Subatomic Spandex

Reblogged from omegaletter.com
via servehiminthewaiting.com 
Witnessing Tools
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Wendy Wippel 

Only the Bible (of ancient theological texts) claims the universe had a beginning: ''In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth''.  God added some detail in Psalm 104: ''He covered Himself 'with light as with a garment' and 'stretched' the heavens like a curtain.'' 3000 years later?  Science concurs!

The prevailing theory among cleric and chemist alike (since at least Aristotle and Plato, about 400 BC) was that the universe was eternal.  It had always existed.  The theory itself proved almost eternal, in fact, remaining popular for thousands of years.

When I was graduating from college, in fact, 66% of scientists polled still believed that the universe had no beginning or end.  And although some days it doesn't seem so, that was some time after Aristotle.

The first fly in the infinity ointment was named Vesto Slipher, an American astronomer at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.  He proved that at least a few local galaxies in the neighborhood of our galaxy, the Milky Way, were moving away from ours at impressive speeds. 
The reaction in the scientific community was largely disbelief.

Einstein had seen the same thing, implicated from his calculations on general relativity in 1916-- but since galaxies have always been viewed as rotating but eternally fixed in space, this was the equivalent of a scientific tsunami.  Einstein couldn't bring himself to believe it: "This circumstance of an expanding universe irritates me…to admit such possibilities seems senseless," he admitted, and added a mathematical fudge factor called the "cosmological constant" to correct what he thought was a mistake.

But then Edwin Hubble's experiments with redshifts (changes in frequencies observed as galaxies moved away, 1930) showed conclusively that all galaxies were moving away from an initial point of motion.
And then the final blow to the infinite universe: the COBE Satellite data (1992), which measured the background radiation produced by whatever biological process fueled the expansion.  The COBE satellite data succeeded, essentially, in mapping the galaxies' flight. 

Another scientific tsunami, because according to Newton's first law of motion, an object at rest stays at rest unless a force is applied to said object that sets it in motion.  And if the galaxies are moving away from each other, what started that motion?
Scientists and theologians alike have argued for centuries over this concept of a "First Cause"—an unknown being or force that initiated the universe.  The laws of the natural world do require a cause.  Galaxies in motion need a force which caused the motion. The force that caused the motion needs an entity which applied the force.  Link all necessary causes back to the beginning of time and you have the First Cause—an entity who requires no cause but itself.  So who was the First Cause?

In other words, who started the motion?  
Ted Koppel, reporting the COBE satellite data in 1992, opened the evening news by reading the first few verses of Genesis and declaring that science had proven the passage true.   Science had demonstrated a finite, not eternal universe, and that universe needed a first cause.  And the finite universe was demonstrated largely because it was expanding. In an infinite universe, a state of equilibrium should ostensibly eventually be achieved.

But our universe, science has thoroughly demonstrated, is still expanding.
Funny.  That's just what the Bible says:

"He covered Himself with light as with a garment and stretched the heavens like a curtain".

Scientists today describe the very early stages of the universe as the rapid expansion of a very small, dense, point of energy in conjunction with the creation of light.  (The first thing created, just like Genesis 1 proclaims.) God clothed Himself with light and stretched out the heavens.
And just in case God didn't make it absolutely clear that it was He that was behind the expansion:

"Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out."  (Isaiah 42:5)

"It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in."  (Isaiah 40:22)

"Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone," (Isaiah 44:24)

"Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, And My right hand has stretched out the heavens." (Isaiah 48:13)

"And you forget the Lord your Maker, Who stretched out the heavens And laid the foundations of the earth." (Isaiah 51:13)

And many others.
God said He stretched, and is stretching, the heavens.  The funny thing is that, according to science, it is not that things in space, like planets and stars, are moving farther away from each other.  No.  It is space itself that is expanding.  Space has been shown to have a substance (that's why they call space a "fabric"), and the substance of space is actually expanding.  And that substance--that "fabric" of space--is thought to be in some places folded, kind of like an accordion.  Or in other words, pleated, like a curtain:

"He covered Himself with light as with a garment and stretched the heavens like a curtain." (Psalm 104:2)

No wait, there's more.  Space isn't just expanding.  Scientists, to their astonishment, have recently realized that the rate of expansion is actually increasing.  Adam Riess and colleagues in Austrialia won the Nobel Prize for that discovery in 2011. 
Reiss observed that at first they doubted their data:

"We spent at least a year struggling to understand what we were seeing."

They finally concluded that,

"Improbable as it seemed, both there must be some unseen, unknown force pushing the cosmos apart."

Unseen, but not unknowable.

