Archaeology

Faith Slams the Door Shut!

A number of personal names found in the Ebla tablets are clearly equivalent to various names in the book of Genesis (though not the same individuals), including Esau, David, Saul, and Ishmael.
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Faith Slams the Door Shut!

Article#: 1510

The person was asked if they were going to heaven when they died, and—as with most—the answer was, “I hope so.”  The Bible teaches that all those who are born-again: born a second time, this time of the Spirit of God, those who have repented and turned from their sins, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ—these individuals inherit eternal life.  They go to heaven.  Jesus said in John 3:3: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”   How does one know he or she is born again?  How does one know he or she is a child of God?  It’s not accomplished by joining a particular denomination.  It’s not infant christening.  It’s not a formal religious confirmation.  If you are born-again, then you are born of God and therefore you are, by spiritual birth, a son or daughter of God.  Born-again is a totally spiritual process.  God is a spirit and He personally confirms His children’s birthright by His spirit.   Romans 8:14-17:

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Have you been born again?  Are you ready to answer, “Yes, I’m going to heaven!” Are you ready to receive the grace and mercy that will wash away all your sin and shame?  Today can be the absolute best day of your life.  Today is your day of salvation. Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the supernatural Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Psalm 19:7-11:

7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.

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.

11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

MAN SAID: The Bible and its histories are unreliable.  The Bible and its miracles are unbelievable because the Bible is a compilation of untenable distortions. 

Now, THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature article 736 that will once again certify the full inerrancy of God’s majority-text Holy Bible.  All of these features are archived here in text and streaming audio for the edification of the children and as ammunition in the battle for the souls of men.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.  Thank you for visiting today.  May God’s face shine upon you and yours with Light and Truth.

When Adam and Eve walked in faith, they were immortal and they lived in Paradise.  There was no sin, no sickness, no tears or sorrow, no pain.  It was impossible to die.  When Adam and Eve, in unbelief and disobedience, cast off faith in God’s Word to embrace Satan’s words, things took a 180.  That very day, they died spiritually.  They actually died the second death first.  They were cast out of Paradise to live under the deadly grip of the curse of sin and death.  Unbelief opened the gates to the hordes of sin, sickness, tears, sorrow, and pain—and, of course, the end cap of mortality: death. 

On the other hand, we, the sons and daughters of Adam who were dead in trespasses and sins, were drawn by the Holy Ghost unto repentance and salvation. We cast off our heritage of unbelief, believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ and were born again to become sons and daughters of God.  Through the faith of Christ, we have inherited immortality, and through faith in God’s promises, sin and sickness, tears and sorrow, are placed under our feet.   

Isn’t it marvelous to consider that the first Adam, who was the son of God, opened the flood gates of sin and death, and that Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, whom the Scriptures call the last Adam, slammed that door shut and opened the doors of life and life more abundantly?  Faith restores all that was lost and so much more. 

Satan must destroy faith.  He and his icons of unbelief stand to discredit the Words of God at every turn, but as in all cases, they fail without fail. 

GodSaidManSaid uses a four-step proof text to certify the full inerrancy of Holy Writ—miracles and all.  Archaeology is one of the steps that is used to certify the supernatural accuracy of the various histories set forth in the Bible. 

The brazen blasphemy of the carnal historians is hurled against the Word of God, but truly without a modicum of success.  Today’s archaeology confirms the Bible without exception.  Two paragraphs from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Archaeology Certifies Bible True, Miracles and All” follow:

The accuracy of Bible history—and, yes, all its miraculous accounts—is simply staggering.  Skeptics who challenge the accuracy of the Bible’s accounts abound, but their skepticism is being overturned on a very regular basis.  One of the world’s most renowned archaeologists, Dr. Eilat Mazar, 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 resource 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]

Dr. Henry Morris, one of the founders of today’s creation science movement, weighs in on archaeology and Bible accuracy.  Dr. Morris is also the founder of ICR, the Institute for Creation Research, and the author of many books.  In his book Science and the Bible, you’ll find the following paragraphs on Biblical history and archaeology:

Direct archaeological evidence of Abraham, Isaac, and the other early patriarchs of Israel has not yet been found, since Israel was not yet an organized nation.  On the other hand, there is much collateral evidence illustrating the times in which they lived, proving that the descriptions of the city-states, the peoples, and the general conditions of life during those times as given in the Bible is quite accurate and must have been written by trustworthy eyewitnesses.

