Christmas and the Three Kings - Revisited

Several years back I published two blog entries about Christmas, more specifically about the Three Kings and their gifts. I am sharing them again, together, below. But before you jump down, I want to address the first blog and discuss the information I gave there. I talk about the "Magi" and how they may have known of the coming of the Messiah because of Daniel. Daniel was made the administrator over all of the Wise Men (Magi means Wise Men) of Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar:

Daniel 2:48 NIV "Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts; and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief administrator over all the Wise Men of Babylon."

So it is possible that the "Kings" coming to see Jesus were really wise men from Babylon, who learned of His coming through the teachings of Daniel many years earlier.

Ok, so far so good. But in the next paragraph I say that the vision of the 70 weeks from Daniel 9 points to the "birth" of the Messiah and that is why the three Kings knew to follow the star.

Daniel 9:25 NKJV "Know therefore and understand, [That] from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, [There shall be] seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times."

But that is not what Daniel 9:25 says. It says "from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, [There shall be] seven weeks and sixty-two weeks..."

If you look at this verse more closely, it says there will be 69 weeks (of years? = 483 years) from the command to rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah is proclaimed as Prince or King. So it most likely was not the arrival of the Magi that happened per Daniel 9 but possibly the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem as described in the Gospels, where the people called out “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!"

Now this day has been calculated by some to be the date April 6, 32 AD, which also happened to be the 10th of Nisan on the Jewish calendar, the day when the Passover lamb was chosen for the sacrifice. If we count back from this date 483 years (360 day years) we land on March 14, 445 BC which is suspected to be the day that Artaxerxes Longimanus issued a decree to rebuild Jerusalem, thus matching Daniel 9:25.

However, not everyone agrees with this date or this decree since several decrees were issued prior to this, most notably that of Cyrus in 538 BC, but the decree of Ataxerxes was the only one to allow the rebuilding of the walls of the city. Another date given for Atarxerxes' decree is March 5, 444 BC.

Also, why was the time split into 7 weeks of years and 62 weeks? It is suspected that the 7 weeks was the time required to rebuild the city.

Now there are many interpretations of these dates and times as well as what constitutes a year and the "end" of the 69 weeks of years. Issues come with using a prophetic calendar year (360 days) or a current calendar year (365) plus leap years (different for Jewish calendars verses the accepted calendar of today). Next, there are four possible "decrees" that could establish the starting date - from Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes.

Also, the time period is questioned in why is it divided into 7 + 62 + 1? Could there be different time periods in each and not literally 7 years for each week? Finally, what constitutes the endpoint of the 69 weeks? Is it the Triumphal Entry, or the baptism by John at the start of Jesus' public ministry or is it His birth as I mentioned in the earlier blog entry?

I think all of this creates a fascinating study into one of the greatest prophesies of the Old Testament. Like many of the Old Testament prophesies we may never know the answer in this life!

We commemorate the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi on the Twelfth-day of Christmas - January 6. It is called the Epiphany.

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We Three Kings of Orient Are... Or Were They?

At Christmas we sing the carol: "We three Kings of Orient are..."

We three Kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder Star

But were they Kings? Were there just three? Did they come from the Orient? Did they really follow a star? Did they bring Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh? We talked of Gold in the last blog being the metal of Kings. So what are the other two? Over the next few blogs we will look at the three Kings, the three Gifts and the three Destinies of Jesus.

So what about the three Kings? The Bible calls them Wise Men, not Kings. The word for Wise Men in the Greek is magos, where we get the term Magi. Were there three? The Bible does not say how many came. It speaks of three Gifts but those Gifts could have been brought by one or many. Magos is a plural noun so there was most likely more than one. It is also unlikely that they would travel so far in such a small group.

