MCLEAN BIBLE CHURCH APRIL 1, 2012 PASTOR LON SOLOMON

Transcription

1 MCLEAN BIBLE CHURCH APRIL 1, 2012 PASTOR LON SOLOMON >> LON SOLOMON: Now, you know, in our study of the book of Genesis, today we're going to enter into a brand-new phase of how God is dealing with the human race. You see, up to this point God has been dealing in the book of Genesis with the human race as a whole. But now, beginning in chapters 11 and 12, God changes his approach. Here instead God singles out a special man to establish a special race of people, with whom he will deal in a special way based on a special series of covenants that he will make with them. Now, of course this special man, of course, is our friend Abraham, and the special people are the Jewish people. And from Genesis 12 onward, the Jewish people become the central element in God's plan for the ages. So we're going to be talking a lot about Abraham and his descendents for the next 38 chapters of the book of Genesis. But today we first want to look at a more fundamental issue. Namely, the historicity of Abraham and the patriarchs. You go, the what? It's not as bad as it sounds. Buy the patriarchs we mean Abraham, Isaac, Joseph and Jacob. And by historicity, what we mean is the historical truthfulness of what the book of genesis says about them. So that's what we're going to look at today. Folks, why spend the next 38 chapters talking about them if what the Bible says about them isn't historically true and factual, right? So here we go. We're going to deal with this by asking and answering four questions. So are you ready? Ready. Good. All right. Here we go. Question number one, is what exactly is the real issue here? Well, friends, the real issue here when we deal with the historicity of Abraham and the patriarchs is the integrity and the trustworthiness of the Bible. As you all know, the Bible claims to be the inerrant, infallible word of God. So if the historical facts in the book of genesis about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, if that can be proven to be wrong and inaccurate, then the entire Bible is discredited when it comes to being God's inerrant word. That's the great Catholic archeologist Roland De Vaux said, and I quote, he said if the historical faith in Israel is not founded in real history, such faith is erroneous and therefore our faith is also. And Harold Lindsell, the author of the epic book battle for the Bible said, and I quote, when the word of God speaks of its trustworthiness, at no point does it include any limitation. Nor does it indicate that some parts of scripture are to be trusted and other parts are not. Inerrancy must include all of scripture or none of it. This means the entire Bible is riding on the historicity of the patriarchs, and this is a grave and serious issue. Harold Lindsell again, and I quote, said, I regard biblical inerrancy, to be the most important theological topic of this age. One inerrancy is abandoned, it always opens the door to further departures from the faith and always ends in apostasy. He goes on to say it is next to impossible to stop the process of theological deterioration, once inerrancy is abandoned, whether it takes five years or fifty years, any

2 denomination, church, seminary or para-church group that forsakes inerrancy, will end up shipwrecked. It cannot be prevented. End of quote. As we said a moment ago, the inerrancy of the Bible sinks or swims with whether what the Bible says about the patriarchs in the book of Genesis is historical and factual. This is the issue. And it leads to our second question, which is, well, if that's the issue, then what's the problem? Well, folks, the problem are people like Israel Finkelstein. You go, well, who is that? Well, Dr. Israel Finkelstein is an archeologist at Tel Aviv University and he along with many other so-called scholars claim that the stories in the book of Genesis about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, are not fact actual history but myths made up centuries later. Israel Finkelstein said, and I quote, The historical saga contained in the Bible from Abraham to Moses -- stop for a second. What book of the Bible talks about from Abraham to Moses? Book of Genesis, yes? Yes. Thank you. Okay. So let's go back. The historical saga contained in the Bible from Abraham to Moses, the book of Genesis, is nothing more than a brilliant product of the human imagination. We cannot talk about it as though it represents historical reality, he said. In other words, it's all untrue. But friends, there are a lot of very good scholars, well trained scholars, who don't believe that the facts support this conclusion. For example, Dr. Kevin Kitchen, Professor Emeritus of Egyptology and Archeology at the University of Liverpool in England, in his book on the reliability of the Old Testament said, concerning Israel Finkelstein's treatment of the patriarchal period, which he describes as pure fiction, he is utterly out of his depth, hopelessly misinformed and totally misleading. End of quote. I don't think he agrees with Israel Finkelstein, what do you think? (Laughter) >> LON SOLOMON: And how about Dr. William F. Albright, the greatest American archeologist of all time, taught for many years at John Hopkins University. He said, this skepticism shown toward the Bible has been progressively discredited. Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details of the Bible, and has brought increased recognition to the value of the Bible as a true source of history, end of quote. Now, what I want us to do today is I want us to take a look at some of these discoveries that Dr. William F. Albright is talking about, and that leads us to our third question. And our third question is: Can we provide hard archeological evidence to support the historical integrity of the patriarchal stories in the book of genesis? The answer is yes, absolutely. We most certainly can. And I can give you a lot, but we're only going to provide 8 pieces of evidence. We're going to do 8. You all ready for 8? All right. Strap in. Here we go. Number one. Book of Genesis historically true? Number one, then, we need to talk about Abraham's hometown, Ur of the Chaldeans. Terah became the father of Abram, in the land of Ur of the

