Tag Archives: genesis

Earth’s Year is 365.2422 Making Today Leap Year Day Since Creation

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So today is Leap Year Day, caused by the fact that it takes the Earth 365.2422 days to rotate around the sun, not 365 days of the Gregorian Calendar we use today. There have been a bunch of different people and organizations all over the world that have attempted to created the perfect calendar (Changing Times, Is It Time to Overhaul the Calendar?), but for all of our earthly existence we as humans have never been able to create the “perfect” calendar. This sounds like such a simple thing, especially with all of our computer power and mathematical knowledge, how in the world can we not be able to figure out how to create the mathematically perfect calendar?

The reason why we can’t create the perfect calendar is much easier to answer. God’s creation is so complex, so complicated (to us), that God just didn’t make our solar system divisible evenly. Our calendar is so directly tied to creation that our calendar has actually always been in place since Genesis.

Genesis 1.14 :: 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons,t and for days and years,15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

This God did on the 4th day of the creation, yes this was just the 4th day. Man was not created till the 6th day. So we can safely say that the calendar, the mechanism for determining seasons, days, and years has ALWAYS existed, since it existed before man. It was a gift of God. A gift to the man he had not yet even created.

Now look at Genesis 3:17-19. 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Then, go to look at verse 24: “So he drove the man out….”, that is, out of the garden and into the unprepared fields. Then, we move over to chapter 5 verse 5: “In all, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died” (see also God’s Calendar and the Seven Day Week).

So that is how, one the Gregorian Calendar was wrong, but since creation’s foundation, we have always had the perfect calendar in place, God’s calendar, which takes 365.2422 days to rotate around the sun. Since this day only happens, approximately, once every four years I hope you enjoy it, though in reality it has always been in place, so we should enjoy every day God has made, and rejoice in in, right?

I love the photo above, it reminds me of God’s promise, and his creation, and I took it from my back porch. Happy February 29th everyone.

I AM Lenten Reader, Fasting :: Lent Day 2

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After an incredible night of worship last night day 2 of our Lenten reader drops us right into the heart of God’s word. One thing Josh talked about last night was how we are human beings try to hide from God, starting from back in Genesis. Genesis 3:9-10 is a familiar story to most when Adam said to God “I was afraid… so I hid”. I became very clear to me, very quickly, that I would rather do this reader “in hiding”, but for whatever reason, I decided to do it like this on my blog, so I’m going to keep at it.

Don’t forget to check out Lee and Brian’s blog for updates as well. The text for today goes as follows:

Day 2 :: Thursday, March 10th 2011, Fasting

Fasting is more than just giving up chocolate, soda, or television; it is the practice of self-control. Fasting reveals our misplaced treasure and reroutes the longings of our heart. We deny our physical desires so we can feast on God and allow Him to fulfill those desires.

Throughout the Old Testament God commands the people of Israel to fast as a way to mourn for their sins. Joel 2:12-17 says, ‘Even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’

When we deny our appetite for the things of this world, the depth of our humanity is unearthed, and our appetite for God is elevated, revealing the greatness of His glory. Fasting draws our attention away from the world and focuses it on God.

The practice of fasting can be intimidating, but there are different ways to fast:

  • Fasting from a certain food
  • Fasting from one meal a day or for one day a week
  • Fasting from a specific type of entertainment
  • Fasting from coffee, tea, or soda
  1. What do you need to fast from during this season of Lent?
  2. How will you replace your physical desire by feasting on God?

Contemplation over Day 2

What do you need to fast from during this season of Lent? These two questions are hard for me to answer, especially here on my blog for some reason since it is such a public venue I guess. If I had decided ahead of time, like many who observe Lent, what I was going to “give up” then this would be an easy question for me to answer. I could just put that down and go on to the next day. As I said above, after doing just the first day of this reader my first thoughts were, I think I’ll do this in my private journal, and answers to these two questions are probably why I thought that.

I did make the conscience decision not to “fast” from something specific until after I had finished the entire journal to better feel where I thought God wanted me to focus my attention. Because of the unknowns with Deborah’s doctors visits, there are days, like yesterday, when I just don’t feel like eating at all, but if I had to pick something right now I would say I need to fast from worry for the next 46 days. It sounds stupid to me to say I need to fast from a sin, but that is what’s forefront on my mind.