The Bible says the Magi came from the East. But does the East mean the Orient? The Bible does not say the Orient specifically, just from the East. The word magos, however, was a name given to teachers, astrologers, seers and interpreters of dreams by the Babylonians (Chaldeans), Medes and Persians. This could put the Wise Men as coming from Babylon (east of Bethlehem) where Daniel had been in captivity almost 500 years earlier. Daniel was made the ruler of the Wise Men in that day when he interpreted the King's dream. (Daniel 2)

Daniel 2:48 "Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts; and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief administrator over all the Wise Men of Babylon. (NKJV)"

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The Wise Men knew when the Messiah
was to be born and watched for His Star

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A number of years later Daniel remembered that God had said the Jews would be in captivity for 70 years, a time that was nearing completion, and he set himself to pray to God to keep His covenant. The Angel Gabriel came in response to his prayer and prophesied the birth of the Messiah in 69 weeks (of years) from the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. The 69 weeks of years would mean 483 years from the rebuilding of the Temple the Messiah would be born, precisely the time when the Magi arrived following the star. Could it be because of Daniel and this prophesy that the Magi knew of the star that would point them to the birthplace of Jesus? (Daniel 9)

Daniel 9:25 "Know therefore and understand, [That] from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, [There shall be] seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times. (NKJV)"

And the Star? Was it a real star or something else? The website Star of Bethlehem describes in detail one possible explanation - a conjugation of the star Regulus and the planet Jupiter with cameos by the sun and the new moon. It is an intriguing, scientific study of how these celestial bodies could have moved together to point the way to the birthplace of the Messiah.

Matthew 2:9-10 "When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. (NKJV)"

And the Three Gifts? What do they mean? They signify the three Destinies of Christ - King, Priest and Savior.

Matthew 2:11 "And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (NKJV)"

We will examine the Gifts and Christ's destiny in the next blog.

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Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh - King, Priest and Savior

In our last blog, we talked about the Star of Bethlehem, the Wise Men, and the three Gifts they brought to Jesus - Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. So what were these gifts and why did the Wise Men choose them to give?

We know that Gold is the metal of Kings as was mentioned in a previous blog. It was, and still is, a precious metal due to its relative scarcity, its unusual color and lustre, and its malleability. It is well suited for ornamentation and decoration in art or jewelry and for signifying wealth, things important to kings and princes (and princesses!). The Magi brought Gold to recognize Jesus' kingship.

Matthew 2:1-2 - "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, "Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. (NIV)"

How about Frankincense? Frankincense is an aromatic resin obtained from trees of the genus Boswellia. The trees are striped and the resin exudes and dries into pearls that are then harvested. The pearls are burned as incense in a fire to release the fragrance of the resin. Frankincense was an important part of the Temple service in Jerusalem. The incense was burned by the priest as part of the offering.

The essential oil of Frankincense, produced by steam distillation of the tree resin, contains monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, monoterpenoles, sesquiterpenols, and ketones. Terpenes are a class of molecules that typically contain either ten or fifteen carbon atoms built from a five-carbon building block called isoprene. These are volatile aromatic hydrocarbon esters used in incense and perfumes. Frankincense has a good balsamic and sweet fragrance. Many terpenes such as menthol (found in throat lozenges) and camphor also have medicinal values.

Exodus 30:34-35 - "Then the LORD said to Moses, Take fragrant spices--gum resin, onycha and galbanum--and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts, ³⁵ and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and sacred. (NIV)"

Leviticus 6:15 - "He shall take from it his handful of the fine flour of the grain offering, with its oil, and all the frankincense which [is] on the grain offering, and shall burn [it] on the altar [for] a sweet aroma, as a memorial to the LORD. (NKJV)"

Frankincense, which was often burned, symbolized prayer rising to the heavens like smoke. The Magi brought Frankincense to acknowledge the holiness or divinity of Jesus, our Divine High Priest.

Myrrh is a reddish resin that comes from the species Commiphora myrrha, a plant native to northeast Africa and the adjacent areas of the Arabian Peninsula. It is gathered in the same fashion as Frankincense, as pearls of dried resin from striping the tree. Myrrh is an aromatic oleoresin consisting of sterols and volatile oils. It can also be found in a liquid form. So valuable was it at times in ancient history that, ounce for ounce, it was more costly than gold. Because Myrrh was used in the embalming or anointing of the dead, it came to represent mortality, suffering, and sorrow.

