There's More! Different Destinies: A New Look at the Old Testament

Dedication

To my sweet wife Kitty, Charlie’s Angels, and Slats for his support and assistance.

To Kitty:

IF WE SHOULD PART

I know deep down within my heart that we will meet again,

The ones I love, my own true love, and those I call my friends.

I know there will be others, I never thought I’d see,

Some I never learned to like and some that hated me.

There will be some I treated badly and never made amends,

Our lives took different paths and so we were no longer friends.

But all those things are washed away and all is clean again,

On that bright and glorious morning when our brand new lives begin.

Within my heart of hearts I know that you will be there when,

We start our great new journey in a life that never ends.

Hugh Garner

Preface:

Recently, my son and I were discussing our Christian beliefs. This is always a blessing because, in so many families, it is a subject to be avoided.

We do not agree on everything. His primary concern, at this point, is the erosion of basic Christian values and the increasingly liberal changes within his own Denomination and how that impacts his child and family.

I have been interested in Prophesy for many, many years. I agree with him, but also see it as one of the many conditions that I associate with the End Times.

During our discussion, we talked about Salvation and Eternal Life through Christ, our Lord and Savior. We discussed briefly the meaning of this promise, but the question stayed with me long after our conversation ended.

Do only Christians go through the Resurrection? What about those who were faithful to God before Christ? What about those that held to the faith of their fathers after Christ? How about those that have still not heard of Christ even after the Gospel has been carried throughout the World? Is our Religion about rewarding those who are good and punishing those who are evil, or is there something more?

I want to make clear that the thoughts expressed here are my own. I received no special Messengers from God, no special dreams. I did no traveling in the Spirit. Hopefully, my thoughts are led by the Holy Spirit as I write them, and you will be led by Him as you read them, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.

I have no desire to twist or dilute the Gospel Message that he who believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior shall receive Salvation and Eternal Life. I believe, however, that Gods’ plan for mankind is greater than the simple idea that believers go to Heaven and non-Believers burn in Hell.

It’s more than the basic earthly rewards and punishment concept that prevailed before Christ (if you are bad you get spanked and if you are good you get a cookie). Because our own vision is limited to our own knowledge of good and evil, we have not yet fully comprehended what God has in store for those who accept Christ.

It is there for all to see, but it has escaped us. It goes far beyond our greatest dreams!!!

Acknowledgements:

I know that in the course of this little excursion, I have stepped on a lot of toes. I have differed with organized religion and bible authorities, Egyptologists, environmentalists, evolutionists, geologists, and other branches of the scientific community. I have studiously avoided direct quotes and specific references that require footnotes. The conclusions I have drawn are my own and are an amalgam of impressions taken from a variety of sources.

I have been heavily influenced by the works of Immanuel Velikovsky and have read them all. These are profusely footnoted and quite convincing. If you are not familiar with the Theory of Cataclysmic Change, I would strongly recommend them to you.

It was Velikovskys’ references to certain Bible passages that made me begin to wonder why these had never been brought out in regular Bible study. They are treated as allegorical references instead of factual statements. We can combine these with other references, also treated as myths, legends, or allegories, that describe the same events in the same time frame. This brought me to the conclusion that some radical changes had occurred that few branches of science or history were taking into account. When we add the physical evidence, only a portion of which is cited by Velikovsky, the conclusion becomes more certain.

While I do not entirely agree with Velikovsky on all points, I agree that many, many significant events have occurred in historic times but have been relegated to the far distant past or to prehistoric times.

Velikovsky missed the division of the World. It followed the Flood by a few hundred years. I believe it explains the distribution of mankind and various animals over the planet much more logically than migrations across land bridges and suddenly dry ocean bottoms. It also explains temples high in the Andes. It explains sub-tropical forests and villages in the Artic.

The new beginning, with a large celestial body blocking the sun about sixteen thousand years ago, is my own invention. It may or may not have merit. We know that something happened and, in view of other celestial occurrences, it is a possibility.

The very long life spans of the patriarchs before the Flood could be related to the resulting orbit after Earth broke free of such an object. When we place a satellite into orbit about the Earth or another planet, two factors are involved. The first is the gravitational pull on the satellite, and the second is its’ forward velocity. We control velocity to maintain the desired altitude above the planet. We apply thrust to increase velocity or reverse thrust to decrease it.

The Planets of the Solar System work in the same way. Since gravitational pull remains the same, the size of the orbit is determined by forward velocity. If Earth was pulled from its’ orbit but retained its’ forward velocity, it would, over time, return to its’ original orbit. The length of the year would be shortened in the smaller orbit.

This is what occurred during Earths’ encounters with Venus and Mars. It may have occurred at the time of the new beginning, but it is unlikely that a smaller orbit could account for life spans ten times longer than our own. We would have to be one-tenth the distance from the sun in comparison to our current position. Very, very hot!

