Justin Taylor has some interesting entries on the tomb and Calvary. They are interviews with Dr. Leen Ritmeyer, an archaeological architect who did work for the ESV Study Bible. The archaeology goes a long way toward affirming the biblical accounts.
We like it when archaeology (or any other science or secular discipline) confirms what we believe. It makes us feel better. We like to sit up and point and say, "See? Science agrees." When psychology reports that children do better with a father and a mother or when sociologists report that people who live together before marriage have a higher divorce rate than those who don't, we like to say, "See? They agree with us."
I, on the other hand, get a little edgy when we go there. I have to ask, "What will you say when they don't? What will you say when archaeology denies a biblical claim? What will you say when psychology reports that there is no value in monogamy?" And we already know the answer. When science decided that the Earth was much older than the Bible seemed to claim, Christians set about finding ways around the Bible claim.
I am not one who stakes my beliefs on secular affirmation. I like secular affirmation. I like good reasoning. I value evidence. But my reason for believing, in the final analysis, isn't that science confirms it or psychology agrees or archaeology supports it or sociologists are finally getting what we've always claimed. These things are prone to error. They are not without bias, as some might think. They are not without deception as some might claim. They are not without hidden agendas as we would all prefer to believe. So I'm not banking on secular affirmation of biblical truth. It's nice when you can get it, but I think there will come a time when science reaches its pinnacle of information only to find that Christianity was already there.
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