The Magi brought Myrrh to symbolize the hardship, suffering and death that Christ would endure as our Savior.

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Jesus Christ, the Messiah
Our King, Priest and Savior!

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Thus these three gifts foretell of the three destinies of Jesus - King, Priest and Savior. Jesus came 2000 years ago as our pure and spotless lamb of God, offered up for us on a cross, a Savior for us, dying for the forgiveness of our sins. Myrrh symbolized His impending death.

1 Peter 1:18a-19 - "Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things,... ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. (NKJV)"

John 19:39-40 - "And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. ⁴⁰ Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. (NKJV)"

He is now our Great High Priest in heaven, interceding for us with His Father. Frankincense symbolized His Priesthood and prayers for us.

Leviticus 2:2 - "He shall bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests, one of whom shall take from it his handful of fine flour and oil with all the frankincense. And the priest shall burn [it as] a memorial on the altar, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD. (NKJV)"

Gold symbolized His Kingship. He will return as a King, ruling and reigning over the Earth in the millennium that follows His return.

Luke 1:31-33 - "And behold, you [Mary] will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. ³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. ³³ And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end. (NKJV)"

He is coming soon!

The Chemistry of Matter & Vibration

A few weeks ago I was invited to talk at my church on a selection of verses from the Gospel of John. I chose the first three verses as my focus. I then expounded on them in relation to God - Jesus - as the Word or Logos, looking at it from a scientific point of view. I am taking part of that sermon and sharing it here with you, my blog followers. Hope you will find it interesting and thought provoking.

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Today we will look at the Gospel of John. I want to focus on the just the first three verses of the Prologue, where John identifies Jesus as the Logos or the Word.

John calls Jesus the “Word” or in the Greek the “Logos”. So what is the Logos? It is more than a spoken word, or written word. The “Logos” is that part of God that spoke the world into existence - all and everything that sums up the Universe and everything in it - matter and energy, life and death, thought and reason.

John 1:1-3 (NIV) - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

In these first three verses John says that Jesus:

• Was the Logos
  • As God He spoke us into existence and as a man spoke to us during His life (as we have recorded in the Gospels).
• He was WITH God
  • He was with God in the beginning, that is, He always existed! – He was not created by God (He is the God-man not just a good man).
• He WAS God
  • God and the Logos are not two beings, and yet they are also not simply identical. Jesus said: "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30 NIV) and also, "...the Father is greater than I." (John 14:28b NIV).
• Through Him all things were made (created)
  • Reaffirms that Jesus was active (and probably took, and still takes, the lead role) in the creation.

So now let’s take a look at these three verses in connection with several other verses that speak to God’s creative power. Any of you that were here the last time I spoke, you know that I like Science and the Bible. So I can’t speak here without some connection between John’s opening verses and current scientific facts.

So let’s now look at Genesis, Colossians and Hebrews:

Genesis 1:1-3 (NIV) - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ²Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. ³And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Colossians 1:15-17 (NIV) - The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Hebrews 1:3a (NIV) - The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his (God’s) being, sustaining all things by his powerful Word.

So, what do these verses tell us?

• God speaks creation into existence with His Word.
• In John, Jesus is called “The Word” and in Genesis Jesus spoke the universe into existence.
• God uses His “voice” to make the world. It is through His spoken word that the world was created.
• It is through God’s Word (Jesus) all things were made and by His Word (Jesus) all things are held together.
• Jesus sustains all things by his powerful word.

These words were spoken thousands of years ago. What do we know about the world today that relates to these ideas?

Science has told us that matter, everything in the physical world, is made up of smaller and smaller particles. When I was in school it was molecules, atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons and...?

As an example, an atom looks something like this (Helium):

	Although shown as motionless on an orbit, in reality the electrons are moving rapidly (at the speed of light) around the nucleus (the protons & neutrons). An Atom is actually a blur, like a cloud, and is in reality 99.99999% empty space.
Source: Skulls in the Stars Blog

Now today, we can go even deeper.

