“If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” John 5:46-47

Last night, I went to see “Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy. Who wrote the first books of the Bible?” I was surprised to find that it was an in-depth look into language. In a nutshell, he looked into whether or not written language was available to Moses at the time of the Exodus so that he might even have written the Pentateuch.

Now, much of this was over my head to be presented in such a short time, but the central theme seems quite verifiable. Long story short, we have been taught that the first alphabetic language was Phoenician. Their findings, based on archeological evidence, suggests that Hebrew might have been the first. If that is so, then it would certainly imply that language was developed by God. Why? To preserve the story of the Exodus and to provide a means for God to communicate directly with all mankind.

Now, the movie didn’t say this, or at least I didn’t catch it, but the thought occurred to me that God has done something quite interesting in all this with regard to language. Recall the story of the Tower of Babel.

Genesis 11:1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.

The people sought to make a tower for themselves with its top in the heavens. This is the same thing that Satan did.

Isaiah 14:13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north.

But God didn’t let that happen to the people at Babel.

Genesis 11:6-9 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they purpose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

Now, it seems that the Egyptians had hieroglyphics for some time before the first alphabet came about, but it appears that the alphabet came about at the same time Joseph appeared. It is surmised that only someone of his position and “intelligence” could have developed a system so complicated yet so simple. And, from there, the language suddenly appears in the region that the Hebrews moved to. Furthermore, evidence of that language suddenly stopped showing up in Egypt at the time the Hebrews left. That language then developed into Phoenician and the other languages of the new region.

So, it seems to me that God intentionally confused people by giving them all different languages. Then, quite interestingly, he gave the Hebrews the alphabet. Why? So that God might communicate effectively to all people. You see, the alphabet makes it easy to write books that can be copied and shared. Furthermore, the alphabet makes it easy to translate from one language to another. I don’t know about you, but the idea that God introduced the alphabet through Joseph so that the Gospel might be shared to the world has great appeal to me. In fact, it is the type of thing that gives one goosebumps just thinking about it!

But, not everyone believes. In fact, the movie interviewed several language experts that dismissed entirely that Moses wrote the first books of the bible. Many of these were from a religious studies background. Many grew up in bible-believing homes. Still, their doubt led them to deny that Moses wrote the books. The implication to that is that all the references in subsequent books, including that of Jesus himself, are invalid. Jesus says Moses claims he was the Messiah. Well, if Moses didn’t actually say that….. So, the issue of who wrote the book is fundamental.

Yet, when presented with evidence contrary to their unbelief, they refused to consider it. Not surprisingly. We find the same thing when evolutionists are presented with evidence that is contrary to their theory and their overall worldview.

Indeed, belief seems to be a requirement to see. Unbelief leads to blindness, just as scripture says.

2 Corinthians 4:4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

I recommend this movie. You may consider buying it.

Father, thank you. Amen.

Copyright © 2019 Scott Powers