I've been doing some research about Magnesium since a Magnesium plant exploded a few days ago in Anderson, IN, about a 45 minute drive from where I live.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/9/210148-8109-009.html
When I first heard about the fire, one jail guard came into where I work and told us about it and said that we can see the glow from behind the building where I work, so me and my co-worker went out the back door to have a look and behold, there was this bright glow from over the horizon. I could not believe how powerful magnesium could produce such a huge glow from such a distance from where we were. It was practically "daylight" in the city of Anderson. At the time, the plant had about 300,000 pounds of Magnesium before it went up. Apparently, as I learned, water and magnesium do not mix well, in fact, a small drop can ignite it like throwing a matchstick at a fine line of gun powder. A water sprinker at the site which was supposed to have been shut off from the area where the magnesium was stored, it was never capped. Somehow, the sprinkler system went off and BOOM!
To make matters worse, firefighters can't use water to put it out as it would make it even worse, so they decided to let it burn out. But magnesium can be put out by use of sand, salt or other dry materials. Unfortunantly, these options was not available on hand. So they decided to let it burn out on it's own. And it did after a few days later. It's still smothering as I write.
As I understand it, Magnesium has many uses in variety of ways, such as a photographic power (the kind that explodes from a tray held in hand when a camera is shuttered to give the negative some light exposure in a area that has low light in order to help give the subject that the camera is looking at for more clarity.).
Here's some explainations on how it is used....
Magnesium is used
* as a component in light alloys in the aircraft industry, because of its low density and many of these alloys are resistant to corrosion,
* in the nuclear industry in "Magnox" alloys as it is transparent to thermal neutrons,
* in the manufacture of Grignard Reagents in organic chemistry, and
* in medicine, where magnesium oxide and magnesium carbonate are used as antacids.
Now Magnesium is also found in various weapons of war, specifically in tanks, airplanes, etc.
If you recall that back in the first gulf war, when the US invaded Iraq to push back the Iraqi miliary out of Kuwait, Soviet tanks burned when they were cannoned by our US tanks. The tanks, it's metal, actually burns and can burn for a good number of days until all of it's Magnesium has been completely depleted from within it's metal. Pretty scarey stuff. Imagine if you're blown up inside the tank, with it's magnesium burning so hot, I doubt there would be anything left of you to bury, since it burns so hot, you're practically cremated to dust.
Many of you seen the news videos of the Soviet tanks burning, mainly left abandoned by the Iraqi soliders because they don't wanna get blown up in it. Plus they tanks they used were totally outdated and far less advanced than our US counterpart tanks. They wouldn't stand a chance against them. They'd just be sitting ducks.
Now here's another thing, Magnesium is also a great source of fuel, mainly for heating homes and such, they burn hot and they burn real slow, far better than goal, wood and other materials used for heating.
This jarred my memory from the bible... but first, allow me to give you a quick history of the discovery of Magnesium...
Magnesium was discovered by Bussy in 1828AD.
Magnesium was first isolated by Sir Humphery Davy in 1808AD as an impure metal.
http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/depts/chem/dolchem/html/biog/biog002.html#Davy
Now, let's go to Ezekiel 39:9-10 where it reads....
" 'Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel and burn them up-the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel. They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign LORD .
Now go ahead and start back in verse 1 and read on down to get a better picture of what these verses is talking about.
Now, remember, Magnesium wasn't discovered until 1828, so none of this material was found in Daniel's time, so there's no way that any of these types of weapons as mentioned above such as bows, arrows, shields could be used as fuel, they're mostly wood and simple metal. Not only that, there's no way that any of these weapons at Daniel's time could last 7 years simply because no country would produce enough weapon at one sitting for the Israelies to gather together to burn them for use as fuel, plus regular types of metal couldn't be used as fuel. So, this verse left me stumped for a quite a while until I made this interesting disovery.
Now, I am by no means an expert in these such things, but nonetheless, this magnesium material peaked my interest.
So since what Daniel wrote about wasn't about the present day in the weapons of war in Daniel's time, but about the future.
Now backtrack to Chapter 38 and then re-read again chapter 39. What these chapters is talking about is some future King (or leader, or president, etc. As titles changes over the centuries) will try to invade Israel with a massive army. But, as the Lord himself said in these passages, God will intervene and save Israel from the attack made by the King's army. Bascially what comes down to it is a miracle will occur and the people of Israel will come to realize that God is still with them.
