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By Louis T. Talbot, D. D. President of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles
“ Gordon’s Calvary” I N the fall of 1949, at the request of the Board of Directors of my school, I made a four months’ mis sionary journey to the fields where our graduates are laboring, to make a sur vey of the needs and to photograph their work. In the brief time allotted me I covered twelve countries, and from every standpoint I found the conditions appalling. Everywhere were dirt and disease and deviltry and death; the world is in a hopeless state. The only bright spots I saw on earth were the places where the brave and faithful mis sionaries of the cross are preaching the gospel and winning souls for Christ. I came home with a renewed missionary vision, and a “ burning heart,” to pre sent the needs of the world as they really are, and to persuade young people to invest their lives in the missionary enterprise, ere the night falls upon this atomic age, when “ no man can work.” Naturally, there were many thrills on this trip—journeys through jungles, views of breath-taking natural beauty, flights over tens of thousands of islands—but one of the never-to-be-for gotten experiences was the brief time I spent in the Holy Land. It is impossible to put into words the feelings that came into my heart as I set my feet upon the streets and fields where the Lord Jesus Christ had walked, and looked upon scenes which must have met His eyes daily for thirty- three years. Palestine is a living com mentary upon the Old and New Testa ments and makes places and personali ties in the Bible very real and vivid. I shall ever thank God for the honor that was mine to have such a glimpse of Bible lands. I saw Bethlehem, and preached the gospel in the Shepherds’ Fields on Christmas Eve; I visited Bethany and relived the visits of Jesus with His friends. Mary, and Martha, and Laz arus; I sat by Jacob’s Well and thought of the conversion of the Samaritan woman, and the entire city that came to Christ through her testimony. But the two historic spots which made the deep est impression upon my heart were Golgotha and the Tomb, where they laid the body of the Lord.
conclusively that the Damascus Gate near at hand was standing before Roman times and so was there at the time. I could see how ideal a place for public executions this was. The Jews even called it “ the Hill of Stoning.” Overlooked by a large part of the city, almost in the form of a semi-circle, it would serve somewhat on the order of a Roman amphitheatre. It was easy to imagine how “ those that passed by” could have witnessed the crucifixion scene, and taken part in it. The crowds would be making their way along the Roman road which forked here, one branch extending to Galilee, the other around the city to Jericho. The ruins of this road have been excavated at the base of Golgotha. As I stood there gazing at “ the place of a skull,” my mind went back to the events of Jesus’ last week on earth. I thought of the agony of the Garden of Gethsemane, the three long fake trials, the three extended sentences before the Jews. I remembered how He had suffered through the exhausting scenes in the Praetorium; how He had endured the cruel examination by Herod; how He had been brutally de rided by the Sanhedrin and its servants, by Herod’s bodyguard, and by the Roman cohort. I recalled that, pitifully weakened, He so staggered under the weight of the cross that in order not to delay His execution, the Roman sol diers impressed Simon into their service, to bear the cross for Him. “ And they bring Him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, the place of a skull” (Mark 15:22). “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they cruci fied him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, the other on the left” (Luke 23:33). It seemed to me as I stood there that day I could see the three crosses laid upon the ground, and see the soldiers nailing the crossbeams to the uprights. I could imagine how they stripped Jesus naked of all His clothes, stretched Him upon that im plement of torture, and, placing huge iron nails in the center of His palms, drove them into the wood with their
For years I had looked forward to seeing these places, and 16ng ago was of the opinion, shared with many Bible teachers and archeologists, that if there were any genuine sites still standing where the crucifixion and resurrection had taken place, they were Gordon’s Calvary and the Garden Tomb. I re ject the theory that the ornate Holy Sepulchre covers those sacred spots. I am thankful that the English Commit tee, which is responsible for the care of Gordon’s Calvary and the Garden Tomb, have not made shrines of them, but instead have preserved them as nearly as possible in their original rug ged state. It seems blasphemous to me that such spots should be made a source of revenue for systems of religion. We do not worship places, but a Person. Of course, no one can be absolutely certain of these' locations which have puzzled archeological authorities for centuries, but if the places I saw are not the exact spots where the great drama of redemp tion took place, they are at least so similar to the original places that it makes no real difference, and the effect upon the heart of a born-again believer is the same. The Place Called Calvary In English it is “ skull” ; in Greek “ Calvary” ; in Hebrew “ Golgotha.” Whatever language is used, it was a dreadful place of death, outside of the walls of Jerusalem. Only one eminence near Jerusalem meets this description today, and that is Gordon’s Calvary. I climbed to the top of the north wall east of the Damascus Gate, and there it was. A hush fell upon my heart. The top was bare, smooth, scalp-like, with deep cavities clearly resembling eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Nothing else is there, but a small Moslem cemetery lies off to the side. One’s entire attention is riveted upon that grim place where Christ was lifted up between earth and heaven as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. It seems to me that this spot fitted into the details of the crucifixion in a most striking way. The ancient founda tions beneath the present surface show
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