Greece: The Truth and Last Days in Greece

Before writing about our last days in Greece, I wanted to document a wonderful discussion our family had last night during our Bible study.  It was a discussion on what I think is the strongest 'proof' that Jesus Christ is exactly who the Bible says He is, the resurrected Son of God.

As a young married man with a weak faith, this argument was the one that really kept me in the faith when all kinds of doubts from academia, science, and 'the world' plagued me constantly.

And what was this 'proof'?  The proof is in the actions of the disciples and early believers who knew Jesus directly.  Here are largely a bunch of uneducated, selfish, cowards.  They were fishermen, tax collectors, unremarkable people to all but God.  They asked 'who will sit at the right hand' (selfish), pushed kids away from Jesus, and fell asleep when their friend Jesus needed them the most.  When Jesus needed them most, they fled, they denied Him, they forgot everything he said and did & let fear drive their actions.  Only John stood at the cross.  The others hid to save themselves.  So how did these men who were completely demoralized at the loss of their leader...a leader who was killed in the most humiliating way known at the time...how did they suddenly and dramatically turn the world upside down and lay the foundation for Christianity to spread to every corner of the earth?

There is only one logical answer...they saw the risen Christ as did many of the early converts to Christianity.  No other answer makes any sense.  If people didn't witness the risen Christ....if the Holy Spirit didn't come down and convict thousands of people....if miraculous healing powers weren't granted to these men as they spoke on Jesus' behalf....how in the world would Christianity ever take hold?

Everyone knew Jesus was crucified.  Everyone knew he died and wasn't the one who was going to throw the Romans out of the Promised Land.  So, if those were the known facts during those early days, how in the world did people start to believe so much in Jesus as the Messiah that they essentially tore their families apart (leaving their traditional faith meant alienating themselves from their entire social construct) and many went to their deaths proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.  How would that happen based on a crucified failure???

The answer is these people witnessed the risen Christ and thus nothing else mattered to them.  Their previous life didn't matter.  Their family relationships in comparison didn't matter.  Torture from Romans demanding an oath to Caesar as God didn't matter.  They knew the truth and willingly gave their lives rather than denying that truth.

Which brings me to another point on these disciples.  I have heard non-believers say things like the Bible is a bunch of fairy tales....that these disciples really didn't exit.  That is obviously a silly argument as Christianity didn't grow out of nothingness.  There was intentionality and work done by each of these men to plant the seed for what eventually grew into Christianity.  Why else were Christians being thrown to the lions in Rome in the decades immediately following the crucifixion   This is a fact from history, not from the Bible.  Christianity was spreading at that time from real men, not 'made up' fairy tales written hundreds of years after the fact.  

I have heard non-believers say the disciples just did what they did for personal gain and fame...yet if you look at what they did after Jesus was resurrected, you see quite clearly they lived hard lives.  They left their families.  They scattered across the world from Africa to India, Europe and even Britain being persecuted, thrown in jail, whipped and ultimately killed for what they did and what they proclaimed.  Hardly a 'lap of luxury / personal gain' kind of life!

I've heard non-believers say that the disciples were a cult and under Jesus' hypnosis and thus acted the way they acted because they were still in a cult.  No cult in the history of the world sustains itself once the leader is dead....especially not for decades as that is how long most of these men lived.

But most importantly, these men KNEW the truth.  If they did all they did scattered across the world promoting a lie....then why would all but John die VIOLENT deaths proclaiming Jesus Christ is the resurrected Son of God?  NO ONE DIES FOR A LIE!  These men knew the truth.  They knew Jesus personally.  They knew what happened in those days around the crucifixion.

Some say "well, plenty of people over the years die for their beliefs or for their faith....look at Muslim terrorists" and I say categorically these disciples did not die for their beliefs or for their faith.  They were EYEWITNESSES and that is a very big difference.  For them, there was no belief or faith....there was truth or lie.  No one dies for a lie.  

The only thing that makes sense as to why they would live the rest of their lives the way that they lived them and ultimately die violent deaths proclaiming Jesus as Lord is that THEY WITNESSED THE RESURRECTED SON OF GOD.  There is no other logical explanation for how they behaved or what happened as a result of their actions.  They were proclaiming the truth. Stand firm on it!

I did some research a while ago and found this list of early leaders of Christianity and how they died.

Christian Persecution: A list of Early Martyrs Who Were Witnesses to the Life of Jesus
Here is an account of early Christian persecution, as compiled from numerous sources outside the Bible, the most-famous of which is Foxes’ Christian Martyrs of the World:

Around 34 A.D., one year after the crucifixion of Jesus, Stephen was thrown out of Jerusalem and stoned to death.

