Pastor's Comments February 10, 2012

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While exiled on the island of Patmos, the Apostle John saw in VISION “The World to Come” (Hebrews 2:5):

for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. . . .” (Revelation 21:1).

Due to the need for a better understanding of the creation of this world, I am only going to focus on it in this writing.

“First of all, God had created angels. After that, and for angels and for humans who were to be created later, God formed and brought into existence the earth and the entire universe. And so we come now to that which is revealed in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning [of the physical universe] God created the heavens and the earth.”

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God (ELOHIM, The Mighty Ones) created the heavens and the earth.

Though we are to only worship God in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24), it should be helpful to visualize what Scripture does reveal about the likeness of the WORD who was used by God to bring into existence the instantaneous creation of the Universe. And by seeing what the WORD, Jesus Christ, looks like; we can know God has the same IMAGE:

One of Jesus’ disciples asked Him what God the Father looks like. Jesus replied: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He that has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

Mr. Armstrong: “So now we know God has the same form and shape as a man. We also know He is composed of Spirit . . . And if so manifested we would see both God the Father and Christ now glorified in heaven with faces, though formed and shaped like human faces, as bright as the sun full strength! Their eyes like flames of fire and hair as white as snow (Revelation 1:14-16).”

The WORD who became Jesus Christ revealed Himself as He was in His GLORY— and now is— to the Apostle John in Vision:

Revelation 1:12-15 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me . . . One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters . . . and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.”

Revelation 4:1-2 “And behold, a throne was set in heaven, and One set on the throne . . . and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald . . . before the throne there was a sea of glass like a crystal.”

By visualizing Jesus Christ from these Scriptures perhaps we can have a better picture in our minds of Him who was God’s Spokesman in creating the Universe, the starry heavens, and this planet earth, and will hopefully become more real to us when we pray.

David’s relationship with the LORD God was so very real and close that when David prayed to Him, he sought His countenance to shine down upon him:

Psalm 27:8 “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to you, ‘Your face I will seek.’”

We should do the same while seeking God’s face in our ‘mind’s eye in Spirit’ (John 4:24), as revealed in the above Scriptures, and not in any false images created by mankind for that would be idolatry.

With our limited minds and understanding, we do not know whether God had an enormous drafting board on which He designed all things before creating them, or whether they were all designed in the infinite greatness of Their minds.

However we do know God our Father and Jesus Christ works even unto now; so said Jesus Christ (John 5:17). This can be seen in the following Scriptures regarding the creation of the earth.

Hebrews 1:10 “You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.”

In His creation of mankind God has endowed man with creative abilities. Some men have been able to achieve greatness because of their use. Job was one such man.

Job was a master-builder who was responsible for the building of the Great Pyramid in Egypt. He had it built according to his design and under his supervision.

Such a remarkable creation as this is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World and exists yet today:

“The Great Pyramid of Giza, the only wonder of the ancient world still in existence.”

Undoubtedly the design and structure of such a great feat of this magnitude had left Job exalted in mind and self-righteous. To humble Job, while revealing His omnipotence, the LORD God, the greatest of all Master-Builders, asked him:

Job 38:1, 4-6 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: . . . Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth . . . who determined its measurements . . . or who stretched the line upon it (margin: measuring line) . . . to what were its foundations fastened (Soncino Commentary: which were believed to support the universe) . . . or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

Job 42:1-6 Job answered the LORD and said, “I know You can do anything . . . I have heard of You by hearing of the ear, but now I see You, therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

Psalm 104:1-5 “Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, You are very great: You are clothed with honor and majesty, who cover Yourself with LIGHT as with a garment, Who S-T-R-E-T-C-H O-U-T the heavens like a curtain (as a hand-woven curtain stretched out). . . .”

Isaiah 40:10, 12 “Behold, the Lord GOD . . . who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, measured heaven with a span (width of a hand) and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?

Psalm 104:3 “He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters . . .”

