O P I N I O N S

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                   The following article appeared in the Madison Record on March 25, 1970, and caught my attention.  I will quote it as it was printed.

                                                    Up to Date Space Science and The Bible

       (Editors note:  The following article appeared recently in "Evening World" a newspaper at Spencer, Indiana)  Did you know the space program is busy proving that what has been call "Myth" in the Bible is true?  Mr. Harold Hill, President of 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 and space scientists at Green Belt,  Md.   They were checking the position of the 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 up, and where the planets will be so the whole thing will not bog down. They ran the computer measurements 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 with the info fed into it or with the results as compared to the standards.  They called 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 there is a day missing in space in the elapsed time."  They scratched their heads and pulled their hair.  There was no answer.                            

      One religious fellow on 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 his Bible and went back to 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 unto thy 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 them, 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 about 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 time 23 hours and 20 minutes...not a whole day.  They read the Bible and there it said "about (approximately) a day."

      These little words inj the Bible are important, but they were still in trouble because if you cannot account for 40 minutes you'll be in 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 space men told him he was out of his mind.  But they got the Bible and read these verses in II 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 asked, "Do you want the sun to go ahead ten degrees?"  Hezekiah said, "it is backwards ten degrees."  Isaiah spoke to Lord and the Lord brought the shadow ten degrees backward.  Ten degrees is exactly 40 minutes!  And 23 hours and 20 minutes in Joshua, plus 40 minutes in II Kings make the missing 24 hours the space travelers had to log in the logbook as being the missing day in the universe!  Isn't that amazing?  Our God is rubbing their nose in His truth!!  That's right."

            Scriptures for this article are Joshua 10:12-14 & II Kings 20:8-11 and was submitted by Malcolm Roberson