By: Don Boys, Ph.D.
Is the World Approaching Another Perfect Storm as in 1172 B.C.— the First Dark Age? « Don Boys (cstnews.com)
What mankind has learned from history is that we don’t learn much from history. Every generation seems to think they are living in the most unusual time. Those who believe things are getting worse and violence is accelerating are correct.
Genesis 6:11-13 reveals, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
One doesn’t need to be a Bible scholar to know that corruption and violence triggered God to destroy the original world with a global flood. And any person with the I.Q. equivalent to his hat size knows we are in planetary danger because corruption and violence are the major characteristics of today’s culture.
Will God “pull the trigger” again because of our sexual and political corruption and excessive violence?
Even famous historians tell us we are about to enter the Third Dark Age with a total societal collapse! Of course, none credit God, but fault economics, climate change, crime, broken treaties, failed diplomacy, etc. But global destruction is ahead.
We are at the strangest period of world history where we have experienced one crisis after another—wars in many parts of the world; famines in odd places; numerous earthquakes; volcanic eruptions; locusts infestations destroying national farmland; a massive plague of bats severely terrorizing parts of Australia; African Swine Fever wiping out millions of pigs worldwide; rampant violence and crime in major cities; run-away inflation; volatile stock markets; irrational behavior accepted as normal or acceptable; heatwaves; forest fires; food and water shortages; numerous healthy young adults falling dead; and a pandemic changing the world, killing over a million Americans and over 6 million worldwide according to NBC News.
Some will declare that the world has experienced most of the above for thousands of years, which is true; however, we have not seen as many upheavals as today, and many of these events are happening simultaneously. The massive increase of healthy, young people dropping dead has never been seen before—surprising, shocking, even startling life insurance actuaries.
Everyone should take notice when something happens that has never happened before.
Thoughtful people fear that these threats will collectively create a “perfect storm” and a dreadful nightmare that will soon continue to intensify to a disastrous climax.
The Guardian reported our world is “facing a series of interlinked emergencies that are threatening the existence of humans, because the sum of the effects of the crises is much greater than their individual impacts.” Experts tell us some nations could handle some of these threats, but as they accelerate from one to another and even happen simultaneously, they will overwhelmingly produce a “perfect storm.”
The Guardian reported on a survey of 222 leading scientists from 52 countries that found the responses to these emergencies by governments, civil society, businesses, and institutions “failed to recognise their interlinked nature.” The report reveals that the nations trying to solve their problems individually failed to consider “cascading” impacts, causing a failed response. More than a third of the scientists surveyed said these crises would exacerbate each other “in ways that might cascade to create global systemic collapse.” The suggestion is that it is a catastrophic mistake to attack each crisis in isolation rather than as a massive threat. All concerned emphasized a global collapse was in our future.
The report declared the world “is facing a series of interlinked emergencies that are threatening the existence of humans, because the sum of the effects of the crises is much greater than their individual impacts, according to a new global study.”
That means the world is in trouble, not simply here in River City.
It is reasonable to seek an understanding of ancient times to better comprehend the present and future. Biblical scholars are aware of events that brought down our world in the early days of man’s history. About 2348 B.C., or 1650 years after God’s astounding act of creation, man became so violent and sexually vile that God decided to change directions. He destroyed the world’s population with a global Flood, as seen in many landscapes unless one is wearing very dark glasses. He gave everyone a chance to escape the coming global Flood in the Ark, but only eight righteous people believed Him, and everyone else missed the boat.
In April of 2000, the Smithsonian magazine announced that scientists “have started to uncover evidence that Noah’s flood may have a basis in some rather astonishing events that took place around the Black Sea some 7,500 years ago.” Their date is off by a few years, but it’s close.
A recent Nature article asked, “Did a mega drought topple empires 4,200 years ago?” If so, what connection is there, if any, to biblical events? Their spurious modern dating does not align with the biblical timeline because of major problems with radiometric dating methods that I dealt with in Evolution: Fact, Fraud, or Faith?.
About a hundred years after the Flood, Noah’s posterity had gravitated south to Babel from modern eastern Turkey forming an unholy amalgamation of everyone. Josephus declared in his Antiquities that this was the first place the multiplying group of people lived after leaving the mountains of Ararat. At that time, there were no other civilizations on the planet. Mankind’s desire, as always, was to live without God’s approval, so they built a tower to “make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
Mankind has from the beginning tried to form a united nation in disobedience to God’s plan.
