CAN I TRUST THE BIBLE? The Internal and External Evidence, Part 2

Today, we will turn to THE AFFIRMATION OF ARCHAEOLOGY concerning the trustworthiness of the Bible.  The more digging is done in the Middle East, the more archaeology affirms Scripture. 

Weigh the words of Isaiah 40:8:

The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.

It isn’t that Satanically motivated men have not tried to destroy the Word of God.  No Book has been so attacked, burned, critiqued, and dissected as the Bible.  That, itself, is a powerful testimony—it endures!  Each Lord’s Day, millions of people gather to open and study the Bible.  They don’t do that for Aesop’s Fables or Shakespeare, as good as those are.  The Bible is unparalleled in popularity and influence.  But, can we trust it?

In 1947, a shepherd threw a rock into a cave in Qumran, near the Dead Sea.  He heard a crash.  On further investigation, it was a clay pot that shattered and inside were scrolls of Scripture, dating back a couple of centuries before Christ.  There are fragments of almost every Old Testament book, including a complete scroll of Isaiah. It was one of the preeminent archaeological discoveries made connecting our Bible today with the text used by the ancients.  Compared to the Old Testament texts we have, there is no substantive difference in them.  The promise of Isaiah 40:8 has again been affirmed! The Dead Sea scrolls say what my Bible states,

The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.

Volumes have been written on archaeology in its relation to the Word of God.  Many proofs have been unearthed.  I will discuss three.

Genesis 1 features the creation of the universe, where we read of God speaking all things into existence in six days and resting in that finished work on the seventh.  The ancient city of Nineveh, in modern Iraq, was excavated.  There was found the library of King Ashurbanipal of Assyria who reigned in the 600’s BC. The library consisted of a multitude of clay tablets—seven of them known as the “Creation Epic.” Although that ancient retelling of the Creation is marred by polytheism (the belief in many gods), it is fascinating to note that it presents creation in six days, with the deity resting on the seventh.  The epic parallels Scripture in that the creation begins with the cosmos in chaos, the beginning with light shining into the darkness, followed by sun, moon, and stars put in place, and on to the culmination of Creation—the making of man. 

Then, there is the Epic of Gilgamesh—a Babylonian flood story.  It features an heroic figure called upon by the gods to build an ark, where his family and all kinds of creatures would be preserved.  In the end, he sends out a dove, a swallow, and a raven.  Archaeologists have unearthed thirty three such flood stories from varying cultures, only two that do not parallel the Biblical story of Noah found in Genesis 6-9.

Next, examining the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, we find the affirmation of archaeology in an ancient monument from Ur of the Chaldees—also located in Iraq. It depicts King Ur-Nammu, who was commanded by the gods to build a tower reaching into the heavens.  Those towers were known as ziggurats.

“Interestingly, a clay tablet was unearthed that tells how the gods were highly offended and in a single night they destroyed what had been built, and the people were scattered abroad and their speech made strange. Again, the most reasonable explanation is that the story of the Tower of Babel did in fact take place.” Lutzer, Erwin W.. 7 Reasons Why You Can Trust the Bible (Kindle Locations 907-908). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.

The skeptic would argue that the writer(s) of Genesis took the ancient stories and put their spin on them.  While that might be possible, it is highly improbable.  The predisposition of those who give their take on such stories is to embellish them, rather than simplify them.  They add details instead.  It is much more likely that the true story as revealed by God to Moses in Genesis shares a commonality with these ancient legends because they were all rooted in the truth—a message that pagans distorted in their plunge into false religion.

We could explore other archaeological finds that affirm Scripture, but I have chosen these in relation to Genesis, because of all the books contained in the Bible, it is likely the most frequently assailed.  Really, it is foundational, and if Genesis is not true, then the rest of the Bible means nothing.  Someone has well said, “If you can accept the first four words of the Bible, ‘In the beginning God…’ then everything that follows should give you no problem believing.”

WHY DIDN'T TERMITES EAT THE ARK? WHY DID THEY HAVE ROACHES AND MOSQUITOES ON THE ARK?

The ark was constructed of gopher wood.  It is possible that the wood was cypress--and that is how some modern translations render it.  Cypress, and cedar also, are termite resistant.  So, maybe that is what the wood was.  It is also possible that this was a tree which has ceased to exist.  Remember the flood was a global catastrophe which may have killed off many species of vegetation.  Therefore, gopher wood may have been an extinct species impervious to termites.

Likewise, It's possible no termites, or other insects--such as roaches and mosquitoes--were on the ark.  There would have been tremendous amounts of debris, floating on the water, for them to live on.  There could have been eggs on that debris which would later hatch.  According to Gen.7:24  the waters covered the highest peaks for 5 months.  At that point, as the waters began to recede, the eggs might have hatched and survived on the drying land.  Mosquitoes and termites love the moisture, by the way.  Not trying to be morbid, but certain insects would have survived by devouring the floating carcasses of humans and animals, the bodies becoming their "arks."

