Lessons from Sodom

We're about to begin, but this is going to be a PowerPoint presentation, so they'll be putting that pretty quickly. And I'll get my pointer ready. Yes. As you can see, we are going to talk about lessons from Sodom. That is a subject that I've lately been able to focus on more.

And when you think about the fall seasons that are very close now, and the picture of the coming kingdom of God, it's so encouraging, just like what Bill Wozner said about the hope that we have.

We have these seven feasts that are centered on what Christ and God the Father are doing for mankind. They are key concepts of this. And every year we're like spiritual pilgrims that go from one spiritual oasis to another. And now we're getting ready for these fall spiritual oasis that we're about ready to enjoy. And yet, to truly appreciate it, sometimes we need to contrast. You don't know how hungry you are until you go through a prolonged fast. It might sound like intellectually, oh, that's not too bad, but when you fast you realize it's tough on the body. So you need always the contrast. You don't know what sweet is unless there's something that's bitter. And we've got these fall feasts of God, but we also have, in contrast, the world's feasts, really come from a pagan origin. And they try to Christianize it, just like you would take maybe a horse, and you painted it like a cow, and you called it a cow, but it's still a horse. You can't de-paganize something that came from its origins this way, whereas God's feasts, they're right here in the Bible. They started in the book of Genesis, right during the first chapter, where God said He set up the solar system and all the times for us to keep the fall feasts and the rest of God's feasts in Genesis 1.14. You can just write it down, and you look at some of the modern translations, and it says that I have set up all of these, the sun and the moon and everything around, for these religious celebrations, these fall feasts that God had in mind, and the spring feasts as well.

And as you look in the book of Genesis, you see a contrast between Abraham and the heritage that he would have, his way of life and following in the footsteps of Abraham, and he was in the land of Canaan.

And you have the contrast with the Canaanite pagan system, which actually sacrificed their firstborn to the god Moloch. And they had all of these horrible pagan practices. They had degenerated morally, and yet Abraham was there.

He was a light to them in all of this darkness. And you see the difference between the heritage of Abraham and the heritage of Canaan and their way of life.

And we are part of Abraham's heritage. God has called us out of the darkness and confusion of the world, and not the way of the Canaanites. Notice what God says in Genesis 15, verse 13. Genesis 15, verse 13. God made a covenant with Abraham at that time. Genesis 15, verse 13. Then he said to Abram, Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. That's the period of time they would be in Egypt.

And also the nation whom they serve I will judge afterward. They shall come out with great possessions. God had planned this ahead of time. Now as for you, talking about Abraham, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried along with your ancestors. You shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation, talking about his descendants, they shall return here to Canaan. For the iniquity of the Amorites, also analogous to Canaanites, is not yet complete. So God was giving the Canaanite people a chance, a long time, for them to repent of their sins. And they never did. They just got worse and worse. And it's happening again with our society. We're becoming more and more like the Canaanites. And part of those Canaanites were the Sodomites. The people who lived in Sodom were Canaanites. They had that heritage.

And yet God was patient with them, just like he is with today's society. But he sees the generation, and more and more people are turning their backs on God and going away in their Canaanite lusts and wickedness. We see that all the time.

And so last month I had the opportunity to go with a couple more of the Beyond Today writers like Scott Ashley, Peter Eddington, Darris McNeely, Tom Robinson, and myself. We were able to go to an archaeological conference hosted by the gentleman who actually discovered this site, the ancient Sodom, from everything. All the evidence points to this being that way. And I'm going to show you a bit because we want to be aware of this Canaanite culture and how God, who is a God of love and mercy, finally had no recourse. But to end every person who lived in that area.

And there is an important lesson for all of us because we do not want to go the way of the world. Canaan symbolized worldliness. Yes, especially in Sodom, they lived in a very fertile land, well watered. And yet, instead of thanking God, they became prosperous and eventually corrupt to the point where God just knew that it was like the barrel of rotten apples. If He allowed that Canaanite society to continue, they would rot everything else around them, just like they could in our society today.

