LET'S SYNCHRONIZE OUR WATCHES
The time a thing happens can be important. Genesis 2:10-14 mentions 4 rivers in Eden: Pishon, Gihon, Hiddukel and Euphrates. The names don't help. In English the names are Gusher, Brook, The River and Big River. Those could fit almost anywhere. Many people try to identify the last two with the modern Tigris and Euphrates. But problems instantly arise when the Gihon turns out to be the Nile, and nobody can find the Pishon or the land Havilah.
The Tigris and Euphrates start out very closely together, only a few miles apart. Nowadays they merge north of the Persian Gulf, forming a single river for the last 60 miles or so. In Abraham's day, the Gulf extended farther north; the two rivers entered it separately. Abraham's home town of Ur was a sea port, though now far upstream.
The Nile starts thousands of miles in the wrong direction. It flows north through Africa toward the right area, but still enters the Mediterranean over a thousand miles from the source of the others. Was Moses, who spent 40 years on the Nile in Egypt, that ignorant of geography? How could he be that wrong about it?
He wasn't. When (not where) was the Garden of Eden? The Garden was on the earth before Noah's Flood, which rearranged the face of the earth. Billions of tons of dirt and rock were pushed around by the flood waters.
All geologists agree the seas and oceans were far shallower in the past, and there were no ice caps at the poles. When the weight of water built to its present level, it caused the tectonic plates to shift the continents to their new locations.
In 1926 the famous German explorer and scientist Alfred Wegener (who explored and mapped most of Greenland) invented the plate techtonics theory. He was declared insane by the German Geological Association, fired, and ostracized from all scientific work, as it is a blatantly anti-evolutionist idea. 30 years later, after Wegener died bankrupt and abandoned by his peers, an evolutionary explanation was invented and a dozen zero's added to the time it took. It was rediscovered and made official scientific doctrine. Many don't accept Noah's Flood as the cause, but all the water in the oceans had to come from somewhere.
Creation scientists present a very good case for a cloud layer, like that on Venus or Jupiter, only holding massive amounts of water vapor instead of acid or methane. This filtered out much of the ultraviolet light, and gave the earth a more uniform climate. Which would explain the remains of forests and tropical plants found in Siberia and Antarctica. Further, it helps explain why pre-flood people lived so long. Notice that after the flood, there is a drastic reduction of human life span, no doubt in part from the aging effect of the increase of ultraviolet light.
Why would rivers be in the same spot before and after such massive geologic and geographic changes including waltzing continents and mountain ranges popping up all over the place? When Noah and sons came down from Arrarat to the Plains of Shinar, why wouldn't they name the two large rivers they found after two rivers from their Antediluvian neighborhood? And the first settlers to the Nile valley named it after another. Who can find Eden after it washed away?
Palestine also changed through time. Mark Twain was disappointed when he visited Jerusalem. Instead of a "land flowing with milk and honey", he found an "abominable desolation", and wanted to sue the prophets for false advertising.
Mr. Twain didn't know that thousands of years ago Palestine had forests, grasslands, and in the Jordan Valley, jungle and swamp. What happened? Two things. The climate changed, with less rain every year. Slowly it turned into the near desert it is now. This also happened in the Sahara, a once fertile land, with cities, lakes and rivers that are now sand dunes. North Africa was the second largest producer of grain for the Roman Empire. The Israelis seem to be reversing the trend in Palestine through irrigation, but the Sahara still grows larger yearly.
Most of the Palestinian forests were cut down in the nearly constant wars, to build siege machinery and rebuild towns. In his ‘Wars Of The Jews’ Josephus relates how General Titus cut down so many forests near Jerusalem that his troops had to go nearly 100 miles to get enough wood for the siege works and catapults by the end of the siege. Or in Assyria's case, trees were destroyed for the sheer love of destruction and cruelty. They considered terrorism their most effective weapon. The Assyrian army totally destroyed cities that didn't instantly surrender and destroyed farms, canals, wells, forests and orchards. The demolished forests increased erosion and accelerated the climate change as well.
