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Secular humanism is an evil concept that has existed long before its name. Basically, it teaches that there is no God, that man will become perfect, that he is self-sufficient exclusive of a creator, and that he is the measure of all things. Humanism flatly denies God’s supernatural input into the affairs of men and attempts to explain all obviously miraculous happenings, absent of the supernatural God. David Limbaugh, in his very excellent book, Persecution, where he documents the persecution of the testimony of Jesus Christ in America, wrote this about the abomination called secular humanism:
In 1929, a former Baptist, then Unitarian preacher, Charles F. Potter, founded the First Humanist Society of New York. The next year, he wrote Humanism: A New Religion, which stated flatly, "Education is thus a most powerful ally of Humanism. What can the theistic Sunday-schools, meeting for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?"
If humanism crept in as a natural byproduct of the secularism successfully promoted by Horace Mann in the public schools in the late nineteenth century, by the time America was in the Great Depression, it had achieved a level of mainstream acceptance in American culture. In 1933, the Humanist Manifesto was published and signed by thirty-four national figures, bringing humanism to a level of prominence in American culture. Educator John Dewey was among the signatories of this document that rejected traditional Christian beliefs and endorsed, as an alternative, those of naturalism, materialism, rationalism, and socialism. The Humanist Manifesto expressed the humanists’ goal: "to evaluate, transform, control, and direct all institutions and organizations by its own value system." As one writer has noted, the humanists’ stated purpose was to effect a cultural revolution by substituting humanism for Christianity as the cultural foundation of America.
This foolish, feeble mind-set chimes in with all the world’s other voices of contradiction to the Word of God, but always to no avail. God is still God and He will do His good pleasure. II Timothy 2:13:
If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.
GOD SAID, Numbers 14:32-34:
32 But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.
33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.
MAN SAID: Show me archaeological proof!
Now THE RECORD. GodSaidManSaid received this following e-mail message:
My father-in-law challenged me to show him historical, archaeological proof of the Exodus. If three million+ people wandered the desert for as long as they did, there should be physical evidence of that. My response was, "How do you find specific evidence in a vast desert?"
Any thoughts?
Signed, Greg
Archaeological evidences in the wilderness, such as buried remains, would not be readily found, for at least two reasons. First, unprotected buried remains are often dug up by animals scavenging for food. Secondly, it is not impossible that the bones of loved ones who died in the wilderness were carried off to the Promised Land. The Israelites’ example would have been the patriarch Joseph, who gave them instruction not to leave his bones in Egypt, but to carry them to the Promised Land. His father, Jacob, also known as Israel, the grandson of Abraham, died in Egypt, and Joseph entreated Pharaoh to allow him to take his father to the Promised Land for burial. It must also be noted that for these 40 years, the Israelites lived as nomads. They built no homes, no buildings, no roads, leaving scant archaeological record. But history, on the other hand, is replete with information that corroborates the record of Moses and the children of Israel. No other ancient historic record of any people is more full and concise as that of the children of Israel.
God’s final plague that broke Pharaoh’s stranglehold upon Israel happened the very day they exited Egypt. Exodus 12:29-30:
29 And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
In Halley’s Bible Handbook, the following is noted under the heading, "Archaeological Note:"
Death of Pharaoh’s First-Born. Inscriptions have been found indicating that Thothmes IV, successor of Amenhotep II, was not his first-born nor heir-apparent.
Also that Mernaptah’s first-born met death in peculiar circumstances, and his successor was neither his first-born nor heir-apparent.
So, whichever the Pharaoh, the Biblical statement is confirmed.
Brother Greg, just recently an event took place in world news that fully confirms Exodus 3:20- 22:
20 And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.
21 And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty:
22 But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians.
The following report is found in The International Jerusalem Post, November 28, 2003, p 31:
The recent publicity garnered by the Egyptian professor who intends to file a lawsuit against the Jewish people and the State of Israel for the return of the gold, silver, and clothing taken by the Israelites when they left Egyptian bondage over three millennia ago caused me to think how ancient scores are never really settled — at least when they involve the Jews. The academic who claims to be filing this class-action suit is perhaps unaware that this tactic was attempted before — in fact, it was employed over 23 centuries ago, when Alexander the Great ruled both Egypt and the Land of Israel.