And so, it is a lesson of wickedness, degeneracy, and again, there's a contrast with just like we have these holy days to look forward to in that coming kingdom of peace and justice and purity and love. Well, this society is going the wrong way. And so, I want to use the symbol of Sodom and the lessons it can teach us.

And so, I'm going to start here with a PowerPoint presentation. And here we have Dr. Stephen Collins. He's from Trinity University over there in Albuquerque. They hosted that conference we were able to go to and a very fine man. He actually was teaching and visiting as one of the tour guides, archeologists. You take groups down to the southern part of the Dead Sea where they thought that was where the place was.

But he started feeling in the Bible, it talked about that Abraham and Lot saw the plains of the Jordan and that Lot chose that and they were in the area of Ai and Bethel. And we know that area was in the north of Jerusalem. And we actually had an article printed on this very topic this January and February. What if Sodom had been found?

January, February, 2022, beyond today. I'm not sure, but we might have some copies left of that. You can certainly order it or see it online if you'd like. We wrote extensively about it. And now we were able to get more information in this latest conference.

They had done an additional dig in this area called Tal El Hamam. That's kind of the Jordanian name for this mound. And there you can see Stephen Collins and to his right is this huge mound. And he found it because of the biblical geographical markers. He finally just said, the Bible says that they were able to see this area from the north. And nobody had really paid attention to this area, which was east of the Jordan River. And so he started back in 2004 visiting, and he found this huge place. He got permission to begin the excavations in 2005, and they're still at it.

And they've discovered incredible things about it. If we go further here, this account about Sodom begins in the Bible in Genesis 13, when Abraham and Lot choose where to live. Let me read it to you. You can look it up here, Genesis 13, 2 and 3, and 10 and 11. It says, Abraham was very rich because he had livestock, silver, and gold. He traveled from place to place. He went from the Negev as far as Bethel to the area between Bethel and Ai. So this is where he was situated. And you can look there in the map, and you can see Bethel and Ai. And to the east was the Jordan River, and the other side would be Sodom, Gomorrah, and three other cities.

It says where his tent had been originally. Then Lot looked in the direction of Zor as far as he could see. This is about 20 miles that you can see to the east. You can't see the bottom of the Dead Sea from this area. Lot saw this. He saw that the whole Jordan plain was well watered like the Lord's Garden or like Egypt. In other words, it was very fertile, well irrigated, many different streams and rivers in that area.

It says, this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot chose the whole Jordan plain. This word in Hebrew, kikar, means something round. And this is an area that opens up to just like it would be a round valley for himself. He moved toward the east. They each went their own way. So what have they found? This is what they have found as an artistic, architectural archaeologist, Leen Rittmeyer. When he went there, he took the measurements. And you can see there, the city had actually two different levels. The lower level for the regular population and then the upper level. That's where the palace and all of the administrative buildings were.

Very fertile. A lot of streams around it. And here we have another picture of the kikar, which is this round area. Jericho is to the left, to the west. And then you have these different cities, which include Sodom, Gomorrah, and then the rest of the smaller, Reboim, Agnath, and the other. Around Sodom, you have four surrounding minor cities, including Gomorrah, that now have been excavated as well.

The account of the destruction of Sodom is found in Genesis 18 and 19. And its description of that society is similar to what we see today. You can't really go out very much now at night because you are going to find all kinds of strange people out there.

You don't know what's going to happen. That wasn't that way 40 years ago. People could walk, ladies were comfortable. Now it is a dangerous place. And you see how girls are being kidnapped. One just recently got killed. I think it was in the Florida area. I can't remember exactly. She was an heiress. But she was running and she was kidnapped and killed. Notice what it says in Genesis 18 verse 1.

Notice the Middle East hospitality. They really go out to make you feel comfortable. He says, and I will bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh your heart. After that you may pass by in as much as you have come to your servant. They said do as you have said.

