The Garden Tomb: Where Jesus Rose Again?

By Chris Mitchell

CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief

Friday, April 03, 2015

Ad Feedback

JERUSALEM -- On Easter Sunday, millions of Christians around the world will be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In Jerusalem, thousands of Christian pilgrims visit what many believe to be the site of that resurrection. 

Located near the heart of Jerusalem is a place called The Garden Tomb, what some believe was the Garden of Joseph of Arimathea. Here is where some believe Jesus died, was buried, and then rose from the dead. 

The garden is a two acre oasis in the often hectic city of Jerusalem. British Christians bought the garden 125 years ago and formed The Garden Tomb Association. For years, they've allowed visitors here free of charge. 

"What we do have here in the Garden is a perfect representation of the Biblical accounts at the end of the four Gospels. Everything in those four Gospels matches what we show people here in the Garden," Richard Meryon, director of The Garden Tomb, said.

Touring the Garden

Today, nearly a quarter of a million visitors pour into The Garden Tomb each year. Guide Steve Bridge took CBN News on a tour visitors get when they come to the garden.     

"What we plot out is the basic geography that we have in the Bible," he explained. "Jesus was crucified outside of the city walls at a place called Golgotha. And in the immediate area to where Jesus was crucified there was a garden that belonged to a rich man by the name of Joseph of Arimathea."

We came first to the place the Bible calls "Golgotha," where the book of Matthew says "and when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull." 

"What are some of the main questions people ask you when they come here?" we asked Bridge.

"Some of the main questions, certainly from Christian groups would be can we be certain that this is the place where Jesus died and He was raised to life," Bridge said. "People often ask how come there are two places, here and there is the Holy Sepulcher?"

Weighing the Evidence

The question arises because some believe Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the actual place of the crucifixion and resurrection, not the Garden Tomb. Constantine's mother Queen Helena helped build the church in 326 A.D. 

The archeological weight supporting the church's claim is substantial. For example, the Roman emperor Hadrian built a temple on the site in the second century because local Christians venerated the site as the place of Golgotha.   

But the evidence for the Garden can be compelling. The gospel of John says, "... at the place where jesus was crucified, there was a garden ... "  (John 19: 38; 41)

If you have a garden, you need lots of water, especially in the dry Middle East. The Garden Tomb contains one of the oldest and largest cisterns in Jerusalem. It's 2,000 years old and holds about 200,000 gallons of water.

"So the tomb we have here is a typical of a first century Jewish rolling stone tomb. It's dated at least 2,000 years, possibly older," Bridge explained to CBN News.

The Empty Tomb 

In the Garden, the Bible also says there was a tomb. 

"It is carved out of solid rock. It's a man-made tomb and that's how the Bible describes the tomb in which the body of Jesus was laid," Bridge said of the tomb, while we we standing next its entrance.

"This channel that you can see in front of the tomb entrance is where the stone would have sat that would have been rolled to seal the entrance to the tomb. So finally, the most important thing about this tomb itself is that it's empty."

We went inside for a look.

"What we're looking at when we're looking at this direction is through into the burial chamber itself," Bridge explained. "And what you have inside the burial chamber are these two areas where a body would be laid, one just down here and one on this side."

The tomb itself seems to fit the Bible's description. But whether The Garden Tomb or the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the site of the resurrection of Jesus, many Christian pilgrims take with them a profound affirmation of their faith

"I'm a Bible teacher in the states. And want to take some of this passion back, that Jesus is who he says he is, that he is the son of God, and he did walk this earth," Kelcey Gillespie, a Christian who made a pilgrimage here to Jerusalem, told us.

Celebrating the Person

As people celebrate Easter, those at The Garden Tomb stress it's not the place, it's the person.     

"The Bible writers really weren't that interested in establishing where Jesus died. We have very little information," Bridge said. "The Bible writers themselves were much more interested in Jesus Christ himself who he is. Why He died."    

"That's what we want people to take away, that the tomb is empty. And we as Christians, of all the world's faiths, serve a living God who's overcome death, who's has dealt with the sin in our life," Meryon said. "And Jesus is the centrality of our Christian faith, is He not?"

"And so here at the Garden that's what we want people to take away is the living Lord Jesus. The Easter weekend is the weekend that changed the world," he added. "The weekend that Jesus died and was buried and rose again for me and for you."

--Originally aired March 31, 2010. 