"He. . . has stretched out the heavens at His discretion." (Jeremiah 10:12)

So why would God accelerate the rate of expansion? (At His discretion?) Possibly because it wasn't meant to be eternal.
Dartmouth physicist, Robert Caldwell believes, with the increasing rate of expansion, that eventually the pace of expansion will overwhelm the seemingly steadfast forces that hold the universe together.  He explained:

"The expansion becomes so fast that it literally rips apart clusters of galaxies, stars, planets, and solar systems. . . and eventually. . . all matter."

Including the fabric of space itself.  And with the demise of matter, time, which is a fourth dimension of the universe being destroyed, comes to a close as well.
Which sounds, eerily, like exactly what John is trying to explain in Revelation 20:

"Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them."

The heavens and the earth fly away as the fabric of space literally rips apart.

And then He makes all things new:

"Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.  Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”  (Revelation 21:1-5)

Science, again, finally catches up to Scripture.  

"A little science estranges a man from God; a lot of science brings him back." - Sir Francis Bacon.

Yeah, the guy that defined the scientific method.

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'To The Door Of The Oven'

Reblogged from hallindsey.com
By Hal Lindsey  

Presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee, continues to be blasted for saying the Iran deal “will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven.”  It is a vivid picture that offends a lot of people.  Are they right to be offended, or is the governor’s comparison valid? 

President Obama called the comment “sad.”  Hillary Clinton said, “I’m really offended personally.”  Another Democratic presidential candidate, Martin O’Malley, called Huckabee’s comments “offensive.”  Republican presidential candidate, George Pataki, tweeted, “Agree with @Potus that @GovMikeHuckabee remarks are ‘sad.’” (POTUS is an acronym for President of the United States.) 

The Anti-Defamation League jumped on Huckabee, too.  They released a statement saying, “Whatever one’s views of the nuclear agreement with Iran . . .  comments such as those by Mike Huckabee suggesting the president is leading Israel to another Holocaust are completely out of line and unacceptable.”  The National Jewish Democratic Council released a statement saying the remarks “may be the most inexcusable we’ve encountered in recent memory.”  

You might expect criticism from liberal Jewish groups who generally support President Obama, but Mr. Huckabee also took fire from a high ranking member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government.  Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz said, “Dear Mr. Huckabee, no one is marching Jews to the ovens anymore. . . .  That is why we established the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces, and if necessary, we will know how to defend ourselves by ourselves.”

That’s an understandable sentiment.  But Governor Huckabee wasn’t predicting another holocaust.  He was trying to show graphically the dangers of giving overwhelming firepower to people who are threatening another holocaust.  

On the Today Show, Huckabee said, “The response from Jewish people has been overwhelmingly positive.  The response from Holocaust survivors, from the children of Holocaust survivors. . . .  People were overwhelmingly supportive.”

Asked about President Obama calling his statement “ridiculous” and “sad,” Huckabee said, “What’s ‘ridiculous’ and ‘sad’ is that President Obama does not take Iran’s repeated threats seriously.  For decades, Iranian leaders have pledged to ‘destroy,’ ‘annihilate,’ and ‘wipe Israel off the map’ with a ‘big Holocaust.’”  

On Tuesday, Huckabee appeared on the Fox News program, “Outnumbered.”  Lisa Kennedy Montgomery (who goes by “Kennedy” on the air) called Huckabee’s comments “incendiary rhetoric.”  Then, as if to be fair, she said Democrats are guilty of such rhetoric, too.  “It’s not one-sided because you remember Joe Biden standing in front of an African-American congregation saying the Republicans want to throw you back in chains.  This is not something that’s limited to one party.  It certainly happens on both sides.”

The segment ended at that point, with no one answering.  That’s a shame because her comparison is one of the worst I’ve ever heard.  The Iranian Supreme Leader encourages his people to chant, “Death to Israel!”  This is a regular occurrence.  When was the last time you heard a Republican call for the re-institution of slavery?  Iranian leaders — not some fringe group, but the top people — have been vowing to wipe Israel off the map since 1979.  Have any Republican leaders ever called for African-Americans to be enslaved again?

Iran is, in the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, “a clear and present danger” to Israel.  Joe Biden’s comments were vague and held no meaning in fact.  The Iranian threat to Israel is real, and it is obvious.  

Was Huckabee out of line when he used the word “oven”?  Iran wants to build the most powerful oven in the world.  It’s as real as the searing furnace Nebuchadnezzar threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into — and a thousand times hotter.  A small number of nuclear bombs could turn a country the size of Israel into an oven, and then a wasteland in a matter of minutes.  

