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The continued fighting in Israel limited biblical archaeology this year. But a few excavations made it into the field in 2024, and some of their discoveries are remarkable. Israel also sent some of its most treasured discoveries aboard—a boon for many in the US who would like to see them.

While the most important discoveries of this past year will not be known for years to come, these are the top stories about archaeological developments related to the land of the Bible, the biblical period, and the early history of Christianity that caught our attention in 2024.

10. A new center in Jerusalem

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) opened its new center in Jerusalem after 14 years of construction. The Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel hasn’t had a grand opening yet—that may still be a year or two away. But the $106 million structure just down the hill from the Israel Museum began inviting the public to see the new archaeological discoveries.

Architect and urban planner Moshe Safdie designed the building to resemble an excavation site. The entrance is covered by a canopy resembling those found at excavations all over Israel. As visitors descend, they see galleries, laboratories, films, and exhibits that display a small portion of the archaeological richness of the Holy Land.

9. The Siege of Jerusalem

The Assyrian king Sennacherib “came down” on Jerusalem in 701 BC “like the wolf on the fold,” with his armies “gleaming in purple and gold,” as famously described by the poet Byron. The king, for his part, ordered an inscription memorializing the feat, saying how he’d shut up Hezekiah “like a caged bird in his royal city.” Sennacherib conveniently omitted the fact that he failed to actually take Jerusalem.

The site of that siege has been identified by archaeologist Stephen Compton using modern mapping techniques. 

Compton took a depiction of Sennacherib’s camp from detailed relief panels excavated from Sennacherib’s palace in Ninevah back in 1840, which are now on display at the British Museum. He superimposed that picture on aerial photos of a siege camp at Lachish, Judah’s second largest city, which was conquered in 701 BC. 

Compton then looked around Jerusalem and found a similar layout at Ammunition Hill, now remembered as the site of fierce fighting in Israel’s 1967 Six-Day War. It’s a mile and a half north of Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate. Perhaps someday an excavation will search for siege evidence from 701 BC.

Although Jerusalem was not conquered by Sennacherib, the Assyrians exacted heavy tribute. Archaeologists also reported the excavation of an administrative center, near the new US Embassy in southern Jerusalem, that may have been used by the Assyrians to collect tribute. Researchers believe it was built on top of an older administrative center, built by King Hezekiah or his father Ahaz and razed by the invaders to demonstrate their authority. Excavation uncovered an array of personalized, stamped handles from storage jars.

8. Skills of the ancient mariners

The IAA announced the discovery of the deepest and earliest shipwreck ever found in the Eastern Mediterranean. Previously, historians knew of only two Bronze Age shipwrecks in the region, both near the coast of Turkey. This discovery, 56 miles offshore, suggests ancient mariners were venturing far from shore, which would only be possible with well-developed celestial navigation skills. 

“This is a world-class, history-changing discovery,” said Jacob Sharvit, head of the IAA’s marine unit. “This reveals the ancient mariners’ navigation skills—capable of traversing the Mediterranean Sea without a line of sight to any coast.” 

A natural gas company was surveying the sea floor with a submersible robot and came upon a huge pile of jugs a mile below the surface. A few of the jugs were raised to the surface and identified as Late Bronze Age Canaanite storage vessels from the 14th–13th century BC. The Canaanites later became known as seafaring Phoenicians and developed a trading network that ranged across the Mediterranean Sea during the Iron Age.

7. A libation token

Clay seal impressions with images and letters on one flat side and perhaps the impression on the other are common in biblical archaeology. It’s quite rare to find a blob of ancient clay that is pinched on one side with writing and an image on the reverse, but that’s what a team at the Temple Mount Sifting Project found. 

The discovery, made in 2011, was identified in 2024 as a pilgrim’s token, which could be exchanged for an offering at the temple. The wine jar depicted on the token may indicate it was payment for wine to be poured out on the temple altar. The use of such tokens is described in the Mishna, the oral Jewish law compiled in the second century.

6. Canaanite complex conundrums 

Some of the excavations that took place in 2024 explored Canaanite cult complexes dating to the Early Bronze Age, 1,000 years before Abraham, and to the Late Bronze Age, around the time of the Exodus.

Salvage archaeologists preparing the way for urban expansion excavated a site near Beit Shemesh this year and found a building that had been used for ritual activity before being suddenly abandoned. Tiny cultic vessels, which probably had a symbolic purpose, were still intact.   

Few similar public buildings from the period have been found in Israel, and this site is helping archaeologists develop their understanding of early urbanization.

About six miles south, another Canaanite cult complex has been uncovered at Tel Azekah. Archaeologists say it began as an open-air sanctuary with a spectacular view and was later enclosed. It was dubbed “the Temple of the Rising Sun.” 

Ten miles further south, the 14th season of excavation at Tel Burna ended after just three weeks because of the war, with some significant mysteries still unsolved. Archaeologists believe they discovered the part of the cultic complex where the priests lived, but they still don’t know why the religious site appears to have strong cultural connections with Cyprus, which is located 300 miles away in the Mediterranean. And they don’t know why such a large site—perhaps the largest Canaanite cult complex of the Late Bronze Age—was located so far from the coastal trade routes. 

“How did these hillbilly Canaanites build this cult complex?” said Lipscomb University archaeologist Steven Ortiz, who joined the project in 2018, in an interview with CT. 

Ongoing research at a mysterious mud-brick arch atop Tel Shimron in northern Israel uncovered a great quantity of Canaanite cultic objects. Next to the arch, in a depression that’s called a favissa—a place where sacrificial objects are discarded—researchers found two bronze bull figurines, which are typically connected to the worship of El, the head of the Canaanite pantheon, or the storm god Baal. They also found 40,000 animal bones and 57,000 pottery shards, including remnants of a rare Minoan jug from Crete. 

“In terms of religion, we don’t have anything like this,” archaeologist Daniel Master said. “This is on a scale that we don’t have anywhere else in this region.”

