Kings David & Solomon Upend Minimalists Again & Again

How marvelous it is! How beautifully marvelous to be BORN AGAIN! To be born a second time, this time of the Spirit of God.  Nothing in the entire universe can compare with such Holy Ghost power and splendor. When all your sins are washed away by Christ’s saving blood, when you are striving to enter in at the strait gate (Matthew 7:13), you sit in the secret place of the most High where all good things are magnified to the maximum.  Here, everything is commanded to work for your good, especially the dark and deadly moments.   Romans 8:28:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Here, we can stand joyously obedient to I Thessalonians 5:18:

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

The big enemies mean BIG Holy Ghost VICTORIES! Great, deep darkness is dispatched with just one Holy Ghost candle. 

Consider these staggering truths:

🕇 James 1:2-4:

2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

🕇 Romans 5:3-5:

3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

When God’s Word is mixed with our faith, all things work together for our good, especially the dark and deadly.  Change what you say and it will change what you get.  All things are possible to them that believe.

Dear visitor, have you yet to be BORN AGAIN?  Have you tired of the world’s chaos and fears, of its emptiness and bondages?  In just a moment, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt.  If you follow from your heart, you will participate in the greatest miracle man can know.  Today, all of your sins and shame will be washed away.  Today, all of Satan’s bondages will be broken, the bigger the better.  Today, you will become a new creature. John 3:3:

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 

Are you ready to follow Jesus Christ?  You are in the valley of decision.  Follow me now and you will experience how marvelous it is!  Here is the prompt I promised.  Ready?  Click onto “Further with Jesus”  for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Proverbs 30:6:

Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

GOD SAID, Psalm 119:160:

Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

GOD SAID, Psalm 19:9-10:

9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

MAN SAID: I want money, cars, and clothes!  I want food, sex, booze, and dope!  Yeah!  That’s what I want!  Buzz off, God!  Wait...what did you say, doctor?  I have two weeks to live?!  Oh, God!  Save me, save me! 

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1089 that will again certify the magnificent inerrancy of God’s beautiful Bible.  All of these faith-building features are archived here in text and streaming audio for the edification of the blood-bought and as ammunition in the battle for the souls of men.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.  Download them all to your digital device and listen in your vehicle, or wherever you are.  Listen to one every day.  They are free!

Thank you for coming. May God’s glorious countenance shine upon you with Light and Truth.

It’s an Eden issue.  When God says “yes,” Satan and his minions predictably say “no.” They must resist.  Darkness is doomed if it embraces the Light. In the Garden of Eden, in the first hours of  time, Eve, the mother of all living, embraced the rebellious words of Satan over the perfect words of God.  She ate of the forbidden fruit, then gave it to her husband Adam, who disobeyed and ate as well.  Adam and Eve died the second death the very day they ate, and as a consequence, all of their children were spiritually stillborn and sold unto the devil. All the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve were, and still are, in need of a Redeemer, someone to buy them back.  They need to be born a second time, this time of the Holy Spirit, an event Jesus Christ knows as BORN AGAIN. The unredeemed sit in the devil’s dark dungeons.  As long as they remain there, when God says “yes,” they must say “no.”  Like mother, like daughter; like father, like son.

This human/spiritual psychosis is universal and is found in all disciplines of science, including the field of archaeology.

A special note to all is that God’s Word is supremely accurate and no discovery in archaeology, or in any other scientific field, has or will ever controvert the declarations of the Holy Book. Claims of carnal success will continue to abound, but under close scrutiny, those claims collapse.  The critics have challenged the six-day creation, a paradise called Eden, the first man Adam and his rib-woman Eve. They refute Noah’s ark, the Tower of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah.  Critics have dismissed Joseph being sold into Egypt, Moses parting the Red Sea, and the walls of Jericho coming down.  They scoff at the missing day, at David and Goliath, and especially at the Cross of Christ.  All of these challenges have met with utter failure, and the critics will continue to fail in their attempts to remove God and His Bible.  This feature will demonstrate the reality of their challenges.  Excerpts from two previous GodSaidManSaid features follow:

🏲 GodSaidManSaid, “David and Solomon—Archaeology Says Yes:”

Why all the denial?  When the accuracy of the Word of God is lifted up, an entire cadre of anti-Gods and partializers stands up to challenge and to jeer from the sidelines.  Such a demonstration of foolishness!  Why do Satan and his ministers so vociferously deny Abraham and his son Isaac, Israel in Egypt’s bondage, Moses and the parting of the Red Sea, and God’s historic record of the Jewish people?  Could it be because these Biblical declarations are from the one and only true God, and that by Him, Abraham and Israel were chosen to usher into this world of doom the Saviour, the Messiah, the Christ, the destroyer of all of Satan’s strongholds?

