(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen. All right, well I want to begin by saying, is it all right if I push this thing up? I'm gonna push this thing up, if that's okay. Well give me a little extra space and it puts it a little lower, which helps me a little bit, not much, but I want to begin of course tonight, do I need to turn this thing on, is it on? All right, good, all right, thank you. Of course I want to begin tonight by just saying thank you, thank you to everybody being here, and I appreciate all of you staying. If you would have gone back to your cabin after the sermon, I would have understood. It was a great sermon, but I appreciate you sticking around for the second sermon, and I realize it's 8.30 p.m. here, but it's 5.30 in California, and I'm on California time, so we'll see how it goes, but I do want to say thank you of course to Pastor Berzins, Ms. Berzins, and just for the invitation, the hospitality, the accommodations, everything has been wonderful. The meals have been amazing. Thank you to those of you that have cooked. The activities have been great. This year I have my entire family with me, I have my wife and all six of my children, and we've been participating in the kids events and the teen events, and everything has been wonderful, so just Stronghold Baptist Church, we're very impressed with you, and thank you, thank you, thank you for everything and just for being here tonight, and of course my fellow pastor friends, Pastor Bogart, great sermon tonight, and Pastor Robinson, good sermon last night, of course, Pastor Shelley, I'm glad you're here, and he'll preach twice tomorrow as well, so just be ready, I'm just chilling. I like to mess around with Pastor Shelley, so. All right, let's see, I think that, yeah, we're there in Genesis chapter 11. I'd like you to do me a favor, keep your place there in Genesis 11 if you would, and go with me to the New Testament book of 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter two, 1 Thessalonians chapter two, if you can find the T books in the New Testament, they're all clustered together, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, Titus. Keep your place in Genesis 11, and go to 1 Thessalonians chapter two. Let me also say this just real quickly, I'm not preaching on the subject of leadership or being a follower, but I do wanna say to our sir, may I have your name, Jonah 310, may I have your name? Brother Jared, I just, I'm not preaching on leadership, I'm not preaching on followship, I do teach in our church on leadership and followship a lot, and I just wanna say that when your pastor says, I think you missed a word, the response, that was the perfect response, I missed a word then, is the perfect response. And that's just an example of being a good follower. So praise the Lord for that, and I was impressed by that, so I could use some followers like that. In 1 Thessalonians chapter two and verse 13, I wanna begin tonight by, and let me just kinda give you a little bit of a caveat, tonight I'm preaching on a subject, it's maybe a little different. It's something that I've been studying out recently, and something that I find interesting, I hope you'll find it interesting. I think this is my third time preaching here at this camp, and I've preached different types of sermons in the past, and I wanna just try to bring something a little different. And tonight, I'm preaching a sermon, I'll give you the title that I've given the sermon is The Origins of Man, The Origins of Man. But that title doesn't really tell you what the sermon's about, so there's also a subtitle, but my subtitle is a little long. It's like the title of a book from the 1800s, if you're familiar with that, just a really long title. So you don't have to write this down if you're taking notes, but I'll give you the subtitle. And the subtitle of the sermon is How Secular Human History Confirms the Biblical Account of the Origins of Man. All right, now if you're taking notes, just The Origins of Man will do, but the subtitle for those of you that like that type of information is How Secular Human History Confirms the Biblical Account of the Origins of Man. And what I'm preaching about tonight is how the biblical origins of man and what the Bible teaches about where man came from, how it is corroborated with the documented here's historical account evidence. And now when I talk about it being corroborated, let me just say this, corroboration, or corroborating evidence, just to kind of define that for you, is evidence that strengthens or confirms already existing evidence. In courts, we would call it something that is used to support the testimony of a witness. And what I wanna say tonight is that the Bible is always and has always and will always be corroborated by the outside evidence in the real world that is put out there. Now, let me just say this, just again by way of introduction, there is no need for anything to corroborate the Bible. The Bible is its own credibility. The Bible is the Word of God and we don't need any outside evidence to tell us that the Bible is the Word of God. If you're there in 1 Thessalonians 2, I'd like you to look at verse number 13, 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse number 13, the Bible says, for this cause also think we God without ceasing, because when he received the Word of God, which he heard of us, he received it not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. So this is our position. When we receive the Word of God, we did not receive it, here Paul is telling the Thessalonians, but it's true of us that we have not received it as the Word of men, but we received it as it is in truth, the Word of God. And the Word of God is the Word of God because the Holy Spirit tells us, and if you're saved and you have the Holy Spirit of God in your heart, as you read the Word of God, it tells you that these are the very Words of God. So we don't need any outside evidence to corroborate the Word of God. I've heard it said before that the Word of God is like a lion. You don't defend the lion, you just let the lion loose and it defends itself. And that's what the Word of God does. The Word of God defends itself. Now, what I'm preaching tonight, the purpose of this sermon is not to give credibility to the Bible because the Bible is its own credibility. However, what I have learned is that sometimes we as believers need to have our own confidence built on the Bible. And we need to have confidence in the Word of God. And here's what I want you to understand about the Word of God. The Bible is a reasonable book. The Bible is a logical book. The Bible will always stand up to any sort of logic or reasoning that man has to say, and this is biblical. You don't have to turn here. In fact, I'd like you to turn to Hebrews if you would. You're there in 1 Thessalonians. If you turn over, pass 2 Thessalonians, pass 1 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and then you have the book of Hebrews. You go to Hebrews chapter 11, and let me read to you from Isaiah chapter 1. You go to Hebrews 11, and I'll read to you from Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 18. Isaiah 1, 18 says this, "'Come now and let us reason together, sayeth