How will you replace your physical desire by feasting on God? For the sin of worry, this is an easier question to answer because worry is basically an unhealthy lack of faith in God that comes from Satan, so removing this element removes Satan and places God back in His rightful place. It’s never as easy as that but perhaps it should be. It’s amazing how it happens but when I have fasted in years prior I know when you remove one thing, something else takes it’s place. Hopefully God is what fills the voids when we remove something undesirable in our life.

How Ancient Near East Writings Clarify Scripture

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Many Ancient Near East writings have similarities to the familiar stories of the Old Testament text; the creation story of Genesis 1-2 with Mesopotamia and Enki, Noah with the Epic of Gilgamesh (text), and the Genesis account of the Tower of Babel in 11:1-9 with “Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta”.  The Sumerian account that parallels the Tower of Babel is not quite as easy to see, as Gilgamesh and Noah, but it does try to explain where the many languages of the world came from.

The Ancient Near East text called the “Epic of Gilgamesh” is a story that has obvious similarities to the story of Noah in Genesis 7-8.  The epic, referred to as by some, as the “greatest piece of literature to come from Babylonia”, is the story of Gilgamesh’s meeting with Utnapishtim (referred to as the “Babylonian Noah”) who has obtained immortality by surviving a worldwide flood on a boat he built, with his family and all the animals of the world.[1]

There are numerous similarities like the call to bring aboard all the animals and the entire account of the dove and the raven.  The story and its history are important because it predates the Genesis account and many looking for ways to refute the Bible look to this story as proof. If the Gilgamesh epic predates the Noah account then, they conclude, the writer of Genesis must have taken the store from the Ancient Near East writing.

There are generally three explanations given.  The Babylonians took from the Hebrew account, the Hebrew account took from the Babylonian account, or each came from a common original historical event.  For a great in-depth study of this topic, see the thesis by Nozomi Osanai entitled A comparative study of the flood accounts in the Gilgamesh Epic and Genesis.

Often, in our evangelical churches of today, these writings are never mentioned or referenced, and realistically there is probably little time on Sunday mornings to broach such a deep topic any more.  Still, there is so much to be gained from their readings.  These texts can actually clarify scripture in some cases, as well as affirm our beliefs and understanding of scripture.

The comparison of Gilgamesh and Noah is a good example.  If we follow Osanai’s examples above and conclude that each account came from a common historical event, it confirms, although perhaps not conclusively, the fact that the flood account actually happened.  This may not help or support a case like the exodus where almost all accounts of the Israelites exodus out of Egypt other than the Biblical account are seemingly extent, but that is addressed in a completely different manner scholastically.

As with many topics, this barely even scratches the surface, but is an area often missed in casual Biblical study today, for many reasons, which can yield many benefits.[2] This of course just barely scratches the surface of the question, “How Does Ancient Near East Writings Clarify Scripture” but it opens the door for future study and discussion.

[1] Arnold, B. T., & Beyer, B. E. (2002). Readings from the Ancient Near East. Grand Rapids, MI, USA: Baker Acedemic, 66.

[2] This was an excerpt from a longer discussion on applying the Old Testament laws to our world today.  If the Mosaic Law is revelation from God, how do you explain its similarities to other ancient Near Eastern law codes? What is truly distinctive about the OT Law as revelation from God? What insights are gained from reading Hays’ article on how to apply the OT law as God’s Word today (or deal with ethical issues related to the Christian use of the Law) even though we are no longer under the Mosaic covenant (see Applying the Old Testament Law Today by J. Daniel Hays).  Read Full Text on Ancient Near East Writings post.

In the Beginning, ARPA created the ARPANET

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I love this quoted poem below.  You probably won’t appreciate it unless you are a ham radio operator or understand the language but if you do, it’s quite something.

In the Beginning, ARPA created the ARPANET.
And the ARPANET was without form and void.
And darkness was upon the deep.
And the spirit of ARPA moved upon the face of the network
and ARPA said, ‘Let there be a protocol,’ and there was a protocol.
And ARPA saw that it was good.
And ARPA said, ‘Let there be more protocols,’ and it was so.
And ARPA saw that it was good.
And ARPA said, ‘Let there be more networks,’ and it was so.

http://www.computerhistory.org/internet_history/

Michelangelo Creation of Adam Condom Flyer at UGA?