5. The gate of Shiloh

When the Israelites lost the ark of the covenant to the Philistines, the priest Eli fell off his chair and broke his neck at the gate of Shiloh (1 Sam. 4:18). In 2024, the excavation by the Associates for Biblical Research at Tel Shiloh finished uncovering that gate.

“There’s a niche in the fortification wall. We put a beam into that niche, and it goes right across the top of the pillars,” excavation director Scott Stripling told Christianity Today. 

Near the pillars, archaeologists also found geometric paving stones forming a plaza, which is unexpected for that time.

In another area of the tel, or mound, excavators are uncovering the walls of a building the size of the biblical tabernacle, where the ark of the covenant was kept. They have also discovered a favissa with bones from sacrifices, pottery, and gold objects, which were apparently pendants.

4. Redating a Jerusalem wall

A wall once attributed to King Hezekiah is now thought to have been built earlier by King Uzziah. This indicates that Jerusalem was expanding even before a flood of refugees arrived after the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom of Israel in 732 BC.

While that reassessment adds valuable insight into the history of the city, it’s also a powerful example of what can be done with a creative combination of complementary technology to establish “absolute chronology.”

Radiocarbon dating, normally a boon to archaeology, doesn’t work very well for objects made during the Iron Age, due to a cosmic phenomenon known as the Hallstatt Plateau. This has limited the precise dating of archaeological discoveries in Jerusalem during its time as capital of the united Kingdom of Israel and then Judah. For a decade, archaeologists have worked to combine radiocarbon results in four different excavation areas with a precise single-year timeline derived from dendrochronology, the study of tree rings. 

This has led to several redatings, including the wall now attributed to King Uzziah.

3. The start of the alphabet 

The earliest use of alphabetic writing has been pushed back 500 years through the discovery of four small fingers of clay in a tomb at Umm el-Marra in northern Syria. The tomb, which contained burials in gold and silver, was discovered in 2004 and carbon-dated to 2400 BC, the Early Bronze Age, when Umm el-Marra was a crossroad of trade routes between Aleppo and the Euphrates River. 

Johns Hopkins University archaeologist Glenn Schwartz was positive about the dating but came slowly to the conclusion that he had found actual alphabetical writing. He went public with his conclusion at November’s annual meeting of the American Society of Overseas Research.

“Previously, scholars thought the alphabet was invented in or around Egypt sometime after 1900 BCE,” Schwartz said. “But our artifacts are older and from a different area on the map, suggesting the alphabet may have an entirely different origin story than we thought.”

Numerous references to writing in the Old Testament seem to indicate a level of literacy that archaeology has been slow to support. But recent developments, including the discovery that topped CT’s 2022 archaeology list, are providing a fuller picture of early literacy.

2. Jesus recognized in Germany

A silver amulet was found in an 1,800-year-old burial outside Frankfurt in 2018. In 2024, researchers were able to scan the item, virtually unrolling the thin amulet to read the Latin inscription inside, which says the amulet will “protect the man who surrenders himself to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, since before Jesus Christ every knee bows: those in heaven, those on earth and those under the earth, and every tongue confesses.”

This discovery, announced in December, provides the earliest evidence of Christianity north of the Alps, indicating that Christianity spread to Northern Europe more quickly than had been thought. The person who wore it was buried between the year 230 and 270 AD.

1. A mosaic free from prison

The Megiddo Mosaic was discovered 20 years ago, but the amazing artifact, built for a small group of Christians who worshiped together about 200 years after the time of Jesus, was inaccessible behind prison walls. In 2024, it was loaned to the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, and is now widely available for public viewing. 

The mosaic floor includes three well-preserved inscriptions, and one, in Greek, mentions “God Jesus Christ,” clearly testifying to the recognition of Jesus as more than a good teacher. The design shows the space was intentionally built for Christian worship. Centered on a Communion table, it more closely resembles a Jewish synagogue than the Roman basilica, and depicts two fish, the most popular Christian imagery before Constantine.    

This is only the third church building that archaeologists have discovered that dates to the time before Constantine made Christianity legal in the Roman Empire. There is one at Dura-Europus in Syria and another at the location traditionally believed to be the apostle Peter’s house in Capernaum. Those were both houses converted for worship. 

This mosaic floor was not discovered at Tel Megiddo, a famous archaeological site, but a few miles down the road during the renovation of a prison. The mosaic will be on display at the Museum of the Bible until July. It will eventually return to Israel.

This is an unusually good time to see biblical archaeology in US museums. In addition to the Megiddo Mosaic, the IAA has a permanent display at the Museum of the Bible called People of the Land, and the IAA also has a traveling exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls, which is currently at the Reagan library in California. 

The Tel Dan Stele, which includes the first known reference to the house of David, is on display at the Jewish Museum in New York City through January 5. And Discovering the World of Jesus, which includes the controversial James Ossuary with the inscription “James, the son of Joseph, the brother of Jesus,” is on display in Atlanta.  

Gordon Govier writes about biblical archaeology for Christianity Today, hosts the archaeology radio program The Book and The Spade, and is the editor of Artifax. 

The post Top 10 Biblical Archaeology Stories of 2024 appeared first on Christianity Today.

Here are our most popular book reviews of 2024, ranked in reverse order of what our online audience read most.

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We could tell by the calendar that 2024 was going to be a big year. We had a US presidential election, the Olympic Games, the launch of a new denomination, and a total solar eclipse. But plenty of the year’s top stories surprised us: a record-breaking hurricane ripping through Georgia and the Carolinas, a spurt of pastor scandals involving big names in Dallas, and bleak investigative reports involving some of the biggest denominations in the world. 

The news team looked back at stories on megachurches and Methodists, athletes and assassination attempts, Haitian gangs and Gazan families, and ranked the developments we saw as the most significant for evangelicals and the church. 

