Amazing & Inerrant Accuracy

To many, the next few paragraphs will seem like gross exaggeration.  But, I certify to you that what you are about to hear or read is absolutely true.  “Gross exaggeration” is tame compared to what the leaders of carnaldom think—that these statements are beyond ludicrous. Many confessing Christians find themselves in the same soup.  Yet, regardless of their skepticism, mockery, and disregard, I can certify that what you will read or hear is true and righteous altogether—every jot and every tittle.  Whether these sacred statements work for a person is a different matter entirely.  For these sacred statements to work, a believer must mix these staggering promises with childlike faith—and that all begins at a place Jesus calls BORN AGAIN.   

Hebrews 4:2 speaks of mixing:

For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

Most do not profit by the amazing verses that follow because they do not mix the Word with faith, but do not let that word “most” include me and you.

🕇 John 3:16:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

🕇 Romans 10:9:

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

🕇 II Corinthians 5:17-18:

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

🕇 Mark 16:17-18:

17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

🕇 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.

🕇 James 5:13-15:

13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

🕇 I Corinthians 15:51-55:

51 Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

🕇 John 11:25-26:

25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

Dear visitor, have you yet to be BORN AGAIN as Jesus declares in 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 few moments, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt, and if you follow from your heart, you will participate in the greatest miracle man can know.  You will be born a second time, this time of the Spirit of God.  At this place Jesus calls BORN AGAIN, you will become a new creature. You will have a new Father.  Today, all of your sin and shame will be washed away by Christ’s cleansing blood.  Today, all of Satan’s chains on your life will be broken.  Today, you will be BORN AGAIN—clean and free—and all the promises of God’s Bible will be yours to enjoy. Here is the simple 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, Genesis 10:25:

And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.

GOD SAID, Genesis 16:11-12:

11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.

12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

GOD SAID, I Kings 9:15:

And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

MAN SAID: Look, everyone knows the Bible is not meant to be taken literally, if it is taken at all.  That’s especially true of the crazy “miracles” it claims, like creation, Adam and Eve, giants, Noah and the flood, the Tower of Babel and one common language, Sodom and Gomorrah—or the craziest of all, that there was a virgin-born Messiah who was crucified for the supposed “sins of the world.”  Get over it, Bible thumpers!  It’s just not true!

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1216 that will once again contend for the faith.  All of these faith-building features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and to be used as weapons in the battle for the lost souls of the sons and daughters of Adam.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one. 

Thank you for visiting. May God’s face shine upon you and your house.

I need to know it’s true.  Surely everything—absolutely everything—depends upon it.  GodSaidManSaid uses four proof platforms to establish the absolute primacy and supernatural inerrancy of God’s Word found in His Holy Bible.  Oh, the spectacular glory and authority of this beautiful Book!

Proof platform number one is archaeology.  Under this banner, you’ll also find anthropology, paleontology, geology, ancient histories, and societal records.  Proof platform one establishes the Holy Scriptures as an inerrant account of the history of the world and its universe. These scientific disciplines studying the ancient past surely confirm the Bible’s every detail, and that includes every single miracle, too! WOW!

A sampling of proven marvels that fall under the heading of archaeology includes:

⯍ Creation;
⯍ Paradise, called the Garden of Eden;
⯍ Y-Chromosome Adam and his wife, mtDNA Eve, the father and mother of every human on earth;
⯍ Adam’s ribbed wife, Eve;
⯍ Fallen sons of God and giants on the earth;
⯍ Noah and the ark;
⯍ The global flood;
⯍ The Tower of Babel where God confounded the world’s one common language into many;
⯍ Sodom and Gomorrah, cities destroyed by brimstone and fire rained down upon them by God; 
⯍ Abraham and Isaac;
⯍ Mount Moriah and Armageddon;
⯍ Jacob’s well; 
⯍ Joseph and his coat of many colors;
⯍ and we haven’t even left the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis yet! Can you imagine!

A short account of what some of the world’s greatest archaeologists have to say about the Bible, including from world-renowned attorney, Sir Lionel Luckhoo:

The book, Christianity for Skeptics, authored by Drs. Steve Kumar and Jonathan Sarfati, has the following to report about archaeology:

It has been widely said that every time the spade goes into the ground, a liberal theory is buried.  The world-renowned archaeologist and paleographer Dr. William F. Albright, of Harvard University, rightly points out:

The excessive skepticism shown toward the Bible by important historical schools of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, certain phases of which still appear periodically, has been progressively discredited.

