by Tom Brennan
I have just read (actually, devoured is a better term) an extremely readable book about archaeology in Biblical Lands. Dr. Stephen Collins is President of Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque, NM. He has a background in several academic areas and is quite a gentleman and author. Discovering the City of Sodom is a unique approach to a topic often dismissed by critics of the Bible as a legend, a fable or exaggeration. It is none of these. Many archaeologists and authors located the “Cities of the Plain” where Abraham’s nephew Lot chose to locate his herds and flocks when they settled in Canaan. Theorists placed the cities at the southern end of the Dead Sea for various reasons. Several “tells” or remains of ruined cities in mounds were considered to be the Sodom and Gomorrah sites. Dr. Collins details why he and others consider Tall el-Hamman at the north border of the Dead Sea to be the sites. In clear but not remotely tedious detail he presents evidence why this site fits the description of the city from the perspective of Abraham, Lot, Moses and others who passed that way and knew its fate.For several seasons a team from TSU has excavated the site and made astounding discoveries. Perhaps the one that made the most impression on me are these in particular. Sodom was not a bunch of mud huts surrounded by a primitive stone wall. It was more on the scale of Troy, huge acreage, thick walls with assault proof slanted surfaces, a place of power that as a city-state dominated the neighboring cities. Its size is comparable to cities in Egypt, Ur and Mycenae, its contemporaries. It had sophisticated homes, pottery and all the accoutrements of a Bronze Age civilization. It also was totally corrupt. Lot chose to transit from the life of a patriarch living in tents with his clan to that of a city dweller, even being a politician and sitting at the gate to officiate over civil matters. He lost touch with his roots.
God was enraged over the corruption and moral degeneration of the cities and told Abraham He was going to wipe them out. He had done so before when only Noah and his family were preserved. The world was flooded and a new generation was given a covenant to try again. Abraham entreated God to spare the city if any righteous persons could be found, not even ten were there. Angels were sent to rescue Lot and his citified family. Then it happened, not a flood but a catastrophic detonation that Dr. Collins says has the physical evidence of a nuclear explosion or a comet explosion such as occurred at Tunguska in 1908. Not too far from Albuquerque is the testing ground for the first atomic bomb, sand was heated into glass that still dots the landscape. Similar glass fragments and calcified materials are found at the layer where the time frame of Biblical Sodom is found. Some bones from human victims have been found but they show results of a catastrophic explosion, the bones are pulverized, shattered and in fragments not caused by blunt instruments; they literally exploded from within. There is a gap of over 700 years before another city was built upon it.
Sodom’s location is very strategic; it is not a place to be abandoned. But for centuries after the event, it was a place considered cursed, there was a stigma attached to it and no one settled there. The last city built there was a mere shadow of Sodom. Yet many times in the Bible Sodom is referred to as an example of what happens when men abandon God’s favor, build cities, turn inwards to their own lusts and pleasures and make their own rules. Yet God was willing to spare an entire city if only ten righteous men could be found a remnant of leaders who could possibly turn hearts and minds away from the perversions the cities had enjoyed. None were found.
Today many nations are open to things that were considered wrong by previous generations. America is wracked by perversions of God’s Law that only a generation ago were universally rejected. A media that knows no boundaries, politicians who desire power and know no limits of law, aggressive groups which force their agendas on believers and a population numbed by sensationalist and irrelevant entertainment into hibernating in front of huge television screens and entertainment all avoid the warnings in the Bible.
Israel is protected by an eternal covenant. America is not, neither are other nations. Will ten righteous be found? Will prophets arise to declare God’s warnings to the people? Israel’s firm stand against the demonic pressures that are amplified by a media that sells perversion like fast food to an audience that has no time for truth will endure. Christians must take courage from Israel’s faith in this time of testing. Sodom was once a world leader in its time, it was destroyed because it rejected The Almighty’s ways; let the remnant arise and fight the fight.
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Manuel Rodriguez says
I like the article would like to get more information on that story what you just shared, is there a CD that I can get or what is the title of the book
God Bless
Tom Brennan says
Thank you !
The book is available at Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Discovering-City-Sodom-Fascinating-Testaments-ebook/dp/B008J2BQTA. You can ask your library to borrow it for you as well.
Also TSU Press
http://biblicalresearchbulletin.com/TSU_PRESS_PRODUCTS.html
Thanks again,
Tom
Latayne C Scott says
Wonderful, thoughtful review. Thank you so much!
Ding Seling Balan says
Wonderful finding that. Any further detail? Where and how may one get hold of the book written on the excavation of Sodom.
ds
Tom Brennan says
Thanks.
