What If Sodom Has Been Found?

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Let me just get into the sermon here now with you. A story of biblical proportions, a story with deep biblical implications, is being picked up by news outlets across the country and around the world. Let me tell you what it is. A week and a half before the Feast of Tabernacles, right after the Feast of Trumpets, I attended a biblical archaeology conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Along with me was Scott Ashley, of course, the managing editor of our Beyond Today magazine, Tom Robinson, one of our senior writers, and Don Harms, a member from Colorado who has a keen interest in biblical archaeology. Many different topics about various archaeological sites were covered by a number of speakers for three full days. And a few of those lectures were of particular interest to us as a church.

Dr. Scott Stripling gave two lectures. He serves as provost at the Bible Seminary in Houston, Texas, and as the director of excavations for the Associates for Biblical Research at Chirbet al-Mukhara in Shiloh, Israel. Earlier this year, he went back and reanalyzed and partially re-excavated a site on Mount Ibal, finding evidence which strongly points to it being the site of Joshua's altar, constructed shortly after the Israelites entered the Promised Land.

And his latest analysis strongly points to this being accurate. He's also the director at a dig at Shiloh in Israel, where he's made a number of very interesting finds, including evidence which points to the exact location of the tabernacle when it was at Shiloh. Shiloh was the first capital of Israel. I think it was the capital for about 300 years. He's found three horns of a four-horned altar and bone deposits of what appear to be sacrifice animals that match the priests' portion.

Bones overwhelmingly from the right side of the animal. He's also located storerooms where he thinks Israelites brought their tithes, and most significantly, the stone platform upon which he feels the tabernacles stood. And so these sites are more than 3,000 years old. Dr. Stripling is having another excavation season there later this year, hopefully to excavate the rest of the platform. Another fascinating lecture was given by Dr. Rami Arav about the Bethsaida excavations project. You've heard of Bethsaida? This dig has been ongoing since 1987 near the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, and Dr.

Arav believes the ancient mound of Ettell on the north shore is actually the site of the biblical village of Bethsaida. Philip was from Bethsaida, and it was also the city of Andrew and Peter. But here's the kicker. The host and organizer of the conference was Dr. Stephen Collins, the executive dean at Albuquerque's Trinity Southwest University. For 15 years, he's been excavating a site he believes is the biblical Sodom. In just the last 12 months, some very exciting scientific discoveries have been made.

The excavation site is in the Jordan Valley, across from Jericho, but on the Jordanian side of the Jordan River. So the site's actually in Jordan. The site is huge. It's easily four to five times the size of Jericho. Dr. Collins and his team, which has included Don Harms, our member from Colorado, who's really interested in this stuff, made a lot of progress just this past year in finding evidence of overwhelming destruction at this place, which is called today Tal Al-Hamam.

At the conference, Dr. Collins spoke about this being the most probable site for the ancient city of Sodom. Another scientist also spoke, Dr. Philip Silvia. Dr. Silvia is a field archaeologist and supervisor with the Tal Al-Hamam Excavations Project, and this is all being done in cooperation with the Department of Antiquities of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Well, just two weeks ago, a scientific paper, a peer research paper 65 pages long, authored by 21 scientists, including Dr. Silvia, was released to scientific journals around the world.

And the initial publication of the research paper was in Nature Scientific Reports at Nature.com. Now, in looking at what they found and the evidence we saw even at the conference in Albuquerque, I would say the Tal Al-Hamam Excavations site fits the biblical description of the location of Sodom very well.

The destruction layers found by the archaeologists also fit the biblical description of the city's sudden end. And the evidence shows a supernatural destruction of whatever used to be there.

