Category Archives: Scriptures Evidence

The State of the World Changes NOW

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This post is being put to both our ‘Press’ and ‘Harmony’ blogs because the topics that we have just posted to our WindowView time line speak of a convergence of events on both the scientific and Scripture sides of the window’s view.

WindowView

If you wish to visit the recent events of this year, go to the TimeLine  and scan down the page.

Take note, that in a true biblical fashion, we are seeing a turn of major events in a number of significant venues.  This is incredible pause for thought, yet it’s not some dire straights scenario, not yet anyway.  Yet, that’s the point that many are wondering about in the back of their minds.  Is it another depression coming over the surface of the entire globe, or does this fit something else equally significant.

Put it together in the following fashion, some events occur in the natural world (fire, drought, tsunami, earthquakes, weather events) that cause significant impact on the human psyche–globally, not just in one or two local areas.  Then there is the economic venue which is of human making and this is of proportions that could topple governments, stock markets, and retirement funds–employment and commerce are at risk.  A third factor is the unrest between nations.  Events around the globe can all spin down to a critical focus on the Middle East.  Unrest in the Middle East can undo a lot of progress or recovery elsewhere might that come along.

And we see signs of progress and ends to technical accomplishments as medicine finds solutions to disease and mean while a space program comes to a historic end.

The global signs are ‘Signs of the Times‘ as expressed in the Bible.  This all unfolds slowly, right before our eyes.  to the material minded, the physical well-being seems uneasy.  To the spiritually minded, the words of Scripture echo in the background.

One of the most popular areas of the WindowView is the Time Line.

Come for a look and think about what changes are altering the state of our world today!

Director, WindowView.org

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A NASA Headline Without Discernment Misleads

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NASA researchers have found some of the building blocks for life in meteorites, indicating that the components for life on Earth may have originated in outer space.  Is this news?  Is the story complete? Does the media discern or mislead?

What the recent article says: “Meteorites contain a large variety of nucleobases, an essential building block of DNA.”  Okay, there is fact to the statement, but where does this lead us?

Consider that there will always be those humans who want a material and scientific explanation for life in the universe. But the same science that brings data is also the platform for discernment. Wishful thinking by space agency personnel may relate to the desire for new funding and more exploration. To be clear, this blog post would be in favor of more exploration. Science can be awesome, fun, and wonderful.  But assumptions are not science at its best, so consider the following words from the IBTIMES:
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IBTimes Headline
NASA: DNA Found on Meteorites Indicates Life May Have Originated in Space. (full article here)
from August 9, 2011 12:51 PM EDT

“Researchers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., report evidence that ready-made DNA parts could have crashed to the surface on objects like meteorites, and then assembled under Earth’s early conditions to create the first DNA.

“The discovery was made using samples from 12 carbon-rich meteorites, nine of them from Antarctica. The team extracted small fragments of the meteorite and ran them through a process to determine their structure. What they found was adenine and guanine. These are two of the nucleobases needed to make the rungs of DNA’s spiral ladder (in addition to thymine and cytosine, which were not present in the sample).”
—–

For our readers we say the fact of utmost importance is knowing the chemistry. Is this news story a springboard to a realistic scenario that potentially leads to a credible account for a chemical origin to life on earth. What the story does not tell you is that there are physical/chemical reasons why the meteorites have the guanine and cytosine, but not the early earth. Further even if the other two of four building blocks were present (and possibly not so because of other physical/chemical reasons in space) the odds of these chemicals surviving on early earth present huge problems.

You, the unsuspecting reader, are left with huge assumptions. And the vast majority of the initial problems to be surmounted by the presence of the building blocks and making any DNA what so ever on early earth … all that has been addressed already by scientists who have written on this topic. We recommend a reading of “The Mystery of Life’s Origin” by Thaxton, Bradley, and Olsen. The authors of this short book outline a methodical approach to considering the conditions on early earth and how chemicals would occur or encounter. The survival of enough chemistry on early earth, of the right type and sufficient quantity, leaves life out of the picture as opposed to leading to a plausible scenario.

You can obtain a free copy of the PDF version of the book shown here:

The media fail to bring other important facts to your attention. Let’s say enough of all the building blocks could exist on earth, all in the right spot, under the right conditions. Would that do the trick? Chemistry is not the entire story. Information coded into DNA, even if it could be made from the four bases, is the next problem. And the rather implausible leap from chemicals to complex information is also not mentioned by the IBTIMES. They just have no discernment, like NASA has no increases to it’s budget for the near future!

