Day 03 - Hierapolis, Colossae, Laodicea

Day 3 is in the books! 

We started the day off early with breakfast around 6:30 am! We left for our first stop and Hieropolis, but arrived too early to go inside the site. This allowed us some time to pull off to the side of the road and take photos of the amazing hot air balloons, which some of our team members will get to experience tomorrow! 

In Hierapolis after zipping around on some golf carts to see the sights, we came to the place that is considered to be “the gates of Hades” because of its natural hot spring. Dr. Henning chatted with us about the reference in Revelation 1:18 where Jesus describes himself as having the keys to the gates of Hades. This is certainly a reference to mythology. In this he connected this verse to Matthew 16 where Jesus tells Peter he will be given the keys to the kingdom and the gates of hell will not prevail. 

Later, we had the opportunity to walk upon the deposits of the water from the natural hot spring and learned about how this water was channeled all around the area. 

Next we visited the place of Colossae where we climbed a large mount which our guide described as a “tel.” The reason we did not have as much thing s to see and explore as the other areas is that Colossae is in layers. As one group conquered another, the city kept building on each other. 

Here on this hill, we read a large amount of Colossians and the entire book of Philemon and considered what these words and messages meant to the people at this time. Themes such as the principalities and rulers being subjected to Christ in his resurrection, and that he triumphs over them. We spent a good amount of time up on the hill, reading Scripture and discussing its meaning as a group.

After a tasty lunch, we headed to Laodicea. Here we learned how it was a prosperous city as we walked and saw the large theaters and huge roman agora. As we ventured through the city, Ozan showed us potential symbols Christians carved in the ground. We made our way into a large home that is believed by some to have been a Christian house church. Here we read from the letter of Jesus to the Laodiceans in Revelation. Dr. Henning led the conversation by having students consider what they had just walked through and consider the words from the text. This letter was a warning to the lukewarm Christians who were neither hot nor cold, they were not useful. We chatted through how this text is a sober warning to the church to be called to repentance and authenticity.

After this we came back to the hotel where we enjoyed the space, and made our way to dinner where amazing hummus was served.

We look forward to our adventures tomorrow!