The Holy Land! With so many interesting places to visit in the world, what makes the land of Israel so special? The very expression "holy land" (see Psalms 78:54; Zechariah 2:12) suggests that there is something unique about this one place. For the Jews it is the one place on earth where God has promised them an eternal kingdom and inheritance. For the Christian it is the one place on earth where God chose to send His Son, our Savior. And when Jesus comes back to this earth for the second time, the Bible says He will come to the Mt. of Olives, to Zion, to Jerusalem. It is a special land, set apart by God as the focal place for his dealings with Israel, the work of redemption, and the site of Jesus' second coming.

When we study our Bibles, we read of many places that are unfamiliar to us. Did you ever wonder what Nazareth looks like? Or, just how far did Joseph and Mary have to travel when they took that divinely ordained trip to Bethlehem for the Savior's birth? What does the Bible mean, when it uses the phrase "from Dan to Beer-Sheba"? When Jonah went to the port of Joppa, just what kind of a place was it? Where is the site of that last great battle known as "Armageddon"? You could find answers to questions like these in numerous reference books, but there is no description in any book that can compare to the vivid sights, sounds and smells of actually being there.

When I graduated from seminary, I thought I had a pretty good grasp on the background and contents of the Bible. I was amazed and surprised on my first visit to Israel to find out just how little I really understood about the geography, the layout of the land, the architecture and the customs of the people that inhabited this land I had spent so many years studying about. I can truly say that, apart from conversion itself, there is nothing that has enlivened and transformed my Bible study as much as a tour of the holy land.

The tour we are planning is designed for the Bible College student, but you do not need to be enrolled as a student at Shasta Bible College in order to come with us. If you are a serious student of the Bible and want to have a deeper understanding of the background of that blessed book, this is the tour for you. I hope that you will seriously pray about coming with us on this tour. We would love to have you join us on this tour of the most special place on the face of the earth – the holy land!

For the glory of God,
George Gunn