Why Was a Ton of Matza Delivered to the US Army's 77th Division in France during World War I?

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

---

Why Was a Ton of Matza Delivered to the US Army's 77th Division in France during World War I? Posted: 02 Apr 2015  Reposting a Classic Special Passover Feature Original caption: "Packing shipment of Matzoths [i.e. matzos] for the 77th Division for  men of Jewish faith in the A.E.F. [American Expeditionary Force] for the Passover Holiday,  at Warehouse #40, Q.M.C. Depot, St. Denis  [France] / Signal Corps. U.S.A."  (April 9, 1919, Library of Congress) The Jewish tradition of eating matza (unleavened bread) on Passover is so profound that the armed services of several countries provide Passover supplies to their soldiers even at the front. That's the practice in Israel, for sure, but the archives of several libraries provide pictures of Jewish soldiers observing Passover in the British and American armies during World War I, almost 100 years ago.   Jewish soldiers of the British army celebrating Passover in Jerusalem in 1918. (Harvard Library/Central Zionist Archives)  But when we saw the picture above of perhaps a ton of matza sent to American forces in France we wondered why so much was required. Thanks to the archivists at the Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs Division for acceding to our request and digitizing and publishing the U.S. army photograph above online.   The 77th Division and the "Lost Battalion" The 77th Division was made up of draftees from the New York City area, one of the first draftee units deployed in combat in World War I.  They assumed the name "Metropolitan Division" or the "Statue of Liberty Division." Many of the men had lived a tough hardscrabble life on the streets of New York, perhaps a factor in their surviving a hard-fought battle in the Argonne Forest in October 1918 where the Division's "Lost Battalion" was surrounded by German troops and held out for a week without food and water.  In a 2001 film about the "Lost Battalion," the men were described as Irish, Italian, Jewish, and Polish "gangsters." Of the battalion's 550 men, almost 200 were killed and 150 were captured or missing. A Jewish chaplain, Rabbi Lee J. Levinger, served in France during World War I and wrote that the 77th Division had "thousands" of Jewish soldiers -- for whom the matza in the picture was intended. Patch of the 77th Division Levinger described several incredible moments in his memoir: The great event of my service in Le Mans was our Passover celebration on April 14th, 15th and[77] 16th, 1919. The general order for Passover furloughs read: "Where it will not interfere with the public service, members of the Jewish faith serving with the American Expeditionary Forces will be excused from all duty from noon, April 14th, to midnight, April 16th, 1919, and, where deemed practicable, granted passes to enable them to observe the Passover in their customary manner." The full program included a Seder, four services, a literary program, a vaudeville show, a boxing  exhibition, two dances and a movie.... But certainly the most popular of all was the Seder. The soup with matzah balls, the fish, in fact the entire menu made them think of home. We held the dinner in an army mess hall, standing at the breast-high tables. The altar with two candles and the symbols of the feast was at the center of the low-roofed unwalled structure. Toward evening the rain, so typical of winter in western France, ceased; the sun came out, and its last level rays shone directly upon Rabbi Kaufman and his little altar. It was a scene never to be forgotten, a feast of deepest joy mingled with solemnity. Afterward we adjourned to the Theatre Municipale for a full religious service with a sermon. Pvt Krotoshinsky: "You know a Jew finds  strength to suffer...." During the Argonne Forest battle, the 77th Division's "Lost Battalion" was finally relieved after taking heavy casualties for five days.  Their rescue is often credited to a carrier pigeon that delivered a message to headquarters with their position.  Levinger told a different story: New York Times, November 5, 1953

Israeli Rabbi Predicts Blood Moon Judgment

CBNNews.com

Friday, April 03, 2015

A mystic Israeli rabbi from southern Israel has called on all Jews to repent and pray with the approach of the third Blood Moon of a tetrad cycle, to appear in the skies during Passover and Good Friday.

The website Breaking Israel News reports that Rabbi Amram Vankin predicted years ago that that the 44th president of the United States would bring bloodshed to the Jewish people, based on the Hebrew word for blood, "dam," which has the numeric value of 44. Vankin said this before Barack Obama was elected as the 44th American president.

President Obama just heralded the framework for an agreement between the world powers and Iran, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Friday "will threaten the survival of Israel."

The rabbi believes the number 44 has special significance this lunar eclipse because this one is expected to last 4 minutes and 44 seconds, the shortest such eclipse of the 21st century.