Approximately 2,000 Christians suffered martyrdom in Jerusalem during this period.

About 10 years later, James, the son of Zebedee and the elder brother of John, was killed when Herod Agrippa arrived as governor of Judea. Agrippa detested the Christian sect of Jews, and many early disciples were martyred under his rule, including Timon and Parmenas.

Around 54 A.D., Philip, a disciple from Bethsaida, in Galilee, suffered martyrdom at Heliopolis, in Phrygia. He was scourged, thrown into prison, and afterwards crucified.

About six years later, Matthew, the tax-collector from Nazareth who wrote his gospel in Hebrew, was preaching in Ethiopia when he suffered martyrdom by the sword. 

James, the brother of Jesus, administered the early church in Jerusalem and was the author of an Epistle by his name. At age 94, he was beat and stoned, and finally had his brains bashed out with a fuller's club. 

Matthias was the apostle who filled the vacant place of Judas. He was stoned at Jerusalem and then beheaded. 

Andrew was the brother of Peter who preached the gospel throughout Asia. On his arrival at Edessa, he was arrested and crucified on a cross, the two ends of which were fixed transversely in the ground (this is where we get the term, St. Andrew's Cross). 

Mark was converted to Christianity by Peter, and then transcribed Peter’s account of Jesus in his Gospel. Mark was dragged to pieces by the people of Alexandria in front of Serapis, their pagan idol.

It appears Peter was condemned to death and crucified at Rome. Jerome holds that Peter was crucified upside down, at his own request, because he said he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord. 

Paul suffered in the first persecution under Nero. Paul’s faith was so dramatic in the face of martyrdom, that the authorities removed him to a private place for execution by the sword.

In about 72 A.D., Jude, the brother of James who was commonly called Thaddeus, was crucified at Edessa. 

Bartholomew preached in several countries and translated the Gospel of Matthew into the language of India. He was cruelly beaten and then crucified by idolaters there. 

Thomas, called Didymus, preached the Gospel in Parthia and India, where exciting the rage of the pagan priests, he was martyred by being thrust through with a spear. 

Luke was the author of the Gospel under his name. He traveled with Paul through various countries and is supposed to have been hanged on an olive tree by idolatrous priests in Greece. 

Barnabas, of Cyprus, was killed without many known facts in about 73 A.D. 

Simon, surnamed Zelotes, preached the Gospel in Mauritania, Africa, and even in Britain, where he was crucified in about 74 A.D. 

John, the "beloved disciple," was the brother of James. From Ephesus he was ordered to Rome, where it is affirmed he was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil. He escaped by miracle, without injury. Domitian afterwards banished him to the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. He was the only apostle who escaped a violent death.

I saw the 'light bulb' go on by the end of this discussion with each of the girls, and it was one of those great 'Dad' moments.  I pray all the time that my kids are able to 'get it' much faster than their mom and dad 'got it.'  I know that ultimately faith is a personal revelation between Jesus and each individual.  I pray constantly that each of our children makes that choice for themselves early in life and thus orients their lives around the teachings of Jesus versus the teachings of 'the world'

That explanation went a bit longer than I had planned, but I felt it was important to write.  There are many other reasons I now believe Jesus is exactly who the Bible says He is, but the explanation above is the reason that was essentially my lifeline when doubts threatened to overwhelm me.  It kept me engaged enough to learn, research and experience enough to make a real, repentant commitment of my life to Jesus.  I thank God for those martyrs and what they did so many years ago.  Amen.

Our Last Days in Greece...

We headed north from Athens on what was largely a travel day June 5.  We did a short stop at Thermopyles where the famous battle of 300 Spartans (and a few of their friends) versus King Xerxes Persian army of 1,700,000 took place.

The battlefield...

We REALLY tried to get AJ to be the one in this picture imitating the Spartan warrior but he wasn't up for it...

Next stop were the crazy monasteries on top of rocks that are impossible to get to.  How did they build these things hundreds of years ago without helicopters?  Amazing.

This one was in one of the James Bond movies from the 1980s or early 90s (can't remember the name)

Family picture overlooking the area where many of these monasteries stand....

We visited one that is run by nuns.  One of the nuns just loved AJ, gave him a little gift and he liked her a lot....

