Did you know?

There is no Battle of Armageddon in the Bible. “Demonic spirits gathered all the rulers and their armies to a place with the Hebrew name Armageddon” (Revelation 16:16 NLT). End of story. There’s no report of a battle getting fought. Some students …

Walking, it normally took about two weeks to make the trip from Egypt to what is now Israel. It took Moses and the Israelites 40 years. They bypassed the coastal route to avoid Egyptian outposts. Then God sentenced them to 40 years in the Badlands …

Jacob, father of the 12 sons who produced the 12 tribes of Israel, got the Hebrew name Ya ‘aqov, which sounds like the Hebrew word for heel: ‘aqev (Genesis 25:26). It’s because he was born second, and came out holding onto the heel of his brother …

Solomon traded land for gold and cedars he bought from the King Hiram of Tyre in what is now Lebanon. When Hiram saw the land, he renamed it: Cabul (1 Kings 9:13 NLT). First-century Jewish writer Josephus said it meant “unfruitful” in Hiram’s …

Invaders surrounded the Jewish city of Samaria for so long that the people inside the city ran out of food. Two women agreed to kill and eat their sons. They ate one son one day, but the mother of the other son hide her boy. The next day the enemy …

A hill-country accent cost 42,000 Jews their lives. A Jewish commander name Jephthah had a grudge against the tribe of Ephraim for not helping him during a battle. He knew they couldn’t pronounce the “h” sound. He arrested their people at a border …

When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee during a storm, they said, “It’s a ghost!” (Matthew 14:26 NLT). They may have thought he came to usher them into the next world. Strange and Mysterious Stuff in the Bible, p. 16

When the Roman Empire legalized Christianity in the AD 300s, church leaders demoted pacifism. They started preaching a new idea for Christians: that there is such a thing as a just war. Augustine (AD 354-430), an African bishop, made that argument …

Early-generation church leaders preached love, not war. One leader summed up the majority view. Tertullian (about AD 160-220) said, “When Christ disarmed Peter he disarmed every soldier.” 100 Tough Questions about God and the Bible, p. 38.

“There was a wise man who was called Jesus…Pilate condemned him to be crucified…His disciples…reported that he appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive.” —Josephus (about AD 37-100) …

Some Christians have trouble believing in a fiery hell. They say they can’t imagine Jesus lighting the eternal flame, forever barbecuing the people he died to save. They ask if instead of reading literally the Bible descriptions of hell, they should …

Philistines stole Israel’s most sacred object, the Ark of the Covenant, which held the Ten Commandments. Then sent it on tour as a war trophy. “A plague of tumors” broke out everywhere it went. Philistines sent it back to the Jews, with an offering: …