OPINION:
Can I find evidence of God acting in the events of history, and if so, what does that mean for today?
That question has driven my life for the last two decades. It’s one of the most important questions anyone can ask. If there is no evidence, then what do I believe? On what basis do I have hope, unless there’s proof that God has acted in time and space to fulfill the promises made in Scripture?
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Growing up in a Christian home where the Bible was taught as a historical record of God’s activity, I never wrestled with this question. Of course, God acted in history. He’s a promise-making and promise-keeping God. But as I grew older, I was tempted to reject those beliefs.
I’m a curious person; I like to know and understand what happened in the past. It began in high school when I started to read ahead in my history book. In college, this curiosity about history merged with my interest in filmmaking. At that time, I had no big questions about the Bible or God; that didn’t happen until I was older. That’s when I became an investigative filmmaker.
In 2002, I met Swedish DNA researcher Dr. Lennart Moller. He wrote a book looking at the events of Exodus through the eyes of a scientist. I was impressed with his approach. We headed to Egypt searching for evidence of the Israelites’ Exodus out of Egypt.
During that trip, seeds of doubt about the Bible were planted in my mind. It began while interviewing Egyptologist Manfred Bietak, who was digging at the ancient city of Avaris, which was buried underneath the city of Ramasses, where the Bible places the Israelites in Egypt.
I asked Bietak, “Have you found any evidence for the Israelites?” He replied, “So far not!”
It wasn’t the answer I expected. When I returned home, I had a crisis of faith while reviewing the footage. A cold chill entered from the left side of the room. Then a thought came into my mind, “Everything you believe and your family believe about the Bible is a lie!” At that moment, I felt as if I had just fallen into a deep, dark, bottomless pit of despair.
Then, another thought came from my right side: “Stop editing. Get up, go to your office, to the bookcase.” As I approached the bookcase, I saw the book “Pharaohs and Kings” by Egyptologist David Rohl. As I opened the book, to my surprise, I saw the same area of Avaris where I had been but with a completely different interpretation of the evidence, revealing the story of the Israelites in Egypt.
That began a 12-year journey in the making of my first film, “Patterns of Evidence: The Exodus.” It was released in 650 theaters nationally and then went on to stream on Netflix worldwide.
This led to more investigative films using a “Patterns of Evidence” approach, such as “The Moses Controversy,” “The Red Sea Miracle Part 1 & 2,” and “Journey to Mount Sinai Part 1 & 2.”
When Israel was attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, the question of Israel’s right to exist was once again a topic of discussion on the world stage. Many were asking what is behind these ongoing conflicts. Is it merely a political issue, or is there something more profound, more ancient? Was the plight of the Jews part of a predicted plan from millennia past?
I knew the biblical record:
- Isaiah 11:11 predicts a second in-gathering of the Jewish people to the Land. And this was before God had returned the Jews to the Promised Land for the first time.
- Hosea 3:4-5 talks about the Jews living in a time without king or temple worship, and yet they will seek the Lord in the last days.
- Zechariah 14 says that all the nations will gather against Jerusalem and take the city, but the Lord will be victorious over Israel’s enemies. Zechariah 14:4 says the Lord’s feet will stand on the Mount of Olives. This is the place from which Jesus ascended in Acts 1:11-12, and the angels afterward predicted that He would return the same way that He departed.
These and other predictive prophecies confirmed that I needed to investigate and understand the historical context. So, in the last year, my team and I began to develop the first in a two-part series, “Patterns of Evidence: The Israel Dilemma - Ancient Prophecies.”
It looks at the conflict in Israel today through the lens of the Bible, which serves as the Israelis’ claim to the land, based on God’s covenant with Abraham, Moses, and the Israelites.
I began with footage I gathered in 2007 from interviews with the leaders of Israel, including Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Perez, Rabbi David Hartman, archaeologists Gabriel Barkay, and Israel Finkelstein.
To test if God is acting in history, we would have to look at the ancient nation of Israel and a Covenant, a legal agreement made between them and God. At the end of Moses’ life, in the book of Deuteronomy, one of the five books of the Torah, Moses recorded a set of specific prophecies about Israel’s future as a nation. He predicted that:
- The nation of Israel would eventually establish a kingdom
- But they would break the covenant, and the kingdom destroyed
- The Israelite people would be scattered
- They would be persecuted
- They would one day be returned to the Promised Land.
I don’t believe these biblical events have ever been made into a film of this depth. My prayer is that it will open the minds of those who come to the theaters that there is a God, and to quote Francis Schaeffer, and He is not silent. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob acts in the world’s affairs, in the past, the present, and the future. He foretold the course of His relationship with Israel, and the next stages of that relationship are unfolding before our eyes. He is a God of prophecy, and we can trust that He is a keeper of His word to Israel and to us.
“Patterns of Evidence: The Israel Dilemma - Ancient Prophecies” will be in theaters nationwide on Wednesday, November 13, Thursday, November 14, and Sunday, November 17. To learn more and purchase tickets, visit here.
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In 2002, investigative filmmaker Tim Mahoney began exploring and documenting some of the biggest questions of the Bible and what they mean for our world today. This calling, as well as an insatiable curiosity to explore the past, has led him to journey around the world, interviewing the world’s leading Bible scholars, archaeologists, and historians in order to find answers. He has directed eight feature films in the award-winning “Patterns of Evidence” film series: “The Israel Dilemma I & II,” “The Exodus,” “The Moses Controversy,” “The Red Sea Miracle I & II,” and “Journey to Mount Sinai I & II.” Learn more at PatternsofEvidence.com.
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