To address the latter part of the DNA and life story, you really need to read “The Signature In The Cell,” by Stephen Meyers. The complex information in DNA and the manner in which DNA is made poses what might be identified insurmountable problems. Real science looks at every aspect to the larger story. Origin of life symposia over the past several decades has lead scientists flat with no plausible scenario for a workable chemical origin to life. From there, no plausible explanation other than raw chance is provided for the high order of information that is present in our DNA of the cells in our bodies and in all of life.

So, the IBTIMES does you a huge disservice if you read their article and say … “Wow, maybe it’s really true that life is everywhere in the universe.” The prospects for livable planets in all of the galaxies across the entire universe is still another problematic area. Here too, as we describe on another page of WindowView, is a prospect that is diminishing and less likely.

A good imagination and deep scientific questions are all good stuff, but really, in further consideration, life on earth is more ‘the only’ than ‘one of many.’ And that we believe, in spite of life anywhere else (that, yes, may exist), is important to getting us to reflect on purpose to life. And that is a question built into our awareness, but not by chance.

The purpose of this blog post is much like the entire WindowView web presence.  We really want you to think that Science and Scripture both have something to tell us.  If you think science is the ‘last word’ on our being here, you have not thought it through and not considered all the ‘data’ that exists here.  If you read the suggested books and look at the links provided here, you will have an opportunity of a life time … let us know if you do, we think it will change your life.

Director, WindowView

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An End on Planet Earth

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Many of our readers to this blog have come with a mind set on explaining our being as a result of something material. We are born out of a biological and physical explanation. On the surface, and by a lot of scientific thinking, that might explain it. But it doesn’t hold much water in the face of some other facts. While this blog space is reserved more for the science side of the Window’s View, let’s mix it up a minute.

Calling Out © 2011 WindowView.org

The End Approaches

Why? Because of some biblical reason? Inherent in each of us is some kind of awareness that life, being alive, just existing right in the present moment, goes beyond reason. Like why is this even happening? Why am I in this? It all might not have happened, but is!

So, science is great at explaining the stage of life, but it just doesn’t give us the philosophical or the theological. Science is one part in three. But what is happening now on the world stage, right now in front of our very eyes, is also not philosophical. Biblical maybe, beyond mere philosophy, and in the material space science describes well in so many ways.

GLOBAL WARNINGS

The stock markets crash and tumble, again, and again. They are saying it’s just another cycle in the economy and it’ll turn around. Economies are weak, fragile, teetering on a brink of collapse, globally, nation to nation. Is there stability and if not who caused instability? The famine on the news will go away with the next rainy season. Rain comes and it’s not enough, it’s too much, floods, famine returns later. The scale is unprecedented! Intense storms, earthquakes, sea level rise, are just physics in reality. But on the flip side, everything described thus far is a spring board for our entering the last stretch of road to what the scriptural texts recorded a long way back. That truth, in truth, is catching up with us. But can you see the validity to this? Ah, the blog post is here for this very question.

Signs We Ignore or Bring Awe

Here are a series of SPIKES that have come in time. Let’s think of these in a logical series. Only in relatively recent time have the ranks of humanity grown. Not slowly now put in a population spike of alarming proportions. This unchecked progression of stratospheric growth means a crash is inevitable in biological terms. The spike of upward human numbers is unsustainable. We live in the microbiologist’s petri dish and the resources within are limited. Earth is limited. Resources are being burnt at a rapid clip and climate changes stress the reserves quickly, by flood, heat, fire, storm, and more. Read about the Population spike here.

Consuming OUR WAY to an End Time

The interesting thing is we could make materialism a culprit and say we are consuming ourselves into oblivion. Material markets only measure success in greater growth and greeter consumption.

The Consumption Spike grows along side and along with the Population Spike. As we turn to smart technologies and recycling materials, it looks hopeful, but just remember, the sins of consumption past have left the entire northern Pacific Ocean a sea of shredded plastic particles afloat without anyone concerned for the clean up or consequences. (read about the desperate state of our global oceans at OCEANA.org!) Materialism and global consumption made the ocean a wasteland of debris! You don’t see it, but it’s a consequence and it IS out there!

Consumption Drives Extinction

Ah, yes, one more spike for Extinction of species. We have stripped the ocean of species to feed ourselves. Over 1 billion people depend on ocean species for food. The rest of the world will eat of the same resource and the demand has not only over-fished the desirable species but driven nets to catch the less desirable and so we strip the food web of the seas’ diversity. But worse, we have changed the atmosphere by carbon inputs from fossil fuels (Carbon Spike) and that means carbon dioxide enters the oceans waters … and that means the acidity of the bottom waters now creates another complex threat to sea life. Fishing from the surface, acidity from within, the oceans are shrinking and we are headed to the end of this age.