An electron cannot be broken down but the protons and neutrons can. Almost all the matter or mass (think e=mc² – everything is either mass or energy) of anything physical is in the protons & neutrons of its atoms.

Speaking at the sub-atomic level (smaller than an atom), matter - protons & neutrons - consists primarily of particles called quarks, anti-quarks and gluons and is regulated by the strong nuclear force (a form of energy). The strong nuclear force is the force that holds protons and neutrons together in the nucleus. At the sub-atomic level, matter and energy are in constant flux (changing back and forth between the different forms).

If we take one of the Protons or Neutrons (together called Nucleons) we see in an atom and look much closer, they look something like this:

An image of protons and neutrons as full of quarks, anti-quarks and gluons. A proton consists of two up quarks and one down quark plus many gluons (g) plus many quark/anti-quark pairs (u, d, s stand for up, down and strange quarks; anti-quarks are marked with a bar.)
	Source: Professor Matt Strassler's Blog

The protons and neutrons are full of quarks, anti-quarks and gluons, moving around at high speed (basically the speed of light) inside the proton or neutron. Protons & neutrons are also somewhat like an electron cloud, without all the empty space.

The mass (or matter - think weight though not exactly the same thing) of a proton or a neutron - and thus the mass of an atom, a molecule, a substance and a being, comes from this chaos (the constant, crazy movement and changes happening to the quarks and gluons) going on inside a proton or neutron. The mass does not come from the nucleons themselves (think energy not substance).

OK.  I know it is confusing but it’s important to take a moment to let all this sink in.

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The Mass of Everything
Comes from the Vibration Within
The Protons & Neutrons of Its Atoms

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How amazing and awesome is this!  Almost all of the mass found in all the things around us (and in us!) is that of the protons and neutrons within its/our atoms... 

And most of that mass...

Comes from the vibrational-energy of a proton’s or neutron’s quarks and gluons, and from the interactional-energy (also a vibration) of the strong nuclear forces that hold those protons or neutrons together.

The whole creation around us, our physical being, our very breath are what they are as a result of an internal, imperceptible turbulence of constant energetic vibration, the vibration of the fundamental parts of an atom’s nucleus!

As we continue to drill deeper into the center of the atom, we have discovered that when you get to matter at the smallest level it is almost as if there is nothing there except vibrations. When we talked about the Big Bang we said “First there was nothing and then it exploded.” When talking about matter we can almost say “There’s nothing there and it’s vibrating!”

So Scientists have spent millions of dollars to build a sub-atomic particle accelerator (Large Hadron Collider) where they accelerate nucleons at crazy high speeds and crash them into each other so that they can see what is left when they break apart. And what have they found? At the heart of it all is a vibration!

So hold that thought for a moment.

Now there is another way to think about vibration. Vibration is the essential foundation of sound. When a note is played on the piano it makes a sound because of the vibration of the strings. When you speak, you make a sound because of the vibration of your vocal cords. The sounds we hear are actually vibrations which cause our eardrums to vibrate which our brains then interpret and give meaning to. My voice is a vibration which your brain makes sense of. (I hope!!!)

Now sound as we know it does not travel through a vacuum, such as space, but there are electromagnetic waves, or vibrations, emitted by the sun and planets that have the same frequencies (rate of vibration) as the sounds that the human ear can hear.

And NASA captured these background electromagnetic vibrations with instruments on the Voyager spacecraft and has converted them into sounds of the same wavelength. Here is a sample of what the earth sounds like:

NASA Recording of Earth Sounds - YouTube

So picture this... in the beginning God’s voice spoke out and it reverberated into the nothingness that was there, and His voice, His Word, the vibration of the sound of His voice, actually took on physical characteristics. It became something visible, something more than simply a spoken word. It became matter, energy and light. And His voice continued to ring out, and continues to ring out still, holding all things together by His powerful Word!