Dr. James Jauncey, Australian church historian, fully agrees with the above conviction when he declares, “In almost every area where the Bible was criticized on subjective or theorizing grounds, it has already been vindicated on this objective basis.”  Using the Bible as a guide, the renowned Jewish archaeologist Nelson Glueck has discovered over a thousand ancient sites in Trans-Jordan and 500 more in the Negev.  In writing a review on Werner Keller’s best-selling book, The Bible as History, in The New York Times, Professor Glueck states:

The reviewer has spent many years in Biblical archaeology, and, in company with his colleagues, has made discoveries confirming in outline or in detail historical statements in the Bible.  He is prepared to go further and say that no archaeological discovery has ever been made that contradicts or controverts historical statements in Scripture.

Donald J. Wiseman, the director of the British Museum and a specialist in the field of archaeology, informs us that:

The geography of Bible lands and visible remains of antiquity were gradually recorded until today more than 25,000 sites within this region and dating to Old Testament times, in their broadest sense, have been located. [End of quotes]

In the book Evidence for the Historical Jesus, written by McDowell and Wilson, you’ll find the following under the chapter heading “Evidence from Archaeology:”

Millar Burrows, of Yale, not a conservative Christian, wrote:

The Bible is supported by archaeological evidence again and again.  On the whole, there can be no question that the results of excavation have increased the respect of scholars for the Bible as a collection of historical documents.  The confirmation is both general and specific.  The fact that the record can be so often explained or illustrated by archaeological data shows that it fits into the framework of history as only a genuine product of ancient life could do.  In addition to this general authentication, however, we find the record verified repeatedly at specific points.  Names of places and persons turn up at the right places in the right periods.

In considering historical reliability of the Gospel accounts, archaeology can be very useful.  First, it confirms places, names, times, and events as being accurately reported in the Gospel records.  Joseph Free, in Archaeology and Bible History, states that “archaeology has confirmed countless passages which have been rejected by critics as unhistorical or contradictory to known facts.”  

One of the world’s most renowned archaeologists, Dr. Eilat Mazar (who recently passed away and from whom you will hear later), had this to say concerning her confidence in the Bible’s history:

Mazar, who is both revered and reviled by some of her colleagues for being a “Biblical archaeologist,” 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 quotes]

The following excerpt is from Lee Strobel’s book, The Case for Christ:

That was also the assessment of Sir Lionel Luckhoo, the brilliant and savvy attorney whose astounding 245 consecutive murder acquittals earned him a place in The Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most successful lawyer.  Knighted twice by Queen Elizabeth, this former justice and diplomat subjected the historical facts about the Resurrection to his own rigorous analysis for several years before declaring, “I say unequivocally that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.”  [End of quote]

Before we add new information to the Archaeology category, I thought you might find the following information quite edifying.  This information comes from a feature published by GodSaidManSaid over seven years ago.  From the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Genesis: Cooper Found Them All (Part 1):”

In his book, After the Flood, author B. Cooper had this to say about the “Table of Nations” found in Genesis, Chapters 10 and 11:  

Having constructed the Table of Nations into a  simple genealogy, I wanted to see how many of its names were attested in the records of other nations in the Middle East, which included for my purposes all the nations of Mesopotamia, Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and even Greece.  It was an obvious procedure, but one that had not, as far as I was aware, been conducted before and the results published.  I had already found certain individual names that were mentioned in scattered works of varying merit, often Victorian, but the whole had never been gathered together into one cohesive study.  And so my research began.  Over the years, little by little, pieces of corroborative evidence came together and a picture began to build up that revealed the tenth and eleventh chapters of Genesis to be an astonishingly accurate record of events.  The Table of Nations had listed all the families and tribes of mankind in their correct groupings, whether those groupings were ethnological, linguistic or geographical.  All the names, without exception, were accurate, and in more than twenty-five years of searching and analyzing, I uncovered not one mistake or false statement of fact in the Table of Nations.

It has to be said here that such a result could simply not be expected or obtained from any comparable historical document, especially one as ancient as this.  The Table of Nations embraces a sweeping panorama of history that is not only truly vast in its content but unique.  It’s like simply does not exist.  [End of quote]

Cooper traces 112 names listed in the Table of Nations and tracks them through ancient history.  It’s shocking to see how they play out in today’s world.  As you’ll see, many of the ways they play out are deadly indeed, moving us ever closer to the battle of Armageddon and the end of the world as we know it. Powerful excerpts from After the Flood and GodSaidManSaid follow.

How reliable is the book of Genesis?  The first son of Noah was Shem, of which the Bible lists 64 souls in his lineage, and history shouts yes!  After the Flood highlights each of them.  Several noteworthy names and their history follow:

 Eber: Known to Josephus as Heber, he gave his name to the Hebrew race.  