The Coming Horizon © 2011 WindowView.org

STORM WARNINGS

The WindowView includes a series of articles that relate to change. The real storm warning puts the physical realm on a footing with the spiritual awareness we have all been given deep from within our being. Read about this added sense of what is really happening from the mix of warning signs recognized a while back.

Then think about the headlines today. The markets are in ever greater turmoil today because the global scenario and multiple weaknesses are revealing how humanity has made its own mess, but can’t clear it up. We have boxed ourselves in by famines we cannot respond to, wars that keep on going, banking and mortgage sins that rob the honest investors, shortages and stockpile inventories putting our being at risk … and all of a sudden we wonder, how do we get out of this mess.

There is one added scenario that was recorded well over 2000 years ago that actually describes the historical track we are now on–today! We will call this Chapter 15 and if you are interested, we recommend a read. If you are perceptive enough you’ll see that the world is ripe for a single leader who will tell you that if you give him complete control he’ll make life on earth work well. But this story is a wolf in sheep’s clothing … read why in Chapter 15 (Download the PDF document to read at your leaser, while the world continues on its present hectic course of events).

Director, WindowView.org

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Bin Laden is Gone but … A Greater Evil Is Coming

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This is the Internet, so here is the bottom line up top. Bin Laden is dead YET the whole world will see something worse than the likes of this reclusive super terrorist. WHERE on Earth does one come to such a conclusion?! Here is the tag line that leads to the main message here: “The real threat is a terrorist–a materialistic man of great strengths– who will be accepted as a champion, a populist global governing leader in whom so many will misplace trust.”

Radical ‘religious driven’ idiologies may be part of the driving forces in play today, but global change–we are talking really BIG picture here– is the overall super matrix of problems that will drive human emotions in time to come. Circumstances yet to be realized will pit humanity against the greatest need for a single leader … to be (y)our ‘material savior.’ Yes, materialist, because the next ‘terrorist’ will hold the world’s population hostage to the idea of our ultimate physical survival needs. At what point is our survival threatened–globally? Might that be ‘tomorrow?’

World food supply, water, Earth as shelter … all are at perceived risk. Insufficient food or water to sustain us? Earth’s environment altered in frightening ways, to scare the collective psychology? Real or unreal, the emotional drive for survival will push for someone or something to make a world of 9 BILLION people, survivable, sustainable–if that is possible, even practical. That is the direction WE are all headed into. Who will hold out the survival promise? Actually, there is an answer to the question! Read on …

We can attribute one thing to Mr. Bin Laden … He has cost all people, even those he would espouse call his own, by a legacy at every airport security area. Increased law enforcement and security forces world wide have cost the collective economies of all nations–billions. Monies spent one way to address terrorism, are robbed from resources to provide a greater global need. Just think of the diversion of funds … that could have made the planet more secure for energy, food, water and life. Mr. Bin Laden, now even in his absence, is cause for diverse global insecurities in the face of continued changes.

With the death of Osama Bin Laden, the pundits all say the world has seen a most historic event. Is the world safer now? Like so many current events, there are milestones for humanity. From a biblical perspective, HOWEVER, the Bin Ladens of today will one day be eclipsed by something more ominous. WHAT is the bigger threat? The greatest terror that could ever be foisted on all of humankind comes, yet, as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Consider how the world is a merging of economies to meet human material needs. The former great powers are losing their edge and new players gain strength in an ever more interdependent global economy. We are at the brink of a global reorientation where it becomes ever more possible for a world with one global government.

The scenario for the ascension of a single global leader is already detailed in the biblical texts. It takes first the Hebrew writings of Daniel, and later the Greek manuscript by John, to put this storyline together. What is not clear is how something like the global change concerns we see today play a driving role in this future leader’s rise to power. But then the scenario is a mix of various material and spiritual factors. What we do know for certain is we draw ever closer to the alignment of events already described in the BibLe. The material resources of the globe that could promote peace have been robbed by terrorist aspirations. Other changes, the storms of this era, rob us further as humanity attempts a material repair. The earth quakes, the tsunamis are generated and the Earth draws ever smaller to the single truth, we are all facing one corporate truth of our life’s ultimate reality.

Where do you place your trust? How do you discern what is really happening? So, what is that biblical scenario of Daniel and John? If you like, here is a place to read some of the details.

Mean while, the world only has one less terrorist and we need to think deeply about the real truth to life. This is why the Window was assembled for thinking and seeing. From the material to the spiritual, from science to scripture, life is an opportunity to put it all together, a time to “Step Up To Life!”

