Rebecca Pettit, is a scholar attached to JEC in Jerusalem. She teaches Historical and Geographical Settings of the Bible and specializes in the history of the earliest believers – Hebraic Roots of Christianity. Last week Ms. Pettit taught “Jesus And His Times” an advanced level class at Central Africa Baptist University.

Richard Banda, was a student in the class. He shared the following imnpressions about what he learned, and how it will help him interpret the Scriptures:

“The last day of the class was super exciting. I enjoyed watching the videos and seeing the cities and everything associating with the city. My heart was joyful to learn through this course. I could visualize and imagine how beautiful the land of Israel is, and I began to understand the scriptures clearly.

“Each time I read the Bible, I am now focusing on the places too, and estimating the distance between locations. It is just awesome. It was also so fantastic to learn about the Persian period, Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies. I learned a lot of things about these people and what they did to the Jews. I also learned about the character of Herod the Great and what he built. Even though he was a cruel man, God used him in the preparation of the coming of the Messiah. God used him to construct the Temple, which Jesus used for his teachings.

“The exciting thing that I never knew was that the destruction of the Temple in 70AD had a significant impact on the Israelites. The Temple was their only place of worship and sacrifice. Its destruction leads them to abandon sacrifices and focus on praying to God on their own.

“What I can see from the last class are God’s sovereignty and majestic power. God uses situations and circumstance which may look bad to us to reveal himself to us. He is a knowing God, who knows our hearts. He always does what pleases him.

“In conclusion, I want to thank you and appreciate you for all the explanations and teachings that you gave to us. It was my pleasure to be in your class and learn so many useful things. After going through this course, I can now say I can understand the Bible clearly. I never understood the significance of the maps in the Bible, but now I know how important they are to us. I had to realize the importance of places named in the Bible and their history. The geography of these places will be of great help for me to understand the New Testament. We will also be able to interpret parables.”

– Richard Banda, CABU Degree Student