Now in Chapter 39, you'll also see not only about the weapons of war being gathered together to be used as fuel, but you'll also see that it will take 7 months to bury all the bodies. That's ALOT of bodies.
Now I don't know about you guys, but I find this to fit the entire picture of the bible and an answer to the riddle I had been pondering from time to time. This fits because since wood and simple metal couldn't be used as fuel (at least not to my understanding atm, correct me if I am wrong), also the invasion spoke of hasn't happened yet, The Romans succesfully invaded Israel in 70 AD and it didn't leave Israel 7 months of Roman bodies for them to bury, in fact, most Israelies fled Israel and didn't return to that nation until 1948 AD.
Some survived and stayed in Israel, producing generations of children in the land of Israel, but the population remained very small until the Israelies recaptured most of the land from the Palestinians in 1948 except for the northern part of Israel which was still occupied by Jordan and Egypt until later in the 1960s. (This is all from memory, so my history could be pretty rusty, so I hope I'm close, heh)
So, in any rate, this answers my own personal questions that I had for some time from this passage in Ezekiel 39:9-10.
Anyway, that's alot of material laying around for them to use and burn for fuel for the next 7 years. Sheesh!
Some scholars say we could see this event take place before the bibical rapture to occur, if they're right, this could be a great event to witness and to chalk one up as a bibical prophecy come true. I hope I get to see this in my lifetime.
Time will tell I suppose.
Debates? Refutations?
Remember, let's keep this clean and fun and I do love fun debates and still go out as great buddies for a beer or two. :p
Yiz
Magnesium and the Bible
by Yizuman 7 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Yizuman
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under74
Damn...have you done a lot of reading on this?
one thing though-
"Some scholars say we could see this event take place before the bibical rapture to occur, if they're right, this could be a great event to witness and to chalk one up as a bibical prophecy come true. I hope I get to see this in my lifetime."
Are these really scholars that say this?
I've heard of the natural events and wars being pre-cursors to Armegeddon but accidents at plants? I'm not so sure.
Stuff seems to blow up every now and then. Plants blow up. It happens every couple of years it seems...and no Armegeddon, no rapture.
I really hope there weren't many people hurt from this explosion... -
stillajwexelder
mAGNESIUM IS VERY PLENTIFUL on the earth - magnesium carbonate is also known as Dolomite (strictly speaking it is mixed with calcium carbonate) - it is an extremely electrpositive material so it is only with relatively modern technology that it can be extracted from ore
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Bryan
Great research Yiz.
Can't say I go along with you, but I love a good mystery and search for answers.
Bryan
Have You Seen My Mother
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Elsewhere
Yup, magnesium is a very interesting metal to play with. I've got a piece somewhere around my apartment in the form of a Magnesium Fire Starter... it is used for starting fires while out camping.
The water thing wasn't 100% accurate... water will not ignite magnesium, but it will cause already burning magnesium to flare up. Putting water on a magnesium fire has an effect similar to putting water on a grease fire.
If you want to watch how magnesium burns, just go to the camping section of any store and buy one of those Magnesium Fire Starters.
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funkyderek
One of the few things I remember from chemistry class: "Magnesium burns with a bright white light". 300,000 pounds of it must have been cool!
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Leolaia
I should point out that most of the weapons discussed in the Gog and Magog oracle are wooden or have wooden parts: "bows," "arrows," "clubs," "spears" (the Hebrew word mqql "spear" is really "staff" or "stick", see Numbers 22:27, 1 Samuel 17:40). As for the burning of the shields, the author was probably influenced by Psalm 46:8-9: "Think of Yahweh's marvels, the astounding things he has done in the world; all over the world he puts an end to wars, he breaks the bow, he snaps the spear, he gives shields to the flames".
The prophecy thus does not seem very unusual to me; it simply describes the destruction of all the weapons which was so great that there was no need for extra fuel (cf. Isaiah 2:4, Psalm 76:3 for similar descriptions of the destruction of weapons).
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Elsewhere
The shields were made by stretching leather over a wood frame. It was strong enough to deflect arrows and some spear and sword jabs... and of course it would easily burn.
use the weapons for fuel and burn them up-the small and large shields [made of leather], the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears.
All of these weapons can burn.
