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according to most geologists. Says Keller: In particular, we must remember there can be no question that the Jordan fissure was formed before about 4000 BC. Indeed, according to the most recent presentation of the facts, the origin of the fissure dates back to the Oligocene, the third oldest stage of the Tertiary period. We thus have to think in terms not of thousands, but of millions of years. Violent volcanic activity connected with the Jordan fissure has been shown to have occurred since then, but even so we do not get any further than the Pleistocene which came to an end approximately ten thousand years ago. Certainly we do not come anywhere near to the third, still less the second mil - lennium before Christ—the period, that is to say, in which the patriarchs are ‘WALE OF S001 traditionally placed. we ”P Sel Minin vG possibly even Sodom or Gomorrah, though I would have to examine the evidence. These Bible stories were handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation before they were written down, and there seems to be a great deal in this one. think in terms not of thousands, but of millions of years. Sanders had unearthed a map dating from 1650, which rein- Violent volcanic activity connected with the Jordan fissure forced his belief that the sites of the two cities could be under the has been shown to have occurred since then, but even so we northern basin rather than on the southern edge of the Dead Sea. do not get any further than the Pleistocene which came to an He recruited Richard Slater, an American geologist and expert in end approximately ten thousand years ago. Certainly we do deep-sea diving, to take him to the depths of the Dead Sea in the not come anywhere near to the third, still less the second mil - two-man Delta mini-submarine that was involved in the discovery lennium before Christ—the of the sunken ocean-liner, the period, that is to say, in Lusitania. Sanders's location for which the patriarchs are WALE OF Sibi JERICHO Sodom and Gomorrah, in the traditionally placed. Zit) TN deep northern part of the Dead ae yr nae “ay yy tx Sea, is even more at odds with In short, Keller is saying that if history and geology than Keller's any geological catastrophe that theory of the cities being at the would have destroyed Sodom shallow southern end. and Gomorrah would have had Therefore we come back to the to have happened a million popular theory that these cities years ago, or so geologists have were not destroyed in a geologi- told him. Keller says that geol- cal cataclysm but in a man-made ogists have not found any evi- (or extraterrestrial-made) apoca- dence of a recent catastrophe at lypse that was technological in the southern end of the Dead nature. Were Sodom and Sea, at least not for about Gomorrah attacked with atomic 10,000 years. Says Keller: weapons, as Hiroshima and In addition, it is precisely Nagasaki were? to the south of the Lisan Researcher L. M. Lewis, in his peninsula, where Sodom book Footprints on the Sands of and Gomorrah are Time,'® maintains that both reported to have been Sodom and Gomorrah were annihilated, that the traces destroyed by atomic weapons of former volcanic activity and that the salt pillars and high cease. In short, the proof salt content around the Dead Sea in this area of a quite are evidence of a nuclear blast. recent catastrophe which Says Lewis: wiped out towns and was When Hiroshima was being accompanied by violent rebuilt, stretches of sandy volcanic activity is not soil were found to have been provided by the findings of atomically changed into a the geologists. substance resembling a glazed silicon permeated by a saline crystalloid. Little blocks of this were cut from the mass and sold to tourists as souvenirs of the town— So here is the problem: the Dead Sea area may have had a cataclysm that could be the ori- gin of the Old Testament story; however, conservative unifor- and of atomic action. mitarian geologists have said — The Dead Sea (a) before subsidence and (b) after subsidence. Had an even larger explo - that any such Earth changes (Source: Keller, The Bible As History) sion pulverized every stone must have occurred long before of every building—and had any sort of collective memory of the event. the complete city disappeared into thin air—there would still In late 1999, a new theory was proposed by British Bible scholar have been tell-tale indications of what had occurred on the Michael Sanders and an international team of researchers who, outskirts of the area of devastation. At some points there after several fraught weeks of diving in a mini-submarine, would surely be a marked difference in the soil or an atomic discovered what appears to be the salt-encrusted remains of ancient change in some object of note. settlements on the seabed. Sanders told a television crew from BBC/Channel 4 who were making a documentary about the Lewis maintains that if the pillars of salt at the end of the Dead expedition: Sea were ordinary salt, they would have disappeared with the There is a good chance that these mounds are covering up periodic rains. Instead, these pillars are of a special, harder salt, brick structures and are one of the lost cities of the plains, only created in a nuclear reaction such as an atomic explosion. The Dead Sea (a) before subsidence and (b) after subsidence. (Source: Keller, The Bible As History) Lewis maintains that if the pillars of salt at the end of the Dead Sea were ordinary salt, they would have disappeared with the periodic rains. Instead, these pillars are of a special, harder salt, only created in a nuclear reaction such as an atomic explosion. NEXUS - 55 OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2000