The book can be bought at TSU Press:http://biblicalresearchbulletin.com/TSU_PRESS_PRODUCTS.html
Also Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Discovering-City-Sodom-Fascinating-Testaments-ebook/dp/B008J2BQTA
Thanks again !
Sincerely,
Tom
Tom Brennan says
Dr. Scott,
thank you ! I am honored by your reply. TSU has been a leader in Biblical scholarship and archaeology and despite not finishing my degree there in Biblical Counseling, I did become a colleague of Dr. Anne Davis and began the work of writing. America and the Western nations are past a crossroads of faith and secularism and Israel is a teacher in how a Nation can return to its foundations and endure.
Dr. Collins and you did and excellent job of making the dirt and stones talk and steering many away from the sensationalist (but well-intended) stories of finding Sodom and the city-states elsewhere.. All too often enemies and scoffers use the unsupported claims of nonprofessional archaeologists to denounce the Bible as a well meaning book of fables.
Thanks again,
Sincerel,
Tom
Debra Badger says
Tom, I am surprised we Americans are still here. Everyday I cringe as I listen to the news of all the filth and moral decline of this once great land. I hear Obama mocking the true God all the time and think surely we won’t be allowed to see another day as a nation. Please pray for us who love our true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Know that there are still Christians who love Israel and continue to stand with her. God bless the Jewish people. Debra Badger
Tom Brennan says
Thanks, Debra
The model of Israel is that God warned, punished and forgave Israel’s transgressions. Thye prayers of Prophets, the tears of the Messiah and His final sacrifice for all keep the “eternal covenant” eternal.
America is seeing a rising of God’s people. Social media, the “digital shofar” is calling a battle to come. “the sword of the Lord and Gideon” made 300 true warriors and a general victorious over tens of thousands. We cannot be passive as the nation is led to one abomination of desolation after another. Thanks for reading, sharing and being a friend of thejesrusalemgiftshop.com’s news page.
Sincerely,
Tom
Sigmund F. Kerns says
I am not surprised that the cabel styling itself as the “Scientific Community” has “somehow overlooked” reporting that the city of Sodom has been undergoing excavation. There has existed, since the 1960s, an unstated codicil to “Higher Learning” has existed that is resolutely anti-religion. While this hasn’t been committed to print, the unofficial policy is, in effect, that: “No scientist wishing to continue to enjoy a career in “Science” may ever acknowledge the truth of any religious premise, or fact.”
Go back over the record, should you doubt this: A prime example of fact-fudging on the part of the “Scientific Community” comes from the supposed investigation into the Shroud of Turin: At no time had this investigation been handled in an even-handed and non-prejudiced fashion. Despite having laboratory results in hand from an obviously original portion of the Turin Shroud, all “proof of a counterfeit” had been taken from later, and rather hastily-done, analysis of a section of fabric that had obviously undergone extensive repairs at a later date.
This is borne out by analysis of the careers of those involved in the Turin analysis— Prior to the release of the report, it happened that two of the experts involved had been notified that their professional positions had come up for review. But, nothing was said about “reviews,” after the group denounced the shroud’s authenticity.
This pattern will, in all probability, be repeated regarding any analysis of the city of Sodom.
There are already “spoiler reports” circulating, including resurrecting earlier reports of Sodom’s discovery. Casting doubt on recent discoveries will be much easier if lay-people are told that a couple “mud-hut villages” on the banks of the Dead Sea had previously been identified as Sodom.
The public, due to decades of conditioning, have the attention-span of a swarm of gnats. They will be told about “this Sodom,” while concurrently being reminded of “those EARLIER Sodoms,” with the result that the public will be predisposed to laugh at the Biblical account, and change channels to catch the new cartoon about a boy and his two Moms!
“Science” has tried so hard to separate itself from “Religion” that Science had effectively opted to assassinate Religion, under the guise of “Gaining Freedom From Superstition.” Yet Science has not categorized the “Superstitions” from which they flee.
Tom Brennan says
Thank you !
“Science” has become a religion of its own. Because the general public, especially in America is overawed by credentials of any sort, academics who persistently oppose any reference to the Bible are automatically granted authority over those who believe. A Bible-literate public and more assertive Church and Synagogue community can reverse this problem.
Sigmund F. Kerns says
“Science Being The New Religion” is bad enough, but it PALES in comparison to their creation, promotion & perpetuation of Absolute Idiocy!
A “Real Scientist,” a Dr. Rosenthal, of Harvard, came up with “The Rosenthal Effect,” that SHOULD be used to drive the stake of reason into the hearts of most idiotic theories.
In short, “The Rosenthal Effect” says that ‘no initial “Study” is valid— because scientists who do “surveys,” or “studies,” on ANY subject will INVARIABLY find proof to support the theories. No “Initial Study” is worth the paper on which it is printed!