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Creation of Adam Condom

The Creation of Adam is a fresco painted on the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo some time around 1511 that depicts the story in Genesis of God breathing life into Adam.  This painting in Vatican City is probably one of the most famous paintings in the world and was restored in the late 80′s early 90′s, and is now being used by the University of Georgia in the form of a flyer tacked up in the students dorms to educate and promote the use of condoms.  All other issues aside, are we to think that university level students are unaware of a condom and its use?

Apparently UGA finished up Sexual Responsibility Week this past week (this is something we are now doing in higher education?) and this poster was created to promote… sexual health and created this STD(?) poster/flyer.  It reads:

Condom Tip #5, Carefully open condom wrappers with your fingers – don’t use a sharp object.

I guess people will use anything now in the promotion of a product, but do we care any more, but this was an ad put out by the University of Georgia, not some marketing group.  There will be no outrage for this because it is not making fun of the Koran, Islam, or the Muslim faith of any kind.  If that were the case, people would be sued, fired, and apologies issued (although I do see that the University of Georgia has since apologized in some manner).  There is just nothing that is out of bounds in the worldly view when ridiculing or making fun of the Christian faith, so this shouldn’t be much of a surprise to Believers.

simpsons-michaelangelo

Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

The Catholic League is none to happy about it and apparently released this statement.

“I hasten to add that the University of Georgia would never choose a depiction of Muhammad to hawk condoms. Indeed, only a few years ago an inoffensive depiction of this Islamic figure in a Danish cartoon led to murder and churches being burned to the ground. One can only imagine what would have happened had he been portrayed pushing condoms to youth.”

Question is I guess, do we really care anyway?  After all, I did find a similar likeness used by the Simpson’s, although they weren’t being portrayed promoting a form of birth control. We know this will never change until the new heaven and new earth are upon us?  A quick scour of the left wing blogs give quite a flippant view, but I haven’t really found to much outcry against such use of the historical painting.  Should we care?

I would hope that our hometown school of Auburn University would restrain from such use but they did feel it was necessary last year to have a gay pride day and parade for Auburn last year, so I guess I would take the flyer over promoting a lifestyle (being that there was no heterosexual pride parade but that’s a whole other set of topics all together).

Being somewhat interested in design and marketing in today’s web 2.0 world, I would love to know what department created this flyer in the first place.  It looks and reads like a 1960′s ad… is this all we can come up with on a University level these days?

I would think at this point the University of Georgia has taken the flyers down from their dorms but if not, I would love to hear from a UGA dorm student or anyone that can email over a higher quality image of the flyer.  If so, send it on to my email address scott.fillmer [at] gmail and I will post it here instead of the one above.

In the Beginning… God Created Code // Quips

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Every so often I try to add in a little quote or quip posted in sidenotes.  Usually a short piece that I get out of my mother-in-laws newspaper clippings she gave me.  Funny how different people collect different things, papers, notes, and so on, most all of these I have never seem before and are going through them one at a time every so often.

Today I came across one called In the Beginning and it actually had a note at the bottom for its source and I was able to located it.   This was something she printed off her computer in 2005, and of course it is still active on the Internet today, so I am not going to post but a blurb of it here, but it is well work a read if you want to head over Bag-o-Laughs’ post called In the Beginning.

I love humor websites about our faith, Christians, God, and mix computer related stuff in there and it’s super (another good one is John over at Stuff Christians Like).  So here is the first part of In the Beginning:

In the beginning there was the computer. And God said

%Let there be light!

#Enter user id.

%God

#Enter password.

%Omniscient

#Password incorrect. Try again.

%Omnipotent

#Password incorrect. Try again.

%Technocrat

#And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Sunday, March 1.

%Let there be light!

#Unrecognizable command. Try again.

%Create light

#Done

%Run heaven and earth

#And God created Day and Night. And God saw there were 0 errors.

#And God logged off at 12:02:00 AM, Sunday, March 1.

Continue Reading Here…

If you are any bit of the computer person, jump over and read the rest of it from the source, and if the above makes no sense to you at all then you are too young to remember when IBM ran the world and everything was written out in commands (I am on the fringe of that time period I think).  So what are some of your favorite God humor sites?  Post a few below so we can check them out.