The Treasure Hunt

I write a lot about not sleeping for long periods of time and how it doesn't bother me? I think mostly that is true when it is just my body that gets tired. But, now I think because (all kidding aside) I really have been applying myself and doing the best I can to both get in all of the assignments on time and score the best grades I am capable... I think right now I am mentally tired as well.

After a long day and late night yesterday, I awoke and went to work (at 6:00 am) on about three hours sleep. After I got home I showered, dressed in shorts and tee-shirt and (almost) non-stop I worked eight and one-half hours on school work sitting at my computer.

This morning I awoke early and have been almost all day sitting here and typing. I'm not done with all of the assignments yet, but, I wanted to take a break and finish this 14^th part on Christ's Second Coming. It is now  getting late again: I guess I wanted you to know that in case this blog makes no sense whatsoever. Of course, to most people trying to set any type of a hard date when Christ will return seems preposterous. So, just in case this blog is even less lucid than others I have written in the past... well, give me a break as I'm trying to come up with excuses so you will cut me some slack? lol

(I will pick up at the point I left off on part 13 of my blog.) In verse nine we read: “And Enos lived 90 years, and begat Cainan. This makes 325 years from Creation. (235 + 90)

In verse 12 we read: “And Cainan lived 70 years, and begat Mahalaleel.” We are now at 395 years.

Verse 15 reads: “And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared.” Now... we are at 460 years.

Verse 18 speaks of Jared's firstborn: “And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch.” We are now at 622 years from the first day of Creation.

In verse 21 we learn of Methuselah, which is Enoch's first child: “And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah.” We are now at 687 years. Now, Methuselah does not have a child until he is 187 years old.

Verse 25: “And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech. 874 years has now passed since Creation.

Lamech, Methuselah's son has his own son when he is 182 years old: “And Lamech lived an hundred and eighty and two years, and begat a son.” (verse 28) We have now passed 1,000 years and we are at 1.056 years since Creation.

Who was the son Lamech had? Verse 29: “And he called his name Noah, saying. This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.”

Noah was considerably older than the men who came before when he had his firstborn son... verse 32: “And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” (Of course, Japheth was born first and Shem was the second son born and Ham was the youngest of the three boys.) There have now passed 1,556 years since “God created the heaven and the earth.”

The Bible is also very clear on the date of the Great Flood. Genesis 7:11: “In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, (May 17) the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. We know Noah's age when he had his first son and we know 100 years passed from that time until the Great Flood... so we know that the year of the Flood upon the Earth was 1,656 years from Creation! Right? Well... maybe? Let me explain.

For the most part, anyone who is curious and has just a few minutes to read that portion of Genesis in the Bible can come up with the dates I just gave... that part is simple. But, what seems to have escaped most observers and the main reason we can not be 100% certain of the number of years from Creation to the Great Flood is because the Bible does not tell us how many months had passed after each man turned another year older before they had their own sons.

Two of the great Bible scholars I have read extensively are Bishop Ussher and John Lightfoot! Yet, even those two seemed to miss the obvious. Let me illustrate. Let's suppose Creation began with me... I mean it did, right? Seriously though, here would be my time-line:

Birth: day one of Creation... my, I feel awfully important!

19 years (+ one-half month passes) and I have a child!

19 years (+ 10 more months pass) and I have another child!

If the Bible were recording the two daughters who were born to me it would only state I was 19 years old. Therefore, 19 years from Creation would have passed... right? No, the correct answer would be 19 years + 11 months have passed... for I would be 20 years old in less than a month after my second daughter was born.

There are ten generations listed: Adam/Seth/Enos/Cainan/Mahalaleel/Jared/Enoch/Methuselah/Lamech/and Noah. The only way Bible scholars could be correct to say that 1,656 years had passed from Creation to the Great Flood is if all ten men had their own children within 35 days of their most recent birthdays, and I much doubt that was the case. (10 x 35 = 350 days which is less than one lunar year.)

Also, if each of the ten men who were recorded in the Bible had their children just one day shy of their next birthday, that would add nine more years to the calendar and bring it to the year 1,665. (Again though, I doubt that scenario as well.)

Because the Bible does not record individually months which passed, the most accurate answer would be 1,656 years (+ 1 to 9 more years) passed from Creation to the Great Flood. That is the reason that preachers who try to be too exacting with numbers will always fail because the Bible did not record all of the necessary information which would be needed in order to get an exact date. Therefore, from the beginning of time until the Great Flood was upon the whole Earth was between the dates: May 17, 1,665 to 1,656 BC.

Because of the given time line in the Bible, Lightfoot, Ussher and many others place Creation at 4,004 BC. That is 1,656 years from Creation to the Flood and 2,348 years from the Great Flood until the birth of Christ. So, they say: 1,656 + 2,348 = 4,004. Then, if you add those years to the years after the birth of Christ you would have … 4,004 + 2,012 = 6,016 years from Creation until this year. Because they did not take into account the men's ages... not only in years but adding the months, the actual time we have been on Earth lies somewhere between 6,016 to 6,025 years from Creation!

