Secrets from Beyond The Grave

Chapter 2 The Dead Sea--the Area of the Future Lake of Fire

The first time I ever saw the Dead Sea was in May of 1986. It was my first tour of Israel. I was mesmerized with the rugged, rose-colored rocks rising like skyscrapers on the edge of the Judean wilderness and with the barren yet mystical appeal of the land surrounding the city of Jericho. I remember standing on a hill near the famous Qumran caves, overlooking the Dead Sea, and experiencing the most unusual desert silence and solitude imaginable. There was a strange, rather mystical and magnetic appearance to this bluish-green body of water. Little did I realize at that time--but after years of research I now do--that this sea might be the most unusual place on Earth. The Dead Sea is 1,369 feet below sea level--the lowest spot on Earth. At the deepest part of the sea, the level is 2,300 feet below sea level. It lies in a 3,700-mile rift that stretches from Turkey into Africa. The sea is actually a lake that is gradually drying up. The entire area was formed by earthquakes and a boiling outburst of fire and hot water impregnated with sulfur and brimstone. Volcanic Activity From the area of Northern Israel called the Bashan to the bottom of the Dead Sea, the entire area has been active with earthquakes and volcanoes from its earliest history. In the Bashan (the Golan Heights), located north of the Sea of Galilee, visitors can see huge black basalt boulders that are a silent reminder of earlier volcanic activity in the area. Nature magazine stated: Volcanoes may be more like hell than anyone realized. Eruptions disgorge streams of molten sulfur, the brimstone of evangelical preachers, which burns up before it can be preserved for posterity.1 The volcanic link to the Dead Sea is interesting. In the time of Abraham, there were five cities, called the "cities of the plain" (Gen. 13:12). These were Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar (Gen. 14:2). Because of the iniquity of Sodom, four of the five cities were destroyed by fire and brimstone. "Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens" (Gen. 19:24). The evidence of this destruction can be seen in the layers of volcanic rock scattered across the ground in parts of Jordan, on the mountains of ancient Moab, on the eastern mountains above the Dead Sea, and in the small sulfur balls that lie in the ground not far from Masada on the western side of the sea. The shape of the salt mountains on the Israeli side of the Dead Sea also indicates a time in which there was a massive explosion in the region thousands of years ago. Brimstone is a combustible sulfur substance that burns. I believe the destruction of the cities was a sudden eruption of an underground volcano that spewed hot rocks and lava into the air. Some scholars believe the cities were destroyed by an asteroid. However, this type of destruction by an asteroid would have devastated much more than the four cities. The only surviving city, the small city of Zoar, was built on a mountain. Lot and his two daughters were also delivered out of the destruction. A major asteroid would have wiped out everyone and everything, leaving no human or city in its path; thus the small town of Zoar and Lot with his two daughters would have become instantly evaporated.