How I recently handled JWs at my door (page 16)

Cofty,

I warned you that this was going to be a long story. So long in fact that I will be surprised if anyone here actually reads all of this. But I got myself into this by agreeing to provide evidence for the existence of the God of the Bible to anyone who told me they were sincerely interested in hearing it. So here goes.

If you want to offer evidence that there is a god I for one am sincerely interested in hearing it. .... Being an atheist means that you find the case for god unconvincing. It does not mean you have a closed mind on the subject.

Then I think you might be more of an agnostic than an atheist. But it makes no difference what label we assign you because you tell me you have an open mind when it comes to the question of the existence of God.

I hope you are starting from a position of first accepting reality.

I am.

Once we acknowledge the age of the universe and the evolution of all living things through natural processes.

I do.

Genesis indicates that God seldom intervened in the history of life on Earth. Notice that we are not told that God created vegetation or that God created living creatures. Genesis actually tells us that "the land produced vegetation" and that "the land produced living creatures." (Gen 1:12,24)

If we can accept the fact that there was no Adam and Eve,

The Bible presents Adam and Eve as real people. And I believe they were. But surprisingly, a close study of the Bible reveals that it does not present them as being the first people who ever lived. I believe God merely used Adam and Eve, and orchestrated the events in Eden, to illustrate the unrighteous condition of all mankind. I understand that Genesis chapter one tells us of God's creation of the human race, long before his creation of Adam and Eve, probably by his then beginning to give highly evolved primates eternal spirits.This understanding of Scripture also answers the often asked questions, "Where did Cain get his wife?" and "Who were the people living in the land of Nod, east of Eden, who Cain was afraid might kill him?" ( Gen. 4:13-17) This way of understanding Genesis is fairly well explained by Richard Fischer in his book "Historical Genesis." http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Genesis-Richard-James-Fischer/dp/0761838074

The only place in Scripture Adam is referred to as the "first" man is in 1 Cor.15:45-47. There Adam is called "the first man." But there we also find that Jesus is called "the second man." The context shows that the writer of those words was referring to Adam as the "first" man only in his relative chronological position to Christ. In other words, since Adam came "first" and Christ came "second," Adam came before Christ. The only other place the Bible seems to clearly point to Adam as being the first man in an absolute chronological sense is Acts 17:26 which tells us, in most translations of the Bible, that all nations of men came from "one man." However, several ancient manuscripts do not here contain the words "one man." Rather they contain the words "one blood" or "one stock." For this reason some translations of the Bible, such as the Amplified Bible, do not here contain the words "one man" and instead use the words "one common origin" and "one source." If the human race originated in Africa and from there spread around the the world this reading of Acts 17:26 is an historically accurate statement.

I believe that God directly created Adam and Eve and gave them a beautiful garden home in order to tell a story and to prove a point. If Adam and Eve in paradise, without a problem in the world, were unable to follow one very easy and very simple command from God, what chance do any of us have to live perfectly righteous lives, and by so doing prove ourselves worthy of eternal life? No chance at all. By their actions in Eden Adam and Eve clearly demonstrated that no human being is capable of living a perfectly righteous life. This includes those who lived before Adam and Eve, their contemporaries then living in other parts of the world, as well as all of us who have come after them. And because none of us is without sin, according to the very high standards of a totally righteous God, none of us deserve to live forever. I believe God created Adam and Eve to serve as representatives of the human race. They were our two very best. But even our two best proved themselves unable to pass a very simple test of righteousness. By failing that test Adam and Eve brought God’s condemnation upon the entire human race. For their disobedience demonstrated that all human beings are sinful, and thus the only hope any of us have to ever live forever is to be forgiven of our sins by God and to then be given eternal life by him as an undeserved gift.

