Why its Easier To Believe in Angels — Discoveries that Confirm Bible History

Richard Dawkins, famous atheist, said words like religion can provide hope and comfort, and can make you feel good — but that doesn’t make it true. He meant empirical truth or something that can be proved by scientific measurements or verifiable observations.

Several records of angels exist in the Bible, and these are mystical beings that may challenge even devout people’s truth. But it is easier to accept angels as intuitive truth if they are connected to Biblical stories that have been verified by science. Here are two such famous Bible stories.

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
I have written of this topic before (here). In 2013 a book called Discovering the City of Sodom told the story in 2013 about an archeologist from Albuquerque who dug up Tall el-Hammam, a prominent geographical mound in Jordan, and claimed it was Sodom. Sodom flourished for 3,000 years, until an abrupt destruction recorded in the Bible, in the period 1750-1650 BC, roughly 3,700 years ago. Collins has excavated a large (and only) gate of the city, and the adjoining gatehouse, which is mentioned in the Bible story of Genesis chapter 19: Lot sat at the gate of the city.

A piece of pottery (sherd) revealed a thin layer of glaze just 1/8 of an inch thick. This was glazing caused by red-heat at thousands of degrees for only one millisecond (i.e. a shock wave). Collins argued the source of destruction was a meteor, similar to the fireball called Tunguska that hit Siberia in the early 1900’s.

A more recent study by an independent team proves beyond doubt it was a meteor airburst that destroyed Tall el-Hammam and surrounding towns about 1650 BCE. The meteor blew up before reaching ground and that’s why it’s called an airburst. No crater was left behind.

The city was annihilated into a layer about 4-5 feet thick that contains charcoal, shocked quartz, melted gold, silver and nickel, melted pottery and mudbricks, seeds, and small human bone fragments. After many careful measurements in laboratories, the authors conclude the temperatures must have exceeded 2000 degrees C.

The article also states that Jericho, 12 miles to the west, was wiped out by the same meteor. In all, 15 cities and over 100 smaller settlements were abandoned for 300-600 years after the meteor destruction in this region of the lower Jordan valley.

Even the biblical reference to Lot’s wife becoming a pillar of salt has credibility because an atmosphere over-saturated in salt ended up covering a large area around Sodom so that it remained uninhabited for 300-600 years.

The angels at Sodom.
Two angels in the form of men entered Lot’s home in Sodom. The Bible records a terrifying story of men from the city gathering at the home and wanting to gang-rape the angels. This was thwarted when the angels blinded the antagonists. Later, the angels led Lot and his family through the narrow winding streets, a feature that was confirmed by Collins’ mapping of the city, until they exited the city, when the angels disappeared and Lot’s family ran for their lives.

Intuitive truth: Since the rest of the Bible story has been confirmed by archeology and cometary researchers, the simplest conclusion is that the two angels were true as well.

The siege of Jerusalem.
The second story is well established by history in the book of Chronicles, in Assyrian records, as well as the famous Lachish relief chiseled into a stone wall in the King’s palace in Nineveh. Sennacherib was the King of Assyria and the attack on Judah was 701 BC, which was 2,700 years ago. You can read the details here.

Sennacherib had a powerful army who fought their way across Judah, overcoming smaller towns, until they reached Jerusalem. To encourage his people, Hezekiah gathered them together and called on God.

Sennacherib sent messengers and letters to Hezekiah, belittling God and insulting the King. Hezekiah wasn’t intimidated. He met with the prophet Isaiah, one of the most famous prophets, and together “they prayed and cried to Heaven.” An amazing thing happened.

“The Lord sent an Angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders in the camp of the Assyrians. So the Assyrian King returned with shamed face to his own land. And when he came into the house of his god, they who were his own offspring slew him there with the sword.”

Discovery of military encampment outside Jerusalem.
The following quotes are extracted from Patterns of Evidence:
“A newly discovered archaeological site in Israel may provide evidence of the miraculous account given in three separate books of the Bible, where an angel of the Lord wiped out 185,000 Assyrian soldiers besieging Jerusalem in answer to King Hezekiah’s prayer.