The vibration at the base of all matter in the universe is the sound of God’s voice, His Word, continuing to ring through all creation!

So where do we go from here?

We must realize that Jesus (as man) is GOD in the flesh and how absolutely overwhelming it is that He would love us so much that he would create a world for us and then come into that world to save us. If He can do all this for us, we should desire to share Him with those that do not know Him. We cannot keep our faith a secret.

We know that all things are possible with God. The Logos (Jesus) spoke us into existence, He holds us together and redeems us by His Word, and ultimately calls us to be with Him (and the Father) in heaven.

He is faithful! His Word is True!

Hebrews 13:8 (NIV) - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

AMEN? AMEN!

Carbon Dating - The Chemistry of Carbon-14

I was running around doing errands a couple of weeks ago and I decided to drop into the local Chick-fil-A for lunch. I waited my turn in line and then the young cashier called me up to her window. She said, "Welcome to Chick-fil-A." Now I think I look young for my age but; and then she said, "Hi, what would you like in your order today?" But I definitely am in THAT age group. So then she took my order and when she handed me my receipt I saw it. She had given me the "Senior Discount!" I did not even need to ask! Now I was glad to get my 10% off but it made me think... Was it my graying at the temples, or my dewlap, or my crow's feet that gave away my age?

The cashier used her deductive reasoning skills to assess my age and determined that I must be over 60, hence the Senior Discount. Scientists do the same thing when determining the age of plants or animals found in the fossil record. Particularly, they use carbon dating to determine the approximate age of organic materials that are considered to be less than 50,000 years old, the practical limit of this type of test.

	The system of carbon dating has been around for about 100 years. It is sometimes called Radiocarbon Dating and depends on the rate of decay of one isotope of Carbon, Carbon-14. Carbon has 15 known isotopes, ranging from Carbon-8 to carbon-22. Only two are stable (carbon-12 - the most common, and carbon-13) and, of all the rest, only carbon-14 has a half-life of more than just a few seconds.
Accelerator Mass Spectrometer - to detect Carbon-14

All elements have what are called isotopes. An element is an atom with a set number of protons defining that specific element. For carbon that number is six protons. An isotope is each of two or more forms of the same element that contain equal numbers of protons but different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei, and hence differ in relative atomic mass but not in chemical properties. Some isotopes are stable, such as carbon-12, and others, carbon-14 in particular, are radioactive forms of an element. Radioactive isotopes can release electromagnetic radiation or particle radiation to become stable. Particle radiation includes alpha and beta particles as well as proton and neutron radiation. Carbon-14 emits an electron and an electron antineutrino, converting one of the neutrons in the carbon-14 atom into a proton and thereby changing the carbon-14 into the stable isotope nitrogen-14.

Carbon-14's half-life is about 5700 years, making it a good marker for items up to that 50,000 year limit we mentioned earlier. After about 50,000 years, almost all carbon-14 will be gone from a given fossil specimen once no more can be adsorbed. Once all the carbon-14 is gone, at about 50,000 years, the specimen can no longer be dated by this method.

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Carbon-14 Dating
Helps Us Validate the Bible

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Carbon is often considered as the foundation of life. Many molecules containing carbon, when bonded with hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, are considered organic and are part of the makeup of planets and animals. After water, carbon would be considered as an essential element in molecules discovered in the search for extraterrestrial life. I wrote about carbon in a previous blog post, "Gods Favorite Elements".

So how does carbon dating work? The interaction of cosmic rays with atmospheric nitrogen is constantly creating carbon-14. This carbon then combines with atmospheric oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide (CO₂). The resulting carbon-14 carrying CO₂ is incorporated into plant molecules by photosynthesis and animals then acquire it by eating the plants. The amount of carbon-14 in the animal or plant continues to remain steady with the environment, until that plant or animal dies. Accumulation of the carbon-14 into the organism then stops and the amount of carbon-14 it contains begins to decrease as the carbon-14 undergoes radioactive decay. Measuring the amount of carbon-14 in a sample from a plant or animal fossil provides information that can be used to calculate when the organism died. The older a sample is, the less carbon-14 there is to be detected.