12. Violence in Haiti

Haitian pastors minister amid the escalating gang violence, deaths, civil unrest, and displacements that have uprooted their country. The evangelical president of Kenya deployed police and prayer to help.

11. Total Solar Eclipse

Christians came together to witness a total eclipse and celebrate this weird wonder of creation. Churches in the path of totality hosted scores of events—some with moon pies decorated with the promise of John 8:12, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness.” While the blacked-out sun turned some believers’ thoughts to apocalyptic portents, other Christians drew lessons about the light shining in the darkness. 

10. Israel-Hamas War

The war in Gaza stretched into a second year, and evangelicals in the region struggled to be peacemakers amid the devastation. Many Israelis and Palestinians didn’t want to hear messages of peace, and those who preached peace couldn’t agree on what peace should mean in Israel. But Bible scholars worked to model good conversations. And Christians worked to find ways to love their neighbors—displaced Palestinians, displaced Israelis, and people on the border of Israel and Lebanon.

9. Federal Investigation of the SBC

The Department of Justice issued its first indictment in a years-long inquiry into abuse response within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), charging a former Southwestern Seminary professor with misleading investigators. The SBC is selling its Nashville headquarters after spending $12 million in legal fees related to its own abuse investigation.

8. Hurricane Helene 

Hurricane Helene devastated the Southeastern United States in September, hitting the mountains of Western North Carolina particularly hard. Christian disaster organizations like Samaritan’s Purse that normally work overseas responded to what they saw as an unprecedented sweep of destruction in the area. When Asheville, North Carolina, had no clean water for weeks and weeks after the storm, Christian clean-water organizations brought in tanks of drinking water, technical expertise for wells, and treatment systems for public schools to reopen. 

7. Summer Olympic Games

The Paris Olympics were a ratings success, drawing massive viewership compared to the previous summer Olympics. CT highlighted 28 Christian athletes from all over the world to watch at the games (including an interview with gold-medalist wrestler Kyle Snyder). Some highlights from the games included the Fijian Olympic team singing hymns together, a Brazilian skateboarder using sign language to share John 14:6, and a German shot-putter singing a gospel song after winning gold. 

6. Church of England Scandals

The Church of England was roiled by evangelical abuse scandals. An independent investigation found that more than a dozen ministers knew for decades that an evangelical lay leader violently beat boys at a school and summer camp, but they failed to report it to authorities. Justin Welby, already dealing with controversy over statements about same-sex relationships, became the first Anglican archbishop to resign. In a separate case, an 81-year-old evangelical priest was charged with eight counts of indecent assault.

5. Legal Issues Around Abortion and IVF

Two years after the reversal of Roe v. Wade, Americans continued to see the legal landscape shift around abortion and assisted reproduction. Florida, South Dakota, and Nebraska became the first states to vote against statewide protections for abortion. Alabama ruled that embryos stored for in vitro fertilization count as children under the law, based on its constitutional protections for the unborn.

4. The Founding of the Global Methodist Church

Hundreds gathered in Costa Rica this year to found a new denomination with prayers, tears, and debates about dancing bishops. The Global Methodist Church gives traditionalists a fresh start, thanks in part to Keith Boyette, the pastor-lawyer who helped them find their way out of the United Methodist Church. The new denomination appears to be part of a surge of interest in Wesleyan renewal. As one seminary professor noted, “Wesley is fire now.”

3. Megachurch Scandals in Dallas

The sudden resignation of pastor and best-selling author Tony Evans from his megachurch was the beginning of a summer of at least eight megachurch pastor resignations in the Dallas–Fort Worth area. Robert Morris, the founder of Gateway Church, one of the largest megachurches in the country, resigned in June after a report alleging he abused a 12-year-old in the 1980s. The resignations were largely over sex scandals and affected at least 50,000 churchgoers. 

2. Attempted Assassinations of Donald Trump

The 2024 US election was upended by a number of twists and turns, including two assassination attempts directed at Donald Trump. During the first attempt, at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a bullet grazed the candidate’s ear. Trump would later say he believed God protected him, a belief some of his supporters also expressed. The shooting resulted in multiple injuries and the death of one rally goer, Corey Comperatore. The campaign returned to Butler less than three months later for a rally, which provoked locals to pray for his protection.

1. Polarization and Anger Around the 2024 Election

The United States reelected Donald J. Trump to the presidency. His path to victory again ran through the church, though he also expanded his support among multiple demographics. The election was a polarizing one, and Christian poll workers faced increased vitriol. Christian groups addressed polarization head-on through hard conversations, and counselors brought attention to a growing number of Christians struggling with rage and anger. 

The post Christianity Today’s Top News Stories of 2024 appeared first on Christianity Today.

How do you start a congregation in Liechtenstein? It’s very wealthy, and the father and son team trying to get a church going there say only about 10 percent of the population visits a house of worship on a weekly basis. (Read more in the article from Ken Chitwood below.)

Across the continent, Christian leaders are grappling with the challenge of trying to reach a population that often finds religion irrelevant. Here’s a look at how pastors, theologians, and laypeople attempted to live out their faith and stay the course this past year.

Thank you for reading stories by Christianity Today’s global team in 2024. We regularly translate our work into more than half a dozen languages. Learn more here.

The post 10 Stories about the European Church in 2024 appeared first on Christianity Today.

Christians are called to “contend for the faith” (Jude 3:3). But what that looks like—how believers apply that call to their own context and historical moment—can vary a great deal.

A number of the leaders whose passings we witnessed in 2024 spent their lives calling evangelicals to contend. Some wanted evangelicals to contend with poverty (Tony Campolo); some, with racism (Bill Pannell); some, liberals (Beverly LaHaye). Others focused their life’s work on worship, theology, and the interpretation of Scripture.

These obituaries offered us opportunities to assess their contentions—and our own. The truth is, each of us will contend, one way or another. We are all living out our answers to the question of what we think that looks like.

