"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Psalm 119:105
One question answered
posted Thursday, July 3, 2008 :: 7:33 AM
While Obama claims to be a Christian, he has definitively answered the question of whether he is or not in his own words. The short answer: not in the biblical, historic sense. So the question remains: What does he consider himself, then? He is still afraid to say, which makes me wonder: What does he have to hide?
We had a bit of a scary emergency today with beloved family ... medical complications related to the emergency surgery of nearly two weeks ago. We may yet end up at the emergency room before morning ... but I am praying that the tide will turn and that it won't come to that. Thank you for your prayers!
Loving and supporting others is sometimes the best use of time
posted Tuesday, July 1, 2008 :: 8:14 AM
I am going with beloved family to follow- up doctor's appointments all day today; I have more holiday /theology posts waiting in the wings and will try to get them posted, but if not today, hopefully tomorrow!
All Through the Ages is being shipped to us from our printer's this week. Because of the 4th holiday, I am estimating we will have the new 3rd edition back in stock by July 14, just to be on the safe side, when we will be shipping books to all those who preordered the newest edition. I have also updated the website with the latest info. The newest edition is harmonized and expanded in every area, but the Geographical section has been doubled, or tripled or quadrupled in some cases. With over 7000 books indexed by historical era, geographical region, genre, and reading level, including the latest books just out in this year's spring catalogs, it is proving to be the invaluable one-stop living books history resource!
An article in today's paper caught my eye: Neopaganism growing quickly, about the resurgence and growth of such pagan nature religions as druidism and witchcraft. The newspaper article claims paganism is the fastest growing religion in America, Canada, and Europe today, with the numbers of adherents doubling every 18 months.
The comments, though, on this article is what is really interesting. The pagans themselves discuss why the traditional American religion of Christianity is on the decline (many of the pagans identify themselves as former Christians or raised in the Christian church), some giving reasons that the "patriarchy" of Yahweh is less free than the "matriarchy" of their goddess ... the ancient Canaanites agreed with them. Some say that paganism is a more ancient religion than Christianity, as Christianity is based on sun worship. We have discussed the connection in detail here.
I have been hearing about a healing revival going on in Florida. I don't know anything about this particular church, but I do believe God heals people miraculously today. This is because we have experienced His healing on numerous occasions throughout our lives. For example, I was born 3 months prematurely nearly 50 years ago, when preemie survival rates, especially at that gestational age, were very low. I weighed 2 lbs 13 ounces, and the doctor told my parents not to even give me a name, because I was going to die. But the hospital where I was born had just received an experimental new invention for testing the week before: an incubator. I think I was the first baby in that incubator at that hospital. My parents prayed over me, asked the Lord to heal me, and named me "Christine" in defiance of the doctor's advice. And I lived, and thrived.
When I was in college the Lord healed me of debilitating scoliosis in my back. A friend prayed over me, and I felt my spine going "clink" "clink" "clink" in place, all the way down my back from the top of my spine to the bottom. And I have been pain and scoliosis- free since that day.
When my son was 8 months old, he experienced a fall of about 10 feet and landed on his head. His skull was fractured, swollen about twice its normal size. If he survived (which was in doubt), he would be brain damaged the rest of his life. So my husband and I prayed over him and asked the Lord to heal all his injuries and restore his brain the way it was supposed to me. I sure didn't feel full of faith at the time; I have rarely been so scared. But after about 5 hours after the prayer, the swelling in his head was gone, he was active and playing, and a second set of x-rays showed no skull fracture, or any damage at all, whatsoever.
When this same son was about 5, we were up camping in the mountains, and he accidentally stumbled into a mountain bee hive in an old rotten log. He had hundreds of bee stings all over his body. I had a little baking soda to make pancakes the next morning, but not nearly enough to treat every bee sting. And we were hours away from the closest hospital. So we prayed over him, and all the bee stings were gone in about 5 minutes, and he was fine.
