Growing up, I always thought history was fascinating to learn about. I can still vividly remember many of the projects and what we learned in sixth-grade history class.

That was the year we focused on ancient civilizations. We learned of the Egyptians and their pharaohs, the Babylonians and the Code of Hammurabi, the Romans, and the Greeks among so much more.

The years of school went by, each adding more information and expanding the timeline of world history that I knew.

Simultaneous to that, I slowly learned over the years the basic timeline of the Bible pieced, together from various Sunday school lessons. For many years the two timelines stayed just like that, two separate and distinct timelines. I will never forget the season of my life in which those two timelines melded together.

It wasn’t until I was a young adult out of college and taking an overview of the Bible class that it happened. For the first time, I began to take notice of all of these people and places that I had learned about in school playing roles in the Bible.

I realized that the Bible was not some isolated account but was actually a view into God interacting with His people in the context of the history of the world.

The conflicts, wars and plagues that the surrounding world powers experienced had a direct effect on Israel and its people. It took me 22 years to realize that the Bible is not just a book of theology but it is a history book as well.

The Israelites of the Old Testament and early Christians of the New Testament did not live in an isolated bubble. They were constantly interacting with their neighbors in such a notable way that they are recorded in historical records of ancient civilizations all across the near east. As we read about the battles fought between Israel and the Assyrians in the Old Testament, we can read about it in the Assyrian historical records as well.

We can verify Roman records and see how the time periods of their political leaders matches up with when they are mentioned in the Gospels. Just as the history of America is part of the history of the world, so is the history of Israel and the early church.

As Bible scholar Donald Hagner says, “History and theology are not mutually exclusive. History can be the mediator of theology; theology can be expressed in and through history.”

We need to grasp how God has worked through a real people who lived in a real part of the world with real conflicts, famines and culture. When we lose the understanding of how theology and history work together, when we lose the understanding of how the Bible is grounded in historical fact, we become much more susceptible to believing the lies that the Bible is theological myth.

As we prepare our hearts during this advent season, remember that it is not mere “stories” that we read from the Bible and have faith in, but historical accounts.

Over the next few weeks, take time to read and to tell others about the historical account of Jesus’ birth.

People’s Evangelical Congregational Church is located at 216 Wagner St., Lehighton.