What really happened in the Church of the Nativity?
Ankerberg: How did the Palestinian Arabs that went into the Church of the Nativity leave the church? Maybe there’s other things you know about that we don’t know about that happened in Bethlehem. DeYoung: Well, ironically, they took over this–one of the oldest church buildings in all of the world, dating back to Helena, fourth century, 326 A.D. Helena, Constantine’s mother, came in and selected that as the spot, the official spot for the birth of Jesus Christ. Traditionally, it is the spot. If you’re a Christian and you’ve ever traveled into the Holy Land, you’ve been to that spot to see that 14-pointed star there. But they took over. The Palestinian terrorists went in there. The Israeli government didn’t cause them to go in there, didn’t force them to go in there. They went in there to take up a place of protection. And then they kidnapped the leadership of the church. They have the Orthodox Church there; they have the Catholic Church there. They kidnapped all of those people. They ha