When my oldest daughter was pregnant with her daughter, she was diagnosed with gallstones, and they wanted to remove her gall bladder when she was in the hospital to deliver her baby. She didn't want to live the rest of her life without a gall bladder, however, believing God gave it to us for some good reason, so we prayed over her, and her gall stones dissolved. She still has her gall bladder, btw.
So why would God do all that for us if He doesn't heal people miraculously anymore?
Someone we know and love, who has just experienced a devastating loss, asked me recently, "How will God help me go on?" We have been no strangers to tragedy and loss, and it is a fair question. I don't think there is one pat answer. The only way to survive the hurt is to hold on tightly to God and take it one day at a time. How to hold on tightly to God? I play a lot of encouraging music (mostly Dennis Jernigan) which remind me how great God is at preserving us in the middle of the storms of life, or which remind me of God's faithfulness, or of His never- ending love. You can always tell when our family is in the middle of a deep trial, because the Dennis Jernigan music is on from dawn to dusk. :) I look up all the Scripture I can find about God binding up the broken- hearted, and read them all and meditate on them all every day. My sister, a few years ago, gave me The Psalms of David, and I get that out and read a new one every day. The Psalms are so much more than praise songs to God; the vast majority of them are praise songs to God in the midst of the trials and sorrows of life.
But the only thing that can really heal the hurt, is to stay beneath the shadow of His wings, close to His heart, for only His presence is going to be the balm of Gilead to an aching heart. Only His presence can provide the love, peace, and assurance we all need to get through this day and face another. And when everything gets overwhelming, and you just can't seem to pray, read, or have faith anymore, I found that God held on tightly to me. He never let me go, and He never left me or forsook me. And one day, the day came, when I could be happy again. :)
... from the hospital at 5 pm this evening ... beloved family had emergency surgery last week and we have had some ups and downs, but all is well. It seems strange to be home after camping out nearly a week at the hospital ... if you have been praying, THANK YOU. God is good!!
A very close family member is in the hospital today, and that is where I am going to be today also ... if I don't get to a blog entry today, that is why.
The long answer is: Ancient World has Abraham most likely sojourning in Egypt during the reign of the Hyksos, Joseph being governor of Egypt during the reign of one of the Theban pharaohs, and Moses leading the Hebrews from Egypt during the regin of one of the Ramesesan dynasty pharaohs (after Ramses the Great). Unwrapping the Pharaohs was published at the time Ancient World was being printed, so I did not use it as a source reference for that book. Our dating and chronology authority is from Ussher's Annals, and Chronology of the Old Testament by Dr. Floyd Nolan Jones. For Egyptian history harmonized with biblical history, we used primarily Rawlinson's Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World (of which one was Ancient Egypt) and Byrant's An Analysis of Ancient Mythology (which is also an analysis of the ancient history brought down to us via the Greek classics and Manetho, the Egyptian historian). Rawlinson was professor of ancient history at Oxford University in England, and Bryant was the foremost classical historian in England in his day.
The ancient Egyptian chronology which is presented in Story of the Ancient World is not based on modern Egyptian chronology - as some (even modern) historians believe it has been exaggerated at some point in the past. I have based our chronology on the Egyptian Old Chronicle, which is the oldest historical document extant for Egyptian history. It contains half the number of dynasties that modern historians use, but, more importantly, it harmonizes perfectly with biblical history. Bryant makes a logical and indisputable argument for the reliability of the Old Chronicle in his six volume masterwork mentioned above.
So what does this mean: this means my dynasty numbers do not line up with those used in Unwrapping the Pharaohs, which accepts the standard dynastic list and goes from there. Because there is dispute about the dynastic list, I did not present our Egyptian history in terms of dynasties. I was not learned enough to analyze the standard dynastic list, and do what experts have been seeking to do since Napoleon's discovery of ancient Egypt: harmonize that list with the Bible.
Instead, I have presented Egyptian history in terms of the great personalities of Egypt's royal families: the Hyksos invaders, who they were, and where they came into the picture of Egyptian history; the great Theban family of Ahmose, Thutmose, Hatshepsut, Ankhenaten, and Tutankemon; and the "new" royal family which arose over Egypt (recorded in Exodus 1) of which Rameses the Great was the greatest pharaoh.
