Proof Sodom And Gomorrah Existed And Were Judged Series

PROOF SODOM AND GOMORRAH EXISTED AND WERE JUDGED

Gen. 19:23-28

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1.

B. TEXT

“By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.” Gen. 19:23.

C. THESIS

1. Skeptics of the Bible have long said that the account of God’s destroying Sodom and Gomorrah never happened. That it and other stories such as Noah’s flood and the opening of the Red Sea were just fictions.

2. They deny that God has directly intervened in history, because they don’t want to acknowledge His reality.

3. But new evidence has come to light proving the biblical account is true!

I. FACTS ESTABLISHING ITS REALITY

1. Scholars used to place the cities north of the Dead Sea, but it is now generally agreed that they were situated in “the Vale of Siddim” (Gen. 14:3), at the southern end of the Dead Sea, where also lies Mount Sodom.

2. Satellite image from the air, studied for square or rectangular shapes, revealed parts of at least five cities, some partially submerged in the lower Dead Sea.

3. Josephus (Wars IV:4) said he viewed the ruins himself, “The traces or shadows of the five cities are still to be seen” (See also Tacitus, History V:7).

4. Archaeologists discovered ruins of a long inhabited civilization , that abruptly ended in 2065 B.C. The archaeologists found ziggurats, sphinxes, windows, arched doorways, walls, spearheads, burned bones, and gold ash. A cemetery containing many thousands of graves was also found.

5. But the unusual aspect is that the cities were burned into ashes from their roofs down! Even the limestone blocks of their houses were burned to ash!

6. The sin of those cities was so great that “the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah” Gen. 19:24 NIV.

7. Strewn throughout the cities have been found thousands of golf-ball size balls of almost pure sulfur, surrounded by burn marks. Nowhere else in the world, not even around areas of volcanic activity, have balls like these been found.

8. Sulphur is ordinarily 30-40% Sulphur and yellowish in color, whereas these sulfur balls are 95-98% pure Sulphur and whitish in color. They were tested at Galbraith Laboratories, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, and independently by Ross Patterson in New Zealand.

9. Experts estimate that the falling, burning sulfur reached temperatures of 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit, so hot that it glassified the sand and ash it fell on. Gold coins were found, but they had been burned into gold ash!

10. Natural explanations for how this could have happened have been offered, but none seems plausible, except that this was a judgment of God.

11. “Sodom and Gomorrah” became a byword for:

a. Sexual immorality, perversion, and flagrant sin (Jude 7; Isa. 3:9) .

b. God’s complete overthrow of sinners (Deut. 29:23; Isa. 13:19).

c. Escape of the righteous just before final judgment falls (Luke 17:29).

12. Jesus said that the judgment of those who reject the Gospel will be worse than the judgment that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah (Matt. 10:15; 11:24).

CONCLUSION

A. ILLUSTRATION

1. Port Royal once situated on the island of Jamaica has been called “the richest and wickedest city in the world.” It was the natural rendezvous for most of the pirates and buccaneers of the day.

2. Liquor, women, gambling, dope – every vice thrived in Port Royal “in greater extravagance than anywhere else in the world.” Perpetual brawls raged in the streets and the blood of murdered men flowed endlessly. Rape and theft were common place.

3. Then on June 7, 1692 two terrific earthquakes struck. With the second, the sea was driven back half a mile. The city was split open in a dozen places and into the crevasses toppled scores of screaming men, women, and children.

4. Choking sulfur fumes sifted through openings in the earth. Then as the sea returned, a wall of water swept into Port Royal, smashing ships, washing buildings from their foundations. Suddenly, and with a sullen roar, the whole city slipped slowly into the sea with most of its population.

5. To this day one can go down to the site and look down through several fathoms of clear water and see some of the coral encrusted remains of Port Royal, “the wickedest city in the world.” [7700 Illus., Paul Lee Tan, no. 1252, p. 253.]