Now, our UCG editorial department here at the Home Office does have some dating issues with this site. I did want to mention that as well. Our chronology of the time in which Abraham lived doesn't quite match up with the dating given at the site by the scientists. They place the destruction of the city from the archaeological evidence about 175 years later than we would. Of course, we're talking about something that's more than 3,000 years ago, right? So, 175 years isn't a lot. But we feel they're off a little bit with their dating. The scientists are very insistent. Their dating methods of the site are correct. And at present, we don't have an easy answer for that. If you start doing research on it, no one does. Dr. Collins proposes slightly different dates than we would. But I'm thinking that more will come to light in the coming months and years, along with more archaeological discoveries, which may bring us closer together on the date of the site. But the site itself is very compelling for the ancient city of Sodom. Several other reputable archaeologists have also concluded this is indeed the site of Sodom, in spite of the dating issues, including Dr. Scott Stripling, who's a well-known archaeologist in Shiloh and Mount Ebel, as I mentioned. And he's also dug there on the site. And Lean Rittmeyer, who we interviewed years ago in our Good News magazine, also feels very strongly that this is the place.

So, a story with deep biblical and spiritual implications, a story of, I would say, biblical proportions, is being right now published across the archaeological community. And so, with this background, let's ask, has Sodom been found?

Or a play on words, is our world returning to Sodom?

Literally and figuratively. The title of our message today is, What If Sodom Has Been Found? We're going to look into the scriptures to see what happened to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. We're also going to look at what scientists have discovered. And from that, we must ask ourselves, what if Sodom has been found? What are the implications? What does it mean for humanity? What should it mean to you and me?

I've divided the sermon up into seven parts as we go through to just give it some structure. And part one is, where was Sodom located? And that takes us back to Genesis chapter 13. So my first part, or point one, is where was Sodom located? And if we look at Genesis chapter 13, we won't read the whole chapter, but just verses 10 through 13. Genesis 13 verse 10, if you read this with me here, Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan that was well watered everywhere. It says, this is before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. It was like the Garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go towards Zohar. So right in this verse, verse 10, there are a number of descriptors of where Sodom was located. When Lot lifted up his eyes, as it says in verse 10, he was actually standing between Bethel and I. You read that in verse 3. See, Abraham and Lot were looking down over the valley from Bethel and I, and deciding which way Lot would go and which way Abraham would go.

And Lot chose the nice part. And Abraham took Canaan.

Lot said, I want that nice spot down there where Sodom is.

So he saw all the plain of Jordan, and it was well watered. And he said, that's the place I want. And he was near Bethel and I when he looked down and saw that. The word for plain is the Hebrew word kikar, K-I-K-K-I-R. He looked down and saw all the kikar of Jordan. And it also means circle or dish or plate. It's actually referring to a circular area. In Hebrew, when people look at the moon, they talk about the kikar of the moon. It's like a round dish, a kikar, a circle. So then verse 11, Lot chose himself all the kikar of Jordan, the plain, the circle of Jordan. So Lot journeyed east from Bethel and I, and so Abraham and him separated from each other. Of course, verse 12, it's Abram at this point. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, the hakikar, and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.

But the man of Sodom, verse 13 tells us, were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord.

So there's a number of descriptors here. Notice the end of verse 10. It says, as you go toward Zohar as well. Another idea of where this is. When you stand on the road between Bethel and I, and I've done this, and you look down southeast towards the Jordan River to the Dead Sea, the best location for where Sodom was located is at an obvious flat, circular kikar plain just north of the Dead Sea near Jericho.

Now, some scientists say Sodom was at the south end of the Dead Sea, not the north end. And if you look on maps, even in the back of your Bible, it may have Sodom down at the south end of the Dead Sea, not at the north.

But you can't see this plain. You can't see the the south end, I should say, of the Dead Sea from Bethel and I. That's too far way down over the horizon. But you can definitely see the north end of the Dead Sea from Bethel and I. You can easily see the flat, round, disk-like fertile plain where the Jordan River enters the Dead Sea. And this is where Tal Al-Hamam is located, right at the north end of the Dead Sea. Let's go to Genesis chapter 19. We're all very familiar with the destruction by God of Sodom and Gomorrah. Because of the sins of the people in those cities and the surrounding towns, only a handful of residents escaped. Abraham pleaded with God to save the city if even a few righteous people could be found. Unfortunately, other than Abraham's nephew Lot and his family, there were none righteous. It was a decadent part of the earth. Genesis 19 verse 15.

