(October 28, 2021) 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.
Dr. Steven Collins, the Executive Dean at Albuquerque’s Trinity Southwest University has been excavating for 15 years at a site he believes is 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.
The site is huge—easily four to five times the size of Jericho. Dr. Collins and his team made a lot of progress just this past year in finding evidence of overwhelming destruction at this place called today, Tall (Tel) el-Hammam.
The Tall el-Hammam excavation site fits the biblical description of the location of ancient Sodom very well. The destruction layers found by the archaeologists also fit the biblical description of the city’s sudden end. The evidence shows a supernatural destruction of whatever used to be there.
I do have some dating issues with this site. My chronology of the time in which Abraham lived doesn’t quite match up with the dating of the site given by the scientists. They place the destruction of the city from the archaeological evidence about 175 years later than we would.
The scientists are very insistent their dating methods of the site are correct. Perhaps more will come to light in the coming months and years, along with more archaeological discoveries, which bring us all closer together on the date of this find. But the site itself is very compelling for the city of ancient Sodom.
Yes, a story of “biblical proportions”—a story with deep biblical and spiritual implications—is being published across the archaeological community.
Where was Sodom located?
Let’s begin with a description of where Sodom was located.
GENESIS 13:10-13 10 And Lot lifted his eyes [from Bethel and Ai verse 3] and saw all the plain [כִּכַּ֣ר (kik·kar) (circle)] of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. 11 Then Lot chose for himself all the plain [כִּכַּ֣ר (kik·kar) (circle)] of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. 12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain [הַכִּכָּ֔ר (hak·kik·kār)] and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. 13 But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD.
When you stand on the road between Bethel and Ai, and look down south-east toward the Jordan River, to the Dead Sea, the best location for where Sodom was located is the flat, circular, kikkar, plain just north of the Dead Sea near Jericho.
Some scientists say Sodom was at the south end of the Dead Sea. But you can’t see that from Bethel and Ai. But you can easily see the flat, round, disc-like, fertile plain where the Jordan River enters the Dead Sea. This is where Tall el-Hammam is located.
We are 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 there. Unfortunately, other than for Abraham’s nephew, Lot, and his family, there were none righteous.
What have scientists found?
Let’s now compare what scientists have found with the biblical story of Sodom. Is there any correlation?
Dr Phil Silvia, Director of Scientific Analysis for the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project, announced on September 20 the publication of a major paper in Nature Scientific Reports titled “A Tunguska sized Airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam, a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea.”
This massive, peer-reviewed paper, written by over 20 contributing authors in addition to Dr. Silvia, provides detailed forensic evidence that a cosmic airburst obliterated Tall el-Hammam, the largest city in the Dead Sea area during the time of Abraham, around 1700 B.C.
Tall el-Hammam excavation director, Dr. Steven Collins, has long proposed the site as the most likely candidate for the biblical city of Sodom. It is in the right place, based on many geographical clues in Genesis. Its settlement history, based on the archaeological evidence, spans the right time to match the biblical references to Sodom—with the exception, as I noted, that their dates don’t exactly match my dates for the time Abraham lived. They are close, but not quite the same. We will see how that works out over time. And the architecture and artifacts uncovered so far are exactly right for the stature given to Sodom.
In 2014, the Comet Research Group (CRG), 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 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 Dryas Impact.
The archeological history of the site was well defined after 15 field seasons, but a far different set of skills was needed to properly investigate the burn layer. The CRG had the technical and forensic ability to determine whether or not the field evidence supports the biblical description.
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 ruin-mound. A carbon-and-ash-rich destruction layer contained peak concentrations of shocked quartz; melted pottery and mud bricks; diamond-like carbon; soot; iron-rich and silicon-rich spherules; spherules from melted plaster and melted platinum, iridium, nickel, gold, silver, zircon, chromite, and quartz.
Heating experiments indicate temperatures instantly exceeded 2000 °C. How hot is that? Enough to turn a truck into a molten pool of iron!
Dr Allen West of the CRG says of the findings, “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! These people were killed by the heat and pressure of an atomic-like explosion but without the radiation.”
Biblical scholars for centuries have proposed other locations for the “Cities of the Plain,” ranging from Tall el-Hammam 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 Ai.
The evidence is overwhelmingly supportive of Steven Collins’ claim that Tall el-Hammam is the right place at the right time with the right evidence to be the most logical candidate for this infamous city.
Dr Silvia has produced fourteen lines of evidence that help confirm this as the location for the ancient city of Sodom.
The paper is available for free download from Nature Scientific Reports at: www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-97778-3.
Key conclusions of the study
Here are the key conclusions of the research paper about Tall el-Hammam.
They say, an unusual 3,600-year-old charcoal-rich destruction layer at Tall el-Hammam 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-km-wide lower Jordan Valley, 15 other cities and more than 100 smaller villages were simultaneously abandoned at the end of the Middle Bronze Age to remain largely uninhabited for approximately 300–600 years, pointing to the occurrence of some highly unusual catastrophic event.
You can read an extensive conclusion with multiple lines of evidence by the scientists in their paper at www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-97778-3.
A world returning to Sodom
With all that has been discovered at the north end of the Dead Sea, on the Jordanian side of the Jordan River, what if this is the site of ancient Sodom, Gomorrah and the surrounding towns? 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?
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 and New Zealand. What if they won’t listen and repent? What if they won’t hear?
MATTHEW 10:5-6, 14-15 5 These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. 6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Matthew 10: 14-15 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. 15 Assuredly, 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!
Secular experts dispute any literal claim for the existence of Sodom, insisting that the biblical story is a myth, despite the many geographic clues contained within the Bible.
If so, then why would Jesus Himself mention these ancient cities? Sodom is mentioned nine times in the New Testament, many times by Jesus Himself. Why would Jesus talk about a place that never existed? That was never destroyed supernaturally? We have to conclude that it was a real place at a real time with real sins.
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—warning the lost sheep of the house of Israel? 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? What about the confusing versions of gender beyond male and female? What about our broken marriages, high crime, drugs, fentanyl, inner city crime, murder and disrespect for the value of a life? Are we returning to Sodom? Have we already returned to Sodom? 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 affects your mind, your thoughts? Are you compromising at all on the truth? Have you been influenced?
We are on the precipice of a godly judgment on this world.
Conclusion
Our editorial department has followed the story of Tall el-Hammam being the possible location of ancient Sodom, because it would be just like God to give powerful witnesses to the truth and accuracy of His Word as a final witness to the world before His judgment is enacted.
Is Tall el-Hammam the location of Sodom, Gomorrah and the surrounding towns of the plain that were destroyed by God using a fireball from heaven? Perhaps time will tell. Perhaps even more evidence will come to light. 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, which is our message as well. Each of us must not get caught up in a world which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt. The Lake of Fire, complete destruction, awaits those who will not repent.
Do you think any of this affects your mind, your thoughts? Are you compromising at all on the truth? Or are you, as Jude said, “Building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep[ing] yourselves in the love of God?”
I have to ask, will anyone listen? What if Sodom has been found? Will the Word of God be heard? I pray it will. I pray for the gospel to have free course and be heard. I pray, “Thy Kingdom Come.”
Editor’s Note: World News & Prophecy Review appreciates this guest editorial submitted by Peter Eddington, Operations Manager, Media and Communications Services, United Church of God, aIA. You can watch a video presentation of this information at: https://www.ucg.org/sermons/what-if-sodom-has-been-found
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