How has the Word of God, the Bible, changed your life? Would you believe me if I told you that the Word of God is changing Washington, D.C., the capital city of the world's most powerful nation? And to testify to that is a man of God I'm sitting next to who's been a friend for a long time, and I'm just tickled to death.
I'm with him. I am in D.C. at the Museum of the Bible with Dr. Carlos Campos, and he is here right here. And we're in your office.
We're in the office of the President. How did this happen? You know, it must be God thing.
That's all I can say. But the Lord's been good. I sat on the board here for almost nine years, Stu, and then when there was a transition at the CEO level, God made it happen. Been here ten months, and it's just been amazing.
The Lord's really been blessing it. Well, Dr. Campos, people walk by this museum. I mean, we looked out the window. We just took a selfie with the Capitol building, giant building behind us.
We were so close. This place is just, it's beautiful. It is a godsend to our country. Yet, Brother Steve Green in front of maybe over a thousand pastors just recently asked him, how many of you have heard of the Museum of the Bible? And a lot of them haven't even heard of it yet.
It's true. I don't love hearing those stories, but we do need to get the word out even more. But I really am grateful to you for the way you pointed out that for us to have a Museum of the Bible in the city that has more museums than any other one in the nation, and it's a world capital. It says something to the world about what's our country all about, and that this should remain as a testament to what God has done in America. So in this visit with Dr. Campos, friends, you're going to learn about how you can join.
You become a member, like a Bible Club member. It's pretty remarkable, and it's going to shock you. I can't believe it's only $500 a month to be a member of the Museum of the Bible, Doc. I mean, that's crazy.
You know, make sure they know you stuttered when you said that. So you're right, just $5 a month. $5? Yeah, $5 a month makes you a member. And what we've been so gratified by is how many people say, Carlos, even if I never come to the museum, I want to support what you're doing.
I'm going to give my $5 a month because even if I don't get there, I have access to your digital assets, I can see what the museum's doing, listen to your podcast, and all the rest. And it's no secret that the Green family, Hobby Lobby, these philanthropic, gifted, godly, generous people. I've read David Green's book, Steve Green's book, The Power of How the Word of God Has Changed That Family's Life. It's no secret that they have kind of driven this, and God's blessed them and they've blessed us all. But maybe it's time the rest of us say, hey, I need to pony up and help this thing.
This is bigger than all of us. This is bigger than just one family. And that's kind of what they've been trying to tell us, too, in a gracious way. Well, you know, I think the idea that we're blessed when we give to something that's an investment in the kingdom. And in many ways, what the Green family is saying is it's not their blessing to hoard, right? So this is something that the kingdom should be supporting.
Here's one of the ways we put it, Stu. You think about the traditions, the martyrs, the people who've gone before us to bring the Word of God to this moment in America, right? So think of that legacy. So who will carry it forward? That's the question we're asking the body of Christ across the world. This is not just a national museum. This is a global museum. And what we're saying is, who will stand with us to carry the Word of God forward into the days ahead?
Yeah, and I think about David Green's book, you know, Giving It All Away. It's just a generosity. And honestly, God has used them to kind of wake us all up.
Say, hey, wait a second. We can have a bold witness for Christ just a few blocks away from the Capitol Rotunda. We can stand on the Word of God.
We can trust the Word of God. And so for five bucks a month, I mean, that's unbelievable when people can be a member of the, you know, an annual member of the Museum of the Bible and come in here. And what are they going to see when they come in here? This is the fun stuff, right?
Take us through. We're actually in the president's office. We're going to walk out of here and see some remarkable things, some things that are older than Grandma's quilt in here. I mean, I'm talking, you know, we get excited in America. We see something, hey, that's a hundred-year-old church.
Can you believe it? Two hundred years old. We're talking about thousands of years.
No question. I think it's one of the things we are most shocked by is how people come and think, Carlos, I had no idea what was housed in the Museum of the Bible, including there is more Judaica here in this museum than any other location in the world other than in Israel. So if you say to yourself, I'd love to get to the Holy Land, but I can only get to D.C., come here and see what's here. And I'll just mention one exhibit. I'm not sure if you've yet seen it, Stu.
We're going to go out here in a little while and walk the floor. But we have the oldest Christian church ever discovered. It was created in 230 B.C. A.D. by a centurion who was a convert.