This is where Lot is being taken out of the city by the angels to escape the destruction that God was about to bring upon Sodom. When the morning dawned, Genesis 19 verse 15, the angels urged Lot to hurry. Let's get going here, buddy. Saying, arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city. So it wasn't, you know, lest you, you know, fall over and twist your ankle or, you know, hit a rock and die. No, lest you be consumed with what was about to take place. And while he lingered, verse 16, the man took hold of his hand, Lot's like dawdling here. Took his hand, hold of his hand, his wife's hand and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him. Let's get going, buddy. And they brought him out and set him outside the city. Verse 17. So it came to pass when they brought them outside that the angels said, escape for your life. Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains lest you be destroyed.

So Lot was to escape to the mountains. He said he didn't want to go there.

Lot asked if he could escape to the city of Zohar instead of trying to live in the mountains. So the angel said, okay, you can go there. Verse 23. The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zohar. So it was the next morning. And then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens. This came out of the sky, the destruction. Verse 25. So God overthrew those cities, all the plain, the whole Kika, all the inhabitants of the cities. There wasn't a Sodom and Gomorrah. There were about another hundred villages and towns there.

All the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. Nothing could grow afterwards. The crops were destroyed. Verse 26. But Lot's wife looked back behind him. She became a pillar of salt. For some reason, she wanted to return. So she had to die, like everybody else in the city did. And verse 27. Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord, up there at Bethel and I. Verse 28. And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain, the Kika, and he saw and behold the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. This still wasn't just a bushfire. Like the smoke of a furnace.

Part 2. So what have scientists found? What have the scientists found? Let's compare with this biblical description and see if there's any correlation with the evidence. I mentioned Dr. Philip Silvia a moment ago. He's also the director of scientific analysis for Tal Al-Hamam and its excavation project. On September 20th, the eve of the Feast of Tabernacles this year, Dr. Silvia announced the publication of a major paper in Nature Scientific Reports titled, A Tunguska-Sized Airburst. You ever heard of that comet that hit Tunguska in Siberia in 1908 and leveled forests for miles around? You ever seen those pictures from Tunguska in Siberia where a comet hit the ground? This paper's titled, A Tunguska-Sized Airburst Destroyed Tal Al-Hamam A Middle Bronze Age City in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea. The paper's got a long title.

But this massive, peer-reviewed paper written by 20 contributing scientists in addition to Dr. Silvia provides detailed forensic evidence that a cosmic airburst obliterated Tal Al-Hamam. The largest city in the Dead Sea area during the time of Abraham around 1700 BC. Tal Al-Hamam, Excavation Director, who I mentioned, Dr. Stephen Collins, has long proposed the site as the most likely candidate for the biblical city of Sodom. It's in the right place, according to Janus' sources. Its settlement history, based on the archaeological evidence, spends the right time to match the biblical references to Sodom, with the exception, as I noted, of the slight dating issue we have with the date they came up with. They're not quite the same, but we'll see how that works out over time. And the architecture and the artifacts found are exactly right for the type of city and stature that was given to Sodom. During the early seasons of the Tal Al-Hamam Excavation Project, the team discovered a strange burn layer just below the modern surface of the artifact-filled, half-mile-long cultural mound. In 2014, the Comet Research Group, a non-profit corporation in Arizona, was invited to bring one of their teams to assist in the examination of material evidence from within the destruction layer.