So Abraham hurried into Sarah and said quickly make ready three measures of fine meal needed and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man and he hastened to prepare it.

He said about the morsel. That's very typical in Middle East, even Latin America. He said, just come in for a bite. And when you come in, it's basically a banquet. They're preparing you for. So he took butter and milk and calf, which he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree as they ate.

I want to go a little a little further forward.

He goes on in verse 17, and the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. Because the Messiah, Christ would come through him. And notice as Bill Wozner brought up that it's not just grace. It's obedience, too. You don't leave out obedience. No, nobody deserves it. But you do have a part to fulfill that God expects, as he did of Abraham. He was going to give them all of this. But notice the reason.

He says, verse 19, For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. The Lord may bring. You see, it's still conditional, because you can turn your back on God. You can walk away. And those promises and all the inheritance and heritage that you can have, that will disappear. So he knew Abraham was going to be faithful to the end. But yet he left a little bit of the conditional element, because this is what he saw in Abraham. But Abraham still had free will. He could turn away from God.

Verse 20, And the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to me. And if not, I will know. It's interesting that God gets reports from angels. And basically the angels have been bringing such awful reports that finally the one who later became Christ, because here he ate with Abraham, this is a type of an appearance that is called a Christography, which is the same as it's an appearance of the pre-existing Christ. This is one of the times he does this. He says, And I will go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to me. And if not, I will know. And then, of course, you have Abraham trying to negotiate, and well, what if there's 50 righteous people? Would you destroy Sodom? God said, No, I won't. And he got down to 10. And actually, the only ones who escaped Sodom were four. And one eventually turned their back and didn't go forward. So only three were saved out of that huge city of thousands of people. This area of Sodom, the size is 10 times the size of Jericho, which is a considerable city. This was 10 times. So you can imagine how many people were there. Abraham did not want to see that destruction. But again, Abraham didn't know how bad it had gotten.

And so then in chapter 19, it says, verse one, Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and the Lord was sitting in the gate of Sodom. We assume here that Christophany, actually Christ was invisible at that moment. And there were two. The two angels were present. But there was a third one watching everything going on.

Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. Now, this is interesting that Stephen Collins said, if this is the city of Sodom that we're excavating, there has to be a gate because Lot was sitting there in the gate.

And if there's a city gate, that means there's a wall. And so he started excavating and he found the wall. He found this huge gate as well. We're going to see that in a moment. See if I have this.

Yeah, it's right here. This is the destruction of that area. And then you see here, that's where the palace was. And basically, that whole palace was just knocked off of its foundation.

So what you see there at the bottom, just the foundation, the walls, everything just got knocked off. That was an explosion that was so powerful.

And so, Lot tries to intervene, but things were so bad, they actually tried to rape the angels, the inhabitants there. It says, verse 11, There's a note of encouragement here, because as the end time unfolds and develops, there's going to be a time when God is going to protect his people. And there is a place that God is going to prepare to take his people while all of these great plagues fall upon mankind. And we have this here where it says, have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, take them out of this place. It means that those that are converted have God's Spirit who will have an opportunity to have family members. Although they're not in the faith because of that faithful person, they are going to have a chance. Although, just like here in Sodom, don't get your hopes up too high because they ridiculed them. It says here, verse 14, that when the son-in-law was in law, he seemed to be joking. They didn't take him seriously. It's interesting that Dr. Collins, when he excavated all of these layers, and they've excavated other ancient cities around, well, that area of Sodom was so fertile, so prosperous, that when they had droughts in other areas where it diminished the population, and there was a period of time when that population dropped off in Sodom, they just continued because they had so much water coming down from the mountains, and they had fertility. So these people had been continuously living in Sodom for thousands of years. And so the age is thinking, Sodom's been around so long, and now you're saying it's going to be destroyed? How's that going to happen?

And so it says in verse 15, When the morning dawn, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city. There's going to be a time of flight when God is going to say it's time. It's not going to be easy, but God's going to make it very clear. It's not going to be some wild type of proclamation. It's going to be done by God. He's going to make it sure God's people know it's time to go.

