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In This Issue

BLOOD MOONS, THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD, & TESTING THE HYPOTHESES
Coming Events
It’s All About Time!

BLOOD MOONS,

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD,

& TESTING THE HYPOTHESES

by Douglas Roger Dexheimer

(Author’s note: By way of review, you may wish to refer to the two previous issues of this publication, which feature articles on the imminent lunar tetrad, defined as four successive total lunar eclipses, with no intervening partial lunar eclipses.)

THE FIRST PASSOVER IN EGYPT

Your author has been interested in astronomy since grammar school.  For many years I’ve been utilizing several astronomical programs on my home computer.  One of the best I’ve found is "Dance of the Planets."  With it, it is possible to show the night sky from any position on earth, at any moment -- past, present, or future. 

Many years ago, I experienced several “close encounters” with Mr. Gene Faulstich, author of a fascinating book, Bible Chronology and the Scientific Method.  I had met him at the home of Jim Jefferson and his wife Mary, who, at the time, had expressed to Mr. Faustlich a desire to query him regarding the chronology of the Egyptian dynasties.  Following that meeting, I kept in touch with him regarding my own questions and observations on biblical chronology.  About 15 years ago I invited him to my home to view a number of my computer-generated displays of historical night skies.  One of those was the night sky of the very first Passover.

In my preparation for creating this article, I dug up my copy of Faulstich’s book.  I found tucked away in it some notes I’d made at our first meeting!  They were sitting at the very page where he makes the following statement:

The child Amenemhet was probably the firstborn of Amenhotep II.  If so, then he may have died on the evening of Passover, Abib 15, 1461 B.C.¹

I believe Faulstich arrived at this date using cross-references to astronomical observations made in ancient times by the Chinese, Egyptians, Babylonians, etc.  He cross-linked and correlated the calendars of those cultures with selected special events in scripture, incorporating his findings with those of modern astronomy.

However, on review of NASA’s catalog of lunar eclipses, I see that the date of 1461 B.C. does not agree with a likely Passover or Sukkot date, since the Feasts of the LORD are in spring and fall, not January and July.

I suggest instead, the total lunar eclipse of April 6th, 1465 B.C. on Passover, and the eclipse of September 29th of 1465 B.C. on Sukkot.

According to the NASA Catalog of Lunar Eclipses, there were two total lunar eclipses, in 1465 B.C. but the next year, 1464, the lunar eclipses were partial, not total, so this does not qualify as a Lunar Tetrad.²

When I searched the web for the date of the original Passover in Egypt, I found an answer that was supposedly derived from a reference in I Kings:

And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord (I Kings 6:1, KJV).

Knowing this, it is possible to backtrack and calculate that the first Passover “began on the first month of the Jewish calendar, April 14, 1441 B.C."³ (I found additional references verifying that date.⁴)

However, according to NASA, the date of April 14, 1441 B.C. did not coincide with a lunar eclipse:⁵

An alternative chronology of biblical events places the Exodus at 1510 BC.⁶  There are no lunar eclipses in that year that fit the Feast-Day schedule.  The closest tetrad to 1510 occurred in the years 1513 B.C. and 1512 B.C.

I would conclude that the date of April 6, 1465 B.C., determined by Faulstich based on celestial calculations and concurrent chronologies, was likely the original Passover, but April 14, 1441 was neither a lunar eclipse nor a blood moon.

BACK TO THE PRESENT AND FUTURE

The "blood moon coincident with Jewish Feast days" concept was originally posed by Pastor Mark Biltz,⁷ and has been picked up by other Christian leaders, particularly Rev. John Hagge.⁸   These men emphasize the coincident events in Jewish history in the earlier blood moons, and extrapolate the concept to conclude that there may be a major event, or turning point in the history of the nation of Israel.  Both emphasize that they did not “invent” the concepts of lunar tetrads or blood moons; rather, their dates have been published by NASA for many years.

Creationist-astronomer Dr. Danny Faulkner has written an article commenting on the lunar tetrads.⁹  He makes disclaimers similar to those of Biltz and Hagge but goes on to explain the astronomical geometry that is responsible for eclipses.  Because of the tilt of the moon’s orbit relative to earth’s orbit around the sun, the timing of eclipses is not fixed every month, but depends upon the alignment of the orbits.  Faulkner asks

from what portion of the earth one ought to view these eclipses for them to constitute a sign. One might think that Jerusalem would be a key site, but the first three total lunar eclipses in 2014–2015 won’t be visible from there, and only the beginning of the final eclipse will be. One must ask whether a sign that few people notice is much of a sign.¹⁰

Faulkner concludes his paper with the following observation:

The biblical passages that refer to the dimming of the sun (Matthew 24:29; Joel 2:31) and the moon turning to blood (Joel 2:31) speak in very apocalyptic terms, emphasizing frightening things that men experience. The timing of the eclipses that Biltz draws attention to, while interesting, falls far short of the sort of signs that will cause the heavens to shake (Matthew 24:29).¹¹

A messianic Christian ministry based in Jerusalem has prepared a comprehensive history of past lunar tetrads.¹²  It spells out the events that coincided with the lunar tetrads in the past.  I agree with the presentation, but I do not understand how the Feast of Tabernacles, which is always six lunar months after the Feast of Passover was missing, and replaced with Yom Kippur in the following three events:

Four TOTAL lunar eclipses occurred on the Jewish Passover and Yom Kippur Holidays in 795 - 796 AD while King Charlemagne of the Holy Roman Empire established a DMZ buffer zone between France and Spain, ending centuries of Arab invasions into Western Europe.

Four TOTAL lunar eclipses occurred on the Jewish Passover and Yom Kippur Holidays in 842 - 843 AD. Shortly after the eclipses the Vatican church in Rome was attacked and looted by an Islamic invasion from Africa.

Four TOTAL lunar eclipses occurred on the Jewish Passover and Yom Kippur Holidays in 860 - 861 AD. Shortly after the eclipses the Byzantine Empire defeated Arab armies at the Battle of Lalakaon in Turkey and permanently stopped the Islamic invasion of Eastern Europe.¹³

I believe the above narrative is not entirely accurate, however, since it is not possible for a total lunar eclipse to fall on the first of a lunar month -- i.e., a new moon.  Lunar eclipses always occur at the time of the 14th of a lunar month -- i.e., a full moon.

An educator at Sonoma State University, Mr. Luis Vega, has put together an astounding series of charts that feature the lunar tetrads.  Vega has combined his interests in biblical creation, mathematics, astronomy, and computer graphics into this chart:¹⁴

You may recognize the blue spiral from my previous articles and presentations dealing with the Fibonacci Series.  The diagram incorporates the divine ratio, or Phi, which is commonly recognized as the golden spiral.¹⁵ A golden spiral is a logarithmic spiral whose growth factor is φ, the golden ratio.  That is, a golden spiral gets wider (or further from its origin) by a factor of φ for every quarter turn it makes.¹⁶  However, when I tried to construct the spiral using the numbers on the chart, I could not make the dates of the blood moons fit the divine or golden spiral that is shown.  The ratios of the successive arcs are not close to Φ (value 1.6180...) as they should be for a proper golden spiral. 

Furthermore, the numbers of years between events do not coincide with the numbers in the Fibonacci series.  Recall that the Fibonacci numbers are, by definition, F(n) = F(n-1)+F(n-2).  That is, each term is the sum of the previous two terms: 1, 2,  3,  5,  8,  13,  21, etc.  The 13th through 17th terms are 233, 377, 610, 987, and 1597.

  As you can see, the numbers 455 and 678 do NOT occur in that series.  Rather, 455 is between the 14th and 15th, and 678 is between the 15th and 16th number of the series. 

I would conclude that the series of lunar tetrads or blood moons does not correlate with the concept of the golden spiral.  While I appreciate Vega's efforts to show this relationship, it would appear to be nonexistent.  Nevertheless this critique does not affect the significance of the upcoming events.

Finally, I would be remiss if I were to fail to remind you once again to mark your calendars and set your alarm clocks for April 15th, just before 2:00 A.M., when a spectacular lunar eclipse will begin.  It will be widely visible from all of North America.  This is actually the first of two such events this year, the second one occurring in October, giving you two opportunities to experience this heavenly sight, should one or the other happen to be obscured by clouds!  For more details, go to the following website:

http://blog.scientificsonline.com/author/hannah-taylor/

¹, E.W. Faulstich, Biblical Chronology and the Scientific Method, The Old Testament with Secular Synchronisms, p. 37.

² http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEcat5/LE-1499--1400.html

³ http://www.gbible.org/index.php?proc=pre&sf=rea&tid=1442

⁴ http://www.biblemaster.com/studies/study.asp?study_id=1614 & http://www.theopedia.com/Date_of_the_Exodus

⁵ http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEcat5/LE-1499--1400.html

⁶ http://www.adamictimeline.com/adamic10b.html

⁷ http://shop.elshaddaiministries.us/Blood-Moons_c17.htm

⁸ http://www.amazon.com/Four-Blood-Moons-Something-Change/dp/1617952141

⁹ http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2013/07/12/lunar-eclipses-cause-blood-moons

¹⁰ Ibid.

¹¹ Ibid.

¹² http://www.pray4zion.org/TheComingBloodMoons.html

¹³ Ibid.

¹⁴ http://www.postscripts.org/charts-1.html

¹⁵ Ibid.

¹⁶ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_spiral

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We’d love to hear from you!

If you have questions or comments, or if you have suggestions for making our newsletter better, please feel free to contact us.  We’ll do our best to respond to every query.  THANK YOU!

May Monthly Meeting

Tuesday, May 6^th

“Noah Extravaganza”

by Kevin Anderson & Bill Cowherd

We’ll be presenting two videos: Biblical Geology, by Tas Walker, and Let The Rocks Speak, by Phillip Bell.

For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.  (II Peter 3:5-6, ESV.)

As a geologist examines rocks, his predispositions play a major role in his determination of their age.  Does he believe there was a worldwide flood within the past several millennia as described in the book of Genesis?  Or does he believe entirely different forces were involved in their formation?  The two videos we’ll present will help us to sort these things out from a biblical perspective.  We’ll examine the possible stages of such a deluge, and how it effected the deposition and the subsequent erosion of the rock layers we observe.  We’ll discover that the evidence fits amazingly well with the notion of a “recent flood,” as clearly recorded in the Bible. 

We’ll also view a short video involving an event which may or may not be distantly related to what one might refer to as “[a modern-day ark feasibility test].” It involves a few individuals whose faces some of you may recognize.

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Monthly Meetings

2014

(1st Tuesday of each month; content subject to change; no sign up or registration necessary.)

• January 7th: “The Great Debate” DVD, moderated by Bob Farwell.
• February 4th: “God Created Birds” DVD, moderated by Douglas Roger Dexheimer.      (canciled do to weather)
• March 4th: “The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record” DVD, moderated by Bob Farwell.
• April 1st: “Evolution vs. God” DVD, moderated by Kevin Anderson.
• May 6th: “Noah Extravaganza,” by Kevin Anderson & Bill Cowherd.
• June 3rd: “Radiometric Dating,” by Dave Penny.
• July 1st: “The Great Debate” DVD, moderated by Bob Farwell.
• August 5th: “Ice Age and Global Warming”  DVD, moderated by Kevin Anderson.
• September 2nd: “Relativity and Creationism,” by Dave Penny.
• October 7th: To be announced.
• November 4th: “The Great Debate” DVD, moderated by Bob Farwell.
• December 2nd: “Hegelian Implications,” by Dave Penny.

CSA Monthly Meeting Location

Westbrooke Church
9777 Antioch
Overland Park, KS 66121
10 blocks east of 69 Highway (or Switzer) on 95th St. to Antioch, south two blocks on Antioch, on east side of street.
Fellowship & book table: 6:15PM. Meeting: 7:00PM.

For detailed Monthly Meeting information:

www.csama.org

2014 Creation Safaris

• March 28 (Friday, 7:30 PM) – Astronomy Safari. (CANCELLED)
• April 25 (Friday, 8:00 PM) – Astronomy Safari.
• April 26 (Saturday) – Southeast Kansas Fossil and Mineral Safari.
• May 30 (Friday, 8:30 PM) – Astronomy Safari.
• May 24 - 26 (Saturday - Monday) – Western Kansas Safari.
• June 7 (Saturday) – Photo/Nature Hike Safari at Overland Park Arboretum.
• June 28 (Saturday, 8:45 PM) – Astronomy Safari.
• June 19-21 (Thursday - Saturday) – A float trip down the Ozark River.
• July 19 (Saturday) – Kansas University Natural History Museum Safari.
• July 25 (Saturday, 8:45 PM) – Astronomy Safari.
• Rock Bridge / Connor’s Cave Safari (not scheduled this year).
• August 16 (Saturday) – Greater KC Fossil Hunt.
• August 22 (Friday, 8:15) – Astronomy Safari.
• Aug 29 - Sept 1 (Friday - Monday) – Southeast Missouri Safari.
• September 19 (Friday, 7:30 PM) – Astronomy Safari.
• Safari Zoological Park, Caney, Kansas (not scheduled this year).
• October 18 (Saturday) – HaHa Tonka Safari.
• October 24  (Friday,7:15 PM) – Astronomy Safari.
• Bike Safari on the Katy Trail (not scheduled this year).
• November 21 (Friday, 7:15 PM) – Astronomy Safari.
• November 22 (Saturday) – Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge Safari.

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You must register for any safari.

For safari details, and to register please visit:

www.csama.org

or call

(816) 618-3610 or (816) 246-4517

Astronomy safaris only, call:

(913)-515-6421.

Debate: Ken Ham vs. “Bill Nye, the Science Guy”

Recently, Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis (AIG) engaged Bill Nye (aka, Bill Nye, the Science Guy) in a live, online debate on the “evolution vs. creation” issue.  For those of you who are interested, that debate is now available online (perhaps for a limited time, as it has now been released on DVD) at the following website:  http://debatelive.org/

It’s All About Time!

by Douglas Roger Dexheimer

Many things puzzle the evolutionist.  In order to make a plausible argument for origins, the concept of deep time has emerged as a development of imaginative men who were intent on finding an explanation for origins that denies the biblical narrative.

In upcoming issues of this newsletter, we hope to address the disciplines of science that depend upon the notion of deep time for their “special theories.”  We will propose alternative explanations which fit within the framework of a young earth -- i.e., about six thousand years of age. 

GEOLOGY

One of the first branches of science to embrace the concept of deep time was geology.  Early geologists who had rejected the biblical account of a worldwide flood could not imagine any alternative process by which the many observed layers of sedimentation could have possibly been deposited on the earth’s surface in a time span of only six millennia.  Consequently, they proposed a time frame of millions of years of uniformitarian accumulation of sediments as their model. 

Some of these geologists’ specific theories have since been handily demolished by creationists:

COAL FORMATION

Following the 1980 eruption of MT. Saint Helens, "a charred log was found with wood on one end and material on the other that under microscopic analysis proved to be a rather high grade of coal, formed essentially instantly.”¹

The floating mat theory of rapid coal formation received a major boost by Dr. Stephen Austin’s discovery of tree bark at the bottom of Spirit Lake following the eruption.  The peat layer in Spirit Lake, however, demonstrates that peat had accumulated rapidly as the result of massive blasts of volcanic debris, whereas:

Swamp peats have only very rare bark sheet material because the intrusive action of tree roots disintegrates and homogenizes the peat. The Spirit Lake peat, in contrast, is texturally very similar to coal. All that is needed is burial and slight heating to transform the Spirit Lake peat into coal.²

This theory has support from experiments conducted at Argonne National Labs where coal was produced in a short period of time.

…it was reported that all that was required for coal to form was that wood with kaolin clay as a catalyst must be buried deep enough that there is no oxygen, with a ground temperature of 150 degrees Celsius, and you will get coal in only 36 weeks. Further, it was noted that if the temperature were higher, the coal would form faster.³

PANGAEA, GONGOLALAND, AND CONTINENTAL DRIFT

Two proposed land masses which existed prior to their separation into the continents are commonly referred to as Pangaea and Gongolaland, named by geologists who matched the rock types and strata on the edges of the continents and/or continental shelf, and came to the conclusion that they had been formerly joined together at those matching edges. 

The introduction 50 years ago of the theory of Plate Tectonics⁴ offered an explanation for a long-observed spreading sea floor and moving continental plates.  Many geologists believe it clearly illustrates how the strata in continental areas could have been part of a single continent that was later broken up into the continents we know today.  However, for the continents to have separated to their present locations, based on observed (uniformitarian) rates of sea floor spreading, would have required millions of years.

CATASTROPHIC PLATE TECTONICS

About 25 years ago, Dr. John Baumgartner used computer modeling techniques to show how the continents moved apart as though they were on conveyor belts, as fresh basalt came up at the mid-oceanic rifts, and opposite sides of the rift separated rapidly.  He referred to this rapid movement of the continents as catastrophic plate tectonics.⁵  This concept provided a plausible scientific explanation for rapid continental drift, and shifts of the earth’s magnetic poles -- thus fitting a young earth model.

RADIOMETRIC DATING

Many deep time estimates have been based upon uniformitarian “scientific guesses” regarding a particular system’s initial conditions.  When foundational assumptions are incorrect or flawed, reliable calculation of a system’s age is rendered impossible.  Many of the assumptions pertaining to radiometric dating are demonstrably unscientific.  They include:

• Constant rates of isotopic radiometric decay. A fixed measurement of decay rate depends upon a constant speed of light. Substantial evidence exists that the speed of light is not constant.
• Isolation from external influences such as temperature and cosmic radiation, which may widely alter the decay rates. 
• No influx or loss of any parent or daughter isotopic materials throughout assumed millions of years.  (Highly unlikely!)
• ... and others.

In 1997, a special project was launched by AIG, ICR, and The Creation Research Society, to study the radiometric age of the earth.

In 1997, a group of young-earth creationists met in San Diego, California, to discuss the age of the earth (as measured radiometrically). Their goal was to clarify the chronology of earth history and search for a fundamental correction to the usual assumptions of deep time. They were skeptical of the Deep Time, evolutionary time scale that dominates modern geology. These scientists reviewed the assumptions and procedures used in estimating the ages of rock strata and they recognized multiple weaknesses.⁶

One of the studies involved a close examination of the rock layers in the side walls of the Grand Canyon.  Dr. Andrew Snelling, a member of the “RATE” (Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth) team, in agreement with other RATE participants, concluded that:

The radioisotope methods, long touted as irrefutably dating the earth's rocks as countless millions of years old, have repeatedly failed to provide reliable and meaningful absolute ages for Grand Canyon rock layers. Irreconcilable disagreement within and between the methods is the norm, even at the outcrop scale. This is a devastating "blow" to the long ages that are foundational to uniformitarian geology and evolutionary biology. Yet the discordance patterns are consistent with past accelerated radioisotope decay, which would also render these "clocks" useless. Thus there is no reliable evidence to dispute that these metamorphosed basalt lava flows deep in Grand Canyon date back to the Creation Week only thousands of years ago.⁷

Our review of geologic deep time will continue next month, with a look at cave formation, and the origin of petroleum.

Stay tuned!

¹ Morris, J. 2011. On the Origin of Coal. Acts & Facts. 40 (6): 18.

² http://www.icr.org/article/mt-st-helens-catastrophism/

³ https://www.creationworldview.org/articles_view.asp?id=51

⁴ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics

⁵ http://www.icr.org/article/catastrophic-plate-tectonics-flood/

⁶ http://www.icr.org/research/rate/

⁷ http://www.icr.org/article/42/

Ω

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