Director, Windowview.org

P.S. See our companion posting about a recent perspective on the events in Israel and a further note on bin Laden at the WindowView Harmony blog.

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Science Data, Current Events, and Nature as Biblical Indicators

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Earthquakes and Tsunamis Abound

Maybe you would not agree that just because an earthquake occurs something prophetic is about to take place.  On the other hand, prophetic statements that base a premise on certain occurrences, if true, mean that we can take note of conditions just in case the signs of the time are relevant.  The dilemma might be in the ‘if true’ condition.  Still, let’s just take note of the recent 12 to 18 months to make an incredible observation.  A series of earthquakes in various locations and a pronounced set of related tsunami waves have come to our attention in recent time.  Even places that typically do not experience earth quakes have had seismic activity.

[Graphic above of March 11, 2011 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration image overlaying a representation of the intensity of the post-quake tsunami on Pacific after Japanese quakes; tsunami energy moves left to right]

Take a look at the following news clips and the dates.  Then we’ll put this in a biblical context:

2009

Earthquake in Italy Kills at Least 92 (Apr. 6): An earthquake of magnitude 6.3 strikes central Italy, killing at least 92 people and leaving 40,000 to 50,000 people homeless. The town of L’Aquila is the epicenter of the earthquake, but as many as 26 towns are reportedly affected. (Apr. 7): The death toll of the earthquake has rises to 235 with many still missing, said Italian primeminister Silvio Berlusconi. The number of people left homeless has been reduced to 17,000. Rescuers are still working to pull bodies from the debris.

Earthquake in Indonesia Kills 60 (Sept. 2): About 60 people die when a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hits the island of Java, which is the most populous area of the country.

2010

7.0-Magnitude Earthquake Devastates Port-au-Prince, Haiti (Jan. 12): The beleaguered country of Haiti is dealt a catastrophic blow when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital. It is the region’s worst earthquake in 200 years. (Jan. 13): Prime Minister Préval expects fatalities to near 100,000. The United Nations mission in Haiti is destroyed, 16 members of the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti are killed, and hundreds of UN employees are missing. (Jan. 14): International aid begins pouring in, and the scope of the damage caused by the quake highlights the urgent need to improve Haiti’s crumbling infrastructure and lift it out of endemic poverty (Jan. 19): Authorities attempt to bury those killed during the earthquake and its aftermath, experts estimate a staggering death toll of 200,000 people.

Chile Hit By 8.8 Magnitude Earthquake (Feb. 27): Fatalities are relatively low, with some 750 people killed in the devastation. However, as many as 1.5 million people are displaced. Strict building codes in urban areas, helped to limit the amount of damage. Buildings and homes in poorer areas—many built with adobe—did not fare as well. Chile’s electricity grids, communication, and transportation systems are badly damaged, severely hampering rescue and aid efforts. The epicenter of the quake was 70 miles northeast of Concepcion in central Chile. Massive waves continue to cause additional damage along the coast.

7.2 Earthquake Shakes Mexico & California, Kills Two (Apr. 4) A 7.2 earthquake, centered in Mexico is felt for miles, shakes California and kills two. It is the strongest earthquake the state has experienced in 20 years.

Earthquake in China Kills Hundreds, Injures 10,000 (Apr. 14): A 7.1-magnitude earthquake strikes China’s Qinghai Province, killing at least 400 people and injuring another 10,000. Many buildings and homes have collapsed, though since the area is less densely populated than the Sichuan Province, where the devastating 2008 earthquake occurred, the death toll and overall damage is expected to be lower.

2011

Earthquake Strikes New Zealand’s Second Largest City (Feb. 22): A 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch, New Zealand, killing at least 75 people. The United States Geological Survey reports the earthquake is part of an aftershock sequence from a 7.1 earthquake that hit the same area last September.

Earthquake Strikes Japan (March 11): Off shore quake of 8.9 magnitude sent a tsunami wake onto Japan.  Hours later tsunami wave hits Hawaiian islands and tsunami watches are alerted to the west coast of North and South America.

Scripture Quotation

Mark 13:8 (King James Version): “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.”

Take Note — The Window View!

“Beginnings of sorrows.” is a reference to the last part of the current period of time before the Messiah of Israel returns.  Will it … might it … happen?

Let’s just say people have noticed the recent set of quakes.  It jogs the mind of those who can relate to what Scripture says.  In this case, the recent series of quakes seem like a backdrop to other layers of events on earth.  As this blog entry is being written the ongoing unrest in the Middle East continues with some leaders being ousted from office and active battles raging in Libya.  The nation rising against nation would be a reference to other conflicts and not just the civil based uprisings within specific countries, but both kinds of occurrence are now in the news!  The recent spike in food process and other troubles, including prevalent hunger and localized famines do in fact exist today.