the Lord.'" Now, I want you to notice that the Bible and God, God never backs down from a reasonable argument. And the Bible is a reasonable book. It is a logical book. And again, what you and I need to understand as Christians is that there is nothing that is ever going to get dug up somewhere that is going to contradict the word of God. In fact, everything that ever gets dug up anywhere, not only does it not contradict the word of God, all it does is it always confirms and corroborates and gives credence to the fact that the Bible truly is the word of God. But with that said, let's remember that we come to God in faith. Hebrews 11 and verse 6, notice what the Bible says, "'But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.'" So when we go out soul winning, we do not go out trying to make logical arguments. We do not go out trying to explain to people things that make sense and that connect with the word of God. The Bible says that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So when we go out soul winning and we're talking to unsaved people, our job is to bring them the word of God and that the word of God itself might help them, like I've already said, that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. As they hear the word of God, it'll help them to believe, it'll create faith in them as they receive it, as they accept it, and of course we must come to God by faith. And the Christian life is a life of faith, not only at salvation, but the Christian walk, the just shall live by faith is what the Bible says. So we realize that the Bible is a book of faith. We come to it in faith. But with that said, we can also understand that it is a book that is reasonable, that is logical, and it'll always stand up to the arguments and to the assaults of the world. So tonight what I'd like to do, and if you would, you can go ahead and make your way back to Genesis chapter number 11. What I'd like to do is give you three areas tonight in which secular human history confirms the biblical accounts of the origins of man. Now with these three arguments, and I'll give them to you as we go, let me begin with this first thought or this first argument, this first area in which we see secular human history confirming the biblical account of the origins of man. And the first one is the rise of civilization, the rise of civilization. And what I want you to understand is this, a civilization and documented history begins where the Bible begins. And let me just kind of explain that a little bit and give you some information. I'm sure many of you are aware of some of these things already but let me just say these things to help you understand. When you talk to the secular world, when you talk to professors or teachers or scientists or archeologists or things of that nature, and you ask them about the history of humanity, the history of the world, the history of the universe, the secular world is gonna begin with these outrageous numbers and they're gonna say things like this, 13.8 billion years ago was the big bang. And then they're gonna say 3.8 billion years ago, life began. And then they're gonna say, and you know, their numbers are always changing so these numbers may not be up to date but it's usually something this ridiculous, right? 800 million years ago, the first animal appears. 750,000 years ago, they say was the beginning of the Homo sapiens or the human beings. And you know, they're always just trying to turn us into animals, right? So according to them, 750,000 years ago, monkeys produce Homo sapiens. In 2023, you know, they're just homosexuals but they're still animals. And it's always just this garbage about, you know, the fact that we were not created by God and that we're not made in the image of God. So they'll say 750,000 years ago was the beginning of the Homo sapiens or human beings. 300,000 years ago, Homo sapiens according to them developed tools for the first time. 40,000 years ago, Homo sapiens became the only surviving human species because they'll say that there was multiple human species and 40,000 years ago, you know, we won supposedly, we beat everybody out, we became the only human species. And then they'll say 3,500 years ago, documented history began. Now when they say documented history began, what they mean by that is that 3,500 years ago, that's the number they gave us, they'll say that's when you can actually begin to see documented evidence. And what does that mean? That means we've got things that have been written down. That means that there's things that you can actually dig up. There's archeology, there's artifacts, there's civilizations that they're digging up and they're saying these are about 3,500 years old. Now I'm gonna read to you a lot of things from the Word of God, of course, tonight but I'm also gonna just read to you from secular sources just to help you see their argument because I don't want to make their argument for them. I want you to see it in their own writing. I'm gonna begin by reading just a little excerpt from an article from an organization called the CAN Academy and the CAN Academy is a respected resource that is used by secular colleges and universities. So this is something that is respected by the secular world as far as education. Here's what they say. They said history refers to the time period after the invention of written records in a given culture or society. Archeologists have discovered written records in Egypt from as early as 3,200 BC. Now they say BCE but I just say BC which is the accepted date at which history begins. So here's what they say. They say archeologists have found written records in Egypt from as early as 3,200 BC which is the accepted date at which history begins. So they say that history begins at 3,200 BC and when you look at different sources, they'll give different dates. They'll say 3,500 BC, 3,200 BC, 3,000 BC, 2,500 BC but anywhere in that area is where they say history begins because of the fact that right around that time is when we find documented sources, actually things that have been written down, built, made, things that we've dug up and we've got archeology, we've got artifacts, things of that nature. Now here's what I want you to understand. When you look at the history that they give you, 13.8 billion years ago the Big Bang, 3.8 billion years ago life begins, 800 million years ago the first animal appears, 750,000 years ago the beginning of the first homo sapiens, 300,000 years ago homo sapiens developed the first tool, 40,000 years ago homo sapiens became the only surviving human species. Here's what I want you to understand. All of that, everything I just read to you and I said, all of that is a bunch of made up stories. It's just a bunch of fairy tales. Nothing documents that. There's no evidence for it. There's no proof for it. It's just something they've decided to make up. They don't know. They just pulled 13.8 billion years out of the sky and they change it all the time. They just made all that up. And then they get to 3,500 years ago and they'll say, well that's where documented history began. And you gotta ask yourself this question. Because if you were to take a college class or some sort of a secular course on these things, you