Why do Satan and his ministers so vociferously deny the glorious reign of King David (even some questioning whether he ever lived) and his son Solomon?  Could it be because these Biblical declarations are from the one and only true God, and that by Him, David, whose name is declared in the Bible over 1,000 times, was chosen as the direct lineage by which the King of Glory, the destroyer of Satan’s strongholds, would appear?  Matthew 1:1 reads:

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Why do Satan and his ministers so vociferously deny the inerrant Word of God?  Could it be because these Words of absolute truth are the first voice, the voice of Paradise that spoke in the Garden of Eden?  Could it be because the Word of God is represented in Jesus Christ Himself—Jesus Christ, the destroyer of Satan’s strongholds?  Revelation 19:11-13:

11  And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

12  His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

13  And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

Satan and his ministers will continue to deny because that is what they do.  God will continue to be God because that is who He is.

Day after day, new info pours in that denies the skeptics a shred of cover.  Those who challenge the accuracy of the scriptures are naked and exposed, yet they continue to parade around like the proverbial emperor who had no clothes.

The headline in one of Israel’s premier newspapers, The Jerusalem Post, reads, “Dr. Eilat Mazar: The Bible as blueprint.”  A few excerpts follow from the October 2008 article:

She has been at the forefront of a series of back-to-back Jerusalem archeological finds, including what she believes is the biblical palace of King David, a discovery which led her to international prominence.

She has also been at the epicenter of a public campaign against Islamic destruction of antiquities on the Temple Mount, and has repeatedly and unflinchingly criticized – and clashed with—the Israel Antiquities Authority for overlooking and turning a blind eye to the past desecration of Judaism’s holiest site, which has earned her the reputation of something of a black sheep in the local archeological world.

Over the last several years, her ongoing dig in the City of David just outside the walls of the Old City has proven to be a treasure trove.  In addition to the potential biblical palace—which has been dubbed as the find of the century by some and dismissed by others in the bitterly competitive local archeological community—Mazar has discovered two seal impressions belonging to ministers of King Zedekiah which date back 2,600 years, as well as the remnants of a wall from the time of Nehemiah.

Mazar, who is both revered and reviled by some of her colleagues for being a “biblical archeologist,” says that the Bible is unquestionably the most important historical source for her work, since it contains a “genuine historical account of the past.”  “I work with the Bible in one hand and the tools of excavation in the other,” she says.  “The Bible is the most important historical source.”  [End of quote]

The publication Science News would by no means be considered a publication that favors the God of the Bible.  But the headline of the November 22, 2008 article that was touted on the cover of that issue reads, “David, Solomon may have been kings of copper.”  The subhead reads, “Ancient site could unite archaeology, biblical accounts.”  The following excerpts are from that feature:

New finds among the remnants of a settlement in southern Jordan show that a copper-producing society existed there 3,000 years ago, about 300 years earlier than many archaeologists had assumed, according to an international research team.  The site’s revised age raises the controversial possibility that, in line with Old Testament accounts, Israel’s King David and his son Solomon controlled copper production in southern Jordan, says archaeologist and team leader Thomas Levy of the University of California, San Diego.

A long-disputed claim that King Solomon’s copper mines were located near the Jordanian site must now be taken seriously, the investigators report in the Oct. 28 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“We have conclusively shown that industrial-scale copper production occurred at this site in the 10th and ninth centuries B.C., which resonates with Old Testament descriptions of vibrant, complex societies in the same area at that time,” Levy says.

“In calling for a new dialogue between scientific dating techniques and historical sources, especially the Bible, these new results support the possibility that Solomon’s mines in the region near the Dead Sea may be dated to the 10th or ninth centuries B.C.,” says archaeologist Eric Meyers of Duke University in Durham, N.C.  [End of quote]

The following passage is from Archaeology and Bible History:

Solomon’s wisdom is also reflected in the discoveries made in the excavation of Ezion-geber, where this Israelite king established a seaport on the north end of the Red Sea (I Kings 9:26).  If the site of Ezion-geber had been shifted a mile to the east or to the west, the prevailing north wind of this region would have been avoided, but the town site was so fixed that the constant wind furnished a forced draft through the flues of the copper smelting furnaces, a clear indication of Solomon’s wise planning (See previous section, on “Solomon’s Seaport . . .”).

