Answers in Genesis - Sunday School - Spring: Lesson 7

But let's go ahead and pray and we're gonna jump into things. Lord, we thank you for your kindness to us today and allowing us just life and breath and all good things. You've given us everything that we need for life and godliness. We thank you for your word.

And we thank you for your Holy Spirit that illuminates your words that we can understand it. we know that your, your word is just a closed book to so many people, but when you come and open up their eyes, we can understand it and apply it to our lives, and so we pray that your spirit would work this morning. We pray, Lord, that You would help us to, walk away, growing. We know that change doesn't happen immediately.

Sometimes it's not discernible, over a short period of time, but that over time that we would grow closer and closer to you as we march towards heaven and carry out the mission, the great commission that you have given us on this earth. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right, one of the main questions we're going to be trying to answer this morning deals with who in this room is your relative.

Do you guys see any, yeah, how far back do you want to go? Do you guys see any relatives around you? Yeah I think I probably told you guys a couple of weeks ago, I got, I got sucked into that Ancestry.com thing and I paid for not I didn't pay, I took the free 14 days but I'm pretty cheap so I used it and then canceled it. After at about day 1213.

But it was very interesting to look and see all the different names that are in our family history that are connected to the berries. I, I focused mainly on the berries, but, there were Sullivan's and all these, I was wondering, am I related in some way to the Sullivans, who knows. It was just hundreds and hundreds of people. I went back seven generations back to 1705 if I did my research right, which took us back to Ireland.

The berries go all the way back. They're in the United States until like the 1700s and then there's a couple. Guys, great, great, great, great, great grandpas that come over from Ireland. And but it's amazing just in a short period of time, relatively short period of time.

the, the thousands of people that are connected just to my family tree. And and so it doesn't take long. for, the population to propagate, and if we go all the way back. To Noah.

We're all related if we understand what the Bible says. And so this morning we're gonna be kicking off our second installment, that we're calling One Blood, One Race. this is part two of the Tower of Babel. it fits within, right here in our curriculum.

Last week we talked about confusion, dispersion of Babel, and, we're hoping to skip to less than 13 at the end of, on June 5th. Next week we'll hit Job in the suffering. And this is all part of the adult equiping school which fits into our par family ministry. We want to come alongside of y'all and help you grow in your relationship with the Lord from brokenness to wholeness.

What we're gonna do this morning is do a little, just a short review, then study the word and then try to apply the word. That's what we're doing basically every week. in this particular course, we're basically studying the Bible chronologically through the seven seas of history. We started off on the left with creation.

Secondly, we hit what? Corruption. Thirdly, we hit. Catastrophe, that's a flood and then these last couple of weeks we've been hitting.

Confusion. So that's the Tower of Babel. Confusion, what exactly happened with all the various, language dis distribution and peoples and so on and so forth. Last week, in our last lesson, we took our first look at the events.

described in the Bible according in the account of the Tower of Babel, and who can remember what are some of the key ideas that we talked about last week. Yeah, Larry, In the city and Good. so why, why would God judge people just for wanting to build a tower? Yes, sir.

Yeah, he had commanded them to do something. They were refusing to do it. He wanted them to scatter and they said we're not going to do that. So was it merely just the idea of building a tall building that was the big deal?

No, it seems to be that they had disobeyed the command of God. but also it seems to be that they were doing it in pride just like the devil said, I will be like the most high. They are trying to lift themselves up and equate themselves with God. And God actually understands part of what this means.

He says if they succeed, nothing will be. you, nobody will be able to withhold from their hands whatever they want to do. And so is that because God last week, is that because God was threatened by the power of mankind? Now, what did we suggest last week?

Yeah, is it Knox, OK. Yes, exactly. So God looks down, sees that boy, these with their unified system, they're all speaking one language, they're able to diversify labor. These, these guys are gonna be able to spread evil easily and so it actually becomes a mercy for God to To disperse them, give them various languages.

We obviously, we admit that that's, it's miraculous that God confused the languages. but that God did it as a mercy. Now, the, the type of tower that we're talking about, this is somewhat speculative, but the Tower of Babel, would this be the only type of structure in ancient times where people were building some high structure to the gods, or do we see other examples? Yeah, the Mayans.

The Incas, the Aztecs, the Egyptians, we really see examples all over the world of what archaeologists have called zuggarats. these, structures, they could either be just big mounds of dirt or they could be like some pyramid structure where people are, are building up a, something that would be considered a gateway, to heaven. So today we're gonna, we're gonna go back to chapter 10 and we're going to expand on last week's lesson. And we want to affirm a couple of different things.

we want, we're, we're gonna go back to Genesis, look at the origin of all the groups of people we see today. We want to affirm the truth that all humans are created in the image of God descended from Adam. OK, so if, if the Bible's right, everybody came from Adam and Eve, and that has profound implications. this, allows us to explain the different physical characteristics we see across the globe from a biblical perspective and then we're going to look at the phenomena of cavemen and how should we understand the caveman.

