Biblical History Center — Attraction in LaGrange

I was excited to find that this Biblical themed museum existed, and I persuaded my husband to travel almost 8 hours with me to see the replicas and participate in their Easter tour. The tour included a short walk within their constructed replicas of the Jerusalem gate where Jesus arrived on the donkey during Passover week. Stopping to examine an olive press and to learn the terms associated with an olive that magnify the meaning of scripture referring to Jesus’ last vigil of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Since Gethsemane means olive press, the burden that Jesus was preparing to carry pressed him as his sweat mingled with droplets of blood. We learned that the Hebrews refer to the oil of the olive as “ olive blood.” A tree is positioned on a level above the town of Jerusalem, but the area is very compact, so imagination must help to make the trip to Golgotha. The cross is a real tree on which a cross beam is attached. A saddle bar is also attached where the hips of the dying one could push up for gaining more gasping breaths. The tomb is located at the base of the slope that bears the cross. The docent reviews the order in which Jesus’ followers learned that the tomb was empty. The hall of antiquities was next on our tour. Artifacts and replicas were displayed behind glass, and no one was permitted to take pictures of this section. This part was a bit rushed, but the docent pointed out a Hebrew girl’s wedding bonnet upon which many coins had been attached. I would have liked a picture of that. The last portion of our tour included a meal in a room that was arranged as the Upper Room might have been when Jesus shared his last meal with the disciples. The table was a triclinium design, and we learned that Jesus did not sit at the center of a Renaissance banquet table. The Bible’s narrative and dialogue provide enough to help identify the location of four people reclining at the table: Peter, John, Judas, and Jesus. The foods served were not intended to be a strictly kosher Passover meal. For example, the bread was tortilla rounds rather than Matzah bread. The parsley, salt water, Romaine lettuce, charoset, and boiled egg were present with a bare chicken bone. Lentil bean soup and a Spinach/ onion salad were provided as part of the meal outside of the Seder symbolic foods. The docent shared the simple prayers for the fruit of the vine, the fruits of the earth, and the grains. She quoted them in Hebrew and then asked us to follow her English. The long trip to find this place somehow did not seem worth the entrance fee, but we did not explore the remaining sections of the construction replicas on the property. I would have liked to do that; however, my companion was not able to walk any longer. I was most disappointed that the gift shop options were very general Christian materials that can be obtained in any standard Bible book and gift shop. There were almost no visual representations of the replicas and artifacts shared along the tour. I bought a few postcards with the interesting crucifixion tree portrayed. When I left the museum, I decided to randomly explore the little town of LaGrange. I found a vintage resale shop in the town square, and I love to browse for surprises. Soon I found some replicas of clay oil lamps that were used on our table in the Last Supper simulation room. I told the owner that he had exactly what I had hoped to find at the Biblical History Center gift shop. He smiled and shared that he was one of the founders and builders of that center. He was surprised that they no longer sold the clay lamps. I wish I could have stayed longer to chat with him, but my companion was waiting. I feel like there are stories to discover about the organization of...

We booked a tour with meal for my entire family of nine including grandparents and children. I wish we had just booked the tour instead and skipped the meal. They charge $29 extra for the Biblical Meal with the tour and this is in NO WAY a $29 meal. It isn't even a $10 meal. The website says you will be treated to a four course meal including soup, salad, fruit, a main course, and dessert. Let's talk about that. I wasn't expecting a buffet, but for $29 I was expecting not to leave hungry. The soup is lentil soup. You will be given about a fourth of a cup of soup. The bowl they place in front of you will be less than a third full. The "salad" is served with the main meal and is just greens with a little vinaigrette dressing over it. There is one bowl of salad for every person in the group to share, so don't take more than two or three spinach leaves or there won't be enough for everyone. The fruit is a handful of grapes and a few raisins for each guest. The main course is delicious, or at least the two bites of it that we were each given was delicious. Yes, you heard me right. They literally give you a toothpick with two bite sized pieces of grilled chicken on it. That is your main course. They also have a cereal bowl of hummus that is put out with this main course for your whole group (your family plus others). I recommend putting your teaspoon of hummus on one of the 4 inch tortillas you will be given with your spinach leaves and the two chicken bites. That way you can pretend you have a really scrawny wrap from a restaurant you'll never eat at again. For dessert you will be treated to a couple teaspoons of something that is very like applesauce. Yum yum. Also, this is served at the beginning of the meal. Oh, and their misleading website left off the appetizer they serve. You can pick a bite of green onion, a bite of thinly sliced radish, or a bite of parsley. Then you get to dunk it into salt water before you eat it. Luckily, they don't count the appetizer in the listing, or they'd probably have added another $5 for that bite. When our family left, every one of us was hungry. We had to stop for a meal after our $29 meal at the Biblical History Center. DO YOURSELF AND YOUR WALLET A FAVOR: SKIP THE MEAL IF YOU ARE GOING AND DO ONLY THE TOUR.