The Bible tells us that God now offers this undeserved gift to all who will now accept the death of his son Jesus as payment for their sins. We do not have to be physically descended from Jesus Christ to be considered by God to be "righteous ones." We are considered by God to be righteous ones because of what Christ did on the Cross. Christ's righteousness is credited to all who put their faith in him. Neither do we have to be physically descended from Adam to be considered by God to be sinners. Because Adam's actions clearly demonstrated that human beings are sinful, all of us are considered by God to be such until we put our faith in Christ. “Through the disobedience of the one man, many were constituted sinners. So also through the obedience of one, shall many be constituted righteous.” ( Romans 5:19 – Darby, Phillips, YLT, and other translations.) To “constitute” means “to formally establish something.” Adam's disobedience in Eden "formally established" that human beings are all sinners and that none of us, by our own efforts, will ever be worthy of eternal life. Because we will not be, the only way any of us can ever expect to live forever is if we are given eternal life as a free gift by God. " For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. " (Rom. 6:23)

Many “conservative” Christians will no doubt offer several objections to this way of understanding the scriptures. I am fully prepared to deal with all of their objections. My understandings of the Scriptures will no doubt also offend “conservative” Christians in several other ways. For instance, I believe that the flood of Noah’s day was not a worldwide flood and that the Bible does not, in fact, tell us that it was. Neither did that flood destroy the entire human race. For archaeologists and anthropologists now assure us that people inhabited all parts of the globe at the time of Noah’s flood, which Bible chronology dates to the year 2350 BC. I also understand some other parts of Genesis, and some other parts the Bible, in ways that would almost certainly offend some "conservative" Christians.

no original sin or fall from perfection.

Agreed.

Once we understand that the bible is hopelessly contradictory

I disagree, though I admit it certainly does appear to be that way in many passages.

and biblical literalism is a failed hypothesis.

Agreed.

Then we may be in a position to make an interesting case for a god that does not require intellectual suicide and the suppression of knowledge.

I believe we are now in that position. As I previously mentioned, I have discovered what I consider to be strong evidence that the God of the Bible created the universe. I found this evidence through a very basic study of astronomy, and a very thorough study of the Bible.

Jesus said, "There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars." ( Luke 21:25 ) In this post I will discuss what I believe to be the "signs" he referred to in the sun and moon. I believe these signs personally identify Jesus Christ as the Creator of the universe. I will leave discussing the "signs" I believe Christ referred to in the "stars" for a possible later post.

In 2005 a book was published by Watkins Publishing in the UK and distributed in the USA and Canada by Stirling Publishing. It was entitled, "Who Built The Moon?" It was written by Christopher Knight and Alan Butler, both of whom are atheists. http://www.amazon.com/Who-Built-Moon-Christophewwwr-Knight/dp/1842931636 Their book describes at great length many of the moon's specific dimensions, movements, and location, which the authors say clearly indicate that the moon must have been designed, built, and placed into its present orbit by someone possessing great intelligence. They say this because they do not see any other way to account for all of the moon's properties which they say clearly appear to be the result of intelligent design. They say all of the elements of our moon's apparently intelligently designed characteristics cannot possibly be the result of mere chance.

The primary reason they say this is because of what clearly seems to be a numerical message (or messages) which repetitively appears in the moon's dimensions, location, and movements. The primary numerical "message" which they say clearly appears to have been built into the moon in several different ways is the number 400. In their book Knight and Butler point out that the moon is one 400th the size of the sun in diameter. The moon and the sun's most commonly published measurements in miles are 2,160 and 864,000 respectively which equals a ratio of exactly 400.00. http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/htmlsite/1008/1008_feature.html However we do sometimes see the sun's diameter published a tiny bit differently, but not enough to change the moon/sun diameter ratio from 400. Here, for instance, in km those measurements are given as as 3,476 and 1,392,000 which equals a ratio of 400.46. http://fuse.pha.jhu.edu/~wpb/scale.html

Knight and Butler also point out that the moon is always "about 400 times closer to the Earth than the sun." Although this 400 times distance ratio is very seldom exact, and always changing due to the Earth and the moon both having slightly elliptical orbits, it is always close to 400.

The moon and sun's 400 times diameter ratio together with their 400 times distance ratio is what allows us view what has been called "the greatest spectacle in nature," a total eclipse of the sun. When the moon passes in front of the sun, due to their 400 times diameter and distance ratios, Earth's two great sources of light then appear to fit together perfectly in the sky, with the moon covering the sun like a lid fits its own jar, briefly turning daytime into nighttime. http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/htmlsite/1008/1008_feature.html

Few people are fortunate enough to personally be able to witness a total eclipse of the sun, because in order for us to do so from any one spot on planet Earth we will have to wait, “on average, about 400 years.” Though this statistic is sometimes published as both a somewhat smaller and a somewhat larger number. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12000855/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/your-guide-total-solar-eclipse/#.UeF1CNK1GSo http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/htmlsite/1008/1008_feature.html http://www.scribd.com/doc/88615592/Eclipse-Duncan-Steel

Knight and Butler go on to point out that, "the moon is rotating at a rate of 400 km per earth day" compared to the Earth which rotates at 40,000 km per day, "precisely 100 times more".