The question we will leave you with is simple, if true … then when might that be?  Might the pronounced set of events of this day be worth reflection, to the point of considering that biblical truth exists in the midst of all we see?

Also remember, the Bible speaks of ‘birth pangs,’ which are episodes of activity much like the contractions that come one after the other just before a child is born. This set of earthquakes comes ‘together’ in yet one more ‘pang’ of compression that is a driving force moving us to the end of this age.

These are the very events that come into the Window’s view.  Something just like this, if NOT THIS exactly, is what will characterize the biblical events that are to come.  The point is the conditions have picked up, arisen to our attention, and are cause for reflection.  To those who pass off such events as just natural phenomena, there will be one day, the surprise that the ‘if true’ becomes ‘is true.’  And after that … all bets are off and the biblical results come rolling in like tsunami hitting the beach.

Think about it!

Director, WindowView

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Unsettling Thoughts — Humanity’s Narrow Existence

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The Window is a thinking place in cyberspace.  Some material here relates to biblical prophecy (a prediction).  Some information here relates to changes in our environment.  We do not prophesy (that is make predictions), nor do we care for sensational claims.  There is enough stern faced Bible thumping and irate environmentalism to have us want to move on … but if there is pertinent information regarding things biblical, even in environmental terms, then it might be worth a look at dimensions of information put before us long ago.  Let’s just look at what evidence is there already.

A BIG BURN:  ALL GREEN GRASS and ONE THIRD of TREES

Some number of years ago I, Director of WindowView, attended professional scientific meetings and heard what might be the early descriptions of global climate change.  Scientists from around the US and the world, attended the annual meeting for the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  The latter part of the same year, now two decades ago, came with another scientific symposium on global change and the prospects for humanity in the face of coming change.  Scientists were beginning to grasp the fullness of changes that were just beginning to reveal themselves.  Yet, change itself had not just begun, it was humanity’s consciousness of change that was beginning.  There is a difference here.  Some consequences were obvious, others to come.

Because of a biblical and scientific awareness, it seems important if not simply interesting to wonder if there are links between what we see currently in nature and what the Bible tells us about the future.  The sensational approach might be a screaming claim and you need to get down on your knees to pray for salvation or otherwise escape to the hills to save yourself.  Actually, at this point, it’s all a bit more subtle than that. This brief article simply points to something rather interesting.  You can form a personal conclusion if you like.

SCIENCE

The AAAS meeting presented an opportunity to hear scientists who follow the weather, those who explore ice core evidence for past climate, modelers who try to predict consequences to desert or rain forest–should patterns persist and change have greater effect.  But a while back, the models used to predict complex systems, like what might happen to the Amazon rain forest, were too simple.  More computer strength, more computation power, more variables, more of a lot of sophisticated approaches needed to be brought online.  Modeling was a growing field.  But could I ask a question about models, change and a Bible prediction?

BIBLE

Let’s just start with a few briefly stated points.  Many people are aware that the Bible contains prophecies.  Some have been declared and fulfilled, others declared and await fulfillment.

One ‘waiting prophecy’ concerns a time when all green grass and one third of all trees burn.  Let’s just consider something interesting about consequences in relation to this prediction.  We equate this prediction to an environmental change and thus label this an ‘environmental type.’ We say ‘type‘ because it relates to circumstances in the present, yet this looks to the future.

First, if you are alive on the only known habitable planet in the solar system, or perhaps in the galaxy, or even perhaps the only habitable place in the universe, if you saw a huge fire consuming the Earth’s vegetation, would you not be concerned?!

Second, if that burn appears in order of a lager sequence of events, other pre-recorded prophetic predictions, might that garner further attention?  You have to admit, if someone pointed out the parallel occurrence, you’d give it some thought–wouldn’t you?

Third, green grass only grows in one of the Earth’s hemispheres at a time.  That is, it is only summer in the northern or southern hemisphere, but not both at the same time.   The Bible is predicting a rather large prophetic event for all green grass in one hemisphere.  If the northern hemisphere, it’s a lot of green that burns.

FOURTH, major point, 80 PERCENT of the foodstuffs we eat as humans (from plant sources) come from species of crops in the grass family!  Wheat, barley, corn, and other related crops are grasses.  And many domestic animals depend on the grasses for the food and thus all green grasses going away in rapid fashion also impacts farming.  Totally, a big impact.

Do we have your attention at this point?

From an economic point of view, the result on obtaining foodstuffs means what food remains after this event is a matter of possession–the cost to buy food will be out of sight.  And if you have some food, you’re not likely to give any out, at any price.