A student of the rabbi, Gil Nachman, spoke with Breaking Israel News, saying Vankin also correctly predicted the Gaza Flotilla conflict and Carmel forest fire in Israel in 2010, as well as the two Israeli clashes with Hamas in Gaza, Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012 and Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

Vankin attended his own call for prayer at Jerusalem's Western Wall on Wednesday after putting out a Facebook message saying, "In these critical times, Am Israel must join together to pray to Hashem (the Lord) to send us Messiach Ben David (the Messiah)."

Other rabbis and pastors believe the Blood Moons are a significant signpost in the heavens, but may not portend judgment for Israel as much as they portend momentous events, and perhaps blessing for the Jewish people.

Pastor John Hagee, author of the book, Four Blood Moons: Something is About to Change, told CBN News' Erick Stakelbeck, "God is trying to communicate with us in a supernatural way."

"I believe that in the next two years (from 2014), we're going to see something dramatic happen in the Middle East involving Israel that will change the course of history in the Middle East and impact the whole world," Hagee said.

Pastor Bob O'Dell of Root Source explained, "All the prior blood moon tetrads point to a pattern of blessing on the Jewish people. They are good news for the Jews. They are a great indicator of God's love and commitment to the Jewish people to preserve them, and a warning to those who stand in opposition to Israel."

The last series of four blood moons to occur in consecutive years during the Jewish Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles coincided with Israel's victory in the Six-Day War, which gave the Jews control of their capital, Jerusalem, for the first time in nearly 2,000 years.

On one thing many sages and clerics, both Jewish and Christian agree: it is a time to pray.

Jewish Professionals In Israel Say 'I Met Messiah'

Jewish Professionals Say 'I Met Messiah'

Thursday, April 02, 2015 |  Israel Today Staff

RELATED STORIES

• New Testament sparks controversy among Israeli postmen
• Messianic Pro-Life Group Saves Israeli Babies
• Jewish, Arab believers meet for true reconciliation in Jerusalem

Topics:

Messianic Jews

It is today no longer so uncommon to find Jewish people who believe in Yeshua (Jesus) as the promised Messiah of Israel, and within a Jewish context. Still, these people are often disregarded by mainstream Judaism as confused or disillusioned.

The Israeli Messianic online ministry One For Israel has set out to demonstrate that Jewish people of the highest standing, and most certainly in their right minds, are indeed coming to a realization that Yeshua is Messiah.

“For the past 2,000 years, it would have been shocking - scandalous even - to claim that Jews can believe in Jesus!” the group wrote on its Facebook page. “We are proud to announce our new project I MET MESSIAH. Dynamic video testimonies of Jewish professionals who met their Messiah!”

Over a period of 10 weeks, the One For Israel team interviewed no fewer than 35 Jewish professionals who are today believers in Yeshua. Their video testimonies are now available online at imetmessiah.com.

Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates from ISRAEL TODAY.

Herod's Palace: Site of Jesus' Sentencing?

By Julie Stahl and John Waage

CBN News Jerusalem Bureau

Thursday, April 02, 2015

JERUSALEM, Israel -- These are busy days in Jerusalem, as the city marks both Pesach (Passover) and Holy Week, leading up to Easter.

Inside the Old City walls, discoveries at Herod's Palace have caught the attention of Jewish and Christian scholars. More than 2,000 years of history are recorded in one building, where Pontius Pilate may have sentenced Jesus.

At the western edge of the Old City, near the Jaffa Gate, the Tower of David stands above the walls.

In 1999, archaeologists found a building while working on the Tower of David Museum. It turned out to be the site of King Herod's Palace. Records on its walls go back to the First Temple period, even before the time of Jesus and the Roman governor who sentenced him to the cross: Pontius Pilate.

For years, experts suggested that Pilate had handed down his death sentence from the Antonia Fortress in the northeastern part of the Old City, where the Roman Praetorian Guard was housed.

But recent evidence uncovered at the site of King Herod's Palace at the Tower of David, indicates that the luxury-loving Pilate was more likely to have pronounced judgment from there.

Israeli archaeologist Amit Re'em directed excavations at Herod's Palace.

"It's only logical to assume that the local Roman government here in Jerusalem -- Pontius Pilate -- sat also in the palace of Herod because he needed all those facilities, all this luxury," Re'em told CBN News.