I did not place the reign of Rameses the Great after the Exodus as Unwrapping the Pharaohs does. The reason is this: of course, at the time I did not know the argument that Unwrapping the Pharaohs would be making, as it was not published yet. But there were books out there, which I had read, which did place Rameses after the Exodus (as well as books which place him during, and also others before -- who to believe?) After wrestling with this question for months, I chose to place him before, simply because the biblical account presents God's judgment on a proud and grand Egypt, on a devastating scale. While Egypt does again enter biblical history, it is not for hundreds of years after the Exodus, and Egypt never again regains her former glory or prominence.
Examining the monumental record of Rameses, there is no doubt that Rameses' reign was the greatest in terms of magnificence, wealth, and renown that Egypt ever produced. So if you look at Egyptian history on a broad and grand scale, it builds and builds and builds in terms of might until the reign of Rameses, which is its height, then there is a mysterious period of chaos, power struggles, upheaval, unrest and a complete loss of power and influence, then there is a weak period of regrowth, however characterized by military defeats, and more power struggles, ending with foreign conquest, of one empire after another. The biblical history of the Exodus merely explains what cut short the magnificence and might of Egypt, and perfectly explains the cause of the ensuing chaos, and why it was a weaker state in world history from that time forth.
That is the history related in Story of the Ancient World. It does not line up with Unwrapping the Pharaohs in every particular. I have since learned that Dr. Ruth Beechick has published a new book: World History Made Simple: Matching History with the Bible, which has similar conclusions.
The history presented in Story of the Ancient World is not a judgment of Unwrapping the Pharaohs at all: they are experts, and I am a homeschooling mom. And Dr. Beechick is not an Egyptian authority either. But being outside the field, maybe we have not been influenced by the standard scholarship in the field, and so it is easier for us, in our simple way, to look at the Bible, look at Egypt, and come to a logical conclusion - which may or may not be a good thing.
One of the new articles/ sidebars in the new edition of All Through the Ages concerns the Hyksos and their place in Egyptian history. This article has bearing on a recent question I received comparing Story of the Ancient World to Unwrapping the Pharaohs, so before I answer that, here is Who were the Hyksos?:
The native Egyptians, the people of Mizraim, at first did not build up the elaborate society by which history knows them, for they lived simply, their chief town being Memphis. But in the course of time the Cush-ites, descendants of Cush, rebelled against the Divine will (Nimrod was their king at the Tower of Babel rebellion), became wandering nomads, and began troubling the settled peoples in many places. In 2084 bc, or a little more than one hundred years after Mizraim first entered Egypt, a large group of Cush-ites invaded the country from the east, and overtook the land. The Egyptians recorded that event thus:
“Of a sudden there came upon this country, a large body of noble people from the east (two hundred and forty thousand!); who with great boldness invaded the land, and took it without the least opposition: not a single battle was hazarded. The chief of our people they reduced to obedience, and then in a most cruel manner, they set fire to our towns, and overturned our temples. Their behavior to the natives was very barbarous, for they killed the men, and made slaves of the wives and children.
“At length they consitituted one of their body to be their king. He resided at Memphis, holding all the Upper and Lower country tributary; and having garrisons in every place of consequence. He took particular care to secure every part to the east; as the Assyrians (i.e., the sons of Shem) were then very powerful.”
--Josephus, Against Apion, Book I, 14.75, quoting Manetho’s Egyptian History, Book II.
Josephus goes on to identify these invaders, whom Menetho calls Hyksos, with shepherds, and his own ancestors, who were shepherds in Egypt when Joseph was governor there. But this could not possibly be the case, as it grossly contradicts the Biblical account of the Hebrews. Instead, the Greek “Hyksos” was originally U-Cousos, a Chaldean and Egyptian word meaning “noble Cush-ite,” (Jacob Bryant, Observations and Inquiries upon Ancient History, p. 196, and A New System, or an Analysis of Ancient Mythology, Vol. 1, pp.94-95).