Evidently, God did not want a united race, speaking one language, living under one civil authority since that’s why He confused the tongues at Babel. God confused their speech and scattered mankind to hinder their uniting and fostering rebellion against Him. Noah’s sons and grandsons scattered around the Mediterranean area. Javan, Noah’s grandson, founded Greece and Mizraim founded Egypt. These facts always cause Bible critics to squirm uneasily and sweat profusely.
I like to see Bible critics squirm, and especially sweat.
The Tower of Babel incident occurred around 4,200 years ago—about 100 years after the Flood but before Abraham was born. This was before ancient Egypt, Greece, Sumer and other early civilizations. These places couldn’t have begun until after people left Babel to establish the various cultures. So, what of China and others who (based on oral traditions) claim pre-Babel civilizations? No one has found a coin, written instrument, book, or pottery with such early dates. Archeologists and paleontologists hypothesize ancient dates after looking at evidence of bones, pottery, and tools—that are never stamped with a manufacturing date!
Furthermore, they always arrive at ancient dates. They have to if man has been evolving for “millions and millions or years.” An ancient Earth is the glue that holds their myth together.
Without millions of years, unbelievers are left with, yep, creation about 8,000 years ago.
The citizens of Babel scattered across the Fertile Crescent (Iraq) into the Greek islands, North Africa, and back into modern Turkey. Over the centuries, various civilizations rose and fell. Still, about 4,200 years ago, the Akkadian Empire located in modern Iraq and Syria experienced a massive drought about 2200 B.C., and by 2150, the Empire had disappeared!
In the 1990s, Harvey Weiss from Yale University found evidence of global drought, writing, “We’ve got Mesopotamia, the Nile, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean all the way to Spain.”
Additionally, he says there is evidence from around 4,200 years ago of a drying climate, central authorities’ collapse, and people moving to escape the newly parched zones.
Most historians, archeologists, paleontologists, etc., are humanists who interpret everything through a distorted lens. Above all, they must twist, distort, confuse, and defend their evolutionary timeline. Historians write about prehistoric times before writing was invented in Sumer and Egypt about 4,000 years ago. They divided history into the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages. Of course, they admit that there is much overlapping and the starting and ending of each age varied in different locations.
The groups that settled near the sea or large lake became adept at fishing, boating, and navigation. Another group that settled inland excelled at farming, canning, etc. While another group deciding to live in wild areas with much game, became hunters and developed the bow, slings, etc. In other words, each group adapted to their environment as men always have.
In those early days, men worshiped one God, believed in the family unit, and had knowledge of decency since they used animal skins to cover their nakedness and to keep warm. That does not fit the evolutionary scenario but perfectly fits the biblical timeline.
Remember, Adam was a husbandman keeping orchards and farming at the beginning of civilization, while his son Cain was also a farmer, and brother Abel was a keeper of flocks. With those two occupations, the needs of the developing civilization could be met: meat, eggs, milk, wool, shoes, etc., and various vegetables and fruits. Cain had administrative and organizing talents since he built the first city. The sons of Cain knew musical instruments and forged bronze and iron; therefore, mankind did not have to discover that knowledge. Genesis two reveals that gold and bdellium, and onyx were known to Earth’s first people.
Christians, not tied to evolutionary myth, believe when the world population was scattered at Babel into language groups, they possessed various talents, abilities, and inclinations. One group knew smelting metals, another was adept at farming, etc. So, there were not different ages but different groups with specific knowledge not possessed by other groups. The Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages did not exist in succession but simultaneously. Millions of years are not necessary.
Unusual and deadly events began in the various empires, and no one seems to have seen the big picture. A 300-year drought started, and an earthquake storm continued for fifty years. The drought resulted in famine followed by social unrest, crime, and invasion by nomadic tribes of people seeking livable conditions.
In 1177 B.C., the obscure Sea Peoples (thought to be fleeing disaster at home) invaded Syria by boats, wagons, oxcarts, and chariots. They raided their way south through parts of Lebanon, Israel, and finally into the Nile delta of Egypt. The Egyptians defeated them but were a second-rate power thereafter. Although weakened, Egypt was the only major power to survive the collapse of 1172!
