Recently I watched a program on the H2 cable network entitled “Ancient Mysteries” which examined how the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah might have occurred. While this occurred in Abraham’s time before the ten tribes of Israel existed, this blog category was the only logical one in which to place this post.
The episode, which was entitled “Heavenly Destruction,” proposed that a cosmic object of some kind exploded over Sodom and Gomorrah and that the resultant destruction caused the “brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven” mentioned in Genesis 19:24. Ancient cities on the periphery of the Dead Sea have been excavated and they have found badly-burnt pottery and human bones as well as “trinitite,” the type of green-glass fragments that result from a nuclear explosion like the one detonated at the “Trinity” test site by the USA.
While God, as Creator, can cause any kind of heavenly fire that he wishes to create, the possibility that a cosmic object exploded in an air-burst over Sodom would seem to be a plausible explanation for the Genesis 19 event. God often works his will via physical means and a meteor sent to explode over Sodom would have accomplished his will. The documentary even notes that Lot’s wife may have been turned into a “pillar of salt” in the following fashion. Since she lingered behind Lot and his daughters and turned to watch what was happening, she did not get away from the blast and could have become a literal pillar of charred, upright tissue.
There is a detail in the Genesis 19 account which may support this explanation. The two angels (spirit beings who are subordinate to the Creator and were, like mankind, made by Him), were very urgent about the need for Lot and his family to “get out” as quickly as possible. They acted as if they knew there was a timetable of events that was about to happen, and Lot and his family didn’t understand the need for a very hasty departure (verses 15-22). Indeed, verse 16 states the angels “brought him forth and set him without [outside] the city.” This means Lot’s family was supernaturally relocated by the angels a safe distance from the impending doom about to hit Sodom. These angels may have been aware that a meteor was about to arrive overhead and that Lot and his family had to be removed a considerable distance from the city to ensure their safety. God could, of course, decide exactly what size of meteor was necessary to cause an explosion small enough to destroy only the requisite area under his death sentence. Obviously,most of the the southern Holy Land region was not affected as that is where Abraham lived and he looked in the distance and saw the destruction (verses 27-28). The documentary states it may have been a mushroom cloud which he might have seen, even if caused by a meteor explosion.
Supporting the proposal is the likelihood that God destroyed the pre-Adamic world on earth via a gigantic meteor that exploded in the Chixulub region of the Yucatan of Mexico and wiped out all life on earth. Many secular scientists have adopted this viewpoint for the sudden termination of the dinosaur-dominated world. I also believe it makes sense. Such an event could easily have happened during the war in heaven that occurred when Lucifer, who had ruled as God’s appointee over earth, rebelled and was cast down to earth along with all other rebellious spirit beings. If God used a gigantic meteor (or meteors) to destroy life on earth in earth’s pre-history, he could easily have used a small meteor to target Sodom and its surrounding region during Abraham’s and Lot’s lifetime. A thorough examination of the biblical teachings applicable to the pre-Flood world and Lucifer’s reign over it before his rebellion can be found in my article, Is the Earth 6000 Years Old? [Subtitled]: When Lucifer Ruled the Earth. A hint: No, the Bible actually agrees with the modern scientists who teach that the earth is far older than 6,000 years. The Bible does not give the earth’s age. It merely confirms that it is indefinitely older than all the species created in Genesis Week, when God re-created life on the earth to prepare it for mankind.
