[Music] beginning In 1902 the British archaeologist Stuart McAllister began Excavating at geyser on the Acropolis of the site McAllister noticed that there was a row of stones whose tops were protruding through the ground and so he began Excavating the area and Unearthed 12 standing stones in a row and next to them was another huge stone with a flat top and a basin carved into it and as he was Excavating this area he realized that he was digging a Canaanite high place where the ancient inhabitants of the city had worshiped their gods now what McAllister found next around the standing stones is deeply disturbing however it shouldn’t be surprising because it was evidence for a Canaanite worship practice that is described in the Bible foreign is mentioned in the bible several times and is located in Israel between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem [Music] I just want you to look at how big these stones are so in his excavation report McAllister found a pit which he described as being filled with a great number of bones of human beings in a confused Heap and nearby was the skeleton of a young girl who had evidently been sawing us under she had been cut in half and found along with this the skulls of two other girls who had been decapitated and this could be determined because of the cut marks through the vertebrae and then McAllister says that all around the feet of the columns that is the standing stones McAllister discovered the skeletons of young infants they were deposited in large jars and the skeletons showed marks of Fire started finding all over the place here around the base of these pillars jars with burned human babies inside of them well okay and this is from his excavation report you can see the skeletal remains of a burned baby inside of the jar buried ritually not just buried but buried ritually now how are they buried ritually they’re buried in in a place of sacrifice in a sacred place of worship so in his excavation report McAllister made a plan of the high place from the perspective of looking straight down on it and then on this top plan he marked with the letter j everywhere where he had found these infant jar burials look at all the J’s JJJ see all the Jays jar burials with not just baby bones in them burned Baby Bones in them okay this is about a seven six seven year old girl that was cut in half you can tell by the way when they’re cut in half because you have a cup Mark right through the vertebrae right through the bones below this area McAllister discovered a cave and when his team cleared it a flat stone was found at the center of the cave still lying upon it were the remains of the skeleton of a human infant I know this is sobering I know you’re not having a good time but you either want to know what’s actually found in the ground or you don’t and it’s important to know what’s actually found in the ground so essentially from McAllister it was like Excavating a crime scene what happened here what was going on and so he had the evidence but he still needed to interpret it and what McAllister used to interpret what he’d found in the ground was the Bible numbers 13 29 says that the amorites live in the Hill Country of Canaan since gether was located in the Hill Country of Canaan he interpreted it to be an Amorite City so who were the amorites they were Canaanites why because they descended from the mankanan and the amorites were the most powerful of the Canaanite tribes McAllister used Exodus 23 that mentions the Amorite Sacred Stones to identify the row of Sacred Stones he had Unearthed at gether the other large stone with a flat top he identified as an altar and the purpose of its carved out Basin was for catching the blood of sacrifices based on these verses McAllister knew the sight he was Excavating was a Canaanite high place where amorites had worshiped their gods the many Idols found in the area provided evidence that this was a cultic site among the many Idols that were found was a bronze serpent representing molik the king of the Amorite Gods remember reading about Molech in the Bible this is how he is represented a snake who do you think the snake is that’s getting the Canaanites to sacrifice their own children in Deuteronomy 12 31 the Lord says to the Israelites you must not Worship the Lord your God in their way because in worshiping their gods they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods using this verse and others like it McAllister labeled the picture of the remains of a burned human baby as a sacrificed infant buried in a jar the severed human remains he also interpreted as evidence for child sacrifice what was the crime child sacrifice what was the evidence the remains of sacrifice children think about it what other explanation is there for burn babies in a jar around standing stones so it’s important to point out that McAllister wasn’t interpreting these fines in some bizarre way the other archaeologists that were digging in Canaanite cities were finding similar remains and they were interpreting them in the same way just to give one brief example uh Kathleen Kenyon was Excavating in the 1950s in the Amorite city of Jericho and in her book digging up Jericho she wrote there is an unpleasant suggestion of infant sacrifice besides one complete infant burial a collection of infants goals with a neck vertebrae attached showing that the heads were cut off and not merely collected from burials and so McAllister took the evidence of child sacrifice he had found and wrote it up in a chapter that he titled the iniquity of the amorites it’s interesting in these early days how McAllister goes a step further and he not only uses the Bible to interpret the evidence that he finds in the ground but he also uses it theologically to identify this is evidence for iniquity this is evidence for sin why did McAllister call this child sacrifice sin because the Bible called it sin why is it sin because the Lord hates this practice and it’s against his law when God gave his law to His People Israel it was against the law to sacrifice their children in Leviticus 18 21 God commands Israel do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech Leviticus 20 verse 2 States any Israelite or any Foreigner residing in Israel who sacrifices any of his children to Molech is to be put to death child’s sacrifices sin because