Christianity is False

Sun stood still Joshua 10 doesn"t say that the sun stood still by natural means, for that would contradict science. Rather, it says Joshua prayed for help and God answered by stopping the sun supernaturally. Unless Pro can prove there is no God, which isn"t the subject of this debate anyway, he hasn"t shown the Bible to be wrong. If an omnipotent God exists who spoke the universe into being, surely he can do as he pleases with it. Geocentric Model We often say in modern language that the sun rises and sets even though we know it doesn"t travel over and under the earth; so is Pro going to accuse most of humanity of holding a geocentric model too? No, we use this language because this is how it looks from our vantage point, and Joshua 10 is written from a human vantage point where it seemed like the sun stood still. While God could have done this by stopping the earth"s rotation, alternatively, he could have made a refraction of solar and lunar light rays to produce the same effect. Quirinius and Jesus" Birth In 1764 an inscription known as the Lapis Tiburtinus was found in Rome, which contains information most scholars acknowledge could apply only to Quirinius. (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, edited by H."Dessau, Berlin, 1887, Vol. 14, p. 397, No. 3613) It contains the statement that on going to Syria he became governor (or, legate) for "the second time." On the basis of inscriptions found in Antioch containing Quirinius" name, many historians acknowledge that Quirinius was also governor of Syria in the B.C.E. period. Many scholars, in view of the evidence of an earlier governorship by Quirinius, suggest the years 3-2"B.C.E. The census mentioned in the Bible took place around that time. Herod's Death In dating the time that Herod was appointed king by Rome, Josephus locates the event as occurring during the rule of certain Roman consuls. According to this, Herod"s appointment as king would be in 40"B.C.E. By the same method Josephus places Herod"s capture of Jerusalem in 37"B.C.E., but he also says that this occurred 27 years after the capture of the city by Pompey (which was in 63"B.C.E.). (Jewish Antiquities, XIV, 487, 488 [xvi, 4]) His reference to that latter event would make the date of Herod"s taking the city of Jerusalem 36"B.C.E. Now, Josephus says that Herod died 34 years after he took Jerusalem. (Jewish Antiquities, XVII, 190, 191 [viii, 1]) This might indicate that the date of his death was 2 or perhaps 1"B.C.E. According to Josephus, Herod died not long after an eclipse of the moon and before a Passover. (Jewish Antiquities, XVII, 167 [vi, 4]; 213 [ix, 3]) There was a total eclipse of the moon in 1"B.C.E., about three months before Passover, while the one in 4"B.C.E. was only partial. The total eclipse in 1"B.C.E. was on January 8 (January 10, Julian), 18 days before Shebat 2, the traditional day of Herod"s death. Another eclipse (partial) occurred on December 27 of 1"B.C.E. (December 29, Julian). Jericho While Kenyon doesn"t agree with the dates given by most denominations, she goes on to report possible indications of another destruction that might have taken place on the site in 1325"B.C.E. and suggests: "If the destruction of Jericho is to be associated with an invasion under Joshua, this [latter] is the date that archaeology suggests." (The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 1980, Part 2, pp."749, 750; Archaeological Discoveries in the Holy Land, 1967, p."28) The Bible doesn"t give a date for the fall of Jericho, so what Pro is challenging is some dates proposed by some denominations who calculate to 1400, but these folks don"t claim to be infallible as is God"s Word. It may be that Jericho fell in 1325 BC as she supposes, which would make our calculations fallible but wouldn"t attack God"s word and Christianity on the whole. Kathleen said that the fall of Jericho occurred in 1550 BC, not 2300 BC as Pro argues. She based this conclusion on the fact that she couldn"t find a particular kind of imported pottery found at other sites in the Near East"thus Jericho must have been unoccupied at the time. Archaeologist Dr. Bryant Wood showed that she excavated in a poor section of town where the inhabitants could not have afforded to buy such imported pottery, so her findings were based on wrong expectations. "Kenyon's analysis was based on what was not found at Jericho rather than what was found" ("Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho?," Biblical Archaeology Review , March-April 1990, p. 50). Wood discovered that Kathleen did find indigenous pottery dating to the proposed time of Jericho"s fall but had ignored it. She also overlooked the fact that Garstang had found painted pottery from that same time. Egyptian amulets he found at a nearby cemetery also indicated the site was frequently inhabited for centuries right up till the time Christians propose for the city"s fall, demolishing her claim of an occupation gap. What Kenyon, Garstang and other excavators discovered at Jericho agrees in detail with the account in the book of Joshua. (Redating the Exodus and Conquest, by John J."Bimson, 1981, pp."22-27, 110-115, 132-137; Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October"1987, pp."45,"46) They found collapsed walls, not walls that were broken down from the outside but that had fallen down (Joshua 6:20). The walls didn"t fall inward, but outward , creating a ramp of fallen bricks by which the Israelites "went up into the city, every man straight before him." Kenyon"s work showed on the west side of the tell, at the base of the retaining, "fallen red bricks piling nearly to the top of the revetment. These probably came from the wall on the summit of the bank [and/or] .".". the brickwork above the revetment." (Kathleen M. Kenyon, Excavations at Jericho, 3:110, London, British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, 1981) At the southern end of the mound, and Italian team found the same thing in 1997. She also supported the Bible record that the city was heavily fortified. (Deu 9:1). Unusually large amounts of grain found in the ruins shows that the city endured only a short siege, which the Bible numbers at seven days (Jos 6:12-20), and that the grain had been recently harvested (Joshua 3:15). Also, because grain was a valuable commodity almost always plundered by conquering forces, the large amount left in the ruins bespeaks the accuracy of the Bible record that God commanded that nothing in the city be taken except valuable metals to be used for the treasury of the Lord (Joshua 6:24). Kenyon herself admits: "The destruction was complete. Walls and floors were blackened or reddened by fire, and every room was filled with fallen bricks, timbers, and household utensils; in most rooms the fallen debris was heavily burnt, but the collapse of the walls of the eastern rooms seems to have taken place before they were affected by the fire" (("Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho?," Biblical Archaeology Review , March-April 1990, p. 56). So archaeology reveals the walls had collapsed before the city was burned, just as the Bible says (Jos 6:20-24). Rahab"s house was built on the side of the wall (Joshua 2:15). If the walls fell, how was her house spared? (Joshua 2:12"21, 6:17, 22"23). The German excavation of 1907"1909 found that on the north a short stretch of the lower city wall did not fall as everywhere else. A portion of that mudbrick wall was still standing to a height of over eight feet. (Ernst Sellin and Carl Watzinger, Jericho die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen, Osnabr"ck, Otto Zeller Verlag, p. 58, 1973). What is more, there were houses built against the wall! Could this be where Rahab"s house was?