Soncino Commentary: “Here is pictured God’s heavenly abode (His Holy City, Psalm 48:1-2) as floating upon the waters above in the same manner that man’s dwelling place, the earth, rests upon subterranean waters. For the stores of water above the firmament, cf. Genesis 1:7.”

Amos 9:6 “He who builds His layers (stairs, Genesis 28:12; John 1:51) in the sky, and has founded His strata in the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth.”

King David, as a young lad, while shepherding sheep, often looked up into the starry heavens, with wonderment, praise, and questions:

Psalm 8:1, 3-5 “O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your Name in all the earth, You who have set Your glory above the heavens (where God dwells in His holy city in the far away north) . . . when I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have created, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? . . .”

Psalm 113:4-6 “The LORD is high above all nations, His glory above the heavens. Who is like the LORD our God, who dwells on high who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth?”

There were other great men of God who had been given some knowledge of the starry heavens:

Amos 5:8 “He made the Pleiades and Orion; . . . He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth.”

Job also had some understanding of the design and pattern of portions of the stars above as did the Prophet Amos:

Job 9:4-11 “God is wise in heart and mighty in strength . . . He alone spreads out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea. He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south; He does great things past finding out, yes, wonders without number. If He moves by me, I do not see Him; if He moves past, I do not perceive Him.”

Job 38:31-33 “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades (Margin: the Seven Stars), or loose the belt of Orion? Can you bring out Mazzaroth (Margin: literally the constellations) in its season? Or can you guide the Great Bear with its cubs? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth?”

Though we have no Scriptural writing to substantiate the writings of Josephus, the famous and respected Jewish historian, he wrote the following about Abram:

Josephus, Book 1, Chapter 7, Pages 60- 61 “. . . that he was a person of great wisdom, both for understanding all things, and persuading his hearers, and not mistaken in his opinions, for which reasons he began to have higher notions of virtue than others had, and he determined to renew and change the opinion all men happened to have concerning God; for he was the first that ventured to publish this notion, that there was but one God; and that as to other [gods], if they contributed anything to the happiness of men, that each of them afforded it only according to his appointment, and not by their own power.

This opinion was derived from the irregular phenomena that were visible both at land and at sea, as well as those that happen to the sun, and moon, and all the heavenly bodies, thus; ‘If [said he] these bodies had power of their own, they would certainly take care of their own regular motions, but since they do not preserve such regularity, they make it plain, that as far as they cooperate to our advantage, they do it not of their own abilities, but as they are subservient to Him that commands them, to whom alone we ought justly to offer our honor and thanksgiving.’

For which doctrines, when the Chaldeans, and other people of Mesopotamia, raised a disturbance against him, he thought it fit to leave that country; and at the command and by the assistance of God, he came and lived in the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:1-5). And when he was there settled, he built an altar, and performed a sacrifice to God.”

“SINCE TIME IMMEMORIAL man has watched the night sky and wondered about the nature of the Universe of which his world is a part; but only in the last 50 years (published 1964) has he begun to understand the immense pattern of the heavens.

We now know that our universe of individual stars, are a universe of millions of ‘Star Systems’ called ‘galaxies,’ similar to the Milky Way Galaxy of which our solar system is a part. . . .

As we contemplate this vast universe, we are impressed with three outstanding facts:

2) The presence of LAW in the universe, coupled with the demonstration of limitless POWER

Each of these bears witness to A SUPREME BEING OF UNIMAGINABLE POWER, WISDOM AND GLORY.

Our sun, 93,000,000 miles away, is 866,000 miles in diameter—1,300,000 times the volume of our earth.

Betelguese, one of the stars in the constellation Orion, has a diameter of 215,000,000 miles—248 times the diameter of our sun; Arcturus, one of the super-giant stars in our galaxy has 25,600 times the volume of our sun . . . is said to have a diameter of about 400,000,000 miles. . . .