In alphabetical order, here are a dozen Christian leaders who died in 2024:

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Sharing testimonies—from the highly dramatic to the quietly convicting—is an important part of what we do at Christianity Today. Below are the top testimonies of 2024, from both our print magazine and online exclusives, ranked in reverse order of what readers loved most.

View our full Testimonies archive here.

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If Bible-reading habits are any indication, many Christians are struggling with anxiety this year. Top Scripture search engines showed that one of the most popular passages of 2024 was Philippians 4, and especially verse 6: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

Yet just two verses earlier, Paul issues another command—one so important he felt it worth repeating: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (v. 4).

It seems joy, not just the absence of anxiety, is essential to experiencing God’s peace amid life’s challenges. Both Scripture and science prove the power of rejoicing, even, and perhaps especially, when we don’t feel like it. Thankfully, the highs and lows of the holiday season provide us with ample opportunity to do just that.

Isaiah, the wise Israelite prophet, recognizes that his people have been in anguish, darkness, and gloom—but he reminds them that this condition is not God’s forever-plan for them. He paints a picture of what is to come:

You have enlarged the nation
    and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
    as people rejoice at the harvest. (Isa. 9:3)

Imagine this, Isaiah seems to say, God increases the people’s joy, and in turn they rejoice, just like the experience of joy at a good harvest. He emphasizes harvest time, where God’s people are celebrating together, singing and dancing in the streets, feasting and sharing their bounty with neighbors, all lifting their voices and instruments in praise to God for his provision.

The order of joy and rejoice in this verse highlights a cyclical pattern, where each prompts the other—joy, rejoice, joy, rejoice. Joy is often a felt emotion—it can feel like a burst of lightness, a well of exuberance, or a lingering hum of contentment—while rejoicing, as the word itself implies, is a responsive action. To re-joice is to respond to joy.

This cyclical relationship is also supported by science. Andi Thacker, a Licensed Professional Counselor and professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, explained in an interview that the way joy and rejoicing participate with one another can be seen as part of a neurological feedback loop.

In the mental health profession, the term feedback loop explains how thoughts, emotions, and behaviors influence each other in a continuous cycle. Without our knowing, one element reinforces the other, contributing to either a positive change or the persistence of negative patterns. “In a feedback loop,” Thacker said, “a well-worn neurological rut is dug. A habit is formed.”

We might recognize this when we feel frustrated about something, so we complain about it. That complaint gives our brain a tiny temporary reward. It felt nice to vent for a moment, yes? But the irritation still exists, and it fuels further grumbling. Frustration, grumble, frustration, grumble. The cycle creates grooves in our brain—a grumbling habit of frustration—that we find ourselves slipping into time and time again.

But the loop we see in the words of Isaiah 9:3 is the opposite. It’s positive. When we feel joy, we respond with grateful rejoicing. When repeated over and over, the cycle carves a well-worn path in the brain that leads to joy. And whenever the cycle of joy is repeated more often than the spiral of frustration, the brain will find it the easiest, most familiar path to take.

Responding to joy with action can lead to embodied cognition—which explains how our physical bodies and sensory experiences influence our emotions and perceptions of the world. Warren Brown, UCLA Brain Research Institute scholar, writes, “Our thoughts, ideas, beliefs, memories, etc. are grounded in our bodily existence.” For good or bad, and whether we realize it or not, our bodies affect our emotions.

We see this in the Bible too. From the Old Testament to the New, the way God’s people rejoiced was often expressed in physical acts.

When God rescued the Israelites from Pharoah’s horsemen and chariots, the prophet Miriam took timbrel in hand and began to dance and sing, giving thanks to God (Ex. 15:19–21). In Deuteronomy, Moses told the Israelites to seek the dwelling place of the Lord, to give offerings, and to eat as their act of rejoicing in God’s presence (12:4–7). After rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah planned a ceremony to rejoice, where choirs sang and people offered great sacrifices (Neh. 12:40–43).

The angel who foretold the birth of John the Baptist said that many would rejoice at John’s birth—a prophesy that was fulfilled starting with John’s own father, whose “mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God.” (Luke 1:14, 64). And when the Magi, overjoyed, found the infant Jesus with his mother, Mary, “they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh” (Matt. 2:10–11).

For God’s people, rejoicing has almost always been accompanied by physical actions. God’s people have danced and made music, shouted and serenaded, or spoken words of adoration. Some have feasted and given gifts. Others have bent low to worship.

But what about when it seems there’s nothing for us to celebrate? What do we do when the joy of the Lord feels elusive—when our vision for the future isn’t panning out the way we anticipated, when we’re burdened with financial, professional, or personal anxieties—or when our family or culture expects us to be cheerful and jingle-y, but all we feel is weight and sorrow? What good is a cycle of joy and rejoicing if there is no way to manufacture the joy that causes it to start spinning?

We’ve already discussed the first way to join the cycle—to feel that fresh spark of joy from an outside prompt and then respond with rejoicing, like Isaiah’s vision of Israel at harvest time. And sure, we can always pray for God to restore to us the joy of his salvation (Ps. 51:12). But what if that spark seems unavailable to us?

Embodied cognition tells us we do not need to wait for an emotion—we can enter the feedback loop with physical behaviors alone. What does it look like to engage in the bodily action of rejoicing before feeling any joy? It can be as simple as an unprompted smile, a childlike cartwheel, or a private dance party. It can be a prayer of preemptive gratitude, a spontaneous feast with friends, a high-five with a stranger. It can sound like a hearty laugh or a peaceful sigh. In another CT article, gratitude experts Peter Hill and Robert Emmons suggest putting pen to paper or worshiping aloud.

Our bodies, words, and actions are more than simply passive reflections of our emotions; they are active participants in how those emotions are shaped. These physical movements and actions can prompt our brains to align with our bodies—to generate joy by behaving joyfully. And the cycle spins as evenly as before but with a new starting point: rejoice, joy, rejoice, joy.