would be given a textbook, and I'm actually gonna read to you from some college textbook and excerpts from college textbooks tonight as well, but you would be given a textbook, maybe if you were taking like a history civilizations class or some sort of like ancient humanities course, something like that, you'll be given a textbook and you'll go to page number one and it'll start talking about the Flintstones, right? I mean, it'll talk about the Stone Age and all the different evolution things you're gonna hear about. It's gonna give you the 13.8 billion years, the 3.8 billion years. You're gonna read all that, but then eventually you're gonna get to a chapter, probably usually like the third or fourth chapter where it's like, okay, history begins. Now here's the question. Why don't they just start there? Why don't they just start where they actually have evidence? Where they actually can say, because they can tell you like, well, we've got all this stuff that we think happened, but here's the truth, all that 13.8 billion years stuff, that's all a religion. They'll say, well, what you believe requires faith, but you know what they believe requires faith as well. Why don't they just say, we've got all these theories, but we can't prove any of them. So let's just start where we actually have evidence and let's start with documented history. We know there's evidence of human beings being on this earth and of them living on this earth 3,500 years ago. Why don't they start there? I'll tell you why they don't start there and why they gotta make up all these other stories to fill two or three chapters worth of fairytales before they get to the point where there's actual documented history. You know why they don't wanna start there? Here's why, because if their books started there, if their books, their textbooks, when it comes to the history of humanity where the evidence started, it would actually start where the Bible starts. It would sound like the Bible. Now let me just read to you some excerpts from college textbooks. Here's a college textbook called Experience Humanities and this is a college textbook that's being used in colleges and universities in Sacramento, California and it's being used right now. This is like their current textbooks for teaching these things. Here's what they say on page number seven, they said Mesopotamia is a Greek word meaning between the rivers. The valley of the river Tigris and Euphrates formed part of what is known as the fertile crescent. So they talk about the fact that there's this area in the world called Mesopotamia and it's called Mesopotamia. It's a Greek word that means between the two rivers. There's these two rivers, the Tigris River and the Euphrates River and between the Tigris River and the Euphrates River because these rivers are surrounding this area, this is a very fertile area and it's known as the fertile crescent or the fertile crescent. Here's what they say. Here's from the website history.com. Now I'm reading to you from history.com like the History Channel, their website. So this is not newifp.com. You understand that? It's not even the sword of the Lord, okay? It's not like some Christian, it's just a secular website. Here's what they say. They said Mesopotamia is the earliest urban literature civilization on the globe. And the Sumerians who established the civilization established the ground rules, says Kenneth Curl, author, consultant and professor emeritus of history at Tulani University. Here's what the textbook Experience Humanity says on page eight. They say, as historian Samuel Kramer asserts, history begins at Sumer. Now I'm reading this to you to make the point that once you get past the fairy tales, if you ask educated, respected, secular sources, where is the first evidence of human activity? Where is the first, not your stories, not your stories of 13.8 billion years ago, nothing blew up and made everything. I'm talking about where you can prove, you can show me something, something was written, something was built, something was, you have proof that human beings were alive. And here's what they'll tell you. They'll say, well, about 3,500 years ago in a place called Mesopotamia, we have evidence of human beings. Here's an article from worldhistory.com. They said Ur was a city in the region of Sumer in Southern Mesopotamia and its ruins lie in what is modern day Talamakir, Iraq. The secular world, if you ask them, I'm not talking about Bible teachers, where is the evidence of first human civilization and they'll have to tell you, they'll have to say, well, it's the Ur of Mesopotamia, Ur of a civilization known as Sumer. When was it? 3,500 years ago. What's interesting about that is that when you open up the Bible, when you open up the Bible and you begin to read the Bible and you begin to ask the question, where were the first civilizations according to the word of God? Are you there in Genesis 11? Look at verse 27. Genesis 11 verse 27, the Bible says, now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begat Abraham. Abraham lived according to the Bible about 2,266 years before Christ. Nahor and Haran and Haran begat Lot, verse 28. And Haran died before his father, Terah, in the land of the nativity, notice these words, in the Ur of the Chaldees. Skip down to verse 31. And Terah, or Terah, took Abraham his son and Lot the son of Haran his sons and Sarai his daughter-in-law and his sons Abraham's wife and they went forth with them from, notice it again, Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan and they came unto Haran and dwelt there and the days of Terah were 205 years and Terah died in Haran. Now if you're familiar with the book of Genesis, you know that obviously Genesis is the book of the origins. Chapter one gives us the creation of man. Chapters two and three talk about Adam and Eve and the fall. Then we get the story of Cain and Abel. Then we get a lot of just preliminary ancient human history, the flood, the Tower of Babel. That's all covered in roughly the first 10, 11 chapters. And then of course, we go from the origins of humanity to the origins of the Hebrews or what would become the nation of Israel or the sons of Israel. We begin to focus in on a man, Abraham. But I want you to understand, this is pretty early in world history. Abraham lived 2200 BC. So when you ask a textbook, where's the first evidence of human beings? Here's what they say, Ur in Samaria in Mesopotamia. You ask the word of God, where are the first human beings? You know what you read? Ur of the Chaldees, which was in Sumer, which was in Mesopotamia. And I want you to understand that when you open up a textbook and you get past all the fairy tales and you get to the actual history, the stuff that's actually been documented and you open up the word of God, both begin in the same place. Now let me say this. Not only were civilizations, the civilizations begin in Mesopotamia, civilizations began in general to start up simultaneously around this time. Let me just read some things for you to make this point. Here's from the college textbook. Western civilizations arose in Mesopotamia and Egypt about 3500 to 3000 BC. Here's what the textbook says in page eight. Sumer's most inspirational