People soon struggled to stay alive as starving peasants scrabbled for roots, bark, and animal droppings (containing seeds and nuts) in the shadow of abandoned homes and elaborate estates. Even public buildings were abandoned, and officials and ordinary people fled the disasters looking for livable conditions elsewhere. Hence, the Hittite Empire and others disappeared only to arise again hundreds of years later.
Nations died in an area stretching from what is now Italy to Afghanistan and from Turkey down into Egypt. Egypt managed to escape a final collapse, unlike other civilizations. Troy and Gaza and other ancient cities were destroyed or abandoned, trade routes were lost, and literacy declined throughout the region.
Each civilization was independent of others; however, they traded, fought, intermarried, and had other activities with each other and soon became dependent on each other. Cline writes that the kings requested the services of physicians, artisans, weavers, musicians, and singers from one another. Ancient fragments revealed one nation sent grain to starving nations only to arrive too late. When trading slowed then stopped, bronze-making halted, resulting in fewer weapons. Bronze was made from tin imported from Afghanistan and copper from Cyprus. Importing silver from Greece and gold from Egypt also stopped, affecting those economies as well. The dominoes were falling all over the Mediterranean area.
As conditions worsened, people started deserting the more significant cities since there was safety in less populated areas. Hopefully, they would find more fertile soil and start life anew. Another reason to leave was to escape roving gangs of bandits and invaders who always use the disaster of others for personal advantage.
This globe was shaking like a leaf in a violent storm. Historians believe the evidence suggests a “black swan” event (an unexpected and low-probability event with catastrophic results) occurred with a domino effect as culture after culture fell, some never to rise again. The extent of the catastrophe was enormous; it was a loss that the world would not see again until the Roman Empire collapsed more than fifteen hundred years later.
Thinkers are asking if our planet is standing on a similar precipice at this time approaching a “Third Dark Age.” It seems the world is taking a new direction not seen in 3000 years!
Panic must be avoided while planning and preparation must be pursued with passion.
(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 20 books, the most recent, Reflections of a Lifetime Fundamentalist: No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets! The eBook is available at Amazon.com for $4.99. Other titles at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don Boys, Ph.D., and visit his blog. Send a request to [email protected] for a free subscription to his articles and click here to support his work with a donation.)
“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” John Bunyan, Baptist Preacher
Is the World Approaching Another Perfect Storm as in 1172 B.C.— the First Dark Age? « Don Boys (cstnews.com)
What mankind has learned from history is that we don’t learn much from history. Every generation seems to think they are living in the most unusual time. Those who believe things are getting worse and violence is accelerating are correct.
Genesis 6:11-13 reveals, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
One doesn’t need to be a Bible scholar to know that corruption and violence triggered God to destroy the original world with a global flood. And any person with the I.Q. equivalent to his hat size knows we are in planetary danger because corruption and violence are the major characteristics of today’s culture.
Will God “pull the trigger” again because of our sexual and political corruption and excessive violence?
Even famous historians tell us we are about to enter the Third Dark Age with a total societal collapse! Of course, none credit God, but fault economics, climate change, crime, broken treaties, failed diplomacy, etc. But global destruction is ahead.
We are at the strangest period of world history where we have experienced one crisis after another—wars in many parts of the world; famines in odd places; numerous earthquakes; volcanic eruptions; locusts infestations destroying national farmland; a massive plague of bats severely terrorizing parts of Australia; African Swine Fever wiping out millions of pigs worldwide; rampant violence and crime in major cities; run-away inflation; volatile stock markets; irrational behavior accepted as normal or acceptable; heatwaves; forest fires; food and water shortages; numerous healthy young adults falling dead; and a pandemic changing the world, killing over a million Americans and over 6 million worldwide according to NBC News.
Some will declare that the world has experienced most of the above for thousands of years, which is true; however, we have not seen as many upheavals as today, and many of these events are happening simultaneously. The massive increase of healthy, young people dropping dead has never been seen before—surprising, shocking, even startling life insurance actuaries.
Everyone should take notice when something happens that has never happened before.
Thoughtful people fear that these threats will collectively create a “perfect storm” and a dreadful nightmare that will soon continue to intensify to a disastrous climax.
The Guardian reported our world is “facing a series of interlinked emergencies that are threatening the existence of humans, because the sum of the effects of the crises is much greater than their individual impacts.” Experts tell us some nations could handle some of these threats, but as they accelerate from one to another and even happen simultaneously, they will overwhelmingly produce a “perfect storm.”