King Philip's Tomb, Father of Alexander the Great

The next day we visited the 2nd most significant ancient archaeological find of the 20th century (the 1st being King Tut's Tomb) ....the tomb of King Philip, father of Alexander the Great.  This is the entrance to the tomb.  It really was magnificent inside and pure luck that it wasn't robbed back in ancient times.  Most tombs like this were robbed...

One of Philip's generals assassinated him at the wedding of Philip's daughter.  Why?  Because Philip apparently thought highly of himself, had a sculpture made of himself and set it beside the sculptures of the 12 pagan gods worshipped at the time.  He was basically telling those attending the wedding that he was a god which was sacrilegious.  Thus, he was dead an hour later.  I guess pride could get one killed even back then!

There is a strict ban on taking any kind of picture inside.  The Greek government owns the copyrights to every picture and wants to sell books!  So, I pulled a couple of photos off official websites to insert here...

One interesting thing I learned during this trip was that Alexander the Great went to Jerusalem where the high priest read him the prophesy from Daniel 8 which specifically mentions a Greek king defeating the Persians and then having his empire split in 4 (which is exactly what ended up happening).

Berea

Next we traveled to Berea where the Apostle Paul was welcomed....however there really aren't any ruins to speak of here.  We visited a Jewish synagogue that had a very interesting fact about it (see below).  This picture is the gate heading into the Jewish quarter.  There were two gates for entry into and out of the Jewish quarter.  The Nazis sealed both gates one night, rounded up the 800 people in the Jewish quarter, ransacked the synagogue, and sent everyone to different concentration camps.  Only 144 of those Jews survived the war.

The synagogue...

We got lucky as a Jewish group was on its way to tour this place so they opened it up and let us in.  Behind the curtain was an area where ancient scrolls were once kept.  One of the scrolls was 2000 years old and in the margins were notes indicating "Our brother Paul was here from Jerusalem stating that Jesus had fulfilled this prophesy and is the Messiah"

This statement is one of the only references outside the Bible to Paul's work.  After WWII the Bereans wanted their scroll back and revealed this secret to bring world attention to their scroll + enlist Christians to apply pressure to get their scrolls back.  But a Jewish collector had purchased them who refused to give them up or allow anyone to look at them.  Most of the Jewish Bereans moved to Israel in the 1960s and stopped pushing to get the scrolls back.  The Jewish quarter is no longer Jewish so no one at this time is following up on this.  The collector has died but his estate has not allowed researchers to look at the scroll (if it is even still in existence).  Perhaps one day it will show up again....

Picture of the Second Temple in Jerusalem...

The 10 Commandments...

AJ playing ;)

Thessaloniki

We rolled into Thessaloniki and saw some ruins from the time when Paul had visited...

Then we headed over to Thessaloniki's enormous, 5th-century Church of Agios Dimitrios, named in honour of the city's patron saint. A Roman soldier, Dimitrios, who witnessed for Christ passionately and consistently was killed around 303 on the site (then a Roman bath), on the command of Galerius, infamous for persecuting Christians. 

The martyrdom site is now an eerie underground crypt, which you can visit during the day.  In 1980, the saint's relics were returned from Italy, and now lie in an elaborate silver reliquary inside.

The Ottomans made Agios Dimitrios a mosque and plastered the walls. After they were kicked out, the plaster was removed, revealing Thessaloniki's finest church mosaics. While the 1917 fire was very damaging, five 8th-century mosaics have survived.

Underground 'street' in front of the baths where Dimitrios was killed.

Inside the baths and the original tomb...

Final resting place in the main church...

Another interesting note about Thessaloniki...events here marked the end of the Apostolic period of the Church.  During the Apostolic period the church grew from committed followers who actually lived their lives in accordance with what Jesus said.  They gave to the poor.  They helped the needy.  They tended the sick.  They didn't seek personal gain or riches but rather willingly gave to others in their time of need (notice the word 'willingly'....this was not socialism which is the forced taking from one to give to another, something that will always eventually lead to strife and ultimately destruction).

Christianity grew and became a powerful force in the world from humble service.  Archaeologists have found letters from Roman Emperors to their pagan priests complaining that the pagan priests need to do more for the poor because the Christians are "making us look bad and gaining power and respect as a result"!  Contrast this with Islam which grew almost exclusively through the sword during Mohammed's lifetime and beyond.

Christianity's 'growing through the sword' began in Thessaloniki.  When Theodosius became Emperor in Rome he went on the offensive against pagan worship around 315AD.  He was a Christian and was determined to end pagan worship in the Roman Empire, including worship of the Emperor himself.  He showed up in Thessaloniki inviting those who wanted to worship him and pagan Gods to come to the theater.  Once there he blocked the exits and slaughtered 7,000 pagan worshipers.  When reports of this reached Athens, they took the pagan Gods off the Acropolis and converted en mass to Christianity as a mode of self preservation.