Survival?  Material existence and the meaning of life, will be keenly accentuated by an incredible predicament.

SCIENCE AGAIN

So I called up a scientist at NASA and asked: “What would be the consequences to the Earth’s environment if all green grass (in one hemisphere) and all trees burned at one time?”  He asked why I asked!  I was forthcoming about the concept based on the Bible’s prediction.  He told me I was crazy and had no interest in answering my question.

I then wrote a letter to Dr. James Lovelock, the author of the GAIA Hypothesis.  You can explore this hypothesis on your own (just use an Internet search engine).  This time I was careful to explain that I was not seeking to be sensational, but was scientifically curious.  I explained the scenario and its source. [also see a write up on this correspondence in relation to environmental types at WindowView (book outline here, plus you can click on the title to download Chapter 22 to read further about environmental types)]

Interesting and surprisingly, I got a reply.  Now, to be clear, the answer was to a hypothetical and by someone who is not concerning himself with the Bible or its predictions.  But the answer is remarkable.

SURVIVAL and THINKING

The answer I got described consequences to the biomass burn (grass and trees) in terms of loss of sunlight reaching the earth surface, boost in carbon dioxide level, and negligible change in oxygen level.  Temperature would also change over time.  BUT remarkably, humans alive throughout this event would survive.  At least they would live to see the end of the fires.

Humans would have to think about what happened.  What you you think about in such a time as that?

CONCLUSION (one of many)

Today we are in possession of data of a much greater degree concerning global changes.  We know that some rather dramatic shifts can or are taking place.  Science gives us better models and better data sets to understand that we, humans, on the only habitable planet we know of, are living on a thread of life support.

If Bible be true and science information helpful, then the concept of all green grasses burring along with one third of all the trees (at one particular time), then this event will stare humanity in the face not only as prophetic, but with a question!  So many will yell: “Oh my God!”  So, do they believe?  Is there a God?  How do people in that moment respond?  Knowing ahead of time, how do you respond?

The idea behind WindowView is to tease out thoughts and to get you to think.

The Bible’s prophecy is for a time yet to come, but it begs a question.  When faced with the evidence in the material realm, how do we respond to something that goes to the spiritual realm?  And what if that provides an opportunity to walk through an open door from here to hereafter?

It’s that, or starve, because food will be in very short supply on that day.

Think about that!  Each day we live is a gift dangling from a thread of life support.

Director, WindowView.org

[See Revelation 8:7: The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.]

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Equipping Message from Hugh Ross

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To our WindowView.org readers we’d like you to think about science and Scripture both.  If you are strong on science and kind of ‘iffy’ on Scripture, then the following e-mail/listserve message will be of interest.

First, let me introduce you to the source, this following message comes from Dr. Hugh Ross, a Ph.D. astronomer and someone who has proven very interested in examining the Scriptures from a scientific perspective.  We also make an effort at WindowView to identify the Messiah by the name Yeshua, but the manner in which Dr. Ross makes his reference to Messiah is essentially of little consequence to Jews and Gentiles who examine the whole of Scripture.

If you are interested in what Dr. Ross has to offer here, then we encourage you to visit the Reasons to Believe web site.  This site is filled with resources that we trust many will find intriguing and well documented.

Here is what we received from Dr. Ross:

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August 3, 2010

An apologetics professor at a major Christian university commented to me recently. “I always get myself into trouble when my students bring up Genesis 1. Can I ask you how you deal with the disputes over creation days 1 and 4?”

First I acknowledged that few subjects generate as much controversy and hostility as the interpretation of Genesis 1. But, I added, this hullabaloo can provide a wonderful opportunity! It allows us to demonstrate the power of integration to transform dispute and rancor to harmonious, even exhilarating resolution.

The professor listened intently as I pointed out how other biblical creation accounts, including Job 38-39, Psalm 104, and Proverbs 8, amplify the Genesis story of God’s activities on the six creation days. Since God inspired all of these accounts, the best interpretation of Genesis 1 will be one that yields an appropriately literal and consistent reading of all these relevant Scripture passages.

This integrative approach reveals that God created light when He created the physical universe before rather than on day 1. He also formed the Sun, Moon, and stars before rather than on day 4 (even before day 1). His work on day 1 involved transforming Earth’s atmosphere from opaque to translucent, allowing light to penetrate Earth’s initially thick, dark cloud cover. His work on day 4 brought about transformation of this translucent (permanently overcast) atmosphere to a frequently transparent one, allowing the Sun, Moon, and stars to become clearly visible objects for the first time.