Re'em is familiar with the long history on the walls of the palace. It includes graffiti scrawled by prisoners held by British authorities, who used it to incarcerate people in the 1940s before their mandate over the region ended.

Pointing to the sides of the cavernous edifice, Re'em said, "Until now, those impressive walls are the only remains from Herod's Palace."

"We do not know what happened to the superstructures, to the palace itself. Maybe it was destroyed in a big revolt, maybe it was destroyed by the Romans, maybe it was destroyed by the Crusaders or the Ottomans," he speculated.

Especially for Christians, the meaning is intensified as the faithful around the world remember the Lord's crucifixion and resurrection.

David Pileggi pastors Christ Church, just a few steps away from the Tower of David Museum. He believes it's almost a foregone conclusion that Jesus would have been brought to Pilate at the palace.

"We don't know exactly where Jesus was tried, where he had his interview before Pilate, but we do know it's somewhere in Herod's palace," Pileggi said.

"We know the palace of Herod the Great eventually became Roman property after Herod's death, and that every year Pontius Pilate would come from Caesaria to Jerusalem here, during the time of the Passover, to oversee the security of the city during the festival that the Jews called the Feast of Jerusalem," he continued.

"And it was at this time, if there was going to be trouble in Jerusalem, it would be during the Passover holiday," he explained.

In a way, according to Pileggi, the Tower of David Museum encompasses the entire life story of Jesus.

"Scholars have been saying for a half a century that the life of Jesus begins at the Tower of David, or what was then Herod's Palace. That's when the Magi [the Wise Men] came to visit King Herod. And his life ends, basically, when Pontius Pilate sentences him to death, pretty much in the same location. So there are some very interesting ironies in this story," Pileggi said.

Pileggi also cautions that Christians shouldn't give in to the notion of feeling sorry for Pilate because of the biblical account that he found Jesus had done nothing wrong.

He described Pilate as a wicked and cruel ruler. Legend from the early Church has it that Pilate was later exiled by the Romans to the south of France, where he committed suicide. Pileggi asserts it would be "poetic justice" if he did.

Israeli archaeologist Renee Sivan was also working at the site when Herod's Palace was discovered. Sixteen years later, she told CBN News she still is struck by the power and opulence of the place and the often tragic history of cruelty and brutality inside the city walls.

"Jerusalem is like an onion," she said. "You peel it, peel it, peel it and it never ends. And then you cry a bit, but not too much. That is what happens here."

Pileggi calls the Tower of David Museum the best in the city, and says tourists would do well to start their journey there.

"It really helps to unpack the complex history and geography and culture in this city," he said. "Now we have the extra bonus of having the very place where Jesus was sent to execution by Pontius Pilate, and this will help Christians better visualize those monumentous events that happened to Jesus the Messiah -- Jesus of Nazareth -- in the last week of his life."

Meanwhile, just a couple of miles away from the Tower of David Museum stands the Mount of Olives, where scripture says Jesus will come again.

Apocalyptic Betrayals

Tuesday, March 31, 2015 |  Noah Beck  ISRAEL TODAY

RELATED STORIES

• Iran Knows What the West Forgot: Charm is Cheap
• Israel nabs Iranian spying in Tel Aviv
• Arabs, West confirm Israel hit Syria; Iran threatens retaliation

Topics:

Iran

President Obama’s far-reaching efforts to facilitate Iran’s march to nukes amount to nothing less than apocalyptic betrayals of U.S. voters and allies – betrayals that will make the world exponentially more dangerous.

Obama has ignored the countless reasons to doubt that the ayatollahs will make and keep a nuclear accord that prevents them from acquiring nuclear weapons. Here are just some of those reasons: 

1) Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani boasted about his own role in exploiting diplomatic talks to advance Iran’s nuclear program, 

2) Iran hid its nuclear facility in Qom until it was exposed in 2009 and continues to cover up its nuclear work in Parchin), 

3) Iran recently tried – in a single transaction – to buy know-how for nukes and impunity for one of its biggest terrorist attacks. 

4) Iran is actively developing more advanced, long-range cruise missiles, 

5) thanks to Iranian involvement in the recent Houthi-rebel takeover of Yemen, Iran’s ever-expanding hegemony now reaches four Arab countries, and 

6) Iran continues to stonewall IAEA inquiries into potential military dimensions of its nuclear program, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1929).  