The Comet Research Group, or CRG, has authored more than 40 major journal publications defining another cosmic catastrophe at the close of the last ice age, 13,000 years ago, the so-called younger Dreyes Impact. Now, the Comet Research Group is not a religious group. It's a group of, shall we say, comet scientists. And the motto on their website says this. I love it. Think our last space attack was 65 million years ago from the dinosaur killer asteroid? Think again. Killer comets are more common than you've been taught. At CRG, our mission is to prove it and to do something about it before your city is next. So, okay. So this was the group that came to examine the evidence at Tell Al-Hamam. The archaeological history of the site was well-defined and laid out after 15 years of excavations, but a different set of skills was needed to examine the burn layer. And the CRG had the technical and forensic ability to determine whether or not the field evidence supports the biblical description. Well, far from being conspiracy theory fiction, the biblical account of destruction from the sky turned out to be supported by numerous lines of geochemical and material evidence buried below the surface of the mound. A carbon and ash rich destruction layer contained peak concentrations of shopped quartz, melted pottery and mud bricks, diamond-like carbon, soot, iron-rich and silicon-rich sferols, sferols from melted plaster and melted platinum, iridium, nickel, gold, silver, zircon, chromite and quartz. Those aren't just minerals you find lying around in the desert. They're the kind of minerals that come off a comet, if you've ever seen one of the kind of minerals around a comet. Heating experiments indicate temperatures instantly exceeded 2,000 degrees Celsius. Instantly. How hot is that? Was it enough to turn a truck into a molten pile of iron? Dr. Alan West of the CIG says of the findings, quote, among more technical evidence we discovered human bones that had been splattered by molten glass from the event. The glass is indistinguishable from that found at ground zero after atomic explosions. So the only place you find stuff like this is at the site of a nuclear blast. He says these people were killed by the heat and pressure of an atomic-like explosion, but without the radiation. I have a handout to go along with this that's from the research paper. I wanted to go ahead and have the ushers hand out for us now, if you would. Biblical scholars for centuries have proposed other locations, I must say, for the cities of the plain. Like I said, often at the south end of the Dead Sea, ranging from Tal-Al-Hamam at the north end of the Dead Sea to several sites to the south. But the text of Genesis 13 clearly puts the city in the north, visible from Bethel and I, where Abraham and Lot were looking from. The evidence is overwhelmingly supportive of Stephen Cullen's claim that Tal-Al-Hamam is the right place at the right time with the right evidence to be the most logical candidate for this infamous city.

Dr Sylvia has produced 14 lines of evidence that help confirm this as the location for the ancient city of Sodom. Now, the paper is available for free download online if any of you are curious enough to go read the 60-some pages at Nature Scientific Reports. For those watching online, I'll just mention the URL. It's nature.com slash articles, right? Nature.com slash articles, then a lowercase s followed by a bunch of numbers. So if anybody wants to watch this later, they can find the paper. Nature.com slash articles slash s 41598-021-97778-3. I've got that on the handout at the top, too, but if someone online is trying to track this down. So now, part three, let's look at the handout. Part three, let's go ahead and take a look at the handout. It contains four of the graphics from the paper published at Nature Scientific Reports. Of course, they've got hundreds of graphics, but I just chose four of them here today. I would encourage you to go online and read the paper if you wish, and you'll find dozens of additional images and graphics and analysis and formulas and graphs and charts and all the whole deal. But here's what I've included in the handout. So let's just briefly discuss each image, and I've asked our webcast team there to show them to our online audience as well. The first one on page one is the location of Tal Al-Hamam. The photo A at the top on page one is a photo of the southern Levant looking north, showing the Dead Sea, the site location of Tal Al-Hamam, and the nearby countries. So you've got Israel to the left, Jordan to the right, Egypt down to the bottom left, and Saudi Arabia down to the bottom right. But right in the middle near the top is Tal Al-Hamam at the north end of the Dead Sea.