The largest star known in our galaxy is one of the stars of the binary (double) star Epsilon Aurigae, which is said to have diameter ten times that of Betelguese, or 2,150,000,000 miles! Other supergiants in other galaxies are presumed to be still larger.

Page 54> We are further told that “our galaxy has a hundred billion (100,000,000,000) stars (Scientific American Magazine, September 1956); and that there are, beyond our Milky Way Galaxy, “at least a billion more galaxies, each having approximately as many stars as our galaxy”

Jeremiah 33:22 “As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured . . .”

Some authorities place the estimated number of galaxies (star systems similar to our own Milky Way Galaxy) that lie far beyond our galaxy, at from 500 billion (Hubble) to a trillion—instead of a billion.

Page 55> Such a vast universe bears testimony to the fact that the God who made it is ALMIGHTY beyond on all comprehension—truly OMNIPOTENT.

Romans 1:20 “For the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead.”

The Prophet Isaiah tells us that God is far greater than His universe; for the universe is called His tent:

Isaiah 40:18-26 “To whom will you liken God? . . . Have you not known? Have you not heard? . . . It is He that sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that S-T-R-E-T-C-H-E-D O-U-T the heavens as a curtain, and SPREADETH them out as a tent to dwell in . . . lift up your eyes on high, and behold who has created these things, that brings out their HOST by number; He calls them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that HE IS STRONG IN POWER; not one fails.”

“If one insists that matter is eternal and was never created, he still faces the fact of where MOTION came from; who or what started the stars revolving around each other? What supplied the original terrific ‘push’? . . . he is forced by sound logic back to GOD as the Original Cause of matter, motion and continuance of motion.

2) The presence of LAW in the Universe, coupled with the demonstration of unbelievable POWER

The Universe is a marvelous, majestic, well-nigh infinite CLOCK, with “wheels within wheels” to borrow a phrase from the Book of Ezekiel.

“The heavens are orderly; the stars are not scattered helter-skelter for ever and ever. They are arranged in orderly systems called galaxies. . . . Any system, of course, has a shape. Our galaxy is shaped something like a pinwheel” (Astronomer, writing in the Denver Post).

And a writer in “Popular Science” writes an article on “Balancing the Heavens,” in which he speaks of— “the apparently purposeful and deliberate movements of other heavenly bodies like the planets.” He explains that “the movements of the stars and comets and meteors, as well as all of the planets and the satellites of the planets, result from the uniform working of mechanical laws.”

. . . the billions of stars, planets and their satellites are all BALANCED between the force of “gravitation”* and the law of “inertia,” which states that “matter will persist in a state of rest, but when once put in motion, it tends to keep going at the same rate and in the same direction, unless acted upon by some external force.”

*In the 17^th century Sir Isaac Newton discovered the principle of universal gravitation. “Gravitation” is one of the mysterious of all forces—for it acts at a distance across distant space. It seems wholly unreasonable to think that a body can “reach out across space and put hooks on another distant body and pull it toward itself.” This is an utter mystery—and will forever remain so. “We do not know, nor can we ever expect to know, the mechanism of gravitation” (Science, November 23, 1923.

GRAVITION pulls the stars toward their center or nucleus—and toward each other; INERTIA—after once the stars have been put in motion—keeps them in motion, and in a regular orbit determined by the pull of gravity.

By the balance between two great laws of nature, we have the explanation of the ceaseless motion in orbits of the stars and every other heavenly body!

(a) What or Who STARTED all this motion? Where did the original “push” come from? Science has no answer.

Psalm 33:6, 9 “By the [spoken] Word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. . . . For He spoke [gave the command], and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast.”

Psalm 148:1-6 “PRAISE THE LORD! Praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all you stars of light! Praise Him, you heaven of heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD, for He commanded and they were created. He also established them forever and ever; He made a decree which shall not pass away.”]

One of the fundamental maxims of the sciences is the Second Law of Thermodynamics: that is, there is a universal tendency to run down, a universal trend “toward randomness” and decline. . . . Someone not only had to START this vast machine, but Someone also has to keep it going. Again, we are forced to come back to God.