In light of scripture, one of my kids' favorite movies is. What's that museum movie? Night at the Museum. OK, so they love Night at the Museum and just like any, a lot of these films, they portray the cavemen as these bumbling idiots who can't really speak language.

They run around grunting and they're very enamored at fire. Is that really the way it went down, or is there another explanation for what we find in archaeology? So let's go ahead and open to Genesis 10. We're gonna start there.

We'll read the text, ask some questions of the text. And then try to apply the text. Right now, I'm reading from an ESB and the reason why I'm reading from this particular copy is because it's Brooke Carry's and I just want to remember to give it to her. So if anybody sees Brooke, I have her Bible.

So Genesis 10:1-5. Let's read it together. These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.

The sons of Japheth, Gomer, Magog, Maydai, Javon, Tubal, Meshek. And Tyros, the sons of Gomer, Askenaz, Rifath, and To Togama. The sons of Javan, Alisha, Tarshish, Kitim, Doarim. from these, the coast lands, people spread to their lands, each with his own language by their clans and their nations.

OK, so you have a, a listing here. a genealogy. And remember last week we said what is one of the characteristics of Hebrew literature, even historical narrative. What what you have in chapter 10.

You have what, what happens or what's the relationship between chapter 10 and 11? Let's ask it that way. Specific OK, good. Yeah, so, this is very common in Hebrew literature.

So in, in chapter 10, you're seeing a lot of genealogies that's going to give us this big bird's eye view, right? Here's everything that happened to all the different peoples, and you're actually having a forward look to the time after the Tower of Babel. Then when you get over to chapter 11, it focuses in just on this one period of the Tower of Babel, at least part of the chapter does. Whenever I, read through these types of names.

If we're having family devotions or what have you, my kids all laugh at the names and They sound funny to them. And which is ironic because my oldest son's name is Yeshua, Joshua. And which comes right out of this type of context. But, but these are unusual names to us, but that, that would be.

that would be speak of the, of the time period. So let's ask a couple of questions of this text. let's see. Who are, first of all, who are the sons of Noah?

Yes, we have Shem, Kim, and Jayeth. So reportedly, Everything is flowing from these 3. Individuals. If you guys picked up there, there's, there's the main packet and then there's another packet and there's a place where you could fill in the generation if you want and then there's a cheater on the back of it where you just look and see what the answers are.

but it'd be a good little exercise to go through and see, can you, can you trace through the various suns. Now what switch happens in verse 2? What do we see the emphasis in verse 2? So we've just talked about Shem, the three sons of Noah.

Then in verse 2, where are we going? Yeah. Yeah, so now we're dealing with like grandsons. So, now we're going to talk about the sons of Japheth.

So we, we hit verse two, we're going to start talking about the sons of Japheth. So, this would be like starting off with way back in 1705 with David Barry. We got David Barry. We got Alexander Berry and then Howard and then Howard and then Randy and then me and then Joshua, right?

So you can start, you're starting up here with JFeth and then we're listing all the different individuals that would have come from JFeth. and who are the sons that are listed? We've got, Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javon. I'm not sure where the emphasis should be there with, Tubal, Meshek, and Tirras.

And are there any names that you recognize in the list of descendants? Say it again. OK. All right.

Tarshish. Some people recognize Tarshish, huh? Yeah, OK. Ezekiel 38 brings back some of the names.

And where did these various groups scatter according to the the text? Yeah, so, so the history that's being listed is they're saying these are the folks that spread over to the coastland. that general area, they were divided into their nations according to their families and languages. So obviously this is a preview of what we're going to see in verse in chapter 11.

OK, so now we've asked some questions in the text, Genesis 10:5 says that the people were divided by their language. And their families. how does Genesis 10:32 and 11:1 help us understand the detail of 10:5? So let's, let's look at 10:32.

In 11:1, and let's read that. In 32 it says, these are the clans of the sons of Noah according to the genealogies in their nations and from these nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood. Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. So, so you guys can see, can you guys see right there between those two verses what's happening?

So you have the genealogy, you have the intro to the genealogy. Verse 32 would be considered what part of the genealogy? Yeah, I get paid for this, so I can just sit here all day long. Yeah, it's the, it's the conclusion, yeah.

So you, you have most genealogies have two bookends. They'll say and here's the genealogy of Noah and then it gives all the stuff and it says that was the genealogy of Noah. When you look at genealogies, a lot of times there's a front end and a back end to it and so that's very typical here. And so we have the conclusion talking about Noah and it says and from the nation's In their nations and from these the nations spread abroad all over the earth after the flood.

So 32 saying it's these nations that spread out after the flood. Then in verse 11, now the whole earth had one language. So what's clearly going on in verse 1 compared to verse 32? Yep.

