Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Dead Sea scrolls-a turning hinge in history

Recently I took a tour of the Dead Sea Scrolls that were on display at Pacific University in Southern California.

A young Shepard found the first set of scrolls in Palestine while chasing a stray goat to a cave in 1947. The scrolls that were housed in clay pots have been authenticated as the most significant archaeological find in history, and are now priceless. The boy and his father sold them to an antiquities dealer in Jerusalem for $ 97.20.

What does this have to do with Israel? The scrolls were found just months before Israel prophetically became a nation. After 2000 years of sitting dormant, both of God’s treasured establishments were unveiled to our modern world. Was the timing of this amazing find and the simultaneous reestablishment of His nation a coincidence? I don't think so. Both the scrolls and the nation of Israel had seized to exist in a similar time era, about AD 70, and were reestablished for our modern scholars to decipher. The amazing part is the scrolls themselves mention this. They were intentionally hidden, 'until God decides to have them revealed in His timing'.

The scrolls are 1000 years older than the manuscripts that our modern day Bible had been derived from.

Prior to this find, many skeptics said the Torah and the Old Testament Bible had to be watered down since the oldest reference available was a 1000 years from the original writings. But after years of study by many of the world’s renowned archaeologist and scholars, the Dead Sea Scrolls matched our present day Bible with about 95% accuracy. The 5% discrepancy still matched the meaning, only the choice of words varied slightly. What are the odds of any ancient writings preserving so much detail after a 1000 gap?

Either fragments or whole copies of every book in the Old Testament had been found except the book of Esther.

This is why the Jews were called ‘God’s chosen people’. Not because they are more special or privileged then us Gentiles, but because they were chosen to write, deliver and preserve God’s message, God’s autobiography, and man’s manual for life. Perhaps this explains part of the reason for worldwide anti-Semitism since the scriptures were written. A lot of people have been persecuted for delivering God's message, so it only makes sense that the writers would also.

The Bible is still the world’s premier bestselling book, and is the instruction manual that came with God’s creation of man, not to mention a historical account of how we got here and what our purpose in life is. Everything a person needs to live a fulfilled life is written in this book for our instruction.

God said in the last days the nation of Israel would be revealed, and God would pour out his spirit on mankind.

Many scholars believe the scrolls and Israel’s reestablishment have marked the ending period of the last days.

I believe the scrolls and Israel’s reestablishment have marked the ending period of the last days. The last of the last days, if you will. When is the VERY last day of this planet's well being? No man knows the exact day or hour, but we can know about when. That time is right now! Are you prepared?

3 comments:

James said...

Exciting discovery and so timely. Confirmation of the Old Testament should counter the skeptics.
James Tate

James said...

Exciting discovery and so timely. Confirmation of the Old Testament should counter the skeptics.
James Tate

Jennifer Taylor said...

I followed this a few years ago and wrote a nonfiction book on it. I never tried to get it published, but I thought the research and subject very fascinating. Thanks for the great post.

Share this