But it is not as simple as comparing the amount of carbon-14 in the fossil to a chart and getting its age. Presuming the rate of production of carbon-14 to be constant, the activity of a sample can be directly compared to the equilibrium activity of current living matter and the age calculated. But is the production of carbon-14 constant? Years of work were required to develop the technique to the point where accurate dates could be obtained. Research has been ongoing since the 1960s to determine what the proportion of carbon-14 in the atmosphere has been over the past fifty thousand years. The resulting data, in the form of a calibration curve, is now used to convert a given measurement of carbon-14 in a sample into an estimate of the sample's calendar age.

But this calibration curve is also impacted by other factors - different types of organisms can have varying levels of carbon-14, burning of fossil fuels in the past 100 years has decreased the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere and nuclear tests in the past 50 years have added to it. So carbon dating may not work so well in the future. Carbon dating can be validated by other methods so the curve is constantly being refined. The use of various radioisotopes (along with carbon-14) allows the dating of biological and geological samples with a high degree of accuracy. But anything that died after the 1900s, when fossil fuels and open-air nuclear tests started changing carbon-14 concentrations, will be harder to precisely date.

Another possible problem with this dating method is the existence of carbon-14 in geological samples that are said to be millions of years old. In 1997 one group of scientists started a study of coal and diamond samples, previously tested by other means to be in the millions of years old, and therefore should contain no carbon-14. All of their samples, according to their tests, contained detectable levels of carbon-14 and thus would rate much younger by this method. They claim this shows proof of a young earth. Could this prove that earth is only about 10,000 years old?

The study of the age of fossils and geological materials does require some assumptions that makes their accuracy questionable but in the past 50+ years of development, scientists now have a remarkable understanding of most if not all of carbon dating's subtleties and complexities. Carbon dating is a powerful tool in helping us understand the history of our world and all of God's creation on it. Carbon dating provides another source of evidence that the Bible accurately describes the record of mankind.

Isaiah 46:4 (NIV) - Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

Job 36:26 (NIV) - How great is God—beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out.

Total Solar Eclipse – Coincidence or Design?

My daily driver is a 2005 Toyota Prius with over 180,000 miles on it. What were the odds that the odometer would read 100,000 miles? About 1 out of 180,000, the same as they are for any number in that range. Why would I then pull over and take a picture of the odometer when it hit 100,000? Because it is a significant number in my mind, a milestone, a rare event.

The same is true for the solar eclipse we just witnessed on August 21st. The moon goes around the earth once every 28 days, yet we view a full moon as special and a solar eclipse as spectacular. The moon is between the earth and the sun, casting its shadow 13 times a year but only a couple of times a year does that shadow strike the surface and only once in the last century did that shadow cross the earth in a way that was so visible by so many.

A solar eclipse happens two or three times a year on average and less than a third of these are total eclipses. Of those that are total, much of the eclipse is usually over water or in scarcely populated areas so when one occurs like this it is a major event, both publicly and scientifically. An eclipse like this will not cross the United States again until August 12, 2045 (one will pass over Texas to Maine on April 8th, 2024)!

For an eclipse to occur, several things must be in place. The moon must be large enough to cover the sun perfectly. It must be the right distance away, based on its size relative to the sun, and it must be in an orbit that passes directly between the sun and the earth.

Looking from earth, the moon is almost perfectly suited for making eclipses. The moon’s apparent size in the sky is essentially the same as that of the sun. So when the moon passes in front of the sun, the sun can be completely covered, but the corona is still visible.

If the sun were just a little bit bigger or the moon slightly farther away, total solar eclipses might never occur. But is this just a coincidence? Is it simply an accident of geometry that the apparent disk of the moon is almost exactly the size of the apparent disk of the sun? I think not. To me it is more like my car hitting 100,000 miles. My car was designed to drive that far and even though it seems like seeing that number on my odometer is a random occurrence, it is really a planned event, an expected happening.

