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Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:39-40 ESV).
In the last few decades, the evidence for the historicity of the Bible totals more than the previous 3,500 years combined.
My good friend and brother-in-law (yes, such a thing is possible), Mark Elliott says, “Archeology is the greatest apologetic for the Bible.” Archeology in Israel continues to provide increasing historical evidence for the defense of the Bible!
Historicity means “historical” and apologetic means “defense.” The stones are literally crying out to defend the Bible in the last days.
One of my favorite archeological finds is the Biblical city of Sodom.
The Genesis account indicates a thriving city and surrounding area destroyed in a fiery cataclysm (Genesis 19). The destructive heat and fires were so intense that Abraham stood on a mountain 40 miles away and saw that, “smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace” (Genesis 19:28).
During the last 15 years, Sodom has been discovered and is being excavated. Evidence reveals a huge city (Sodom had walls twelve free thick and three stories tall) and a surrounding area that thrived for at least 2,500 years.
Then the city and immediate surrounding area ceased to exist.
Archeologists have found huge walls blown off their foundations. Piles of debris containing stones from walls, shards of pottery, and even human bones all mixed in a Cuisinart effect.
Ash has been dug up still stinking of fire thousands of years after it was burned. Scientists have found the clay pots melted to a glaze requiring heat exceeding 1500 degrees.
The location of the city was discovered by a Christian archeologist who believed in the accuracy of the Bible and by reading Genesis 3 was eventually led to Sodom.
Now follow this chain: Sodom was destroyed about 1,700 BC. Moses wrote about these events in Genesis hundreds of years later. The city was rediscovered in 2005 by a man who believed in the Bible, with continued excavations until today.
That’s historicity and apologetic!
Being too self-oriented, I think all of this happened so that I could write this Interruption.
Historicity, apologetic, and Interruptions! Fits nicely, I think.
The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground (Genesis 19:23-25).
For those wanting historical evidence – the stones cry out.