it is against God’s law and the penalty for committing this sin was death so God in the Bible is accusing the amorites of committing this great evil of child sacrifice and the archaeological evidence Bears out the reality that indeed the Canaanites did practice this evil and were guilty now some might argue well the Canaanites weren’t treated fairly because they didn’t have God’s law God didn’t give them his law however God has created all people to know in their hearts whether something like a practice of sacrificing children is good or evil and it’s clearly we all know in our hearts our conscience bearing witness that it is an evil practice so everyone is without excuse because the number one argument against the Old Testament is what God is mean God is mean no God is just if he’s not just he’s not God and and who where is justice going to be for these babies that are burned and for these children that are sacrificed so many people go together they they picnic there they visit there they hike they bike and they’re going along and they look and they see these 12 standing stones in a row and they see this Basin uh cut into this rock and they’re like what on Earth is this place and so there’s a information sign up on the top of the hill overlooking the site and so many of them go over to get an explanation of the site from this sign the sign says scholars believe the temple served as a venue where alliances between tribes or city-states were forged or renewed The Ten monoliths may have symbolized the city of geyser and nine Allied cities in its vicinity the Basin may have served as a container for a bloodlib basin poured during an alliance ceremony so obviously this interpretation is very different from the original interpretation that was given by the archaeologists that excavated the site where is all the evidence where is the mention of the burned babies in jars where’s the mention of the severed vertebrae of these children that had been cut in half and beheaded what essentially has happened is they’ve removed the crime from the crime scene therefore making it not a crime scene at all it’s very different if God calls for the complete destruction of a people who are just making an alliance with each other then if he’s calling for their destruction because they’re murdering innocent children I just oh man I try to imagine today what it would be like if somebody today you know wrote in an excavation report that this is evidence for the iniquity of the amorites I mean that would be off the scales Politically Incorrect however it is the right interpretation that is the practice that was going on at the high place of gether and uh and the Bible was the right tool to use to bring out that understanding and so what has changed over the years um the Bible hasn’t changed uh the the the evidence in the ground that was found hasn’t changed what has changed is scholarships uh interpretation of this type of evidence because over time as the field became more and more secular uh then uh the secular agenda which teaches that man by nature is basically good uh couldn’t have a bunch of Canaanites running around sacrificing children and so the later interpretations were these alliances and where these other explanations of what this evidence actually was which overturned the previous biblical interpretations uh that represented what actually had happened in these places and so um as I was taught in my archeology classes over and over again I was taught that there is no evidence at all that the Canaanite sacrificed their children so it became over time Politically Incorrect to interpret your fines the way that McAlister’s and others had interpreted them for many years previous to that look they don’t know that that’s the place where past and children were sacrificed there’s a little girl over there like the little girl that was sawed in half and and found in that context [Music] if only it was just all about the amorites if it was just a problem with the amorites then it would be a Simple Solution you get rid of the amorites you get rid of the problem however the problem is universal across all humankind if you think about uh modern Nations they also practice evil they also sacrifice their own children through the practice of abortion we’re Americans right let me ask you a serious question is America going to stand in the final judgment and judge the Canaanites for their sin is America going to be innocent of the the shedding of the blood of the innocent see how real the problem is that the nature of man truly is evil all the time that the problem really is sin and because the problem is so real we so desperately need a real solution and the real solution the only real solution to this nastiness and Evil is where we were last night you know where we finished the day where God himself came down as a sacrifice the son of God and gave himself so that we don’t have to suffer the punishment which we deserve so that we don’t have to get the justice but instead we can get what we don’t deserve which is Mercy and Grace you know that’s what the Bible is about [Music] and we like to think of all the good stuff right but we can’t forget the bad stuff and the reality of who we are as people and this is a great place to think about it about why Jesus had to do what he did problem ultimately is that we all by Nature are amorites and therefore we are under the punishment of our sin how do you escape that well there is in the Bible this woman whose name is Rahab and her account is found in the Book of Joshua but it’s summarized in Hebrews 11 31 where it says by faith The Prostitute Rahab because she welcomed the spies was not killed with those who were disobedient Rahab was an Amorite she was guilty of the sin she was under the condemnation of the punishment but she was saved from it by putting her faith in God and we can do the same to learn more about evidence supporting the Bible you can order a copy of my book where God came down the archaeological evidence just click the link in the description below this video [Music] I recommend that you watch this other video that discusses the archaeological evidence for crucifixion and discusses what God did in order to extend us Mercy while completely perfectly maintaining Justice uh if you like this video please hit the like button and thanks for watching