The Guardian reported on a survey of 222 leading scientists from 52 countries that found the responses to these emergencies by governments, civil society, businesses, and institutions “failed to recognise their interlinked nature.” The report reveals that the nations trying to solve their problems individually failed to consider “cascading” impacts, causing a failed response. More than a third of the scientists surveyed said these crises would exacerbate each other “in ways that might cascade to create global systemic collapse.” The suggestion is that it is a catastrophic mistake to attack each crisis in isolation rather than as a massive threat. All concerned emphasized a global collapse was in our future.
The report declared the world “is facing a series of interlinked emergencies that are threatening the existence of humans, because the sum of the effects of the crises is much greater than their individual impacts, according to a new global study.”
That means the world is in trouble, not simply here in River City.
It is reasonable to seek an understanding of ancient times to better comprehend the present and future. Biblical scholars are aware of events that brought down our world in the early days of man’s history. About 2348 B.C., or 1650 years after God’s astounding act of creation, man became so violent and sexually vile that God decided to change directions. He destroyed the world’s population with a global Flood, as seen in many landscapes unless one is wearing very dark glasses. He gave everyone a chance to escape the coming global Flood in the Ark, but only eight righteous people believed Him, and everyone else missed the boat.
In April of 2000, the Smithsonian magazine announced that scientists “have started to uncover evidence that Noah’s flood may have a basis in some rather astonishing events that took place around the Black Sea some 7,500 years ago.” Their date is off by a few years, but it’s close.
A recent Nature article asked, “Did a mega drought topple empires 4,200 years ago?” If so, what connection is there, if any, to biblical events? Their spurious modern dating does not align with the biblical timeline because of major problems with radiometric dating methods that I dealt with in Evolution: Fact, Fraud, or Faith?.
About a hundred years after the Flood, Noah’s posterity had gravitated south to Babel from modern eastern Turkey forming an unholy amalgamation of everyone. Josephus declared in his Antiquities that this was the first place the multiplying group of people lived after leaving the mountains of Ararat. At that time, there were no other civilizations on the planet. Mankind’s desire, as always, was to live without God’s approval, so they built a tower to “make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
Mankind has from the beginning tried to form a united nation in disobedience to God’s plan.
Evidently, God did not want a united race, speaking one language, living under one civil authority since that’s why He confused the tongues at Babel. God confused their speech and scattered mankind to hinder their uniting and fostering rebellion against Him. Noah’s sons and grandsons scattered around the Mediterranean area. Javan, Noah’s grandson, founded Greece and Mizraim founded Egypt. These facts always cause Bible critics to squirm uneasily and sweat profusely.
I like to see Bible critics squirm, and especially sweat.
The Tower of Babel incident occurred around 4,200 years ago—about 100 years after the Flood but before Abraham was born. This was before ancient Egypt, Greece, Sumer and other early civilizations. These places couldn’t have begun until after people left Babel to establish the various cultures. So, what of China and others who (based on oral traditions) claim pre-Babel civilizations? No one has found a coin, written instrument, book, or pottery with such early dates. Archeologists and paleontologists hypothesize ancient dates after looking at evidence of bones, pottery, and tools—that are never stamped with a manufacturing date!
Furthermore, they always arrive at ancient dates. They have to if man has been evolving for “millions and millions or years.” An ancient Earth is the glue that holds their myth together.
Without millions of years, unbelievers are left with, yep, creation about 8,000 years ago.
The citizens of Babel scattered across the Fertile Crescent (Iraq) into the Greek islands, North Africa, and back into modern Turkey. Over the centuries, various civilizations rose and fell. Still, about 4,200 years ago, the Akkadian Empire located in modern Iraq and Syria experienced a massive drought about 2200 B.C., and by 2150, the Empire had disappeared!
In the 1990s, Harvey Weiss from Yale University found evidence of global drought, writing, “We’ve got Mesopotamia, the Nile, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean all the way to Spain.”
Additionally, he says there is evidence from around 4,200 years ago of a drying climate, central authorities’ collapse, and people moving to escape the newly parched zones.
Most historians, archeologists, paleontologists, etc., are humanists who interpret everything through a distorted lens. Above all, they must twist, distort, confuse, and defend their evolutionary timeline. Historians write about prehistoric times before writing was invented in Sumer and Egypt about 4,000 years ago. They divided history into the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages. Of course, they admit that there is much overlapping and the starting and ending of each age varied in different locations.