Totally. Yeah, totally. Yeah, so you're watching a movie, a lot of movies do this. You ever seen some of those movies, they'll start like somewhere towards the end, right, right, right by the climax of the, of the story.

You have this little opening scene where it's like, whoa, what's gonna happen? And then there's like this fade and then all of a sudden you're back at the very beginning like 3 days earlier, right, or 2 years earlier. And so that's what happens here is here's the genealogy that everybody spread out. This is how the whole Earth was populated, fade.

OK, the whole earth was one language. Let's go back and talk about that in detail. Say it again. Is that what Captain America does?

Which one? The new one? OK, I haven't seen the new one. So I, I have to go watch it just for that just so I can see that.

That fade, OK, so verse 5 cannot mean that the groups originally had different languages but that the language were part of their divisions in the nations, OK? So we've got that. Let's see, and then as we're going to see here in a second, what was the reason for the division? Of the nations.

Everybody knows it is, we just talked about it, rebellion, sin. OK, so let's, let's look at 106 to 20 and we'll see the next section. So we've just talked about Japheth in verse 6. What do you guys, what's, whose genealogy is this gonna be?

Ham. OK. So the sons of Ham, we have Kush. Egypt, Put, and Canaan, the sons of Kush, Siba, Hala Satar, Rama, Sebteka.

The sons of Rama were Sheba and Dadan. Kush fathered Nimrod. He was the first on the earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.

Therefore, it is said like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord. the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Eric, Akkad, and Kalla. in the land of Shannaar. From that land, he went to Assyria and built Nineveh.

Rehoboth Air, Kayla. And Rezin between Nineveh and Kayla, that is the great city. Egypt fathered Ludi. And a meme Lehabim Ne Neph to him.

Pathrisim Kaslahim, from whom the Philistine, Philistines came. And Kaf Tim. Canaan fathered Sidon, his firstborn in Heth, and the Jebusites and the Amorites, the Gurgishites, the Hivites, the Archites. The Sennites The Arvidites, the Sammarites, the Humerthites, Hamites, afterward, the clans of the Canaanites dispersed and the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon to the direction of Garar as far as Gaza and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Adma, and Zeboim as far as Lasa.

These are the sons of Ham by their clans, their languages, and their lands and their nations. Right, so we have the a similar pattern, right? as far as how it begins, how it ends, then a listing of many different, generations, in between. So, who are the four sons of Ham listed?

It's right there in verse 6. Yes, and some of your translations will say Egypt, Mizrahim is actually still a name that's used to this day for Egypt. in fact, I think if you ask a Jewish person who speaks Hebrew and you say, what's the name for Egypt, they're gonna say Mizrahim. And so that that name comes all the way down to today.

now, where did Kush's son Nimrod settle? If you guys can find it. Say it again. OK, yeah, he, he established Babel.

Yup, he founded it. He settled in Shannar in Assyria according to the text. That's good. And so he, and then he found several different cities Babel, Eric, Akkad, Nineveh, a couple of others.

And from which grandson of Noah did the Philistines come? Yes, there you go. And and then in what areas of Canaan did they all settle? OK, there you go.

And Any names that you guys recognize out of this list? Yeah, there's Yeah Yeah, totally. So, understanding the original audience, if you are the people of Israel, probably the 1st, 2nd generation of Israel about ready to cross over to Jordan and the Canaan and you're seeing this history. This has quite a significance for you.

again, modern Egypt is where the descendants of Mezrahim settled. Put's descendants settled in Libya, the Kushites in Ethiopia. Canaan along the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. In some languages, the Ethiopians are still referred to as the Kushites.

In Hebrew, the word kush actually means a dark. So if we look, look back at verse 20 again. And how does verse 20 compare to verse, say, verse 6? What do you have going on in 20 verses 6?

Yeah, you have that book in concept, right? Here's the Sons of Ham. There were the Sons of Ham, right, nice intro conclusion just like good speech students are supposed to give a good intro, bring you back to the conclusion that you, you started with. So, So that's the, the consistent pattern of this genealogy.

Now, in what general direction from the Tower of Babel did the descendants of Ham spread? We hit that already, Mediterranean Sea, Egypt, and they were headed south. So let's look at one more here. Genesis 10:21-32.

21 to 32 to Shem, also the father of all the children of Eber. the elder brother of Japheth children were born. The sons of Shem. Elam, Ashur, Arfaqsad, Lud Aram.

The sons of Aram were Uz, Fol, Ger, and Mash. Afaqsad fathered Sheila and Sheila fathered Eber. To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Pelle, for in his days, the earth was divided.

And his brother's name was Joktan. verse 25, we'll make note of that, we'll come back to it. What does it mean that the earth was divided. Verse 26, Joktan fathered Almadad.

Sheila Hazra Mavith, Jara. Hadaram, Uzal, Dikla, Obal. Abi Mael, Sheba, Offer. Javila Jo Bob.