[Colossians 1:15-17 “He is the IMAGE of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him ALL THINGS CONSIST (held together).”

Hebrews 1:1-3 “God . . . has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the express IMAGE of His person, AND UPHOLDING ALL THINGS BY THE WORD OF HIS POWER . . .”]

Pages 58-59> The heavens are not only “balanced” between the law of gravitation and the law of inertia, they also are balanced in a most amazing and vast and intricate array of revolving and interdependent systems, from our solar system on up to vast galaxies and systems of galaxies.

Our earth revolves around its axis every twenty-four hours; once a year we spin around the sun, going over 500 million miles annually; our sun, carrying with it the entire planetary system* goes in an enormous orbit around the center of our galaxy, a trip that takes 230 million years! And it travels at a rate of 175 miles per second.

*The amazing accuracy and smoothness with which the Universe revolves—as a flawless, perfect machine—can be seen in the perfection that characterizes the journey of our earth around the sun: it takes 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 48 seconds to make its journey around the sun; and in this circuit . . . the earth has never varied one second in a thousand years.” None but an infinite God could achieve such flawless, continuous perfection.

From one vast center, one tremendous nucleus, the Almighty controls the universe. . . . A system as vast and as intricate and as involved and as orderly as our UNIVERSE, demands not only a Supreme Architect, but also an Almighty Creator and an Omnipotent Superintendent to keep it going.

We have spoken of the law of GRAVITATION and the law of INERTIA. There are scores of other “laws” in the universe that are perfect and necessary to make up this vast universe.

Professor Einstein said the World as I See It: “The scientist’s religious feeling take the form of a rapturous amazement at the Harmony of Natural Law, which reveals an Intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection” (page 29).

A look into the night sky is a fascinating sight; this inherit glory of the skies is greatly enhanced by the discoveries of modern astronomy. When viewed in a telescope, the color of stars becomes decidedly more pronounced, as a matter of fact, many stars glow with a brilliance more dazzling than a cut and polished gem. The difference in color in stars is due to their temperature. Very hot stars are blue-white or white; cooler ones are orange or red. Through the telescope many stars can be seen as green, orange, violet, pink and many other colors [similar to the rainbow]! It is a most inspiring spectacle.

Page 62 >. . . Hubble’s theory makes our earth the center of the expanding universe.”

Page 67-68> Dr Schlit, an astronomer, was asked, “Is man just a mite on a planet in a vast universe? Is man less significant than a flea on an ant’s back? “No,” the astronomer replied,

“Finding all these star systems is just a game—an artificial game. The thing we have to account for is the OBSERVOR. Now if the earth is the only place where there is an OBSERVOR, then IT CERTAINLY IS “THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE,’ . . . It is inconceivable that no life exists in our universe except on our own earth. . . . So it makes more sense to me that man IS the “center” of the universe, that he is the sole observer.”

“The heaven, even the heavens are the Lord’s: but the earth has He given to the children of men” (Psalm 115:16).

[In addition, it is believed that “Jerusalem is in the center of this earth.” And when we consider the Scriptural fact that Jesus Christ chose it as the capital of Israel, and for His Temple, and further, it will be the place from where Jesus Christ will govern the earth when He returns and establishes His rule on this earth, therefore it is logical to believe it is the center of this earth.]

Relatively speaking, “man stands somewhere midway between the stellar universe and the atom.” The one is well-nigh infinitely large—so large that it stretches out into space far beyond the reach of his most powerful telescopes. The other is almost infinitely small—so small that it diminishes into incredible minuteness, and then shaves off into the virtual nothingness of some of its particles, far beyond the reach of man’s most powerful electron microscopes.

Both the universe of the stars and the world of the atoms witness to the almighty power and infinite wisdom of our God.

