Who or What Really Parted The Red Sea?

As usual there is no shortage of skeptics when it comes to the Bible and especially the more spectacular and well-known stories contained there. This time, the ‘secular’ explanation’ for a Scriptural miracle comes via the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The head title of the article from their study was “Mother Earth, not Moses, could have parted Red Sea.”

Team member Carl Drews stated that a strong east wind, blowing overnight, could have swept water off a bend where an ancient river is believed to have merged with a coastal lagoon along the Mediterranean Sea. He said that archaeologists and Egyptologists have found little evidence that any events described in Exodus actually happened, but a so-called ‘perfect storm’ could have led to the historical biblically stated escape that saw Israel trapped between the water and Pharaoh's advancing chariots.

Drew and his colleagues used models that showed that near hurricane level winds of 63 mph, lasting for 12 hours, would have pushed back waters estimated at a depth of 6 feet. This in turn could have could have exposed mud flats for four hours, creating a dry passage about 2 to 2.5 miles long and 3 miles wide. That would have been long enough for Moses and his followers to pass through, but precisely short enough to drown the pursuers just behind them. The New Testament reveals the Old Testament event, briefly recording, “By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.” (Hebrews 11:29)

The attack on the historical accuracy of the Bible is nothing new. And often such declarations, like this recent one from the NCAR, seem to require nearly as much faith, if not more, than just accepting what Scriptures teach.

For the sake of argument, perhaps there was that rare ‘perfect storm’ with all of the precise ingredients occurring simultaneously. And perhaps this allowed Moses and his followers to pass through, but then it amazingly ended and crashed down on the Egyptian henchmen. But could that not have simply been the hand of an almighty Creator God manipulating nature to achieve His own divine will for His own chosen people? Again it would seem to require even more faith to think that Israel would be at the exact right place at the exact right time for their deliverance and the enemies of God’s people at the exact perfect spot for their demise.

The assault on the Scriptures has been around nearly as long as the Bible has. Attacks were even used as a weapon against the One who authored them when he was tested in the wilderness just before His public ministry on earth began. Luke 4:1-13 reveals how Satan twisted the Old Testament Scriptures to tempt Christ into serving him and to and create doubt about the Lord’s appointed purpose on earth. But God’s Son eventually won the battle and wore the devil down using biblical passages in their true and accurate context. He then went on to win man’s redemption through his life, death and resurrection from the dead – perhaps the most attacked Bible aspect because of its personal and eternal ramifications.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research or any others who take some portion of God’s Word and explain it away in natural, secular or scientific terms create a serious question concerning the entire Bible in general. When chunks of biblical truth are questioned or explained away by whatever means, where does it end?

What then about what the Bible teaches, especially the main issue of man’s salvation? If the stories like the Red Sea, Noah’s Ark, and Jonah and the great fish can be doubted or rationalized away in some fashion, then why not a more crucial and profound passage like 1 Peter 1:17-21? “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

Then, of course, there is that great statement concerning faith and redemption in John 3:16. Would these all-important promises also be suspect? Are they to be taken as literal? Are they taken at face value as absolute life-changing truth?

Again, doubting veracity of the Scriptures has been a familiar theme all along and may even intensify as human history winds down before the return of Christ for His true church. Those who are spiritually prepared for that awesome moment through faith will be ready because they have personally experienced what the Bible teaches in Romans 10:17. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” These will escape eternal judgement because they believe the Bible is God’s perfect and completed manual for this life and the after-life. For these, God’s Word is not in doubt since they trust fully in its accuracy and base their beliefs on passages like the ones found in 2 Timothy 3 and 2 Peter 1.

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16) “For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21)

“Mother Earth, not Moses, could have parted the Red Sea.” Interesting theory? In reality, neither did. It was the God of the Bible using both!

Bill Breckenridge