I'm sorry, Job, not Jo Bob, Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. the territory in which they lived extended from Misha to the direction of Sephar in the hill country of the east. These are the sons of Shem by their clans, their languages.

their lands and their nations. OK, so similar type of pattern. Exodus read verse 32 again. These are the clans of the sons of Noah according to their genealogies and their nations, and from these, the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.

OK, so the sons of Shem are Elam, Asher, Afqzad, Ludd, and Aram. what name appears in the middle of verse 21? Eber, that's significant because Eber, we're going to see that's where the name Hebrew comes from. So Hebrews descend from Eber.

And so the relationship of Ibra and Shem is Ebra is Shem's great grandson. there's an additional feature that we mentioned, we'll talk about it here in a second. in Peelle's day, the earth was divided. then we also have them settling from Misha, that is the Gulf of Aqaba.

to the Arabian Peninsula. let's see. What is the birth order of Japheth? Japheth is where in the birth order?

he is the eldest son. So I have Jay Beth as being the eldest. OK, so and they're all divided in their languages, into their nations. And then verse 32, we've already talked about how that this all happened after the flood.

So we're seeing a significant pattern. based on the information about Shem's descendants, how many generations passed between the flood and the events of Babel. This might not be easy to pick up with if you guys weren't able to sit there and just count, do your math, but basically we're talking about 5 generations from Shem to Eber. So if you think about 5 generations.

who knows, maybe, maybe 100 years. from The flood to Babel, if you look down, let's look down here at, Genesis 11:10-17. And let's see if you guys, there's a little bit of a difference in this genealogy. Now you guys might be like, why in the world are we studying all these genealogies, but we are, we are coming somewhere.

So just Just hang with me Let's look at Genesis 11:10-17, see if you guys can pick up the difference. Between this genealogy and the previous ones. These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered a foxa 2 years after the flood.

And Shem lived after he fathered a foxad 500 years and had other sons and daughters. And Afoxad had lived 35 years and he fathered Sheila and Afoxad lived after he fathered Sheila 403 years and had other sons and daughters. When Sheila had lived 30 years, he fathered Eber and Sheila lived after he had fathered Eber 403 years and had other sons and daughters. When Eber had lived 34 years, he fathered Pelle.

And Eber lived after he fathered Pelle 430 years and he had other sons and daughters. what, what do you guys see as the difference between this genealogy and what had already been reported back in chapter 10? Yep. OK, good.

Yeah, so there's one son that's being mentioned each time. That'd be a very significant difference. What's another significant difference? Yes, yeah, years are mentioned, so there's very specific numbers, and that, and that leads to why we call these chrono genealogies.

If the genealogies in Genesis never gave any years, then we wouldn't necessarily be able to, based upon a, a straightforward reading, we would not be able to put any dates on any of this stuff. But when the genealogy says this is when the guy was born, this is when he had his child, this is how many years he lived after his child, there's got to be a reason for those numbers and when you calculate the numbers, you can actually develop a fairly accurate, actually a very accurate chronology.

Of, of what happened. So if we look at the dates, we can add them up and find out how long after the flood Pele lived, for instance.

We have a foxeye was born 2 years. After the flood, right, in verse 10, Selah was born when a foxide was 35. Eber was born when Sela was 30, and Peelle was born when Eber was 34 and adding up those ages, we come to, you guys would know this unless you've done the study I've done last night, 101 years. we also know that Pele lived to 239, so we have a range for the date of Babel.

so some of the, theologians that have, put various dates together in the past, taking a, a straightforward reading of the Book of Genesis as historical narrative, would put, the, the Tower of Babel somewhere around 2250 BC, right in that neighborhood, 2240, 2250 BC. And so in, in light of these names and knowing that they were scattered by their families, how many different language groups do you think were formed at Babel? So if we were gonna, get into all the details and try to figure out all the different family groups and if the, as the text is saying, these family groups were divided according to their families and according to, so their families and their nations.

anybody want to venture a guess on how many different family groups that we would find?

As we're studying Chapter 10 and 11. Say it again. No cigar. Brian's is 500.

It's about, anybody, anybody else want to guess? It's about 70. So there's about 70 different family groups that are listed, that theoretically these would be 70 different families, 70 different language groups. Anybody want to venture how many family groups we have, language, different languages that we have today, different spoken languages.

Yeah, definitely a few 1000 yup. There's almost 7000 spoken languages today. They estimate around 6900 different languages are spoken today. So at the Tower of Babel, if we're able to take a straightforward reading of this text, we start off with 70 different family groups, approximately 70 different languages that we would argue were created just miraculously by God as both a judgment and a grace, and then from those 70, you have the spreading and the development.

Of the rest of the languages. So you can, so take a look at your mapping homework that that was out there. If you go back through the text, you can trace the various family lines, you can trace where Genesis 10:11 says the various groups spread out to. Now as people were spreading from Babel, they, they would have been traveling into new territory.