He says, and while he lingered, talking about Lot, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. So it came to pass when they had brought them outside that he said, Escape for your life. Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains lest you be destroyed. In other words, that whole valley was going to suffer what now they have discovered this complete destruction that came.

And I'd like to read here from the report about what these archaeologists found. It says, a Tunguska-sized airburst destroyed Tal El-Haman, a middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley, near the Dead Sea.

And you see here the website, nature.com, scientific reports. It says, we present evidence that in 1650 B.C., around that time, 3600 years ago, a cosmic airburst destroyed Tal El-Haman, a middle Bronze Age city in the southern Jordan Valley, northeast of the Dead Sea. The proposed airburst, which means this meteorite, came and it exploded above the city and it just annihilated. And what you find in that city are just bones jutting out of the clay. You have a complete destruction, which we're going to show a little bit more in a moment. The proposed airburst was larger than the 1908 explosion over Tunguska, Russia, where a 50-meter-wide bolide, which is a meteorite, detonated with 1,000 times more energy than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. A citywide 1.5-meter-thick carbon and ash-rich destruction layer contains peak concentrations of chocked quartz, melted pottery and mud bricks, diamond-like carbon. The heat was so much, it turned carbon more into this crystal, like a diamond. You can imagine it was like 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. They say for an instant that area was hotter than the surface of the sun. He says melted pottery and mud bricks, diamond-like carbon, soot, sphere-like quartz objects, melted platinum, which comes from meteorites, very rich in them, iridium, another mineral that comes from meteorites, nickel, gold, silver, zircon, chromite and quartz.

So after over a decade of excavating, this is the conclusion they came to. That's where the information is. Here you have a skull on the top that completely got baked.

There's a leg bone, and everything is torn apart. It's not like a war or a conquest that came in, and you see intact skeletons. No, this was just annihilation.

This is articulation. And the place, as Dr. Collins says, it still smells bad like sulfur, and no crops can grow on the mound. There's no fruits or anything. It's still something horrible that happened there.

Basically, they were not able to repopulate this beautiful plain for 500 years. The next time they see any structures, it's 500 years later in the Iron Age. Here in the excavation, you'll see the back wall there, and Dr. Collins showed us a picture of some of these back walls where these heavy clay jars used for containment of water and everything were hurled with such force that they got embedded in the water.

And you can see the force, and everything is tilted northeast. The impact hit, and it just pushed everything in the northeastern direction. And part of the Dead Sea, that top part, actually was also evaporated, and this brine of water, which is salty water, covered the whole area. And they still can detect the salt content from the Dead Sea that evaporated and fell on this whole area.

Okay, so now we have some scriptures in the New Testament that we should remember. Matthew 10, verse 14. Christ said about those that are going to be sending out God's truths to the world, and those who do not heed, they don't listen, it says, And whoever will not receive you, nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. As surely, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.

So Christ mentions that people will one day have to pay a price for shutting their eyes and ears from the truth of God.

In Luke 17, verse 26, Jesus talked about the end time conditions, and he said, And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will also be in the days of the Son of Man. Verse 28, Likewise, as it was also in the days of Lot, they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built. Things were going great there, very prosperous, until the day that Lot went out of Sodom. It rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.

And that's what the evidence has been found, that there was actually nobody that survived that, that wrote about it. That whole area got wiped out. There were no living witnesses in that whole area. And he says, verse 30, Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. The conditions are going to be very similar. And anywhere you go.

I remember bringing some of family members. My daughter Jackie married a Dutch fellow and they came over. Now it's going to be about eight, nine years that they've been married. And the Dutch just wanted to be here in Southern California. In one of the places they said, we want to go to see Venice Beach.

Yeah, if you've been there, I tell you, I went that one time I'm not going back because it's even worse now. But about every 50 steps that you took, there was this guy with a green jacket trying to sell me marijuana with, you know, that they can write this permission, medical.