The Saudis have warned that the current deal will spark a Mideast nuclear arms race. It could also hasten the era of nuclear terrorism. There are already reports that ISIS has resorted to attacks with chemical weapons (hardly surprising after Obama’s “red lines” on Syria’s chemical weapons use turned white). Iran could provide nuclear material – in addition to a nuclear umbrella – to its proxy terrorist group, Hezbollah. For these and other grave concerns, Netanyahu risked his political career on a speech before Congress that explained why the deal is so bad. 

Yet rather than address legitimate reservations about the emerging Iranian nuclear deal, Obama prefers to hold Bibi to his Israeli election slogans about a Palestinian state as if Obama hadn’t himself broken countless campaign promises, including his own oft-repeated commitment (to voters and allies alike) that he would prevent Iran from going nuclear. Breaching his promise to everyone, Obama has embraced a process that makes Iran a threshold nuclear state. 

Instead of questioning the intentions of the same theocratic regime that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days, the Obama administration has whitewashed Iran’s terrorist activities/record, and accepted Rouhani as a "moderate" even though human rights in Iran have actually worsened under his rule. 

Despite Obama’s attempts to influence the outcome of Israel’s free elections, no Israeli government, regardless of the political parties that comprise it, can live with the existential threat posed by a nuclear Iran. And world powers are closer than ever to forcing an Israeli military response to that danger because they have buckled rather than created sufficient diplomatic and economic pressure to persuade Iran to dismantle its nuclear program.  

Iran has made steady progress on its nukes despite decades of sanctions, UN Security Council resolutions, IAEA inspections, and negotiations. The most successful strategy for stopping Iran’s nuclear march was the very real threat of force in 2003. After the U.S. military quickly trounced Iraq, neighboring Iran was deterred from continuing its nuclear activities, until it concluded that the U.S. military threat had dissipated.  

Under Obama, the weakest U.S. president since Jimmy Carter, there is no credible military threat, as his actions in Syria, Ukraine, and elsewhere have shown.

That reality will force Israel to take military action against Iran’s nukes – either in the absence of a nuclear deal or despite the bad one under consideration (which paves Iran’s path to the bomb with legitimacy while isolating Israel). Some think that Israel will refrain from attacking because a military strike would, at best, set back Iranian nukes by a few years. But that is a specious argument for two reasons: 

1) Like “mowing the grass” with Hamas’ military buildups in Gaza, Israel may simply have to take military action every few years, 

2) the Iranians may eventually stop trying to develop nukes, after realizing that it’s a huge waste of resources to build nuclear facilities that Israel will eventually destroy. 

Despite all of the risks of attacking Iran’s nuclear program, doing nothing will be riskier to Israel’s survival because the world’s most dangerous regime then acquires the world’s most dangerous weapons. 

The Jewish nation knows all too well the dangers of ignoring genocidal threats, and Iran, the world’s chief sponsor of terrorism, has repeatedly threatened to destroy Israel. By making Iran a nuclear threshold state, the proposed deal leaves the ayatollahs with the ability to carry out that threat and therefore compels an Israeli attack. However, because Israel’s capabilities are far more limited than those of the U.S. military, Israel won’t be able to prevent Iranian retribution when destroying Iran’s nukes. 

What follows is a nuclear World War III. Iran will retaliate with an overwhelming barrage of potent, long-range ballistic missiles on Israel’s population centers, and will likely also target the Israeli nuclear reactor in Dimona (which action could itself produce massive casualties). Hezbollah, which has about 100,000 long-range missiles supplied by Iran, will add to the unstoppable downpour of missiles. For all of their impressive successes, Israeli missile defense systems simply cannot handle such a huge number of incoming missiles, and so there will be thousands of dead. 

The world, as usual, will do nothing but excoriate Israel and call for restraint, leaving Israel with countless casualties. Adjusted for population differences, ten thousand dead in tiny Israel is like about 400,000 killed in the USA. At that point (if not much sooner), Israel will feel that it’s very survival requires nuking Tehran and a few other major cities, which would destroy the regime along with maybe a million people. 

The Sunni countries threatened by Shiite Iran’s hegemonic aggression in the region may have already entered the fray at that point, or would do so soon after, and the centuries-old Sunni-Shia conflict would explode throughout the region even more than it already has. It’s not clear how the war eventually ends, but there will be even more chaos as failed states and radical extremism spread across the Middle East. The price of oil will skyrocket to unseen levels, and none of this will be good for U.S. interests. 

