Archaeology & Madness at the Foot of the Cross

All the madness ends at the foot of the Cross.  All the clamoring questions and the confusion are settled there.  A single eye fixed upon Jesus Christ yields a peace that passes natural understanding.  At this place, I become a child of God, and that means that now everything is for our sake.  II Corinthians 4:14-15:

14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

Even the devil’s job is to try the righteous. Matthew 4:1:

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

Through life’s trials and temptations, the child of God is developed and perfected.  Obviously, Satan does not try the righteous so that they might succeed, but God’s will is success for His own.  I Peter 1:6-7:

6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

All things are for our sakes and God’s Word declares all things are ours.  I Corinthians 3:21-23:

21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;

22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

23 And ye are Christ''s; and Christ is God''s.

Everything which we have to do was made by God, and the BORN AGAIN are heirs of God, even joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:15-17).  Truly, all things are ours. 

All things are for our sake.  All things are ours, and all things are commanded to work together for our good, especially the baking powder.  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.

Relax, child of God, you are in a very favored place.  The madness, the confusion, and the uncertainty ends at the foot of the Cross.  How beautiful, how marvelous, it is!

Dear friend, have you yet to be BORN AGAIN, born a very real second time, this time of the Spirit of God? 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.

In just a moment, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt, and if you do, everything changes for you today. You will be transformed.  Today, all your sins and shame will be washed away by Christ’s cleansing blood and totally forgotten.  You will be clean.  Today, all of the devil’s bondages in your life will be broken, every single one.  You will be free.  All the madness, all the clamoring questions, all the confusion ends here. Today is your day!  Here is the prompt I promised: Click onto Further with Jesus for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Zechariah 14:3-5, 12:

3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

GOD SAID, Genesis 7:11:

In the six hundredth year of Noah''s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

GOD SAID, Matthew 1:1:

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

MAN SAID: You can’t be serious! The Bible?! Everybody knows it has ZERO credibility! Have I read it you ask? Well, no, not really… But, everybody knows!  

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1151 that will once again certify the supernatural inerrancy of the God-authored Holy Bible. All of these faith-building features are archived here in text and streaming audio for the building-up of the faithful and as bait for the fishers of men.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.

Thank you for coming.  Numbers 6:24-26:

24 The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:

25 The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:

26 The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

Last week’s archaeology feature highlighted several world-renown archaeologists and their great respect for the Biblical record and its impeccable accuracy.  This week is an additional feature to the GodSaidManSaid Archaeology division that will once again certify the marvelous accuracy of God’s majority-text Holy Bible. This feature leads with testimonies from some of history’s greatest on the absolute primacy of God’s beautiful Book.  The following accounts were lifted from The Founders’ Bible, connotated by historian David Barton, Brad Cummings, and Lance Wubbels:

President Theodore Roosevelt:

The teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally—I do not mean figuratively, I mean literally—impossible for us to figure to ourselves what that life would be if these teachings were removed.  We would lose almost all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals—all the standards toward which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves. Almost every man who has by his life-work added to the sum of human achievement of which the race is proud—of which our people are proud—almost every such man has based his life-work largely upon the teachings of the Bible.

President Andrew Jackson:

It [the Bible] is the rock on which our Republic stands.

President Ronald Reagan:

Of the many influences that have shaped the United States of America into a distinctive Nation and people, none may be said to be more fundamental and enduring than the Bible … The Bible and its teachings helped form the basis for the Founding Fathers’ abiding belief in the inalienable rights of the individual—rights which they found implicit in the Bible’s teachings of the inherent worth and dignity of each individual. 

President Abraham Lincoln:

The Bible is the best gift God has given to men.  All the good the Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this book.  But for it, we could not know right from wrong.

President Zachary Taylor:

It was for the love of the truths of this great Book [the Bible] that our fathers abandoned their native shores for the wilderness.  Animated by its lofty principles, they toiled and suffered till the desert blossomed as the rose [Isaiah 35:1] … The Bible is the best of books and I wish it were in the hands of everyone.  It is indispensable to the safety and permanence of our institutions; a free government cannot exist without religion and morals, and there cannot be morals without religion, nor religion without the Bible. Especially should the Bible be placed in the hands of the young.  It is the best school book in the world … I would that all of our people were brought up under the influence of that Holy Book.

Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence:

The Bible contains more knowledge necessary to man in his present state than any other book in the world.  By renouncing the Bible, philosophers swing from their moorings upon all moral subjects … It is the only correct map of the human heart that has ever been published.

John Jay, President of the Continental Congress, author of the Federalist Papers:

The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the Word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next.  Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.

John Adams, signer of the Declaration:

Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited … What a Utopia—what a Paradise would this region be! The Bible is the best book in the world. [End of quotes]  

A man once 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 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 for us from those dim ages.  All they will do is 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. [End of quote]

The minimalists continue to carp, but as always, they are a miserable failure. Many of them would be characterized as wolves in sheep’s clothing, as Jesus cautions in Matthew 7:15:

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep''s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

They have a form of godliness but deny the power of the single inerrant eye. II Timothy 3:5:

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

These critics of the Holy foul and pollute the water with their empty scholarship and deviled opinions. 

