Honest Christian Conversations
A weekly podcast dealing with cultural and spiritual issues within the Christian faith.
Honest Christian Conversations
Can A Documentary Be Cool?
What began as a passion for filmmaking has evolved into a mission to create free, professional-quality documentaries that bridge the gap between ancient texts and modern readers. Craig DeHut's work as co-founder of Appian Media takes viewers on breathtaking journeys across biblical landscapes that transform how we read Scripture.
Craig's Website: https://www.appianmedia.org/
Appian Media's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@appianmedia
WANT A SHOUT-OUT ON THE PODCAST?
**Sign up for the mailing list and instantly get my FREE 7-day Devotional**
ARE YOU STRUGGLING WITH P*RN ADDICTION? 👇🏻
5 Bible Verses to Memorize to Retrain Your Brain (PDF)
Leave a Review for the Podcast:
https://www.honestchristianconversations.com/reviews/new/
Leave a Prayer Request:
https://www.honestchristianconversations.com/contact/
Want to Be a Guest on Honest Christian Conversations?
Send a message on PodMatch: https://podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/hone...
Hey friends, welcome back to Honest Christian Conversations. This is the second week of my tribute to masculinity. This guest is an awesome guy. I love what he does. This is right up my alley. I enjoy history and I don't know if you enjoy history, but if you don't, you certainly will after you listen to what it is my guest does.
Speaker 1:Today. I have Craig DeHutt on with me. He is the co-founder, ceo and videographer for Appian Media. Him and his business partner, stuart Peck, go to Egypt, israel, turkey and they search for biblical accounts of the Bible. They'll go to those places. They will take you on a video journey. You get to see how they interact with the culture, the people and guess what? They do it for free. Everything they've ever made is on YouTube or their website. I really enjoyed talking with Craig, such a man after God's own heart. I really enjoyed talking with Craig, such a man after God's own heart and has such a rich desire to help others enjoy the Bible in a new way. So this is definitely going to change what you think about the Bible and the history. It will definitely help you in your Bible study journey as well, so there's no excuse not to check it out.
Speaker 1:After this interview. Let's get into it Before the episode starts. Make sure you follow the show so you never miss another episode. Craig, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I'm very excited to talk to you. I'm always looking for exciting biblical content that I don't have to worry about or that it's not cheesy, or you know what I'm talking about. There's a lot of great Bible movies out there, but there's a lot of cheesy stuff as well, and I like the fact that you and your company focus on biblical areas, the history. I watched a little bit of your content from your video on Petra, which I found very interesting, and I loved how just the interactions you were able to have with the locals and it was just really historically exciting for me because I do like learning about history. So why don't you tell us how you got into this business? But start from the beginning? How did you find God?
Speaker 2:but start from the beginning. How did you find God? Certainly, Starting from the beginning, I was introduced to God and to the Bible. I grew up in a Christian home, my father is an evangelist and we were up on the West Coast in Oregon, so I was familiar with it from a very early age. But I decided to make that my own and to respond to that when I was 12 years old pretty young, but there were things happening in my life that sobered me up and helped me consider my eternal destiny.
Speaker 2:It sounds a little cliche perhaps, but at 10 years old I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and so, as a young child, I'm asking some of those hard questions that every human should ask. You know, what happens to us after we die? Is there a life after this one? Why do bad things happen to people? How could a loving God let something like this happen? All of those questions that everyone should ask and find scriptural answers for. But I was asking them at 10, 11, 12 years old and thankfully I didn't have to look far. They aren't easy answers, but I was asking them at 10, 11, 12 years old and thankfully I didn't have to look far. They aren't easy answers, but there are answers and God is a loving God.
Speaker 2:We live in a broken world, a world that sin has turned into something that is not God's intention, and so, at 12 years old, I was baptized into Christ and began my journey. I'm now 40 years old, and so it's been a few years, and through the years I've just been able to see God work. He has not removed every obstacle, he has not eliminated all hardship that's not a promise that he makes in this lifetime but he has been there with me every step and helped me learn important things every step and helped me learn important things. I'm excited to be able to use my talents in this particular industry film and video to further that faith and hopefully encourage that in other people. So it was in my teenage years that I was first introduced to photography and video production. I am old enough to say that when I first picked up a camcorder.