3 Chaldeans -- not the kind of prosperous place that Abraham should have had any problem leaving. But then in 1922 Leonard Woolly dug up the city of Ur and found that in Abraham's day, 2100 B.C., Ur was actually approaching its zenith, the third dynasty, and this town was the center of a huge Chaldean empire and it was a wealthy city with a high standard of living. Exactly the way the Bible presents it. In fact, Keith Scoville in his book biblical archeology and focus said, and I quote, it is evident that Abraham turned his back on a rich, sophisticated society in Ur in response to God's call. Number two. Want to prove that Genesis is telling us factual history? Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, and Sarai and they went as far as Haran. Critics of the Bible said we don't know if this place even existed at the time of Abraham, and if it did, we have no evidence whatsoever that Abraham or his family was ever here. But now we know in the time of Abraham, Haran was a flourishing city in northern Mesopotamia. And we discovered tablets that have people's personal names on them. Names like John and Mary. And guess whose names we found on some tablets there from Haran from the time of Abraham? Guess whose name we found. Abraham. That's right. And we also found the name Nahor, which the Bible tells us was the name of his brother. You say, Lon, are you saying that we found a tablet that actually mentions Abraham, the actual guy in the Bible and Nahor, his brother? I can't say that. But what I can tell you is you don't name your children -- Abraham's family was from this place, the Bible says, Haran, you don't name your children names that aren't popular where you're living. You don't have a child in America and name them Rumpelstiltskin. You name them William or Suzy or names that other people are using and the fact that Abraham and Nahor -- proves his family was there and they knew these names, just the way the Bible says. Albright says this, and I quote, from his book from stone age to Christianity, these latest discoveries of their names, have strikingly confirmed the Israelite traditions according to which their Hebrew forefathers came to Palatine from the region of Haran in north western Mesopotamia, end of quote. Number three, third proof, Abraham's nomadic lifestyle. Abraham passed through the land of Canaan as far as Shechem, and then Abraham proceeded south to Bethel and proceeded farther south, and then there was a famine in the land of Canaan, so Abraham went down to Egypt to sojourn there. The critics of the Bible used to say at the time of Abraham, based on the letters which were discovered in Egypt and come from 14 and 1500 B.C., that Canaan was organized in a city-state environment. And they didn't have bed win like this moving around, semi nomadic people, living in tents the way the Bible describes Abraham lived. But friends, now we know from archeology that actually the exact opposite was true at the time of Abraham. Yes, at the time of the El-Amarna letters, 1500 B.C., Canaan was organized as city-state. But 500 years earlier it was not. Dr. Kevin Kitchen on the reliability of the Old Testament said the evidence now gives us a quite clear indication that the land of Canaan at the time of Abraham, had a non-urban population of tribes and clans under their own rulers or sheiks. These clans lived in tents and wandered

