place demonstrated not to have exist ed before a much later date. These men also lived in real times. Look, for example, at Joshua 24:2-4 and 14, 15. Among the most fascinat ing 20th century archeological dis coveries has been the uncovering of buried documents which relate to these areas mentioned in this ac count. There are legal documents, business contracts and personal let ters telling us a great deal about how people lived in the northern part of Mesopotamia during the early centuries. In their normal social con tacts, the Old Testament patriarchs lived by the same set of manners and customs as did the other people of that same era. In those days the ma jority of people were polytheistic, worshipping many gods. Each city, however, was usually dedicated to one deity who was looked upon as the protector. The archeological find ings consistently bear out the bio graphical information we find in the Bible. As one example, the account of the sale of birthrights have been uncovered by scientists in recent days. In each account found in the Genesis record, we find overwhelm ing and convincing proof of the Bi ble’s inspiration and authenticity. C hapter F our T he B ible reveals itself to be the truth of God by the fact that it is absolutely unified in every degree. The Scripture cannot be broken. The divine subject of redemption through Jesus Christ is the overwhelming theme. All of the Bible is equally and absolutely inspired. Old Testa ment personalities such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, were real people, living in real places. There are no myths with which we have to reckon. This is one of the proofs of that fact. Every spade of dirt the arche ologists turn over literally verifies again these various biblical passages. In Matthew 22:31-32 we find the 19
cal. Evolution is one of the results of such downgrading of the truth. The leaders of God, spoken of in the Old Testament, were real people liv ing at a definite time in human his tory. They were men of faith de spite their failings. They serve as good examples for us. Only in our 20th century knowledge of the rich pre-Greek world history has been uncovered. Before that, people ac cepting the Bible as true history, did so by faith. Yet in the final an alysis, they were the best informed. It’s sad to realize that there are many who teach in seminaries across the land, who hold to the completely erroneous view that the Word of God isn’t really the fully inspired truth of the Lord. In Acts 7:2-9 there is an in te r e s tin g account about the reality of these biog raphies. This passage validates the veracity of these leaders and patri archs. These people lived in real sub stantial places. Stephen, the first Christian m a rty r of th e early Church, stood before the Jewish Sanhedrin to explain his activities as a believer. His defense was based on a recital of the history of Israel. His hearers would have been glad to trip him up on even the smallest point. Stephen based his claims for Christ on the reality of God's cove nant with the fathers of Israel. The Saviour, in answering the Saducees’ questions on the concept of immortality and the resurrection, clinched His reply with reference to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Matt. 22:32). If the book of Genesis is merely a human writing, penned as late as the 8th century before Christ, then the author or authors would have placed Abraham in towns that were known to him rather than men tioning places long since forgotten. Yet, consistently, we see these Old Testament patriarchs stopping at places known only by later archeo logical excavations. Never once are they described as having visited a
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