Speaker 1:You know we were shooting on tape. Yes, I'm familiar. You and I are the same age and we even came to Christ at the same age too, although I was scared into it because we watched that old 70s Left Behind movie and I was terrified there's a cinematic masterpiece right there I'm not joking, it was a good one.
Speaker 2:I mean no disrespect to those filmmakers no, completely that's all they could do back there, really and it scared the pants off me.
Speaker 1:It still scares me to this day. I don't yeah and there's a.
Speaker 2:You know there's a healthy place for that. God has at times used fear as a motivating factor. You think about what he did there on Sinai. The people were terrified of what they were seeing, but that is not God's principal avenue of bringing people to him. He wants them to respect and understand his great power and holiness, and that terrifies unholy mortal people like us and holiness, and that terrifies unholy mortal people like us. And so the hope is that over time, our love for God prompts us to action more than our fear of him. But I would shoot these videos and I'm trying to think left behind. Yeah, that's about all we had at the time. If you thought about Christian movies, it was kind of a joke. People didn't do that and I was editing my videos with two VCRs. You know I had to explain to my kids what those are. You know pause and record and you know rewinding the tape and hoping that it doesn't get caught up, you don't get to skip on a VCR, yep.
Speaker 2:But I loved it. I love the technology of it, I love the art of it and I was determined to go to film school and make films that were religious in nature not necessarily inherently Christian films, where there's Bible movies necessarily but I wanted there to be a Christian worldview in everything that I was making and I didn't want them to be cheesy, and so I knew I had to go to school and learn that. You know again, the show's my age. There was no YouTube back then. I couldn't learn those things by watching influencers and YouTubers. So I did go to film school in Atlanta and could only stomach about two years of that.
Speaker 2:The worldview that they were approaching this craft was so anti-Christian and many of them were actively trying to rip the faith out of me, and so I learned what I could from them and took the skills and the connections and the networking that I acquired there and have been learning ever since. So that was about 20 years ago and I am glad to say the industry has been shifting over this time. Access to the right gear and the right talent and the skills have now become more widely available and Christian films and TV shows have gotten quite good the skill that they're bringing to that craft is inspiring and I'm thankful for that, and that has then created more opportunities for people like us. So when Appian Media was created about 10 years ago still fairly new there weren't a lot of people doing exactly what we intended to do, but there were enough examples and there were enough filmmakers that we could talk to that helped us on this path.
Speaker 1:So what is it exactly that Appian Media does? What type of Christian content do you produce? Because I've seen it and I think it's amazing, because I love history and for anyone else who loves history, you better listen up.
Speaker 2:Well, it's funny because I went to film school. The original intent was to write and direct, you know, narrative feature films, and so I have training in script writing and working with actors and that type of filmmaking. That's what I thought I was going to be doing. Appian Media primarily produces documentary film short, either docu-series or even feature length documentaries and the intention was to create a resource that we were seeing. There was a lack of Myself and our co-founder, stuart Peck. Both of us teach Bible classes on occasion and we work with young people and we were like we're not able to find what we're looking for to get these kids interested in the lands of the Bible and in the Bible itself. We were either finding video that was accurate, that had the right messaging, but it was so poorly produced like the kids couldn't get past it, or it was really polished, it was really nice.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's the kind of stuff that you'd see on the History Channel or Travel Channel. But we had to give all these caveats Look, they're not coming at this from a Christian worldview. They're critical of the Bible, or their history is just not accurate. Or maybe it was historically accurate. It was professionally produced, but it was too expensive for us to just use in a Bible class, and so Appian Media was created to accomplish those three things. We wanted it accurate, we wanted it engaging and well-produced and we wanted it free. And so for the last 10 years, we've been able to travel over to the lands of the Bible. We've been to Israel and Turkey and Egypt and Jordan, and, with plans for much more, to produce content that is free. People can go to our website and watch it and use it and share it in their classes or use it at home, in the hopes of deepening their faith and helping them understand and appreciate the biblical text again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, All my homeschooling moms. This is some great history content right here. I have watched many of the videos. They are very well done and very engaging. Like he said, docu-series. Some of them are shorter, some of them are longer. You can find what you want and it's free. What person doesn't love that four-letter word free?