That they had never settled before. So let's just recreate the scenario. We have the flood. Before the flood, we know, according to Genesis, 4 and 5, there were technological things that were going on.

There was music, there was metalworks, there were various things and if we follow an older view of anthropology, Older anthropologists argued more for devolution as opposed to evolution. That God had probably given Adam and Eve quite a bit of information right there in the garden and before the fall, they probably had full access to their brains. What is it that they, they say we use like 5 or 10% of our brains today or something? I forget the exact number, but so Adam and Eve pre-fall are probably using 100% of their brainpower.

And they're walking with God and can ask him virtually any question they want. Then even after the fall, they still are talking to God because remember Cain is having this conversation with God. And so pre-flood, many, biblical anthropologists and theologians theorize that there that societies were fairly advanced. We're not talking about running around with iPhones.

Obviously you need to build upon the shoulders of previous generations to develop some of the technologies that God has hidden in nature. but they're fairly developed societies. Then you have the flood. And now you've just got Noah and whatever his skills were, he must have been a pretty skilled guy, to build the ark and his sons and their daughters, but what types of knowledge were just completely lost after the flood?

Noah and his family, they couldn't have known everything about metalworking, about, all the different skills that were available to communities before the flood. So even so, Noah and his family, they began to propagate. You have various peoples that were, various groups that are growing and developing technologies. They're all staying together.

God had told them to spread out. They don't, and so they're starting to bake bricks. They're starting to build this tower. Suddenly God divides the languages and now they're all migrating to different parts and what does that do to the unification of labor?

When God comes in all of a sudden divides the languages. Yeah. What happens when you, if you have a community that's used to working together. Like you don't have to know how to bake bread because there's a baker down the street.

If all of a sudden it just you and your family have to take a hike off into the mountains, what happens? OK. What happens to an economy when there's no more division of labor? Yeah, you're starting over.

And so does that mean that all of these family groups were suddenly stupid? No, it just means that now we don't have division of labor. I used to rely upon the baker to bake my bread. Now we've got to bake our bread.

I used to rely upon, the, the shoemaker or somebody who was able to cut up skins to help make clothes or this or that. Now we've got to do it ourselves. We're traveling on. I, this guy used to make tents over here.

He was an expert tent maker. Now we got to figure out how to make our own tents. And so you have people that are spreading out now, now, theoretically who aren't able that there's no longer this division of labor with the unification of mankind. Now they're having to figure all this stuff out.

For themselves. So what, what kinds of challenges might have been faced as these people were migrating to new territories? Well, they would have had to find food along the way. Right?

They would have had to find shelter or take shelter as they went. tents would be ideal. they, could only take with them what they could carry and so on and so forth. So you have people spreading out and, at this point in history.

there does seem to be a very nomadic type of development. within humankind. Let's see here. Would each family have had all the skills that were present in the larger community of Babel?

Clearly not. they did not have, the division of labor. Families might not have, been able to work with metal themselves and so on and so forth. if you were forced to travel to another area, would you have the ability to survive by using materials available in the environment?

Let's say, I don't know about you, but There's only a few things I know how to do. Like I, I can make toast. And I can basically fry up my own eggs. And I know how to teach somewhat.

And I can drive a car. I can put gas in my car, but I don't know how to fix my car. I'm not even good at changing the oil. If all of a sudden there was just complete meltdown in technology, if, if like every, all of our computers, the internet just fried, if there's some big nuclear attack and I just had to take the berries and like 6 families and, and just go off into the mountains, you would all die.

At least if you depended upon me. I could, I could, I could backpack into some area, but I don't know how to hunt. Even if I killed something, I wouldn't know how to skin it. and so what, what types of things happen to these cultures that now post flood are now forced to spread out.

Some of them would have had skills that would have been, adaptable to survival. Some of them would not have, and some of them would have have died quickly, in, in all likelihood., I'm mad just to think of the, and again, I, I always reveal how much nonsense I watch on in movies and stuff, but The movie Castaway with Tom Hanks. Here's a guy who's working for Federal Express or something and then he gets stranded on an island and now any piece of technology that used to be valuable to him is now just survival.

he doesn't have a dentist.

He has to be, knock out his own tooth. He's just trying to, he can't, at the very beginning, he can't even figure out how to open up a coconut, right? And so you can only imagine what was, what would have happened to the people after the Tower of Babel. they didn't, they weren't suddenly just running around with all the tools that maybe other skilled people have.

And so if you wanted to hammer something, what would you have grabbed to hammer something? At that point. Yeah, probably a rock. Now, this, this begs the question because there's this whole time period when you reconstruct human history according to an evolutionary period.

You hit this period that many anthropologists call the Stone Age. Where they would say that you basically you have this development from apes to more advanced apes to semi- Neanderthal type creatures and then, eventually, we just have this evolution. Of, of humankind. People that are unsophisticated, without culture, unintelligent, but from a biblical perspective, there seems to be an explanation for the quote unquote stone Age.