Added after response: Dear Biblical Heritage Center, Google Reviews are supposed to be done anonymously. But, thanks for adding my name to your response. I'm happy to give you all an honest review and put my name on it.

You might be surprised to know that my youngest, who is only eleven, asked for more salad during our meal. Our docent told him no. Matthew 25:40 says "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Surely children count in this. The rest of us didn't ask for anything extra because we had heard her decline his request very sharply.

Further, it is very interesting that you mentioned that you all helped with translation. We brought our own translator and your docent spoke so quickly that he finally stopped trying to translate everything. There was simply no way to keep up. Further, our docent spent most of the time on our tour looking at her watch and hurrying us along. She was very welcoming indeed.

You all are just as bad as the tv evangelists. You scam Christians for money and get away with it. The tour is a bit overpriced, but maybe worth doing once if you are lucky enough to get a nice docent. The meal, however, is an...

This place is not what you would think it would be. My daughter’s school went on a field trip to this place today. Very disappointed that we took a 2 hour drive there and was treated awful. When we arrived, some of the children had to use the restroom. Our tour guide Emily clearly was aggravated because some of the children had to use the restroom. We then start the tour and as we started the tour we were stopped by Joyce, who asked myself along with another parent if we had RSVP anyone and we said yes we are with the school. She then asked rudely several times if we had paid. We told her again we are with the school. She finally let us proceed and we headed to the artifact room. We were in that area for about 20 minutes. The tour guide, then escorted us to the dining room area where the children were going to eat. Myself along with two other parents were stopped at the door and asked if we had paid to eat. We said no we did not pay to eat. We would like to just come in and watch our children enjoy this experience. We were told by someone else that we could not stay in the dining room if we were not going to eat. Again, we reiterated that we did not plan on eating. We simply wanted to stand and watch the children enjoy the food with their classmates. Emily left the room and went and got another lady and Joyce, who then told us again we are not allowed to enter the dining room unless we purchased a plate. One parent said she would be willing to purchase a plate if they would let her sit in the dining room with her daughter and Joyce told her no because they only make a certain amount of food. Here again we were not looking to EAT we wanted to sit in the area with our children and there was plenty of room for us to sit however we were told it was their policy that if we didn’t purchase a plate we could not enter the dining room and that we could go into a classroom and watch videos or we could go down the hallway and look at the wall art. This whole conversation took place in front of the group. Myself and the other two parents walked out of the dining room and walked outside. This is not how you treat people! You work for a Biblical History Museum and clearly do not know how to treat a school group. If you do not want large groups coming through, you need to post that on your website or hire some people that enjoy talking about the museum and hosting a large party and be more welcoming. I need someone to tell me what it would have hurt to let 3 grown adults stand up against the wall and watch the children eat?????? Would that have hurt anyone????? No it wouldn’t. Joyce clearly needs to retire and Emily clearly doesn’t need a job that deals with children. I will highly encourage our school to never return to this place.

To make this worse….. the first group of our school had a guide by the name of Carol who was evidently much more pleasant. Carol also let ALL of the first group go into the dining room and all parents got to eat! I asked one parent in particular did she pay for a meal and she said NO that Carol invited everyone in and to find a seat!!!!

If the first group had no issues then why did the second group have issues???? Maybe Carol needs to give Joyce and Emily a few pointers on how to be kind and...