Friday, October 10, 2014

October 11, 2014

"When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city." Joshua 6:20

God promised His people that if they marched around this impenetrable fortress city of Jericho every day for seven days in an exactly prescribed manner and then on the seventh day give a victory shout, the walls would collapse and they would be able to rout the city!

They did and He did! 

Conquering Jericho was one of the greatest military conquests in all of history and yet history had no account of it other than the Biblical story. 

But the rise of archaeological excavations near the end of the nineteenth century changed that! Many of these "digs" have given proof that many of the places referred to in the Old Testament did exist just as and where the Bible said!

For example, excavations of the Mideastern ancient cities of Mari, Nuzi and Alalakh verify that Abraham's custom were consistent with his eighteenth century B.C. culture. Digs at Hazor, Gezer, Megiddo and Jerusalem verified Biblical accounts of Joshua's conquest of Canaan, David and Solomon's building of the United Kingdom, the demise of power during the Babylonian Exile. 

Many had doubted their existence and cast doubt on the veracity of the Bible because there was no proof of Biblical accounts. But archaeological evidence erased those doubts and vindicated the Word of God!

One of the most intriguing archaeological finds is John Garstang's excavation of the city of Jericho in 1930. Joshua 6:20 indicates the walls of Jericho were felled by the shouts of God's people and that the walls fell in such a way that they could rush in and rout the city. For that to happen the walls would have had to fall outward but walls never collapse outward they fall inward. This seeming inconsistency caused skeptics to cite this as an example of a Biblical fallacy.

Well, guess what Garstang's archaeological crew discovered? Their skilled and careful work found, much to their surprise conclusive evidence the walls DID fall OUTWARD when they collapsed! So unexpected was this finding that Garstang and two of his colleagues signed a statement of verification!

This is just one of many archaeological discoveries made over the past century that have proven the Bible true and skeptics wrong!

Faith is not blind!

God calls you to believe in Him, but He also gives you ample evidence that He exists and that you can know Him in a personal intimate way!