The Cush-ites established Nimrod’s religion throughout Egypt. Their chief deity was the sun, which they worshipped by the name of Amon-Ra, which means, Ham, the sun god; for who the Hebrews called Ham, the Cush-ites called Am or Amon. They were the first to deify their ancestors.
However, for all their tyranny, the Cush-ites did improve the country in many ways. They built reservoirs, and drained the marshes of the Delta using canals, which they had also employed to improve Sumer, their country of origin. They turned the Delta into the most beautiful land in Egypt, and there the Cush-ites settled.
They introduced hieroglyphics, which were from Chaldean characters. The Cush-ites were great builders, as they had shown in Sumer. It was during the reign of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, that the great pyramids were built; the Cush-ites likewise built towers, temples, and pyramids in many places around the world to which they migrated. They furthermore built beautiful cities, and palaces; and were learned in all the science, astronomy, and mathematics of the Chaldeans; as well as pagan rites, and the occult. It was the Shepherd Kings who established all the rites of the dead, for which Egypt became famous. It was from these kings that the rulers of the Egyptians were first called Pharaoh, for such a title meant, “voice of the sun god.” In Sumer also, the people believed that the gods gave their messages to the king, who relayed the god’s will to the people (Christine Miller, Story of the Ancient World, pp. 68-70).
2) Of course, all the new books recommended from all the various homeschooling catalogs we indexed up to and including this spring's latest catalogs have been included; along side their old recommendations (even though they might not be available new and in their catalogs anymore because of that, they were still excellent books, and many of them can be found in libraries or online).
3) Many smaller and independent publishers are republishing the the best of the great old books indexed by The Best Historical Novels and Tales and History of Nations recommended reading lists (sources for books indexed in All Through the Ages); a search for them on Amazon.com will bring them up available for purchase again. These have been retained in the 3rd edition of All Through the Ages. However, some of those titles were just too obscure, and unavailable to us in our day. Those titles have been removed, greatly streamlining several of the lists.
4) Corrections were made throughout all the lists where errors were found for incorrect reading levels, authors, titles, etc. and checked against several library databases as well as Amazon.com.
5) Book descriptions were greatly expanded in every list, in every level; and changed, where necessary, to make the descriptions even more accurate and helpful.
6) While every list in the Chronological section was expanded, the Geographical section was massively expanded; many of the country lists are quite complete now across all reading levels and for all book types (history, biography, historical fiction, literature, etc.). The Geographical section of the book is now nearly as extensive as the Chronological section, and should be a great help in Geography studies.
7) A few new articles and sidebars were added to aid understanding of more complex, confusing, or controversial events in history.
8) And finally, the book has been completely retypecast in a darker and easier to read (I think) font, at a larger size. More space was added between entries to increase legibility. The page design has been redone, all with an eye to increase legibility and ease of use. Yes, these changes added pages to the book, but we were committed to greatly increase the ease of use, relevancy, and legibility of All Through the Ages, even if it meant an increase in cost for us, without passing those increases on to the homeschooling community. Times are tough right now, and we have been there, trying to come up with hundreds of dollars for books while living on one income; we think homeschooling families deserve more help in tough times, not less. So not raising our prices is our little bitty way of helping out. :)
Finally, every last technical issue with the new edition of All Through the Ages has been resolved! We have a new printer much closer to home - due to the increase in paper and freight charges with our old printer - and we were trying to avoid raising the prices on our books. Even though the price on practically everything else has gone up, we wanted to continue to be a blessing to the homeschooling community and keep our prices the same.
Anyway, the complete overhaul of All Through the Ages in a new program and a new format for the new printer brought its own set of challenges, and maybe if I was more of a techie person it wouldn't have taken me so long. But, every obstacle has been surmounted, every hurdle overcome; the book is at the printer being printed, and we will be shipping in two weeks!!! Whoo hoo!!
Now if I can just figure out why my desktop computer won't connect to the Internet so I can update the Nothing New Press website ... I think I might have to back everything up, wipe the hard drive, and start from scratch. So I will be updating the website as soon as possible ... stay tuned ...
And now back to our regularly scheduled blogging ...