Speaker 2:It is such an easy pitch and it's funny because I grew up in a homeschool family. My wife and I are currently homeschooling our three kiddos. We didn't actually create it with homeschoolers top of mind, but you better believe they found this very early on and now we make it a pretty regular habit to visit homeschool conventions. In fact, I'm going to be going to at least two of those this year to have a booth there and do some workshops, because it's all the things that homeschoolers love, right, it's engaging, the kids enjoy it, the parents appreciate it and it's free. And so homeschoolers love, right, it's engaging, the kids enjoy it, the parents appreciate it and it's free. And so, yeah, we've seen a great response from the homeschool community.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Yeah, it's so important to have such a deep love for God and if you love history, I feel like that's going to help even more. It's going to give you the biblical context you need when you're reading, especially the Old Testament, because a lot of times the Old Testament just feels difficult to understand the names you don't understand because we have never been there, don't know these things. But if you get to see it, you start understanding it better and I think that's a good Bible studying tool that will help you, especially if you're a visual person. I'm very visual. I can think of things in my head.
Speaker 1:If I've seen a movie so many times, I could lay in bed, close my eyes and I can watch the whole movie in my head. I've done that before to try to fall asleep. So it would definitely benefit me because then, when I read over it again, I'm like aha, I know where this was. I understand, I know why there's holes in the limestone in Petra. It just gives more context and gives you a deeper appreciation for the Bible and gives you a deeper appreciation for the Bible. That is not just stories in a book. This is reality. This is real. So I am so grateful that you guys went on this journey and it's so like God, we think we have one plan. You thought you were going to make feature films and be like I'm going to be the person who makes them exciting again, and he's like no, we're going to be the person who makes them exciting again and he's like no, we're going to make documentaries exciting to watch.
Speaker 2:I know, and it is so interesting 20 years ago you would never hear of a documentary having a theatrical run. People did not go to the theaters to watch documentaries. And then Netflix came along and made some and still does made some very well done documentaries. That got people interested in that format again. And I do understand you say I make biblical documentaries and some people go. Oh you know, because we know what that typically means and we have tried very hard.
Speaker 2:We don't simply want to take you to the general area that these places were, but, as you mentioned earlier, we want to take you in. So we want to talk to the people who are there. We want to oftentimes interview or talk with experts, archaeologists or historians that are either there or travel there frequently. We want to talk to the locals. We want to eat the food and experience the culture there.
Speaker 2:We commonly say one of the tasks of Appian Media really is that we're trying to catch up modern readers of scripture, catch them up to where the original recipients already were. So when the gospels were first written, people understood where Jerusalem was in relation to Jericho. They understood what the wilderness looked like. They understood what a storm on the Sea of Galilee would have been like, and I'm a 21st century American Christian. Prior to doing this work, I had never traveled overseas, and so we're trying to give people an understanding, catch them up so that we've got the right geographical information, historical information, even linguistic information, so that when we read the text again, we go ah, I see it. Now I understand the parable of the good Samaritan traveling between Jerusalem and Jericho. I know what that place looks like. It is desolate and dangerous and it is absolutely not somewhere you want to be left on the side of the road. Now I see it. The original hearers of that parable would have immediately gone oh they left him there to die on that road.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so we all, to some degree, are visual learners. Our brains do engage when we read text and we fill in visuals.
