The earth is much older than we had thought

The R A N T of G L E N N glenn3@frontiernet.net
Glenn Jacobs / 130 N. Poverty Flat / Box 954 / Eagar, Arizona 85925 / 928-333-3517
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The earth is very old

Letter to the editor;

For generations we have pulled the rug out from under ourselves, devoutly believing that the earth was created ex nihilo (out of nothing) in the year 4002 BC. (And as a certain cynical atheist added, “on the fourteenth of October, at 9 o’clock in the morning.)

In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth.

Adam was created about six thousand years ago.

The Grand Canyon is only one of many mountainous pieces of evidence that The Beginning was thousands of millions of years before Adam.

Our children look at the rocks and hear us say the many layers of the mountains (and the fossils embedded within them) were created just a few days before Adam.

They know better. They can plainly see that this is not true. They may think we would lie to them about other things as well – like about the L-rd or the Ten Commandments.

There is not a solitary word in Scripture that indicates that the earth was without form and void only about a hundred hours before Adam first drew breath. Those numbered “days” of creation just didn’t necessarily have to occur back-to-back with each other.

For those who say G-d created the Grand Canyon and fossils and all that so shortly ago -- will you say He deliberately deceived us? That He manufactured false evidence?

Since the Creator would not lie to us, we can conclude that the fossils in the rocks prove that there used to be other kinds of living things – and that the earth is exceedingly old.

Glenn Jacobs
Eagar, Arizona

The very long perspective

The R A N T of G L E N N glenn3@frontiernet.net
Glenn Jacobs / 130 N. Poverty Flat / Box 954 / Eagar, Arizona 85925 / 928-333-3517
Permission is granted to edit, print and/or broadcast these weekly polemical essays.
(To subscribe -- for yourself or a friend – or to unsubscribe – send the e-address.)

The really B – I – G picture

Letter to the editor;

This Earth orbits a star and receives life-giving light and heat from it.

There are thousands of millions of stars in this galaxy.

There are thousands of millions of other galaxies.

Each galaxy is neatly arranged to orbit around its own center.

The many galaxies “fall” away from each other so that they will never collide.

Any number of stars may be accompanied by planets. Any number of those planets may be habitable.

Either the Eternal King of Creation made all of those objects just to be passing the time, or He made them with a purpose.

Since the purpose of this planet is to provide spirits with a place to enjoy mortality, it may well be that untold millions (or perhaps even thousands of millions) of planets are, at any given time, not only habitable -- but inhabited.

Since the Lord G-d saw fit to create us in His image on this planet, it may well be that He would create man in His image on each suitable planet.

And why would He do this? For His own Glory, that's why!

Every religious person should form, within his or her own theology, a unified Plan of Salvation that includes not only this planet, but any number of planets that G-d has created, beatified, sanctified and made into homes for His children. (Atheists don’t need to bother with this issue.)

(Planets do not accidentally become habitable. It takes many miracles, over millions of years, to bring a proto-planet of molten iron to the condition of being able to hold oceans and atmosphere, make topsoil, grow grass and trees, and support ants and plankton, to say nothing of sharks, bears and human beings.)

Glenn Jacobs
Eagar, Arizona

The world was assembled ON PURPOSE

Testimony

Letter to the editor;

I prayed before I started to write this. I felt impressed to pour forth a blazing testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of the heavens and the earth.

Then the Yetzer Hara (“the evil inclination”) made me afraid that would offend my Jewish readers.

So I decided on an impassioned discourse attributing all the glories of Creation to Hashem (“The Name”) – who created it all. After all, I reasoned, They are one and the same.

The Yetzer Hara came on strong with reasonings that many of my readers are atheists, agnostics, evolutionists, “politically-correct,” scientific, post-modern sophisticated men and women, who would stop reading the second I mentioned a Creator along with the Creation.

So, taking a big step backward, I remembered the Star Wars series, and “The Force”. Ah! The Force organized all this pre-existing matter, in the pre-existing expanse of space, over the self-existing expanse of time. That gets us closer to the elusive “common denominator”. The impersonal Force brought all of this to pass.

But, no. Atheists and other sophisticated folk will say that is too close to a concept of a G-d. All right, let’s see how this goes: Random motion of self-existing sub-atomic particles brought about a very large number of random subassemblies, which fell together at random to make stars and planets – and living beings.

Forget THAT! Random motions get random results. Purposeful motions get purposeful results. When you see an aircraft or a watch or an automobile, you know someone made it on purpose. The physical Creation is much more complex. It is obvious on the face of it that Someone organized it on purpose. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

Furthermore, knowledge of G-d has to come from G-d. If you want to know about G-d, you have to pray for understanding. (My testimony comes from the Holy Spirit, and not out of a laboratory.) If you don’t know by what Name to address Him, don’t let that stop you. He answers to any of His many, many Names.

Glenn Jacobs / Eagar, Arizona