He besieged the city. Then he had the siege carved into his own palace wall, in stone, with his name attached. Twenty-six centuries later, archaeologists dug up the city he was bragging about — and found it exactly where he said it was.
In 701 BC, the Assyrian king Sennacherib marched against the kingdom of Judah. The Bible describes it in three separate places — 2 Kings 18–19, 2 Chronicles 32, and Isaiah 36–37 — during the reign of King Hezekiah. One of the cities he attacked was Lachish, Judah’s second most important city after Jerusalem.
Sennacherib didn’t just conquer Lachish. He was proud enough of it to commission an enormous series of stone relief panels depicting the siege in vivid detail, and installed them in his own palace at Nineveh. They show archers, siege engines, a massive ramp built against the city wall, defenders on the ramparts, and rows of captives being led away. An inscription beside the panels records Sennacherib reviewing the plunder of Lachish in person.
Archaeologists excavating Tel Lachish in Israel — across decades of work by Starkey, Aharoni, Ussishkin, and Garfinkel — found the physical siege ramp still standing, built from roughly 20,000 tons of stone. They found a destruction layer of ash and collapsed walls dated to the same period. They found arrowheads, sling stones, and a chain believed to belong to one of the battering rams shown on the Nineveh reliefs.
This is not a case of faith filling in gaps where evidence is silent. This is a Judean city, a Judean king, and an Assyrian campaign attested independently in Hebrew scripture, in Assyrian royal inscriptions, in a palace relief carved by the victors, and in the ground itself. The relief shows a ramp. The excavation found the ramp. The Bible says the city fell. The archaeology shows it burned.
The Bible is not describing a mythical world disconnected from history. It places its people, kings, cities, and battles in a real geographical and historical setting — and Lachish is one of the places where those claims can still be walked on, dug into, and verified today.
It is an undoubted truth that every doctrine that comes from God leads to God; and that which doth not tend to promote holiness is not of God. –George Whitfield Lev_11:44 For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye […]
👏👏👏👏 Congratulations! You are now free to follow the Bible: God’s laws, instructions, teachings, and wisdom. Unencumbered by the “luke warm” and “make our own rules” manipulative crowd.
Calvinists like to say that if you have free will, especially if that is to the degree that you can reject salvation, then God is not sovereign. Scripture tells a very different story. We frequently see that God has, in His Sovereign capacity as Lord, created beings who are more than capable of disobedience. This is an ability we frequently display, to our OWN destruction. God is absolutely sovereign. Calvinists have no monopoly on knowing that fact.
It is just that His sovereignty does not preclude our responsibility. Rather, because that is how He has decided things are, it is an expression of it.
🚨 BIG MORNING UPDATE | USA Today A major moment is drawing attention across the country today. Reports say Donald Trump is expected to read from the Bible aloud from the Oval Office — something rarely seen in modern American history. Not at a rally. Not in a church. But from the very room where presidents make decisions that shape the nation. The passage said to be chosen is 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face… then I will hear from heaven, and I will heal their land.” For many people, that verse carries a deep meaning — humility, prayer, healing, and hope during difficult times. What makes this moment stand out for supporters is the setting itself: the Oval Office. A place associated with power, pressure, and responsibility. To use that space for scripture instead of politics sends a message that some see as deeply symbolic. For others, it brings back memories of family traditions — a father reading the Bible before sunrise, a grandmother praying quietly in the kitchen, a home where faith was part of daily life. Whether viewed through faith, history, or leadership, moments like this often remind people that nations are built not only through policy, but through values, reflection, and unity. Tonight, many are sharing one simple request: Take one quiet moment. Say one prayer for your family, your future, and your country. 🙏 Sometimes the most powerful thing a person can do is pause… and ask for guidance. Was there someone in your life who taught you to stay close to God? Remember them today. 🇺🇸
Something is happening in America that the enemy does not want you to see.
April 20–26.
Believers across this nation will read the entire Bible aloud — 12 hours a day — from the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C.
And President Donald Trump will read from the Oval Office.
The chapter he chose? 2 Chronicles 7.
Not a feel-good passage.
Not a political speech.
A covenant call to national repentance.
“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways — I will hear from heaven, forgive their sins, and restore their land.”
God didn’t say the government would fix it.
He didn’t say the election would fix it.
He said His people would have to move first.
Humility. Prayer. Seeking His face. Turning.
Four conditions. One promise. You can watch it live — free — on Great American Pure Flix.
April 20–26. Streaming now.
The Word is going out.
The question is whether the Church will respond or just watch.
I see people living as if they expect to live here forever, building, digging in, fortifyng themselves, perparing for many years, when, if the truth could be seen, a few short months are all that are left.