Speaker 1:The job of Appian Media is we're just trying to help you fill in the right kind of visuals of the Petra video, but as soon as I saw him talking right outside of a building I recognize from I think it's Raiders of the Lost. Ark, I believe I was like, oh, I should show my son this because he's seen the Indiana Jones movies and he might find that interesting. And we're like, hey, look, see, it was a real thing.
Speaker 2:Come to think of it. Now that I think of it, I think that was actually the Last Crusade. Yes, yes, that's the one with Sean Connery, right, I knew I was wrong. That's where they find the the Raiders with the.
Speaker 1:Lost Ark is when the guy smelt.
Speaker 2:It's not supposed to be funny, but it's funny but it is. And they're in Egypt, you know, and they're talking about Moses and the Ark and all of that.
Speaker 1:I love those movies.
Speaker 2:because of that, we visited some of those places as well, although we weren't specifically trying to track Indiana Jones steps.
Speaker 1:That just kind of happened.
Speaker 2:But it is fun to go. I've seen this before.
Speaker 1:This isn't a movie, yeah. And then he went and he ate falafels with somebody who was in one of those, absolutely yeah, and I thought that was so cool and he just had a conversation with them. I'm like, oh, is he going to tell him he's a Christian? How is that going to go? You know, because he said he was Muslim and I don't know if I was waiting for it, I was just like, oh, I hope he doesn't, because I don't know how he would react. But because I don't know how he would react. But it's just like a tension there and it was really exciting to just see that you can have a conversation with someone who may not agree with you, and maybe he already knew that he was a Christian and he doesn't have a problem with it, because not all Muslims are that hostile that we always hear about and everything.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it's really cool to see that that scene was completely unscripted. You know, we were kind of in between shots and Justin, the host for that video, had been to that tent before and so the guy was like come back in. You know they already had had a relationship but yeah, they understood why we were there. They understood what we were shooting and we have found in the variety of places that we have traveled.
Speaker 2:You know, a lot of these countries are predominantly Muslim countries and even when we explain to them what we're doing, we have not received any kind of hostility or pushback. They aren't going to necessarily agree with what we're doing, but I'll tell you this about Justin it was not uncommon for us to look around and be like where is Justin? And he's off talking to somebody, absolutely 100%, giving him the message of Jesus and having not a debate per se but having a friendly conversation, and it's like we could probably leave him here and he would be completely content. But we've got to keep going and that's part of the work that we do is we try to take Christ into these places. They understood why we're there. There have been a few times where we've not been allowed to shoot or had to find different avenues to do the things we needed to do, any opposition or anything.
Speaker 2:Just a little, but especially when we have traveled to Israel, film crews like ours are in there all the time and we have just found people incredibly accommodating and we've been very blessed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. Have you had any spiritual opposition while filming, Like maybe a camera was recording and then all of a sudden it just kind of stopped and you're like that makes no sense. Why did it just stop. Satan doesn't want this content out there. He doesn't want people to have a deep understanding and a rich desire and love for historical biblical facts. He doesn't want people to realize this is all real. It's not just a book of fairy tales, like some people think. So he's going to mess with you guys.
Speaker 2:It's true we have experienced difficulties from the beginning. Part of that is just the nature of the work that we do. It's not easy to make these things, and there are times where we have plans, we have things that we would like to happen. How do we give these things away for free? It's because through donations we raise a lot of money. It's necessary to raise a lot of money to pay for these trips and film permits and production, and sometimes that goes smoothly and oftentimes it's a struggle, and I wholeheartedly agree with you.
Speaker 2:This is not something that Satan would want done. But we also understand that we pray regularly as our team. We pray, lord, if this is something that you want to succeed, that you would allow it to succeed, and if this particular thing is not what you want right now, we pray that you shut it down quickly, divert our attention, put us on a different path, and so we're always trying to be aware of you know, maybe this is not Satan trying to shut this thing down. Maybe this is God trying to turn us in a different direction or consider a different avenue. It's not easy and that's true for anyone who's trying to share the gospel with other people If we stopped at the first sign of opposition.