Thus began the truly 'lukewarm' era of Christianity where many who called themselves Christians did so to improve their social status or to save their lives rather than out of a firm commitment to Christ.

Philippi

We spent our last full day in Greece on June 7 visiting Philippi.  Of all the ruins we have seen I would say these ruins were the 2nd best behind Ephesus.  Ephesus really is in a class by itself.  

Some history about Philippi outside the Bible that I didn't know until this day:  Marc Anthony and Octavia Augustus defeated Brutus and Cassius in Philippi ending the Republic Period and starting the Emperor Period of the Roman Empire. This battle happened in 42 BC.  The agora where the events of Acts 16 happened was built by them, and these are the ruins we studied that day.

Baptism of Lydia

About 108 years later, Paul showed up in Philippi, and Lydia became the first person baptized in Europe.  This is the stream / river where that happened along with the nice area built up to commemorate it.

Whether this is the exact site where her baptism occurred will never be known.  But it definitely happened in this area and in this river.  Our guide talked about how Lydia was most likely an independent woman because she invites Paul to her home, something that in those times only the man of the house would do.  So, she was either a widow or someone who never married.  But we do know she is a a business woman (purple dye) and from what we learned she must have really liked snails (purple dye back then was made from a secretion snails make when they are crushed....very hard to get purple to look good which is why it was so expensive back then).

S, the dragon fly whisperer....(see dragonfly on her right index finger)

Our friend Steve Williams who is just about the coolest pastor ever.  If you live in or near Spokane, Washington check out New Life Church.  I would most definitely attend his church if I lived in that area.  Can't say enough good things about him....

Church built near the baptism site.  The original church remains are on the far side of the church and date back to the 4th century.

This church is really one of the most beautiful churches I have ever been in.  You just can't help but want to worship when you are here.  Rachel and I both loved how it was round with the center  focus on the baptismal font.

Mosaic in the foyer of Paul's missionary trip...

Ancient Philippi

Placard about the history of Philippi...

From everything the archeologists can see (and this place has was worked on extensively from 1950 until 2000 when it was finally opened to the public).....the place below is where Paul was tried by the officers at Philippi and ordered to be whipped & thrown in prison with Silas.

Our guide talked about how in Greek the demon possessed girl in Acts 16:16-18 wasn't saying that Paul and Silas were preaching THE way to salvation.  The Greek states she was saying 'A WAY' or 'ANOTHER WAY' to salvation (as if there were other alternatives).  This is why Paul rebukes her and drives the demon spirit out of her.

The Greek also states that the mob brings Paul to military officers rather than 'magistrates' (which sounds like a civilian term).  Philippi at the time was mainly a military outpost and didn't have a large civil government.  So, the military leaders served as judge and jury.  One of the reasons the area above is thought to be the military headquarters of the day is that the large shield with an arrow placard / rock was in front of this building.  That symbol was there so that even those who could not read would know exactly what that building was for....

Cool picture Rachel took of some of the ruins of Philippi...

This was the 'mall' / marketplace with each stall being a store / business of some sort.

Another cool Rachel picture...

Christian symbol mentioned early in the blog post on Ephesus.  The Greek letters for Jesus when laid on top of each other make something that looks like an 8 piece pie.

Part of the Agora of Philippi...the columns would have been supporting a roof over walkways back then...

Ruins = Playground to AJ

Old latrines...

AJ is learning how to spell his name.  So, whenever he sees and 'A' now he points it out and says "Up, Down, Across....that's how you spell my name!" (describing how he draws an A)

And he found a bug....

Our guide talked quite a bit about this area called 'The Octagon'  It was one of the earliest churches in Philippi growing from what was once a pagan temple indicated by the black rectangle  near the middle and slight left of the picture.  The structure then grew to be a circular octagon with the circle representing equality for the body of Christ with no one person above another....each serving a function for the Church.  But then you can see as the church started gaining power, money, and prestige you see the alter area near the top of the page (half oval shape) where the priests were set apart from the rest of the 'lay people'

This Octagon complex is significant to church history because it is one of the oldest churches ever found, dating back to the Apostolic period (prior to 315AD before Theodosius started his rampage against paganism).  It then shows the expansion later in the 4th century to the elevated area for priests and finally the entirely separate elevated area where priests would look down on the lay people.   The complex shows the entire expansion from very simple gathering place to gathering in a larger circle to the orthodox church concept.