Graphic B here is actually a picture of the the excavation site. It's a west-southwest facing view of the Upper Tal, or Tal, showing locations of the palace and temple behind the curve of the upper Tal. The Dead Sea's in the background to the left. That temple, of course, is a super pagan temple, that one. It's not one of God's temples, or Israelite temple. That is a super pagan temple right there in Sodom, and the palace at the top of the hill. If you go over to page two, you'll see a graphic of what that palace most likely looked like before its destruction. It's an artist-based reconstruction, based on the evidence, of the four- to five-story palace that was approximately 52 meters long and 27 meters wide before its destruction. And then at the bottom of page two is the palace after the destruction. And so they've reconstructed the palace site on the Upper Tal, along with modern excavation pieces. You'll note that the field around the excavation is essentially flat, unlike the view in panel A. Originally parts of the four-story palace were approximately 12 meters tall, almost 40 feet. But afterward, only a few courses of mud bricks remain on the stone foundations. It says, a comparison of panel A to panel B on page two shows that millions of mud bricks from the upper parts of the palace and other buildings are missing. Just gone. Can't be found. Then page three, the salt and the 16 cities of the plain. You can see how these 16 cities are part of this disc or kikar-like area. So covering approximately 26 percent of the southern Jordan Valley, the colorized areas mark modern-day salinity concentrations of greater than 1.3 percent, who are considered lethal for many domestic food crops. And Tal Al-Hamam is the largest red dot there. It was the principal city in the area. The dashed red oval indicates the extent of the kikar, known as the disc of the Jordan. All 16 major settled sites and more than a hundred villages in the southern Jordan Valley appear to have been abandoned at approximately 1650 BC. Jericho was minimally resettled 300 years after destruction. Tal Nimran was resettled approximately 500 years later. And Tal Al-Hamam, site of Sodom, was not settled again for 600 years. And one of the main reasons is the salt content of the soil since the destruction. Made it impossible for anybody to live there. Remember what we read in Genesis, about even the land was destroyed, crops couldn't grow. And then on page four, this is just the extent of the cosmic air burst in Siberia in 1908, a Tunguska in Siberia, superimposed on the Dead Sea area. So it just shows that the Tunguska blast was 75 kilometers wide, affecting 2200 square kilometers. So the scaled image shows that a cosmic air burst, similar in energy to the one at Tunguska, could cover a large segment of the Dead Sea in Jordan Valley. There was a comet that we know of could do something like this. And it says the overlays for comparison only. The location, orientation, direction of travel, and entry direction, and size of the proposed Tal-al-Hamam impact is not known. So hopefully you can see those online, too, those four graphics that I took from the research paper. Give you an idea of where it's located in the Middle East, a picture of the excavation site where the palace and the temple were, the circle area north of the Dead Sea where all these towns existed, including Sodom, and then a possible explanation being that air burst over the area to destroy the place.

Okay, part four. Let's listen to the key finds of the research. In a minute we're going to go back to the Bible and learn some lessons from this. Part four, key finds of the research. So here is what the scientists came up with, some of their key finds. Once again, you can go into the research paper and see, page after page, on each of these points. I'm just going to mention what they are. Number one, evidence for high temperature burning of the city. Number two, evidence of melted construction materials. Number three, high pressure shock metamorphism. Number four, high temperature melted minerals. Number five, human bones in the destruction layer. Number six, implications of high salinity for agriculture. Number seven, co-evil destruction and burning of Jericho. And eight, potential causes of the city destruction. So in point eight, the scientists looked at 10 different ways this city could have been destroyed. Some of the evidence fits some of the possibilities, but all of the evidence fits the final option, which is a cosmic airburst. So here's 10 possible ways the place could have been destroyed. Anthropogenic activities, people did it to themselves. Number two, pottery making. Number three, normal cities, wildfires and wildfires. Number four, midden fires. Number five, warfare. Number six, earthquakes. Number seven, volcanism. Number eight, lightning. Number nine, crater-forming cosmic impact. But they haven't found a crater there. Number 10, a cosmic airburst. And then they looked at number nine, analogous destruction events. And they feel the archaeological evidence can be compared to the Trinity atomic detonation.