king, Gogamesh, ruled about 2700 BC at Ur, one of the 30 or so cities of Sumer. And the textbook has a timeline where they put the Sumerian civilization starting at 3000 BC. Here's another quote from the college textbook on page 16. They say Egypt stepped from the shadows of its pre-literate past in about 3100 BC when Menes proclaimed himself king and united upper and lower Egypt. Here's what they also said. The Hittites, the first Indo-European people of historical significance immigrated from southern Russia to Anatolia around 3000 BC. Here's an article from the World Atlas website. They said the Indus Valley Civilization is dated at 3300 BC. This is when historians generally clock the first signs of urbanization. By 2500 BC, the Indus Valley Civilization was thriving, its people living in dozens of highly developed and spacious urban centers. There is even evidence that houses had individual bathrooms that led to a sophisticated and underground sewage system. Now, I want you to get this, okay? History not only tells us that the human evidence for human life and human living started at the same place that the Bible tells us it starts, but history also tells us that multiple civilizations began to pop up simultaneously around the same time. We have, of course, Mesopotamia. We've already talked about that. But also, you have Egypt being sprung up around the same time. Now, if you can kind of get a geography of that part of the world in your mind, or you can just look in the back of your Bible at a map, because it's probably in a map in your Bible. Of course, you've got the nation of Israel, and then south of that, you've got Africa, you've got Arabia, and then you've got Africa. That's where Egypt would be. But then north of the nation of Israel would be where Mesopotamia is, and you'd go north, and then you'd go off to the west, you've got Babylon, and you've got those kingdoms up there. And here's what history says. Mesopotamia, around 3500, 3000, 2500 BC, depending on the US, began to spring up civilization. But so did Egypt. When did Egypt begin to spring up civilizations? 3500, 3000, 2500 BC, depending on who you ask. But so did the Indus Valley, which is India. They began to spring up civilizations. When? 3500, 3000, 2500 BC, depending on who you ask. But so did the Hittites, coming from Russia down to Anatolia, which I think is modern day Turkey. They began to spring up. When? 3500, 3000, 2500 BC. I want you to understand this. Multiple civilizations started simultaneously. You say, well, why are you making a big deal about that? And here's what I want you to get. The simultaneous start of multiple civilizations contradicts the secularly accepted beliefs of the origin of man. Because if what they tell us is true, that 13.8 billion years ago, there's a big bang. 3.8 billion years ago, life began. Millions of years ago, Homo sapiens came, or whatever. All these numbers, 750,000 years ago, 400,000 years ago, 40,000, if that was true, then wouldn't you expect that civilization would begin in one place? I mean, right? One monkey turned into a man. And happened to find another monkey that turned into a man that also happened to be the opposite sex. And they also happened to like each other, right? I mean, all these things had to happen. And they began to have babies and civilizations sprang up. You wouldn't hear that. Well, no, it happened in Egypt, Mesopotamia. It happened with the Hittites. It happened in India. Or if you did hear multiple civilizations, it'd be like, well, one was 3500 BC, but this one was 70,000 BC. Why is it that all civilizations, no matter what age of civilization you're talking about, if you're talking about an age of civilization, they're all springing up simultaneously in different places of the world, roughly around the same time. See, the simultaneous start of multiple civilizations points to one common catalyst or origin for civilizations. Do you understand what I'm saying? The simultaneous start of multiple civilizations, not only does it contradict the accepted beliefs of the origins of man, it actually concurs with the biblical account of the origins of man and specifically with the story of the Tower of Babel. Now, I gave you all the fake news, right? All the fake dates. Let me give you some real dates, okay? These are just dates based off the Bible. According to the Bible, creation happened 4,274 BC, right? Now, they'll tell you that 13.8 billion years ago, there was a Big Bang, but the truth is that 4,274 BC, or roughly 6,300 years ago, that was the real Big Bang when God spoke and created the heavens and the earth. So 4,274 BC was creation. 2,618 BC was the flood, according to the Bible, the Noahic worldwide flood. 100 years after that, 2,518 BC was the Tower of Babel. What was the Tower of Babel? The Tower of Babel was a location where all mankind after the flood was united and they began to build a tower to reach up to heaven and God came down and confounded the languages and he dispersed the people into different geographies based off the languages that he gave them. And then 2,266 BC, we have the birth of Abraham and we begin the story of the Hebrew people. Now, here's all I'm saying. I'm an independent fundamental Baptist. I believe the Word of God. I don't need any evidence for the Word of God. I know the Word of God is true. Because when I read the Word of God and I read, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, that the Holy Spirit inside of me tells me that's true. And when I hear a secular professor say, 13.8 billion years ago was a Big Bang, the Holy Spirit inside of me tells me that's silliness. You came from a monkey. Maybe you came from a monkey, but not the rest of us. So I don't need anything to give credibility to the Word of God. But let's say, let's say that I wanted to take on, do a research project. Let's say that I wanted to get millions of dollars worth of government funding to do research into the origins of man. And let's say that they would never let me do this, but let's say that I was gonna set out to try to prove that the biblical account was true. If I were to make a hypothesis, if I were to make a prediction, if I were to make an assertion, if I were to set out to try to see, is the Bible true or is it not? The hypothesis that I would make, the question that I would ask, the assertion that I would make would be this, if the Bible is true, if God created us like the Bible says, if there was a worldwide flood like the Bible says, if there was a Tower of Babel like the Bible says, then what I would expect to find is multiple civilizations springing up around the same time because that's what the Tower of Babel teaches us. That's what the Bible tells us. The Bible tells us that all mankind was united. God divided their languages and sent them off on their way in different directions to begin different civilizations within the people that spoke those languages. So if I were to make a hypothesis, the hypothesis, the assertion would be, if the Bible is true, then I would expect that we would find that there are multiple civilizations that all began roughly around the same time. Oh, wait a minute, that's what we find. That's what the secular documented history tells us. And it concurs