The wealth of Solomon is reflected in the Queen of Sheba’s exclamation, “thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard” (I Kings 10:7), and the archaeological discoveries confirm and illuminate the picture given in the Bible.  The excavation at Ezion-geber, where the principle of the blast furnace was used for refining copper, illuminates a phase of Solomon’s activity which was not formerly known—he was a copper magnate.  [End of quotes]

🏲 GodSaidManSaid, “Minimalists Flummoxed Again:”

The headline of the feature in the May/June 2011 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, written by Yosef Garfinkel, reads, "The Birth and Death of Biblical Minimalism." Several paragraphs have been lifted from this feature for your review:

"Biblical minimalism," as it is known, has gone through a number of permutations in the recent past. Its modern career began about 30 years ago, when BAR was still a youngster. Since then it has been part of the ongoing debate regarding the extent to which historical data are embedded in the Hebrew Bible.

Much of the discussion focused on the Biblical narrative about the tenth century B.C.E., the time of David and Solomon, the period known as the United Monarchy. Was there a United Monarchy? Were David and Solomon kings of a real state? Indeed, did they actually exist? Or were they simply literary creations of the Biblical writers? For the minimalists, King David was "about as historical as King Arthur." The name David had never been found in an ancient inscription.

Hardly had the minimalist argument been developed than it was profoundly undermined by an archaeological discovery. In 1993 and 1994, several fragments of an Aramaic stela were found at the long-running excavation of Tel Dan led by Avraham Biran of Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. The historical references in the inscription and the paleography of the writing make it clear that it dates to the ninth century B.C.E. Moreover, the text specifically mentions a king of Israel and a king of the "House of David" (Hebrew, bytdwd ), that is, a king of the dynasty of David.

This discovery led to a reexamination of the well-known Mesha Stela, a contemporaneous Moabite inscription discovered more than a century ago. André Lemaire, a senior paleographer at the Sorbonne, identified in that text an additional reference to the House of David. This was subsequently confirmed by another senior paleographer, Émile Puech of the École Biblique et Archéologique Française in Jerusalem.

Thus, there is at least one, and possibly two, clear references to the dynasty of David in the ninth century B.C.E., only 100—120 years after his reign. This is clear evidence that David was indeed a historical figure and the founding father of a dynasty.

This led to the collapse of the minimalist paradigm in which David was little more than a myth. There was a David. He was a king. And he founded a dynasty.  [End of quote]

When confronted with the discoveries, the minimalists regrouped, and in an effort to support their position, they challenged the dating. Again from Biblical Archaeology Review:

According to the Low Chronology, urbanization in Israel and Judah occurred only at the end of the tenth century B.C.E., and David and Solomon were not rulers of a kingdom but rather local tribal leaders.

In the early days of attempting to support or refute the Low Chronology, various problems in carbon-14 dating were exposed and corrected, and the advocates of the Low Chronology declared without hesitation that the dating results of hundreds of samples clearly supported the Low Chronology. Conversely, the same dates were also presented as supporting the traditional high chronology. It is indeed quite bizarre to see the same corpus of radiometric dates used to support both chronologies.

More recently, more reliable radiocarbon samples were tested from Megiddo (Stratum K-4), Yokneam (Stratum XVII) and Tell Keisan (Stratum 9a), all in the Jezreel Valley and Acco plain, that is, all in the northern kingdom of Israel. These layers represent the last Iron Age I settlement in each site. All of these strata were followed by destruction layers, which make dating more reliable. The results were written up by 2007, although not published until 2009, by Finkelstein and his colleague Eli Piasetzky. The results show an uncalibrated, weighted average destruction date of 2852 ± 13 years B.P. (before present). After calibration, the date is around 1000 B.C.E. This is exactly the dating indicated by the traditional high chronology decades ago. Thus, Finkelstein is not only the founding father of the Low Chronology, but also its undertaker.

The argument that Judah was an agrarian society until the end of tenth century B.C.E. and that David and Solomon could not have ruled over a centralized, institutionalized kingdom before then has now been blown to smithereens by our excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, where we have been in the field for the past four summers.  [End of quote]

Other kings of Israel are recorded in the accounts of neighboring nations: Solomon, Omri, Ahab, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Hoshea, Jehoiachin, Jehu, Manasseh, Menahem, Pekah, and Uzziah, as well as a host of non- Israeli (but Biblical) kings and personalities. God’s Word is a reliable historical record of all that it puts forth. Wise men and women take heed. [End of quotes]

The Jerusalem Post weighs in again in their November 21, 2021 release titled, “Can Royal Architecture Prove Biblical Judah was a Kingdom?” The subhead reads: “Features such as recessed doors, rectangular roof beams, and volute capitals were common in palaces around the region, supporting the notion that Judah was a kingdom since the 10^th century BCE.”  The short feature follows in its entirety:

Some 3,000 years ago, buildings in the Kingdom of Judah presented decorations and features that characterized royal architecture in the region between the 10^th and 6^th centuries BCE, such as recessed doors, rectangular roof beams, and volute capitals.