Dr. Brown speaks in an article (National Geographic Magazine) of “The riddle of man’s place in the Universe.” This riddle also is solved in the Word of God. Man being an intelligent being, with a free will and created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26, 27), and being ALIVE, is of vastly more importance than a lifeless mass of suns, stars and even galaxies! The EARTH, though comparatively small, is of such vast importance in God’s scheme of things, that He has plans eventually to MOVE HIS HEADQUARTERS DOWN TO THE “NEW EARTH” [I Corinthians 15:24, 28] WHEN He creates “a new heaven and a new earth (see Revelation 21 and 22).

Page 71> Each atom is a miniature “solar system” with the electrons whizzing around the nucleus (protons and neutrons) at astonishing speeds These minute “electrons” dash around the nucleus “millions of times per second”

An atom is built like our solar system. IT IS ALMOST ALL EMPTY SPACE. This seems incredible, but it is factual.

Though much more could be quoted from this most revealing book, this is enough for the present time.

One question that needs to be answered: How was the Universe created—from what?

Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were NOT made of things which were visible.

NOTE: The worlds were created from invisible, intangible, non-physical essence—out of Spirit, or Spirit essence into atoms and molecules. An atom is a tiny universe of energy.

Job 9:8-11 “He alone spreads out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea. He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south; He does great things past finding out, yes, wonders without number.”

Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament (margin: expanse of heaven) shows His handiwork (margin: the work of His hands).”

Job 26:13 “By His Spirit He adorned (or garnished, kjv) the heavens . . .”

OUR WONDER WORLD, Volume One, “The World and Its People” by Geo L. Shuman and Company

Page 8> “. . . instead of the sun and moon and stars rolling around earth, it is the earth that is spinning around day by day, while the sun and stars are comparatively still; and, though the moon does not move, yet when we see her get up in the east and go down in the west, that is due to our own movement and not hers.

“. . . Instead of the sun traveling around the earth, it was the earth which moved, spinning around like a top once a day, and turning one part of itself to the sun at one time, and the opposite part at the other. It takes the earth just twenty-four hours to spin around once. That is why we have day and night, and also why it is daytime in China on the other side of the earth, when it is night with us.

If you take an orange and stick a knitting-needle through it, and hold it so that the needle is not quite straight up but a little slanting, and then twirl the orange round and round on the needle, you will get a good idea of the way the earth turns round, though of course there is no great pole like a needle stuck through it. But there is an imaginary line through the earth which takes the place in our minds of the needle, and this points where this line comes to the surface are called the north and south poles.

This imaginary line through the earth is called the earth’s axis. When astronomers talk of the spinning motion of the earth, they say the earth is turning or rotating on its axis.

. . . Spring follows winter, and autumn summer, because of another motion of the earth. All the time earth is spinning round on its axis like a top, it is also making a 365-day-long journey round the sun.

If the earth were not tipped, if it stood right up straight from pole to pole, there would be no winter or summer, for each part of the earth would be turned towards the sun an equal part of each twenty-four-hour day, and would get about even heat from the sun’s rays every day. . . .

“. . . If you watch the sun on March 21^st [Most years March 20 as it is again 2012], will find that it rises directly where the compass points to east, and sets where it points to west. At this time the earth is tipped so that both the north pole and the south pole are equally in line for the sun’s rays. Neither is tilted towards the sun more or less than the other. So on this date, day and night will be of exactly equal length in all parts of the world. The sun will be seen above the horizon just twelve hours in every place on the earth’s surface. This day is called equinox, which is Latin for “equal night.”

March 20^th makes known the time when spring begins. . . . Our Christian heritage of [Passover] comes at this time. . . .

Spring begins then, because as the earth moves in its path, where it has passed this place of equal days and nights, the northern part—this northern hemisphere on which we in America live—is tipped more and more towards the sun, so it gets more and more sunshine, until on the 21^st of June [near Pentecost] it is tipped as far as it ever can be, and we have our longest possible day when the sun is above the horizon for nearly eighteen hours.