Joktan: The progenitor of no less than thirteen southern Arabian tribes, he is remembered amongst modern Arabs as Yaqtan.  Only the purest Arabs, it is still maintained, are those Semitic Arabs descended from Joktan; whilst Hamitic Arabs are referred to somewhat disdainfully as Musta ‘rabs, pretended Arabs.  Joktan’s name is preserved in that of the ancient town of Jectan near present-day Mecca.  Josephus knew him as Joctan.  [End of quote]

 Genesis 10:25 records the name of the man Peleg.  Cooper reports:

Peleg: Genesis tells us that in his day the earth was divided.  The meaning of his name, as rendered in Hebrew, corresponds exactly with the Akkadian noun pulukku, which means a dividing up of territory by means of boundaries and borders (the Akkadian verb for ‘to divide’ is palaku).  Likewise, the Assyrian word palgu refers to the dividing up of land by canals and irrigation systems.  It is in this sense that the Hebrew word peleg is used in Job 29:6 and 38:5.  The man named Peleg, (whose name appears as Phaleg in Josephus), was so named, however, after the division and scattering of the nations from Babel.  [End of quote]

Lot was Abraham’s nephew, and it was Lot, his wife, and daughters who were delivered from Sodom just prior to its destruction by fire and brimstone by an angry God.  Bible students remember that Lot’s wife disregarded God’s instruction to not look back upon Sodom.  She was turned into a pillar of salt as a result.  Archaeologists unearthed what they know as Sodom and Gomorrah on the banks of the Dead Sea – appropriately named, as no fish swim in its waters, at it is laden with sulfur, salt, and minerals.  Cooper writes:

Lot: I have not yet noticed any secular reference to him, save that the Dead Sea has always been known to the Arabs as the Sea of Lot.

Nahor: The name Nahor is known from Babylonian inscriptions, and from the clay tablets of Mari, which render the name Nahur.  Nahor settled in Haran which was later to become known as the Town of Nahor.  This appears in inscriptions from the reign of Ashurbanipal, as Nahuru, the city’s later ruins being known to the Assyrians as til-Nahiri, the mound or hill of Nahor.  [End of quote]

To this day, Abraham’s 4,000-plus year-old remains are buried in the cave of Machpelah in Israel’s city of Hebron.  He is the father of Israel.  He is the father of all the children of faith.  He is the Abraham of Abraham’s bosom spoken of by Jesus Christ.  After the Flood records the following:

Abraham: The well-known founder of the Jewish people.  There exists from Babylonia an early clay tablet that bears the name of a man called Abi-ramu, which is rendered Abarama in the Eblaite tablets.  Another bears the name of Sarai.  Josephus quotes the Babylonian historian, Berosus, as saying, ‘In the tenth generation after the Flood, there was a man among the Chaldeans who was righteous and great…’  Josephus, rightly in my opinion, regarded this remark as a direct reference to Abraham, even though Berosus didn’t name him.  Josephus tells us also that Hecataeus and Nicholas of Damascus both mention Abraham in their own histories.  [End of quote]

Cooper reports:

Ishmael: Among the Babylonian documents that have come down to us from the days of Hammurabi, there is a list of witnesses to certain documents.  One of these witnesses is registered as ‘Abuha, son of Ishmael’.  [End of quote]

The following prophetic words were spoken by God over the first son of Abraham, who was called Ishmael.  Genesis 16:11-12:

11  And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.

12  And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

How historically and supernaturally accurate is the much maligned book of Genesis?  Muslims call themselves Ishmaelites.  This Ishmael–this wild man–will lead the world to the very battle of Armageddon.

The Table of Nations records them and history confirms them – every single one.  We need to know that God’s Bible is “true and righteous altogether.”  Everything depends upon it – everything. [End of quotes]

The following excerpts were published by Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology, and they are referring to the research of archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar. The reporting of Mazar’s discoveries were lifted from the September/October issue of Let the Stones Speak magazine.  Excerpts follow:

Dr. Mazar directed her first excavation on the Ophel in 1986-1987 with the guidance of her grandfather.  Her objective was to find an original First Temple Period floor layer within a series of what were believed to be Iron Age rooms.  Uncovered by Professor Mazar in earlier excavations, these rooms had been repurposed for use during the Second Temple Period. Dr. Mazar found her First Temple Period floor layer and a whole lot more.

The excavation started small, with a probe of 50-by-50 centimeters.  Almost immediately, Dr. Mazar uncovered a burn layer that clearly related to the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem.  The excavation expanded and within weeks the team had uncovered numerous pieces of 12 broken pithoi (large First Temple Period storage vessels).  Dr. Mazar’s pithoi were the largest ever discovered in Jerusalem and evidence of an impressive administration.

