institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music and has authorization to operate in the State of Florida. Extension centers and hubs View on the authority of the Bible "We believe that the Bible is the Word of God in the highest and fullest sense, and is the unrivalled authority in determining the faith and practice of God’s people; that the sixty-six books of the Bible are divinely and uniquely inspired, and that they have come down to us substantially as they were under inspiration written. These Scriptures reveal all that is necessary for us to know of God’s plan of redemption and human duty. We deny the inspiration of other books, ancient or modern, and exalt the Bible to an unchallenged throne in our confidence. These Scriptures do not require the authorized interpretation of any church, or council, but are divinely intended for personal study and interpretation, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit." Archaeology Timnah Between 1977 and 1979, George L. Kelm was serving as professor of Biblical Backgrounds and Archaeology at NOBTS when he and Amihai Mazar uncovered biblical Timnah, Tel Batash in the Sorek Valley of Israel. Gezer In 2010 a team from NOBTS launched an effort to clear a Canaanite Water Shaft at Tel Gezer in Israel in cooperation with the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority and the Israeli Antiquities Authority. Gezer was first explored by R.A. Stewart Macalister over a hundred years earlier, but he did not complete a study of the water system because a freak storm refilled the system with debris and Macalister abandoned the effort. The NOBTS excavation has been chronicled in multiple sources including the Biblical Archaeology Review and the Baptist Press. In 2011 Dennis Cole, Dan Warner and Jim Parker from NOBTS led another team in an attempt to finish the effort. In just two years the teams removed approximately 299 tons of debris from the ancient water system. Research centers Other research centers include: Baptist Center for Theology and Ministry Caskey Center for Church Excellence Cecil B. Day Center for Church Planting & The Nehemiah Project Center for Discipleship & Spiritual Formation Global Mission Center H. Milton Haggard Center for New Testament Textual Studies Institute for Faith & the Public Square Landrum P. Leavell II Center for Evangelism & Church Health Moskau Institute of Archaeology/Center for Archaeological Research Perry R. Sanders Center for Ministry Excellence Providence