It’s simple: If you believe strongly enough in a theory to go to the trouble to do a “Study,” you will “Prove” it correct. No fraud is necessarily involved– the simple fact of believing in the truth of your theory is enough to cause you to err in favor of “proofs” of the theory.
BASIC RULE OF THUMB: Doubt all “initial studies,” particularly if the “Ground-breaking Study” has not been subjected to peer-review, followed by doing the “Double-Blind” method of weighing all the evidence.
Throwing out “Theories” that have not been subjected to review by other scientists is essential!
I cringe when I tune in to a PBS program, and hear that “Doctor Thingummy” has performed a revolutionary new “Ground-breaking Study” that proved some species of specious humbug. That’s why we’re subjected to all sorts of absolute bee-varnish by “The Acolytes of The New Religion of SCIENCE!”
One absurd case in point is the rubbish about glucosamine somehow re-lining one’s joints. “Glucosamine” is “Scientist-Talk” for arthropod exoskeletons. Don’t get excited yet—“arthropods” are insects, shrimp, and so forth—creatures with “outside skeletons, or “exoskeletons.” Lots and lots of creatures have the ability to digest, or metabolize, every bit of a fly, roach, shrimp or such . . . it just so happens, however, that there are no “Bug-Eaters” more closely related to you and me than the lemurs of Madagascar.
Unless your Granny was a Bush Baby, your body does not generate the vital enzyme that will let your body digest “bug-skeletons.” The end result, then, is that the ground-up shrimp-shells, or whatever, being sold to you as the “joint-revitalizer” will simply pass through you with no effect.
Any feelings of improved mobility, etc., is simply “The Placebo Effect” in action— you EXPECT an improvement, so you BELIEVE you have an improvement.
In many cases this is just good clean fraud— your wallets are lightened, but at no real detrimental effect to your health.
Where it becomes dangerous is when some “Scientist Acolyte of The New Religion” thumps the tub about having just completed some “Ground-breaking Research” that supposedly proves you can dodge or even heal cancers, just by taking “Doctor Thingummy’s Special Supplement” forever after.
People don’t realize that many, if not most, of these frauds had first been unloaded on your parents and grandparents! Then, as now, the purveyors hid behind the “Shield of Science” to unload their foolishness on the public.
For example, there’s the “Colored Light Therapy” scam, that had a first life in exactly the same form as now— only, then, the “Energy Generator” used a 60-watt “Edison Bulb;” whereas now, it uses LEDs. Still, the gizmo relies on the same red, green, and blue filters over the lights, and the identical Rx. of “Bathing in The Healthful Light” for so many hours a day.
After a few “Infomercials” too many, or catching the reports of a few too many “Ground-breaking Studies” on the “news,” I sometimes sincerely suspect that P. T. Barnham’s estimate of the birth-rate of suckers was grossly under-estimated.
Tom Brennan says
Again, my thanks! Media today has become the messenger/propagandist for secularism. The “medium is the message” and multimedia has taken soundbite science and theology and made it appear as incontrovertible fact to the public which lacks the motivation, time or interest in asking questions or questioning authority, whomever declares themselves as an authority.
My thanks again for your excellent and informative comments !
Sigmund F. Kerns says
I have found it all makes more sense if I keep two “Eternal Verities” firmly in mind.
One’s somewhat theological—“The Devil may quote Scripture to further his own ends.” (Feel free to plug in your favourite malevolent entity in place of “Devil.” )
The other is the Propagandist’s by-word: “There Is Nothing One Cannot Prove, Providing One Selects One’s Data Carefully Enough!”
A third, or tertiary, slogan has been borrowed from embezzlement investigators: “Figures NEVER Lie; But Liars ALWAYS Figure!”
Always remember–or always seek to learn– from whom any alleged “Truth” comes. Learning or knowing WHO or WHAT originated a quote puts you far on the way toward determining if there are “Ulterior Motives” behind the remark..
And, remember always that there are “Ulterior Motives” to ANY remark. (If I don’t want you to believe it, I’d not have said it, in the first place!)
Truth is not always resident in WHAT is said– the real “Truth” often lies in what IS NOT said!
If it seems that the statement is only “part of the story,” it probably IS only a small part!
Then, there’s the propagandist’s by-word to keep in mind! Carefully think about what was said, and reflect upon whether you know if there are any contradictory facts.
Then, be wary of any “Figures” being bandied about. There are “Exceptions” to every “Rule,” and it is easy to make (potentially very rare) “Exceptions” seem like a majority opinion. Throw out all “Facts & Figures” that lack provable sources!
Always think about, and QUESTION, anything you are told.
The only person who really enjoys a creature that swallows whatever it sees is an ANGLER!
Do you want to be somebody’s trophy fish?