and it agrees and it makes sense with what the Bible says. In fact, it doesn't make sense with what they say. Because if there was no Tower of Babel, there should be no one catalyst that's just springing up all these civilizations. Now, let me just answer just a couple of questions real quickly and I'll go on to my next point. Because I want you to understand that the Bible, for those of you that have listened to Pastor Anderson's Age of the Earth sermon, which I agree with, and in fact, I'm getting these dates from him, all right? So if I'm off on a date, you can ask him on Friday. But according to the Bible, the Tower of Babel was 2,518 BC, roughly around 2,500 BC. Because some of you are real smart and you're gonna ask the question, the Bible says 2,500 BC, but they're saying 3,500 BC or 3,000 BC, right? So they're off by about 500 to 1,000 years. Now, let me just say this. Considering the fact that these are the same people that are throwing out numbers like 13.8 billion, the fact that they're off by 1,000 years, to me, I'm just impressed that that's all they're off. To me, I would just say that as, man, you're in the ballpark, right? But let me just give you the answer to why they're off by 500 to 1,000 years. And the reason they're off by 500 to 1,000 years, well, it was actually in the quote that I read to you from the World Atlas website, where it says, by 2,500 BC, the Indus Valley Civilization was thriving. It's people living in dozens of highly developed and spacious urban centers. There is even evidence that the houses had individual bathrooms that led to a sophisticated underground sewage system. Here's the truth, they're not finding some plaque that says, we started this civilization 3,500 BC. They're not finding that. What they're finding is that about 2,500 BC, these civilizations we're talking about were highly developed. Now, these people don't believe in the Bible. So when they get to 2,500 BC, and they're like, they have indoor plumbing. I mean, they've got sewer systems. They've got pretty advanced civilizations. They're thinking, well, there's no way they got there at 2,500 BC. They must have started 3,500 BC. And by the time we get to 2,500 BC, that's why they're so advanced. What they don't realize is that the Bible is true. And the truth of the matter is this, that there were civilizations before the Tower of Babel, but those civilizations were also before the flood. And the flood destroyed those civilizations. And here's what I'm saying is when they got off the ark, when they started to build the Tower of Babel, and when God dispersed them around 2,500 BC, they weren't starting from scratch. They could hit the ground running because they already knew some things. So when we get to 25, so God says, hey, civilization, you should expect to see civilizations around 2,500 BC after the Tower of Babel. And what the archeologists are finding is that there's developed sophisticated civilizations at 2,500 BC. So then they say, there's no way they started there. The Bible can't be true. Let's say 3,500. So just to answer the question, if you have the question why they're off by 1,000, that's what I believe is the reason for that. But honestly, like I said, the fact that they're off by 1,000 years, you know, I applaud them that they're even that honest. So when we talk about how secular human history confirms the biblical account of the origins of man, the first argument and the first thing that I want you to consider is the rise of civilization itself. Because like I said, the fact that secular human history tells us that multiple human civilizations started simultaneously around 3,500, 3,000, 2,500 BC, not only discredits what they teach us, but it confirms what the Bible says. It concurs with the Word of God. Now go to Genesis chapter number six. Genesis chapter number six. Now I realize that maybe you weren't expecting a college lecture on Wednesday night at a camp, all right? But there's going to be a test at the end, all right? Pastor Berzins has multiple choice tests, okay? And then you got to pay tuition, of course. I'm just kidding, we won't do any of that. At least I won't, I don't know, maybe he will. Genesis 6, 13, here's the second point, or the second argument that I'd like you to consider. The first argument was just human civilization itself. The second argument is the worldwide flood. The worldwide flood, Genesis 6, verse 13. The Bible says, and God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood, room shall thou make in the ark, and shall pitch it within and with pitch. Skip down to verse 17, and behold, I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life from under heaven, and everything that is in the earth shall die, but with thee will I establish my covenant, and thou shall come into the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife and thy sons' wives with thee, and of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shall thou bring into the ark to keep them alive with thee. They shall be male and female. So of course the Bible teaches that there was a worldwide flood. This happened in 2,618 years before Christ. God destroyed the earth with a flood. He told Noah to build an ark, to put his family in the ark, to put the animals on the ark, and then he destroyed humanity with a worldwide flood. That's what the Bible says. Now let me read to you from this textbook, Experience Humanities, on page 10. Here's what they say. They say, of the surviving epic tales and legends that offer glimpses into the Mesopotamian mind, the most famous is the Epic of Gilgamesh. Now here's what the textbooks will teach you or say. They'll say the Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest written story on earth to date according to archeologists. Now they don't like the Bible, right? They reject the Bible. Cause let me tell you something, the Bible is from everlasting. This is the oldest record anywhere. But for people who say, we don't like the Bible, and those people will say, we don't like the Bible because it talks about silly things, like what? Like a worldwide flood. I mean the Bible talks about a flood that destroyed all the world. We can't give credibility to that. Those same people will say, well there's this writing called the Epic of Gilgamesh and it is the oldest written story on earth today according to archeologists. Now let me just read to you what they say about this Epic of Gilgamesh. Here's what the textbook says. A section of the epic includes the Sumerian tale of the great flood in which Gilgamesh hears the story of the flood from its sole survivor, an old man named Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh how he built an ark and loaded it with animals and his family and how waters rose and how he released birds from the ark to discover if the waters were receded. Now doesn't that sound familiar to you? And obviously they understand that. That sounds a lot like Noah's ark. So then they'll say, so here's what they'll say to you. Because look, I'm preaching this sermon because I want you to have confidence in the Bible. I don't want somebody to come to you and say, well you believe in the Bible and the Bible talks about Noah's flood, but did you know that there's a