The False Burden of Time

by Jack Hoehn

John Bunyan’s Christian starts his journey to the Celestial Kingdom with a huge burden, like an overweight backpack on his shoulders. This burden is so heavy and unbalanced that it threatens to tip Christian off the Way at any moment and into the deadly, foul Slough of Despair.

I suspect some of us carry a like burden, but unlike the common burden of guilt and sin that all Christians have been freed from at the cross, this burden we have picked up is “The Burden of Time,” especially deep time, long time.

Here is what the “Burden of Time” feels like. We live in the world of beauty and ugliness. We see the births of lovely children, and we see the deaths of equally lovely children. We thrill to true love and sob about sexual exploitation and abuse. And during moments of pain, suffering, tragedy, loss, disease, crime, and death we cry out with those suffering souls under Revelation’s altar, “How long, Lord, How long?”

We are burdened by the time creation is groaning. The Young-Earth-Creationist is burdened by 6,000 years of sin’s reign, and all the consequences we see in the present scheme of life.

Science comes to the Long-Term-Creationist and greatly multiplies the chronology of creation by revealing that the universe began not 6,000 years ago but 13.7 or 13.8 Billion years ago! Many of us feel this is intolerable. If we try to imagine the great controversy between good and evil going on for this long, we are overwhelmed and in dismay cry out, “No, it is impossible for a good God to permit evil for such a long period of time. I can hardly bear the evil I have seen in my time. Don’t make me believe this has been going on for billions of years.” The burden of time seems unbearable. Yet here are the facts:

Universe Created (Big Bang)	13.7±.1 BYA (Billion Years Ago)	Before Creation Days	“In the Beginning God Created the Heavens and the Earth”
Sun and Earth Created	4.5662±0.0001 BYA	Creation Day 1	“Formless and void and water was upon the face of the deep”
Oxygen created by photosynthesizing bacteria	3.5 billion BYA till it rose above 10% O2 205 MYA (Million Years Ago)	Creation Day 2	“let there be a firmament… and God called the firmament sky”
Land masses created and plants created	2.25 BYA continental land mass growth peaks. 635 to 580 MYA first complex plants.	Creation Day 3	“Let dry land appear” “Let the earth bring forth plants bearing seed”
Completion of nearby supernova eruptions, dense molecular clouds, gamma-ray bursts, galaxy merging events, cosmic bombardment of earth	Cosmic events subside about 562 MYA	Creation Day 4	“He made a greater light” (4.56 BYA) He made a lesser light to rule the night”(4.36 BYA)[i] “He made the stars also” (Stable 0.562 BYA)
Filling seas with life, then birds and dinosaurs	543 MYA Cambrian explosion	Creation Day 5	“Let the waters teem with living creatures and let birds fly”
Filling land with creatures	200 MYA Jurassic period	Creation Day 6	“Let the land produce living creatures”
Modern Humans appear	190,000-60,000 years ago.	Creation Day 6	“Let us make man in our image”
Cessation of new creations since modern humans appear, we mostly lose species.	Since Adam till now no new kinds of creatures or plants	Creation Day 7	“And God rested”

Advent Hope That Time is Short
A few of us have been living for nearly a hundred years, others for 70 years, some for 30 years, and even teen-agers at times are overcome with the burden of time in this imperfect world. If we are honest most of us have wondered why we are still waiting 2,000 years after the resurrection for the “soon return” of the Christ. Isn’t it about time for Jesus to return?

Adventism offered relief to Christendom from this burden of time, and excited our spiritual forbearers with a date for the end of time, and then with anticipation that the burden would be lifted within the life time of those listening to Ellen White’s sermon, and then our evangelists and Revelation Seminars fan our hopes into at least a temporarily renewed expectation that soon “time shall be no longer.”

To be asked to bear the burden of 6,000 years of a reign of sin and death is bad enough, to have to bear the burden of 4.8 billion years of the same reign seems impossible. We all must surely slip into the foul Slough of Despair if science is correct and life has been slogging on with such impossible-to-comprehend eons of time.