This second route to joy is demonstrated in the prayer of another Old Testament prophet, Habakkuk. In response to his question-and-answer session with God about injustice in the world, Habakkuk declares that he will enter the cycle of joy and rejoicing—even when his circumstances call for lament:

Though the fig tree does not bud
    and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
    and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
    I will be joyful in God my Savior. (Hab. 3:17–18)

Like the harvesters celebrating in Isaiah 9:3, Habakkuk sets his words and body to rejoicing. But he does so even when no fruit has been produced, and no bounty is promised. The prophet is sure that from this action he will still reap joyfulness (Hab. 3:18). And just like Habakkuk, Thacker says, “rejoicing won’t change the truth about life, but it will change our ability to handle it.”

Many of us are drudging through this holiday season with a sense of dread, burdened by the increased tension and weight of division between family members, friends, neighbors, and church members. Our bodies are primed toward grumbling, as our bones have grown stiff from the lack of reasons to rejoice.

But whether our life circumstances are what we might wish them to be, joy is available to us. We can actively choose to cultivate it. Even without a praiseworthy event or emotion, we as God’s people can always embody joy out of a childlike faith that our God is good, holy, and just. And our brains will eventually align with our bodies when we mimic the rejoicing of God’s people who have come before us.

When Paul and Silas were stripped of their clothing, beaten, and imprisoned, they sang a celebratory song and rejoiced, even while their feet were clasped in chains (Acts 16:25). It is this very context which informs the conclusive message of this year’s most popular passage for anxious Bible readers, in which the apostle Paul writes, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Phil. 4:11–12).

To live out the gospel is to participate in this cycle of joy and re-joy and to jump in at any point. For those who are abuzz with holiday spirit, let us teach our brains the right response of joyful gratitude to the giver of all good things. And for those who are feeling the heaviness or frustration of the season, let us position our bodies in the posture of rejoicing. Let our mouths form the words of gratefulness. Let our cheeks rise into the shape of a smile. Let our feet stomp to a beat and our hands clap in celebration.

Why? Because there is one ultimate reason for us all to rejoice no matter what, which Isaiah himself explains later in the same chapter we began with: unto us a child is born. To us—the ones who once lived in darkness—a Son is given. The government of the kingdom rests entirely upon his shoulders. He is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the greatness of his peace there will be no end (Isa. 9:6–7).

Because of Jesus and his coming at the perfect time, now is a good time for this weary world to start rejoicing.

Shena Ashcraft is a ThM student at Dallas Theological Seminary and a teacher at her local church in Ohio.

The post Repeat the Sounding Joy—Until it Becomes Habit appeared first on Christianity Today.

This Christmas Day, amid the usual holiday trappings, a Nosferatu remake will arrive in movie theaters. Whatever combination of iconoclastic provocation and marketing savvy led A24 to schedule a vampire film’s release for December 25, this bit of counterprogramming may offer an opportunity.

A century ago, the famous exemplar of German expressionism handed audiences an unapologetically Christological ending. Will this new version, created by filmmaker Robert Eggers, do the same?

The monsters inhabiting our horror stories are never irrelevant to human experience. Frankenstein’s pieced-together, reanimated giant and those Godzilla-scale creatures awakened by nuclear detonations signal apprehensions about the excesses of scientific inquiry and experimentation. Werewolves and zombies register fear of contagious disease and death.

Modern vampires bear the weight of the latter threat, too, but combine the possibility of a premature demise with either hope of resurrection (as one of the undead) or a chance at passionate romance with a beautiful (albeit ice-cold and deathly-pale) lover.

If centuries of vampire lore signal any truth about the human condition, it’s this: The unknown and the dangerous exercise unwonted power over our desires.

These days, those desiring to spin a vampire yarn can choose between multiple—let’s say four—narrative paradigms that have coalesced since this particular monster made his way into the English language two centuries ago. These templates differ according to the roles given to faith and each protagonist’s ability to resist the enticements of their bloodsucking admirer.

The same dark and stormy night in 1816 on which Mary Shelley conceived Frankenstein, John Polidori lifted these creepy immortals from the pages of ancient Greco-Roman texts and Eastern European folk tales and planted them squarely in the gothic Romance novel. In The Vampyre (1819), the “deadly hue” of Lord Ruthven’s colorless skin and his “dead grey eye” fail to scare off the “virtuous wife and innocent daughter” who cannot gainsay, elude, or overpower his seductive spells. This monster is malevolence incarnate, a specter of unrepentant, unstoppable wickedness. Such a story rejects the psalmist’s promise that evil will be destroyed (Ps. 37:9) and allows no opportunity to flee temptation (James 4:7). Knowledge is impotent, and faith wholly absent.

Robert Eggers’s own The Witch (2015) constitutes a modern counterpart: Its powerful killers bathe in blood to restore their youth, float in the air during spell casting, and utterly destroy a Christian family whose faith crumbles one tragedy at a time.

J. S. Le Fanu’s Carmilla (1872) retains the mesmerizing power of the vampire, who awakens both ambiguous repulsion and even stronger attraction. This time, however, rescue arrives in the form of human ingenuity. The knowledgeable Baron Vordenburg saves the day by uncovering the entombed murderer and adroitly applying stake to chest and axe to neck. Though Le Fanu makes clear that the vampire cannot bear the sound of praying, no invocations, crosses, or eucharistic wafers play a role in Carmilla’s defeat.

Marvel’s vampire-hunting Blade, who once headlined a film trilogy and will reappear on screens before long, provides a modern example of this type; he dismisses crosses and holy water as utterly worthless.

A third variant, codified by Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), actualizes faith by granting surprising agency to the titular vampire’s prime target. Mina is “one of God’s women,” her fiancé attests, “fashioned by His own hand to show us men and other women that there is a heaven where we can enter, and that its light can be here on earth.” Mina veers from precedent by showing no interest in Dracula when he materializes in her bedroom; love for God and her husband protect her heart. Though the vampire begins her transformation by forcing her to consume his blood, her prayer, “God grant that we may be guided aright,” is finally realized when the men kill the vampire with the help of clues Mina herself collected.

