I
will begin by looking at Job 26:7, “[God]
spreads the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over
nothing.” Now many believe that Job lived during the time of Abraham (2000
B.C.). Consequently, this claim of the
earth floating around in space was made thousands of years before we knew it to
be true. Another example is found in Ecclesiastes
1:7. It says, “All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there
they return again.” This verse makes
reference to the water cycle – a phenomenon that was not fully understood until
centuries after Solomon penned the words.
Time
to "dig" into the archaeological support for the Bible!
We'll
begin with an examination of archaeological finds that support what the Bible
says. How do we know that many of the
Bible's characters were real? We have
evidence.
There
are inscriptions outside of the Bible of people like David, Ahab, Jehu, Uzziah
(Azariah) Jeroboam II, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Nebuchadnezzar II, Belshazzar, Darius,
Cyrus, Xerxes, Artaxerxes I, King Herod, Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, John the
Baptist, Pontius Pilate, Jesus Christ, and God (Yahweh).
Not
only are these Biblical characters mentioned, but also some locations mentioned
in the Bible. These places include
Solomon's wall in the town of Gezer, Hezekiah's tunnel, the Pool of Siloam, the
Temple Mount, Mars Hill (the Areopagus), and a theater in Ephesus. There are also the already known cities like
Jerusalem, Babylon, Athens, Rome, and countless others.
Much
of the information in the two paragraphs above came from
http://bibleandarchaeology.blogspot.com/ Please visit this site to read more and see
pictures of the inscriptions, artifacts, excavations, and locations mentioned
above.
Now
let's look at the archeology surrounding the city of Jericho. Is there evidence for the Israelites'
conquest of it? We would need to find
archaeological support for these four points.
#1 -
Joshua 6:16-17 - (16) "The seventh time around, when the priests sounded
the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, 'Shout! For the LORD has given
you the city! (17) The city and all that
is in it are to be devoted to the LORD.
Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be
spared, because she hid the spies we sent.'"
#2 -
Joshua 6:20 - "When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the
sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so
every man charged straight in, and they took the city."
#3 -
Joshua 6:24 - "Then they burned the whole city and everything in
it..."
#4 -
Joshua 2:6, 3:15, and 5:10 imply that the battle took place after harvest time.
Thus,
there must be evidence that the wall fell (#2), that the city was then burned
(#3), but that a residential section along the wall (the house of Rahab in
Joshua 2:15) was left standing (#1). All
of this should have taken place after the harvest (#4).
Believe
it or not, archaeological research in the area has revealed a time when the
walls of Jericho did come tumbling down.
This satisfies criteria #2.
Perhaps however, an earthquake (a phenomenon fairly common to the area)
caused the ruins. If so, it must have
been a very strange earthquake. For it
turns out that a residential area along the north side of the city (and on the
wall) was left standing. This must have
been the area where Rahab and her family lived.
Now criteria #1 is met. Criteria
#3 and #4 are also met. Research showed
that after the walls collapsed, a fire had broken out across the city. Among the items that appear burned, grain was
found. We're not talking about a little bit
of grain. There was an abundance of
grain found throughout the city. Is it
possible that the harvest had just come in?
Jericho is one of the cities that add support to what the Bible speaks of
plainly. Not only does it help show the
Bible to be true but it also shows the power of God and that the miracles
mentioned in the Bible really did happen.
Let's
move now to other scientific support for the Bible!
Genesis
7-8 recounts the story of Noah's Flood.
It tells us that the entire earth was covered with water. In fact, it was enough water to cover the
mountains twenty feet deep! Many have
claimed that if Noah's Flood was an actual event (which many of these people
doubt), it may have just been a local flood.
Otherwise, we would see great evidence for there having been a
catastrophe on that large of a scale.
What they fail to realize is that there is evidence everywhere! However, their evolutionary worldview shades
their eyes from seeing the truth.
All
around the world we find fossils of the creatures wiped out by the Flood. We see them up in the mountains and buried in
the depths of the earth. How could they
get there? The Flood is the correct
answer. However, those who adopt the
evolutionary perspective think that over millions of years these animals died,
were buried and fossilized. Now for fossilization
to take place, there must be little time allowed for decay. In other words, these creatures had to have
been buried in sediment rather quickly.
Does the Flood line up with this evidence? Absolutely!
Recently,
an Oceanographer famous for finding the wreckage of the Titanic, Robert
Ballard, made a fascinating discovery under the surface of the Black Sea. He claims to have found an ancient shoreline
dating back to about the time of Noah. Ballard
found evidence of civilization from around the time of Noah along this
shoreline. Now the Black Sea is
saltwater; however, Ballard and his team found freshwater shells along the
supposed shoreline. Contrary to what the
Bible says, Ballard believes that this flood was caused by the Mediterranean
Sea rising and flooding the Black Sea. He
thinks that Noah's flood was only a major local flood and not a globe-spanning
catastrophic event. On the other hand,
it is still extra evidence that points to the occurrence of Noah's Flood.
The
information for this paragraph was gathered from: God's World News' Trak
magazine Vol. 2, No. 5, February 2013.
There
is an endless amount of discussion that can take place surrounding this topic
of Noah's Flood as well as the evolutionary model and other related
topics. I will try to scratch the surface
in another post. Just understand that
the Bible's claim of a massive Flood covering the whole earth is not in any way
unsupported by evidence.
Let's
look at one last astounding piece of scientific evidence that supports
Scripture. The Star of Bethlehem has
been a great Biblical mystery. Recently
however, the Star has quite likely been found.
Since the stars in our universe work like a clock, using mathematics, we
are able to predict where certain celestial bodies will be in the future. Using those same principles we are also able
to see what the night sky looked like in past years. After much searching an incredible
astronomical event has been found.
A
lawyer named Rick Larson became fascinated with Christ's star. After much research, he claims to have found
it. Among many other spectacular signs
in the sky, it appears that Jupiter and Venus experienced a very close
conjunction around the time that Jesus was born (according to Larson's model,
this would have been around 2 and 3 B.C.).
This is just a piece of the "starry dance" that Larson
describes in his research. I strongly
encourage you to visit his website http://www.bethlehemstar.net/
and watch his eye-opening film, The Star
of Bethlehem. Believe me, the experience
is stunning and well worth it!
This
is just a fragment of the extensive amount of scientific evidence supporting
the Bible's words. Combined with
everything else we have learned about - Biblical prophecy and a close
examination of the Bible - you should realize that we do not believe in some
"fairy tale" or other book of nonsense. The Bible is true! Its words are worth living for. Not only that, but the truths contained
inside it are also worth dying for.