I scanned in the map that was in our local paper, which shows the path of the main tornadoes, and all the places of confirmed touchdowns. Then I marked on the map my house, my daughter's house, and my sister's house. The 2 largest tornadoes passed right over or by all our houses, and yet we sustained no damage at all. My daughter received the worst of it, but the worst that happened to her was her front screen door was ripped off its hinges, and they lost power. My son-in-law has had the screen door examined, and it can be repaired, which the insurance will pay for; they don't even have to buy a new one! And their power is back on. They are saying the tornado that passed by my daughter's house was an F3 with 210 mph winds.
As for us, it rained hard here and the wind blew hard here, but not even a leaf is missing off our apple or walnut trees. My sister's house and yard likewise sustained no damage. She told me she could tell when the storm went over her house, though, because it was roaring like a banshee.
I do believe we have lived to see these words come to pass in our lives:
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress:
My God; in Him will I trust.
Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler,
And from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with His feathers,
And under His wings shall thou trust:
His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night,
Nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
A thousand shall fall at thy side
And ten thousand at thy right hand
But it shall not come nigh thee.
Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see
The reward of the wicked. Psalm 91:1-8
We had seven tornadoes touch down and do damage in our county yesterday. They were not near our house, but the biggest one passed within one mile of my daughter's house. Her husband just happened to be home at the time (middle of the day, which he never is) and he got everyone into the basement. They are all okay, and as far as they know, the only damage to their house is the winds tore off their front screen door. They are staying with us for the time being, as their town is still completely without power. (Yay! Grandkids in the house!) We are very grateful this morning that the Lord protected us all through those storms. (The Lord has preserved us through every storm life has thrown at us, and He will continue to do so. As Christians who love the Lord, our lives are not storm- free, and sometimes we have to "hunker down in the basement" while the storm does its damage, but how faithful is the Lord, that we emerge whole when it is all over!) The town of Windsor, Colorado was not so blessed - a local news station has set up a tornado relief fund to help those who need it whose homes were destroyed.
My husband and I took Zane to see Prince Caspian Sunday afternoon. I have been waiting for this movie with anticipation! I generally liked it, although they did not stick as close to the book as they did with the first movie. A change which they made, which I think was better than the book, was leaving out Bacchus and the wild girls. They completely left out the scene with the little Telmarine girl at the school, though, which I loved.
A change which they made which I think was worse than the book, was Peter having a chip on his shoulder. He did not have the nobility he did in the book until the end. I suppose they decided they had to show him growing into his nobility as a process, but it was something I did not like.
Like the first movie, it was visually stunning and beautiful. The Christian themes were again subtle, but they came through: 1) help comes when you ask for it, although it may take a different form than you were expecting; 2) you may have to follow God alone; 3) we cannot always depend on visions, audible instructions, tangible experience and the like for guidance - sometimes God's face is hidden - and we just have to do what we know is right; 4) evil can be beautiful and tempting. There was also a subtle theme of making things happen out of the works of our flesh vs. relying on God, juxtaposed with sometimes God works through our actions, but that is a difficult theme to explain, let alone depict visually, although they might have pulled it off - it just doesn't leap out at you while you are caught up in the movie.
However, Zane loved the movie, even if he did not understand it all. He is going to be four in a few weeks, and in about four years after that, we can give him his own set of Narnia books!
Visit with Christine Miller awhile and let's share our thoughts on homeschooling, education, and life.
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"The Story of the Romans provides an introductory context for the culture and ideas so foundational to the development of Western thought.”
Anne Weiland :: The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
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"For new and veteran homeschool families alike, this extensive new release from the editors of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine serves as a homeschool convention in a book. It details today's most viable education models, helping parents formulate an educational game plan and choose teaching methodologies. There are more than twenty contributors." Including Christine Miller, who wrote a chapter on Classical Education.
christine's reading
I am researching the holy days which were instituted by God as a celebration of the Messiah, instead of celebrating the holy days which were instituted by man to honor nature in place of nature's God.
:: Israel's Feast - Wooten
:: Annals - Ussher