The final, more recent archetype adds conflicted, remorseful vampires to the mix, soulful parasites whose inner torment pairs well with chiseled jawlines and piercing eyes. Any romantic interest they show is passionately reciprocated by their would-be prey. Joss Whedon’s Buffy and Angel series popularized this strain of narrative with help from Anne Rice’s books, and have since spawned Twilight, Underworld, The Vampire Diaries, and a host of similar ilk.

In realizing his childhood dream to remake Nosferatu, then, filmmaker Robert Eggers has many options. Filmmakers often play fast and loose with source material, so Eggers need not toe the line drawn by F. W. Murnau—who himself took liberties when (illegally) adopting Nosferatu from Stoker’s Dracula in 1922. Murnau’s film turned the Mina character, renamed Ellen, into the central hero by allowing her to sacrifice herself to save others, a Christlike “sacrifice of her own bloode” that provides the only means of delivering her town from the vampire’s bloodlust.

The same character (now named Lucy) does the same in Werner Herzog’s 1979 remake of Nosferatu, using a cross to ward off the demon until she learns that only the death of a “pure-hearted woman” can end Dracula’s reign. Unfortunately for the world, her valiant sacrifice does not save anyone. In a twist that recalls evil’s inevitable victory in Polidori’s original, Lucy’s infected husband becomes the new lord of darkness.

The trailer for Eggers’s film sketches the outline of a female protagonist eager to embrace the dark lord who sails through her window on the night wind, a protagonist who later complains to her husband that “you could never please me as he could.” These clips could sum up the entirety of the tale or subtly mislead.

Perhaps Eggers will turn our protagonist into a sad victim of her own lust. Or, maybe, she’ll become an adulteress whose passionate devotion somehow humanizes the fiend. She could even prove herself a mastermind who defeats Dracula by playing mind games better than he. 

There’s one more possibility we can discuss with other viewers—whether Eggers realizes it or not. If our hero recognizes her need for the divine and, like Stoker’s Mina, prays “with all the strength of my sad and humble soul,” perhaps the film’s release date will not prove quite so irreverent.

Paul Marchbanks is a professor of English at California Polytechnic State University. His YouTube channel is “Digging in the Dirt.”

The post All I Want for Christmas Is … a ‘Nosferatu’ Remake? appeared first on Christianity Today.

While an explosion reverberated across the valley from Beirut to the foothill village of Mansourieh, two men puffed on their cigarettes in resignation. Israeli jets were striking another apartment building in the Dahiyeh region of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital city, likely killing a Hezbollah militant or targeting an underground weapons depot within the tightly packed urban area.

Neither man cared about politics or the war, brought to their doorstep by last year’s decision of the Shiite Muslim militia to launch rockets into Israel to support Hamas. Tit-for-tat attacks had crossed the southern border for the 11 months that followed, as neither side wanted to engage in a larger conflict. That fighting displaced tens of thousands on both sides while leaving the rest of Lebanon largely unscathed—yet ever worried about an escalation.

It came in September. On the 17th, Israel declared the return of northern citizens to their homes to be an official war goal. Hours later, an Israeli sabotage operation exploded Hezbollah pagers, killing 13 and wounding around 4,000 militia-linked individuals. Then, on September 23, Israeli missiles struck throughout Lebanon, and hundreds of thousands fled their homes. Lubnan Assaf, a 42-year-old Shiite Muslim, and Awad Saab, a 72-year-old Greek Catholic, somehow found their way to the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS) guesthouse—and became friends. At its peak, the evangelical institution housed almost 250 displaced individuals, about one-third of whom were fellow Christians.

ABTS offered daily chapels and provided three meals a day—but no televisions. Isolated from the news and away from static entertainment, couples walked in the seminary gardens while children rode scooters down the access road from the library. Assaf and Saab played a Rummy-like card game until 10 p.m., exchanging details about their abandoned neighborhoods.

Assaf gave Saab the daily update that his auto-accessory shop on the edge of Dahiyeh had not been looted. Saab replied that his eight-month pregnant daughter, one of 15 people who remained in their southern village on the frontline of the Israeli ground invasion, was still doing all right. Both whittled away the hours in relative boredom, as each over time expanded his spiritual horizons.

Assaf’s Story

Assaf’s apartment in the working-class Shiite neighborhood of Ouzai, located in Dahiyeh near the Beirut airport, overlooks a local café and the Mediterranean Sea. His shop serviced mostly middle-class Christians who frequented the area, well-known for its inexpensive furniture and manufactured goods.

Over the years, Assaf saved up enough money to build a home in his family village of Younine, 11 miles northeast of Baalbek, an ancient Roman city preserved in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon’s agricultural heartland. Driving from Beirut means passing by marijuana fields that fuel an unofficial economy run by local Shiite tribes that reportedly collaborate loosely with Hezbollah.

Artful calligraphy from the Quran adorns the walls of Assaf’s home. His wife, Mira, and their 15-year-old daughter wear the hijab. When war came to Dahiyeh, they relocated for safety, while Assaf returned to Beirut to oversee his shop.

The next day, an Israeli missile flew over Younine. The whistle and nearby explosion rattled the home, as the Baalbek area suffered widespread bombing. Frantically, Assaf’s wife, Mira, reached out to her husband. After one night of terror, she hired a taxi at three times the normal fare to reach a Christian area just east of Beirut. Another phone call went to her cousin, Abed Zein El Din—an assistant professor of practical theology at ABTS.

Zein El Din had become a Christian in his early teenage years but had preserved family relations and was now in a position to help Mira. He secured a place at ABTS for Assaf, Mira, and their two children. Mira volunteered to help in the kitchen and attended the daily chapels.

