This text is the first in a collection of articles that current the concepts of my print-on-demand guide, “The Fourth Day: Why the Bible is Traditionally Correct”.
Once I was faculty pupil, I used to be launched to the idea of biblical inerrancy. My pastor, Al Jackson of Lakeview Baptist Church in Auburn, Alabama, drove the level residence that the Phrase of God, the Bible, was “God-breathed”. He defined that since the Bible was “God-breathed” it was created in the similar method as Adam when God breathed life into man in the guide of Genesis. The Bible was designed, similar to man was at creation, when God instructed over forty authors precisely what to write down. The Bible was designed in the sense that the entire guide’s function is the revelation of the messiah of mankind, Jesus Christ. The Bible factors to Christ in very direct methods by giving the particular traits of his human life. The prophecies of the Old Testament indicated he can be born in Bethlehem, by means of the line of Jesse, and by a virgin. The religious points of Christ are alluded to in the symbols of the atonement sacrifices the place animals had been placed on an altar after which sprinkled with salt, a logo of eternity, to symbolize the as soon as-and-for-all sacrifice that the Son of God would make on a cross sooner or later. God coordinated all this data to level to Christ, God’s plan for man’s salvation.
Since the time that my pastor defined this stuff to me I’ve taken them to coronary heart and I’ve studied the Bible with the angle that the Bible is traditionally appropriate in addition to spiritually appropriate. Conservative Christians have adopted this philosophy in each topic lined in the Bible apart from one, chronology. Chronology, the research of the historic timeline, has been a topic the place it appears the Christian neighborhood has conceded defeat. For no matter cause, Christians in the trendy period have sought compromise with students, a lot of whom are downright antagonistic to Christian beliefs, in order that the timeline of the Bible would have the stamp of authenticity from historians.
An article in Biblical Archaelogy Evaluate successfully demonstrates the stage of Biblical antagonism that archeological neighborhood can exhibit. Take into account an excerpt from the opening paragraph of an article entitled Minimalists on Parade (Biblical Archaeology Evaluate, Jan/Feb 2005, Vol 31, No. 1, Web page 16-17): “At a latest convention on reconstructing Israelite historical past held in Rome, the so-known as Biblical minimalist place was upheld by a lot of outstanding students. This place is not monolithic, nevertheless, and completely different minimalist students harassed completely different arguments. Amongst them:
*The Bible can’t be used as a historic supply. [The position that defines a Biblical minimalist.]
*Neither can archaeology, which might solely inform us whether or not historic Israelites ate from a bowl 20 or 30 centimeters vast. A historical past of Israel based mostly on archaeology is ineffective.
*There was no Exodus.
*The well-known Tel Dan inscription mentioning David, excavated by Israeli archaeologist Avraham Biran, is most likely a forgery; and the Hebrew phrases in the inscription that learn “Home [Dynasty] of David” most likely imply one thing else.
*David and Solomon are solely symbolic characters, not actual characters.
*The Biblical accounts of the United Kingdom of Judah and Israel below David and Solomon are merely later projections right into a distant mythic previous.
*Judah didn’t even turn into a state till a few hundred years after David-if he lived.” One scholar talked about on this article, Giovanni Garbini of the Universita’ di Roma La Sapienza, makes a very provocative remark on this article: “The title Jacob “is clearly a synthetic creation of put up-exilic age [after the Babylonian Exile]. It was not Jacob who turned Israel, however Israel who turned Jacob…”. These minimalists, who seem to symbolize the majority of the archaeological neighborhood, do not regard the Bible as traditionally correct. Amongst their objections: they do not consider that David, Solomon or Jacob existed and do not consider the Exodus ever occurred. These positions are as idealogically against the conservative Christian view of the Bible as one can picture. So why ought to we (Christians) search the counsel of this group in the understanding of such a treasured idea as the historic timeline of the Bible? But this is what has occurred.