For example, Abraham’s original homeland is mentioned in the Bible as Ur of the Chaldees.  The very existence of that city was once doubted by the critics, but it has long since been excavated and explored.  Those numerous critics (many still holding forth in liberal seminaries) who claimed that the art of writing was unknown in Moses’s day (hence he could not have written the Pentateuch) were proved wrong when great libraries of tablets at Ur and other places revealed beyond question that practically everyone could write long before the birth of Abraham, let alone Moses.

Further, the theories of those same critics about the gradual evolution of culture, science, and religion have been largely demolished by archaeology.  Over and over again, excavations at these ancient cities have revealed that the more recent habitations on those sites were degenerate remnants of earlier, higher civilizations there.  There is even much evidence—not only in the Middle East, but also all over the world—that the original religions of the earliest settlers recognized the existence of a “high god,” but that their primeval monotheism soon degenerated into pantheism, polytheism, and animism. 

Discoveries beginning in 1964 in northern Syria have been particularly significant in illuminating the book of Genesis.  Over seventeen thousand tablets—in addition to artifacts of many kinds—have been excavated at the site of ancient Ebla.  The tablets contain hundreds of geographic names, historical references, allusions to economic matters, and descriptions of religious and judicial practices, including an elaborate code of laws.  All of them date prior to the destruction of Ebla by the Akkadians around 2250 B.C. (about two hundred years before Abraham). 

The language of the tablets is a Semitic language closely akin to Hebrew.  A number of personal names found in the Ebla tablets are clearly equivalent to various names in the book of Genesis (though not the same individuals), including Esau, David, Saul, and Ishmael.  The greatest king of Ebla was a man named in the tablets as Ebrum, and this might well be the same man as Eber (Genesis 10:21, 24¸25; 11:14-17), the man from whom the name Hebrews was derived.  Many Canaanite and Syrian cities familiar in the Old Testament are mentioned in the Ebla tablets.  A creation tablet found there is more similar to the Genesis creation record than any other yet discovered. 

Among the people encountered in the Promised Land, both by Abraham and by later generations of Israelites, were the Hittites.  There are many references to them in the Bible, but until the closing years of the nineteenth century, there was no external evidence that they ever existed.  For many years, “higher critics” used the Hittite legend as one of their most telling blows against the inspiration of the Scriptures.  Archaeological scholarship, however, has now universally recognized that the Hittites constituted one of the most powerful and influential nations of antiquity.

Essentially the same story can be told of Edom and the Edomites.  These people, descendants of Jacob’s brother Esau, are frequently mentioned in the Bible but were completely forgotten in secular history until the nineteenth century, when references to them were found in Egyptian and Assyrian monuments.  Eventually the splendidly preserved remains of the capital, Petra, the “rock city,” were discovered, and Petra has now become one of the main tourist attractions of the Middle East. 

These are only a few of the vast number of discoveries made in the past century that confirm the accuracy and authenticity of the Old Testament histories.  Nelson Glueck, perhaps the greatest of all archaeologists of the Bible lands, though not a believer in Bible inspiration, maintained that “no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference.” 

It is significant that, in view of the great mass of corroborative evidence on the Biblical history of these periods, there exists today not one unequivocal find of archaeology that proves the Bible to be in error at any point.  How could that be so if the Bible were not indeed the Word of God?  [End of quotes]

Unbelief opened the door of sin and death, and it is faith in Christ Jesus, whose name is the Word of God (Revelation 19:13) that slams it shut. 

GOD SAID, Psalm 19:7-11:

7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.

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.

11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

MAN SAID: The Bible and its histories are unreliable.  The Bible and its miracles are unbelievable because the Bible is a compilation of untenable distortions. 

Now you have THE RECORD. 

 

 

 

References

Authorized King James Version

GodSaidManSaid, “Archaeology Certifies Bible True, Miracles and All

Morris, H., Science and the Bible, Moody Publishers, Chicago, 1986

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