Speaker 2:The gospel never. We certainly wouldn't be talking about it 2000 years after the events of Jesus. But when we read things like the book of Acts where, even in the midst of the greatest persecution in that time, the gospel actually spread further and faster than it typically has, that should motivate us to go. Okay, I'm experiencing some opposition to this. This does not seem to be something that the enemy wants done, but it's the right thing to do. It's what God commissions us to do. Let's put forth even and a time where people can receive so much falsehood and lies, especially about God and about the Bible. We want to speak truth and we should be willing to put forth the great effort necessary in order to get that done.
Speaker 1:Hey friends, have you joined the Honest Christian Conversations online group yet? If you haven't, you're missing out on a perfect opportunity to grow your relationship with Jesus Christ. This is a community for those who want to go deeper in their relationship. You can do Bible studies together, ask the questions you have biblically and get the answers that you might need or maybe you're somebody who has answers to somebody else's questions. You can leave your prayer requests. You can leave your praise reports. This is a community. This is what church is supposed to be, and I am so glad that I finally took that step to make this group so that people's lives can flourish in Jesus' name. Also, if you haven't signed up for the mailing list, you're missing out on an opportunity there as well. I send out a weekly email chocked full of so much awesome content that I don't have time right now to share it all with you. But when you do sign up for that mailing list, you get my seven-day free devotional that I created just for those who sign up for the mailing list. If you haven't joined either of these, you can go to my website honestchristianconversationscom and sign up there. Website honestchristianconversationscom and sign up there, or you can use the links for it in the show notes. Very smart that you guys are praying over this thing from beginning to end the whole process and making sure that you're doing it the way God wants.
Speaker 1:Because there's many times I've tried to write stories and I've always said that I want God to be the actual writer. I'm just the one he's using. And there's been times where I've come up on writer's block and I don't understand how I can't get past it. No matter what I do, I always end up being stopped at that specific point and it was really irritating for a while until I realized I'm trying to run the show again and I need to let this go and do it the way that God wants. And it was a hard lesson that I had to learn. But once I did, I started understanding that if I'm going through another season of having my writer's block, I need to step back from that and figure out why am I trying to take it in the direction I want to go? And sometimes I'll go a while without writing. I mean, during Christmas of 2024, I didn't do any writing and I didn't start writing again until almost, I think, a week before March.
Speaker 1:I just I didn't feel a desire to write. I didn't know what to write for my book that I was trying to write. I just I didn't feel a desire to write. I didn't know what to write for my book that I was trying to write. I just nothing, I just was. I got other things to do. I'm just going to focus on those. And then I started mulling over ideas, realizing how much I missed doing it, and then I went back to it and it just flowed a lot better.
Speaker 1:And sometimes you need that. You have to step back and say okay, god, what are you trying to do for me here? I had other things that he was trying to do for me that had absolutely nothing to do with writing, but I was so focused on what I wanted that I didn't take that time to back off of it. So it's very wise that you guys are taking that extra step to pray and say God, if you don't want this, shut it down immediately, so that we know that it's you, because we can easily say Satan's messing with us, but it's probably not him. It may not Satan. What are we doing wrong here? So that's very good humility. I think that's what I was trying to say earlier. I couldn't think of the word.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we try to be mindful as we're in a season right now where we are finishing up. The last time we were in overseas, we went to Egypt and Jordan and produced content for two different series and we're in the process of finishing up post-production of that second series, a children's series, and we're in this process of prepping for the next, which is going to be a probably two to three year commitment. And these are our prayerful times and these are when we're seeking input from our viewers, seeking advice and counsel from others and seeking God in prayer to go. You know, if this makes sense to us, this makes financial sense and schedule-wise.