I differ with Velikovsky on the reversal of the North and South Poles. He indicates one reversal at the time of Sinai. I believe a second occurred at the time the Sun stood still. The disorientation of the Southern alignment in the tomb of Senmut indicates that the planet alignment was not familiar and a result of the conditions I have described. If there had been only one reversal, the Southern alignment would have been the more familiar one. It is interesting that Senmuts’ Tomb is on an island. It may have been a part of the mainland when it was built. The division of the World was still in progress at that time.

I have no doubt that he is right about the missing years in Egyptian as well as Hebrew history, but they may be fewer than he is looking for. He refers to the collective amnesia of the human race during that period. It is quite possible that the constant fluctuations in the orbits of the Earth and Moon caused errors in tracking elapsed time. The fluctuations in the calendars resulted in a variance when compared to our current time values.

Most of the other references were found on the Internet and, if you want further confirmation, you can find all the pros and cons under each particular subject heading. As an example, an entry of Geology>Earths’ Magnetic Field>Lava Flow on Google will yield you more pros and cons on the subject than you might ever want to know. I, of course, selected those that bolster my own view.

In an attempt to deflect some of the objections I know will come, we will cover some of them at this time.

I know that some religious leaders will complain that the heavy reliance on Grace alone undermines traditional church values and practices. Not true. If these strengthen your faith and help bring others to Christ, it is desirable. If you rely upon these values alone for salvation, yours is a different destiny from those living under Grace. You are not necessarily condemned. Just as those who lived before Christ and those who now choose to live under the Law, their judgment will await the end of Christs’ Kingdom on earth. If your motivation is for the praise of men, you are probably in trouble. You may have already received your reward. Grace does not excuse us from deliberate sin. The Spirit of God will lead us in the ways of righteousness and convict us of sin. As I mentioned, no man is without sin and Christ provided us with the Lords’ Prayer so that we can go directly to The Father to receive forgiveness. If you believe that you can continue to sin because you are under Grace and will be forgiven, you have missed the point and sadly underestimated the power of God.

It may also be said that relating biblical events to cataclysmic change reduces many miraculous events to physical occurrences. I personally have no problem with the Almighty God, Who created the Heavens and the Earth, using the natural forces of His creations to accomplish His will. The grandeur and the scope of these happenings far exceed anything that we have previously imagined.

Biblical authorities have labored long and hard over the years to square the events chronicled in the Old Testament with known historical dates and they do not want people messing with them. I can certainly understand that, but the fact remains that they had to shorten Israels’ sojourn in Egypt by 220 years to make it fit. This is further complicated by the fact that the time frame is based on Pharaohs they believe to have been ruling at various times. Never the less, they reject the Egyptian chronological records. This is because the linage goes back before the Flood, which the biblical scholars have placed at 2030 BC.

While I agree that the linage is probably misleading, it is possible that it could go back beyond the Flood. While all the descendants listed may have been royalty, they may not all have been Pharaohs. As with the Edomites, descendants of Jacobs’ brother, the various Counts and Countesses may have been listed. The Pharaohs led their troops in battle and some had short reigns. Their successors were not always their offspring but were sometimes siblings. As for the linage going back before the Flood, I have explained that it is not impossible. I have often wondered why the descendants of Cain were chronicled since they ended with the Flood and the linage of Christ began with Seth. There were eight people on the Ark. They included Noah, his three sons, and their respective wives. One of the wives, possibly the wife of Ham, could have been a descendant of Cain or one of the sons of God. She could also be a part of the Egyptian linage. That line could not only go back before the Flood but all the way back to Cain, before Seth. She may have been as careful in preserving her family records as was Noah in preserving his. The Sphinx probably predates the Flood since all but the head was buried under the sands and it shows evidence of water erosion. Her descendents may have been among the first to move back into Egypt.

When we discussed the Iceman in Chapter Three, we did not explain how he got so high up in the Alps before his death. If he is indeed 5000 years old, he would have predated the Flood. During his time, most of Europe was covered by glacial deposits but at comparitively low altitudes. The livable areas were along the coastline. He was being pursued and finally took to the glacial area to escape his enemies, but was overtaken and shot with an arrow in his back. His enemies then left him to die of his wounds or freezing. About a thousand years’ later, the Glacier was covered with the Flood Waters that drained off to the Coastal Areas fairly rapidly causing some erosion of the Glacier. Several hundred years’ later, after the earth divided, the European Continent moved Southeastward crashing into the African Plate. The earth crumbled and piled up forming the Alpine Range. The Glacier on which the Iceman rested was thrust upward thousands of feet to the area in which he was recently discovered. That is my theory, at least. It beats