4 freely from Bethel and Shechem in the north and Egypt to the south. And that's exactly what the Bible says Abraham did. Number four, want some proof? The fourth piece of evidence I'll present for the historical accuracy in Genesis is the richness of the southern Jordan valley around Sodom and Gommorah at the time of Abraham. Genesis 13:8, Abraham said to Lot, please let there be no strife between you and me, between our herdsmen, for we're brothers. The whole land is before you, Lot. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right. If you go to the right, I'll go to the left. And Lot looked and saw that the Jordan valley was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord, and Lot journeyed east ward and settled among the -- what's the next word? Cities, yes, of the Jordan valley, moving his tent to Sodom. Critics of the Bible said this is ridiculous. Genesis 13 is ridiculous. At the time of Abraham, the southern Jordan Valley where Sodom and Gommorah were, was an uninhabited waste land. Let me show you what it looks like today. That's right. But between 1932 and 1947 the reknown archeologist and Jewish rabbi Nelson Glueck, excavated the valley and he found the remains of 70 cities that were there at the time of Abraham and Lot. What does the Bible say, that Lot moved around among the what? The cities that were there. Moreover, Nelson Glueck found indisputable proof that at the time the southern Jordan Valley was lush, fertile, and wealthy. Exactly the way the Bible said. Lot wasn't an idiot. Why would he move to a place that looked like that slide we just showed you. It wasn't that way at the time of Lot. It was exactly the way the Bible said. Number five. Want proof that the book of Genesis is telling the truth? Let's talk about the book of Genesis mentioning domesticated the camels during the time of the patriarchs. Pharaoh gave Abraham what? Camels. Right. Genesis 24:10, Abraham's servant took ten camels from his herd. Verse 25, Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery, to a Caravan of Ishmaelites coming with their camels. Critics of the Bible once say Paul told him, for example, he said in his article -- I got to take a deep breath before I can tell you his article. Mythological Elements in the Story of Abraham and the Patriarchal Narratives. And here's what he said. He said tame camels were simply not known, they were unknown during Abraham's time. But in an article in the journal of near eastern studies, Doctor Joseph Bree, presented -- this is recent -- a new piece of pottery that was found in Egypt, dating to 3150 B.C. There's a picture of Egyptians loading cargo on to camel. And then from the Jordan valley in the modern day of Jordan, there's a wall painting that we found that shows a guy -- it's on the screen -- riding on a what? On a camel. This is 500 years before Abraham lived. And you know, just to show you how scholars can be, when this was first discovered, one gentleman scholar who wrote about this called this a horse with a hump. I'm not lying. He said the guy was riding on a horse with a hump. Now, what horse have you ever seen with a hump on it? That has a long neck that looks like that?

5 This was not a horse with a hump, this was a camel. But you know why he called it a horse with a hump? Because he was determined not to find evidence that supported the Bible. That's exactly why. These guys u you got to watch em. You wanted a camel ride in the days of Abraham, put your three shekels on the table, you can get yourself a camel ride. That's all there was to it. Piece of evidence number six, the Hittites, Genesis 13:18, God said to Abraham to your descendents I've given this land, Genesis 23:10, Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah to bury Sarah from Ephron the Hittite. Esau married Judith the daughter of Beeri, a Hittite. We don't have a single -- we have no evidence of them whatsoever. That is until 1906 when Hugh Winkler dug up the city in central Turkey and found it to be the capital of an enormous Hittite empire that not only existed at the time of ache Ham but for hundreds of years after that. Just like the book of Genesis says. Number seven, want some more proof that the Bible's telling us the truth in the book of Genesis? Let's talk about shaving in Egypt during Joseph's time, the patriarch's time. Genesis 41:14, Pharaoh said -- and called Joseph from prison. And when Joseph had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh. You know, today we know from archeology that in the days of ache Ham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, the Egyptians were the only culture, the only one in the ancient near east that shaved on a regular basis. And they not only shaved their faces, they shaved their chests as well. The men did. There's a picture here we're showing you on the front of a book, and you see that Egyptian, not only is he cleanly shaven on his face, but look at his chest. And see -- you know, what this proves -- this proves that Pharaoh really did look like Yule Brenner. Yeah. Somebody living hundreds of years later would have no idea the Egyptians did this. This had to be someone writing contemporary to the events who would have understood this unique piece of Egyptian culture. Finally, number 8, can you go one more? Whew. Okay. One more. That is the daily customs of the patriarchs. Their daily habits. Critics once said the customs of the patriarchs as described in the book of Genesis are totally foreign to the habits and the customs in the ancient near east of their day. Whew, not so Kemosabi. No. No. In fact the opposite is true. In 1925 to 1941 Edward Chiera from the Oriental Institute in Chicago excavated at the city of Nuzi, very near the city of Haran in northern Mesopotamia. What we found there was thousands of inscribed clay tablets dating back to the very time of Abraham, and telling us about the social customs that the people followed in that area at that time. So follow my logic. If the Bible says that the whole family of Abraham was from this area -- and it was -- then it would make sense that wherever they wandered they would carry with them some of the customs that they had grown up with. Does that not make sense?