Though Knight and Butler failed to mention it, I will here add that, according to the World Almanac and many other reference works, “our sun is 400,000 times as bright as the full moon.” Amazingly, this brightness magnitude ratio of four hundred thousand appears to be an exact, or virtually exact, number. It is seldom published as anything other than "400,000." The greatest variance from a ratio of exactly 400,000 that I have seen published is “398,359.” http://www.weegy.com/?ConversationId=9A071UMI

I also find it interesting that our sun's 11 year sunspot cycle is actually referred to by scientists as a cycle of "4,000 days." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2153-3490.1953.tb01074.x/pdf

After carefully examining several of these uncanny lunar related occurrences of the number 400, along with several other of the moon's properties and characteristics which they say clearly indicated to them that our moon must be the product of a highly intelligent designer, Knight and Butler say that they came to the following conclusions:

"1. The moon was engineered by an unknown agency circa 4.6 billion years ago, to act as an incubator to promote intelligent life on Earth.

2. The unknown agency knew that humanoids [with a base ten system of math due to their having extremities with ten digits] would be the result of the evolutionary chain.

3. That unknown agency wanted the resulting humanoids to know what had been done and they left a message indicated by the dynamics of the Moon."

However, due to the fact that both Knight and Butler do not believe in God, let alone the God of the Bible, they could only suggest that this "unknown agency" must have been either visitors from outer space or time travelers from Earth's future. No kidding. Those are the only two suggestions they were able to come up with that they say might explain the origin of the moon's many unmistakable signs of intelligent design. However, they then found themselves totally unable to offer their readers any suggestions as to what message the moon's designer might have meant to convey to us by so often and so prominently incorporating the number 400 into the design and construction of our moon (and I would say sun). They could only say that our moon's designer wanted us to know that intelligent life exists, or once existed, elsewhere in our universe.

Most atheists here will, no doubt, very quickly and somewhat understandably call Knight and Butler "crackpots," and totally dismiss their written work out of hand. For I remember Carl Sagan in a couple of his books saying how some people who are looking for evidence of the supernatural usually have no trouble at all finding it. For they always seem to be able to find their favorite numbers lurking in just about everything. He said that such people always seem to find what they are looking for. And he said this seems to be especially true when it comes to people who are looking for their favorite numbers.

For instance, some say they clearly see some of the Bible's most often used symbolic numbers in the diameters of the sun and moon themselves, not just in their diameters' comparative ratios. The sun's diameter of 864,000 miles is seen by them as 12 X 12 X 6000 miles and the moon's diameter of 2,160 miles is seen by them as 6 X 6 X 60 miles. Even the way we tell time is believed by some to have been designed by God to provide us with numerical signs. Why do they believe this? Because they see those same biblical numbers built into all of our clocks and wrist watches. For our days all contain two 12 hour periods of time, which each contain 60 minutes, which each contain 60 seconds. Some of these same folks also point out that the number of miles in our sun's diameter, 864,000, is same as the number of seconds in 10 days (10 X 24 hours X 60 minutes X 60 seconds = 864,000). I could here mention several other such supposed numerical "signs" from God, which some people see in the sun, moon, and stars, and elsewhere in the world around us.

But I wont. Because I now see nearly all such supposed numerical "signs" from God in the same way that Carl Sagan saw such numbers. I see most of them as simply examples of people "finding what they were looking for." With so many symbolic biblical numbers to choose from, and so many possible combinations of those numbers, almost any number can be seen as being the sum of, or the product of, some combination of biblical numbers.

In their book, Who Built The Moon?, Knight and Butler, as atheists, never spent any time looking for biblical numbers in the moon's design. However, I believe they did sometimes engage in a very similar kind of numerical gymnastics. So I am not here enthusiastically endorsing their book. The authors had many pages to fill, and in my opinion they didn't have enough really good material to fill them with.