Speaker 2:There have been times where there are projects that we would have liked to have pursued but it didn't seem to be the best use of our time. In the moment and I've seen God's wisdom Usually you don't fully see it all until maybe the thing's finished up, you go. Okay, now it makes sense. Now it makes sense that we shot that particular project during COVID. We did the seven churches of Asia, the seven churches of Revelation in modern day Turkey, and we shot that in 2020. We traveled overseas when half the world was shut down and were able to tell an important story and weave several different things in. As far as you know, doing God's will and doing what's good and right, even when it's very unpopular, perhaps even when it's illegal, and that's what these Christians were doing in the first century and that's what we're called to do even in this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so where has been your favorite place to go?
Speaker 2:I knew you were going to ask something like that. It's like asking a father which one is your favorite child, depending on the day. We've been blessed to go to Israel now three different times and we've been to Turkey and Egypt and Jordan and each of those places. There are moments where it's like this core memory created. There's a moment there where things fall into place or we're given access that we didn't think we'd get access. Most recently, we traveled to Egypt and I know there's a great debate as far as where is the true Mount Sinai. We discussed that a little bit in our documentary.
Speaker 2:Out of Egypt, we picked one of the options. It's the option that has been proposed for the longest period of time and it's the one that we could get access to, which is the one there in the Sinai Peninsula. They call it Jab el Musa and we climbed to the top of that. They call it Jabal Musa and we climbed to the top of that and you'll see in the video if you watch it. We were delayed at the bottom. We were basically getting extorted for more money and needed to do that in order for us to continue to go up, and we're trying to chase the sunset we were trying to get to the top of the mountain before the sun set and we were about three hours delayed, and so we were hiking up, hauling gear faster than is typically done and we got there.
Speaker 2:We got there as the sun was setting and were able to not only shoot the scene but also take a few moments and just kind of look around Whether it was this particular mountain. Maybe it was a different mountain, but at some point God came down and communed with Moses and delivered his law, and taking the time to just sit and consider that is something certainly that's going to be burned into my memory. But there are locations in Israel and in Turkey, locations in Jordan, that just taking the time to put the camera down, not see it through a lens, which is what I'm typically doing and just see it with my own eyes and take time to consider these were real events. God really did interact in this way.
Speaker 2:This was something that happened, and whether I can say with absolute certainty it was this particular spot. Usually we are able to say somewhere in this area, it happened spot. Usually we are able to say somewhere in this area it happens, and it happens here. The Valley of Elah, where David fought Goliath is one of my highlights. We do know where that valley is. We do know where that creek was. We do understand where the Israelites were gathered and the Philistines were and where David picked up five smooth stones.
Speaker 1:Have you tried to find Noah's Ark?
Speaker 2:up five smooth stones. Have you tried to find Noah's Ark? We have not. Have we had conversations with people who have.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, we have.
Speaker 2:That's one that fascinates me. It is so interesting and people have been searching for that for decades and decades. It is an incredibly dangerous hunt.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I remember seeing a video a long time ago.
Speaker 1:I have no idea how old I was, but they were trying to do it and one of them ended up dying.
Speaker 2:Correct. Yeah, that is not an uncommon tale. Yeah, our wives are gracious enough to let us go for usually about two weeks at a time every year and a half or so. And we cannot lie and say we know with 100 percent certainty we will be perfectly safe at all times. But we also do everything within our power to to mitigate risk and to make sure that we are safe and we take the proper, the proper steps. We acquire the film permits. We never just show up somewhere and start filming video. We make sure that we've the proper steps. We acquire the film permits. We never just show up somewhere and start filming video. We make sure that we've got the permissions.
Speaker 2:And there are things about just hiking up. You know Mount Ararat, that you know. It's one of those situations. You've got a very, very small window of a season where the snow is less and the ice is less, but you understand that you could get halfway up that mountain and a storm could come through and you're stuck up there. So not to say that we will never do it, it's part of the Bible story that we do want to tell.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Just a very difficult one. I think it's interesting, not to say that we will never do it.
Speaker 2:It's part of the Bible story that we do want to tell, just not sure exactly how we'll approach that. Just a very difficult one.