Here is one other drawback with counting on the scientific neighborhood to authenticate the Bible: they’ve “rational” blinders on. Scientists that don’t have any religion in Christ are restricted of their potential to analyze as a result of they assume that sure phenomena are unimaginable even earlier than the investigation has begun. Since they think about themselves to be “rational” scientists the assumption that an “irrational” occasion has occurred is implausible. The scientific technique mainly permits anybody to make an assumption (any assumption), conduct analysis of identified info or run an experiment and use the analysis and/or the experiment to validate the assumption. These “rational” scientists when confronted with an “irrational” assumption merely leap over the analysis and experimental course of and declare that the assumption in invalid as a result of they’ve assumed the “irrational” assumption is simply not doable. So why do these “rational” scientists behave this fashion? Effectively, think about the following chance. For instance that an “irrational” occasion is assumed and knowledge is collected or an experiment is carried out to substantiate its validity. For instance that the irrational occasion has been validated. What can be the response of the “rational” scientist? Greater than probably, full denial. Such an final result would create full chaos in his philosophy since his “rational” technique of investigation, the scientific technique, would have been used to show that an “irrational” occasion was doable. So what is an “irrational” occasion? It is simply one other manner of claiming a supernatural occasion, one which is past our understanding. Can the scientific course of be used to validate an “irrational” occasion? Jesus Christ thought so. Jesus was explaining this concept of being “born once more” to a Pharisee named Nicodemus in the New Testament (John 3:8): “The wind blows the place it needs, and also you right here its sound, however you have no idea the place it comes from or the place it goes. So it is with everybody born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus was clearly confused by this idea of being “born once more” however Jesus was saying that even in the event you did not comprehend or consider this supernatural phenomenon may happen, similar to one thing as intangible as the wind, there can be tangible proof of it.
Definitely not all scientists consider on this method, however the nice majority of them do. What number of of those scientists will view the Bible with no preconceived notions? When these scientists learn in the Bible that the Earth was created in seven days they won’t think about this as true as a result of they’ve been educated that the universe is billions of years previous. When these scientists learn {that a} man lived to be 969 years previous in the Bible they dismiss it as fantasy or fairy story as a result of males do not at present dwell to be that previous. They won’t think about the chance that at one time in historical past males did dwell that lengthy. When these males learn the account of Noah and a worldwide flood they’ve at all times attributed it to “native” flooding. This will have some ring of fact to it since till that point, in line with the Bible, the world was one massive land mass (the world was multi function place, i.e., native). In keeping with the Bible the continents did not divide till the lifetime of Peleg, a descendant of Noah. Once more, the scientists actually aren’t going to agree with this concept of the land mass shift as a result of they are going to insist that this geological course of wanted thousands and thousands of years to accommodate the motion of the continental land lots. Since these archeologists disagree with Christians in so many basic issues described in the Bible how will we ever attain an settlement on a historic timeline?
The current chronological mannequin of the Bible is based mostly on a mix of Biblical fact and theoretical historic fashions. I consider it is time that we think about a brand new method to Biblical chronology. The mannequin I suggest is based mostly solely on the data in the Bible. If the Bible is true then historians will affirm the results of the theologians (assuming the theologians have interpreted the Bible appropriately). Why ought to God’s Phrase must be authenticated by males? If the Bible is really reliable the fact of the Bible must be laid out for males to see and reply to its fact. In 1995 David Rohl, an Egyptologist, wrote his guide A Check in Time to suggest a radically completely different concept in chronology. He proposed a timeline that was based mostly on some Biblical proof. In reality, Rohl’s proposed date of Solomon’s reign is according to the timeline developed from my literal interpretation of the Bible. What is much more wonderful about David Rohl is that he is described amongst archaeologists as a maximalist, somebody who believes the Bible is traditionally correct, but he characterizes himself as a religious “agnostic”. If David Rohl is a maximalist then I’m a “most” maximalist, somebody considerably to the proper of David Rohl’s view since I consider that the Bible is traditionally correct and certainly the very phrase of God because it claims to be. Due to this fact I consider my perspective on the chronology of the Bible is in contrast to something you have got ever heard earlier than.