And that is just the lack of diversification of labor that came after the Tower of Babel. It's it's not stupid people, it's just people that suddenly are like castaway. they have to just survive with what they have and the skills they have. And so that's, yeah, you see evidence of, of people living in caves, but what would, what would people do who are trying to survive the elements.

They would go live in caves or live in tents. And by the way, it's not like you don't have people living in caves and living in tents today. depending on where you live in the world and what, what's accessible to you, we have right now Promise Vaughn who's a missionary in Papua New Guinea who lives in very primitive circumstances. the village that she's in would, would be like it's, like you're in the Stone Age.

And so, anthropologists pre-Darwin argued for very advanced societies. They had answers for them to look at Stonehenge or the Egyptian pyramids or things like that. They were like, yeah, people in the past were very intelligent, very technologically advanced, and you've always had intelligence and technological advancement right alongside of primitive cultures, and that's the way it's been throughout history and today is no different. is you have, you have very advanced societies.

Papua New Guinea is not very far away, over the east. It's, it's not all that far away from Tokyo. it's not all that far away from Australia and Australia, different parts, Sydney, Australia, and so you can have incredibly advanced cities that are not that far away from places, where there's no electricity. And, and so on.

So in light of that thought, how might we explain the cavemen from a biblical perspective? These were simply people who were living in caves for shelter, some temporarily as they traveled and others for permanent shelter. Eventually they established cities and began building structures, although some just continued that type of lifestyle, to today. So when you hear, you watch your kids are watching movies like, the Night Night at the Museum or, or what have you and, and they're portraying the caveman as unsophisticated ancient people who evolved into modern humans, I believe that we can give them a more biblical explanation.

for that. In fact, like we said, there's people all over the world still alive today, who live in caves and, and structures carved into rock. now technology certainly advances as people share information and cooperate, but that takes time. after the dispersion, we see cultures gaining, technology and accumulating new information, but this doesn't mean that they were stupid brutes before that.

In fact, if you guys took the class last year, does anybody remember our, we had a, a whole lesson that dealt with Neanderthals and various ape-man claims. Is anybody, was anybody here for that? OK, so like we'll just take the Neanderthals real quick. I, I honestly thought when I began to study the data about Neanderthals and various ape men.

I was fully expecting to find evidence that would just be like, gosh, I don't know what to do with that. Yeah, here's what the Bible says, but they've got all this evidence for ape men. And I know the Bible's right, but this piece of evidence, I just really don't know what to do. And honestly, I, I, I haven't found it that hard and it's not because of me, it's because of all that's in the Bible, the truth of the Bible and all the informa, all the research that's been done by people who know what they're doing, Neanderthals, That Neanderthals had characteristics.

They used musical instruments. we know that they use tools for both killing of animals and for building structures. And there's evidence, overwhelming evidence, not even deniable by secular anthropologists, the Neanderthals buried their dead. And here's one of the most significant things is what are considered Neanderthal bones on several different Neanderthal sites.

They are also buried with quote unquote modern Homo sapien humans. So you have Neanderthals buried in the same grave with Homo sapiens, modern Homo sapiens. Which begs the question. how is, what is, what is the real difference if Neanderthals buried their dead, they had religious services, they had musical instruments, and so on and so forth.

Last year we showed a couple of slides of just modern human beings where you can find some human beings who are incredibly short like horse jockeys. They had the Preakness yesterday. You got these guys that are just 4 ft, 10 riding horses. And then you have LeBron James and other guys playing basketball right now that would look like Goliaths compared to these guys.

And if you take their bones, throw them in the dirt, dig them up later, you'd be like, oh well, these are completely different time periods and evolution. Look how these people evolved compared to these people. And human, human beings, all animals are known for adapting to their environment. So, In my thinking, the only, the only reason to come up with the Neanderthal theory is you've already determined your evolutionary Darwinian approach and now you're looking for the evidence rather than the other way around.

which is not a good way to do science, by the way. science is supposed to be an approximation of the truth from the evidence, not determining the evidence, not determining the ending point, and then finding, looking for the evidence that that fits your ending point. OK, so that's, that's in a nutshell, an overview of these texts. Now, let's, let's take a, you can open up if you want to or just look on the screen.

let's take a look at Acts 17:26 and we'll, we'll wrap some of this up. Acts 17:26, Paul, as he's preaching says this. And God or He made man from one. Some of your translations say one blood.

every nation of mankind to live on the, all over the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him though he's not far from each one of us. So a couple of things here, it's very interesting. One is, Paul is, he's, he's preaching at the, Mars Hill at this time. And trying to, to share with them the gospel.

He says that they, that they're that all human beings came from one. He's arguing that everybody came from Adam ultimately. And that God, by the way, is also the one that predetermines their boundaries and we clearly see that in the Tower of Babel that people want to stay together. God comes along and he basically spreads them out.