In 230 A.D., he constructs the world's oldest Christian church. It's in our museum today. And truly, this is a pilgrimage site.
And as people continue to find out about this, there will be lines and lines waiting to see it. A centurion was at the cross of Christ and said, surely this was the Son of God, a remarkable confession. Something about being part of executing Jesus. Something about maybe he drove those nails through the hands of the Savior. He saw and heard the words of Christ to his haters. Father, forgive them.
And then he made that great confession. And here, not too many years after that, we have a centurion erecting a Christian church. And you have those relics here at the Museum of the Bible.
You can see it, touch it, look at it. We do. And especially in this season. Here we are in the Lenten season preparing for the greatest celebration in the Christian calendar, of course, right? So it's not just that you'll experience that early Christian church, but you will walk in our floors.
It's one of the things that people may not realize. But you walk in, you look at the tiles on floor one. They're very dark, intentionally.
We have dark floor marble tiles on floor one. As you continue to move up the seven floors into the Museum, you will move up and see they get lighter and lighter and lighter. And you may have seen this banner, extraordinary Easter banner, that starts with these dark sepia tones as we talk about the suffering of Christ. And then at the very top, it's an ascension.
It's this beautiful white and mint green. And each floor has a scripture verse that takes you through the suffering and then to the resurrection. It's really an extraordinary time to visit. So really, the Museum of the Bible is telling the story of the Bible. There's this redemptive theme. We call it the scarlet thread of redemption. Talk about how important that is.
It really is. You know, I tell people there are 723,000 or so words in the King James Bible. And it's not until we're at about 588,000 that you hear the name Jesus for the first time. But that scarlet thread, as you've mentioned, is throughout the Word of God. And what we say is we are non-sectarian. We are non-proselytizing. But all we have to do, Stu, is lift up the Word of God.
It never returns void. And that's what we're doing here, both in immersive experiences, through video. We have rides here for kids. We have an entire children's experience here.
We have an experience where kids can do basically a scavenger hunt through the Museum. It's for kids of every age, and it's every permutation of scripture. If you're the type who wants to sit with a scroll and study ancient texts, this is the place for you. If you're one who wants to just sit in a worship space and see what all creation sings looks like, this is the place for you. There are so many experiences here as we try to do the impossible. How do we, in four hours, impress upon someone the kaleidoscopic power of the Bible?
It's impossible to do it fully, but we try. That is the voice of Dr. Carlos Campo. He's the chief executive officer, the CEO of the Museum of the Bible.
I can't think of a funner, cooler job of all time. Now, you've been in higher education. You've been on Truth Talk with me before, going years back as president of Christian colleges, Christian universities, really formative in training young men and young women to be warriors for the Lord, to go out in the culture, to be salt and light. Talk about Carlos Campo's transition from being in higher Christian education to being in the Museum of the Bible. It's almost like you've just switched universities in a way.
Talk about that in the dynamics, will you? Well, I said to someone last week that we at Christian universities had four years to embed and ignite something in the heart and souls and minds of these young people. I've got four hours to do it here at the Museum.
So it's a little bit different, but it's the same kind of thing. It really is. We rely on the Holy Spirit, touching hearts and lives. We have a four hour shot at people, but it's one of the things I'm proudest of at the Museum. I tell people, if you ever feel as though America has lost its spark for the Lord, stand outside of our steps and watch the young people come and go from this place and see how they're not following and getting dragged into this Museum. They're dragging their parents and grandparents here. And so I know that God is using this place to ignite people for the Lord to go out and touch the nations. And they're having testimonies of how God's Word has shaped and has changed people that they come and they encounter here where folks' lives are changed because of the Word of God right here at the Museum of the Bible.
No question. I just encountered my first month here through a woman from France, spoke a little bit of English and a lot of French. My French is terrible, but we were able to communicate enough. And she said, You know what, sir? I know this book is important historically and socially, and I know very little about it.
And I don't encounter encounter it in my home country of France. So that's why I've come. I've come to D.C. I want to learn more about this book. I saw her later in the day and she said, I believe that this book needs to be a part of my life.
I knew nothing about it until the immersive experience I've had here and I want to learn more about it. Wow. And there are a lot of Bibles at the Museum of the Bible. There's Bibles of our founders. There's Bibles going way back. Talk about that, some of the novelty things real quick before we get out of here.
