God, Aliens, and Other Stuff

 When is a diamond not a diamond? I’ve blogged many times about the differences in the two creation stories in Genesis one and two. You can read about them here  and here . I’m married to a geologist. My coursework for my BA degrees included Geology courses, so of course Hubby and I are old earth Christians, which has caused gasps of shock from friends who think we are slipping away from Jesus. I’ve written about creation from the standpoint of the actual possible scribal authors, and yes, my postgraduate education made all the difference in my outlook. Before those studies, I asked the right questions, but afterward I confidently acquired the answers.   A quick rehash: Gen. 1 has a different style. Poetic, repetitive, orderly. Gen. 2 is more conversational and lacks a linear timeline. In Gen. 1, God’s title is Elohim. In Gen. 2, He is called Yahweh-Elohim. In Gen. 1, God “creates” by His word, out of nothing. Things poof into existence. In Gen. 2, God forms manki...

  First, the backstory, I Kings 11 We all heard in Sunday School what a wise man King Solomon was. He allegedly wrote the book of Proverbs and the lyrical Song of Solomon in the Hebrew Bible, and I suspect that he also wrote the somewhat cynical book of Ecclesiastes. I’ve no doubt he was a handsome fellow because his mother’s beauty caused King David’s heart and brain to turn to mush. David forgot everything he ever knew about God and committed murder and adultery, with the usual government coverup. Coverups never work with God. Bathsheba’s first baby died, devastating both parents. Solomon was the darling of the court, even though he was son #7. All of his older male half-siblings were from six different wives of David. When Solomon was born, sons #1-6 knew that they were screwed as far as inheriting the throne. Solomon began well, joining with his father in plans for a grand new Temple unto the Lord. When it was complete, miraculous manifestations demonstrated God’s approval of a...

 Using the correct numbers and manuscripts completes an ancient puzzle.  Image: Thutmose III Academics who take the biblical narrative seriously about the Exodus from Egypt are divided about when it happened. Mention of Rameses (Gen. 47:11; Ex. 12:37; Nu. 33:3) suggests a later date, which raises all kinds of conflicts with history and causes a cloud of doubt about the story. But those mentions may be an indication of when the narrative was put to scroll, not when the events occurred. If you take the Bible dates and numbers seriously, which I did in a very careful study, you come up with an Exodus date of about 1446 BC/BCE (before Christ or before the common era). That makes Amenhotep II, a militant king who often raided Canaan for slaves and concubines, the pharaoh of the Exodus, in which case, by around 1500 BCE Israel was a cohesive ethnic group with an identity worthy of mention along with other well-established groups and states. So although the question may never be set...

 And where was the Garden of Eden? Was there a UFO connection? Ocean scene with golden sunset. Image by Jonny Belvedere on Pixabay   Scriptures are pasted from biblegateway.com, NKJV. WHEN Genesis was written? For decades of my Christian existence, I thought it was a given that Moses wrote the five books of the Torah, Genesis through Deuteronomy. In the Christian Bible, the Torah is usually called the five books of Moses. My Lutheran Bible tells me that Martin Luther never doubted that Moses wrote Genesis, and the modern study notes state clearly that Moses wrote the book. That surprises me because Genesis itself makes no pretense that he wrote it, but rather tells us that it was written well after Israel replaced the Canaanites in the land. Moses never made it to Canaan, so he couldn’t have testified to the Conquest. It’s almost as if I had to throw off my own literalist approach to Genesis before my brain gave my eyeballs permission to see the following passages: G...

  Writing for Bible History Daily (biblicalarchaeology.org), Megan Sauter references an article by Holly Beers of Westmont College in which Beers surveys the first century culture that restricted women in the emerging New Testament Church. Both articles were too short to do justice to a topic which has inspired thousands of books. There isn’t one debate point on the topic that hasn’t already been chopped, baked, fried, and diced to oblivion. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading Sauter’s spinoff on Beers. Sauter pointed out 5 ways that women served in the NT church: a] They served at the Passover meals, b] they offered prayers, c] they led hymns (1 Cor. 14:26), d] they read and interpreted Scripture (Acts 18:24-26), e] they performed acts of charity, ministering to widows, the sick, and those in prison. Actually, pretty bland stuff. One of several NT passages that has caused such turmoil among theologians is 1 Tim. 2:8-15, in which Paul, or someone writing in his name, makes it very cl...