The Bible says in (Gen 7:14-15) that "all flesh in which was the breath of life" was brought onto the Ark. (Gen 7:22) goes on to say that "all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was on the dry land, died" in the flood.

    

From these verses, we learn 2 things. First, all of the creatures on the Ark had the "breath of life," which means they breathed through their "nostrils." In addition, ALL creatures who breathed through their nostrils and lived on "dry land" died in the flood except those on the Ark. 

Those who breathe through nostrils have lungs. Insects do not have nostrils or lungs. Insects absorb oxygen through their skin, through a series of breathing holes or tracheal tubes located in their chest or abdomen. Therefore, neither insects nor sea creatures were on the Ark, but they did survive the flood.  (http://jesusalive.cc/ques216.htm)

 Obviously, insects survived—and there is a reason--even for roaches and mosquitoes!  Cockroaches dispose of organic litter.  They are part of the food chain for birds and other animals. 

 

As to mosquitoes, their development is quite the quandary for the evolutionist instead of a help to their case.  Here is a remarkable testimony to a mosquitoes design that requires instantaneous creation rather than evolution over eons of time: 

Did you know that:

only female mosquitoes “bite”[?]

There are more than 2,500 species of mosquitoes in the world. A species is generally defined as a group in which males and females produce offspring that are fertile, i.e., are capable of reproducing themselves. They are not “sterile”—as in the case of the mule, a hybrid cross between a male donkey and a female horse.

The fossil record reveals that the ancient ancestors of the modern mosquito were about three times as large as their present day offspring. This is another example of how nature has degenerated. It is not evolving from the less primitive to the more sophisticated, contrary to the claims of modern Darwinians. Some ancient pagans believed that mosquitoes are reincarnated humans who were evil in the way they lived. Though there is no truth to the notion of reincarnation, there are some blood-sucking humans who would make good mosquitoes in another world!

Mosquitoes are specially fashioned little flies. “Little flies” is what the name means. The term “fly” is a generic word for insects that have only two wings. Mosquitoes can beat their tiny wings at a rate of about one thousand times per second! Their wings are so thin that even the blood vessels show. Only God could have designed this amazing and minute system.

But mosquitoes can be dangerous. They can carry germs that cause harmful diseases in humans—sicknesses like malaria and yellow fever. Many people wonder, therefore, just why God would create potentially noxious little insects like these.

Critics of God and his word are ever anxious to lash out and appeal to what they call the “incongruities of nature” as arguments that a benevolent God could not have designed and implemented the universe around us. Thus there is no God behind earth’s environment. There are just “too many examples” that do not meet their standard of how things ought to be. They have endowed themselves with omniscience and thus are confident they know how it “should have been done.”

Let us take the mosquito, for example. There are two important points that need to be taken into consideration.

First, our original parents, Adam and Eve, were not bothered by disease until they disobeyed God. Because of that disobedience, the human family became weak and vulnerable to diseases—and even death (Romans 5:12; 6:23). In the beginning, the Lord did not intend for any of us who have been made in his image to be hurt by his animal creatures, but this is the price we pay for not following the Creator’s instructions. Every mosquito bite ought to be a reminder to obey God.

Second, mosquitoes actually are a valuable source of food for many creatures that were made to benefit mankind. For example, frogs, lizards, and some fish eat mosquitoes. These insects are an important link in the animal food chain, thus ultimately they are for our benefit as well. There is a balance in nature that we sometimes do not recognize or appreciate.

Third, there are numerous mysteries in nature we do not understand. There are more things we do not understand than those we do. We must humbly recognize and acknowledge our limited knowledge, and not speak irreverently of God in our frustration. That is the epitome of arrogance. This was precisely the problem of Job as he questioned the wisdom of God in governing the universe. The Lord humbled the patriarch and brought him to his knees by a barrage of interrogation that yet baffles the keenest of minds (see Job 38-39).

We may occasionally wonder why our heavenly Father made certain things. We should be confident there was a good reason for so doing, whether we understand the intricacies of such or not. We praise him for the things we comprehend, and for those we do not. Such is true reverence! (https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/1405-why-did-god-make-mosquitoes)

The proteins required to sustain mosquitoes before the fall are found in certain plants—alfalfa, for instance.  The adaptation of mosquitoes from vegetarians and benign creatures to blood-suckers and disease-carriers were a result of the fall. 

The mosquito's saliva contains anti-coagulants, which prevent blood from clotting. Consequently, the immune system reacts by causing swelling, itching and burning.

Read more: http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4565198_mosquito-bite-affect-body.html#ixzz332hGKCp0

If it were not for those special properties, the tiny tube through which the mosquito pierces skin and ingests blood would stop up and the bug would starve!  So, how did all that evolve over millions of years?  Impossible! 

So, like it or not, the bugs are still around to bug us.  The return of Christ to earth will restore the original design in the natural world and we'll have pests as pets.  Until then, we should be so full of Jesus that if a mosquito does bite us, she'll fly away singing, "There's power in the blood!"