How Long Have You Been Waiting?
How long have we been waiting for Jesus to come again? 2,000 years? How long have we had to live with death and tears and suffering? 6,000 years? 6,000,000 years? 4,800,000,000 years? And how many years can your God let you suffer, before you cease to believe that your God is truly good, kind, merciful? Let’s be honest. I have had many Adventists suggest to me that they might be able to permit God to allow sin to run its course for 6,000 years, but much longer than that would frankly make them questions that kind of God’s character. “I can’t believe in a God like that,” is sort of how it gets expressed.

The burden of deep time, of long ages, or a progressive creation over millions or billions of years is an unbearable burden for many Adventists, and they refuse to accept the possibility of a long chronology.

Lay Your Burdens Down!
The good news is that I have come to believe that the “Burden of Time” is a burden we need to gladly lay down (along with our personal burdens of guilt, shame, and sin) at the foot of the cross. The Sin Bearer is also the Time Bearer, and at His Cross all burdens including the
Burden of Time, roll away.

God in mercy has made provision for the burden of the length of the great controversy. No one, not one human, not one man or woman or child, has ever had to wait for Jesus, has ever had to bear the burden of suffering and woe, longer than one lifetime!

You have waited for the Second Coming exactly as many years as you have lived, and not one second longer. You have had to watch good and evil in conflict; you have had to suffer those consequences, exactly as long as every other human. One lifetime at most, and often – thank God – only a minority part of that lifetime has been burdened by pain, suffering, and despair.

You have not been waiting for Jesus to return for 2,000 years! We all have waited the same relatively short period of time, one lifetime.

Your share of the suffering in this life is exactly the same as every other human’s share of the suffering in this life, one lifetime.

Elohim decreed long ago a command that all have perfectly obeyed. “Man must not be allowed to live forever.” No one does, do they? And after death Adventists know you are not hanging around watching the game. The Adventist soul sleeps, unconscious of the passage of time be it days, weeks, months, years, or eons of deep time.

It is not “mankind” or “the church” or “the human race” who has suffered long. Because each human, each church member, all the races have been given an identical share of time to bear. One lifetime. No more, no less.

Hasn’t God Shown You Good During Your Short Time?
Have you found God in general good to you, during your life so far? Has God kept his promise that you will not be tested above what you are able to bear, but will always provide a way of escape from these trials? If so then bear your share of time, your share of trouble, your share of suffering bravely but hopefully. And remember that even if this world has had life on it for 6 thousand, 6 million, or 4.8 billion years, no one has ever had to suffer or bear the burden of conflict during that life for more than one lifetime.

There is Only One who is a Long-term Sufferer
Yahweh-Elohim is named “long-suffering”. You and I and every other human who has lived are all short-suffering.

So it may be a fair question to ask why you or I have to suffer a little or a lot for 60 or 70 or 99 years, but it is not fair for us to assume the burden of deep time, and hold this against Yahweh-Elohim.

“How can a loving God permit suffering to go on for so long?” is a question only God can answer. If God has chosen to take 13.7 billion years to prepare this stage for human life, that is His problem, not ours. No creature, no plant, no animal, no human has suffered more than one lifetime.

The Question of the Chronology of Creation Should not be Biased by the False Burden of Time
The question of the chronology of creation should not be biased by a false assumption that only a short-term creation story is good for the character of God, and that a long-term creation story is against His character. It may be against our preference, but the so-called Burden of Time is a false and unnecessary burden. It is not one, thank God, we must bear.

Ellen White gives a fascinating insight when she discusses Adam’s attitude to death. “Though the sentence of death pronounced upon him by His Maker had at first appeared terrible, yet after beholding for nearly a thousand years the results of sin, he felt that it was merciful (of) God to bring to an end a life of suffering and sorrow.” In a severe mercy the length of man’s life has since the flood been even further shortened.

We are flesh, weak, mortal, and time bound. The Creator is Spirit and not time bound. The chronology of creation is not what we think it should be, the chronology of creation is what it is. We can argue about the dates, but we should not dismiss them because we unnecessarily feel burdened by the long ages science has revealed.