But when it comes to the 400 ratios discussed by Knight and Butler, which are clearly seen by all astronomers in the sun and the moon's most often referenced measurements during a total eclipse of the sun, I really believe we have to consider the possibility that these ratios might be the result of more than just coincidence. For if they are merely coincidental, astronomers tell us they amount to "a coincidence unmatched in our solar system." For no other planet in our solar system, even those with multiple moons, has a moon of exactly the right size to perfectly cover the sun as seen from the surface of that planet. Let alone a moon that, while doing so, directs the attention of its most informed observers to a precise three digit multiple of 10, like the number 400. (National Geographic, May 1992)

I believe that, because of the very special and highly unlikely relationship which the Earth, moon, and sun have with the number 400, everyone here who is truly open to the possibility of God's existence should now seriously consider the evidence I will here present for the existence of the God of the Bible.

When I first became aware of the fact that the number 400 can be easily seen in several solar and lunar measurement ratios it took me very little time to guess what message the maker of the sun and moon probably meant to send us by incorporating that number so often into their interrelated designs. That is if their maker was the God of the Bible. For I was someone who had just been studying how the Bible uses the number 400, and the numbers 4 and 40 which are abbreviated forms of that number. And I had just determined that the Bible nearly always uses the numbers 4, 40, and 400 in symbolic reference to Jesus Christ.

For instance: The Bible's creation account tells us that the sun, moon and stars first appeared in Earth's skies on the 4th creative day. And the Bible, which tells the story of Jesus Christ in 4 "gospels", connects this 4th "day" of creation with Jesus Christ by calling him "the light of the world." (Genesis 1:14-19; John 8:12)

Just as 40 days of rain washed away all sin from the land of Noah, Christ's coming was prophesied to be "like showers watering the earth." For, like the rains which cleansed the land of sin in the days of Noah, the Bible tells us that the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ now "cleanses us from all sin." (Genesis 6:11-17; Psalms 72:6; 1 John 1:7)

As Moses, who mediated the Old Covenant between God and the Israelites, twice spent 40 days on Mount Sinai, Jesus Christ now acts as the Mediator of the New Covenant which he established between God and Christians. (Exodus 19:3-9; Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 8:6; 9:15)

As the Israelites wandered aimlessly in the Sinai wilderness for 40 years prior to the time God gave them their promised land, all mankind was lost in a spiritual wilderness before God gave us our promised Savior. (Luke 19:10)

As Saul, who ruled for 40 years, was Israel's first king, Jesus Christ is "the First and the Last" "King" of "the Israel of God." (Revelation 1:17; 1Timothy 6:15; Galatians 6:16)

Long after David Had ruled Israel for 40 years Isaiah prophesied that the promised Savior, Jesus Christ, would "reign on David's throne and over his kingdom." For this reason Jesus was called "the son of David." (Isaiah 9:6,7; Luke 1:32; Matthew 1:1)

Many spiritual connections can be found in the Bible between Solomon, who ruled all Israel for 40 years, and Jesus Christ. Solomon, for instance, built God's Temple in Jerusalem. While Jesus Christ built God's spiritual Temple.(1Kings 6:1-38; Matthew 16:15-18; 1 Corinthians 3:11,16) For this reason, and others, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is "greater than Solomon." (Matthew 12:42)

The spiritual connection between Jonah, who prophesied that Nineveh would be overthrown in "40 more days,” and Jesus Christ was firmly established by Jesus himself. For he said, “as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish", so Christ would "be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”, after his death and before his resurrection. (Matthew 12:40)

Just before he began His ministry Jesus Christ fasted for 40 days. At the end of those 40 days "He was hungry." And so were those who had been eagerly anticipating the arrival of mankind's long awaited Savior. For their "hunger" had been "for righteousness", a hunger which only Jesus Christ could satisfy, and a righteousness which only Jesus Christ himself could give them. (Matthew 4:2; 5:6; John 6:35; Romans 3:21,22)