document older than the Bible that also talks about a flood? But it wasn't Noah, it was Utnapishtim. And here's what they'll say. They'll say the Hebrews stole the flood story from the Mesopotamians, from the Sumerians. They'll say, the Sumerians talked about the worldwide flood and the ark first, that's what they'll say. And they'll try to have this chicken and the egg argument, which came first. And they'll try to discredit the Bible that way. But let me just let you in on a secret. And I'm gonna read to you from an article, and this is from a website called, which I think most of you will recognize, called PBS. Now look, PBS, is there anything more secular than PBS? I mean, this is pbs.org, all right? And they have an article on their website called A Flood of Myths and Stories. Because here's the thing, if there was two ancient sources for the flood, the Bible or the Old Testament and the Epic of Gilgamesh, then I could understand them making the argument, well, which came first, who stole from whom? But the truth is this, that almost every ancient civilization has a flood story or myth in their history. Now in the flood myths, in this article from pbs.org, they give a list of all the different ancient civilizations that have a flood story. And I'm not gonna read the whole thing to you, but I'm gonna read enough of it just to make the point. Obviously they talk about Noah and the ark, we know that. They talk about Gilgamesh, we've already talked about that. But they also talk about the Aztecs. The Aztec flood story shares similarities with the story of Noah's ark with some plot twist. In this story, Tilta Cauan warned the man named Noti, that's interesting, and his wife Nina of a coming flood. Noti and Nina hollowed out a cypress tree and Tilta Cauan sealed them inside. That's the Aztecs. Here's the Greeks. The Greeks say Zeus, the king of the lower case G gods, was displeased with the human population. Zeus told Delcalation, the son of Prometheus, to construct an ark for himself and his wife. After nine days of flooding, the world was destroyed and the ark rested on top of Mount Parnassus. Here's from the Hindus. The Hindu deluge tale is unique from other religions. In Hindu teachings, Manu, or the first man, was told by a fish god, this is the Hindus, that the world would be destroyed in a great flood. Here's from the Buddhists. The Buddhists have an elaborate flood story called Samudha Vaniha Jatakku. In China, the Chinese have many stories and myths about floods, gods, dragons, and spirits, just as in the other flood stories, there are few survivors. How about the Norse? The Norse flood story is starkly different from the others in that the world was flooded, but not with water. Instead, the world was drowned in blood. In this literal bloodbath, a single frost giant named Bear Gilmer and his wife made an ark, were saved and repopulated the earth. How about the Aborigines? The Aboriginal culture has a history rich of storytelling and their flood story has a noticeable lack of common elements, no angry deity, no ark, but still a worldwide flood. How about the Ojibwe tribe or the Chippewa tribe? The Native American tribes have long told stories to preserve their language and to teach values and moral lessons, such is the story of Wayna Buzu and the great flood. The story explores the time which is not commonly explored, the period between the flood and the receding of waters. Here's what I want you to think and consider. Well actually let me just read something that this lady wrote in this article. She says, flood stories pervade hundreds of cultures and there are striking similarities to many of the accounts. It seems that at least some of these stories could be based upon actual events. Geologists have proposed that the possibility of a great flood in the Middle East at the end of the last ice age, which was about 7,000 years ago. Now here's what I want you to understand. If, if I were to set out to try to find evidence that corroborates the word of God, if I were to set out to try to prove that the Bible was real, now I don't need to do that, I believe the Bible, but if I was just curious, is there anything out there that corroborates the word of God? Then what I would probably do is I would have a hypothesis, I would make a prediction, I would make an assertion that if the Bible is true, and there really was a worldwide flood, and 100 years after the flood was the Tower of Babel, which was the catalyst that sprung civilizations throughout the world into existence, then the hypothesis or the question, the assertion that I would make would be this, that I would predict that every ancient civilization would probably have a flood story if civilization started about 100 years after the Noahic flood. Oh, wait a minute, that's what we find. Every single ancient civilization has a flood story. You say, why is that? Well, maybe because the flood actually happened. And if God flooded the world entirely, people that descended from the ones that survived would tell that story. Now, people will often make a big deal and say, yeah, but there's so many differences. I mean, there's so many similarities. Not only is there a worldwide flood, there's always a man and his wife, there's an ark, there's a family, they're bringing animals onto the ark. I mean, there's a lot of similarities, but there are some differences. Different names, different things that happen in the stories, and people will say, well, that shows you, how do you know which one's real? Well, here's how I know which one's real. The one in the Bible is real because the Word of God is real. But let's just answer the question. Why are there similarities in these stories? And here's why, because it's human nature to change stories. You understand that? These stories have been told over thousands of years. I'm not surprised that they've changed. I'm shocked that they're as similar as they are. Because look, 2,000 years later, a story's gonna change. Here's the truth. Who's ever played the game telephone? You know, maybe when you were a kid, the game telephone, you know the game telephone? You get a group of kids together, you get them all in a circle, you whisper in one, the first one, you whisper something in their ear, and then they have to whisper it to the next one, and whisper it to the next one, and whisper it to the next one, and then by the time you get to the end, the last one will say out loud, it's always different. I mean, if I took a group of kids that never heard the story of Noah's flood, if I took 20 kids that never heard Noah's flood, and I whispered in one of their ears, there was a guy named Noah, there was a worldwide flood, he built an ark, he brought his family on the ark, he brought the animals two by two, God flooded the earth, tell the next guy. By the time they got around to the end, I'm not talking about 2,000 years later, I'm talking about 20 minutes later. By the time they got back to the end, it'd be like, there was a guy named Noti, and there was a fish, and I think there was a flood, and an ark, that's what human nature is like. But what I'm saying to you is the fact that every ancient civilization has a flood story confirms the Bible. Confirms the fact that the Bible