“All flesh is like grass,
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
the grass withers,
and the flower falls off,
but the Word of the Lord endures forever.”

_____________________

¹Public Domain, non commercial use.
²Revelation 6:10.
³I use astronomer Hugh Ross’s “Why the Universe is the Way It Is?”(Baker Books, 2008) as a major source for this brief outline of creation time. (The correspondence to Creation Days is my own suggestion, however.)
Please read Dr. Ross’s book for detailed discussions on the reasons why this universe needs such a long time to become what it is today, a place suitable for advanced life and civilization. See especially chapter 3 of his book.
⁴Lawrence Livermore National Library, 8/17/2011, Moon and Earth may be younger than originally thought, Anne M Stark, LLNL, (925) 422-9799.
⁵Genesis 3:22.
⁶Exodus 34:6, KJV.
⁷Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 82.
⁸1 Peter 1:24-25, in modern English says “You very short time. Christ, the Word, very long time.”

18
Commentary

Comments: 18

Ella M
24 December 2012 at 5:39 am

I will be the first to attempt a comment by agreeing that time is not the same for God as it is for humans. It is not the same in all parts of the cosmos. We have proof of that in astrophysics and space travel. I admire you for spending the time and interest in putting your ideas together, and they seem to work for you. They wouldn't for me. It is possible, of course, that earth time differed at some point–I am not knowledgeable enough to know how that is possible. It could have been a very different earth. I do know that the ancients did not have the same worldview that we do. Fritz and Bull's paper on that is enlightening.
My problem is that the Bible indicates no death or violence prior to the testing of the first humans. When they failed that and learned of good and evil, they needed a savior which Christians believe was Yeshua the antitypical Lamb. So to say that death existed before Adam does away with the salvation story. My belief is that we don't know enough about time, the condition of the earth and its laws until later. For example, I don't believe writing existed among our ancestors because they didn't need it. I speculate they had memories that surpassed ours today. Whether a flood or something else that caused worldwide floods and changes, we live in a different world than did the first humans. And we may be (or were) more primitive.
earl calahan
24 December 2012 at 8:04 am

God is IAM, eternal. 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Endless years. No beginning. No end. God's master plan for the Earth is complete. Its not being micromanaged, as the countless endless requests are made by impatient suffering man. God is, as He is. God is infinite, man is finite. Adam was formed of the dust. Life was breathed into his body. At death Adam's soul was retreived by God. As far as we know Adam has no remaining body residue.
We also will die. Those who have received Jesus Christ as Saviour will have their souls retrieved at death. i believe the 23rd psalm verse 3 is a promise, HE RESTORES MY SOUL, my spirit. i believe whenJesus returns He recreates us spiritually and returns to us our souls, sinless. as He accepts us as sinless, as all sin in man was washed clean, white as snow, by His blood sacrifice. Don't attempt to understand God's mysterious ways. Don't judge our timeless Creator. You'll only create deeper suffering for yourself. Perhaps none have suffered more than Job, yet, Job said, though He slay me, yet will I trust Him (Job 13:15). Although man suffers and is aware of horrible earthly events for upwards to 100 years, and awaits the Saviours call, maybe for eons, being without any conciousness, in death, he awakens without any awareness of time, as though he awakens from one nights sleep.
Ella M
24 December 2012 at 11:35 pm

      You are correct that the HOW is not the important part of God's work. What does it mean and what kind of God does it reveal is of more significance. A history of creation with death and violence would not be favorable to God's image to my thinking. Through all the phases of creation, God always said that "it was good."

It does seem that the earliest civilizations are discoverd in the global "Bible Belt." I am not sure that modern dating techniques can measure accurately the time before time.

   Adam and Eve began to die after their sin of distrust, and we begin to die as soon as we are born. How long that takes seems irrelevant to me. The serpent in the Garden, if not actually Lucifer, was a symbol of sin.

