THE SUN STOOD STILL
A problem faced by Space Scientists.This article appeared in “The Evening Star” of Spencer, Indiana. A Miss Hazel Brown of Baltimore, Maryland, who verified it, obtained permission for reprinting.
Did you know that the space programme is busy proving that what has been called “myth” in the Bible is true? Mr.Harold Hill, President of the Curtis Engine Co. in Baltimore, Maryland and a consultant in the space programme relates the following development.
I think that one of the most amazing things that God has for us today happened recently to our astronauts and space scientists at Green Belt, Maryland.They were checking the position of the sun, moon and planets out in space where they would be 100 years and 1,000 years from now. We have to know this so we don’t send a satellite up and have it bump into something later on in its orbits.We have to lay out the orbits in terms of the life of the satellite, and where the planets will be, so the whole thing will not bog down. They ran the computer measurement back and forth over the centuries, and it came to a halt. The computer stopped and put up a red signal, which meant that there was something wrong either with the information fed into it, or with the results as compared to the standards.
A MISSING DAY
They called the service department to check it out, and they said, “It’s perfect.” The head of operations said,“What’s wrong?”
“Well, they have found there is a day missing in space in elapsed time.” They scratched their heads and tore their hair. There was no answer.
One religious fellow on the team said, “You know, one time I was in Sunday School and they talked about the sun standing still.”
They didn’t believe him, but they didn’t have any other answer so they said, “Show us.” He got a Bible and went back to the book of Joshua where they found a pretty ridiculous statement for anybody who has “common sense.” There they found the Lord saying to Joshua.
“Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand: there shall not a man of them stand before thee.”
Joshua was concerned because he was surrounded by the enemy, and if darkness fell they would overpower them. So Joshua asked the Lord to make the sun stand still. That’s right – “the sun stood still,and the moon stayed… and hasted not to go down about a whole day” – (Joshua 10: 8.12.13).
The space men said, “There is the missing day!” They checked the computers going back into the time it was written, and found it was close, but not close enough. The elapsed time that was missing back in Joshua’s day was 23 hours and 20 minutes-not a whole day. They read the Bible and there it was-“about (approximately) a day.”
FORTY MINUTES
These little words in the Bible are important. But they were still in trouble because if you cannot account for 40 minutes you’ll still be in trouble 1,000 years from now. Forty minutes had to be found because it can be multiplied many times over in orbits. This religious fellow also remembered somewhere in the Bible where it said the Sun went backwards.
The space men told him he was out of his mind. But they got out the Book and read these words in 2 Kings: Hezekiah on his death-bed was visited by the prophet Isaiah who told him he was not going to die. Hezekiah asked for a sign as proof. Isaiah said, “Do you want the sun to go ahead ten degrees?” Hezekiah said, “It’s nothing for the sun to go ahead ten degrees, but let the shadow return backwards ten degrees” – (2 Kings 20:9-11). Isaiah spoke to the Lord and the Lord brought the shadow ten degrees backwards. Ten degrees is exactly 40 minutes! Twenty three hours and 20 minutes in Joshua, plus 40 minutes in 2 Kings make the missing hours the space travellers had to log in the log-book as being the missing day in the universe.
From the April 15, 1970 issue of the Bible Science Newsletter, published by the Bible-Science Association of Caldwell, Idaho, U.SA §