The time a thing happens can be important. Genesis 2:10-14 mentions 4 rivers in Eden: Pishon, Gihon, Hiddukel and Euphrates. The names don't help. In English the names are Gusher, Brook, The River and Big River. Those could fit almost anywhere. Many people try to identify the last two with the modern Tigris and Euphrates. But problems instantly arise when the Gihon turns out to be the Nile, and nobody can find the Pishon or the land Havilah.
The Tigris and Euphrates start out very closely together, only a few miles apart. Nowadays they merge north of the Persian Gulf, forming a single river for the last 60 miles or so. In Abraham's day, the Gulf extended farther north; the two rivers entered it separately. Abraham's home town of Ur was a sea port, though now far upstream.
The Nile starts thousands of miles in the wrong direction. It flows north through Africa toward the right area, but still enters the Mediterranean over a thousand miles from the source of the others. Was Moses, who spent 40 years on the Nile in Egypt, that ignorant of geography? How could he be that wrong about it?
He wasn't. When (not where) was the Garden of Eden? The Garden was on the earth before Noah's Flood, which rearranged the face of the earth. Billions of tons of dirt and rock were pushed around by the flood waters.
All geologists agree the seas and oceans were far shallower in the past, and there were no ice caps at the poles. When the weight of water built to its present level, it caused the tectonic plates to shift the continents to their new locations.
In 1926 the famous German explorer and scientist Alfred Wegener (who explored and mapped most of Greenland) invented the plate techtonics theory. He was declared insane by the German Geological Association, fired, and ostracized from all scientific work, as it is a blatantly anti-evolutionist idea. 30 years later, after Wegener died bankrupt and abandoned by his peers, an evolutionary explanation was invented and a dozen zero's added to the time it took. It was rediscovered and made official scientific doctrine. Many don't accept Noah's Flood as the cause, but all the water in the oceans had to come from somewhere.
Creation scientists present a very good case for a cloud layer, like that on Venus or Jupiter, only holding massive amounts of water vapor instead of acid or methane. This filtered out much of the ultraviolet light, and gave the earth a more uniform climate. Which would explain the remains of forests and tropical plants found in Siberia and Antarctica. Further, it helps explain why pre-flood people lived so long. Notice that after the flood, there is a drastic reduction of human life span, no doubt in part from the aging effect of the increase of ultraviolet light.
Why would rivers be in the same spot before and after such massive geologic and geographic changes including waltzing continents and mountain ranges popping up all over the place? When Noah and sons came down from Arrarat to the Plains of Shinar, why wouldn't they name the two large rivers they found after two rivers from their Antediluvian neighborhood? And the first settlers to the Nile valley named it after another. Who can find Eden after it washed away?
Palestine also changed through time. Mark Twain was disappointed when he visited Jerusalem. Instead of a "land flowing with milk and honey", he found an "abominable desolation", and wanted to sue the prophets for false advertising.
Mr. Twain didn't know that thousands of years ago Palestine had forests, grasslands, and in the Jordan Valley, jungle and swamp. What happened? Two things. The climate changed, with less rain every year. Slowly it turned into the near desert it is now. This also happened in the Sahara, a once fertile land, with cities, lakes and rivers that are now sand dunes. North Africa was the second largest producer of grain for the Roman Empire. The Israelis seem to be reversing the trend in Palestine through irrigation, but the Sahara still grows larger yearly.
Most of the Palestinian forests were cut down in the nearly constant wars, to build siege machinery and rebuild towns. In his ‘Wars Of The Jews’ Josephus relates how General Titus cut down so many forests near Jerusalem that his troops had to go nearly 100 miles to get enough wood for the siege works and catapults by the end of the siege. Or in Assyria's case, trees were destroyed for the sheer love of destruction and cruelty. They considered terrorism their most effective weapon. The Assyrian army totally destroyed cities that didn't instantly surrender and destroyed farms, canals, wells, forests and orchards. The demolished forests increased erosion and accelerated the climate change as well.