Meanwhile, Assaf ate breakfast at 7:30 a.m. in the ABTS cafeteria. Chapel followed an hour later, but by then Assaf was heading to work. He went not to serve his customers—few Ouzai residents remained—but to protect his shop from thieves. A neighborhood watch that patrolled the streets at night disbanded in the morning, and rumors of stealing circulated in several abandoned Shiite areas.

Assaf kept to Christian areas as he entered Beirut and passed by statues and shrines of favored saints. On light poles were banners displaying the encircled cedar-tree insignia of Lebanese Forces, the popular Christian political party known for its opposition to Hezbollah. But as Assaf drove west across the capital, the demography changed, and with it the political markings.

Banners on light poles displayed the bearded, smiling face of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, killed on September 27 by a massive bunker bomb. Other tributes were to “martyrs on the road to Jerusalem,” as the militia calls its fallen soldiers. Present also were the green flags of the Amal Movement, the secular face of Shiite politics, which cooperates with the Islamist party to dominate the sectarian scene.

On some days, a makeshift checkpoint, erected to keep drivers away from the area of an announced Israeli strike, interrupted Assaf’s commute. Ignoring the details of war at ABTS, he did not follow Israel’s regular warnings to evacuate selected buildings and the surrounding 500 yards.

Many strikes were very precise. In the cosmopolitan Ras Beirut section of the capital, a missile hit its ground-floor target next door to a popular gaming store and three blocks away from a Baptist church. The blast strewed debris and shattered glass into the street, while the apartments above were left untouched. But across the street was a gas station that, if hit directly or indirectly, could have engulfed the area in flames.

Residents were wise to limit traffic, for the nature of strike was unpredictable. In the Haret Hreik neighborhood, a larger missile brought down an entire apartment building, and its shattered hull collapsed atop the Malek al Tawouk restaurant chain. But drivers were also aware that pinpoint drone strikes could take out a single vehicle, impacting no other cars on the road.

Changing his route due to the checkpoint, Assaf would eventually reach Ouzai and slowly navigate its narrow alleyways until he arrived at his shop, where he would fiddle with his cell phone until about 3 p.m. That is when the neighborhood watch group re-formed, keeping everyone off the streets at dark.

Videos circulated in some areas of discovered burglars tied and hanging from street poles, with signs of “thief” hung across their necks in shame. Assaf had known his neighbors since youth, but in recent years, many left and rented their apartments to less-known Syrian refugees. Best not to hang around after hours, he decided.

Back at ABTS, he would find his family, have dinner, and smoke his cigarette. The seminary showed them love, Assaf said, and communicated that Jesus motivated their service. But neither senior leaders nor general staff ever asked them to believe as they do. Earlier in life, he had been without work, but fellow Shiites in the patronage networks of Hezbollah and Amal would only help the politically affiliated. At the guesthouse, there were no strings attached to anything.

“Evangelicals are the best people,” Assaf said. “There is no sectarian spirit or self-interest. They just cared for us.”

Saab’s Story

Deir Mimas is a village in Lebanon located 55 miles southeast of Beirut. It once had a population of 4,600 people. It boasts seven churches, with a Protestant community noted in travel literature as early as 1875. Its grand treasure—apart from more than 100,000 olive trees, many dating back hundreds of years—is the Monastery of Saint Mamas, a third-century shepherd and martyr under Roman persecution.

The monastery, built in 1404, became the center of a Christian community within the sloping hills of the Lebanese south. Located only 43 miles from Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth, Deir Mimas borders the Shiite village of Kafr Kila, where Hezbollah maintained a dominant political position. The Hezbollah-Israel war in 2006 led to the destruction of the medieval cloister. Qatar funded its rebuilding in 2010.

That war contributed to a reduction of Deir Mimas’s population. It dwindled to around 1,000 Christians as people moved for better economic opportunities, and then to 350 as hostilities began anew with Israel. By comparison, locals said that Lansing, Michigan has over 700 now-Americans originally from the tiny village.

One who remained in Deir Mimas was 67-year-old pastor Maroun Shammas, now suffering his seventh displacement from the troubled region. Originally from the village and born with scoliosis and only 30 percent lung capacity, he has led its Baptist church since 1998. Hezbollah’s support front and the Israeli response drove him and many parishioners away, and he lived with family in a large Christian town near Sidon. But unable to abandon his congregation in war, last summer he rented an apartment in a nearby Christian village to make the 20-minute weekly commute back for Sunday service.

Twenty people were attending the Baptist church on a Sunday in July when a missile exploded only 500 yards away. Most judged the area no longer safe, and by September, Shammas and 34 other villagers, including 12 church members, had found refuge at ABTS.

Saab was one of them, but his pregnant daughter stayed behind with her husband. Travel to Beirut was still possible, and Deir Mimas was not an Israeli target, but out of precaution they sent to Saab their 12-year-old son, who kept up with his online studies from the seminary premises.

Before the war, Saab was not a religious man. He believed in God and acted ethically, but he never went to church and only politely engaged with his wife in spiritual discussions. Three months ago, however, headaches sent him to the hospital, where a CAT scan revealed aneurysms in his cranial veins. Doctors warned him the operation might be fatal, and during surgery they cut him open from chest to scalp. But Saab made it through, and though as a side effect he is increasingly forgetful, he no longer forgets God.

Asked about the war, he said simply, “I have my health. Whatever God gives us is good.”

And at ABTS, he began to read avidly—the Bible, theological books, whatever pastor Shammas gets him. Every morning, he attended chapel, singing along with Arabic praise songs. But Saab wanted more, and on Sundays he joined in the services of two churches that rent space on the campus grounds.

Nabil Costa, chief executive officer of Thimar, the Baptist development ministry governing ABTS, said help to the displaced “preached Jesus without preaching.” Only one-third attended chapels, but at meals they listened to prayers thanking God for their daily bread. A leading Shiite media personality given refuge said on television, “Evangelical service has been outstanding.” And the principal of the affiliated Baptist school said one family displaced from Dahiyeh enrolled their child on the recommendation of a sheltering Shiite leader—even when told he would study the Bible.

