Sunspots 462

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
The Arts: A four minute, 23 second performance of Leroy Anderson's Typewriter Symphony, with a real typewriter. (I know, some of you probably don't know what a typewriter is.) It's by a Spanish-speaking group, but that doesn't matter.
Computing: National Public Radio reports on those ubiquitous customer surveys -- how and why.
Politics: (or something) Linkedin has a post on how to get hired by Google, or any company.
Science: Wired reports on a person who has made some amazing videos of flocks of birds in flight, and discusses bird flock action. One brief video is included.
Wired also reports on the possibility that astronomers may be able to observe a gas cloud being "eaten" by our galaxy's central black hole.
And Wired has some splendid photos of objects in space.


Image source (public domain)

Waylander, by David Gemmell

I recently read Waylander, (New York: Ballantine, a Division of Random House. A Del Rey book, 1986.) by David Gemmell, who passed away in 2006. There is a Wikipedia article on the book, and also one on the author. For more on the plot and characters, read the Wikipedia article on the book. I prefer not to give away much of the plot.

I believe, but am not sure, that I purchased my used copy of the book because I had read that Gemmell is at least influenced by Christianity. See here for a discussion, in this blog, of what makes a novel Christian. The Wikipedia article on the author says this: 
The consistent presence of redemption in Gemmell's work reflected his Christian beliefs. He claimed that all of his novels have a religious basis, calling them "essentially Christian books" . . .

What evidence is there that Waylander is an "essentially Christian book?" Here's some of it:

Waylander presents a number of choices between good and evil. The main character, Waylander, chooses to rescue a Source priest, and a woman who is trying to save three children from the ravages of war and bandits. Such behavior is uncharacteristic of him. A couple of characters, who are hired assassins, or who have preyed upon suffering people, bringing them to financial ruin, unselfishly choose to help Waylander.

There is also hope in the face of seeming despair. Dardalion, the priest that Waylander helped, believes that evil can be vanquished. Orien, who was the king, has hope that a quest, which will help a general defeat the forces of evil, can be fulfilled.

There is evidence that some of the characters believe in a god, or God, the Source. Toward the end of the events in the book, Dardalion reflects on what has happened:
"It was all a pattern, created from an interweaving series of apparently random threads. Dardalion fell to his knees." (p. 288)
Clearly, Dardalion believes, and he prays. (So do other characters.) On one occasion, he prays that he and his companions will not hate their enemies.

The Wikipedia article on the book, which is a stub, does not mention any of these things. I may add them myself.

Waylander was not marketed as Christian fiction. But it has Christian elements, and seems to have been written from a Christian world-view. I'm glad that I read it. I expect to read more of Gemmell's work, including two sequels to this book.

I should say that the book has a lot of violence in it. It is, I suppose, rather typical sword and sorcery fiction.

Thanks for reading!

Does the Bible really say that? Excerpt from my book, 27

[Continuing a discussion of prophecy]

There are also differences in views on the millennium, a thousand-year reign of Christ. Some Christians are amillennialists – they believe that the Biblical millennium refers to the activity of the church in history, or that the millennium is figurative, not literal. Pre-millennialists believe that Christ will return before the millennium. Post-millennialists believe that Christ will return after a thousand-year period during which Christians will rule the earth, or else that the millennium is not literal.

The most common view among the Christians I am familiar with is futuristic, with the rapture before the tribulation, and the millennium after the tribulation. This view is known as dispensationalism. Dispensationalism is often taught in conservative Christian churches. The Left Behind series of books and related material is based on dispensationalist theology. (I have not read any of these books, and cannot comment on them intelligently. For discussion, including criticism, see the Wikipedia article on the series.)

Dispensationalism has not always been so popular, and it was not the view of the early church. It was introduced in the 19^th century, and has grown in popularity since that time.

It is not possible to rule out dispensationalism scripturally, and it may be true. However, dispensationalism is not firmly supported by the Bible. The following is a discussion of the weakness of the support for that view.

The rapture

The word, “rapture,” doesn’t occur in the Bible. It refers to an event where believers are taken from the world by God. Here is the main scriptural support for the idea:

1 Thessalonians 4:13 But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left to the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, 17 then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

These verses describe the event that dispensationalists call the rapture. There is controversy over how literally to take this, and the timing. Some Bible scholars believe that this is like a triumphal procession, with Christ coming to earth accompanied by the believers, rather than taking them away.

This passage also may be speaking of a rapture:

Matthew 24:37 “As the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, 39 and they didn’t know until the flood came, and took them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and one will be left; 41 two women grinding at the mill, one will be taken and one will be left. 42 Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come.

However, this seems to be mostly talking of Christ’s return to earth, not about believers leaving. It is also true that, shortly before the above verse, Jesus said this:

Matthew 24:29 But immediately after the oppression of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; 30 and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 31 He will send out his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Many popular depictions of the rapture, from the dispensationalist view, include this type of story:

Alice will be at home, and come to realize that she can’t find her husband and children, even though she thought they were home with her. They have disappeared. After searches, phone calls, etc., Alice realizes that this has happened to a lot of people, and that the ones who can’t be located are believers. She has been “left behind.”

That sort of idea about a rapture is strange, because verse 16 of 1 Thessalonians 4, and Matthew 24:29-31, which are both above, indicate that the events described, whatever they are, won’t be secret at all. They will be associated with some loud noises and visible phenomena, such as the archangel. It seems that, even if people are going to be left behind, they will know that something extraordinary has taken place.

Why don’t some Bible scholars believe in a rapture, or don’t believe in the dispensationalist version of it? One reason is that there are scriptures that don’t seem consistent with such an event. Here’s 1 John 2:28: Now, little children, remain in him, that when he appears, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

This seems to be saying that Christians should look forward to some sort of judgment as the next big event.

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.

This seems, again to be warning about a judgment, not about being zipped off to heaven.

Revelation 22:20 He who testifies these things says, “Yes, I come quickly.”

Amen! Yes, come, Lord Jesus.

This is the next-to-last verse in the Bible. Although it is difficult or impossible to fully know what Revelation means – it is highly symbolic and apocalyptic – there doesn’t seem to be anything in these verses, or in the entire book, that suggests that Christ will come back and remove believers. Instead, John seems to be describing the Second Coming of Christ.

Some Bible scholars believe that the event described in 1 Thessalonians 4 (quoted at the beginning of this section) has a different meaning. 1 Thessalonians 4:15: “who are left to the coming of the Lord,” in Greek, is ho zaō paraleipomai eis parousia (source). Parousia, according to the Blueletter Bible’s Outline of Biblical usage, means 1) presence

2) the coming, arrival, advent

a) the future visible return from heaven of Jesus, to raise the dead, hold the last judgment, and set up formally and gloriously the kingdom of God

N. T. Wright says that parousia concerns two ideas:

The first meaning was the mysterious presence of a god or divinity, particularly when the power of this god was revealed in healing. People would suddenly be aware of supernatural and powerful presence, and the obvious word for this was parousia. . . . The second meaning emerges when a person of high rank makes a visit to a subject state, particularly when a king or emperor visits a colony or province. The word for such a visit is royal presence: in Greek, parousia. In neither setting, we note, obviously but importantly, is there the slightest suggestion of anybody flying around on a cloud. Nor is there any hint of the imminent collapse of the space-time universe. (Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, New York: HarperOne, 2008, page 129)

The above is an excerpt from my recently published e-book, Does the Bible Really Say That?, which may be obtained free of charge, or purchased from Amazon for $0.99, which is the lowest price Amazon lets an author set. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain.

The previous post in this series is here. God willing, the next post in this series will continue a discussion of this topic, prophecy. Thanks for reading.

Pi day - on the ratios of similar shapes

Today, March 14, or 3/14, is celebrated by some, especially by schoolteachers, as pi day. The reason is that 3.14 is an approximation for pi. Why isn't 3.14 pi?

Pi is the ratio between the circumference, the distance around, and the diameter, the distance across, of a circle.

Let's consider a seemingly unrelated topic. Suppose you think about someone you are very familiar with, someone you have seen many times in current photos. Perhaps yourself, perhaps someone else. Can you recognize that person in a small photo, as well as a large one? Of course, unless the photo is so small that you can't make out details at all. Why is that so? The photos are different, yet they are all of the same person, and they are similar. Similar in what way? Several ways, such as eye color, perhaps, but they are similar in many ratios. The distance between that person's eyes, in the photos, has the same ratio to the distance from one corner of the mouth to the other, in every photo. The distance from one corner of the left eye to the tip of the nose has the same ratio to the distance from one corner of the right eye to the tip of the nose, in every photograph. You haven't measured these distances, or calculated the ratios, but if these, and many other ratios, weren't the same in each photograph, you would start to think that some of the photographs weren't of the same person. (For a person's face, we need to allow some leeway for whether they are smiling, the angle that the photo was taken from, and the like, but the ratios need to be close to the same, or the same, for the photo to look natural.)

One more example. Consider squares. Are all squares the same size? No, of course not. But all squares have some ratios that are identical, or they wouldn't be squares. Most obviously, the ratio between any one side of a square, and any other side, is 1. The sides are all identical. Another ratio of all squares is the ratio between any side and the distance from one corner to the opposite corner. That ratio can be determined by the Pythagorean Theorem, which tells us that the sum of the squares of the shorter sides of a right triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse, the longest side. From that, the ratio of the distance across a square, from one corner to an opposite corner, to a side of that square, is equal to the square root of 2. Always, for all squares.

So a person's picture always has the same ratios, or nearly so, between dimensions. A square always has exactly the same ratios between various dimensions. Circles, too, are all similar, regardless of size, meaning that the ratios of their dimensions are the same. What ratio? What dimension? The ratio between the distance around any circle, the circumference, to the distance across the circle, through the center, which is the diameter, is always the same. And that ratio is pi.

It so happens that pi (and also the square root of 2) are irrational numbers. That is, even though they are ratios, they cannot be exactly expressed as ratios between whole numbers. Pi is nearly 22/7, but not exactly. Pi is nearly 3 and 14/100, but not exactly.

For much more on pi, see the Wikipedia article.

Sunspots 461

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
The Arts: (and Humor) What kind of music do milk cows prefer to listen to? (Or what kind enhances milk production?) From National Public Radio.
Christianity: Ken Schenck on Inspiration, Authority, Infallibility and Inerrancy.
Heart, Mind, Soul and Strength on fasting.
Computing: Gizmo's Freeware has published an annotated list of the best free apps for iPhone.
Humor: (And politics, and a lot of other things) 40 photos from the last century. Some were heartbreaking, some amazing, some weird.
Politics: (and Sports) National Public Radio reports on the man who is most likely the world's tallest legislator.
Science: NPR also reports on snakes that glide through the air, and how they do it. (Includes a brief video.)

Image source (public domain)

Cosmos, with Neil deGrasse Tyson

I watched part of the first part of Cosmos, a series about (what else) the cosmos, on Fox TV and also on the National Graphic Channel, on Sunday evenings, with Neil deGrasse Tyson as narrator. This is an upgrade of a previous series, with the same name, with Carl Sagan as narrator, which may have been the most widely watched TV series of all time. It looks like the new one is going to be a great series, with great graphics, and magnificent subject matter, but Tyson unfortunately started it off by quoting Sagan, who said that "The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be." (Cosmos, p. 4. New York, Random House, 1980.) That's an interesting statement. It may even be true, although I personally don't believe it, because the Bible contradicts it -- the Bible says that there is a God who is superior to the cosmos. And it's not a scientific statement at all. It's a philosophical statement, one that can't be proved or disproved by science. Sagan didn't do any experiments that showed it to be true. Neither did Tyson, or anyone else.

Here's the Wikipedia page on the new series. The Sagan series also has a Wikipedia article -- see the "previous series" link above.

Thanks for reading.

Does the Bible really say that? Excerpt from my book, 26

[Continuing a discussion on interpreting Bible prophecy:]

The above analysis is meant to raise cautions about prophecies of end times, so popular in our own day. We don’t know how those prophecies will be fulfilled, because they haven’t been fulfilled yet, and most of them are no clearer than the prophecies discussed above.

What we do know about end times

Here’s what Jesus said: Luke 12:35 “Let your waist be dressed and your lamps burning. 36 Be like men watching for their lord, when he returns from the marriage feast; that, when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him. 37 Blessed are those servants, whom the lord will find watching when he comes. Most certainly I tell you, that he will dress himself, and make them recline, and will come and serve them. 38 They will be blessed if he comes in the second or third watch, and finds them so. 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not allowed his house to be broken into. 40 Therefore be ready also, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you don’t expect him.” [All quotations from the World English Bible, public domain.]

So here’s what we do know, for sure, about Christ’s return:

1) His coming will be unexpected.

2) We need to be ready.

These two facts ought to be enough, but human curiosity drives us to try to want to know more.

Different views of eschatology

The study of end times is called eschatology. For more information, see the Wikipedia article on Christian eschatology:

“The major issues and events in Christian eschatology are death and the afterlife, Heaven and Hell, the Second Coming of Jesus, the Resurrection of the Dead, the Rapture, the Tribulation, Millennialism, the end of the world, the Last Judgment, and the New Heaven and New Earth of the World to Come.”

(Each of the capitalized terms has its own article.) Many Bible scholars believe that each of these events and issues are described in the Bible. Some disagree. For example, some Bible scholars don’t believe that there will be a rapture.

The Wikipedia also tells us that there are four main schools of thought on eschatology, as follows:

Preterism is the belief that most or all of the events in the above paragraph have already happened.

Historicism is the belief that many of the events listed above have happened, since the time of Christ.

Futurism is the belief that most of the prophecies concerning the above list of events are yet to be fulfilled.

Idealism is the belief that the descriptions of coming events in the Bible are symbolic, mostly of the battle between good and evil, rather than of actual observable events.

I quoted Luke 12 above. Here are two other passages, also telling us what Jesus said to His disciples about His return.

Matthew 24:29b the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; 30 and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 31 He will send out his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Matthew 25:31 “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. 36 I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.’

Matthew 24 and 25 are apparently part of the same discourse by Jesus.

These descriptions (which are prophecies) don’t seem to be compatible with a preterist, historicist, or idealist view. They seem to be describing events so momentous that, if they had already occurred, we would know about them. That supports the futurist view. Again, such support must be flavored with the same kind of caution mentioned above about prophecies about Christ’s first appearance on earth. Nonetheless, I won’t discuss the other schools of thought any further. Futurism is the prevailing view among “conservative” Christians. (Conservative in regard to Bible interpretation, not necessarily in regard to politics.) However, some common futurist ideas are not firmly supported by scripture.

Futurists mostly believe in a rapture, wherein believers are removed from the earth, and in a tribulation, generally a seven-year tribulation. There are several varieties of futurists. These include pre-tribulationists, mid-tribulationists, and post-tribulationists. These differ on the timing of the rapture and the tribulation. A pre-tribulationist believes that there will be a rapture before the tribulation.

The above is an excerpt from my recently published e-book, Does the Bible Really Say That?, which may be obtained free of charge, or purchased from Amazon for $0.99, which is the lowest price Amazon lets an author set. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain.

The previous post in this series is here. God willing, the next post in this series will continue a discussion of this topic, prophecy. Thanks for reading.