The Talmud in tractate Sanhedrin relates that Egyptian representatives appeared before Alexander and asked that he demand from the Jews the return of all of the wealth taken by them when they left Egyptian slavery a millennium earlier. Alexander sent a notice to the Jewish elders in Jerusalem asking for a representative to present the Jewish side of the dispute.
The rabbis sent a man by the name of Gavha, who was small in stature but very clever. His defense was that if one were to start down the slippery road of adjudicating ancient claims, then the Egyptians still owed the Jews for centuries of slave labor. Alexander, no fool himself, realized the morass that he had placed himself in by agreeing to judge the case, and decided to dismiss the matter altogether. [End of quote]
A short time later, after the spoiling of Egypt and slaying of the first-born, the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea and began their 40-year journey through the wilderness. This following excerpt is from a book by Werner Keller titled, The Bible As History:
Discoveries during excavations, and contemporary texts, sometimes providing almost literal correspondence, confirm the Biblical picture. We must not think however that the academic dispute over the historicity of these events in the life of Israel is thereby settled.
Professor William Foxwell Albright, of America, has some sharp words to say on this subject. Since he is one of the few scholars with almost universal qualifications — as theologian, historian, philosopher, orientalist, archaeologist, and comparative philologist — they may well be cited as conclusive. "According to our present knowledge of the topography of the eastern delta the account of the start of the Exodus, which is given in Exodus 12 and 13, is topographically absolutely correct." Further proofs of the essentially historical nature of the Exodus can be supplied without great difficulty thanks to our growing knowledge of topography and archaeology.
We must content ourselves here with the assurance that the hypercritical attitude which previously obtained in respect of the earlier historical traditions of Israel has no longer any justification. [End of quote]
Many pages in this excellent history book deal with the wilderness trek of the Jews. Volumes of documentation have been written on this subject.
I mentioned the last events of history that transpired before Israel’s exodus, and on this website under the title, "Walls of Jericho," you’ll find the first piece of archaeological history on the other side of the wilderness.
Skeptics feel comfortable challenging the Word of God while hiding behind the wall of time, but it just doesn’t work. Not only was the account not effectively challenged for thousands of years, but the greatest minds of all time fully endorsed the veracity of the Moses record. Besides being unquestionably believed by the multitude of Jews and their very historic leader Joshua, it is certified by the great prophet Samuel, King David, Solomon, Asa, Hezekiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, Jude, Jesus Christ, the King of Glory, and Saviour of our souls, and of course his holy Father, God. For some, this list may not be sufficient. Time and space prohibit the listing of all the great men and women who fully embraced the record of God’s Word concerning the servant of God called Moses, but I think one man in particular sums it up well. He said:
We reject with scorn all those learned and labored myths that Moses was but a legendary figure upon whom the priesthood and the people hung their essential social, moral, and religious ordinances. We believe that the most scientific view, the most up-to-date and rational conception, will find its fullest satisfaction in taking the Bible story literally. We may be sure that all these things happened just as they are set out according to Holy Writ. We may believe that they happened to people not so very different from ourselves, and that the impressions those people received were faithfully recorded, and have been transmitted across the centuries with far more accuracy than many of the telegraphed accounts we read of goings on of today. In the words of a forgotten work of Mr. Gladstone, we rest with assurance upon "The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture." Let men of science and learning expand their knowledge, and probe with their researches, every detail of the records which have been preserved to us from those dim ages. All they will do is to fortify the grand simplicity and essential accuracy of these recorded truths which have so far lighted the pilgrimage of man.
That man was Winston Churchill.
To those who continue to scorn the record of God’s holy Word, take heed of the admonition in Revelation 22:11-16:
11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
GOD SAID, Numbers 14:32-34:
32 But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.
33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.
MAN SAID: Show me archaeological proof!
Now you have THE RECORD.
References:
King James Bible
Halley’s Bible Handbook, p77
Keller, W., The Bible As History, Bantam Books
Limbaugh, D., Persecution, Regnery Publishing, 2003
Wein, B., "Settling Old Claims," The International Jerusalem Post, 11/28/03, p31