is true. And this is why I say, secular human history confirms the biblical account of the origins of man. Let me give you a third one. Go to Genesis chapter 11, there's only three, all right? There's three, and then a conclusion, and then you can go roast marshmallows. Genesis chapter 11, I said number one, the rise of civilizations itself confirms the biblical account of the origins of man. I said number two, the worldwide flood confirms the biblical accounts of the origins of man. I'm preaching this sermon because some of you homeschool kids are taking the week off of school, so you need a class, you know? I'm trying to give you a Bible class here. Number three, the Tower of Babel. The Tower of Babel happened around 2518 BC. Genesis 11, verse one, this is where we began. And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech, and it came to pass as they journeyed from the east that they found a plain in the land of Shinar. That's Mesopotamia, that's Babylon. And they dwelt there, and they said one to another, go to, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and slime handy for mortar. And they said, go to, let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven and let us make us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And of course, you know the story, God comes down, confounded the languages, and they dispersed and began civilizations. Now, I want to kind of shift gears for a little bit because I want you to consider something. So far, we've been talking mainly about Mesopotamia, right? 3500, 3000, 2500 BC, Mesopotamia, Mesopotamia, the land between two rivers, the Tigris River and the Euphrates River, all right? Put that on pause. Let's fast forward to 1500 BC to the continent that you and I live on. And let's talk about not Mesopotamia, but Mesoamerica in about 1500 BC. Now, there is a book, and let me just say this, for those of you that maybe aren't familiar with it, in Mesoamerica, we don't really have civilizations that go back to 3000 BC that we have documented evidence for. They don't have architecture, things like that, that they dated back to 3000 BC. They go back to about 1500 BC or 1000 BC or something like that. Of course, the civilizations you probably heard of are like the Inca or the Aztecs or the Maya. Before that, there was a civilization called the Olmec. And the Olmec were people that the Maya and the Aztecs descended from. The Maya actually had a book that has been preserved called the Popovul. And the Popovul is a story of creation according to the Quinchamaya of the region known today as Guatemala. The work has been referred to as the Mayan Bible, and I'm reading from an article for you. The work has been referred to as the Mayan Bible, although this comparison is imprecise. The Popovul is not regarded by the Mayas as the word of God, nor as sacred scripture, but rather as an account of the ancient world. So they have this book, the Maya, have this ancient document called the Popovul. They do not consider it scripture, they don't consider it the word of God, it's not their Bible. What it is, it's a history book of their civilization and of the ancient world. And I just want to read to you an excerpt from that book. And just to kind of give you the context where I'm reading to you, the part that I'm reading to you, according to the Popovul, all the peoples of the world have all gathered in one place called Tulaan Ziyuya. Now let me just read to you from their book. Here's what it says. And the languages of the tribes changed there. Their languages became differentiated. They could no longer understand one another clearly. When they came away from the Tulaan, and there they broke apart, there were those who went eastward and many who came here, but they were people of genius in their very being when they came away from Tulaan Ziyuya. Now here's what's interesting. If I were to set out to find evidence for the word of God, if I were to set out to find something that would corroborate what the Bible says, then I would probably hypothesize. I mean, I would make the assertion and I would make the prediction and I would ask the question that if the Bible is true and every civilization came from the Tower of Babel, then not only would all civilizations kind of begin to spring up around the same time, which is what happened, not only would all those civilizations have some sort of an account of a worldwide flood, if it actually happened, they would all talk about which is what happened. But I would say that all civilizations, even as far as you can think, would have some account of the Tower of Babel. Keep in mind, we're not talking about Mesopotamia because look, going from Babylon to Egypt is a long ways in the ancient world. Obviously today you get on a plane, it doesn't take that long. But going to where the Hittites were, to the Indus Valley, to Mesopotamia, to the nation of Israel, to Egypt, these are all on that side of the world. We're talking about Guatemala. Do you understand what I'm saying? The secular world, they don't even know how people got here according to them. They think that during the Ice Age there was a land bridge and blah, blah, blah. I mean, I think they came on a land bridge too, it just wasn't the Ice Age. But 1500 BC, the most ancient civilization on this continent has a book that in 1500 BC, they say in 1500 BC, this book is ancient. And this book tells us of where we came from. And you ask them the question, where did you came from? And they say, well, let me tell you a story. One time, once upon a time, all the people of the world were gathered in one place. But then our languages got differentiated and we couldn't understand each other. So we were divided and some went east and some went west and some came here and that's how we got here. And here's what I'm telling you. If that was, if the Bible was true, that's what I would expect, we would find, oh, wait a minute, that is what we find. Amen. And I'm just saying to you that secular human history confirms the biblical account of the origins of man. So don't let anybody intimidate you. Don't let anybody, because here's what Bible even Christians do. Why believe the Bible? I don't know how to answer all these questions. How to answer questions about 13.8 billion years. You don't have to answer questions about 13.8 billion years. Nobody was there. That's right. That wasn't written. That wasn't documented. Nobody saw it. That's a fairytale. When you're having this conversation, if you're having this conversation, now please don't have this conversation at the door saw-winning. Right. But if you're having this conversation with a new convert, if you're having this conversation with a coworker, if you're having this conversation with a family member, you know, over Thanksgiving dinner or whatever, make them start where the evidence starts. And when they start where the evidence starts, it starts where the Bible starts because the Bible is the word of God. Amen. Because the Bible is accurately historic. It is the accurate history of civilization. Go to 1 John chapter five real quickly. We're going to be done here in like five minutes. All right. 