   Another point about "death." We might examine the idea that none have yet died on this earth. True death happens at the time of the second death when there is no chance of resurrection. If humans had to wait until the second death, there would be no room on the planet. So the first death may be a necessity in a sinful world and even a blessing. Can you imagine suffering, torture, pain, mental illness and all the rest without the possibility of escaping it in death? In the new earth we may be given the alternative of settling on other planets–even remade ones in our own universe.
Stephen Ferguson
25 December 2012 at 12:03 am
Ella: “My problem is that the Bible indicates no death or violence prior to the testing of the first humans.”

I agree with much of what Timo said. As to the notion that the Bible indicates no death or violence prior to the testing of the first humans, is that strictly true, or is that how we commonly (and I would say by tradition) interpret the Bible? Consider:
- There was a war in heaven, which occurred before the testing of the first humans.
- Sinful beings, such as Satan, were already on planet earth before the testing of the first humans.
- There is no explicit statement that I can see that says there was no animal death in perfect Eden. Perhaps you know of some passages?
- There are explicit statements that there was plant death in Eden because there was the eating of plant life, which entails the destruction of plant cells through animal digestion systems.
- There is no explicit statement that says Adam and Eve were immortal in perfect Eden; in fact it suggests the opposite. After the Fall, God had to expel them for fear that they would taste of the Tree of Life and become immortal. Thus, the suggestion in the text is that in perfect Eden Adam and Eve always had the potential to become immortal but never got around to taking God up on that offer. When they finally did, it was too late.
- The Bible suggests immortality comes through eating the Tree of Life. But what about other animals then? How did an ant or a dog on the other side of the world then maintain their immortality, if the suggestion is made that the
- The texts suggest that the whole world wasn’t perfect before the Fall – just the Garden in Eden. Rather, it appears that outside of Eden, the wilderness unto which Adam and Eve were eventually expelled, had much the same fallen state as we have now.
- The fear that Cain had of being pursued and then slain, and hence God’s mark of protection, suggests that there were other human beings already existence on planet earth. Otherwise, the context of that aspect of the story makes no sense.
- God doesn’t necessarily create animals and plants directly but calls them forth, perhaps a little more indirectly, from the land and the sea.
- God doesn’t create the world ‘finished’, because He commands that the animals, birds and sea creatures, as well as mankind, multiply to fill the earth. This suggests both a process and something less than a final, creative and finished act of God.
- The fact that God asks Adam to ‘subdue’ the earth suggests the world was somehow imperfect and unfinished, and Adam was to be God’s instrument or partner in that little controversy on planet earth.
- The fact that animals such as lions and crocodiles are carnivores, with meat-eating teeth, doesn’t seem to make any sense either if there were no animal deaths, or if the world is just 10,000 years old (and where for the last 2,000 of those record human history has demonstrated basically no evolutionary change in those species).
- We typically read passages such as Rom 5:12 and think it is saying that Adam brought sin and death into the world. However, it more likely is saying Adam brought sin and death into the human race – to all people.
- Adam did not technically introduce sin into the world at all – Eve did. Yet, in the NT it blames Adam, not Eve, for the Fall. This also suggests that it Adam’s importance was not in his chronologically first sin (because he wasn’t in fact the first human sinner), but rather because Adam was spiritually and metaphorically the representative of the whole human race (including other human beings who might have been alive outside Eden).
- Similarly, it talks about Christ being the first raised from the dead. But again, that isn’t technically true either – there was Enoch, Moses and the First Fruits. Again, Christ is representatively or metaphorically the first raised from the dead, not the chronologically first raised from the dead.
Jack Hoehn
25 December 2012 at 3:02 pm

Ella M, I am thankful as always for thoughtful and open discussion. Much of your hesitation I understand. I have no problem with a shorter chronology if that proves to be true. The point of the blog is not to say “this is how old the earth is” the point of the blog is to say, no matter how old it is, 6,000 years or much much much much longer, God has in mercy limited our share of that time to only one lifetime. It does appear that the ancients had a longer share (longer life) than we moderns have, but still Adam, Moses, Paul, and Jack have all had only one lifetime to bear of the controversy. The old earth creationist and the young earth creationist alike can agree that each individual is only asked to bear the same share of the controversy between good and evil.