The vessels dated to around the seventh century B.C.E. One of the pithoi bore a partial inscription that, upon reconstruction, read “Belonging to the Minister of the Bak[ery].”  Another was inscribed with an image of a palm-type tree, perhaps signifying that the vessel held oil or date wine.  Following these finds, Mazar began to refer to the site as “Royal Bakery,” as part of the lavish Ophel “royal quarter.”  (The Bible states that King Solomon built himself a new palace and royal area north of the City of David, on the Ophel in I Kings 7; Nehemiah 3:25-26.)

Adjacent to the Royal Bakery and connected to it by corridors, the Mazars found a limestone floor among a series of peculiar, small-chambered rooms.  Initially, it wasn’t clear what the network of corridors and rooms was. But when the excavation surveyor drew up the architectural plans, Mazar and her grandfather immediately recognized what they had uncovered. Dr. Mazar described the moment in her final report on the excavation: “[W]e could not believe what we saw … All of a sudden we realized we were looking at a typical First Temple Period city gatehouse, characterized by four identical chambers and a large approach tower [Warren’s ‘Large Tower’]”.  (Discovering the Solomonic Wall in Jerusalem)

At the time, Dr. Mazar successfully dated the gatehouse and the “Large Tower” to the early Iron Age II (the period of the early Judahite monarchy), but she wasn’t able to identify a more specific date.  It wasn’t until nearly 25 years later, when she returned to excavate the Ophel in 2009, that Dr. Mazar was able to more accurately date them to the 10^th century B.C.E., the time of King Solomon.

[Editor’s note: Keep in mind that until recently, the position of the so-called “Biblical higher critics” was that there was likely no actual King David (mentioned 1,040 times in the Bible) or King Solomon (mentioned 314 times), and that even if these two kings did exist, they would have been simple chieftains of a small, nomadic group.]

Dr. Mazar had uncovered archaeological evidence of King Solomon’s massive expansion of Jerusalem, as described in I Kings 6 and 7!

The exposed gatehouse has a preserved height of up to 6 meters and is built in a style similar to other ancient gatehouses discovered at Megiddo, Gezer, and Hazor.  These gates are known colloquially as “Solomonic gates” because they date to the same 10^th-century period and indicate the presence of a strong, centralized government standardizing their construction.  Fascinatingly, these same locations at this same time period are mentioned in a scripture about King Solomon: “And this is the account of the levy which King Solomon raised; to build … Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer” (II Kings 9:15). 

In her final report, Dr. Mazar compared the Ophel gatehouse with the one in Megiddo and showed how the wall lengths, the width of the central passages, the thickness of the walls, and the sizes of the chambers are virtually identical, almost to the centimeter.  This "seem[s] to indicate that the two gatehouses were built according to an identical blueprint, most likely originating from the same architectural office,” Dr. Mazar concluded.

Dr. Mazar’s discovery is the only Iron Age gatehouse that has been found in the city of Jerusalem. Dr. Mazar referred to this structure as the “Water Gate,” as she believed it might have been the same gate mentioned in Nehemiah 3:25-27.

During her 2009-2010 Ophel excavation, Dr. Mazar continued to excavate the giant wall extending from the gatehouse. This was no regular wall.  It was 70 meters long, 3 meters wide, and in some sections measured 6 meters high. During the 2009-2010 dig, Dr. Mazar was able to accurately date the wall to the 10^th century B.C.E.

Together, the dating of construction and its massive size indicated that it was built by a centralized and powerful government.  “The city wall that has been uncovered testifies to a ruling presence. Its strength and form of construction indicate a high level of engineering,” Mazar wrote, attesting to the Biblical account of Solomon’s powerful reign.  [End of quotes]

Be of good cheer, children of faith!  The Word of God is true and righteous altogether, including Revelation 21:1-5:

1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

Believest thou this?

GOD SAID, Genesis 10:25:

And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.

GOD SAID, Genesis 16:11-12:

11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.

12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

GOD SAID, I Kings 9:15:

And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

MAN SAID: Look, everyone knows the Bible is not meant to be taken literally, if it is taken at all.  That’s especially true of the crazy “miracles” it claims, like creation, Adam and Eve, giants, Noah and the flood, the Tower of Babel and one common language, Sodom and Gomorrah—or the craziest of all, that there was a virgin-born Messiah who was crucified for the supposed “sins of the world.”  Get over it, Bible thumpers!  It’s just not true!

 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

Armstrong Institute Staff, “Discoveries of Eilat Mazar: The Ophel,” Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology,” September/October 2022

GodSaidManSaid, “Emailer Challenges God’s Word (Part 2)”

GodSaidManSaid, “Genesis: Cooper Found Them All (Part 1)”

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