A story from an unnown source; a prosperous man was stricken by disease one day in his office. He was placed in the hospital, where there appeared before him a vision of a stranger, a stranger seemingly from another world. The stranger said, “I am Death, and I have come for you.” “Oh,” cried the ill man, “I am not prepared to die. I cannot die now! Give me one more chance. I promise to prepare for you, and to be ready the next time you call.” Strange to say, Death took him at his word and gave him another chance. He improved and was soon back in his office and at his work. Like hundreds before him, with the return of good health came the old habit of rejecting the Christ. He failed to keep his promise. A few weeks later he was again stricken with disease, and aain was placed in the ambulance and taken to the hospital, where he was the second time approached by the stranger. “I am Death,” said the stranger, “and I have come for you.” “But,” cried the patient, “I am not ready for you. I cannot die now. Give me one chance more. I promise to be properly ready next time you come.” But it was too late. Death had come this time to take him. Certainly Death is coming for us all. For a season we can stay the grim hand, but for a season only. All too soon he will come to call for us and will not be denied.
The next world is our forever home, choose carefully which it will be; the one with Jesus the Christ or the one without Him.
Do you remember a popular television commercial of some years ago that featured an older woman looking at a hamburger? With an expression of bewilderment on her face, she asked the server in the fast-food restaurant, “Where’s the Beef”? Her predicament is somewhat analogous to the feelings of persons who look for the substance of holiness in the lives of Christians today. Where the beef of holiness? Where’s that thing that makes Christians different from non-Christians? Where is the Christ-likeness? That ingredient of Christian experience that John Wesley described as religion itself. Where’s the beef of Christianity? Where is that similarity to the spirit and mind of Christ?
Look at what poll after poll; study after study, says about the conduct of those who call themselves Christian compared with those who do not. The divorce rate is reported to be slightly higher among those who call themselves Christian. Of course, not everyone who calls himself a Christian actually is.
The Holy Spirit inspired the writer of the gospel of Jesus according to Matthew to preserve these words of Jesus from His Sermon on the Mount: 7:19-23 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord,’ have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?
And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
The Calvinistic claim “I sin every day in thought, word, and deed; can’t help it – that’s just the way it is” sounds very much like standing on sand. Where’s the Beef of Christianity? Most of the Christ followers stuck in that rut don’t intend to justify their carnality they just haven’t been shown the considerably more firm footing of Holy Spirit empowered heart holiness. It is a footing that allows us to stand firm and reflect Christ-likeness so that others will say “there it is! That thing that makes Christians different from non-Christians.”
Sin is spoken of in the Bible as filthiness or defilement of the body, mind, or spirit. Purity in Religion must mean, therefore, the absence of such filthy things as drunkeness, gluttony, dishonesty, cheating, falsehood, pride, malice, bad tempers, selfishness, unbelief, disobedience, or the like. In short, to be pure in soul, signifies deliverance from all and everything which the Lord shows you to be opposed to His Holy Will. It means that you not only possess the ability to live the kind of life that He desires, but that you actually do live it.
Holiness Possible
The Church of The Nazarene believes in holiness. Holiness is our distinguishing tenet. That’s what we are all about – perfect love, Christian perfection, being filled with the Spirit, entire sanctification. The Church of The Nazarene is not a generic church. We are not all things to all people. We believe that God teaches that regeneration is the work of God’s grace, preceded by repentance and obtained by faith. We also believe regeneration is to be followed by another work of grace – entire sanctification, that act of God that frees believers from original sin and brings them into a state of complete commitment to God. Entire sanctification is provided by the blood of Jesus and wrought by the Holy Spirit to this experience the Holy Spirit bears witness.
Sanctification begins when a person is justified by faith, converted, and progresses as a believer who grows in God’s grace and conforms more and more in obedience to Christ. Believers are entirely sanctified when they are filled with the Holy Spirit, cleansing them from a sinful nature. This experience is available to the seeking Christian.
We must not allow the failures of others to persuade us that holiness is impossible. We must not justify our own uncleanness of heart and become callused in sin. We must not settle for an experience and a lifestyle that is less than holy. When this happens we begin to blame others for our moral failures, or we blame environments and situations. All the while we continue to be jealous, manipulative, proud, dominating, unkind, critical, and self-serving. All the while those who don’t have time for church continue to say “Where’s the Beef?” They are pleading for us to be the salt and light which Christ called us to be.
J. B. Chapman said, “I got saved so I could get sanctified.” Phineas Bresee said, “A sanctified life is a delight to Jesus, a joy to the soul, a benediction to the home, a power in the church, a terror to sin, and a continual disappointment to the devil.”
Eph 2:8-10
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (NAS)
Matt 7:19-23
“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
“So then, you will know them by their fruits.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.
“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ (NAS)
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