Sunday, January 13, 2013

This Cannot Be Random


A total eclipse of the sun is one of the most remarkable phenomena in nature. I remember being in the path of a total eclipse once, in South India. I was disappointed in that it didn’t get completely dark, but it did become like dusk in mid-day.

You have to be in the right place at the right time in order to see a total eclipse. The Gospel writer Luke states “darkness came over the whole land…” in the middle of the day when Christ was crucified. It is known that an eclipse occurred, very close to Jerusalem, on the 24th of November in 29 a.d.[1] Was it a total eclipse that darkened the "whole land" at Jesus' crucifixion?

An eclipse is a remarkable thing. The Sun is 400 times larger than the Moon and the Moon is 400 times closer to the Earth. The result is that the Sun and Moon appear nearly the same size. There is no other planetary moon in our solar system where such a condition would exist.

When an eclipse occurs it offers the only chance to study the Sun’s chromosphere and the Solar corona. These outer regions of the sun are usually overpowered by the brilliant photosphere and cannot be seen. When a total eclipse occurs these layers become visible and can be studied.

Interesting, isn’t it?

Apologist Ron Mayers sees it this way. “Due to the regular and non-arbitrary relationship of God and created nature, nature can be studied, understood, and even greatly controlled and enhanced by man. Chemistry and biology, physics and physiology, along with innumerable other disciplines that are concerned with nature can be investigated by the scientist because there is this inherent regularity.”[2]

There is an “inherent regularity” around us. We’re able to study the sun and moon during a total eclipse. Data can be obtained concerning the size of the sun. Is it getting smaller? “One of the first confirmations of general relativity [Einstein’s Theory] was the bending of star light by the sun's mass, which could be observed only during a total solar eclipse when the images of stars were visible near the sun's edge.”[3] 

Friends, the size and positioning of the Sun and Moon in relation to Earth is purposeful! It cannot be random.

“The day is thine, the night also is thine: Thou hast prepared the light and the sun.”[4]









[2] Ronald B. Mayers, “Balanced Apologetics,”  (Secunderabad, India: OM Books, 2000) 26
[4] Psalm 74:16 (American Standard Version)
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1 comment:

  1. -------The International Dave Line -------26 January, 2013

    Interesting stuff. I have heard that measurements over the past 300 years actually show that the sun is shrinking.

    ReplyDelete

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Quotes of Note ... The Invisible World

“Spiritual warfare is learning to recognize the strategies, refusing to cooperate with them, and aggressively cutting off the schemes of the devil in Jesus’ name.” Dean Sherman

“those who protest that God cannot exist because there is too much evil evident in life… Evil exists; therefore, the Creator does not. That is categorically stated… If evil exists, one must assume that good exists in order to know the difference. If good exists, one must assume that a moral law exists by which to measure good and evil. But if a moral law exists, must not one posit an ultimate source of moral law, or at least an objective basis for a moral law? By an objective basis, I mean something that is transcendingly true at all times, regardless of whether I believed it or not.” Ravi Zacharias

“But the Devil is no big threat to God’s purposes; he is not even remotely comparable in power. He has been given a limited time before his final judgment to try to prove his case, just as all other moral beings who have chosen to live in rebellion against heaven.” W.A. Pratney

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