Speaker 1:I think it's interesting that that's one of the most exciting things, that everyone's like where is it? But it almost feels like God's saying no, no, you can't. You're just going to have to trust me that this happened. You take it on faith. Maybe someday, but not now, because I mean, people have been doing this for decades trying fighting Goliath.
Speaker 2:The Bible is incredibly specific as far as the geography of where that is, it identifies numerous cities around it and it gives you a description of the valleys and the mountain and the creek on Israel's side. There's no mistaking it and it's very, very specific. And then there are things like the amount of transfiguration, where Jesus is transfigured, and that is the description that we have.
Speaker 1:Somewhere in the.
Speaker 2:Galilee, the amount of transfiguration, and we could narrow that down to maybe less than half a dozen, but we don't know. God didn't feel it necessary that we would know. Mankind has a tendency and we do see this where they get distracted with the place. Sometimes they even go too far and worship the place or hold the place as something that is holy, and God never intended that. And God wants us to remember what happened at the place. God wants us to be focused on him and what he did in the place, and so there are some times where it's like I didn't understand why God just chose not to be very specific there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:The Ark of the Covenant. We talked about Indiana Jones right Before Indiana Jones introduced it. It was a real thing. It's in the Bible, yes, and it literally disappears from the biblical account. We're not told specifically who took it. Just, you realize, after getting about halfway through the Old Testament it has stopped being mentioned and it's never mentioned again, except in Revelation. It's discussed as being there in God's presence or in the temple, the heavenly temple.
Speaker 2:God didn't want us to have that thing and worship it like a God, which the people were. You know, we see in Samuel they had a tendency to do so. We do try. There are many places that we can with great specificity say this is the place, here's the road, here's the steps, and we want people to have faith and trust in the historical account. And then there are many that we do need to take on faith. I believe that the account of the ark and the flood happened just as God said it did. It does not surprise me that we can't find that wooden thing after all these years. Yeah, that does not surprise me at all. Will we someday find some remnants of it, boy? I hope so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that would be a find for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but my faith isn't dependent on the finding of the Ark. My faith is dependent on the resurrected Christ and there is incredible evidence for the resurrected Christ and if he was telling the truth about that, I can believe him about the rest.
Speaker 1:Have you guys visited Golgotha where he was crucified?
Speaker 2:We have.
Speaker 1:I have to watch that video. Yeah, so our very first series.
Speaker 2:we call it Following the Messiah, and we traveled to Israel once in 2016 and then in 2017.
Speaker 2:So it's a 10 episode series about the life of Jesus and we cover from Bethlehem to his death and resurrection in Jerusalem and as many places in between as we could, and we do discuss, we go into very much what I was just talking about. This is a site that has been identified over many, many centuries. We're not going to take a great deal of time debating whether it's this one or this one or that, but the fact is the historical record shows us even extra biblical accounts show us that the tomb was known and the tomb was empty, and the accounts of historians very clearly identify that this movement eventually known as Christianity was based on that fact and that empty tomb. That was known, and so I have great faith in that. Awesome, yeah.
Speaker 1:Awesome yeah no-transcript find Appian Media and if they want to get involved, if they want to donate. However, they want to support you where can they do that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so they can visit our website at appianmediaorg. You can visit our YouTube channel as well. Just search for Appian Media. All of our videos not just the main series, but podcasts and behind the scenes I love behind the scenes as a filmmaker those are all on our YouTube channel as well and they're on our website. There's a contact form that you can send us messages and ask us questions, and there is a donation page. We're 501c3. And that's how we do the work that we do is individuals support it and encourage us to continue to create more, and so that's all there on the website.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you again, Craig, for coming on. I've enjoyed this conversation.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, leave a review for the podcast wherever you are listening, or click the link in the show notes. If you have feedback for me, use the leave a message or voicemail links also in the show notes. You can check out my website honestchristianconversationscom to leave a review or feedback as well. Join the community and become part of something bigger than yourself. Lastly, sign up for the mailing list and get the free seven day devotional as a thank you gift. Once again, thanks for listening. I look forward to our next conversation.
