Archaeological interpretation is all about “CONTEXT”. Context of the time period from which we are studying the past. We must always be objective. Every artefact, interpretation and story should be analyzed from the time period in which it was written and the background of that time period and the agenda of the writers.
But what if our understanding of the PRESENT is different than what we think?
Than there is something wrong with our interpretation of the past. We KNOW there is a spiritual world in the present. So how can we study the past just by examining the material remains of the physical world? We then get a distorted history. The study of archaeology has made thousands lose their belief. But the truth is, it is one-sided, because it is not based on a REAL CONTEXT.
Archaeology is the study of material things. Material stuff. People’s stuff. The physical remains of humans and of the physical world. That is, in archaeology you only see the material things of humans. Houses, cities, palaces, pots, etc. In archaeology you do not see that there is also a spiritual world, except what man’s interpretation of it is. An old temple is actually man’s interpretation of the spiritual world in that time, and then excavated by archaeologists who interpret it with the knowledge they have of their time. It is an interpretation of an interpretation.
“Behold this only have I found that God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions.”
Ecclesiastics 7:29
In archaeology we do not see the spiritual world. We interpret the physical world. Archaeology gives knowledge about what man did. What he built, how he lived. It does not show what really happened, because the spirit realm influences the physical world. Archaeology is also interpreting something of the past with the knowledge of the present.
But what if we have a different reality?
Then our interpretations of the past will also be different! Then we might just be able to see a different story: a story in which the Bible comes to life.
For example:
At Megiddo, we made interpretations by assuming the Bible was a book written and manipulated by man in the 7th century BC or later. We learned to study everything from context and that the Biblical stories must be interpreted from the time period they were written and the political situation therein. Today the archaeology and chronology of Megiddo has been in the middle of the hottest debate between archaeological minimalists and maximalists. Truthfully, their debate is all based on the what we did at Megiddo! They say much of the Bible was written in the seventh century or later and was manipulated by a group of priests who tried to gained political power in the time of king Josiah. And in so doing, they destroyed other gods in the country, and created monotheism. A whole new chronology has been attached to it, which basically dates everything much later, turning Solomon’s kingdom into Ahab’s etc or even later.
However, this theory is based on the interpretation of the context of the 7th century BCE and later. It is studying the past without understanding the spiritual world. If your understanding of the world we live in and the context of the writers of the Bible is different, than so is your conclusion!
Our “context” is that there is a spiritual world around us. And if it existed today, than it existed in the past.
From my experience with the spiritual world I came to understand that in the 7th century BC Josiah was not just overthrowing “other gods” or the priests of the “Hebrew goddess-sacred feminine” to gain political control and create monotheism. He was cleansing his country from witchcraft and evil spirits which had integrated into society. Demons are very real, and they had integrated into society. Josiah saved the country, got rid of evil, and then he told the people to go back to the one God of Israel. NOT because he was a political pawn of the Judahite priests or power hungry, but because the one GOD IS REAL.
Josiah had fought a great spiritual war and went through a battle against the darkness, he cleansed the country and then he celebrated Passover to call people back to God. Passover was the victory banquet of the light over the darkness. Josiah was NOT the Messiah. Because he did not conquer the darkness for good… his actions were only a shadow of the real Messiah which would come and get rid of the darkness forever. The real Messiah would die on Passover and he would conquer the darkness forever by rising from the dead. The real Messiah had to conquer the spiritual world first so evil would flee and man was free. Demons flee when they hear his name. Just like Josiah, we also fought a spiritual battle and afterwards we celebrated Passover with 400 people in 2015. It was our victory banquet and memorial for the Messiah, who had set us free.
The key to understanding history is not just studying the physical world, but also the invisible world and how they interact with each other.
Archaeologists have to be extra careful, for their own context is different than they might think and this has effect on their interpretations. If there is a spirit world today, then there was one yesterday. And if that is the case… we are not objective at all and could be very wrong about our interpretation of the Bible.
Minimalistic research has based their interpretations of the Bible on the assumption that that there is no God and that the spirit realm was not involved in the Josiah story. From the wrong interpretations of the time period of Josiah (and later) they have made wrong assumptions and redated many events in Bible, creating a distorted history. This led thousands of people all over the world to lose their belief in God. A very dangerous situation. I pray that one day proper scientific interpretations will be made, including archaeology and the spirit realm and that God will be glorified.