And there is, of course, comparison to the Tunguska cosmic airburst in Siberia. And so it's been suggested a hypothetical Tunguska-class airburst near Tel Al-Hamam. Something out of the sky, raining from heaven.

So those are the key finds, just briefly. And let me read to you now part five, their key conclusions of the study. The key conclusions of the study. They say an unusual 3,600-year-old charcoal-rich destruction layer at Tel Al-Hamam marks the sudden abandonment of a middle Bronze Age urban center in the Jordan Valley close to the north end of the Dead Sea. Across the 30-kilometre-wide Lower Jordan Valley, 15 other cities, and more than a hundred smaller villages were simultaneously abandoned at the end of the middle Bronze Age.

So over a hundred towns all abandoned at the same time, to remain largely uninhabited for approximately 300 to 600 years, pointing to the occurrence of some highly unusual catastrophic event. You know, I mentioned Bethsaida earlier, and Dr. Rami Arav, looking at Bethsaida in the North Shore of Galilee where, you know, Peter was from and Andrew. So when they look at that town in Bethsaida, they find evidence of all kinds of civilizations for three or four thousand years. And, of course, of evidence of people living there at the time of Christ. But at Tell Al-Hamam, people just disappeared. That's not normal. New societies built on top of older societies, and the further down you dig, the older the towns are that you find. Not with Tell Al-Hamam, everybody just disappeared, for up to 600 years. Not like a normal archaeological site. Let me quote to a section from the research paper in their conclusion. It's pages 56 and 57 from the research paper. This gives you an idea of what they found.

An early crucial clue in this investigation was the discovery of highly vesicular pot sherds in the debris matrix that appear to have melted at high temperatures, but with no clear evidence for a formation mechanism. This first discovery led to some general observations about the uniqueness of destruction-layered debris. Example is unusual, high temperature characteristics, and its consistent southwest to northeast orientation, such as a force came from one direction. The site excavator speculated that the cause of the destruction may have been a cosmic airburst or impact, but they could not eliminate other potential mechanisms, including those related to warfare, volcanism, and tectonism. We investigated 14 major lines of evidence to investigate this unusual event. 1. Shocked quartz grains that formed at pressures of 5 to 10 gigapascals. 2. Vesicular pottery that melted at greater than 1,500 degrees Celsius. 3. Mud bricks and roofing clay that melted at greater than 1,400 degrees Celsius. 4. High salt concentrations in sediment, including melted calcium chloride and sodium chloride incorporated into melted mud bricks. 5. Diamond-like carbon, dimonoids, that formed at high pressure and temperature. So, diamonds were created. 6. Soot, charcoal, and ash, indicating high temperature fires. 7. Iron and silicon-rich spherules, some of which melted at greater than 1,590 degrees Celsius.

8. Platinum, that's not something you just have lying around, platinum melted at 1,768 degrees Celsius. 9. Iridium at 2,466 degrees Celsius. 10. Zircon at greater than 1,687 degrees Celsius. 11. Chromite at greater than 1,590 degrees Celsius. 12. Tano-magnetite at greater than 1,550 degrees Celsius. 13 quarts at 1713 Celsius. And 14. Low remnant magnetism, a count indicator of lightning strikes. And so, they conclude, we considered and dismissed eight of ten potential processes, including volcanism, warfare, tectonism, that can account for at least some, but not all, of the evidence. We conclude that the only plausible formation mechanism that can account for the entire range of evidence is a crater-forming impact or a cosmic airburst, most likely somewhat larger, and a 22-megaton airburst at Tunguska, Siberia in 1908. The data also suggests an airburst occurred a few kilometers southwest of Tel Al-Hammam, causing in rapid succession a high-temperature thermal pulse from the fireball that melted exposed materials, including roofing clay, mud bricks, and pottery. This was followed by a high-temperature hypervelocity blast wave that demolished and pulverized mud brick walls across the city, leveling the city and causing extensive human mortality. In addition, anomalously high salt content in the debris matrix is consistent with an aerial detonation above high salinity sediments near the Jordan River or above the hypersaline Dead Sea. This event, in turn, distributed salt across the region, severely limiting regional agricultural development for up to 600 years. That's the end, the end of their paper.