The Octagon...

Mosaic in the early 4th century part of the church...

View from Temple Area heading up the mountain

The Paul & Silas Prison?

An earthquake opened up a hole near these steps heading up the mountain that some people now claim is the prison where Paul and Silas were kept.  I liked our guide a lot because he said "This is what people say so they can come and sing songs and feel good about being at the prison.  But this is not the prison.  No city in the Roman Empire had their prison on or near the steps heading up to the Temple area.  The prison has not specifically be found but if it were to be found it will likely be down there in the unexcavated part near where the military headquarters was."  Makes sense.  He was pretty funny earlier in the day as there was another church group at this location singing songs etc.  Our guide was rolling his eyes and when asked why he said "I'll explain later..." (and he did as noted above)

Theater of Philippi...

These areas were walled off in Roman times with wild animals and a pulley system would pull the animals up to the middle of the 'stage' where they would eat Christians or other criminals (prior to the time of Theodosius of course!)

The People

We had an absolutely sensational group of people with us on this tour.  Clinton and Deb Roberts are Presbyterian pastors on a 3 month sabbatical.  Clinton has one of the greatest testimonials you'll ever hear going from atheist to pastor and I'm convinced that Deb is the one person who will actually read all the previous entries in this blog!  She took a real liking to our family and the feeling was mutual.  

Rob Moritz felt called years ago to play the part of Paul and he does it very well.  He is also a successful entrepreneur.  His daughter Mindy was on the trip and has a real talent for music.  She was writing a musical while on the bus and the girls really connected with her.  Good luck on 'Luciano the Musical!'

Mindy took the girls out along with Katie (see below) and a few others.  Mmmmmm, ice cream...

Woody, Anne, and Katie Richardson (along with Steve Williams and S).  Woody and Anne live in Green Bay and were seated in front of the kids and me at the back of the bus.  They have such a great spirit for Christ which has 100% rubbed off on their daughter Katie who just completed med school and will probably end up as a missionary in Africa.  Great, great people.  Woody has a great story as well going from atheism to faith in Jesus Christ.  He thinks a lot like I think (as does Steve who was also at the back of the bus).

The girls really appreciated being around people who weren't so OLD....

Mike Tetsui came to Dallas from Japan, read Philippians 4:13 (I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me), and eventually accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  He is now a Baptist minister in Japan where only about 1% of the population is Christian.

Amelie Chaloupka comes from Melbourne Australia.  We keep racking up friends in Australia!  Love it.  This woman EXUDES the love of Christ with a service oriented, positive attitude that you simply cannot help but notice and cannot help but want to emulate.  Amelie, thank you for being you (and for being Rachel's travel buddy at the front of the bus).
 

Steve Willis...Steve teaches at a Bible College and joined our group for the last few days.  He sat down with us at lunch in Philippi and went through Daniel 9 explaining the prophesy regarding the coming of Christ, going through how Daniel was speaking to Jews and Jews of that time thought about time in Septads (not in decades like Romans).  He had the girls do the math on the timing, was impressed that V mentioned there is no such thing as year 0 as well as the fact that our calendar is 365.25 days.  It was really a fantastic exercise (see below in the 'favorite pictures' section though you probably won't have any idea what all the numbers mean!).  The girls 'got it' and that is what matters to me.  So, thanks Steve for taking the time to walk through that with our family.

Mike and Ronna Eddins from Tulsa, OK.  They offered up their sons in marriage to our daughters when the time is right, so I guess you could say we hit it off pretty well ;)

Twinkies...I told Rachel after seeing this picture that I need more tall and thin friends as Woody makes me look like I'm really in good shape.

God bless these wonderful people that He put in our lives.

June 8 we headed to Prague and I'll write about that in a couple of days.

Til then, God bless....

Other Favorite Pictures

As noted above, one of the things we learned on this trip was the remarkable predication from Daniel 9 in the Old Testamant.  He prophesied when the Messiah would come once the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt.  The start time from that comes from Nehemiah 2 (and world history would put that date at March 15, 444BC)  That is when the clock started ticking on this prophecy and as you count out the time using Jewish septads (7 year increments), the Messiah would come during Passover in 33AD.  The Jews of 33AD knew the time as well which is why they were laying palm branches in front of him the Sunday before his crucifixion   They were expecting the Messiah that week based on Daniel's prophecy!

Off to mainland Europe starting in Prague!