Before continuing I will give you some other important time lines that can be gleaned from the Bible.

God's call to Abraham was 1,921 years before Christ was born.

The children of Israel fled Egypt 1,491 years before Jesus was born.

The temple, in Jerusalem, was founded 1,012 years before Christ's birth.

Finally, for this brief list, the start of the Babylonian captivity was 586 years before Jesus was born on Earth.

What follows this paragraph is copied from a Web page that  I am hoping you can access directly from my blog. I only included this because there are some interesting facts. In Revelation chapter 8:10-11 the Bible declares, “And the third angel sounded and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters: And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis

99942 Apophis, previously known by its provisional designation 2004 MN₄) is a near-Earth asteroid that caused a brief period of concern in December 2004 because initial observations indicated a small probability (up to 2.7%) that it would strike the Earth in 2029. Additional observations provided improved predictions that eliminated the possibility of an impact on Earth or the Moon in 2029.

However, a possibility remained that during the 2029 close encounter with Earth, Apophis would pass through a gravitational keyhole, a precise region in space no more than about a half-mile wide, that would set up a future impact on April 13, 2036. This possibility kept the asteroid at Level 1 on the Torino impact hazard scale until August 2006, when the probability that Apophis will pass through the keyhole was determined to be very small.

Apophis broke the record for the highest level on the Torino Scale, being, for only a short time, a level 4, before it was lowered. Its diameter is approximately 270 meters (885 ft). As of October 7, 2009 the probability of an April 13, 2036 impact is considered to be 1 in 250,000. Of objects not recently observed, there are 7 asteroids with a more notable Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale than Apophis.

Apophis is named after the ancient enemy of the sun-god Ra. Apep was the Uncreator, an evil serpent that dwells in the eternal darkness of the Duat (earth's middle) and tries to swallow Ra during his nightly passage.

Another danger of a large space rock hitting our Earth is what is called an “impact winter”, that is a period of extended cold weather brought on by dust and particles shrouding the Earth and blocking the Sun. A rock the size of Apophis hitting the Earth is estimated to have the same effect as 65,000 nuclear warheads striking the Earth at the same time.

The verse following in Revelation which describes the impact of Wormwood striking the Earth tells of the third part of the Sun, the Moon and the stars being darkened. (v. 12) “And the fourth angel sounded , and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for the third part of it, and the night likewise.”

Keep in mind what I have written before in this series. Those prophets of God who saw visions tried to describe in the language of their own day what they were seeing. They didn't use terms like, “impact winter.” All that John knew was that after this “star” fell to the Earth, the Sun and the Moon were not giving their same light. Why? It is because of the great cloud of dust which will be picked up and carried high into our atmosphere.

Also, before I give you all a date … lol I want to explain one other thing. I'm not basing His soon return on the rock I am telling you about which might, or might not hit the Earth in 2,029? I am saying that based on all ten signs and the fact that this approaching asteroid coincides very well with the time I think He will return? Ready, here goes.

The flyby(?) of Apophis over the Earth is expected to happen on April 13, 2,029. If I am even close to being right, then that would mean the Rapture will have taken place 3 and ½ years before... as Wormwood will strike the Earth midway through the Great Tribulation. Therefore, I think the Rapture will happen in October 2,025.

Which of course would mean that I would miss my 70^th birthday. What a crying shame, I was sort of looking forward to that party!

I still have another 2 pages of notes I was going to include but the honest truth is I am just tired of typing. In a nutshell they had to do with the Jewish homeland from 1948 until 2,025... and that is another perfect time-line fit.

Also the age of the Earth (6,016-6,025) is another great fit. God created everything in six literal days and rested on the 7^th. We are told that with the Lord “... a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day.” Therefore, mankind has had six days (6,000 years) to labor and the seventh day, or the 7,000 year will be a day of rest. (The millennial reign of Christ for 1,000 years on Earth will fulfill that as well.)

If I am right we have a little more than 13 years from today. The Lord began His public ministry on Earth when he was thirty years old and He preached for 3 and ½ years on the Earth. That also fits well into the idea of six “days” being six thousand years. If Apophus is the Wormwood John described, then it striking in 2,029 puts the middle of the Great Tribulation at 6,030 years from the beginning of time.

One more thing. Don't imagine that we have that much time and put something off... I honestly do not know. The Lord could return before I post this. Or, he might not return in the lifetime of anyone who reads this? Either way though, He is coming back! If I die before 2,025, and you are still alive in November of that year and the Lord hasn't returned... well, you can just record one more thing that you know for certain I was wrong about during my lifetime! And, if I am counting correctly that would bring the total things I have been wrong about to... two! (:

One last thing... I promise. In 2,025 If I am not still around and you are: eat a piece of cake for me on November 12... for it's what I would have done if I could. Make it either a piece of chocolate or carrot cake: my two favorites! If it is chocolate make sure the icing matches... and if it's carrot cake, well I especially like sour cream frosting. To those I love and all of my friends... have a good night!