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Old Testament History Revised - What If The Bible Is Correct About History?

by Darren_Thompson

This article is the first in a series of articles that present
the ideas of my print-on-demand book, "The Fourth Day: Why the
Bible is Historically Accurate".

When I was college student, I was introduced to the concept of
biblical inerrancy. My pastor, Al Jackson of Lakeview Baptist
Church in Auburn, Alabama, drove the point home that the Word of
God, the Bible, was �God-breathed�. He explained that since the
Bible was �God-breathed� it was created in the same manner as
Adam when God breathed life into man in the book of Genesis. The
Bible was designed, just like man was at creation, when God
instructed over forty authors exactly what to write. The Bible
was designed in the sense that the whole book�s purpose is the
revelation of the messiah of mankind, Jesus Christ. The Bible
points to Christ in very direct ways by giving the specific
characteristics of his human life. The prophecies of the Old
Testament indicated he would be born in Bethlehem, through the
line of Jesse, and by a virgin. The spiritual aspects of Christ
are alluded to in the symbols of the atonement sacrifices where
animals were put on an altar and then sprinkled with salt, a
symbol of eternity, to represent the once-and-for-all sacrifice
that the Son of God would make on a cross one day. God
coordinated all this information to point to Christ, God�s plan
for man�s salvation.

Since the time that my pastor explained these things to me I
have taken them to heart and I have studied the Bible with the
attitude that the Bible is historically correct as well as
spiritually correct. Conservative Christians have adopted this
philosophy in every subject covered in the Bible except for one,
chronology. Chronology, the study of the historical timeline, has
been a subject where it seems the Christian community has
conceded defeat. For whatever reason, Christians in the modern
era have sought compromise with scholars, many of whom are
downright antagonistic to Christian beliefs, so that the timeline
of the Bible would have the stamp of authenticity from
historians.

An article in Biblical Archaelogy Review effectively
demonstrates the level of Biblical antagonism that archeological
community can exhibit. Consider an excerpt from the opening
paragraph of an article entitled Minimalists on Parade (Biblical
Archaeology Review, Jan/Feb 2005, Vol 31, No. 1, Page 16-17): �At
a recent conference on reconstructing Israelite history held in
Rome, the so-called Biblical minimalist position was upheld by a
number of prominent scholars. This position is not monolithic,
however, and different minimalist scholars stressed different
arguments. Among them:

* The Bible cannot be used as a historical source. [The position
that defines a Biblical minimalist.]

* Neither can archaeology, which can only tell us whether
ancient Israelites ate from a bowl 20 or 30 centimeters wide. A
history of Israel based on archaeology is useless.

* There was no Exodus.

* The famous Tel Dan inscription mentioning David, excavated by
Israeli archaeologist Avraham Biran, is probably a forgery; and
the Hebrew words in the inscription that read �House [Dynasty] of
David� probably mean something else.

* David and Solomon are only symbolic characters, not real
characters.

* The Biblical accounts of the United Kingdom of Judah and
Israel under David and Solomon are simply later projections into
a distant mythic past.

* Judah did not even become a state until about a hundred years
after David-if he lived.� One scholar mentioned in this article,
Giovanni Garbini of the Universita� di Roma La Sapienza, makes a
particularly provocative comment in this article: �The name Jacob
�is clearly an artificial creation of post-exilic age [after the
Babylonian Exile]. It was not Jacob who became Israel, but Israel
who became Jacob��. These minimalists, who appear to represent
the majority of the archaeological community, don�t regard the
Bible as historically accurate. Among their objections: they
don�t believe that David, Solomon or Jacob existed and don�t
believe the Exodus ever occurred. These positions are as
idealogically opposed to the conservative Christian view of the
Bible as one can image. So why should we (Christians) seek the
counsel of this group in the understanding of such a precious
concept as the historical timeline of the Bible? Yet this is what
has happened.

Here�s another problem with relying on the scientific community
to authenticate the Bible: they have �rational� blinders on.
Scientists that have no faith in Christ are limited in their
ability to investigate because they assume that certain phenomena
are impossible even before the investigation has begun. Since
they consider themselves to be �rational� scientists the
assumption that an �irrational� event has occurred is
implausible. The scientific method basically allows anyone to
make an assumption (any assumption), conduct research of known
facts or run an experiment and use the research and/or the
experiment to validate the assumption. These �rational�
scientists when confronted with an �irrational� assumption simply
leap over the research and experimental process and declare that
the assumption in invalid because they have assumed the
�irrational� assumption is just not possible. So why do these
�rational� scientists behave this way? Well, consider the
following possibility. Let�s say that an �irrational� event is
assumed and information is collected or an experiment is
performed to confirm its validity. Let�s say that the irrational
event has been validated. What would be the response of the
�rational� scientist? More than likely, complete denial. Such an
outcome would create complete chaos in his philosophy since his
�rational� method of investigation, the scientific method, would
have been used to prove that an �irrational� event was possible.
So what is an �irrational� event? It is just another way of
saying a supernatural event, one that is beyond our
understanding. Can the scientific process be used to validate an
�irrational� event? Jesus Christ thought so. Jesus was explaining
this idea of being �born again� to a Pharisee named Nicodemus in
the New Testament (John 3:8): �The wind blows where it wishes,
and you here its sound, but you do not know where it comes from
or where it goes. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.�
Nicodemus was clearly confused by this concept of being �born
again� but Jesus was saying that even if you didn�t comprehend or
believe this supernatural phenomenon could occur, just like
something as intangible as the wind, there would be tangible
evidence of it.

