it back to himself. Each church has characteristics similar to periods in church history.
The Church of Ephesus represents the first hundred years of the Christian church. Archaeologists have done a lot of work at Ephesus in recent years. They've rebuilt a lot of the buildings and opening up beautiful mosaics on the paths in the front of those buildings.
The second church that the Apostle John wrote to was Smyrna. This is called Isma today, where we landed now plain and after Istanbul. It's probably the second most used port in Turkey.
The area around Isma is covered in fig rows and apricot orchards. These fruits are dried and sent to many parts of the world, including Australia. I think most of you who are listening would have probably had some of the dried figs from Smyrna.
The harbour Disma is quite shallow and so most of its exports and imports are taken out to the larger ships by barge. The whole of Smyrna is surrounded by a group of hills called the Crown of Smyrna. This is a very old term that has been used for many centuries.
And maybe John had this in mind when he wrote in Revelation Two and verse ten, be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. So much a better crown than the hills around Smyrna. Smyrna having a seafront makes it a very attractive and beautiful city.
There are a number of ruins of the old city and over the years it has been affected by many an earthquake. One large earthquake in the second century Ad destroyed most of the city. Then Marcus Aurelius came along and had the city rebuilt.
In the third century, Diocletian brought about ten years of persecution. When Christians died, for their faith. This, of course, was during the Smyrna period of church history.
The Apostle John wrote about the tribulation that they would have for ten days. In prophecy, a day is calculated as a year. This period of persecution was from 295 to 305 Ad.
But you know this. As soon as Diocletian died, three churches were built in Selena, where Diocletian himself was born. The characteristics of this church in Smyrna fit in well with the second and third centuries.
Out to Christ, a visit to the Agra, or marketplace of Smyrna is well worthwhile. The old city seems to have been three stories high in recent years. A lot of work has been done here by archaeologists.
And you can go below the first story, which is on the surface, and to two other stories below. You know, the people had learned how to have flowing water through their buildings, water from some of the nearby springs. It is interesting that when John wrote the letter to the church at Smyrna, there was no condemnation but praise from God for the way that they were living and working.
Oh, that we could have that today said of our churches. After Isma, we travelled up to Pergamos, where most of the road winds through fig groves and apricot orchards. Eventually we came to the modern city of Bergama.
On a level with the modern city is the hospital area of ancient Pergamos. There are water springs here with few water used by the ancients. These waters had healing properties and so treatment clinics were built.
Some of the first hydrotherapy treatments were practiced in these clinics at old Pergamos. Ancient Pergamos had a very large library. Do you know that they had something like 200,000 volumes in parchments and in tablets? When Mark Antony was curting, Queen Cleopatra from Egypt, he promised, and when he married her, he gave her this wonderful library.
It joined the large library to Alexandria and unfortunately all of its treasures were destroyed in the fire which burned down the whole library. The world lost some wonderful treasures at that time which could never be replaced. An outstanding building on the hill of Pergamus was the altar of Zeus.
In 1959, this was taken down and rebuilt in the Pergamum Museum in Berlin. It was a very large and beautiful building made of wonderful white marble. In its original stand, it appeared to be at the entrance to the Acropolis and main area, Pergamos.
On the side of the Hillam which Pergamos stood is a huge but very steep amphitheatre. In fact, I think it's the steepest amphitheatre I've ever seen. Once when I took a group to Turkey, I had some of the group go to various areas of this, the steepest of amphitheatres.
I stood at the spot where ancient speeches were made. Every person, wherever they stood, could hear me plainly. You know, there's a message that came to this church.
To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manner to eat. I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it. The period of church history covered by Pergamus is from around 313 to 538 Ad.
John writes of some of the sinful areas that this church allowed they ate things, sacrificed to idols, they practiced sexual immorality, and had theological problems not experienced by the earlier churches. But again, God's grace is seen as he wants the people of Pergamos to repent so that he can bring them spiritual blessings. God's love for people is so abundant that it is evident even in these letters of John, and he shows that he wants people to be saved rather than lost.
Pergamos is the most northerly city of the seven churches to whom John writes, and from this city we will move in a southeastly direction towards Thyatira. Today this city is known as Acasar. There are only a few columns now on the ground and a few bricks from old Thyatara.
This is the middle city of the seven to whom John wrote. This is also the middle church and the persecuted church in the timescale of the church history. This is the time that Christians were persecuted in Cappadocia, in the Waldensi valleys of north Italy, and many places throughout Europe.
In the church timetable, this church period exists from the 6th until the 16th centuries. In Revelation 219, we read about some condemnation for this church. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are doing more than you did of the first.
Even though there was gross corruption, there was still a message of comfort to those who were not corrupted by the worldly influences that had crept into the church. There are a couple of interesting verses in Revelation 217. He shall rule them with a rod of iron, and they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels.
Not far from Thyatara are huge pottery works. They display some lovely vases and plates. I would have loved to have purchased some of these and taken them home, but they're so beautiful and well handcrafted.
But when you're traveling by ear, you can't take very much with you. The prophet says, they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels. Wherever their pottery works, there are heaps of broken pottery, and Thyatara is no exception.
The text goes on to say that I will give him the Morning Star. Many have thought that during this period the Morning Star represents the period of the Reformation in England begun by John Wycliffe. He is well known as the Morning Star of the Reformation.
He was against many of the excessors of the Roman Church of the day, and his lectures at Oxford University and other places lifted up the Bible. He also made a translation of the Bible into the English language. All the English people had up to this time was the Bible in the Latin language, which of course the local people did not understand.
And may I say that many of the priests didn't even understand it. In England, many of Wycliffe's students were from Europe, particularly Bohemia or Czechoslovakia as we know it today. They went back to their homeland and took some of Wycliffe's teachings with them.
These teachings were well accepted and brought many early reforms to the churches of Czechoslovakia and unfortunately brought about the death of Jan Huss. That's another story that we might be able to touch on at another time. Travelling further east, we arrive at Sartre.
There's plenty of restaurant buildings there, for this was the old city of Sardis. As you look up at the hills it is possible to see the ruins of the old city. This was a proud city of the time of Cyrus the Great.
It was also the central city of the area. The Wall City ruled the area and Cyrus wanted to take it. This was very difficult, for its walls were very high and difficult to take, being already on a high hill.
Cyrus encouraged one of his soldiers to climb the wall in the middle of the night and open the gates when all the sentries were sleeping. This gave Cyrus and his Persian army the command of the area and the very old city became a ruin. However, it was rebuilt on the plains and on these plains today the old synagogue has been rebuilt along with many other buildings.
Mosaic floors from Roman times and they are very beautiful, have been unearthed. John wrote a letter to the city. Let's notice what he wrote.
And to the angel of the Church of Silas write I know your works, that you have a name, that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. A little later he writes you have a few names, even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
He who overcomes will be clothed in white garments and will not blot his name out of the book of life. But I'll confess his name before my Father and before his angels. Did you notice that you have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments? And he goes on to say he who overcomes will be clothed in white garments.
This is a real promise for those who are faithful. They'll be clothed in Christ's righteousness. They don't get to heaven by the works which they may do, as good as those works might be.
They're clothed in Christ's righteousness, which is a gift from Jesus to all who go to heaven and who receive it. What a wonderful promise to those who live in Sardis and to all of us who live today well, we will continue visiting the seven churches in our next presentation. I trust you have enjoyed visiting Ephesus.
Myrna and Pergamos Thyatira and Sartus. We've been visiting Turkey and five of the seven churches that John wrote to under inspiration of Jesus. Next time we'll deal with a bit more of Turkey, including the last seven interesting churches.
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