One well known example of the Bible's use of the # 400 involves the period of time that Abraham's descendants were "enslaved and oppressed" before being set free from their bondage in Egypt. The Bible tells us that period of time was "400 years." The Bible also tells us that, much like the Israelites, all mankind had once been enslaved and oppressed for a long period of time. However, this slavery and oppression was by sin and death, from which the Bible tells us Jesus Christ came to set us free. We are told Christ did so by buying with his own life both God's forgiveness and immortality for all who will accept him as their Lord. (Genesis 15:13; Matthew 20:28; Luke 4:18; Ephesians 1:7; John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:54)

Interestingly, the Bible also tells us that the Israelites' 400 years of oppression and slavery came to an end immediately following a plague in which God took the life of every firstborn son in Egypt. And it also tells us that all mankind was offered freedom from the oppression and slavery of sin and death following the death of God's Firstborn Son, Jesus Christ. (Exodus 11:4,5; Hebrews 11:28; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:5,6)

So, having just studied these things, I knew that the Bible uses the numbers 4, 40, and 400 in connection with things which are strongly connected to Jesus Christ. I also knew that the Bible tells us, while referring to Jesus Christ, that "All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made." (John 1:3) And again, while speaking of Jesus Christ, it tells us that "By him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth." (Col. 1:16) This would of course include both the sun and the moon.

So, since the number 400, and its abbreviated forms 4 and 40, nearly always have a strong connection to Jesus Christ in the Bible, and since the Bible identifies Jesus Christ as the Creator of our sun and moon, I was able to quickly come to a rather simple conclusion. If Jesus Christ did indeed create our sun and moon he probably incorporated the number 400 so often and so prominently into their designs in order to personally identify himself as their Creator. Just as a human artist almost always adds his signature to his artwork in order to identify himself as the creator of that work.

"But why," I asked myself, "would Jesus Christ choose to use the numbers 4, 40 and 400 as some sort of 'signs' which would direct our attention to himself, both in the Scriptures and in the sun and the moon?" One answer immediately occurred to me. It had a lot to do with Bible Chronology. (As an ex-JW, I knew a little bit about Bible chronology. For when I was a JW we often studied the chronological history recorded in the Scriptures in an effort to better understand Bible prophecy and to find possible clues concerning the time of Jesus Christ's return and the coming battle of Armageddon.) The answer that occurred to me was that Jesus Christ may have chosen to use the numbers 4, 40 and 400 as signs directing people's attention to himself because all three of those numbers are abbreviated forms of the number 4,000. And as an ex-JW I knew that Bible chronology seems to tell us that 4,000 is the approximate number of years which passed between the creation of Adam and the birth of Jesus Christ. (As a JW I was told that Bible chronology indicates that God created Adam in the year 4026 BC and that Jesus was born in the year 2 BC.) So, I thought that Christ may have chosen the numbers 4, 40 and 400 to serve as signs of himself because they are all "short forms" of the time of Christ's birth, approximately 4,000 years after the creation of Adam.

This thought actually occurred to me very shortly after I had solved a bit of a puzzle. I couldn't figure out why God would have allowed Abraham's descendants to "be persecuted and enslaved for 400 years." For I knew the Bible describes Abraham as God's most faithful servant ever. In fact, among all of God's servants written about in the Bible only Abraham is spoken of so highly. He, and he alone, is there referred to as "the father of all who believe" and "the friend of God." (Rom. 4:11 ; Jas. 2:23 ) So I asked myself, "Why would God have done such a thing to Abraham, or for that matter his descendants?"

I discovered the answer to this question when I read what Paul wrote about Abraham in Galatians 4:22-31. There Paul told us about some of the important events in Abraham's life. In verse 24 he wrote that things that happened in Abraham's life were intended by God to serve as "allegory." ( An a llegory is " a literary device in which characters or events ... represent or symbolize ideas and concepts. " en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory ) Paul told us that Abraham fathered two sons. The mother of his first son was a slave woman. The mother of his second son was free. He told us that those two women were meant by God to picture God's two covenants with mankind. He said that the Old Covenant, pictured by Hagar, produced children who were slaves to the Jewish Law. And he said that God's New Covenant, pictured by Sarah, produced children who were set free from that set of laws by Christ.

