VOLUME 18 NUMBER 126 THE BIBLICAL ASTRONOMER FALL 2008
PRODUCT LIST (Continued from back cover.) Technical Papers The Gravitational Analog of a Rolling Ball on an Elastic Membrane, J. Hanson. The underlying mathematics and physics is presented for simulating gravitational trajectories by a ball or disk moving on an appropriately deformed elastic membrane. $8.50 The Copernican Revolution: A Fable for Educated Men, G. Bouw. A collection of responses submitted in response Danny Faulkner s Geocentrism and Creation, promoted by Answers in Genesis. Each of these was submitted to Creation Ex Nihilo but were rejected for publication for reasons not always clearly explained. Illustrated, glue bound. $8.50 Both technical papers $11.00 What Happened to Our English Bible?, T. Unruh. A gentle, yet cogent look at the demise of the Authorized English Bible and the men behind that demise. (Illustrated) $8.50 He Maketh His Sun to Rise: A Look at Biblical Geocentricity, T. Strouse. A free supplement to this issue. Additional copies $8.50 each. Subscriptions to the Biblical Astronomer are $20 per year ($28 outside the USA). Membership is $30 per year, ($35 outside the USA). Members are allowed a 15% discount on all materials published by the Biblical Astronomer. Offerings to make possible additional publishing and research projects are gratefully accepted. Foreign orders please send either cash or cheques drawn on a United States bank. Credit cards are acceptable only on the Internet through PayPal s secure payment service. The product list, including items not listed in this issue, is at http://www.geocentricity.com/geoshop/index.html. Editor: Gerardus D. Bouw, Ph.D. 4527 Wetzel Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44109 U.S.A. E-mail address: gbouw@bw.edu http://www.geocentricity.com/ Front Cover: A rare sight. Two shuttles on their launch pads is a rare enough sight, but the presence of a rainbow is icing on the cake.
Biblical Astronomer, number 126 91 HE MAKETH HIS SUN TO RISE: TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES Occasionally The Biblical Astronomer issues a supplement. This is one of those occasions. The supplement is a book written in 2007 by Dr. Thomas Strouse, Dean of Emmanuel Baptist Theological Seminary (EBTS), 296 New Britain Avenue, Newington, Connecticut 06111. As most of our readers know, Dr. Strouse has written several articles defending geocentricity as a scriptural doctrine from the perspective of the underlying Hebrew and Greek A.V. text. Some articles have been published in either The Biblical Astronomer or on the geocentricity.com website. Dr. Strouse became convinced of the truth of geocentricity after he was introduced to it by a seminary student, Pastor Paul Norwalt of Merrimack, New Hampshire. (Pastor Norwalt is the machinist who made the geocentric orreries introduced in previous issues of the B. A. 1 ) Below is a complete list of articles by Dr. Strouse published in the B.A.: Geocentric Cosmology of Genesis 1:1-19, 14(108):48. Biblical Geocentricity, 14(109):69. Who is this Deity Named Yahweh? 15(111):15. James and Astronomy, 15(114):113. Geocentricity: A Case Study in Bibliology, 16(117):61. A Geocentricity Limerick, 18(124):32. In addition to these, the geocentricity.com website also has these works by Dr. Strouse: A Critique of God s Word In Our Hands at (www.geocentricity.com/bible/av) Dr. Strouse s PowerPoint presentations to the Third International Conference on Absolutes, held in Houston in 2007 (www.geocentricity.com/conference/strouse). The above works all dealt with topics related to geocentricity as a scriptural doctrine and the concomitant inerrancy and preservation of Scripture. In the spring of 2005 EBTS started publishing a Journal reporting on the research of the Seminary s faculty. The journal published several of the above articles. Other Bible-honoring articles in 1 Bouw, G.D., 2000. A Geocentric Orrery, B. A., 10(94):5 and Bouw, 2004. Introducing the New Table-Top Geocentric Orrery, ibid., 14(109):67.