Archaeology is one of four categories GodSaidManSaid uses to establish the marvelous inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures. The Bible was authored by God and penned by His holy men.  Archaeology establishes the Bible as a supremely accurate history of life from the very beginning—and I mean from Day One of create and on, miracles most certainly included.

Can you trust God’s Word?  The Old Testament prophet Zechariah prophecies of the world’s end as we know it. Jesus Christ returns to the earth with all His saints and destroys the armies of the world gathered at Jerusalem at the culmination of the battle of Armageddon.  Zechariah 14:3-5, 12:

3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

Make note: Zechariah references a great earthquake in the days of King Uzziah.  Well, that great earthquake has been found.  The headline in the winter 2021 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review reads, “King Uzziah’s Earthquake.”  Much of the article follows:

Evidence for a powerful earthquake mentioned by the prophets Amos and Zechariah has been discovered in Jerusalem.  According to excavation directors Joe Uziel and Ortal Chalaf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the evidence was found in a destruction layer at the City of David Archaeological Park.  Amid the destruction, which dates to the mid-eighth century BCE, they found collapsed walls and shattered vessels, but no signs of fire.  After extensive research, the team concluded the destruction must have resulted from the famed earthquake that occurred in the lands of Israel and Judah during the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah. 

The earthquake is mentioned twice in the Hebrew Bible, first in Amos 1:1, which says that Amos began prophesying two years before the earthquake.  The quake is also referenced in Zechariah 14:5, where Zechariah compares the devastation wrought by the approaching end of days to the earthquake that shook Judah during the reign of King Uzziah.  Given that Zechariah lived two centuries after Amos, the earthquake must have been extreme enough to leave a lasting impression on the Judean consciousness. 

Evidence for this powerful eighth-century BCE earthquake has now been discovered in several sites across Israel, including Hazor, Gezer, Tel Agol, and Tell es-Safi.  

The evidence shows that the quake wrought devastation from Hazor in the north to Tell es-Safi in the south, more than 125 miles in length—certainly a powerful and remarkable event of Biblical proportions. [End of quote]

Soon, a great earthquake will occur, beginning at the Mount of Olives in Israel when the King of all the ages sets foot upon it.  This earthquake will affect the entire earth, which its mountains fall flat and islands (which are simply mountain peaks) disappear.  There is a fault line that travels under the Mount of Olives and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  Revelation 16:17-20:

17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.

18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

Scientists speculate that mountains originated as a result of earth’s tectonic plates coming together and buckling upwards, creating large mountain ranges.  Evolutionists continue to speculate that this happened over untold millions of years, but the students of the Scriptures attribute much of the mountain building to the days of Noah where the great fountains of the deep were broken up and the global flood (Genesis 7:11), which resulted in the binding of the tectonic plates, an event which occurred just over 4,370 years ago.   

Jesus said in Matthew 24:37:

But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.  

If, in fact, the mountain ranges formed as a result of tectonic plates buckling together in the days of Noah, then the days of Noah are once again knocking at the door demanding entry.  Those plates are preparing to reverse order, causing the mountains to fall down flat and islands to disappear when King Jesus sets the foot of judgment upon the Mount of Olives.  It’s beautiful to note that when Jesus speaks in Mark 11:23, He is standing on the Mount of Olives:

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

That mountain is preparing to move.

Can you trust God’s Word? The book of Joshua claims that Joshua, the leader of the Hebrews, invaded Canaan land, dispossessing its inhabitants and establishing the nation of Israel.   In the process, it is recorded that he burned three cities.  The following information was published by Bryan Windle under the title “Burn Layers at Jericho, Ai, and Hazor.”  Several sentences follow:

God promised the Israelites that they would live in most of the Canaanite cities once they had taken them: “I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them.  You eat fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.”  (Joshua 24:13)  In fact, the book of Joshua records that only three cities were destroyed by fire: Jericho (Joshua 6:24), Ai (Joshua 8:28), Hazor (Joshua 11:11).  Interestingly, there are 15^th century BC destruction layers at all three sites.

The Canaanite city of Hazor has two significant destruction layers: a 15^th century BC destruction, which should be attributed to Joshua, and a 13^th century BC destruction layer which corresponds to the destruction of the city by the Israelites under Barak and Deborah in the time of the Judges (Judges 4:23-24).  Archaeologist Douglas Petrovich notes: “The Hazor of Joshua’s day clearly was destroyed by a massive conflagration. … Evidence of this conflagration is visible in Area M on the northern slope of the tel, thanks to the excavations of 2000 and 2001.  Various sections of the burnline and residual burned areas, which measure half of a meter in some places … This burnline, visible throughout the excavated area, reveals the unmistakable signs of a great conflagration.”  [End of quote]

Can you trust God’s Word? The victorious Joshua and the Israelites built an altar, described in Joshua 8:31 as: “an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron: and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.” Bryan Windle continues on the subject of the altar on Mt. Ebal:

After the victories at Jericho and Ai, Joshua and the people of Israel traveled to the area of Shechem and renewed their covenant with God.  In Joshua 8:30 we read, “At that time Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal.”  In 1980, archaeologist Adam Zertal discovered a heap of stones on Mt. Ebal.  Subsequent excavations revealed a large rectangular, nearly square, altar built of large, unhewn field stones.  It dated to the LB2b-Ia1a period (13^th century BC) and bore traces of ash and the bones of the Levitical sacrificial animals.  Beneath this structure, however, an earlier, circular altar with ash and animal bones was discovered at the exact geometric center of the Iron-Age altar.  Late Bronze Age pottery and a scarab from Thutmose III (ca. 1506-1452 BC) were discovered near the altar.  Moreover, a pumice chalice was discovered in the Late Bronze Age stratum, which is similar to a pumice chalice discovered at the site of ancient Serabit el-Khadim, where Canaanite slaves mined turquoise for the Egyptians.  The archaeological evidence indicates that the round, circular altar underneath the later, rectangular altar, may, in fact, be Joshua’s altar.  [End of quote]

Can you trust God’s Word?  I found this headline in the January/February 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeological Review very interesting: “Mount Zion’s Upper Room and Tomb of David.”  There is an ongoing investigation into the claims of the church that the upper room, where Christ ate His Last Supper before His crucifixion, sits above the Tomb of David.  In the flesh, Jesus Christ is known as the son of David.  The first verse of the New Testament, Matthew 1:1, begins with this introduction:

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

Church history clearly suggests that the place where Jesus Christ spent His end of days and the place that contains the final remains of King David sit atop one another in the same building.  Quite a coincidence, don’t you think?

The upper room was also a place where Jesus appeared after the resurrection, where Matthias was chosen to replace the fallen apostle Judas, and also where the “birthday of the church,” as historians call it, took place with the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost. This is a very big deal.

Excerpts from the feature follow:

One of the most fascinating tourist sites in Jerusalem is a building that stands atop Mount Zion, the southwest hill of Old Jerusalem.  The lower story of this unique building is traditionally identified as the Tomb of David and the upper story as the room of Jesus’s Last Supper.  What is the historical evidence for these claims?  How likely is it that these sacred sites are actually located on Mount Zion, let alone in this specific building?  Can archaeology help answer these questions?

The location of the burial place of King David seems clear in Biblical accounts.  The Book of I Kings tells of David’s burial in the City of David (I Kings 2:10), later known as the Lower City.  The early fourth-century BCE Book of Nehemiah agrees (Nehemiah 3:14-16).  Tosefta Baba Bathra (c. third century CE) also knows the tomb to be near the Kidron Valley, and it apparently was still thought to be there by the time of Maimonides (1135-1204).  It was only later, in line with Christian claims, that Muslims and Jews began to venerate the location of David’s tomb on Mount Zion.  The general view of scholars is that the Mount Zion of the Bible is the southeastern hill upon which the formerly Jebusite City of David stood.  It was toward the end of the Second Temple period that Mount Zion came to be identified with the western hill as it still is today. Evidence for this change comes in part from Josephus (c. 30-100 CE) who, in his later years, (mis-)characterized the western hill as the stronghold of King David (Josephus, Jewish War 5.137; Jewish Antiquities 7.62-63).

Connecting the site with Jesus’s Last Supper presents different problems.  Unlike the location of David’s burial, the place of the Last Supper is never specifically identified in the Bible—although one presumes it was in Jerusalem, since the first three Gospels describe it as a Passover meal.  Also, the literary record associating the location of the meal with the western hill goes back only to the fourth century.  There is nothing in the Bible to connect the location of Jesus’s Last Supper with David’s tomb. 

Other events from the New Testament are also traditionally located in the Upper Room/Tomb of David building (hereinafter referred to as the Cenacle, which is derived from the Latin cēnāculum, meaning upper room): appearances by the risen Jesus, the selection of Matthias as an apostle, and the first Christian Pentecost. 

The answers to the riddle of the Upper Room/Tomb of David are slow in developing.  But with more archaeological work, we will surely come closer to the truth. [End of quotes]

Can you trust God’s Word? The incessant attacks on Biblical inerrancy are simply exercises in vain babbling.  God’s Word is true and righteous altogether—yes, a place to build a life that will last forever.  At Sola Scriptura (Scriptures alone), all the madness, all the clamoring questions, and all the confusion are settled once and for all. Jesus calls it the single eye.

GOD SAID, Zechariah 14:3-5, 12:

3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

GOD SAID, Genesis 7:11:

In the six hundredth year of Noah''s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

GOD SAID, Matthew 1:1:

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

MAN SAID: You can’t be serious! The Bible?! Everybody knows it has ZERO credibility! Have I read it you ask? Well, no, not really… But, everybody knows!  

 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

“King Uzziah’s Earthquake,” Biblical Archaeological Review, Winter 2021

Clausen, C., “Mount Zion’s Upper Room and Tomb of David,” Biblical Archaeological Review, January/February 2017

GodSaidManSaid, “The World’s Oldest Alphabet and Joseph & the Coat of Many Colors”

Windle, Bryan, “Top Ten Discoveries Related to Joshua & The Conquest,” WordPress, 2021

 

 

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