Miracles

[dprprb]

When I was growing up there was a piece of paper, glued to an over lacquered slab of wood, sitting on top of a walnut table that I often admired. On the paper was the poem “Time is..” by Henry van Dyke Jr.  Time is one gift we receive for our faith. Eternity is the promise of God. To the best of my assessment, the miracles are the exact demonstration by God that he can deliver on that promise. Therefore one way to understand how miracles can occur is by examining them in the temporal element. Messing with the timing of things is a very very very large blank check in terms of breaking down laws of physics. I understand if all the scientifically trained persons reading this get up and leave.  To demonstrate the effectiveness of this idea Im going to bring all the relevant information from the scientific disciplines (var. pseudo-scientific) life experiences, etc and place it around the miraculous circumstances…. 

If I conclude that Jesus Christ cant walk on ‘water’, then in time Jesus can walk on the depositional plain resulting from the infilling of the Sea of Galilee with sediment. It is surrounded by hills and is 212 feet below sea level. Empirical evidence suggests that this infill will occur eventually, but it could also be a paleo-surface prior to a subsidence geologically in time.  That statement is still true to the observables of the apostles and their understanding of the world - ‘magic’ is thought to be real and geology isn’t known in circa 1 AD. They physically cant honestly witness it any other way unless they are completely educated upfront. This also explains why axe heads don’t actually float and are suspended by a creek bottom that varies by erosion in time as it meanders through the landscape forming oxbows and then erasing it all in a flood only to develop it all again year after year.

Let’s test this theme again to see if we can place any trust or value in it…

 What wine tastes good the day you make it?  Beer yes. Wine no. We can change the chemistry or change the time…”Which is easier?” Jesus asks (Matt 9:4-5).  Clay pots were important possessions, just like a car today, and ancient peoples reused them again and again and again. Mary asks Jesus for a favor to attend to the wedding guests. But wait- hold on! The guests testify that the wine is great! (John2:11) Was a double miracle performed or is Jesus just that good at winemaking? Immediately you would like to think so given who He is. However, atemporally switching the contents of the vessels to that of fine aged wine is soooo much easier – It might be important to emphasize here that both things occur in physics- water for wine and wine for water. One day perhaps a flood does come and ruins the contents with water in the future or the switched wine was lost to a collapsed roof in the past, I don’t know. I cant write those atemporal equivalences but what I do know is what every vinter knows -that wine is made good by having a long relationship with its mother and words have preserved the relationship He had with Mary to this day.

For any good idea a few times is not enough of course..

           So the land that forms the Red Sea has always been parting, geologically, and words have preserved that feature to this day. It forms part of a triple junction structure of 3 cracks in the crust separated by 120 degrees. The ‘other’ crack extends into the Afar region of Africa where they are digging up man’s ancestors. If you follow the “out of Africa” theory you see that every human ancestor passed thru the Red Sea area “in exodus” (migrating). About 30K years ago Mt Perim, a southerly volcano,  erupted. The flows of basalt blocked the Perimeter of the Red Sea and allowed it to dry up completely. It is thought (and I have no evidence presently) that this damn was breached catastrophically by the Indian Ocean and refilled the basin. So atemporally, all the elements of the miraculous escape from Egypt are here: volcanic fire from vents in the earth, columns of erupting volcanic smoke by day and columns of lava plume by night, a dry ocean basin to cross that has no mud whatsoever and the catastrophic flooding that drowns the Egyptians and washes away the traces. When we speak of circumstantial evidence, how did the author manage to get all that correct plus everything else here?

               Then the Jews of the Exodus enter into the lands of Saudi Araba and receive manna for food. If you wander around this peninsula one of the things you will note is that there are a number of fossilized trees here. The petrified forest of Riyadh presents us with an interesting circumstance. We are standing here with ancient trees at the surface, on, perhaps, the same surface in which they grew. The space above the ground is the same relative space that once was shadowed by the canopy of these prehistoric trees above. How close is this to Eden? Please tell me where did the first fruit evolve?...  I have held in my hand a small dime sized structure from a tree, a barky nodule, that was like mica and composed of flakes – perhaps it was from a red maple – I don’t know, but the product manna is almost definitely that of a tree, perhaps even one from 5-65 million years ago.  The cambium of a tree can easily be correlated to the description of ‘flakes’ and biologists just need to have the right Scriptural nudge in order to clearly identify the closest natural product. Be it seed or skin what tree products are viable food?

