110208.1036 - Let me state first of all that I do not share the general Baptist dogma that all text in the Bible must be taken as literal. There are just too many confusing passages and apparent contradictions. I believe instead that understanding what is written is much more important than, for example, memorizing whole chapters word for word.
In the scientific discourse concerning the creation of the Universe, which I am in the process of developing for publication on my kooy.org site, I start with the following premises:
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.
Based on these initial premises, in addition to the
experiences I have had in my life and my perception of 'reality' vs
'illusion', I have come up with an idea that happens to find its poetic expression in a book written by J.R.R. Tolkien: The Silmarillion
My scientific expression of this idea is as follows:
God
is Eternal and his Essence stretches out into Infinity, which is a
concept beyond our understanding. The Universe is a fairly simple
four-dimensional Time-Space continuum woven, as it were, into the
multi-dimensional fabric of Eternity. The dimensions of Eternity are
all around us, but they are beyond our perception (at least most of the
time)
As you may know I thoroughly enjoy Science Fiction - provided it is based on solid scientific premises and expands into
theoretical possiblities. Hence the fact that in the middle of my visit
to the last tango at Hotel Charlotte
I had to go home and watch 'Stargate Universe'.
In fact the concept of
a 'Stargate' as a portal to other worlds and even Eternity itself has
been with me for quite some time.
110208.1410 - And so, in answer to 'What do you think this means?':
On Sinai Mountain, at that time and space, God opened
a portal from Eternity to the representatives of His chosen people on earth. A
slice of Heaven was visually shared with our Space-Time continuum and,
while not being there themselves, they saw God where He was.
110206 - I was reading Exodus 24:9-11 in the Life Application Bible. What do you think this means? I find it to be an amazing passage. It is such a literal description of what they are describing to be an actual event.
"Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up into the mountain. And they saw the God of Israel: under his feet there seemed to be a pavement of brilliant sapphire stone, as clear as the heavens. Yet, even though the elders saw God, he did not destroy them; and they had a meal together before the Lord."
This was Mount Sinai right before God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and Tabernacle instructions.
110113 - It is late, so I will only take a minute and write more later. I got up to look up the temperature at which granite melts.....isn't that a strange little factoid? The reason is that I saw a documentary the other night regarding the true location and circumstance of Mt. Sinai. It was the most fascinating thing I may have ever seen. I went to my life application Bible and read the story of Moses meeting God and the details therein.
The two Americans that claim to have seen the top of the mountain say you can see that the solid granite has been melted into a black glass like substance. Isn't that interesting? They say it is not the Mt. Sinai currently named so, but another mountain in Saudi Arabia that can be reached by a land bridge over the water....see walking across the Red Sea. Anyway, it is also interesting that you would write me at this time. As Edgar Cayce once said, there are no accidental meetings or in our case, re meetings.
with the StarMaker as Guide, Nothing is impossible
with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee ...
I had to go home and watch 'Stargate Universe'.