92 He Maketh His Sun to Rise: Truth or Consequences the Journal struck devastating blows against the post-1750s interpretation of Psalm 12:6-7, 2 documenting that the Hebrew grammar requires the preservation of the words of the Lord, not the preservation of a people who are anything but kept safe, what with us being killed all the day long as sheep for the slaughter (Psalm 44:22; Romans 8:26). Another excellent set of papers in the Journal dealt with the fatal flaws of Fundamentalism. Then there were the articles on the New Testament church, of the autonomous authority of the local church against the unscriptural Universal Church. Given the bland scholarship-honoring, (as opposed to God-honoring) writings of other seminaries around the world, the $30 per year subscription price for two issues per year would have been a bargain at twice the price. All that changed under the new administrator, Dr. Rob Pitts, who became Emmanuel s pastor on 28 October 2007. First, the theological journal was cancelled. Rising costs and a leveling off in the number of subscribers were the reasons offered to discontinue publication. Now the first three issues of the Journal are posted on the Emmanuel-Newington.org website (/seminary/resources). But the remaining issues namely, Fall/Winter 2006 and Spring 2007, are nowhere to be found. The controversial topics of geocentricity and the heresy of Fundamentalism are both presented in the Fall/Winter 2006 issue. In June of 2008, all mention of geocentricity and the heresies of Fundamentalism disappeared from Emmanuel s bookstore and Internetposted papers of the Seminary. Dr. Strouse s book, included here as a supplement, was withdrawn from the market and bookstore. Let us consider this for a moment. A radical (radical for the truth and against modern pharisaism) journal is cancelled because it was a money loser. Well, so are the missionaries that Emmanuel Baptist Church sponsors; they do not make any money for a church either; but you don t cancel them, and well you should not. Yet the Journal which stood apart from all others in its honesty and relevancy, thus ministering to lovers of the truth, even the saints, is cancelled for not making any money! So it is fine to minister to the unsaved at a financial loss, but it is wrong to minister to the saints at a financial loss. Jesus gave both commands: to evangelize the world (Mark 15:15) and to feed his sheep and lambs (John 21:15-17). Modern American churches are grossly out of balance on these two commands. By placing an emphasis on bringing the unsaved into church, churches end up with the unsaved running the church. That is why the A.V. is no longer tolerated in teaching and preaching positions in most mega-churches and 2 Psalm 12:6-7 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. 7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
Biblical Astronomer, number 126 93 why their schools and pastors sermons are not allowed to focus on sound doctrine (II Timothy 4:3-4 3 ), which is considered divisive. Yet this is the very time to teach doctrine to the remnant that not only endures sound doctrine but also thrives on it. If that is not done, it sends a clear message to those who are offended by sound doctrine that you believe as they do: that sound doctrine is divisive, offensive, and a detriment to the growth and testimony of a believer. With appallingly few exceptions, today s seminaries neither study nor publish; they only teach traditional values. But therein they violate Matthew 13:52 where a scribe is to bring forth out of his treasure things new and old. Teach only traditional values and a handful of consensus-driven doctrines and a seminary wastes little time in earning the nickname, cemetery. It seems safe and non-offensive on the surface, but strong stomachs are not built by digesting pabulum. Even so, faith in Christ is not to be founded on seminary courses or professors. When it comes to the removal of geocentricity from the curriculum of the Seminary, well, it is just another example that sound doctrine is no longer endured. To exposit geocentricity correctly from Scripture is not all that hard, but it is hard to publicly teach geocentricity and to take a stand for it. Real persecution accompanies vocal adherents to geocentricity. Geocentricity is the only doctrine on which science and Scripture differ. On that one doctrine, the sword that is sharper than any two-edged sword divides cleanly (Hebrews 4:12 4 ). There are 3340 verses in Scripture that teach geocentricity, ranging from powerful to circumstantial. Not a single Bible verse teaches heliocentrism; although historically three or four have been proposed, none have withstood the test of time. The choice is, believe 3340 geocentric verses in Scripture or believe the deceptive statements of elementary science texts. Deceptive statements? Yes! The debate over the motion of the earth was and still is the ONLY point at which science and Scripture collide. (Remember, evolution is not science.) The seventeenth-century Christian scholars caved in to science without a single shred of evidence for the Copernican model and with all evidence favoring the geocentric model of Tycho Brahe. Without that compromise there likely would not have been a Critical Text, Darwinian evolution, Marxist communism, or socialism, each of which drew its power from the Copernican Revolution. The most 3 II Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 4 Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
94 He Maketh His Sun to Rise: Truth or Consequences damning part of all this is that today the sciences of physics and astronomy know better. The failure of some experiments to show the orbital motion of the earth led to the development of the theory of relativity. By postulating that an object shrinks in the direction it is moving, relativity saved physics from geocentricity. Relativity did so by making every object in the universe look as if it is at rest at the center of the universe. As a result, unbelieving scientists, as I once was and did, ridicule the theologians for needlessly caving in without a fight. Indeed, as an undergraduate astrophysics major at the University of Rochester, such theologians convinced me of atheism. Consider: Copernicus says the sun is the center of the universe. Thirty years later, theologians conveniently come around to the same line of thinking and say in effect, The Bible knew it all along; our interpretation was wrong; the wording is phenomenological, not literal. God did not really mean what he wrote in Joshua 10:13. 5 In other words, he lied when he wrote that verse and when he wrote Thy word is truth (John 17:17). Nearly two hundred years after theologians capitulated on the doctrine of geocentricity, science embraced sociology s ancient superstition of evolution. 6 Some thirty years later, theologians embraced the unscriptural gap and day-age theories and uttered words to the effect that The Bible knew it all along; our interpretation was wrong. Day doesn t mean day but an indeterminate length of time ; or, others said, It all happened between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. Obviously, if science is at least thirty years ahead of Christianity s most brilliant stars, then science is a better way to truth than the Bible, let alone theology. What else can a reasonable man conclude than that the Bible is full of myths? Theologians have thus demonstrated that they will alter the words of God any way they like in order to force-fit into it the latest historic, archaeological, philosophical, or scientific fad. The fact remains, rejection of Joshua 10:13 leads to rejection of the Bible as an authority in science; which leads to the Scripture not being an authority on anything else in the realm of human scholastics; earth becomes just another unimportant planet; man becomes a cosmic accident; creation becomes a particular case of evolution; Genesis becomes a myth; sin becomes an arbitrary set of rules dictated by a capricious, genocidal god; there is no resurrection; and the Bible is reduced to irrelevance, if not down-right evil. 5 Joshua 10:13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. 6 Bouw, G. D., 1998. A Brief Introduction to the History of Evolution, B. A., 8(85):9.
CREDO The Biblical Astronomer was founded in 1971 as the Tychonian Society. It is based on the premise that the only absolutely trustworthy information about the origin and purpose of all that exists and happens is given by God, our Creator and Redeemer, in his infallible, preserved word, the Holy Bible commonly called the King James Bible. Any scientific endeavor which does not accept this revelation from on high without any reservations, literary, philosophical or whatever, we reject as already condemned in its unfounded first assumptions. We believe that the creation was completed in six twenty-four hour days and that the world is not older than about six thousand years. We maintain that the Bible teaches us of an earth that neither rotates daily nor revolves yearly about the sun; that it is at rest with respect to the throne of him who called it into existence; and that hence it is absolutely at rest in the universe. We affirm that no man is righteous and so all are in need of salvation, which is the free gift of God, given by the grace of God, and not to be obtained through any merit or works of our own. We affirm that salvation is available only through faith in the shed blood and finished work of our risen LORD and saviour, Jesus Christ. Lastly, the reason why we deem a return to a geocentric astronomy a first apologetic necessity is that its rejection at the beginning of our Modern Age constitutes one very important, if not the most important, cause of the historical development of Bible criticism, now resulting in an increasingly anti-christian world in which atheistic existentialism preaches a life that is really meaningless. If you agree with the above, please consider becoming a member. Membership dues are $20 per year. Members receive a 15% discount on all items offered for sale by the Biblical Astronomer. To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 8:20
TITLES AVAILABLE FROM THE B.A. Orders can be honored only if accompanied by payment in United States currency either by cheque drawn on a U.S. bank or cash. All North American orders add 15% postage. Orders for books outside North America please add an additional $11 for the first book and $6 for each additional one; for other items add $5 per item for postage. NOTE PRICE INCREASES BOOKS AND DVDs The Bible and Geocentricity, by Prof. James N. Hanson. A collection of articles, most of which made up the Bible and Geocentricity column in the early 1990s. Prof. Hanson has added numerous illustrations. (145 pages, 5.5x8.5 format.) $10 The Book of Bible Problems. The most difficult contradictions in the Bible are answered without compromise. A classic, writes Gail Riplinger. 266 pages, indexed. $15 The Geocentric Papers, A collection of papers, most of which appeared in the Bulletin of the Tychonian Society. A technical supplement to Geocentricity, including articles on geocentricity, creationism, and the Bible itself. (120 pages, 8.5x11 gluebound.) $15 Geocentricity DVD. Martin Selbrede gives a first rate presentation of geocentricity. $15 Geocentricity, Relativity and the Big Bang, A book by long-time creationist Russell T. Arndts. Although we do not support the author s endorsement of the NIV, the book is worth the price for its discussion of Relativity and geocentricity. (248 pages) NEW $15 The Earth: Our Home by Philip Stott. The wise men, philosophers, and scientists of the world have repeatedly changed their minds about such things as space and our position in it. This book provides and historical look at the topic of geocentricity and offers evidence for it. $5.50 For a complete list of items available, visit http://www.geocentricity.com (Product list continued on the inside front cover.)