Depending only on the Lord
I took His word, a two-edged sword,
but left the demon’s sparkling hoard
I used to wish was mine.
That change of life I won’t forget:
within reborn without regret,
with joy the well, with river wet
which flows with living water.
______
For Ronovan Hester’s Ovi Poetry Challenge. Posted on Poet’s Corner.
The hostility between Steve and Bobby was miraculously resolved during the funeral of their older-by-twelve-years sister and Fred’s wife, Lily. During Fred’s eulogy for his wife he handed Steve and Bobby separate boxes containing mementos of their lives from infancy through grade school that Lily saved having watched over them many decades ago. He then handed them envelops with the words “Last Will” written on them containing a letter asking her two brothers to stop fighting with each other.
Touched by a sense of melancholy while going through the box he received from Fred, Bobby apologized to and forgave Steve who seeing this as a sign of weakness announced to all at the funeral that this long-overdue confession coming from the likes of Bobby was a miracle (which it may well have been).
In spite of that remark peace between them lasted until Steve insisted moments later that he get credit for being the one who apologized first which everyone at the funeral knew was a lie. Through the resulting commotion Fred called for silence and handed the brothers another envelop containing Lily’s second Last Will which simply read, “Didn’t I tell you two to STOP FIGHTING?”
______
Denise offers the prompt word “melancholy” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
1 John 2:9
He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
Linda G. Hill’s One Liner Wednesday.
Dale offers the prompt “three shots from one spot” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
I went across the street to the park with a man-made pond.
Then I wondered: What direction should I aim my phone? These are the directions I thought might be interesting.
Neither Timothy nor Martha had a clue how to grow stuff as they looked at the good ground in front of them having enough stones to make a small mountain. Some neighbors reminded them that when winter came they were going to starve. Every time they heard the word starve they giggled without knowing why.
Come summer the crops grew. Come harvest time the yield was a hundredfold. Come winter Timothy and Martha, ignoring the neighbors’ security concerns, opened their doors to those hungry enough to stop by to make sure no one in the village starved.
______
Denise offers the prompt word “security” for this week’s Six Sentence Story.
Matthew 13:23
But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Linked to Linda G. Hill’s One Liner Wednesday. This is my translation based on the King James Verse of the Leningrad Codex Hebrew verse displayed using LaTeX with Ezra SIL and Andika fonts.
Having “a bad case of music festival withdrawal” Dale offers the prompt “music on film” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
Letting my imagination dance around me I found two recent photos I took on a walk through the old golf course that was turned into a park across the street.
My imagination said about the first one, “Those plants are dancing.” Then I heard, “That bee and blossom are dancing to the music of a beautiful day.” I thought to myself, You’ve got to be kidding, but I realized I best not say that out loud.
Douglas Petrovich presented a framework for building a sound chronology of the Old Testament at the 2023 Chafers Theological Seminary Pastors’ Conference. If one chooses appropriate assumptions one can come up with a chronology that is faithful to the Bible and also synchronizes with Egyptian and Assyrian chronologies. This confirms the reliability of the biblical record as history.
To build this chronology one needs certain dates that one has confidence in to serve as “tent pegs” as Petrovich calls them. Reaching consensus on what those tent pegs are is not easy but it is achievable. Having that chronology allows one to date and make sense out of the archeological data. That we need to go through so much trouble to construct such a chronology is reason to believe that mankind is very young.
Construction Begins on the First Temple—967 BC
I Kings 6:1
And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord.
Can we find what year Solomon began to build the first temple in our calendar? James Ussher in his Annals of the World gave the date as 1012 BC. Edwin Thiele was able to establish an absolute date based on Assyrian records linked to a solar eclipse which occurred in June 15, 763, in The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings. This allows one to come up with 967 BC as the year Solomon initiated the building of the first temple. There is a discrepancy of 45 years between these dates. Rodger Young clarified the issues around this discrepancy in Ussher Explained and Corrected arguing in favor of the 967 BC date which Petrovich accepts.
Israelite Exodus from Egypt—1446 BC
Accepting 967 BC and the information in 1 Kings 6:1 about the Exodus occurring in the 480th year one can date the Exodus back to 1446 BC (967+479=1446). From this date and knowing the Israelites wandered for 40 years in the desert (Numbers 32:13) we get the year they crossed the Jordan into Canaan as 1406 BC (1406+40=1446).
Jacob Moves His Family to Egypt—1876 BC
If one concludes as Petrovich does (see his Origins of the Hebrews, 2021) that the Israelites spent 430 years in Egypt, the “long sojourn”, rather than 215 years, the “short sojourn”, then the date the long sojourn began would be 1876 BC. It becomes another tent peg (1446+430=1876). The date the short sojourn began would be 1661 BC (1446+215=1661).
The reason for the 215 year discrepancy is due to textual variants of Exodus 12:40. The Masoretic Hebrew text gives 430 years in Egypt. The Septuagint Greek text said this period of time included time in Canaan.
______
This lecture highlights the resolution of difficulties permitting one to construct a sound Old Testament chronology. At 19:25 in the video Petrovich lists the major dates going back to Abraham. At 55:15 he presents the Egyptian chronological scheme.
He recommended the following sources for those interested in pursuing biblical chronology further:
Andrew Steinmann, From Abraham to Paul, Concordia Publishing House 2011
Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1994)
Rodger C. Young, Ussher Explained and Corrected, Bible and Spade 31/2 (2018), 47-58
______
Why Mankind Is Very Young
William Lane Craig, the professor of philosophy at Houston Baptist University and research professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, asserts, “Adam plausibly lived sometime between around 1 million years ago to 750,000 years ago, a conclusion consistent with the evidence of population genetics.” (The Historical Adam, First Things, October 2021).
Much of the Old Testament chronology presented above goes back less than 4000 years. However, it involves controversy as to when something actually happened. This should make anyone pause who claims that humanity has been on this earth for much longer than 8000 years. Why? Because there is no historical evidence to justify that claim. Furthermore Biblical textual variants do not even justify ages as old as 8000 years.
From available historical evidence we know we can go from stone age to space age in about 5000 years. That means if humanity were around for 100,000 years (let alone the million that Craig finds plausible) we would have historical records going back 90,000 years assuming a generous 10,000 years to go from stone age to space age.
If we had such historical records then there would be no doubt about what happened a mere 4000 years ago. We would have archived video recordings of Solomon holding a press conference broadcasted live to the entire world via satellite in 967 BC about the construction of the temple. We would know precisely when that press conference started. Constructing a sound biblical chronology would not be the problem that it is today.
Since we don’t have that kind of historical record it is reasonable to doubt the non-historical dating methods and speculations that extend mankind back hundreds of thousands of years. Mankind is nowhere near that old.
Ralph ran his mind like an audio device on permanent replay. He believed in neither demonic nor angelic spirits which made the demons giggle with double delight.
What overflowed through his mouth further challenged his pretenses of being rational. Additionally all the time he spent muttering to himself made him wonder precisely whom those meditations were meant to impress.
To keep reality afloat in spite of his doubt that reality was really real he wondered if reality might well be an AI program simulating who knows what or whether there were some female identity trapped inside his male body all of which surprised even Satan who laughed at the inanities unrenewed minds wasted their lives on. As the day ended Ralph tried to put his spirit to sleep while his spirit struggled to wake him up.
______
Denise offers the prompt word “replay” for this week’s Six Sentence Story.
Philippians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Linked to Linda G. Hill’s One Liner Wednesday. This is my translation of the Leningrad Codex Hebrew verse displayed using LaTeX with Ezra SIL and Andika fonts.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 