Certainly not all scientists believe in this manner, but the
great majority of them do. How many of these scientists will view
the Bible with no preconceived notions? When these scientists
read in the Bible that the Earth was created in seven days they
will not consider this as true because they have been trained
that the universe is billions of years old. When these scientists
read that a man lived to be 969 years old in the Bible they
dismiss it as myth or fairy tale because men don�t currently live
to be that old. They will not consider the possibility that at
one time in history men did live that long. When these men read
the account of Noah and a worldwide flood they have always
attributed it to �local� flooding. This may have some ring of
truth to it since until that time, according to the Bible, the
world was one big land mass (the world was all in one place,
i.e., local). According to the Bible the continents didn�t divide
until the life of Peleg, a descendant of Noah. Again, the
scientists certainly are not going to agree with this theory of
the land mass shift because they will insist that this geological
process needed millions of years to accommodate the movement of
the continental land masses. Since these archeologists disagree
with Christians in so many fundamental matters described in the
Bible how will we ever reach an agreement on a historical
timeline?

The present chronological model of the Bible is based on a
mixture of Biblical truth and theoretical historical models. I
believe it is time that we consider a new approach to Biblical
chronology. The model I propose is based solely on the
information in the Bible. If the Bible is true then historians
will confirm the result of the theologians (assuming the
theologians have interpreted the Bible correctly). Why should
God�s Word have to be authenticated by men? If the Bible is truly
trustworthy the truth of the Bible should be laid out for men to
see and respond to its truth. In 1995 David Rohl, an
Egyptologist, wrote his book A Test in Time to propose a
radically different theory in chronology. He proposed a timeline
that was based on some Biblical evidence. In fact, Rohl�s
proposed date of Solomon�s reign is consistent with the timeline
developed from my literal interpretation of the Bible. What is
even more amazing about David Rohl is that he is described among
archaeologists as a maximalist, someone who believes the Bible is
historically accurate, yet he characterizes himself as a
spiritual �agnostic�. If David Rohl is a maximalist then I am a
�maximum� maximalist, someone significantly to the right of David
Rohl�s view since I believe that the Bible is historically
accurate and indeed the very word of God as it claims to be.
Therefore I believe my perspective on the chronology of the Bible
is unlike anything you have ever heard before.

The purpose of my book, "The Fourth Day: Why the Bible is
Historically Accurate", was to prove a biblical concept that I
believe will synchronize the events recorded in the Bible with
Egyptian history, Babylonian history, Persian history and
Archaeology. The recognition of this concept will allow the
reader to tie together all these areas of study in one neat
package so that when viewed together there is no discrepancy
between the Bible and these other elements of ancient history.
The recognition of this concept will also illustrate that the
Bible is not only a trustworthy religious document but a
trustworthy historical document because of its chronological
precision. First, assume that from the beginning of creation to
the end of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ is a period of
7000 years; a time period analogous to the 7 day period of
creation of the world mentioned in the book of Genesis. Next,
recognize that the sacrifice of the Passover lamb in the Old
Testament is symbolic of the fact that Jesus Christ was crucified
exactly 4000 years after the creation of the world. According to
the Mosaic Law each family that observed Passover was to purchase
a lamb 4 days prior to the day of Passover and that lamb was to
live in that household until the late afternoon of the day when
the Israelite priest had to sacrifice the lamb and it was to be
accomplished by nightfall. I believe these 4 days were God�s way
of illustrating that the lamb of God, Jesus Christ, would be
sacrificed on a cross 4000 years after the creation of the world.
Therefore, symbolically and in actuality, Jesus Christ was
sacrificed on the fourth day.

When you recognize this concept to be true, several significant
conclusions regarding history become evident. The Israelite
Monarchies of David and Solomon occurred about 180 years later
than held by historians. The period of the Persian Empire from
Cyrus the Great�s announcement of the rebuilding of Jerusalem
until Alexander the Great�s invasion lasted only 21 years (not
the approximately 200 year period currently held by historians).
Egypt did not have a king (a Pharaoh) for 300 years between the
20th and 21st dynasties. I support these conclusions using the
Bible, Astronomy, Archaeology, the writings of ancient historians
and the monuments of ancient kings.

In the next installment of this series of articles I will
address one of the most provocative discoveries of this approach
to history; the discovery that the Persian Empire described in
the book of Daniel only lasted for 21 years and not the 200 years
claimed by historians.

My name is Darren Thompson and I am a chemical engineer that has
worked in the rocket propulsion industry for over 15 years. I
hold 10 patents and am the author of over 20 papers in rocket
propellant development. I have written two books, "The Fourth
Day: Why the Bible is Historically Accurate" and "Why the Bible
is Historically Accurate (2nd Edition)" which are available at
amazon.com or lulu.com. You can check out my book website at <a
href="http://lulu.com/dmthompson">The Fourth Day</a>

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