Is it true that space scientists at NASA have confirmed Joshua\u2019s missing day with their computers?<\/p>\n
BSP 4:2-3 (Spring\u2014Summer 1975) p. 83<\/p>\n
The story concerning NASA computors and Joshua\u2019s missing day originated with Harold Hill, an industrialist from Baltimore who gives lectures on science and the Bible. It was first published in October 1969 in Evening World,<\/i> a newspaper in Spencer, Indiana. From there it was picked up by numerous religious publications. Occasional articles and tracts carrying the story still appear and now Hill has revived the story by relating it in his book How to Live Like a King\u2019s Kid<\/i> (Logos International, 1974).<\/p>\n
The story, as told in Hill\u2019s book, goes like this (pp. 66-69):<\/p>\n
The space scientists were checking the position of the sun, moon, and planets out in space, calculating where they would be 100 and 1, 000 years from now. In addition, they were looking into the trajectories of known asteroids and meteors so we wouldn\u2019t send astronauts and satellites up only to have them bump into something. Satellite orbits have to be laid out in terms of where the heavenly bodies will be so that the whole thing won\u2019t become a head-on traffic collision.<\/p>\n
Well, as they ran the computer measurement back and forth over the centuries, it came to a halt. The computer stopped and put up a red flag, which meant that there was something wrong either with the information fed into the computer or with the results as compared to the standards. They called in the service department to check it out.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing\u2019s wrong with the computer,\u201d the technicians said. \u201cIt\u2019s operating perfectly. What makes you think something\u2019s wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, the computer shows there\u2019s a day missing somewhere in elapsed time,\u201d the operators said. They rechecked their data and scratched their Educated Idiot Boxes. There was no answer, no logical explanation. They were at a baffled standstill.<\/p>\n
Then one religious fellow on the team said, \u201cYou know, one time when I was in Sunday school, they talked about the day the sun stood still.\u201d He about got laughed out of the room, because nobody believed him, but they didn\u2019t have anything else to try, so they invited him to show them what he was talking about. He got a Bible and turned to the Book of Joshua where Joshua was called to battle against all the Kings of the Amorites, kind of a formidable array of enemies. In the account, they found a pretty ridiculous statement for <\/p>\n
BSP 4:2-3 (Spring\u2014Summer 1975) p. 84<\/p>\n
anyone who has an ounce of common sense. They found the Lord saying to Joshua, \u201cFear them not, for I have delivered them into thine hand. There shall not a man of them stand before thee.\u201d The Bible went on to say that the Lord slew Joshua\u2019s enemies with a great slaughter, and they began to flee before Israel. And the Lord cast down great stones from heaven, and more of the enemy died from the hailstones than were slain by Joshua\u2019s troops. But there were some of the enemy left, and Joshua prayed for the sun and moon to stand still until the Israelites had finished avenging themselves upon their enemies.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere,\u201d the Christian space man said. \u201cThere\u2019s your missing day. Go ahead and check it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, they checked the computers, went all the way back to the time when Joshua defeated the kings, and found the explanation was close, but not close enough. The elapsed time in Joshua\u2019s day was only 23 hours and 20 minutes, not a whole day. There was still a discrepancy of forty minutes to be accounted for. Consulting the Bible record again, they found that it did not say that the sun had stood still for a whole day, but for \u201cabout (approximately) a whole day.\u201d<\/p>\n
So they were still in trouble. Forty minutes become extremely significant when they are multiplied many times over in orbits. Then the religious fellow remembered somewhere else in the Bible where it said the sun went backward. Naturally, the other space men told him he was out of his mind, but once again, they had no real choice in the matter, so they went back to the Bible and read in II Kings, the twentieth chapter, how Hezekiah on his deathbed was visited by the prophet Isaiah, who told him that he was not going to die, but that God would heal him so he would be well enough to go to the temple in three days. Furthermore, God promised to give him fifteen more years of life on earth. That was such good news that Hezekiah couldn\u2019t believe it! He asked for a sign as proof that God\u2019s word was true.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you want the sun to go ahead ten degrees?\u201d Isaiah asked him.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Hezekiah said. \u201cIt\u2019s too easy for the sun to go ahead ten degrees. It does that all the time. It goes ahead every day. But how about letting the shadow return backward<\/i> ten degrees? That\u2019ll be a new thing, and then I can believe.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so Isaiah spoke to the Lord, and the Lord brought the shadow ten degrees backward. Ten degrees is exactly forty minutes!<\/p>\n
BSP 4:2-3 (Spring\u2014Summer 1975) p. 85<\/p>\n
Twenty-three hours and twenty minutes accounted for in Joshua\u2019s day, plus forty minutes accounted for in Hezekiah\u2019s day \u2014 there was the whole twenty-four hours, the missing day that the space scientists had to make allowance for in the logbook.<\/p>\n
It is a marvelous story, but is it true? In response to an inquiry to NASA in May 1970, the form letter reproduced below was received.<\/p>\n
REPLY TO<\/p>\n
ATTN OF:<\/p>\n
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION<\/p>\n
GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER<\/p>\n
GREENBELT, MARYLAND 20771<\/p>\n
We know nothing of Mr. Harold Hill and in no way can corroborate the \u201clost day\u201d reference in the article.<\/p>\n
The effects of epoch events such as leap year. Babylonian calendar sequential perturbations, etc., are considered in the development of long-term-running computer programs. We are limited somewhat in that many of our calculations terminate with Babylonian calendar events (4, 000 years ago), but this has never given programmers any unexpected difficulties.<\/p>\n
Although we make use of planetary positions as necessary in the determination of spacecraft orbits on our computers, I nave not found that any \u201castronauts and space scientists at Greenbelt\u201d were involved in the \u201clost day\u201d story attributed to Mr. Hill.<\/p>\n
Thank you for your interest.<\/p>\n
Sincerely,<\/p>\n
Edward Mason, Chief<\/p>\n
Office of Public Affairs<\/p>\n
BSP 4:2-3 (Spring\u2014Summer 1975) p. 86<\/p>\n
In response to a letter sent to Mr. Hill in May 1970, Hill replied with a form letter. In it he stated, \u201cSince this incident took place about two years ago I have misplaced the source information and so am unable to give you names and places but will send it to you when I locate it. In the meantime I can only tell you that had I not considered the source to be completely reliable I would not have made use of it in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his book, Hill admits that he still has no documentation for the story: \u201cAnd my inability to furnish documentation of the \u2018Missing Day\u2019 incident in no way detracts from its authenticity\u201d (p. 71). But without documentation how can the story have authenticity? Apparently no one else in the world but Harold Hill knows about the events described in his story!<\/p>\n
This incident should be an object lesson for all Christians. Unless information of this type comes from a reliable source, then it should not be used. If a story such as the \u201cMissing Day\u201d is told to non-Christians and it is later found out to be without basis, or worse yet, false, then more harm than good has been done.<\/p>\n
We at Bible and Spade<\/i> are particularly sensitive to this problem since we are in the position of publishing information which is meant to be used by Christians. That is why we always give the source of our information and why we only publish information which we believe to be from a reliable source.<\/p>\n
Bible and Spade 4:4 (Autumn 1975)<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Is it true that space scientists at NASA have confirmed Joshua\u2019s missing day with their computers? BSP 4:2-3 (Spring\u2014Summer 1975) p. 83 The story concerning NASA computors and Joshua\u2019s missing day originated with Harold Hill, an industrialist from Baltimore who gives lectures on science and the Bible. It was first published in October 1969 in … Continue reading “YOUR
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