At a time when a majority of people in the “Christian” West now reject the veracity of the Bible, believers with a more academic background are increasingly setting out to prove the Scriptures reliable.

One such Christian academic is Dr. Scott Stripling, head of the Associates for Biblical Research and director of a new excavation at Shiloh, where the Bible records the Tabernacle of God was located for 369 years.

Stripling told The Times of Israel: “There are some who say the Bible is unreliable. We have found it to be very reliable. We’re taking the Bible as a serious historical document, but the evidence is what the evidence is.”

Stripling and his team of dedicated Christian researchers intend to dig at Shiloh and other sites in Israel for decades to come.

Already, they have uncovered large clay pots that were abandoned, which would hint at the biblical narrative that suggests Shiloh’s sudden destruction. I Samuel chapter 4 records Israel’s defeat at the hands of the Philistines and the subsequent loss of the Ark of the Covenant. The Prophet Jeremiah (7:12) later indicates that Shiloh itself was sacked following that defeat.