So it is clear that in this prophetic allegory Abraham was meant to picture God himself. For not only did Abraham have children by two women, the first one a slave and the second one free, as God became the Father of spiritual children through two covenants, the first one a covenant that produced children who were slaves to law and the second one a covenant that produced children who were free in Christ. But, as we all know, Abraham also offered the life of his son Isaac in sacrifice, just as God offered the life of his son Jesus in sacrifice. (Gen. 22:1-18; Heb 11:17; John 3:16)

So, understanding that the life of Abraham was meant to serve as a prophetic allegory, and that in that allegory Abraham was meant to picture God himself, I understood why God saw to it that Abraham's descendants, who came to be known as the Israelites, would "be persecuted and enslaved" for a long period of time. (Gen. 15:13) Why? Because God's children, all mankind, would be persecuted and enslaved for an even longer period of time. We would continue to be afflicted by sin and thus remain subjugated to death for all the years that passed, from the time of Adam until the time of Christ.

I also then understood why God specifically chose a period of 400 years for Abraham's descendants to be persecuted and enslaved. As a student of the Scriptures I understood that God used the special relationship he had with the Israelites to represent the special place in his heart which the entire human race had always occupied. Abraham's descendants were Tithe payers. They were people who paid a tenth of all they had to God. ( Lev. 27:30-33 ) With this fact in mind, it made sense to me why God would specifically choose a period of 400 years to have Abraham's descendants persecuted and enslaved. For by doing so, God was illustrating the fact that all mankind would remain afflicted by sin and held in bondage to death for ten times 400 years, for 4,000 years. Those 4,000 years would run from the time of Adam until the time of Christ.

However, as an ex-JW, I immediately saw one problem with this understanding. I remember that JWs had taught me that the Bible's own greatly detailed, chronological, historical record clearly dates God's creation of Adam to the year 4026 BC. And I remembered that JWs had taught me that both history and Scripture clearly point to a 2 BC date for the birth of Jesus Christ.

But when I took a closer look at the way JWs understand Bible chronology I quickly discovered that what they had taught me on this subject matter actually posed no problem for my understanding that exactly 4,000 years passed between the creation of Adam and the birth of Christ. For I soon discovered that JWs base their contention that God created Adam in the year 4026 BC on an incorrect understanding of both the Bible and of ancient history. I found that JWs incorrectly teach that Babylon destroyed the city of Jerusalem in the year 607 BC. Everyone else dates that event to either 587 or 586 BC. I also discovered that most New Testament historians tell us that they believe Jesus Christ was born sometime between the years 6 and 4 BC. And I found that those who preferred one particular year over another usually choose the year 5 BC.

So I substituted the date 586 BC for the JWs' 607 BC date for Jerusalem's destruction and started counting backwards in time following the same set of Bible passages which the JWs use to date Adam's creation. This 21 year difference resulted in a date of 4005 BC for God's creation of Adam. And I then saw that the date of 4005 BC was exactly 4,000 years before the date of 5 BC, which I had found is now most often assigned by New Testament historians to the birth of Christ.

But I then found that I had to deal with another problem, which turned into a much bigger problem, for my understanding that exactly 4,000 years passed between Adam and Christ. I knew that if the JWs are wrong about both the time of Jerusalem's destruction and the time of Christ's birth they might very well be wrong about other matters relating to Bible chronology, matters which would then totally invalidate my hypothesis that exactly 4,000 passed between Adam and Christ, and my belief that the numbers 40 and 400 were so often incorporated into the Bible's historical accounts by God and into his designs of the sun and the moon, in symbolic reference to that 4,000 year period of time. So I knew I had to thoroughly study the rest of the Bible's chronological records, which the JWs and many other students of the Scriptures have long understood as indicating that only about 4,000 years passed between the creation of Adam and the birth of Jesus Christ.

I did this hoping to find no other problems with my new understandings of the Scriptures. For everything now in my mind fit together so neatly. And I knew that I really did not have the time, the energy, or the desire to get involved in any long complicated studies of either the Bible or of ancient history, let alone both. But that is exactly what I ended up very deeply involved in for the last few years. Why? Because I discovered one more very big problem for those who understand that the Bible teaches that a full 4,000 years (or more in the case of the JWs) passed between the creation of Adam and the Birth of Christ.

