Ancient documents and artifacts can help shed light on the Bible’s historical context. But we always need to remember that Scripture is the ultimate authority for theology, history, and more.

It’s the Bible that is a special revelation from the eyewitness Creator. So, if something in an ancient document contradicts the Bible, we know it—not the Bible—must be wrong. We can use the Bible to clarify our understanding of outside sources.

We cannot allow sources outside the Bible to be authorities over God’s Word. These sources were written by fallible man. The Bible was written with God as the ultimate author.

Do artifacts and documents from thousands of years ago have value in interpreting the Bible?

Well, this week we’ll look at ways we can use these artifacts to clarify biblical passages. But notice I said clarify.

You see, the Bible tells us all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, correcting, and training in righteousness. Even though Scripture was written by, and often to, specific people during a time in history, the ultimate author is God. He made sure his Word was clear for all people of all times.

So while ancient artifacts are informative and important, we don’t need them to be able to properly interpret Scripture.

Did you ever think we’d get to a time where people can’t answer the question, “What is a woman?” There’s so much confusion about gender, as we’re constantly told anyone can be whatever they want to be. But God’s Word cuts through the confusion.

In Genesis, we read that God created male and female. And Jesus affirmed this in the New Testament when he quoted Genesis and said, well, “God made them male and female.”

Gender is not on a spectrum or a social construct. We’re distinctly male and female because God designed us that way from the beginning. We can’t decide what we want to be. We need to look to God’s Word for truth.

Creationists are often accused of “denying science”—a claim that ignores their degrees and published research! We don’t deny science—we love it!

But there are two kinds of science. Observational science is directly testable, observable, and repeatable. It builds technology and cures diseases. Historical science deals with the past. It’s not directly testable, observable, or repeatable. So, what you believe about the past determines your interpretation!

Many scientists interpret the evidence through the lens of evolution and long ages. We reject this worldview, as it goes against God’s Word. So, do we reject science? Not at all.

Did you know the fossil record is full of regular creatures we still find today?

In the so-called “dinosaur” rock layers, we find starfish, earthworms, and corals alongside sharks, salmon, and herring. In other dinosaur layers, beavers, hedgehogs, squirrels, and boa constrictors are found with parrots, loons, penguins, and owls.

Most people have no idea these fossils exist, but they’re a big challenge to evolutionary ideas. If environments were constantly changing over millions of years, shouldn’t these animals have evolved? Instead, we find organisms just like they are today—not much has changed!

I’m sure most of us haven’t thought much about frog spit. But our Creator sure did!

Frogs shoot out their tongues five times faster than you or I can blink. Their tongues are softer than marshmallows, which allows them to spread and curl around prey. But their saliva is where it really gets amazing!

Frog spit starts out thick and, upon contacting prey, thins out to fill the tiny cracks of the insect. Then it thickens up again, allowing the frog to have better grip. And all this happens in a blink of an eye.

There’s no way something this complex simply evolved. Even frog spit declares the glory of our Creator!

A few years ago, I saw an article about some scientists designing a drug to alter the brain to increase so-called prosocial behaviors and decrease “antisocial” ones. Now, these basically would be pills for a better, more moral you. But who determines what’s moral?

Without an ultimate standard, the individual or the group must decide right from wrong. But what if my right and wrong is different from yours? Or my government’s from yours? Who decides then? And what makes anyone’s opinion more right than anyone else’s?

We must appeal to an ultimate standard for morality—and we have one. The authority of the Word of God, given to us by our Creator.

Many scientists claim there have been five mass extinctions. They say the fossils show distinct layers representing different time periods, separated by millions of years. But the global flood described in Genesis is a better explanation!

As the floodwaters rose, miles of sediment were deposited, burying organisms between the layers. These waters buried different environments one at a time, starting with the ocean floor and moving up over the continents. So, the rock layers and fossils don’t represent different times—they show different environments living at the same time that were catastrophically buried by the global flood of Noah’s day.

We’re uniquely designed for more than just survival. Our Creator designed us for relationship.

For example, we’re clearly designed to communicate. Only humans express emotions and abstract thoughts through words. Our language shows we didn’t just evolve to be hunter-gatherers—we were created to worship God.

And we were designed to express emotions with over 50 facial muscles to make over 10,000 expressions!

And we were designed for a spiritual life. Only humans search for God and the meaning of life because we were designed to have a relationship with our Creator. And that relationship is found, well, through Jesus Christ!

Many popular books and movies recount near-death experiences, where a person supposedly went to heaven and came back again. But are these visits real?

Well, we need to compare everything we read to God’s Word. In Scripture, any vision of heaven focuses on God’s glory and our unworthiness to be in his presence. There’s no focus on loved ones or the fun experiences. It’s all about God—as it should be. But these stories of supposed visits to heaven focus on distinctly human things like loved ones or the person’s feelings.

Instead of getting our doctrine of heaven from books, we need to start our thinking with God’s Word, beginning in Genesis.