Remember when Abraham looked down from Beth-Al and I after the city was and the Kika was destroyed, he said it looked like a furnace.

Part 6. A World Returning to Sodom. Okay, so the scientists are returning to Sodom, right?

To a dig. But what about our world, figuratively? A world returning to Sodom. With all that's been discovered at the north end of the Dead Sea on the Jordanian side of the Jordan River, what if this truly is the site of ancient Sodom?

What if Sodom has been found? I'd like to ask an even more important question. What if our world is returning to Sodom? What are the lessons for us today?

Let's turn to Matthew 10, if you would. We had a very important passage. We have been commanded to preach the gospel to the world, and in particular to the descendants of ancient Israel. That includes the United States, Canada, the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand.

What if they won't listen? What if they won't repent? What if they won't hear?

Matthew 10, verse 5. Jesus sent the twelve disciples out and commanded them, saying, don't go into the way of the Gentiles and don't enter a city of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That was the primary focus on the gospel, was to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In verse 14, whoever will not receive you nor hear your words when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Verse 15, as shortly as 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 we are told that nations and people that won't listen to the gospel message will be in worse shape than Sodom and Gomorrah when the judgment comes. Secular experts dispute any literal claim for the existence of Sodom. They say it's a fable. It's a myth. No such place. Insisting that despite the many geographical clues contained within the Bible, the story of Sodom is made up. Never happened. If so, then why would Jesus himself mention these cities?

Sodom is mentioned nine times in the New Testament, the New Testament, and many times by Jesus himself. Why would Jesus talk about a place that never existed, that was never destroyed supernaturally? We have to conclude it was a real place at a real time with real sins. And as we see here in Matthew chapter 10, why is the example of Sodom put alongside warning many of the English-speaking people of our world today? Why warning the lost sheep of the house of Israel and saying, you guys are in more danger than Sodom if you don't watch out? It's a scary, provocative thought. It's for our nations today.

Do you think God is unhappy with our country?

What does he think of the millions of lives being murdered in the womb?

What does he think of our sexual revolution? It kind of sounds like Sodom, doesn't it?

What about the confusing versions of gender beyond male and female? What about our broken marriages? High crime? Drugs? Fentanyl? Inner-city crime? Murder? Disrespect for the value of life? Are we returning to Sodom? Have we already returned to Sodom? Are we worse than Sodom? Sometimes I wonder if it's worse here.

Is judgment imminent? What do you think?

What do you think will be the consequence if our nation will not repent? Do you think any of this from society affects your mind, your thoughts, what you'll compromise with? What you think is normal or acceptable?

Are you compromising on the truth? Have you been influenced? Because we are on the precipice of another godly judgment on this world. A time of what's called great tribulation, especially on the house of Jacob, Israel.

Let's look at Matthew 11 for a moment. Here is one of the scriptures most likely read to you on the last great day, or on the eighth day of a solemn assembly, as it's called in the Old Testament. The scripture most likely read to you on the eighth day of solemn assembly two weeks ago. It talks of a resurrection to come for those who died in sin, never knowing Jesus Christ or God the Father. Talking about what we believe about the eighth day and the last great day. Matthew 11, verse 23. There's quite a lot here that we often read on the eighth day of the feast, but Matthew 11, verse 23. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven will be brought down to Hades or to the grave. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. Jesus is saying they would have repented, but you guys don't. If I had worn Sodom like that, they would have remained. They wouldn't have been destroyed. Verse 24. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. So this is a dire warning for our end time generation. Sodom will get a better grade than Cincinnati, than the United States, than the western world. Sodom will get a better grade than what we see today, and what will happen in the final end time days. And Sodom's destruction was for all of us to learn from, to take heed of. Let's turn to 2 Peter, chapter 2, and read verse 6, if you would. 2 Peter 2 and verse 6. Peter here refers to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. And of course, when you look at what the scientists have discovered, it included more than a hundred other towns in the area, to the point where lot had to be dragged far away to escape, dragged far away by the angels. 2 Peter 2 verse 6, turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, God condemned them to destruction, making them an example for those who afterward would live ungodly. So that's why we read about this in the Scriptures. That's why Sodom was mentioned nine times in the New Testament as a warning, as an example, to anyone who decides to live ungodly. It's a warning. Our world has returned to Sodom. You know, I said, has it? I'd say yeah.