The groups that settled near the sea or large lake became adept at fishing, boating, and navigation. Another group that settled inland excelled at farming, canning, etc. While another group deciding to live in wild areas with much game, became hunters and developed the bow, slings, etc. In other words, each group adapted to their environment as men always have.
In those early days, men worshiped one God, believed in the family unit, and had knowledge of decency since they used animal skins to cover their nakedness and to keep warm. That does not fit the evolutionary scenario but perfectly fits the biblical timeline.
Remember, Adam was a husbandman keeping orchards and farming at the beginning of civilization, while his son Cain was also a farmer, and brother Abel was a keeper of flocks. With those two occupations, the needs of the developing civilization could be met: meat, eggs, milk, wool, shoes, etc., and various vegetables and fruits. Cain had administrative and organizing talents since he built the first city. The sons of Cain knew musical instruments and forged bronze and iron; therefore, mankind did not have to discover that knowledge. Genesis two reveals that gold and bdellium, and onyx were known to Earth’s first people.
Christians, not tied to evolutionary myth, believe when the world population was scattered at Babel into language groups, they possessed various talents, abilities, and inclinations. One group knew smelting metals, another was adept at farming, etc. So, there were not different ages but different groups with specific knowledge not possessed by other groups. The Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages did not exist in succession but simultaneously. Millions of years are not necessary.
Unusual and deadly events began in the various empires, and no one seems to have seen the big picture. A 300-year drought started, and an earthquake storm continued for fifty years. The drought resulted in famine followed by social unrest, crime, and invasion by nomadic tribes of people seeking livable conditions.
In 1177 B.C., the obscure Sea Peoples (thought to be fleeing disaster at home) invaded Syria by boats, wagons, oxcarts, and chariots. They raided their way south through parts of Lebanon, Israel, and finally into the Nile delta of Egypt. The Egyptians defeated them but were a second-rate power thereafter. Although weakened, Egypt was the only major power to survive the collapse of 1172!
People soon struggled to stay alive as starving peasants scrabbled for roots, bark, and animal droppings (containing seeds and nuts) in the shadow of abandoned homes and elaborate estates. Even public buildings were abandoned, and officials and ordinary people fled the disasters looking for livable conditions elsewhere. Hence, the Hittite Empire and others disappeared only to arise again hundreds of years later.
Nations died in an area stretching from what is now Italy to Afghanistan and from Turkey down into Egypt. Egypt managed to escape a final collapse, unlike other civilizations. Troy and Gaza and other ancient cities were destroyed or abandoned, trade routes were lost, and literacy declined throughout the region.
Each civilization was independent of others; however, they traded, fought, intermarried, and had other activities with each other and soon became dependent on each other. Cline writes that the kings requested the services of physicians, artisans, weavers, musicians, and singers from one another. Ancient fragments revealed one nation sent grain to starving nations only to arrive too late. When trading slowed then stopped, bronze-making halted, resulting in fewer weapons. Bronze was made from tin imported from Afghanistan and copper from Cyprus. Importing silver from Greece and gold from Egypt also stopped, affecting those economies as well. The dominoes were falling all over the Mediterranean area.
As conditions worsened, people started deserting the more significant cities since there was safety in less populated areas. Hopefully, they would find more fertile soil and start life anew. Another reason to leave was to escape roving gangs of bandits and invaders who always use the disaster of others for personal advantage.
This globe was shaking like a leaf in a violent storm. Historians believe the evidence suggests a “black swan” event (an unexpected and low-probability event with catastrophic results) occurred with a domino effect as culture after culture fell, some never to rise again. The extent of the catastrophe was enormous; it was a loss that the world would not see again until the Roman Empire collapsed more than fifteen hundred years later.
Thinkers are asking if our planet is standing on a similar precipice at this time approaching a “Third Dark Age.” It seems the world is taking a new direction not seen in 3000 years!
Panic must be avoided while planning and preparation must be pursued with passion.
(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 20 books, the most recent, Reflections of a Lifetime Fundamentalist: No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets! The eBook is available at Amazon.com for $4.99. Other titles at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don Boys, Ph.D., and visit his blog. Send a request to [email protected] for a free subscription to his articles and click here to support his work with a donation.)
“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” John Bunyan, Baptist Preacher