Recessed doors, ashlar stone masonries, volute (proto-Aeolic) capitals, window balustrades and decorated bases from the period have been found in structures in the Levant and beyond, Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologists Madeleine Mumcuoglu and Yosef Garfinkel wrote in a recent paper published in the new journal Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology.

In three out of six cases, the examples found in sites in Judah are the earliest ever uncovered. 

As Garfinkel pointed out, the research offers further support to the notion that Judah was already a kingdom at the time of David and Solomon as the biblical text suggests, a notion that for years has been disputed by several scholars. 

“There has been a big debate among archaeologists about what we know on the Kingdom of Judah in the 19^th century BC,” Garfinkel said.  “The main problem is Jerusalem; Jerusalem was the capital, and one would have expected palaces and temples and clear architectural features emphasizing the power of David and Solomon, but we do not have clear archaeological remains in Jerusalem from that period.”

According to the experts, there are many reasons for this lack of evidence, and specifically the fact that between the 10^th and 6^th centuries, the city was never destroyed but, rather, was built and expanded.  This makes it very difficult to identify remains from a specific moment, compared with other sites where clear layers from different time periods and occupations are clearly visible and distinct. 

“For a long time, there was no fresh data from the area dating to the 10^th century, so it appeared that those who argued that Judah was not a kingdom were right, but our excavations in Khirbet Qeiyafa brought about a revolution,” Garfinkel said.

Uncovered in 2007, Khirbet Qeiyafa is located some 30 km (18.6 miles) southwest of Jerusalem and presents the remains from a fortified city dating back to the early 10^th century BCE, the time of David and Solomon.  No such ancient fortified structure had ever been identified in Judah.  The paper analyzed the different architectural elements uncovered at Khirbet Qeiyafa and compared them with similar remains from other sites. 

“We documented six aspects of royal architecture, and we surveyed where they appeared for the first time,” Garfinkel said. 

A limestone portable shrine, featuring a recessed door frame and rectangular roof beams, was found in a cultic room in Khirbet Qeiyafa. 

Recessed door and window frames were common in royal and religious buildings in Mesopotamia as early as the fifth millennium, and were also depicted in artwork.  During the second millennium BCE, they were later found in palaces, including in Turkey, Cyprus, and Syria. 

Depictions of rectangular wooden beams are found in the tombs of the Persian kings in Persepolis. 

In addition, Khirbet Qeiyafa presented a finely dressed ashlar masonry at its western gate.  Similar decorations were found also in other sites in Israel and in Cyprus. 

In the case of these three elements, the artifacts uncovered at Khirbet Qeiyafa are the earliest examples found in the region. 

Volute capitals, window balustrades, and decorated bases also appear in several sites around Israel and the Levant starting from the 9^th century BCE. 

“A  kingdom is not something abstract; a kingdom is based on elements like borders, a center and a periphery, roads, a network for tax collection, and so on,” Garfinkel said.  “However, another characteristic of a kingdom is its social hierarchy as demonstrated by the presence of palaces and temples.”

“Throughout history and to this day, people have used architecture to emphasize power,” he further remarked.  “Based on the findings in Khirbet Qeiyafa, we can see urbanism and the construction of fortified cities in Judah already in the 10^th century BC.”  [End of quote]

There is a human/spiritual psychosis of unbelief that possesses carnal academia that II Thessalonians defines as the “last-days spirit of strong delusion.”  They approach God’s Word in Edenic fashion, in unbelief, instead of reverently with their ears bowed down.  All children of God know you can’t approach God with the world’s vaunted scholarship!  He can only be approached with ear and knee bowed down.  At this place, the beautiful doors of truth swing open wide. 

Satan’s Goliaths continue to arise and thump their chests, and Satan’s Goliaths continue to fall, every single one.  God’s Word is true and righteous altogether, a place to build a life that will last forever.

GOD SAID, Proverbs 30:6:

Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

GOD SAID, Psalm 119:160:

Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

GOD SAID, Psalm 19:9-10:

9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

MAN SAID: I want money, cars, and clothes!  I want food, sex, booze, and dope!  Yeah!  That’s what I want!  Buzz off, God!  Wait...what did you say, doctor?  I have two weeks to live?!  Oh, God!  Save me, save me! 

 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

GodSaidManSaid, “David and Solomon—Archaeology Says Yes”

GodSaidManSaid, “Minimalists Flummoxed Again”

Tercatin, R., “Can Royal Architecture Prove Biblical Judah was a Kingdom?” Jerusalem Post, November 21, 2021

 

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