Stephen Compton, an independent scholar specializing in Near Eastern archaeology, used a modern mapping technique to locate ancient Assyrian military camps from 700 BC. The discoveries revealed a string of campaign sites for the invasion of Judah that led right to the city of Jerusalem where a confrontation of Biblical proportions took place.

The Assyrian Empire dominated the ancient Near East throughout much of the 8th and 7th centuries BC, becoming the strongest military power in the world. At its height, Assyria spread out as far as today’s Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. The capital city, Nineveh, was one of the greatest cities of ancient times. Archaeology has confirmed what the prophet said in Jonah 3:3; the area of the city was so massive that it took three days to walk around it.

Assyrian King Sennacherib ruled from 705 – 681 BC. He carried out a campaign to control all routes across the Syrian Desert that led to the Mediterranean Sea. In 701 BC, the 14th year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib set his sights on Judah, conquering 46 of its fortified cities (Isaiah 36:1). Miraculously, Jerusalem was spared.

Stephen Compton set out to look for archaeological remains of King Sennacherib’s military camps throughout Israel. He began his investigation with Lachish, a city located 42 miles southwest of Jerusalem. ‘One of the important cities that [Sennacherib] conquered, which is mentioned in the Bible as well as in Assyrian documents, is Lachish,’ said Compton.

Sennacherib’s southwest palace at Nineveh, now the location of modern-day Mosul, Iraq was discovered by Austen Henry Layard in 1847. The palace contained almost two miles of stone hallways carved with reliefs. A detailed battle scene commemorating Sennacherib’s conquest of Lachish was among the events recorded on the walls.

‘On one side [of the carving] was his military camp [which was] a large oval.’ The carvings showed how the Assyrian military bases were laid out around the city.

Compton looked north of Jerusalem for the siege camp [and found] … a structure similar to the Lachish oval, with the remains of substantial oval walls around both the base and the summit.”
The remains of Sennacherib’s camp are today known as Ammunition Hill Heritage Site.”

Sennacherib’s army destroyed.
“Sennacherib’s conquering campaign in Judah was finally halted when he was not able to capture Jerusalem. According to 2 Kings 19, he was thwarted through an amazing miracle, because King Hezekiah prayed desperately to God for help.

The record in 2 Kings 19: 35-36 says an angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. As a result, Sennacherib withdrew, and returned to Nineveh. He was finally stopped by the power of God through a righteous King’s prayer. And Compton may have discovered the very site of this astounding miracle.

The fact that a fortified military camp dating to the right time period was found in that location does show that Sennacherib’s army was in the area and apparently ready to sack Jerusalem 2,700 years ago, before God’s agent intervened and doomed the siege to failure.

Sennacherib’s life ended in Nineveh when he was murdered by his own sons as he worshiped his god Nisroch (Isaiah 37:38). The Assyrian Empire came to an end when Nineveh was destroyed by the Medes from the Iranian Plateau and the Chaldeans of Babylon, in 612 BC. The city never rose again, and its location was long forgotten until archaeologists found it’s remains in 1847.”

The angel at Jerusalem.
That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib King of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. – 2 Kings 19:35-36

There is nothing at the site to prove a supernatural occurrence. That’s left to our imagination. But the painting by Gustave Dore gives me goose-bumps, as do the following verses from the poem by Lord Byron: The Destruction of Sennacherib.

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

Intuitive truth: Since a big part of the Bible story has been confirmed by archeology and ancient map experts, the simplest conclusion is that the angel of the Lord was true as well.

Takeaway.
These two Bible stories make it easier to believe in angels, if you are a person who doesn’t believe. Or perhaps you are a person who is not sure what to believe about angels.

The main point is these two Bible stories have been confirmed in large part by, first, archeological digs and, second, by later independent scientific discoveries. If the provable parts of the stories are true in the scientific sense, the mystical parts involving angels are more likely to be true — especially when viewed in the intuitive sense.