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The Bible stands apart
from all other “holy books”
in both the quantity and
quality of its information
about creation.

——————————————————————————–

Not only does this approach to the Bible’s creation accounts resolve textual incongruities but it also removes the apparent contradiction between what Genesis 1 teaches about cosmic history and what the “book of nature” and God’s other “book” of Revelation tells us about the universe, Earth, and Earth’s life.

The Bible stands apart from all other “holy books” in both the quantity and quality of its information about creation. You will find more than two dozen lengthy creation passages in Scripture. In fact, our website provides a list of every creation-related verse I’ve found in the Bible. If you haven’t already done so, you may want to take time this summer to read all these creation verses in one sitting. This exercise will equip you to be a peacemaker among Christian friends who struggle with creation issues. It may even equip you to help a nonbeliever make peace with God.

Take some time today, if you can, to look over the list of the creation passages in the Bible. I think you’ll find this list a great help in preparing to discuss the Genesis creation account with others.

A friend once asked my wife for a one-word theme to describe what’s unique about Reasons To Believe. Her answer: “Integration.” I agree. Over the past 24 years our unique strength and focus has been showing the world how a thorough integration of truth found in all 66 books of the Bible and across all the disciplines of science reveals the unified whole of God’s revelation. And this revelation continually yields new reasons to believe in Jesus Christ as Creator and Savior.

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As always, at WindowView, we encourage our visitors to build the larger view by using multiple perspectives.  Assumptions that get in the way hold us back from appreciating truth. Â And if this life gives us anything, it’s an opportunity to discern truth and the purpose to being alive.

Director, WindowView

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Never the Twain Shall Meet?

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Revealing the Jewish Messiah
In preparing a message on science and theology to give to a Messianic congregation, I started to reach back to memories of things that fit a Messianic theme. Jewish evangelism is the topic of finding evidence for the Jewish Messiah in the Tanach (the Hebrew Scriptures, aka old covenant). Finding clues, as scientists and detectives do is important so maybe the better term in place of evangelism is “making connections.”
What needs to be made absolutely certain is one thing, a Jewish person who can ascertain the identity of Messiah, has found the Jewish Messiah. Bible readers know … “to the Jew first and then the Greek” reveals an order of awareness but not a difference in relationship to Messiah, to all this is personal.
Have I ever seen a casual witness to this identity?
Then it struck me, that there is a strong witness in one particular passage. In fact, many Jewish persons I know cite Isaiah 53 as one of the most significant pieces of the text … because this passage (actually starting back in Isaiah 52 around verse 12) presents the Messiah. Rabbis say this is about Israel, but the pronouns are masculine and the profile of this figure in the passage fits one person uniquely.
The Billiards Room Witness
What might the famous writer Samuel Clements have to do with all this? Anything?
We know the name Mark Twain and some of us visit historical sites that present the humanity of this man. Many of us may never visit his home site in Hartford, Connecticut, but it’s there to explore.
On an upper floor is a study with desk and shelves and books. There is also a billiards table. Perhaps the writing mind needs a diversion to free up one’s thinking. In that room in a Hartford home, Mr. Twain had a rather large Bible. And for the open nature of this historical site, one of the curators appears to have decided to open this large tomb to a particular page.
Mark Twain’s Bible was open to Isaiah 53.
I recognized the potential impact of this for the passive Jewish visitor and to the Gentile who knows of whom the passage speaks. How many Jewish minds ponder that text? How many visit the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem to see a full representation of the original Hebrew scroll with all of Isaiah’s writings fully exposed?
How many in Hartford and and how many in Jerusalem meet their Messiah by reading this text?
Have you?
Have you shared this with someone who needs to ponder the fact that we can see Him in that text?
Perhaps Samuel Clements himself left his Bible open to that page … which is still true to this day.
Director, WindowView

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Excuse Me – But Why Am I Here?

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Recently I was communicating with an old friend from way back in the high school era.  The joy of finding a long lost person gave way to telling each other our stories … where we’ve been, who we ended up with, and lots about what we’d done along the way.

But Who Are WE?

Invariably the stories run to some kind of end point.  Ah, this is where I am in life.  And when I described how I’d found disappointment in the way some or many persons had treated me in my life’s trek … I relayed the news that I’d started to ask the big questions in life.  I found myself in a way that began to differentiate who I was compared to the large majority of people.  Does that separation somehow make me the “odd man out?”  Or did I find something right and everyone else is on the outside?

A Night’s Realization

Well here is a test for you.  Have you thought about who you are and about others, only to find yourself putting your head down on a pillow at night, in the silence of the darkness, to realize something kind of freaky.  Like we know we are conscious and that means we are alive. Alive. What is that? And then the big question: “Why is there a me?”