After this longest day of ours, the summer solstice, the earth begins to tip back again, until on the 22^nd of September, we have the autumn equinox, when once again day and night all over the world are of equal length. The autumn has begun. . . . the days will get shorter and shorter, until on the 21^st of December we have our winter solstice, our shortest day in the year, when the earth has tipped just as far in the opposite direction as it is going to . . .

The earliest way to tell time was by the position of the sun. . . . He sets a stick upright in the ground, and found that the shadow cast by it grew longer and longer and moved round the stick. This was the origin of the sundial. . . .

All our modern clocks are regulated by astronomers, who check them up each day by the position of certain fixed stars. The astronomer keeps time for the world, and he takes time from the sky-clock, the most marvelous clock of all, which through all history has gone with unfailing accuracy, never stopping for a second, never going faster or slower, but keeping steadily on, with the rotating earth for part of its works, and the star-set heavens for its face.

Not only is the moon nearer to us than the other stars, but it really belongs to us. It is our moon. .

. .

. Just as we move round the sun in a path that takes us 365 days to travel, so our moon which, big as it is, is quite small compared to the earth, moves round us once in every twenty-seven days; and that is where we get our months. So the moon is part is part of our sky-clock, too; only, while the sun gives us our days and hours, seasons and years, the moon divides our time into months. . . .

[Genesis 1:14-18 Then God said, “Let there be LIGHTS in the firmament of the heavens to DIVIDE the day from the night; and let them be for SIGNS and SEASONS, and for days and years.; and let them be for LIGHTS in the firmament of the heavens to give LIGHT on the earth”; and it was so. Then God made TWO GREAT LIGHTS: the greater LIGHT to RULE the night, and the lesser LIGHT to RULE the night. He made the stars also.

Page 31-32> Everyone must have noticed Venus, our beautiful evening star . . . there is no star

that shines so brightly as Venus when she is at her brightest . . . she is only a little smaller than our world, and she comes nearer to us than any other worlds of our family. As she goes round the sun in a circle inside our earth’s orbit, she appears first on one side of the sun and then on the other, and so is seen as an evening or as a morning star in turn. . . . There are few things in the heavens so beautiful as Venus when she appears like a crescent moon.

. . . If you turn and look up to the sky in the north, you will see one fairly bright star which does not seem to move at all; and the stars that are quite close to it move so slowly that you can scarcely notice their motion.

All the stars in the sky seem to move in circles round this star, the ones nearest to it in small circles, and those farther away in larger circles, till you come to the ones whose circle is so big that you can only see half of it, as they rise in the east, pass across the sky, and set in the west.

This is the Pole Star. It is directly above the North Pole, and is called “Polaris,” or the “North Star.” This is the star around which all the northern stars move . . .

The Pole Star is usually easy to find because it is the brightest star in that part of the heavens. But if you cannot find it quickly, it has two faithful friends in the heavens which will guide you quickly to it. These are two stars of the Big Dipper. . . . It has seven stars . . . and they are always in the north somewhere. Having found the Big Dipper, you can use two of its stars, the two bright ones, which make up the front part of the Dipper, the part of the bowl away from the handle. Imagine a line drawn through these two stars and it will always point to the Pole Star. These are the pointers. Sometimes you will find then below the Pole Star pointing upward; or they will be above it, of off to the left or right; but as the Dipper movers round the northern sky they will always be doing their task of pointing the way to the Pole Star.

The stars of the Dipper are part of a group which is called the “Great Bear.” It is harder to see a

bear in them than a dipper . . . Besides the Great Bear there is, not far from it the Little bear, which is really very like it, only smaller and harder to find.

The Pole Star is the last star in its tail; from it two small stars lead away parallel to the Great Bear, and they bring the eye to a small pair which form one side of a square just like that in the Great Bear. But the whole of the Little Bear is turned the opposite way from the Great Bear, and the tail points in the opposite direction. This is also called the Little Dipper. Perhaps you can find it more easily if you know that the handle of the Big Dipper is bent back, while the handle of the Little Dipper is bent in.