I found out that such an understanding of Bible chronology has long depended on understanding that the kingdom of Israel was divided into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, 390 years before Babylon's destruction of Jerusalem, an understanding that is entirely based on a highly questionable interpretation of Ezekiel 4: 1-4. I also found out that historians tell us that such an understanding of Ezekiel 4: 1-4 must be an incorrect understanding. They say this because they have found several ancient historical records which all clearly indicate that the kingdom of Israel could not have been divided into two kingdoms anywhere near as early as 390 years before Babylon's destruction of Jerusalem.

390 years before 586 BC was the year 976 BC. But historians tell us that such a date for the division of the kingdom of Israel is at least 40 years too early. In fact the date that is now most often assigned to that event is 931 BC, 45 years years later than the 976 BC date I had been using to date God's creation of Adam to the year 4005 BC. I found that the 931 BC date that is now most often cited as the probable date for the division of the kingdom, was arrived at by Edwin R. Thiele after an exhaustive study of all the Bible has to say on this subject matter, along with all of the related findings of those who have closely examined the historical annals of ancient Israel's and Judah's neighboring nations. Thiele published his findings in a book he very appropriately entitled, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings. I found his work to be very impressive. However, I also found that, by his own admission, he was not able to make sense out of several of the Bible's apparently conflicting statements pertaining to when exactly some of Israel's and Judah's kings began and ended their reigns. I also found that in his book Thiele offered no explanation at all as to how he thought Ezekiel 4:1-4, the passage that has long caused many Bible readers to understand that 390 years passed between the division of the kingdom and Babylon's destruction of Jerusalem, should be understood.

After reading Thiele's book, and finding it unsatisfying in several ways, I felt compelled to do what I had earlier told myself I had no time, energy, or desire to do. I plunged into a very long and very complicated study of both the Bible and ancient history. By the end of my study I found what cynics will probably say I was looking for. Because I am now more convinced than I ever was before that the Bible's own chronological, historical record was actually perfectly preserved by God in the Scriptures in order to inform us that exactly 4,000 years passed between God's creation of Adam and the birth of Jesus Christ.

I am now recording the results of my study of the chronological history of the divided kingdom in a book I am now writing. That book is entitled, Forty-Two kings and Two Queens - A New Understanding of the Chronological History of Ancient Israel's Royal Rulers, Reconciling All Notable Sacred and Secular Data. My written work on this subject matter does just as its subtitle indicates. It establishes full harmony between all of its subject's extant witnesses. To begin with, it demonstrates that all biblical (Masoretic Text) chronological information speaks in full agreement. My work then goes on to show that all, and I do mean all, extra-biblical chronological information now in our possession pertaining to this subject matter, both sacred and secular, is not only historically accurate but absolutely necessary for us to accept as such if we are to properly reconstruct the chronological history of the divided kingdom.

When I here refer to "all extra-biblical chronological information," I am referring to all numbers pertaining to all of the Hebrew kings' years of reign and to all synchronisms linking the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah which are found in non-Masoretic Text sacred and secular documents. I am also referring to all synchronisms between the Hebrew kings and the kings of Israel's and Judah's neighboring nations which are contained in their own historical annals. This includes all "variant" chronological information, including that which is contained in the Greek Septuagint (LXX), all which is found in what is commonly referred to as the "Lucianic recension" of the LXX (also called the "Antiochene text"), all which is contained in the LXX Vaticanus, all which is found in the works of Josephus, and all which is found in the Chronicle of Eusebius.

As hard as this may be to believe, my work actually demonstrates that all of this often apparently contradictory information is, in fact, both totally accurate and fully complimentary to the Bible's own chronological information pertaining to this time period.

I am also now working on another book. Its working title is, The Sign of the Son of Man. In it I intend to present in much greater detail the information I have here discussed. I believe that when all of this evidence is fully presented it will be sufficient to convince anyone who is truly willing to believe in the God of the Bible that he must have created our universe. For the same numbers that fill our Bibles, for the purpose of directing our attention to Jesus Christ, can now be easily seen in earth's skies, clearly placed there by Jesus Christ, for the purpose of personally identifying himself as the Creator of everything, "in heaven and on earth." (Col. 1:16)

How I recently handled JWs at my door

Christian guy

Christian guy

besty

Christian guy

besty

cofty

jgnat

jgnat

besty

Christian guy

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