Of all possible things … there is a universe, there is a planet called Earth, and I am here.  But why?  Out of all the thoughts I have each day … why does it strike me as strange that I am alive!

But then, why are we here?  It really didn’t need to be so.

The Big Story I Told

In telling my personal story, I noted that at one point in my career I started to ask both scientific and theistic questions.  The answers to the merging issues put an answer to the “Why Am I Here?”  The answers came over time and as new information from biblical archaeology, from a hard core examination of evolution and how Darwinism has its major issues unaddressed by the majority, how the Bible agrees with a universe that has an origin before which there was no space or time,  new discussions on life revealing evidence for design and thus opening the door to a designer, and studies of Israel and historical events that lead to a forward looking of chronological events that have been and will come according to the biblical text.  Science data revealed another side of the coin of truth.  Remarkable!  The Bible describes what was to come, what came, and what will come in the future ahead.  And we live on that time line, right now!

So maybe you don’t believe it.  But did you look at any of this?  Did you have that freaky moment late at night that pierces one’s being to ask why you are here?  And what if the scientific data and biblical information really do answer the question?

WindowView is a product of merging thoughts that go to answer why you are here.  It’s not a mistake, you are meant to be a stranger in a place where you are traveling here, in this space and time, to discover that there is a future … an eternal future.  Yeah, that seems strange doesn’t it?  But if it’s true, then why not embrace it and learn more and then be joyed by the fact that there is more to life than the mess we face here!  In this way, the future gets better, not worse.  A look around Earth today we see a lot of confusion.  Why not get beyond the confusion and clear up the view!  If science and theism bring you to a whole truth … you may not be in the majority, but at least you’ll know where YOU are headed!  And that answers the question: “Why Am I Here!”

Science can really tell us how special life is.  The Bible can tell us more about why we are here.  Together, these two perspectives give us a really wonderful big picture!

Director, WindowView.org

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Origin of Life: The Greatest Fear Realized Now

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WindowView is about taking a look. Look at different perspectives, sides, views, and gaining a wonderful vantage point to get past all the junk information. The window may be viewed with a critical eye, that’s actually a good thing. But so too, it’s good to be objective! So, what about the origin of life? Too often we hear opposing views bringing us to a polarized view on religion and at the other end science.

The Great Fear Within

Sometimes we hear people slip and say “worldview” in place of “window view.” Interesting slip because once you start looking out the window you see a lot of different views of the world we live in.

The greatest fear comes with the notion that science information and biblical information actually together provide an OVERview. That view includes information on origins of life and specifically something about the reason, purpose, and origin of human life.

The FEAR is that both spheres of information are relevant. An even greater fear is that once we get rid of junk science and the junk brought into religious dialogs, we end up with something that approximates a good working model of who we are and what life is. Science data tell us a lot of really wonderful things about life and how it works. The biblical information adds to perspectives that tell the story in other dimensions, including something about morality, spirituality, state of mind, and topics that science really does not concern itself with. So, rather than a polarization to opposite extremes, the FEAR is that the evolution versus creation debate is missing the point entirely.

Science Data Lead the Way: Start with the Right Definitions

Darwin was not all wrong. Intelligent Design was not at all non-science. Digging into the background data and looking at the arguments aside from any particular world view leads to enlarging a constructive and objective window view.

The media spent lots of time criticizing intelligent design and if you are confused, you might want to get some terms and definitions in order. The larger proponent to disseminating information on intelligent design has provided a PDF file that you can download here to your computer. The 24 page file is entitled: “The Theory of Intelligent Design: A Briefing Package For Educators.” And since you are responsible for educating yourself, better than anyone else can, you’ll want to see what is stated in this booklet. You might be surprised on how objective the information is. If you disagree, then you’ll have more reasons to disagree, but only after taking a look (it’s part of creating that window view!).

The Real Paradigm

Call it properly evaluated science and add to that properly evaluated biblical information and then merge the spheres to the point that they in fact overlap. Yes, they only overlap — just to a point and no more. That is why sound science and good biblical interpretation actually do very well to inform – INFORM you!

The bigger working model – a paradigm – that reveals how “life works” can actually be gleaned by “emerging the spheres.”

The greatest fear that some face is that the ultimate paradigm for life includes science and biblical information. That together these two spheres give us the entire paradigm.

The ones that fear this most are only comfortable at one or other end of the extreme view – polarized. Where the spheres merge is not some compromise or middle ground – it’s reality.

At Windowview we encourage our visitors and viewers to read more and to explore the depths of the issues.

Director 120107

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