Stephen Ferguson and I seem to share many of the same conclusions about the Bible’s revelations. We have had to discard no Bible texts when we discarded a 6,000 year chrolology of life on earth and duration of the Great Controversy. We only had to re-read the texts to say that each Creation Day was good, because at the beginning of the Day it was not yet good. After God acted it became Good. Each creation day starts in Darkness and ends in Light. We see the controversy revealed in the geologic record makes sense now.

We still see the wages of sin being death. The difference is that Satan and 1/3 of the created intelligences of Heaven sinned over the planning of the creation of life on earth, so earth was created during the time of rebellion. As Stephen suggests Eden then becomes a special sin free zone into which mankind is placed to let them decide which side of the war they will take, and Eve and Adam’s decision brings sin and death to humans. All the Bible texts make complete sense in this scenario. It is different than what we used to believe, and the time is different, but the character of God remains the same even if we find out the chronology is in fact much longer than we had previously known… Again thank you all for thoughtful and charitable discussions.
Stephen Foster
25 December 2012 at 5:55 pm

Might it be safe to say we all agree that the wages of sin is death; but do not all agree that death is the wages of sin?

Man, it tends to gets rather complicated when we start speculating; does it not?
Stephen Foster
25 December 2012 at 8:00 pm

Agreed, life abundant is a free gift, we can all agree. But this is not the dilemma of the burden of time under discussion/speculation. The origin and reason for death is. Sorry Timo, I was merely commenting on what was being discussed.
earl calahan
25 December 2012 at 9:22 pm

Timeline? What works did God finish, which He had made, before He rested on the seventh day Gen. 2: 1&2? Did God perform works, by "finishing" on the Sabbath day? As an example for man ie: "it is good to do good works on the Sabbath? Was Adam created ouside Eden Gen.2: 8 & 15? How long after Adam & Eve were bannished were they begetting children? How many were sired before Cain? Who was Cain afraid of who could kill him? We know all of Adam's years were listed as 930 years. How long were those years, and also the years of humankind before the flood? It isn't important for us to know the answers, and after restoration to everlasting life, by asking these questions of God, it would be that we were doubting God, so it isn't going to happen. It's not for us to know God's mysterys of the Creation process and timing, it happened, it is what it is, and our human comprehension will not be in play when we are clothed in the newness of post Earth life. Ergo?
Ella M
26 December 2012 at 7:56 am

Stephen and Jack,
I am sure you have studied this subject more than I have; you present some great questions to think about. I have speculated on the creation by Lucifer before sin. But in my mind I can't make it fit with Christ's death "from the foundation of the world." Are you saying that sin and death existed before Adam's sin that supposedly brought sin into the world and caused Christ to die on the cross to save us from it?
It would be more probable that Lucifer cloned and manipulated life after sin, since he couldn't create life. It could have been on the other side of the world. So much of doctrine is inferred, and we have to interpret the story–is that some kind of test?
First-born, as I have learned it, means most important or only. According to scholars, Christ was the only one resurrected from the second death which he suffered in our stead.
I like the 6,000-year scenario since there is so much symbolism there with the weekly creation. The earth and us need the 7th thousand phase for rest. The Israelites let the land rest every seven years–another 7 for rest. Also I would like to see all those pompous scientists squirm when they find out they are wrong! (smile)
Subjective view: Dinosours are ugly–Satan must have made them!
Tree of life: you are right. I suppose the "eat to live" idea will follow us into the new earth!
It is 2 AM, and I must go to bed. Maybe I will dream about this and let you know! (smile)
1. Stephen Ferguson
  26 December 2012 at 10:19 am
  
  "Are you saying that sin and death existed before Adam's sin that supposedly brought sin into the world and caused Christ to die on the cross to save us from it?"
  
  Yes. If Satan was already in Eden as the serpent, then obviously the War in heaven, and the Lucifer's sin and the Fall of the 3rd of angels, all occured before Adam's Fall. I much like Jack's way of describing the purpose of Eden as a 'sin-free zone' where mankind was to be tested. The rest of the world outside of Eden certainly seems to be the same imperfect wilderness we still see all around us.
2. Stephen Ferguson
  26 December 2012 at 10:23 am
  
  To use a Star Wars analogy (which some of you might not like), Adam's Fall is only Episode IV. There was in fact a prequel, with Lucifer's Fall in Episode I. Like George Lucas' triology, in some ways the Bible starts with telling us about Episode IV – where mankind enters the picture. It is only later in the Bible, most vividly right at the end in Revelation, that we start to see the preqel trilogy of Epidodes I-III.
  