Now you don't need a medical permission. People are smoking marijuana like popping gumdrops. And it's not getting any better. That's not the way to improve your life, to end up being a pothead. And so it's happening, brethren, just like God said it would. We are living at those times of Sodom and Gomorrah, and God's going to have to act in 2 Peter, chapter 2. 2 Peter, chapter 2.

People think they can get away with it. Well, if you see what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, you know, I wouldn't bet my house over it. I wouldn't bet against God at all because he's loving, but he is firm. 2 Peter 2, verse 4, it says, And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, and that's exactly what you find there, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly. So they're an example. That's a living lesson for the world today. We don't want to end up being just ashes and turned into ashes as they were. And he says, And delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked, for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds.

And so, yeah, Lot had learned from Abraham the true religion, the way of life, and he saw the different heritages. Abraham's heritage and Sodom's heritage, the Canaanite way.

And Lot did not want that. He says, And one final scripture here in Jude. On this section, I've still got a couple scriptures left. Jude verses 6 and 7. It says, And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. And of course, these are spirit beings, and they are confined again. They are still able to visit the third heaven that hasn't been shut down, and they're going to try to storm it one last time. That hasn't happened yet, but it will.

And it says here, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of that great day, as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, in a similar manner to these, they didn't keep the way of God.

Having given themselves over to sexual immorality, and gone after strange flesh.

Do you know that the term sodomite means homosexual? That was what was used in previous times before even the term homosexual was used.

Sodomite was what was called a person that continued relations with their own sex.

It says, and are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. So here we have evidence that really 20 years ago, nobody knew of this place.

And it was just one man who was looking at the Bible, an archeologist, that actually was touring and sending tourists down to Sodom and part of the Dead Sea, until he said, well, this doesn't make sense according to the Bible.

And with the Bible in his hand, he went and he figured out where the geography matched. And sure enough, that's where he found this place.

And they have 17 different lines of evidence, archeological, scientific, chemical, and all of those lines of evidence point to this place. It's the only one that satisfies all 17 lines of evidence.

And so there's one more scripture here in Luke 17 that I want to cover. I've got some more here in the conclusion, but this is the last one of the body of the message. Luke 17. It says, verse 30.

Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day, he who is on the housetop and his goods are in his house, let him not come down to take them away.

This is a time when God is going to call his people. And likewise, the one who is in the field, let him not turn back.

I don't know how God's going to do it, but everybody that has God's spirit around the world will know that it is time to go to this place.

And he says, remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

Who is putting God first?

And so, here's what we can do. There are two important scriptures to remember.

Ezekiel 9, 3-6. This is what we can do now. Ezekiel 9, verse 6. It says, verse 4. It started in verse 3. 3-6. Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the carob, where it had been to the threshold of the temple, and he called to the man clothed with linen, who had the riders in corn at his side. This was one of the angels. And the Lord said to him, go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it, just like Lot. Just like righteous Lot. And to the others, he said in my hearing, go after him through the city and kill. Do not let your eyes spare, nor have any pity, utterly slay, old and young, men maidens, and little children and women. But do not come near anyone on whom is the mark, and begin at my sanctuary. So God always takes care of his own. We have to have that faith. We have to have that confidence. We're in good hands with God. And now, just like Ezekiel 9 is in the Old Testament, what is the equivalent Scripture in the New Testament? Let's go to Revelation 18, verse 1. And I'll be ending with this Scripture. Revelation 18, 1-6.

It says, After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, Babylon, the great has fallen. Yes, Babylon is that false way of life, the way of Cain, the way of the Canaanites, and the religious Babylon that we are surrounded.

With. It says, And has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her.

They all come and they're all in cahoots together. And the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury, this false religious system. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, unless you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Just like he did with Sodom. God is going to act at the right time.

But we are not part of that system. As in the first message, we have the love of the truth. We have these wonderful feasts to look forward to that coming kingdom of righteousness, of peace, of love, that Christ is going to come back. And we no longer will have to remember what happened to Sodom.