               And what about the hungry masses? How do those miracles fit within the theme? Ok- How many times can you open a basket of fish and loaves for the first time? Can I use this to pass the repeatable experiment 3999 times?  Darn. Ok I understand but presenting the same loaf and fish is a good way to go about it without creating extra energy (law of conservation)-  if everyone can share the same solution to the equation. What the theme then reveals is that Jesus serves the Jews, God’s chosen people first, each family is served first and equally. That act goes to His glory. But, now Im speculating, what happens if Schrodinger’s cat comes sniffing around the basket? What effect does a super-observer (like a super-delegate) have on the wave functions and our relation to them? What quantum mechanical circumstances can or should we construct? Will it be impossible to actually determine who exactly ate the fish?

              So let’s stop and take a breath because the nature of time is being described Biblically and no we don’t have experiments and evidence to prove these relations exist but potentially controversial physics that is not yet off the table might help. Those theories are not proof and I don’t know what mechanics would necessarily be required to enable these events. What I can achieve is that the technique allows us to understand why axe heads don’t float and taking a timeout on the s and r process changes the composition of a piece of andesite dramatically. I shouldn’t have to remind you what turning back the clock to stem cells could achieve, nor just the ability of the body’s immune system if it can act all at once- in time! It is a creative thing to answer using this theme and I don’t want to present the impression that Ive figured it all out, nor should I. It is a technique Im presenting not a final resolution… When I first started down this path I was avoiding the Resurrection and Immaculate Conception out of respect but I see that it is all too easy to form the logic there and perhaps I should….

               Because John starts his ministry in utero and Im woefully behind (Lk 1:41). Whatever word in Greek or Hebrew is used to indicate ‘jumping’ is our starting point. With his entire life John the Baptist points us to Jesus. (And therefore it is no wonder Jesus speaks so highly of him Matt 11:11) Can I link him to the Scriptural relation of these miracles? I think the Holy couple is like all earthly couples. Joseph does wait to consummate his marriage (Matt 1:25) and through the years they both experience the pain and loss many of us share. Atemporally though an opportunity exists for Jesus , the first son of Joseph and Mary to ‘jump’ back -prior to their marriage, prior to the commitment required of Joseph to make it legitimate. I don’t like saying it out loud as a topic but perhaps I should proclaim it like John:

Jesus jumps back into Mary’s womb. And

Jesus jumps back into Joseph’s tomb.

               Why does it rhyme in today’s words?  Are both resurrections? Like you I see that this is not very glorious a thing to say. To suggest that Jesus is a miscarriage is demeaning..or at least the Holy couple experience Him that way. You’re right.  It means He is earthly as necessary and divinely imbued a miracle- just as I was taught. He is a miscarriage. His body carried the punishment that was due to me. As the real Son of God it was demeaning to have to on my behalf and yours. That is my truth and that is to His glorification. And even our common words today “miscarriage of justice” bear witness to Him. Then again, perhaps the timing of it is merciful and the holy couple never knew that such a thing occurred at all – we simply cant tell.

So when you are at the beach this summer take a handful of sand and let it pour out of your fist into a little mountain that it once was and know that time moves mountains and faith gives time. We need only look to Paricutin to see the reverse process which would have a higher probability certain places but necessarily nowhere is it impossible. I therefore I conclude that I have the honest witnessing of undereducated, flat earth minded people that exceeds their ability to collude or know by observation or prediction, faithfully preserved by the RCC thru 20 centuries. I hope you understand why I keep coming back for seconds… because of those things and despite those things the Words are still correct…I meant inerrant….WOW! another conception miracle--Can the Word also be of earthly and of divine like Christ was? (John 1:14)

 

[dprprb]

I also would like to submit my construction plans for the Ark:

 

Noah goes into the woods and picks a tree like Michaelangelo picks a stone. Then he takes it seeds and plants them in the divine array. Over the next hundred years he tends, he bends, he entwines. He knows what the trees will do because they will look like their parent did - his blueprint stands in the distance. Perhaps the limbs are wolfbaned like an F or symmetric like a T I dont know. But when the timbers grow full he lets vines come into this divinely inspired orchard. He guides, he wraps, he waits.  Noah is standing there eating grapes and moving this here and that there and as the trees age to maturity he has the harvest of fruit or nuts etc and the vines literally feed him while he and his sons 'work' if you could even call it that. A network of miles of vines binds it all together some as thick as your arm. The pitch , if it is petroleum, is more ceremonial and waterproofing than creating some displacement by air. La Brea tar is dead prehistory splattered across the lintel like lambs blood in Egypt -the first born will be protected. When it is done this divine living cathedral waits and is loaded and the door of fallen timbers shut. As the waters burst forth they erode the dirt, the fertile loam, and expose the root mass below. Washed clean of the earth its root bouyancy raises in equality everything built above. Never an ax. Not a cubit of air displacement or unskilled joinery. Always just moved and encouraged in love.