1 John 5, 13. If you would, if you go backwards from Revelation, you have Jude, 3rd, 2nd and 1st John. Revelation, Jude, 3rd, 2nd and 1st John. 1 John 5, 13. I'm just saying to you that secular history, documented history, confirms the Bible. And you and I, as Bible-leading Christians, never have to worry that something's going to get dug up and contradict the Bible. Nothing ever gets dug up and contradicts the Bible. In fact, everything that gets dug up only lends credibility to the word of God. And if anything, it contradicts their fairy tales. The rise of civilizations, the simultaneous start of civilizations, concurs and confirms the Tower of Babel. The ancient collective myths of the ancient world regarding a worldwide flood confirm the biblical account of the worldwide flood. The fact that you can find people in Mesoamerica, 1,000, 1,500 years after saying, I mean, are we supposed to believe that they just made up the same story? There was this place, we were all there. Then we couldn't understand each other, and we came here. Now here's what I want you to understand, okay? And we're going to be done here. I'm going to show you, I'm going to read three verses, I'm going to show you two, okay? 1 John 5, 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on this name of the Son of God. When the Bible says here, when John, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, penned down these words, these things have I written unto you, he was referring to scripture. And the Bible here tells us that one of the purposes for the Bible, and specifically John, for John's writings, the Gospel of John, and 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, he said one of the reasons for this was that ye may know that ye have eternal life. I hope you know that you're saved tonight. I mean, I would imagine that we have a room full of saved people. And if you're not, if you're here tonight, you don't know that you're on your way to heaven, please let me talk to you after the service, and I'd love to show you how you can know for sure you're on your way to heaven. But let me just say, or talk to one of the pastors here, one of the men here. But here's what I want you to understand. The Bible accurately tells us where we're going. I mean, isn't that true? I know that I know that I'm saved. I know that if I were to die tonight, I would be in heaven, why? Because the Bible says so. Because the Word of God tells me. Because I believe the Word of God. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I called upon Him for salvation. I know that I know that I'm saved. And my confidence for that is the Word of God itself. The Bible accurately tells us where we're going. But the Bible does not only accurately tell us where we're going, the Bible also accurately tells us where we came from. Now go to 2 Peter chapter one. You're there in 1 John, you're gonna go backwards. Pass into the book of 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter one is the last verse I'll have you go to. While you go there, let me read to you the first book of the Bible, first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1, one, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Here's what I want you to understand. Since the Bible accurately tells us where we're going, do you believe that? Amen. Yes. I mean, I think like three of you are saved, that's okay. Since the Bible accurately tells us where we're going, do you believe that? Yes. And since the Bible accurately tells us where we came from, I hope that after tonight's sermon you have some confidence in that. But the Bible is true, that secular human history not only does not discredit but it confirms the biblical account. Here's the takeaway, here's the application for tonight. Because if you know me, I'm not just gonna give you a lesson, I'm gonna give you an application. Since the Bible accurately tells us where we're going, and since the Bible accurately tells us where we came from, then we should trust the Bible to accurately tell us how to live our lives. Second Peter chapter one, verse 19, notice what the Bible says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. What is that referring to? That's referring to the word of God, that's referring to scripture. Now usually, we King James people will come to this verse to highlight that phrase, and it's a good phrase. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. But I want you to notice something else in this verse. We have also a more sure word of prophecy, that's usually what we look at when we look at this verse, or what we focus in on. But I want you to focus in on the next phrase, what the Bible says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy, where unto ye do well that ye take heed. Amen. Amen. The word heed means to pay attention to. The word heed means to focus on. You know what the Bible says? The Bible says that because we have a more sure word of prophecy, because we have a biblical account, not the Quran, not the Book of Mormon, not a piece of trash with a bunch of fairytales, but an actual accurate history of humanity that is confirmed by everything in this universe. Because we have a more sure word of prophecy, you and I would do well to take heed. You and I would do well to consider the fact that if the Bible can accurately tell me where I'm going, and the Bible can accurately tell me how I got here, then the Bible can also give me good marriage advice. The Bible can also give me good child-rearing advice. The Bible can also give me good financial advice, and good health advice. And the Bible can pretty much tell me everything that I need to know about everything, because it tells me where I'm going, it tells me where I came from, and it can tell me how to live my life. So I hope that you'll apply the sermons you've heard this week so far. I hope that you'll go off into the wilderness, alone with God, with a renewed confidence in the Word of God, knowing that if the Bible says it, I can trust it. I hope that you'll, like we heard tonight, not be discouraged by the rejection of the world because they have rejected this book, but this book is the more sure word of prophecy. Where unto ye, and where unto I, do well that ye take heed. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you. We thank you for this great ministry, Stronghold Baptist Church, Pastor Berzins and his wife, the great work they're doing here. And thank you for this camp. And Lord, I do pray that the sermon tonight would just be an encouragement, maybe some new things people have heard that maybe they hadn't considered, or things they'd already heard, and it's just good to be reminded. But Lord, I pray that we would leave here with a confidence that the book that I hold in my hand, the King James Bible, is God's Word, and I can trust it. I can trust it to tell me where I'm going. I can trust it to tell me where I came from, and I can trust it to tell me how to live my life. Thank you for the Bible. Thank you for salvation. Thank you for a church that would take the time to put on an event like this, that we might get refreshed and renewed, get away and unplug from the world for a while, and be able to fellowship with God's people and be under the preaching of the Word of God. In the matchless name of Christ, we pray, amen. Amen.