And it's living ungodly. And so a dire fate awaits if our world will not repent. Jerusalem itself will be likened to Sodom in the time of the end. We actually read about that in the book of Revelation. Revelation 11 verses 7 and 8. I read that to you. That's at the time of the two witnesses. Revelation 11 verse 7, when the two witnesses finish their testimony, the beast descends out of the bottomless pit and will make war against them, against the two witnesses, overcome them, and kill them. So this is where the two witnesses are killed. The whole world sees it, right? In verse 8, their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city. I was talking of Jerusalem here, the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where our Lord was crucified. So in the end time, whatever's going on in the promised land area will be likened to Sodom as well. So that's point 6, a world returning to Sodom. And now, our last section, part 7, Sodom, an example for you and me. Sodom, an example for you and me. I want to turn to the book of Jude. Book of Jude to finish up here today. The letter of Jude is considered by many to be the New Testament book of wisdom. It points us to the only wise being there is, being God our Savior. And so as we read Jude here, we have to ask, well, our world and each of us consider the lesson left for us of the destruction of Sodom. What does it make us think of and how we live our lives? Will each of us heed the warning? Jude 3, Jude says, Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints. So why would Jude say, I've got to write to you guys and exhort you to contend earnestly for the faith? Why? Because of the pulls of society around them. A warning not to slip up, not to be influenced. Verse 7, as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. So Jude says, you know, think of Sodom and Gomorrah. You don't want that kind of outcome to be yours. Verse 20, Jude says, but you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Jude says, keep your focus on God and Christ. Think of the end goal of your eternal life, he says, and the mercy of God. He says, have compassion on some, making a distinction, but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hitting even the garment defiled by the flesh. So if you see someone who's slipping up, help them, warn them, strengthen them. Verse 24, now to him, capital H, God, who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise. Be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. So Jude points the brethren to God, who alone is wise. We think a lot of what we think about, not we, our thoughts, our smarts, our intellect, but no, God alone is truly wise, and he's the one, verse 24, who can keep you from stumbling. You focus on Christ, you focus on God, and you keep in the back of your mind the warning and the example, Jude says, of what happened to some cities of the past who didn't listen.

Now, our editorial department has followed the story of Tell Al-Hamam for many, many years. We've been watching this, and the possibility of it being the location of ancient Sodom, because it would be just like God to give powerful witness to the truth and accuracy of his word as a final witness to the world before his judgment is enacted.

Is Tell Al-Hamam the location of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding towns of the plain that were destroyed by God using a fireball from heaven at intense pressures and temperatures? Perhaps time will tell. I think more evidence will yet come to light about this place, but in any case, it should stand as a warning and a witness, as the Apostle Peter said, as an example to those who afterward would live ungodly. The message of Sodom is one of repentance, and God wants all to be saved and to repent, which is our message as a church as well. Each of us must not get caught up in a world which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, because the lake of fire, complete destruction, awaits those who will not change, who will not repent. Do you think any of this affects your mind, your thoughts?

Are you compromising it all on the truth? Or are you, as Jude said, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping yourselves in the love of God?

And then I have to ask, will anyone listen to what we preach? What is Sodom has been found? Will the Word of God be heard? I pray it will. Prophecies sometimes paint a different picture. I pray for the Gospel to have free course and be heard. And I continue to pray every day, thy kingdom come.