To illustrate the marvel of the awesome and incredible power of the Almighty God, we now touch on a miracle that took place when ancient Israel was fighting a combination of nations in the land of Gibeon. This was the time when God listened to Joshua, the leader of Israel, when he cried out to him, possibly close to the setting of the sun, to so-to-speak, stop the clock for a day:

Joshua 10:12-14 Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel:

. . . So the SUN STOOD STILL in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down FOR ABOUT A WHOLE DAY. (Related Scripture: Isaiah 38:8).

NOTE: It has been determined the sun stood still for 23 hours and 20 minutes. See Isaiah 38:8).

Another great miracle occurred during the reign of King Hezekiah. While deathly ill, he was told by the Prophet Isaiah that the LORD had said He would heal him. Hezekiah then asked for a sign that he would be healed and live for another 15 years.

II Kings 20:8-11 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What is the SIGN that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the House of the LORD the third day?”

And Isaiah said, “This is the SIGN to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing which He has spoken: Shall the shadow go forward 10 degrees or go backward 10 degrees?”

And Hezekiah answered, “it is an easy thing for the shadow to go down 10 degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward 10 degrees.” So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the LORD, and He brought the shadow backward by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.

Isaiah 38:8 “. . . So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down.”

Clarke Commentary: “The earth turned back upon its axis from east to west in a contrary direction to its natural course.”

NOTE: The movement of the sun 10 degrees threw off the Jewish calendar. Thus the calendar based on a 360 day year (30 day months) now had to be rearranged to compensate for a 365.25 day year 29.5 day year (29.5 day months). Jews say present calendar comes from Hezekiah.

In recent years various versions of the following account have appeared in newspapers and magazines all over the U.S. and even beyond:

The Space Program and The Bible
(Yellville, AR, Mountain Echo, 26 Mar 70)

Did you know that the space program is busy proving that what has been called "myth" in the Bible is true? Mr. Harold Hill, president of the Curtis Engine Company in Baltimore, MD, and a consultant in the space program related the following development:

"I think one of the most amazing things that God has for us today happened recently to our astronauts checking the position of sun, moon and planets out in space where they would be 100 years and 1000 years from now. We have to know this so we don't send a satellite up and have it bump into something later on in its orbits. We have to lay out the orbit in terms of the life of the satellite, and where the planets will be so the whole thing will not bog down! They ran the computer measurement back and forth over the centuries and it came to a halt. The computer stopped and put up a red signal, which meant that there was something wrong, either in the 'info' fed into it, or with the results as compared to the standards. They called in the service department to check it out and they said "It's perfect.' The IBM head of operations said 'What's wrong?' 'Well, we have found that there is a day missing in space in elapsed time.' They scratched their heads and tore their hair. There was no answer.

"One religious fellow in the team said, 'You know, one time I was in Sunday School and they talked about the sun standing still.' They didn't believe him, but they didn't have any other answer so they said 'Show us'. So he got a Bible and went back to the book of Joshua where they found a pretty ridiculous statement for anybody who has 'common sense.' There they found the Lord saying to Joshua, 'Fear them not; I have delivered them into your hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee.' Joshua was concerned because he was surrounded by the enemy and, if darkness fell, they would overpower him. So Joshua asked the Lord to make the sun stand still! That's right! 'The sun stood still and the moon stayed ... and hasted not to go down a whole day!' Well, they checked the computers, going back into the time it was written and found it was close but not close enough. The elapsed time that was missing back in Joshua's day was 23 hours and 20 minutes -- not a whole day. They read the Bible and there it said 'about (approximately) a day.'