Absurdly enough, the U.S. could probably prevent such a doomsday scenario by simply asserting an ultimatum backed by very credible military force. If Iran does not, within a week after the expiration of the current talks, allow inspectors unfettered access to all of its nuclear facilities and then cooperate in their destruction (with compensation and a set of economic and political rewards for that cooperation), then the U.S. military will, with overwhelming military force, destroy the entire Iranian military infrastructure (including its nuclear program) and work towards the downfall of the regime. 

If the U.S. can make such a threat credibly, then Iran will acquiesce, no actual force will be needed, and the decades-long Iranian nuclear threat will finally end.

But, unlike apocalyptic betrayals, such a bold show of force is unthinkable for Obama, and so we could be looking at a nuclear World War III in the not-too-distant future. 

Noah Beck is the author of The Last Israelis, an apocalyptic novel about Iranian nukes and other geopolitical issues in the Middle East.

Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates from ISRAEL TODAY.

'The Bible Continues' Brings Book of Acts to Life

By Efrem Graham

News Anchor & Reporter  CBN News

Thursday, April 02, 2015

Ad Feedback

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- An epic television series,  "A.D. The Bible Continues," will make its debut on NBC this Easter, April 5.

The series follows on the heels of "The Bible" miniseries, which drew more than 100 million viewers to the History Channel in 2013.

The new network television series picks up where the successful cable miniseries ended: at the death and resurrection of Jesus.

'Game of Thrones'-Esque

Executive co-producers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett spoke with CBN News about bringing the pages of the Bible to life for today's viewers.

"Clearly, the story of the Bible, and in the case of 'A.D. The Bible Continues,' the story of the Acts of the Apostles, really grabs people emotionally," Burnett said. "But then you have got to make it very well and execute on the promise. And that is our job. I guess we are probably experts in making television."

Burnett undersells his success. He is the engine behind nearly a dozen television hits, including: "Survivor," "The Apprentice," "The Voice," "Shark Tank," and "The Bible" miniseries.

"When we were filming 'The Bible' series in Morocco, we'd wished we'd had more than 10 hours," Downey said, recalling production for the miniseries.

"We'd wished we'd had 100 hours because the stories are so deep and so rich," she added. "And we decided while we were there that we would take a deeper dive into the Book of Acts."

This 12-hour series takes audiences through the first 10 chapters of the Book of Acts and the first decades following the resurrection of Jesus.

It's an epic production Burnett described it as "Game of Thrones meets the Bible."

Describing that biblical period, Burnett said it was "a very tumultuous and bloody time."

"Those apostles and a growing group of disciples could have been killed at any moment," he said. "It was a power struggle between the Romans, the temple authorities, the zealots. In the middle of it was a group of followers of Jesus who were spreading the word. They could have been killed every day."

No Sugar Coating

Following Christ wasn't popular at that time. And the real-life script is now moving from the Bible and history books to today's headlines.

"Here we have with 'A.D.' so much of the story is about the persecution of the early disciples, and it is easy for people to say that happened 2,000 years ago," Downey said. "But it is happening today. And we need to step up and we need to take care of each other."

In addition to shining a light on biblical persecution, Downy and Burnett have started a fund, called the The Cradle Fund, to help rescue, restore, and eventually return thousands of Middle East Christians who have fled their homes to escape persecution at the hands of the ISIS terror group.

"This fund has managed to bring 72,000 Middle Eastern Christians safely through the winter," Burnett told CBN News. "You know there were 500,000 displaced. Imagine escaping being killed, crucified, in fact, but then to freeze to death in the Syrian winter, Iraqi winter."

"Because of the success of our shows, we have a spotlight that lands on us from time to time and we are just a catalyst and God is the author," Downey added. "But as the light is shining here, we thought it is an opportunity to reflect it back and to make some noise for the persecution of Christian overseas."

That noise will continue as this rare and epic television series plays out on the small screen for at least 12 episodes.

"There are lots of big, epic event series on television. But [on the Bible, there is] only 'The Bible' series and now 'A.D. The Bible Continues,'" Burnett noted. "And so, we are hoping this goes on for many years. We are not thinking of this as one year. We are already in anticipation of great ratings, scripting season two."