And so, what do we find here? We find number one, God is sovereign. God is the one that is determining the pre-appointed times and places of people. But it also argues here that every one of us has come, we are all related.

In fact, I forget which theologian says this, but, it's been said that the only race in the Bible is the one that you run. There is no race in the Bible. We all come from one person. There are different nations.

Different languages, but there are not different races. We all come from one. And in fact that's exactly what you're finding as scientist as scientists are researching the DNA like the genome project. They're finding that, that we are all basically related that the differences in our, in our genetic makeup is very, very, very small.

even anthropologists, modern anthropologists, while they would follow a Darwinian or evolutionary viewpoint, say that human beings all originated somewhere out there in the Mesopotamian area in that basic region, that's where all of humanity came from. Doesn't matter if they're here and if they're in North America, South America, even all of the various Pacific islands. scientists would all agree that humanity arose in the Mesopotamian area. They would just argue that it was evolution, not creation.

And so what does that, what does that say about humankind? Well, I'll tell you what it doesn't say. When Darwin developed his theory of evolution, he basically argued that we evolved from various races of apes. The reason that there's different races is because we didn't all evolve from the exact same ape.

We evolved from different species of apes at different rates and so you can go back and look at the charts in the late 1800s, early 1900s where people would compare the white man versus the black man and the white man was more evolved than the black man and the black man was compared to a certain type of ape but we've evolved more than the black man. And so while racism has lots of different forms in the late 1800s and the early 20th century, definitely in Hitler's Germany, racism was based on Darwinian evolution that there were various races, various evolved groups, and, and we're the most evolved survival of the fittest.

You can see this all over the evolutionary language and as it seeped out. Into the culture both in the economics and in the war theory is survival of the fittest.

We've evolved. They haven't. And so if we can defeat, it's, it's, it's red in tooth and claw. If we can dominate, then we deserve to be on top.

That is, that's the basis of racism in my, in the 20th century. It's not that there were no religious arguments for racism. But the core that developed, in my opinion, not just my opinion, but a lot of people's opinion. The atrocities that we see, that so much of it was racially based finds a lot of the argumentation right in evolution.

But when you go back and look at what the Bible really says about human beings, we all came from Adam. That means every one of us are related. And so how do we explain then The various differences in human beings. How is it that we can, how is it that we are so different in skin color and eye shape and hair type and things like that?

Let's see if I put this picture here. Oh, that's the 66,900 languages. I get the picture in there? I guess I left it out of the PowerPoint.

Did you guys see that picture I put in the email? is there any way, Brian, you can help me get back? Oh, there we go. OK.

Yeah, the twins So I sent you guys an article that comes from Answers in Genesis about the genetic makeup that is, that is really within all of us and that you, you can have, you have an amazing things of like of twins being born, one's black and the other one's white. and genetically there's so little difference between human beings. All of the things that would have been necessary for the genetic variety that we see in human beings would have been right there in Noah and his family.

and so God engineered things in such a way whereas people spread out and those certain peoples became isolated to certain regions of the world.

our bodies are, are have melanin in them and it's just all the various just to take skin color for an example, the, the main difference between those of us that are in this room is how much or how less melanin you have, that's it. There really is no such thing as black and white. It's just various levels of melanin. We know that from science now.

And there's a really good picture that's on the, I think it's a National Geographic that's cited in the Answers in Genesis site. It lines up all these children. All the way from a really, really super white kid from like Scandinavia all the way down to a a a girl from Africa and just it's just various shades of brown. It's, is melanin, there's more melanin in certain types of skin, yep.

Yeah, that's a, that's a dysfunction. Yup. Yep, where there's no melanin, yep. And so you guys could go online and, and do some more research on that, but basically the Bible, when the Bible argues that we all come from one.

blood, this is, this is borne out, by science, and it's, it, it smacks against, racism. And so, God comes along in 1 Samuel 16:7, and, and God, remember the whole story of all the different people that were put before Samuel to see who should be king, and there's all these different sons and the ultimate is as David gets chosen and God says to Samuel, God looks not on the outside, but he looks on the heart. And every one of us in this room has descended from Noah and his family, and then Adam.

There is no biblically, there are no different races in a certain sense of the term in this room.

We are all various ethnic, national varieties. We, we come from different language backgrounds, but ultimately we come from the one race of those that have been made in the image of God. And so, therefore, there's every reason for us to, as Christians to share the gospel equally with everybody, to expect just as Revelation 5:9 says, we're going to see people from every tribe, tongue, and nation in heaven. Every tribe, tongue, and nation is gonna be represented.

And so it's gonna be an exciting day to see how the Lord does that. So as far as applying, we've, we've basically argued in this class that God developed new languages and new regions as he caused people to disperse. That as people dispersed, they brought those genetic characteristics with them and depending on the environment, where they went, that, that accounts for the vari varieties. Of, genetic characteristics.

