Behind Home of Christ: The Holy Land

Some books begin at a desk. Home of Christ: The Holy Land began on the road, in the land where the Bible happened. This is the story of how the book came to be: where the idea started, the first scene I wrote, what changed between the first draft and the finished book, and the one place that still moves me more than any other.

Where the idea came from?

I live in Israel. When you read the Bible here, the places stop being names on a page. You stand where the events took place; you see the hills and the water and the stones, and you learn the history of each site. Slowly, the land itself begins to shape how you understand Scripture.

That was the beginning of this book. Visiting the places and studying their history gave me my own reading of what the Bible is saying, and sometimes it was different from what I had always been taught. Some of those discoveries became the six surprising claims in Home of Christ: whether “this rock” in Matthew 16 points to the Gates of Hell, where the Red Sea crossing really happened, and where Mount Sinai may be.

I first wrote all of this in my mother tongue, Tedim (Zomi), as Khrih’ Tuallenna Mun Siangthote. The Tedim book is the original, and it is now available in a revised and expanded second edition. Home of Christ: The Holy Land is its English edition, carrying the same journey to readers around the world.

The first scene I wrote

The first thing I wrote was not about a famous church or a pilgrimage site. It was about a man who ran away.

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah stands on Mount Carmel and faces the prophets of Baal. He sees with his own eyes that the god Jezebel worships is not a living one. Fire falls from heaven, and Baal’s prophets are put to death. It is one of the greatest victories in the Old Testament.

Then, in the very next chapter, one message from Jezebel and Elijah is running for his life.

That is what struck me. Elijah himself witnessed that Baal was nothing. He had just seen the power of the living God. And still he was afraid of Jezebel. If a prophet like Elijah could win so completely and then be overcome by fear, what does that say about us? Victory does not make us immune to fear. That honest, very human moment became the first page I wrote, and it set the tone for the whole book: Scripture read not as distant history but as the story of real people in a real land.

What changed most between the first draft and the finished book

Two chapters changed more than any others: the Gates of Hell and the Red Sea.

The Gates of Hell at Caesarea Philippi

When I first wrote about Matthew 16:18, “on this rock I will build my church,” I followed the familiar readings: the rock is Peter, or the rock is Christ. Then I went deeper into the history of Caesarea Philippi. In Jesus’ time, the great rock face there, with its cave used for pagan worship, was known as the gate to the underworld.

That history changed how I see what Jesus said about the rock. He did not choose that place by accident. Standing before the very rock of pagan worship, He declared that the gates of Hades would not prevail. The chapter I finished is very different from the one I started.

The Red Sea

The Red Sea chapter also changed a great deal. The Hebrew name, Yam Suf, is often translated “Reed Sea,” and that raises honest questions about our English Bibles and about where Israel actually crossed. Standing at the shore myself, I had to face those questions. Following the evidence through the languages and the geography reshaped the chapter and strengthened my trust that what the Bible says can be believed just as it is written.

The place that touches my heart

Of all the places in this book, the one that touches my heart most is the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem.

Scholars and pilgrims still debate whether the Garden Tomb or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre marks the true site, and I discuss both in the book. But the debate is not what stays with me. What stays with me is standing at an empty tomb in a quiet garden and remembering why it is empty. Every other place in the Holy Land tells part of the story. The empty tomb tells us how the story ends: He is not here; He has risen.

That is why the book is not a travel guide. It is an invitation to draw nearer to Jesus Christ, the One whose home this land was.

Read the book in Tedim or English

Tedim (original, 2nd edition): Khrih’ Tuallenna Mun Siangthote, available on Amazon
English: Home of Christ: The Holy Land, available on Amazon and in the Shalom Khai Shop