Similarly, the impact on Saab was substantial. 

“God willing, I will be an evangelical soon,” he said. “And when we return to Deir Mimas, I will be the first one in the church.”

Ceasefire

In late November, rumors spread that a ceasefire could be immanent. By then, fierce fighting was taking place in Deir Mimas, with Hezbollah mentioning the location 12 times in its description of operations as it boasted of destroying an Israeli Merkava tank. Saab’s The attack came as Saab’s son-in-law was in Beirut, leaving the pregnant mother alone in a house located only ten yards from the combat zone. The previous two nights, she and the other remaining residents slept in a two-story villa in the heart of Deir Mimas, not only for mutual encouragement but also to put maximum distance between themselves and the exchange of rocket fire in the battlefield.

Residents reported seeing Israeli forces walking through the streets, issuing warnings for everyone to stay inside. Video footage also emerged of troops sheltering inside the monastery, mocking Christian rituals in a pretend wedding between two soldiers.

Saab called it a “shame” but reported that an Israeli officer later came with the mayor from Metula, a Jewish village across the border, to offer apologies to the local priest. Israel officially condemned the act and said it would investigate the soldiers involved. Jesus told his followers to turn the other cheek, Saab continued, so he asked God to forgive them.

Nonetheless, he worried constantly. At night, Saab was regularly up until 3 a.m., despite taking sleeping pills. He passed the time with occasional visits to his brother’s barber shop in Beirut.

The ceasefire came on November 27. The agreement calls for Hezbollah to relocate away from the Israeli border beyond the Litani River, with Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory within 60 days. The Lebanese army is to deploy in the south and ensure the dismantling of Hezbollah’s military infrastructure. An international committee led by the United States, with representatives of France, Israel, Lebanon, and the United Nations, will monitor violations. So far, Israel accused the militia of transporting weapons, while Lebanese media reported Israel uprooting olive trees in Kafr Kila—where Shammas said he has many close friends.

In Beirut, Hezbollah portrayed the ceasefire as a victory. Cars filled the streets, honking horns as supporters waved high its signature yellow flag with uplifted green Kalashnikov rifle. While sympathetic toward the Palestinians, many Lebanese disagree with this assessment and are angry at the militia for imposing a foreign conflict on their nation. The World Bank estimated the cost of rebuilding would exceed $3 billion, while Israel estimated its domestic repair costs at $273 million.

International law forbids embedding military infrastructure in civilian areas, as Hezbollah established its leadership operations in Dahiyeh. But this also greatly encumbers Israel’s options, as the Geneva Convention states that forces must refrain from attacking a target if the loss of civilian life or damage to civilian objects “would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.”

In the south, an Associated Press review of satellite data revealed that in each of 11 villages along the border, between 100 and 500 buildings have been destroyed or damaged. Outside the specific 13 points of the ceasefire agreement, Israel has forbidden civilians from returning to 10 locations. The displaced were encouraged to delay their return to over 60 additional villages—including Deir Mimas.

The Deir Mimas municipality agreed with the assessment. The mayor asked residents to stay away and said local officials would coordinate with the Lebanese army to determine the timing for a safe return. Pastor Shammas spoke of the Christian responsibility to carry the cross, to return eventually to Deir Mimas despite the volatile setting and depressed economic conditions, in order to be a light in the regional darkness. This he identified not with Hezbollah or Israel but with the spiritual reality that exists wherever Christ is not Lord. War is only one mark of evidence.

Meanwhile, Saab checked in on his daughter. A few days later, a local priest in the nearby Christian village of Qlayaa successfully secured Lebanese army permission to pass the checkpoint and take her ten minutes back to his church. From there, the Red Cross transported her to the larger town of Marjayoun, where she took a taxi back to Beirut. The roads were quiet. Within two hours, she was reunited with her husband and soon thereafter began the search for a local obstetrician. This week, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

When the time comes, their home church in Deir Mimas will need repair. While the sanctuary is undamaged, shock waves from the blasts shook free several of the traditional red-orange tiles from the roof of the adjacent hall. Inside, damage was worse, as corresponding ceiling tiles crashed to the ground. Several homes—including those of Shammas and of Saab’s daughter—had windows blown out and doors knocked off their hinges. Nine homes, Saab counted, were severely damaged in the fighting.

Assaf was more fortunate; his home suffered only minor cracks in the walls. An evacuation warning for a house only ten yards from his own made the family nervous, but it turned out to be one of many prank notices that added to the overall stress of wartime life. His shop is back open, but business is slow. He called Saab to wish him congratulations for the safe delivery of his grandson.

Meanwhile, ABTS invited Assaf’s family to its annual Christmas party, delighting his wife. The children received gifts. It was a grand reunion of formerly displaced friends from every corner of Lebanon, back again at their temporary home.

The post A Shiite and a Catholic Find Refuge—and Friendship—at Baptist Seminary Shelter appeared first on Christianity Today.

For many writers, putting hundreds or thousands of words on the page is not the most difficult part of writing. It is rather the ideation phase, the task of coming up with what we call the pitch, the angle, or the take and then determining whether the idea we’ve gotten is worth anything: if it holds together, if it tells the truth, if it might possibly edify the church.

On some blessed occasions, the idea may simply appear, like Gabriel to Mary, an unlooked-for mental gift. Perhaps more often, ideation can be a slog. It recalls less the first chapter of Luke than that of Ecclesiastes: “Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new’?” (v. 10)

However they came about, the 15 articles below (presented in order of publication), are ideas-driven pieces that stuck with CT editors this year. They present fresh insights alongside timeless truths and bring surprising perspectives to both familiar and novel debates. We hope you find them as intriguing, delightful, and thought-provoking as we did.

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