  As Adventists, we have been the most vocal amongst Christians in noting the Great Controversy theme – of Episodes I-III. I am just wondering if the Great Controversy theme actually provides a very good answer (realising there are no perfect answers) to theodicy and the problem of evolution. I am not saying I am 100% convinced of evolution either, but I am willing to explore the issues.
3. Jack Hoehn
  26 December 2012 at 3:28 pm
  
  Ella M, oh yes, the text in Revelation 13:8 when I realized it said Christ was not the lamb slain since the fall of Adam, but the Lamb slain “since the Foundation of the earth” was the text that started me on this journey to recast my understanding of the Great Controversy from the simple to the real.
  When I realized that Jesus told us in John 8:44 that Satan was lying and murdering not just after the fall of Adam, but “from The Beginning” it began to make sense why the geologic record shows death and murder “from The Beginning”.
  When I re-read the New Testament creation story in the gospel of John chapter 1, and realized that “In the Beginning…” was a conflict of Light with Darkness where the Word was introducing light into darkness and darkness was trying to extinguish the light, it recast Genesis 1 as no longer a record of perfection, but rather a record of each Day starting in darkness and ending in light, a story of the conflict of darkness with light.
  When classic Adventist theology adds the revelation of the origin of evil, beginning in heaven with the planning for the creation of earth, and reveals that it was this plan that led to the heavenly war……suddenly creation of life on earth, not after Adam’s fall, but after Satan’s fall, makes sense as the battle of Darkness with Light. How interesting that evidence of those battles seem presented to us in the geologic records of life on earth. Nature and Revelation begin to tell the same story….
  God the Word is still the creator of all life. But there is an adversary that has fought and mutated that creation with lies and murder since “the Beginning”, not just since the fall of Adam as we used to teach.
  1. laffal
    26 December 2012 at 9:43 pm
    
    Jack,
    
    Personally, I think you have made a wrong turn here. As a matter of fact, darkness can never do battle with light, darkness always vanishes in the presence of light, with the exceptions of shadows produced by obstructions to the light source. But when you take into concideration the heart of the Divinely created intellegent beings such as Lucifer / humanity, then the metaphor of darkness and light have their Biblical place. The conflict is not between light and darkness per se, but between God's way and one's (Lucifer) other way… self. Verse 5 of John 1 is not talking about creation as much as the Creator who came to be the Savior of the world, and the Messiah to Israel, and His reception / rejection. This metaphor is born out in express terms in verses 10 & 11. To use John 1 to adjust your understanding of Genesis 1 is a reach that is misplaced to say the least. But that's just how I see it.
    1. laffal
      26 December 2012 at 9:47 pm
      
      Cognate: 4653 skotía (a feminine noun) – darkness, a brand of moral, spiritual obscurity (i.e. which blocks the light of God when faith is lacking)
    2. Jack Hoehn
      28 December 2012 at 8:57 am
      