We're not talking about unintelligent cavemen, but the loss of diversification of labor as we look at the quote unquote Stone Age. And and God looks on the On the heart, not on the outside, and ultimately when we look at the book of Revelation, there will be people from every tribe tongue. And nation. And so the, the Tower of Babel, I think we see is, is not, it's not some minor thing.

The Tower of Babel explains a lot as to why we are where we are today, the unity that we have as human beings made the image of God. And, and so on. Any, questions, comments, criticisms, or concerns? Yup.

Yeah Right. Right. So yeah, so the question is how possible is it that the, the evidence for cavemen is like the shunned or those that are on the outskirts of society and stuff. Yeah, it could be.

It seems like initially because of the the lack of diversified labor. You could have lots of the families that were in that situation. I might have been considered a caveman because I, I wouldn't have had the skills that a lot of other people had and so I'd be the one like trying to figure out, OK, how do I open this coconut? I have no idea.

And so I guess if somebody were to research my bones and all my family just laying around dead in a cave somewhere. they'd have been like, this guy was very intelligent, but it was just that I had, I was a teacher. And I didn't have any other skills to kill animals and eat, or things like that. But yeah, and I think we see there's a really good, there's a couple of books, I'd recommend you guys.

I think I mentioned this last week, but there's this history series called The Mystery of History. And I forget her her, her name, but she's a historian, anthropologist and she just takes the, the more traditional view of anthropology throughout her whole history and that is historically human beings have always been a mixture of advanced and uncivilized so to speak. So just like we see today, there's advanced cultures and there's primitive cultures and that's the way it's always been.

So she argues that.

But then secondly, there's another book, and I'm, I'm forgetting his author too. It's, it's called The Incas, the Mayans, and the Aztecs. anybody remember the, the author of it? It, it comes from, Sunlight Publishing.

And again they take more of a traditional approach to anthropology and they just do an amazing survey of the Incas, Aztecs, and the Mayans and demonstrate they just show how advanced these cultures were, incredibly advanced, even though they were like really brutal in a lot of ways, the types of things that they were doing, just blow the mind technologically. And so it doesn't fit the evolutionary model when, when you just like drop right down in the Inca culture and they're doing things that, that would marvel us in their technological advancement.

Yeah, Knox. Mhm.

Yeah, the brow. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Like Yeah Yeah, Yeah, so the question would be, isn't there, isn't there arguments for, bones developing differently depending upon how advantaged or disadvantaged they are.

Yeah, the, I know that a lot of the creation anthropologists argue that like for like these Neanderthal groups, a lot of them are very isolated, so they're not propagating with other villages so they're keeping this gene pool very isolated, so to speak, so they're not able to breed out some of the imperfections and so that's one of the arguments and also they argue that they, that many of them lived in a very cold environment. And so that some of the developments of the brow would have been actually For protective purposes perhaps.

so there's different arguments that are made. The number one is that the the the is the isolation.

and whenever you see isolated groups, you start seeing unique characteristics to that group. So that doesn't mean that these are some Ape men or something like that. So yeah, we, we're a little bit over time so we got one more time for one more question then I can take all kinds of questions up here. Oh yeah.

People choose a different thing. I see it. This area, but it's in Los Angeles, you drive through. Yeah.

Successful people 6th Avenue, you drive just a few blocks Got people Yeah. Choosing to live there, they're there because of choices that they've made and most of that is choices to escape. And a lot of what we see in the differences of people had to do with What they, their submission to God, God being the one who pours into. Yeah.

Walking away from Yeah. Yeah, so, yeah, there, there's definitely differences based upon choices that we make, good or bad. there's even evidence of like Like, What would you call it like. I'm forgetting the term now, but basically, based on certain types of life choices and addictions, the types of effect it'll even have upon your skeletal structure over time.

yeah. Remember doing some, some study on that. But if you guys have any other, oh yeah, one more, we'll go, Rachel. Oh.

Wow. Wow. So it was a TED Talk about a lady who traveled all over and she was studying different cave drawings and basically from her study postulated an original language because of the similarity in the symbols all over the world in these cave drawings. That's interesting.

Could you send that to me or send me a link? OK, cool. Well, let's go. I'll be up here if you guys want to talk some more, but let's go ahead and pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word and, none of us were there at the Tower of Babel. but you were, you're a reliable eyewitness. You told us, you've told us your word what happened and why it happened, and we thank you for your, your mercy, but also your judgment, your righteousness. And, and Lord, we just pray, Father, that you would help us to Understand that we are all made from one.

Blood that we're all related and so there's every reason for us to treat each other as, as brothers and sisters in one sense of humanity, we pray that more and more that we'd see people become brothers and sisters in Christ, that we'd open up our mouth for the gospel, and, Lord, that we'd be willing and ready to give an answer for those that ask, for the hope that lies within us. Thank you for the time that we've been able to share together. We pray for Pastor Milton and the time of worship that we'll have in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.