Re: The Missing Day

Jay,

This is an urban legend that has been discussed on this list before. If
you want the exact references, Alan Harvey (steamdoc@aol.com) can supply
them.

The original version was due to a man named Totten if I recall his name
correctly. He was a Seventh Day Adventist who taught military science at
Yale around 1890. The story went something like this. He thought he knew
the exact date when Jesus was born and believed that that had to be the
4000th anniversary of the creation of the universe in Gen. 1:1. When he
calculated the day of the week that that would have been, it was one day
off from what he thought it should have been. He attributed this to
Joshua's long day. The version that you transmitted is someone's
modernization of this to make it sound as if it had been discovered by
modern science.

Gordon Brown
Department of Mathematics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0395

On Tue, 3 Feb 2004, Jay Willingham wrote:

> Anyone have any comments on this?
>
> The Missing Day
>
> > This is one of the most interesting things I have
> > heard in a while. Hope you think so too.
> > For all the scientists out there, and for all the
> > students who have a hard time convincing these people
> > regarding the truth of the Bible, here's something
> > that shows God's awesome creation, and that He is
> > still in control.
> > Did you know that the space program is busy proving
> > that what has been called "myth" in the Bible is
> > true? Mr.. Harold Hill, President of the Curtis Engine
> > Company in Baltimore, Maryland, and a consultant in
> > the space program, relates the following development.
> > I think one of the most amazing things that God has
> > done for us today! happened recently to our astronauts
> > and space scientists at GreenBelt, Maryland. They were
> > checking out where the positions of the sun, moon, and
> > planets would be 100 years and 1,000 years from now.
> > We have to know this so we won't send up a satellite
> > and have it bump into something later on in its
> > orbits. We have to lay out the orbits in terms of the
> > life of the satellite and where the planets will be so
> > the whole thing will not bog down.
> > They ran the computer measurement back and forth over
> > the centuries, and it came to a halt. The computer
> > stopped and put up a red signal, which meant that
> > there was something wrong with either the information
> > fed into it or with the results as compared to the
> > standards. They called in the service department to
> > check it out, and they said, 'W! hat's wrong?"
> > Well, they found there is a day missing in space in
> > lapsed time. They scratched their heads and tore
> > their hair. There was no answer.
> > Finally a Christian man on the team said, 'You know,
> > one time I was in Sunday School, and they talked about
> > the sun standing still.' While they didn't believe
> > him, they didn't have an answer either, so they said,
> > 'Show us.' He got a Bible and went to the book of
> > Joshua where they found a pretty ridiculous statement
> > for any one with 'common sense.' There they found the
> > Lord saying to Joshua, 'Fear them not, I have
> > delivered them into thy hand; there shall not a man of
> > them stand before thee.' Joshua was concerned because
> > he was surrounded by the enemy, and if darkness fell,
> > they would overpower them. So Joshua asked the Lord to
> > make the sun stand still! That's right... 'The sun
> > stood still and the moon stayed and lasted not to go
> > down about a whole day!' (Joshua 10:12-13) The
> > astronauts and scientists said, 'There is the missing day!'
> > They checked the computers going back into the time it
> > was written and found it was close but not close
> > enough. The elapsed time that was missing back in
> > Joshua's day was 23 hours and 20 minutes ... not a
> > whole day. They read the Bible, and there it was
> > 'about (approximately) a day.' These little words in
> > the Bible are important, but they were still in
> > trouble because if you cannot account for 40 minutes,
> > you'll still be in trouble 1,000 years from now. Forty
> > minutes had to be found because it can be multiplied
> > many times over in orbits.
> > As the Christian employee thought about it, he
> > remembered somewhere in the Bible where it said the
> > sun went BACKWARDS.
> >
> > The scientists told him he was out of his mind, but
> > they got out the "Book" and read these words in 2
> > Kings that told of the following story: Hezekiah, on
> > his death bed, was visited by the prophet Isaiah who
> > told him that he was not going to die. Hezekiah asked
> > for a sign as proof. Isaiah said 'Do you want the sun
> > to go ahead 10 degrees?' Hezekiah said, 'It is nothing
> > for the sun to go ahead 10 degrees, but let the
> > shadow return backward 10 degrees.' Isaiah spoke to
> > the Lord, and the Lord brought the shadow ten degrees
> > BACKWARD! Ten degrees is exactly 40 minutes!
> > Twenty-three hours and 20 minutes in Joshua, plus 40
> > minutes in Second Kings make the missing day in the universe!"
> > Isn't it amazing?
>
> > References: Joshua 10:8 and 12,13 and 2 Kings 20:9-11.
> > Forward this to as many people who you believe would
> > think this is equally as cool..
>
>
>
Received on Tue Feb 3 17:25:56 2004