      LAFFAL, I am very capable of making wrong turns. I present my ideas not as settled facts but as suggestions in hopes of being improved upon and given better ideas, so your comments are most welcome. I would just say I am still very convinced that the Gospel of John chapter 1 is a Christian explanation of Creation, and illuminates Genesis chapter 1 in many important ways.
      Genesis 1/JOHN 1
      In the beginning/IN THE BEGINNING…
      God said/WAS THE WORD…
      God created the heavens and the earth/ALL THINGS WERE MADE BY HIM…
      Let the waters bring forth living creatures/IN HIM WAS LIFE…
      Let there be light/AND HIS LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN…
      And the light he called “day” and the darkness “night”/AND THE LIGHT SHINETH IN THE DARKNESS
      And there was evening(darkening) and there was morning (lightening) One Day/AND THE DARKNESS CAN NEVER EXTINGUISH IT(NLT) or THE DARKNESS HAS NOT OVERCOME IT (ESV) (HNV)
      As each of the successive 6 Great Creation Days starts in darkness, and ends with an improvement on that darkness or in light so that at the end of each of the 6 Days God says in paraphrase, “It is better now than it was as I found it at the beginning of this Day. It is good now.” So John’s insight that the Light Shining In the Darkness was attempted to be overcome or extinguished by The Darkness, but was not, has suggested to me that the creation events starting in darkness (evening) and ending in light (morning) may be showing that thes events were not uncontested perfections, but a great controversy between Christ and Satan, from The Beginning.
      The gender of a Greek word for light (scotos) does not tell me anything about the concept of Jesus life as being part of a conflict between Light and Darkness, not only after his first Advent, but from The Beginning. This in turn helps me understand what nature reveals about the history of life on the earth during all the stages outlined in the Creation Days of Genesis.
      John 1 suggests to me that Light and Darkness have been in conflict from the Beginning of the Creation, not just after Adam’s fall.
      But please feel free to show me a better way to unify the truths in science with the truths in revelation.
Stephen Ferguson
26 December 2012 at 2:33 pm

Yes I think that is an excellent way to put it. I guess it isn't clear when exactly the rebellion occured, only that it was probably a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (sorry to keep using the Star Wars parable). But I do wholly agree with the basic notion that Adam may have been some sort of test – perhaps some time of pre-figuring Job?
Jack Hoehn
26 December 2012 at 2:56 pm

“Adventist Great Controversy Key to Understanding Geologic History” is a longer article that should be published someday. J. David Newman do you read these blogs? Still looking for major articles for AToday?
earl calahan
26 December 2012 at 9:24 pm

Timo, to God, man is worth more than birds. What is mankind's worth, compared to Satan, to God? Or is this question irrelevent. God having pre-knowledge of all, knew in advance of Lucifer's future transgression, also of Adam's failure of the test to be given. And then of allowing Satan access to both Adam & Job. Could you suggest a possible object lesson for us, from this scenario. God is as He is, and
as stated earlier, like Job, "though He slay me, yet…….)

Comments are closed.

Edwin Torkelsen in the most recent issue of Adventist Today, asks a very pertinent question: “If I believe exactly as I did 60 years ago, where has the Spirit been?”

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The books is good for individual consideration. It can be even better as the basis for group discussions– Sabbath School classes who need more than recycled lessons; Book Clubs interested in sharing good reads; Classrooms; Worker’s Retreats looking for some stirring up of the waters!

TIME FOR FRESH THOUGHTS?

Over 700 copies of ADVENTIST TOMORROW have been sold (300+ Kindle, 400+ paperback). That is a good start but there are 92,000 congregations in the world that need to be having these conversations. Here is how to get a supply for yours:

HOW TO GET YOUR COPY–

USA and Canada: CLICK HERE for Amazon.com who will print and mail you a paperback copy for $US 20.00 or send you an electronic Kindle copy for US$ 9.00. All profits go to support Adventist Today.

UK: ADVENTIST TOMORROW from www.Amazon.co.UK is available for GBP 14.64 paperback or GBP 6.47 Kindle.

Australia and New Zealand: ADVENTIST TOMORROW from www.Amazon.com.au for $AUD 28.38 for the paperback or $AUD 11.57 for the Kindle version.

Europe: For example Germany has www.Amazon.de where ADVENTIST TOMORROW (in English) is available for EUR 17,41 paperback or EUR 7,42 Kindle. You should be able to do the same with Amazon.[fr/es/it].

Japan: Try www.Amazon.co.jp. Where paperback is offered for JPY 2,309 and Kindle for JPY 948.

Kenya: A few copies have been imported to your country, contact us for information.

Other Countries: If not close to one of the above sources, Amazon does ship to other countries. You can go here: https://www.amazon.com/International-Shipping-Direct and find out if a printed book could be shipped directly to you, and what shipping costs would be. Kindle electronic versions have no shipping costs.