6 And so therefore, as we compare Abraham, Isaac, Jacob's customs, daily habitual lifestyle to that what we found in Nuzi, they should correlate. If you're an American, and you move to outer Mongolia, there's still certain American customs you're going to take there and personally follow yourself because you grew up in America; right? Okay. So let's look at some of these customs. I got a million of them for you. But I'm only going to give you a few. Number one, at Nuzi we found that if a man's wife was barren and not able to give him children, it was legal for him to take her handmaiden and have children with her handmaiden and those children were considered his children. Does that sound familiar? Well, it should. Genesis Chapter 16, that's exactly what happened with Hagar and her son Ishmael. Because her Sarah couldn't have children. In Nuzi, if that man's later was able to have children, it was illegal for her to cast out the handmaiden and the handmaiden's children from her home. Sarah said to Abraham after she had Isaac, drive Hagar and her son away, and the matter distressed Abraham greatly. Let's stop for a moment. Why should this bother Abraham? Why didn't he just give Hagar a bunch of money and say, Hagar, look, you know, I mean I like you, you're a nice enough lady, but Sarah -- I mean, you remember, the name of the game is I keep Sarah happy. That's just the way it is. And Sarah doesn't want you here, so you need to take the money and just get out of Dodge here. Why didn't he do that? Why was he distressed about this? It wasn't because he loved Hagar all that much, I don't think. It was because what Sarah was asking him to do was illegal. It was illegal. And he knew that. And if you read that chapter, you will find God had to personally appear to Abraham and tell him to listen to Sarah before he would do it. Because it was illegal what Sarah was asking him to do. Hey, in Nuzi, it was legal to sell your birth right to your brother and then you couldn't buy it back. That sound familiar? Hey, in that -- isn't that exactly what happened in Genesis 25, when Esau sold his birth right to Jacob? In Nuzi, a father's death bled blessing given to a son could not be rescinded or taken back. Does that sound familiar? You remember when Jacob snuck in to Isaac and stole his brother's blessing? And then Isaac -- you know, he thought he had given the blessing to Esau. Esau came in and Genesis 27:35, then Isaac said to -- your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing. Why didn't Isaac say the blessings's can cancelled? He should have said I m taking the blessing away from you and giving it to your brother who I intended to give it to you start with. Why couldn't he? It was illegal. He gave Esau another blessing, but he couldn't given him the one he had given Isaac, it was the against the law. And we could go on and on line the energizer bunny, friends. I could go all day. You say please don't. Fair enough.

7 Now, let's just say I think the point is clear. Namely that the everyday customs we find on these tablets at Nuzi line up so perfectly with the customs that the book of Genesis describes Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph lived by. That enforced the famous archeologist Dr. H. H. Rowley to say in University of Manchester, the stories in Genesis so accurately reflect the social customs at 2000 B.C., in the ancient near east that it is striking. End of quote. And Dr. William F. Albright said it is now becoming increasingly clear that the traditions of the patriarchal age preserved in the book of Genesis reflect with remarkable accuracy the actual conditions of the ancient near east in the middle bronze age when the Bible said Abraham lived. And finally, back to Dr. H. H. Rowley, here's what he said -- and this may be one of the most amazing confessions of a scholar ever written down in print, here's what he said: He said, it is not because scholars of today begin with more conservative presuppositions than their predecessors that they have a much greater respect for the patriarchal stories than was formerly common, but because the evidence warrants it. End of quote. You understand what he's saying? He's saying most of these liberal scholars, they haven't gotten more conservative, it's just the evidence is so overwhelming and compelling that there's no way they can call it a horse with a hump. It's got to be called a camel. The evidence is, as he says -- it is compelling. Or as we love to say, the more they dig out of the ground, the more the Bible proves to be right. And that leads to our fourth question. And finally -- and you know what this question is. This one you know. So are you ready? Are you still there? Okay. And all of you at Loudoun and all of you at Prince William and at Bethesda and the Internet, and on the Edge, I hope you're still with us. Are ready to do this? 1, 2, 3. >> ALL: So what? >> LON SOLOMON: That was good. You say Lon, so what? I don't want a camel ride, I don't care about shaving my chest. What difference does any of this make to me? You know. You know, whatever. It does make a big difference, friends. You know, I've had the privilege of serving on the board of Jews for Jesus for 25 years. And for many years I served with a man named Russ Reed. He was a godly man and he lived in Chicago and was a radio actor. In fact if any of you know the radio program unshackled, Russ did a number of stories on there as one of the actors. When he was in his early 60s, Russ had to have a major bypass surgery. So he checked in the hospital the night before. And when they gave him the form, you know, to fill out, you know, to check in, it asked for his religious preference. He's a Jewish believer so he checked Jewish. That evening a rabbi stuck his head in the door and said I noticed that you checked on your form you're Jewish, I want to know if you want a little company. And Russ said, sure, come on in.