 

I was wrong about the root bouyancy- Apparently that is a common misconception and the weight of the root systems typically total about 1/3 the mass of the tree. However a single factor out of place doesnt kill a theory. The density of wood is about 1/2 that of water so there is a factor back in favor of this model. But then I started to think about differnt species and the fact that this will glorify God.  So we could pick balsa wood to which I would fall down laughing at the engineers because it's density is 1/10 that of water and it has that ultralight characterisitc. But perhaps something a little less provocative--

Quercus suber- seems to fit the Hebrew kopher better than most species, fits the need, fits the strength characteristics and fits the food providence to the inhabitants. Apparently it cross pollenates very well and if every other tree species died in the Flood that would be an important characteristic...that is cork oak.

Here's my favorite part IM SPECULATING AGAIN ..nobody knows where Noah built the Ark and this species is common around the rim of the Mediterranean..particularly the west coast of Italy. Knowing how God gets would it not absolutely floor you to hear, have evidence, that the first unhewn, uncrossed, living, cathedral was built (grown I mean) on the same bend in the Tiber river as St. Peters? And does it occur to anyone that a whole complete 'ship' is not Scripturally required to land on Ararat? If pieces of the 'living' Ark break off and float to Australia so be it -they are all in God's keeping and sealed...uuummmm

'literally'

 

 

[dprprb]

A global flood....

Perhaps we should start with Scripture that reflects these circumstances exactly in kind and magnitude. This is standard practice and the only appropriate method to develop our thinking. Therefore in Gen1:9 where the waters still cover the earth and have not been parted is the only other place where these circumstances align. But there is not a lot of description there. In the Flood account God also states that He intends to wipe out all living things with the breadth of life in them and undo what He has created. Is there Scripture of similar kind and magnitude? Yes when Jesus walks on water. While the method of His walking is up to you, here God , in the form of Jesus, clearly causes the flesh to NOT interact with water in the traditional sense. It was a miraculous process and the inverse of it is to cause all things to interact miraculously with water or with miraculous water – hence the waters of Gen 1:9. How do I know that I can apply this inverse of circumstances? Because Jesus bends down and with His hand saves Peter, His Work, His Rock of His Church, from drowning and God intends to wipe(with His hand) His slate clean by drowning. But another dead end in terms of locality.  The Flood account provides a description of the flooding process, Gen 7:11, which we can use to inform ourselves of Gen 1:9 as a reverse process to the waters parting and land appearing. So The Flood covers the land and the floodgates of the heavens and fountains of the deep are qualified by events in Gen 1:6-9 which I have always understood as being geological dispersion of the waters into sky, sea, earth(aquifers) lakes and rivers. This would preserve their separateness during the Flood as a reversal of Gen1:9. The other verses of Gen 1 qualify our understanding of these components of the water cycle. But that doesn’t tell us local or nonlocal specifically. But God is sending the Flood to where the people and things with the breath of life are, and it is the body of Christ (from walking in the NT) which sets the shared parameters of killing all things with the breath of life and God calls the exemption of people and animals from all lands to the ark that the body of Christ creates by His Divine Life. All the land can even be conjoined in time at this moment – it doesn’t count…because although you could specifically cite Gen6:7 as a face being only part of the sum of the body if you want express some subparcel of “land” you are ignoring Gen 6:13 which clearly states the earth is filled – meaning all lands and we have the assumption of animals being everywhere. This is further bolstered by Gen 6:17 all earth under heavens ( referring us back to Gen 1) and Gen 9:1 when God releases all to fill the earth in reversal/ renewal. Since marine mammals (flipper, shamu) must also perish and Gods's Word is law there is no escape in a unified ocean.So (holding strictly to kind and magnitude) tooth for tooth, gear for gear, Words for Words the waters are globally reverse engineered by Gen 1:6-9 and that is how I would point out various facets of Scripture to form a whole complete logic.

               How should I know that the evidence of this is contained in the water cycle understanding? Gen 1:6-9 and Gen 2:1-6(though indefinite as to a Day) describes the exact case of the incomplete water cycle up to Day 4 prior to the formation of Adam on Day 5 ? The translation includes the possible meaning of ‘mist’ to water the face of the earth. This is in concert with my understanding of evaporation over ‘the waters’ supplying this feature and the individual steps of the final cycle to be are occurring even while God is in the midst of completing His Work. (meaning Creation understands where God is going with it and the logical structure does not recompute with each newly created formalism.) Since the sun has not been called forth from the formlessness of Gen 1 we know it to be the driving force of the complete cycle causing it to rain- absent to that point. So On Day 4 when God calls for the sun we can imagine that a rainbow appears in the mists just as in Gen 9:13!

 

Amazing! I love this!