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A Total Solar Eclipse
Is it Just a Coincidence? Or by Design?

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Now think about it. You can look on-line and find every eclipse for the past one thousand years and every one coming up in the next thousand. How can that be? It is because of the precise timing and motion of the planets that we can predict where they will be at any moment in history! The laws of physics can tell us where and when the sun, moon and earth will be in alignment to produce an eclipse, down to the second!

We know too that the moon is very, very slowly moving away from the earth so at some time in the distant future, there will be no total solar eclipses. We are living in a small window of time, relative to all creation, when these total eclipses are visible on earth.

We also know that the earth rotates at about 1000 miles per hour (mph) around its axis – one day. And the moon orbits the earth at about 2300 mph – a lunar month. We also know that the earth and moon orbit the sun once a year. But did you realize that the earth moves around the sun at over 66,000 mph? And did you know that the sun moves around the Milky Way galaxy at a speed of approximately 500,000 mph!

So what does this tell me? Although it can be explained by the science of it all, the shear magnificence of it coming together – the moon being the right size and distance from earth with an orbit that goes between us and the sun, the precise predictability of the movements of such large celestial bodies, even when they are moving at 500,000 mph through empty space and the “coincidence” of it all. It shows me the glory of God in His creation!

Psalm 19:1-2 (NIV) - The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. ²Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.

Romans 1:20 (NIV) - For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Happy Mother's Day - All We Need is Your Love - Revisited

From five years ago. We cannot forget our Moms!

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My wife and I have 5 kids (and a niece that is just like a daughter). We were blessed with the financial stability for their mom to stay at home and care for them all. All are now married with children of their own. My wife is an amazing Mom and a wonderful Grandma. I was caught up in the business of life when the kids were young and did not appreciate to the full the blessing it was for her to stay home and instruct our children. Thank you honey for all of the love and care and comfort you have brought to our family. You are truly the glue that holds us so closely together. I love you, Happy Mother's Day!

We all have a Mother. No matter how we remember her, when we were young (and even now) we wanted her to love us. I am sure she felt the same, loving us with all her heart and wanting us to love her as well. God knew we would need a Mom in a special way. We see in His Word His love for this most special person in all of our lives.

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All that I am, or hope to be,
I owe to my angel mother.
Abraham Lincoln

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The word "Mother" appears 338 times in the Bible. God knew that He needed someone special to raise His children:

• Genesis 3:20 (NIV) - Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
  

So He specially chose Moms to co-create with Him in the generation of new life within the womb:

• Psalms 139:13-14a (NIV) - For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. ¹⁴ I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
  

He even chose the woman who would be His mother:

• Luke 1:28 & 31 (NIV) - The angel went to her [Mary] and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."... ³¹ You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.
  

And He listened to her and honored her during His life, and His mother treasured all that He did:

• Luke 2:42, 48 & 51 (NIV) - When He was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom... ⁴⁸ When His parents saw Him, they were astonished. His mother said to Him, "Son, why have You treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for You."... ⁵¹ Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But His mother treasured all these things in her heart.
  
• John 2:1-3,5,7,9-10 (NIV) - On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, ² and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to Him, "They have no more wine."... ⁵ His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever He tells you."... ⁷ Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim... ^9a and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine... ^10b ...[exclaiming] "You have saved the best till now."
  

He even took care of her in His last moments as He hung on the Cross:

• John 19:25a-27 (NIV) - Near the cross of Jesus stood His mother... ²⁶ When Jesus saw His mother there, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," ²⁷ and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
  

And after His death, His mother continued to pray:

• Acts 1:14 (NIV) - They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
  

So now we all must remember to:

• Deuteronomy 5:16 (NIV) - "Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
  
• Proverbs 6:20b (NIV) - ...and do not forsake your mother's teaching.
  

So that "Your father and mother may be glad and may she who gave you birth rejoice! Proverbs 23:25 (NIV).