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The Period of the Moon and Geocentricity

Debates about geocentricity are rampant throughout the internet, spawned chiefly through the efforts of Amnon Goldberg of Tel Aviv and Marshall Hall of Georgia. One of the key arguments involves observing the motion of the stars from another location, particularly, from the surface of the moon. Several years ago the creationist astronomer Don deYoung attacked geocentricity in the pages of Australia's Creation Ex Nihilo magazine and made the same charge, that the astronauts on the moon saw the earth turning. At the time we noted that the claim was equivalent to saying that a person sitting on a the horse of a merry-go- round, upon seeing all sides of the central engine fixed to the earth, would have proven that the engine and the ground rotated and that the horse and platform stood still. And that is how I've challenged those who make such claims, namely, “Show me using a merry-go-round how the view of the landscape from its platform is different than the view from its center.”

For those who have difficulty picturing this, here is my response to the question of “How long does it take the moon to revolve around the earth?”

In the geocentric model the moon REVOLVES around the earth from west to east with a period of 27 days relative to stars and 29 days relative to the sun. The planets (not counting the earth, of course,) revolve around the sun. In addition to that the whole universe (firmament) ROTATES around the earth every 23 hours and 56 minutes. As the earth is at the dynamic center but not the physical center, (the sun is in the midst of heaven), the entire universe also wobbles with a period of one year. This causes the sun to seem to rotate a bit slower, making one rotation every 24 hours. Thus the sun is seen to move west to east against the starry background. Think of it this way, as seen in the northern hemisphere facing south:

the sky rotates left to right;
the sun moves right to left one degree per day against the background stars, or we could say that the stars move left to right a degree per day when compared to the sun;

so the stars are moving a degree per day faster to the left than is the sun;
so the “day” for the stars is shorter (23 hours 56 minutes) than it is for the sun (24 hours).

As for the moon, it moves even faster from right to left against the starry background than does the sun, so it moves even slower to the left and thus takes longer to complete one rotation (roughly 24 hrs, 45 minutes).

Dr. Bouw Just Doesn't Get It!

In an e-mail sent from one subscriber to another, mention was made of the article entitled “The Bible Code” which appeared in the Winter 1998 issue of the Biblical Astronomer, No. 83, p. 21. The article was critical of the recent flap about the secret codes found in the Bible by equidistant spacing of letters. The correspondent claimed “Dr. Bouw just doesn't get it” and deemed the process to be God honoring and in keeping with the inspiration of the text.

I beg to differ. In the February 1998 issue of the Berean Call there is an article by Dave Hunt and T.A. McMahon entitled “Back to the Bible 'Code'?” Two of these “miraculous” coincidences, both found in Leviticus, are “Joshua is my name” and “the blood of Joshua,” which are heralded by “Evangelicals as the greatest discovery and most convincing proof ever revealed.” Here are some of the “discoveries” which are not as well known as the “miraculous” ones published thus far.

the blood of Mohammed
the blood of [David] Koresh (both are in Leviticus)
Mohammed is found 2328 times
Krishna is found 104 times
Koresh is found 2729 times in the Torah

(These frequencies use skip sequences up to 1000 letters.)
Buddha is found in Genesis
Lenin and Rev. Moon are found in Daniel
13 “predicted” assassinations were found in Melville's Moby Dick
50 Chanukah-related words are encoded in Tolstoi's War and Peace
5812 UFOs were found in the KJB with dozens falling near Roswell

Finally, the article also noted that the code is being used by some rabbis to prove that Jesus is a false Messiah. They report that Yeshua Mechashif (Jesus sorcerer) and Yeshua Nabi Shekr (Jesus false prophet) are found in the Torah with identical skip sequences and even overlapping.

For those of you who still think that I don't get it, consider what the Bible says:

Isaiah 48:16 — “Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.” (Emphasis added.)

Deuteronomy 30:11 — “For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.”

Translated from WS2000 on 11 February 2005 by ws2html.