The aim of my guide, “The Fourth Day: Why the Bible is Traditionally Correct”, was to show a biblical idea that I consider will synchronize the occasions recorded in the Bible with Egyptian historical past, Babylonian historical past, Persian historical past and Archaeology. The popularity of this idea will enable the reader to tie collectively all these areas of research in a single neat bundle in order that when considered collectively there is no discrepancy between the Bible and these different parts of historic historical past. The popularity of this idea can even illustrate that the Bible is not solely a reliable non secular doc however a reliable historic doc due to its chronological precision. First, assume that from the starting of creation to the finish of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ is a interval of 7000 years; a time interval analogous to the 7 day interval of creation of the world talked about in the guide of Genesis. Subsequent, acknowledge that the sacrifice of the Passover lamb in the Old Testament is symbolic of the proven fact that Jesus Christ was crucified precisely 4000 years after the creation of the world. In keeping with the Mosaic Legislation every household that noticed Passover was to buy a lamb 4 days previous to the day of Passover and that lamb was to dwell in that family till the late afternoon of the day when the Israelite priest needed to sacrifice the lamb and it was to be achieved by dusk. I consider these 4 days had been God’s manner of illustrating that the lamb of God, Jesus Christ, can be sacrificed on a cross 4000 years after the creation of the world. Due to this fact, symbolically and really, Jesus Christ was sacrificed on the fourth day.
While you acknowledge this idea to be true, a number of vital conclusions relating to historical past turn into evident. The Israelite Monarchies of David and Solomon occurred about 180 years later than held by historians. The interval of the Persian Empire from Cyrus the Nice’s announcement of the rebuilding of Jerusalem till Alexander the Nice’s invasion lasted solely 21 years (not the roughly 200 12 months interval at present held by historians). Egypt didn’t have a king (a Pharaoh) for 300 years between the twentieth and twenty first dynasties. I assist these conclusions utilizing the Bible, Astronomy, Archaeology, the writings of historic historians and the monuments of historic kings.
If you’re a Christian I believe you’ll like this concept. Here is why. I’m a religious believer in the inerrancy of the Bible. Nonetheless I’ve observed that the Typical Chronology of the Bible, the timeline mannequin of Biblical historical past taught in our Christian seminaries, does not match the accounts of the Bible. As an illustration, how can the Persian Empire final 200 years when the guide of Daniel signifies there have been solely 4 kings of Persia? If you’re a Christian which rationalization would you like, the historian’s theories or the Biblical account? I select to consider the Bible earlier than I consider the historians.
If you’re a fan of alternate views of historical past I consider you may be intrigued by this concept. The works of David Rohl (Pharoahs and Kings) and Peter James (Centuries of Darkness) are classics in the dialogue of historic fashions that vigorously problem historic historical past. Whereas I do not agree with them fully a lot of this guide helps a lot of their speculations and explains a lot of their observations. You’ll discover my mannequin of historical past to be extraordinarily distinctive in its method.
If you’re a historian or archaeologist I consider you’ll like my concepts. Clearly historians and archaeologists work hand-in-hand, the archaeologist gives the “exhausting” proof that helps the historian’s concept. This guide gives the mannequin to reply the following exhausting questions. Why is there just about no proof of the Persian Empire presence in Israel throughout the interval of the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple? Why is there half as a lot proof of the presence of the Babylonian Empire in Israel as anticipated? Why is there no archaeological proof of the “glory” of the reign of Solomon?
In the subsequent installment of this collection of articles I’ll tackle one among the most provocative discoveries of this method to historical past; the discovery that the Persian Empire described in the guide of Daniel solely lasted for 21 years and never the 200 years claimed by historians.