Oh my goodness. I mean, we have the largest Torah scroll collection in the world. So you'd come and see it here. We have over 2,000. They're not all out, but you'll feel like it when you walk into that Torah scroll room. We have a reproduction of the entire Isaiah scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are coming in the fall, by the way. But you'd also see three original King James versions in 1611.
So we have the oldest Psalm book known to man here in the Museum of the Bible. So when you get up on that floor, Stu, you'll just be blown away by art, by our collection. And there's movies, there's concerts, there's food, there's Mediterranean food. I mean, you got the whole, this is an experience that really is five star. You do. You've got the C.S. Lewis exhibit right now, the world premiere of The Lion Witch in the Wardrobe, full stage production, where you can say, I'm bringing my kids and grandkids. You can do that at Museum of the Bible.
You never have to worry. Something on stage in front of you, you never have to worry. It's going to absolutely represent the highest and best of the Lord. I love it. So talk to our listeners. How can we support?
How can we involve? People are like wanting to, you know, turn this radio show off and come out to right now or, you know, what's the best way they can plug in to the Museum of the Bible here in Washington, D.C.? Come on Tuesday, make your plans and come see us. Remember that the last Tuesday of the month, we are doing a free Tuesday.
So keep that in mind. So tell people, hey, listen, that last Tuesday of the month at the Museum, we've got folks who've said, I want to give that away. And so you can come for free on the last Tuesday of the month. But a lot of people, we tell them, join the Museum membership. Come alongside and say, we want to be part of this movement of God. Go online. You can become a member today.
Start getting our materials. And of course, that'll get you free admission as well. And it's not five hundred dollars a month. It's five bucks a month. Sixty bucks a year. That's it.
It's a fairly easy entry. That's the way we wanted it. And so we are grateful to the way the Kingdom of God has reached out to us and we want to continue to build it here.
I'm Stu Everson. I am in the Museum of the Bible, seven floors of amazing Bible archaeology, Bible history. You know, some of our founding fathers and their connection with the Word of God, some great heroes of the faith, some great men of God whose blood was shed to preserve the Word of God. You've got some tributes to people like that, John Huss and others right here, right here in this museum.
No question. And one of the things that we want to tell folks is you remember that next year will be our two hundred fiftieth anniversary as a nation. But this will be the only museum in the world that will tell fully that story, the role of the Bible and the founding of our country.
These two are enmeshed. There's no way to separate them fully if you're objective about it. So make sure you make your plans for next year as well to come see this town right. Just light up in red, white and blue. But right here, we're telling the story of the Bible and our country's founding.
Awesome. I want to ask you the website, the best way for folks to learn more about you. Check out the amazing things.
You can see some things online to give you kind of a taste of what you'll experience in person with your family, by yourself, on a date night with your wife. When you're in D.C., make this a destination. What's the best way people can go online? Can donate.
Maybe it's time for some other folks, you know, wrote a check to support what God's doing here. Well, appreciate that. It's so easy. You just go and Google us, Museum of the Bible. It'll pop up in D.C. You'll be able to go online, like you say. You'll get a nice introduction of what it's all about here. And it's easy to send that link to friends and say, you know what?
You need to be a member. Help support this movement of God in Washington, D.C. I love it. Dr. Campo, let's get out of here with your favorite Bible verse. We are in the Museum of the Bible. I just signed the guest register and I put the verse for today's date in there.
And just a little thank you note for your kind hospitality. What is the verse that Dr. Carlos Campo hangs his hat on that's touched your heart that you want to share with our listeners as we say goodbye? You know, Stu, I have always been called to worship in my heart, in my life, and so it's actually the first verse in the 12th chapter of Romans where Paul's been reduced to beggaries, what scholars say. And he begs, he says, I beg you, my brothers and sisters, that in light of God's mercy, and that's what I've known in my life, God's mercy.
And how do you respond? That's what the verse goes on to say. In light of God's mercies, let's give our bodies as living sacrifices. That's our proper and appropriate response in worship. So that's my Bible verse. It's what I've tried to live my life by and have not lived up to it fully, but I'm grateful to the Lord for his mercy in my life for sure. Come eat brother Campo and the whole team here. Amazing team, amazing family, amazing tour guides, and amazing encounter with God's Word. God's Word never returns void. Watch it touch your life. Museum of the Bible, easy to remember, just the name, dot o-r-g. Museum of the Bible, dot o-r-g.