Huckabee was not exaggerating the danger to Israel.  But remember this.  God saved Shadrach and his friends.  The Scripture promises He will save Israel, too.  I don’t know how God will do it, but I guarantee you He will do it despite all the Nukes on earth.

Pandora´s box - A personal reflection on current events

Written and posted by Jean-Louis. 

This morning a friend of mine posted this on  FB:
“He opened Pandora's Box through his bumbling "negotiations" and guess who is going to suffer the consequences...”
 

Kerry Acknowledges Iran ‘May’ Use Weapons Obtained Through Agreement to Kill Americans, Israelis

Secretary of State John Kerry conceded on Tuesday...

m.cnsnews.com

Here is my reply to her comment:

"Last week I woke up one morning with this thought in my mind:" Do not open a door that you cannot close".

Interesting, your image of Pandora´s box!

It could certainly apply to any of us on the spiritual level, but when it happens with  enough people in the nation, this is the result when at every level of society, men and women have tempered with the eternal laws of a just God and  reaped what they have sown for more than half a century".

Some grievous offenses:

·         In 1963, the Supreme Court ordered official prayer and Bible reading out of public school.

·         In 1969 In New York City, a door was opened during the riot at the StoneWall Inn, a homosexual bar, now the White House is lit with the rainbow flag.

·         In 1973, the Roe versus Wade door was opened, now we are eating the fruit of that tree, with the horrific display of the disgusting, repulsive display of the doctor discussing nonchalantly abortion procedures and filthy lucre during lunch without any sign of understanding of the gravity of the crimes committed against  God and the babies. 

·         Later, the removal  of the 10 Commandments door was opened - some people might say it was shut - now a statue of Satan is erected in a public place.

At the same time, doors are opening in heaven from which the judgment of God has been and is coming. In Revelation 9:2 a door to the pit is opened and demonic creatures come out. Only the Lord Jesus can open doors that no one can shut and shut doors that no one can open.  I will entrust him with your authority, And he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder, When he opens no one will shut, When he shuts no one will open. Isaiah 22:21b-22.

"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this”. Revelation 3:7

In the Old Testament, the LORD told us not to make alliances which are not his.

"Woe to the obstinate children," declares the LORD, "to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin" Isaiah 30:1

But is it not what the US and its allied European partners just did with the nuclear 'Treaty" they signed with Iran?

Connecting the Dots
In reference to the homosexual riots at the STONE WALL INN I find it interesting that Solomon had this to say about it in Ecclesiates 10:8: 
"He who digs a pit may fall into it, and a serpent may bite him who breaks through a wall". What a coincidence!
The LORD throughout history has given us limits for our protection and well being. In spite of these warnings and God´s patience and mercy, in less than a century almost all the boundaries stones have been removed.

Talking about “STONE WALLS”

Commentary  Ecclesiastes 10:8 from Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

 
He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it,.... This and the three following clauses are proverbial expressions, teaching men to be wise and cautious, lest by their conduct they bring mischief upon themselves; as it often is, the one that digs a pit for another, falls into it himself, as the wise man's father before him had observed, Psalm 7:15; as kings that lay snares for their people, and subjects that plot against their sovereign; or courtiers that form schemes for the rain of those that are in their way; or any man that devises mischief against another, frequently so it is, that the same befalls them; as Haman, who prepared a gallows for Mordecai, was hanged on it himself;

and whoso breaketh an hedge a serpent shall bite him; which often lies hid in fences, in old walls, and rotten hedges (s), Amos 5:19; so he that breaks down the hedges and fences of kingdoms and commonwealths, and breaks through the fundamental laws of a civil constitution, and especially that transgresses the laws of God, moral or civil, may expect to smart for it.

Jarchi interprets this hedge of the sayings of their wise men, which those that transgress shall suffer death by the hand of heaven: but it would be much better to apply it to the doctrines contained in the word of God, which are a hedge and fence to the church of God, and whoever transgress them will suffer for it; see 2 John 1:8; The Targum, by the "serpent", understands an ungodly king, who bites like a serpent, into whose hands such transgressors shall be delivered: and some have thought of the old serpent the devil, as Alshech, who deceived Adam and Eve.
(s) Nicander apud Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 1. c. 4. Colossians 26.

Several thousands years of experience are not enough to remove the evil and the foolishness from the heart of man.

What´s to be done?

In the meantime, while waiting for the Lord to come and take us home with Him,  we can warn people from the soon coming tribulation judgments that are going to engulf the earth  and proclaim that the only solution to our problem is the salvation of the Lord Jesus, the door to the kingdom and the One who has the key and opens the door to let us in.

When time was right, Noah entered the ark and the Lord God shut the door. 

Something to ponder.