"These little words in the Bible are important. But they were still in trouble because, if you cannot account for 40 minutes, you'll be in big trouble 1000 years from now. Forty minutes had to be found because it can be multiplied many times over in orbits. Well, this religious fellow also remembered somewhere in the Bible it said the sun went backwards. The spacemen told him he was out of his mind. But they got out the Book and they read these words in 2 Kings 20: Hezekiah, on his death-bed, was visited by the prophet Isaiah, who told him that he was going to die. Hezekiah did not believe him and asked for a sign as proof. Isaiah said, 'Do you want the sun to go ahead ten degrees?' Hezekiah said 'It is nothing for the sun to go ahead ten degrees, but let the shadow return backwards ten degrees.' Isaiah spoke to the Lord and the Lord brought the shadow ten degrees backward! Ten degrees is exactly 40 minutes! 23 hours and 20 minutes in Joshua, plus 40 minutes in 2 Kings make the missing day in the universe."

Isn't that amazing! Our God is rubbing their noses in his TRUTH. That's right.”

The agonistics and atheists state what this man wrote is false; it cannot be proven by NASA or anyone else; so they say. Whether or not, the Scriptures are true; and what is said here is also true in the scheme and context of facts.

INTERNET: BY CHARLES A. L. TOTTEN.

“The Battle Described, Without Sunset, No Sunrise .A Military Commentary, The Conquest of Palestine, Corroborated by Eclipses, Verified by Equinoxes, Shadowed on the Dial, Proved from the Almanac. . . .”

Believing Faith

As we read these quotes, view the pictures portraying God’s awesome Universe, we have no real justifiable reason for not having BELIEVING FAITH in His promises – IF we have a real and knowing Father and son and daughter relationship with Him and His beloved Son, our soon-coming Bridegroom.

Abraham and Sarah

When considering the awesome creation of the heavens and the earth, we should be able to understand WHY the LORD God (Jesus Christ) said of Sarah when she heard Him tell her husband, Abraham, she was going to have a baby at her great age, 90 years, and laughed:

“And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, “Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old? “Is anything too hard for the LORD? . . .” (Genesis 18:12-14).

And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Saran as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the SET TIME of which God had spoken to him (Genesis 21:1-2).

Addressing Moses, the LORD God said, regarding his question as to how He would provide meat out in the desert for the millions of Israel for a whole month, He asked:

Numbers 11:23 “. . . has the LORD’s arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not.”

During a time of great duress in the final days of Judah before going into captivity, Jeremiah prayed to God:

Jeremiah 32:17 “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.”

Jeremiah 32:26-27 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?”

When viewing the creation by the Almighty God of the universe and this planet earth and knowing God is for us, should strengthen His people with the fullness of faith.

Jesus Christ having spoken to His disciples about the difficulties of the rich people of this world entering into His Kingdom and hearing their astonishment said:

Matthew 19:26 “. . . with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The Angel Gabriel speaking to the Virgin Mary of her being chosen to conceive and give birth to the Messiah, said:

Luke 1:26-38 . . . Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man? . . . And the angel answered and said to her . . . “For with God nothing will be impossible. . . .”

Speaking of the faithfulness of Abraham, the Apostle Paul wrote that he was given a long-range promise from God and believed God:

Romans 4:21 “. . . being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was also able to perform.” Hebrews 11:8-10.

God’s true elect have also been given long-range promises as heirs of His soon-coming Kingdom.

Can we not fully believe that what God has promised He is faithful to perform? We must have continued unfailing faith in the promises of our great and wonderful caring God and Jesus Christ. For without FAITH it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6).

Matthew 28:20 “. . . and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of time.”

This present writing, while touching on the awesome greatness of God, and His marvelous creation brought about by His unlimited power and might, is a small effort of showing that this perfect creation of the heavens and the earth is only a miniature type of the “Spirit World to Come!”

An awesome World in which our Father and Jesus Christ desires to spend eternity with His new expanded family in eternal bliss and the fullness of happiness and joy.

In my next writing I plan on touching on God’s first creation of physical life – the antediluvian world – and then the wreckage of God’s perfect creation, and why (Genesis 1:2).