8 And so the rabbi came in and they talked for a moment about the weather. And finally the rabbi said to him, you know, he said, do you fully understand what's going to happen to you tomorrow? And Russ said, I think I do. And the rabbi said, no, I mean do you really understand the seriousness of what's going to happen tomorrow? And Russ said, yes. He said, I -- I don't understand, why are you asking? Rabbi said because you seem amazingly calm to me considering what's going to happen tomorrow to you. And Russ said to him, well, Rabbi, he said, I figure tomorrow only one of two things can happen. He said, either I'll wake up tomorrow in the arms of my wife, who's loved me for 40 years, or I tomorrow will wake up in the arms of Jesus, my messiah, who has loved me from the foundation of the world. Well, that pretty well ended the clergy visit. (Laughter) >> LON SOLOMON: It did. All right. But -- and I want to tell you, Russ came through just fine. He did. Now, but friends, listen. Where does a man like Russ Reed get the authority to make a statement like that? About death and about eternity and about eternal life? Where does he get that kind of authority? Well, the answer is he gets that kind of authority out of the BIBLE. That's where he gets it from. And if you're here and you trusted Jesus in a real and personal way, my friends, then you have depended on that very same authority. You've chosen to rest your entire eternal destiny on that very same authority. On the profound belief that the Bible is telling us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth -- not just about the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but also about life and death and what's on the other side of the grave. We have rested everything on the profound belief that as Peter said, we have not followed -- 2 Peter 1:16, cunningly devised fable lgs, but this thing the Bible call is utterly infallible in its every claim and utterly trustworthy in its every promise. Amen? (Applause) >> LON SOLOMON: And listen, the world system is going to try to shake your confidence in the Bible. And high-sounding professors like Dr. Israel Finkelstein are going to try to rattle your belief in the Bible. And lots of your friends are going to try to destroy your trust in the Bible. The discovery channel is going to try to convince you that the Bible is a fraud. And they've all got reasons for why they want to do this. Personal agendas. But my friends, I don't care what kind of high-sounding logic they come up with, and I don't care what kind of human reasoning they may throw at you, don't you believe em. Don't you believe em. You stick with the Bible as the inspired, inerrant word of God. And listen, when the dust clears in eternity, I promise you far more importantly -- what am I? -- Jesus promises you that you are going to be forever glad you stuck with the word of God. What did Jesus say?

9 He said, Luke 21:33, heaven and earth will pass away. But my word will never pass away. You build your life on the word of God. Jesus said it's a rock. You build your life on the rock. And I promise you the winds will blow and the rains will fall and everything will come against the house -- your house will stand. Build your life on that word. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for this huge amount of evidence today that we've talked about supporting the historical, factual truthfulness of the book of Genesis. And Father, remind us that the "so what" is exactly what Russ Reed said, that we can look forward into eternality and know exactly what's going to happen to us. Because we have the inerrant, infallible, trustworthy assurance and promise of the word of God. And Father, I pray that you would strengthen our faith today because we were here and strengthen our confidence in your word. And that we would be, as Jesus said, like the man who build his house on the rock of the word of God and the winds blew against that house and the rain beat against it, but that house stood firm. Lord, may that be us. And I want to thank you for giving us the Bible as an anchor for our souls, as you said it would. May we use it as such. And may we ride it right into eternity. Believing, ago you said, Lord Jesus, that your word and its promises will never pass away. So Lord, lift our spirits today and encourage our faith. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And what did God's people say? >> ALL: Amen. >> LON SOLOMON: Amen. Have a great week. We'll see you next week at Easter. 7:30. God bless you. (Music) *** This transcript is being provided in a rough-draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) or captioning are provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ****