the bible - an extraterrestrial message

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Supplemental Notes:

The Bible:An Extraterrestrial Message

Why do we believe the Bible is of

supern a tu ra l origin? Wha t makes it

different from all other religiousbooks? What h idden secrets have been

revealed behind the ancient texts?

Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman

explore recent discoveries highlight ed

from their recent book, The Creator

Beyond T im e and S pace. This br ief-

ing package consists of two audio tapes

and n otes from th eir present at ions a t

Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa .

© 1996 Koinonia House Inc.



The Bible: An Extraterrestrial Message

Tape 1: Science and the Bible

The 20th Century Paradigm Shift

In t he 20th cent ur y we have witnessed one of

the most rema rka ble discover ies in r ecorded

history: the discovery that the universe is

finite.1 The implica t ions of th is discovery a re

indeed staggering

Beginning with Albert Einstein in 1903, twen-

tieth -centur y physicists h ave demonst ra ted

th at space-time an d ma tt er ha d a finite, si-

mu ltan eous beginning!

Prior to this discovery, atheistic scientistsand ph ilosophers r ested comfor tably on the

not ion th at th e un iverse was etern al. Conse-

quent ly, a un iverse without a beginning needed

no cause–it just was.

However, a universe that has a beginning

eith er creat ed it self (a logica l and scien t ificabsur dity) or it was cau sed to exist by a Being

who pr eceded it.

By definition, that means a transcendent

Creator–One who exists outside time and

space!



A Supernatural Message

A tr an scendent Creator presents some int er-

esting possibilit ies. Because a t r an scenden t

Crea tor possesses t he sufficien t m ean s to actin our space-t ime domain, He also has the

capability to get a messa ge to us. The Bible

claims to be th at message.

The Bible authenticates that its text is an

extr at errestr ial, superna tu ra l message sys-

tem from a tr an scendent Creat or in severa l

ways.

1) Scientific Accuracy

Because the Bible declares t ha t God is omni-

scient (a ll-knowing), He possesses a per fect

understanding of the physical universe. Con-

sequent ly, we would expect any book claiming

to be the word of God to be 100% accurate

when speaking on scient ific issues. Indeed,

the Bible is without error or contradiction

when it speaks on scient ific issues.

2) Scientific Foreknowledge

Thr oughout the Bible’s t ext t her e ar e high ly

specific an d a ccur at e st at ement s r egar ding

the laws of ph ysics, th e na tu re of our solarsyst em, th e plan et ea rt h, an d its life forms



tha t were penned cent ur ies before th is scien-

t ific knowledge was discovered by the scien-

tific community. This phenomenon, called

scient ific forekn owledge, is present through-

out the text of the Bible an d is a powerfu l hintof superna tu ra l aut horsh ip.

3) Design of the Text

Throughout the Bible we find the “finger-

print s” of a superna tu ral message system .

Nu merous design features in t he Biblical text

defy coincidence an d demonst ra te th a t t he

Bible, which consist s of sixty-six books, penned

by for ty au thors over thousands of years, is an

int egrat ed message system.

4) Predictive Prophecy

Fina lly, becau se th e Creat or r evealed in t he

Bible exist s ou t side our spa ce-t ime domain,

He is able to “see,” in effect , the beginning an d

the end of our t ime domain simu ltaneously.

Consequent ly, the Bible au th ent icat es th at

its message is of extra-dimensional origin

th rough predict ive pr ophecy; i.e., by writ ing

h ist ory in adva nce! No other “holy book” on

planet earth authenticates i ts message in

these four ways.



The Skeptics’ Bias

150 years ago most people in the western

wor ld believed t ha t the Bible was indeed th e

word of God. However , in the last 150 yea rslibera l theologian s, secular ists and t he media

have convinced man y that the Bible is unr e-

liable.

Skept ics gener a lly believe one or m ore of the

following abou t the Bible:

1) The Bible’s t ext h as been severely corrupted

over t ime by copying err ors a nd delibera te

changes.

2) The Bible is a scient ifica lly inaccura te book

filled with er roneous concepts su ch as a flatear th and geocent r ic universe.

3) Many believe tha t Bible prophecy is n o more

than history; i.e., they believe that the Bible’s

prophecies were writt en a fter t he fact .

4) F ina lly, many believe th a t the evidences of

design a re no more than a carefully designed

hoax or simply th e r esult of chance.

Ironica lly, a stonish ing evidence h as gradu-

a lly accumulat ed in the fields of archaeology,

ast ronomy, ph ysics, and biology which con-



firm the scient ific and h istorica l accuracy of

the Bible, t he su pern a tu ra l or igin of its t ext

an d th e fact th at it ha s been preserved virt u-

a lly un changed for over two thousand yea rs.

The Basics

1) When was t he Bible writt en?

Old Testament:

Book of J ob ~ 2,000 B.C.2

The Law ~ 1,500 B.C.

Psalms ~ 1,000 B.C.

The prophets ~ 800-450 B.C.

New Testament:

Synoptic Gospels 50-65 A.D.

Gospel of J ohn/Revela tion 80-100 A.D.

Epistles 50-90 A.D.

2) Authored by The H oly Spir it

“All scriptu re is given by in spirat ion of God , and is profitable for doctrine, for

reproof, for correction , for in stru ction

in righteousness”

2 Timoth y 3:16

“for proph ecy never cam e by the w ill of man, but holy men of God spoke as



th ey were m oved by the Holy S pirit.”

2 Peter 1:21

Aristotle’s Dictum

Because of the supernatural nature of the

Bible, skept ics oft en assu me the Bible’s st o-

r ies are either embellished or wholesale fraud.

To fa irly examine t he Bible we need t o apply

th e sam e test s t o th e Bible’s t ext t ha t we

would to an y other ancient document . One of these pr inciples, according t o Ar istot le, is t o

give the benefit of doubt to the document itself.

Biblica l scholar J ohn War wick Montgomery

put s t he pr inciple th is way:

“One m ust listen to th e claim s of th edocum ent under analysis, and not as-

sum e fraud or error un less th e au th or

d isqualified h im self by con-

trad ictions or known factual inaccura-

cies.”3

The Manuscripts

The manuscript evidence for the antiquity

and int egr ity of the Bible is overwhelming.

There ar e thousa nds of ma nu scripts exta nt

with a var iat ion of less t han .5%.



Some of the ma jor manuscr ipt finds of the Old

Testa ment ar e as follows:

Old Testament

• 1776: Benjamin Kennicot t listed a total of 615

exta nt Hebrew ma nu scripts.

• By 1890 there were a tota l of 731 man uscripts

of the Old Testa ment published wor ld wide.

The oldest of these were from about the 9th

century A.D.

• In 1890 the Cairo Geniza ma nuscripts were

found in the a t t ic of a synagogue in Cairo,

Egypt . Over 10,000 Biblica l t exts were dis-

covered which were da ted between the 10th

an d 12th centu ries A.D.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Discovered in Ma rch 1947 by an Arab shep-

herd boy who was pur su ing a lost goat . Gen-

era lly regarded as t he grea test m an uscript

discovery in h istory.

• Thousands of man uscripts were found in

eleven caves.

• Port ions of every book of th e Old Testa ment

were d iscovered except the book of Esther .

• They were written by a devout sect of J ews,

th e Essenes, between th e 3rd Centu ry B.C.an d the First Cent ur y A.D.



Their Importance

1) The gap between t he last prophet Ma lachi

an d exta nt ma nu scripts was na rr owed from

about 1400 year s to as lit t le as 150 years.

2) Demonstrated the reliability of the text.

Regarding the reliability of the old Testament

as tr an smitt ed thr ough t ime, Geza Vermes

stated:

“The Qum ran Biblical docum ents cover th e whole Hebrew Bible with th e excep-

tion of the book of Esther, and are

about one th ousand years older th an

th e m ost an cien t codices previously

extant. With this newly discovered

m aterial at their d isposal, experts con-cerned with th e study of the text an d

transm ission of the scriptu res are now

able to ach ieve far greater accuracy in

their deductions and can trace the

process by which the text of the Bible

obtained its fin al sh ape. Moreover, they

are in position to prove that it has

rem ained virtually un changed for the

last tw o th ousand years.” 4



New Testament Manuscripts

Document Date Copies % PurityHomer’sIliad 800B.C. 643 95

Herodotus 480B.C. 8 ?Plato’s 427B.C. 7 ?

Tetralogies

Caesar’s 44B.C. 10 ?

Gallic Wars

New Testament 50-95B.C. 25,366 >99.5

Regar ding t he da ting of th e New Testamen t

au tographs (the or igina l t ext s), the eminent

a rchaeologist Wm. F . Albright s t a ted:

“We can alread y say em ph atically that

there is no longer any solid basis for

dating an y book of th e N ew T estam ent after abou t A .D. 80.”5

The Early Church Fathers

Even without th e very ancient ma nu scripts

a t our disposal, the reliability and ant iquity of th e New Testa men t can be demonst ra ted by

the wr itings of the ea r ly church fa thers.

By th e th ird centu ry A.D. th e chu rch fat her s

had cited th e New Testa ment so ext ensively

th at nea rly t he ent ire text of th e New Testa -ment cou ld be reconst ruct ed with t hese cita -



tions.6 Sir David Dalrymple stated that if

every an cien t m an uscr ipt of the New Testa -

ment from th e 2nd a nd 3rd Centu ries were

lost, he could reconstruct “the entire New

Testament in the writings of the churchfa thers except eleven verses.”

J . Harold Greenlee sta ted that the ear ly chu rch

fa ther’s cita t ions “ar e so extensive tha t the

New Testament could virtually be recon-

st ru cted from th em without th e use of New

Testament ma nu scripts.”7

Purity of the New Testament Text

Because of the large number of NT manu-

scr ipts available for study, expert s h ave been

able t o ca ta logue the minor d ifferences andha ve concluded th at th e New Testamen t h as

been pr eserved with un par alleled pur ity.

According to New Testament scholar Ben-

jamin Warfield, “The facts show that the

great majority of the New Testament hasbeen t ra nsm itt ed to us with no or n ext t o no

variation....”8

Norman Geisler, a world renown Bible scholar

echoed th is when he st a ted: “Only 400 words

of the NT ar e in doubt , wher eas 764 lines of

t he Iliad are questioned. This five percent



textual corruption (in the Iliad ) compares

with one-ha lf of one percent of simila r emen-

dat ions in t he New Testa men t.”

Science and the Bible

For cent ur ies skeptics have claimed tha t th e

Bible is inaccurate when it speaks of scient ific

phenomenon. However , not on ly is the Bible

100% accura te regarding scient ific phenom-

enon, it a lso anticipat es dozens of recent scien-

tific facts thousands of years before their

moder n discovery.9 A pa r t ial list follows:

Twentieth Century Cosmology

Time, Space and Matter Finite

• Genesis 1:1, 1 Timothy 1:9, Titu s 1:2

Expanding Universe

B less the LOR D, O m y sou l! O LORD

my God, You are very great: You are

clothed with honor and m ajesty, Wh o

cover Yourself with light as with a

garm ent, Wh o stretch ou t th e heavens

like a curtain ... Psalm 104:1-2; cf. Isa iah

40:22; 42:5; 45:12



Stars Cannot Be Numbered

“As th e host of heaven can not be nu m -

bered , neither the san d of th e sea m ea-

sured; so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites

that m inister un to m e.”J eremiah 3:22

Sphericity of the Earth

“It is h e th at sit teth above th e circle[lit erally a sph ere, ‘khug’ in Hebrew] of

th e earth , and the inh abitan ts thereof

are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth

out the heavens as a curtain, and

spreadeth th em ou t as a tent to dw ell

in...” Isa iah 40:22

In anoth er remar kable verse, J ob, th e au th or

of the oldest book in the Bible, seems to

un dersta nd tha t th e ear th is a sphere:

“He has inscribed a circle [khug] on the

surface of th e waters, At the boundaryof ligh t an d darkn ess.”

J ob 26:10 NASB

Over 1,700 years after J ob penned these words

th e Greek ma th emat ician Er at osth enes (3rd

cent B.C.) proved that t he ear th was indeed asphere.



Elephants, Atlas, Turtles or Job

The ancient s were fascina ted with th e ques-

t ion of ear th ’s r est ing place. Some believed

th at it rest ed on elephant s or on t he backs of tu rt les. The Greeks believed th at Atlas was

the pillar u pon which it r ested. However, J ob,

who ha d “inside informat ion ,” kn ew bet ter .

“He st retches out the nort h over empty space,

And ha ngs the ear th on n othing.” J ob 26:7

Twentieth Century Physics

Atomic Structure

“T hrough faith we understand that the

worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen

were not made of things which do

appear.” Hebrews 11:3

1st Law of Thermodynamics

• Genesis 2:2-3, Hebrews 4:3-4, Neh emiah 9:6.

2nd Law of Thermodynamics

• Psalm 103, Isa iah 51:6, Mat th ew 24:35.



demonst r at ed tha t ocean ic evapora tion was

the source of ra in clouds a nd r iver wa ters.10

This fact , and other aspects of global weat her,

was a n t icipat ed nea r ly 3,000 year s ear lier in

the Bible.

J et St ream Ecclesiastes 1:6-7

Evapora t ion J ob 26:8, Eccl 1:6-7, Amo 9:6

Sour ce of River Wat er Ecclesiast es 1:6-7

Fr esh-Wat er Springs in the Sea J ob 38:16

Dinosaurs

In modern t imes, dinosaurs were discovered

by an English physician named Gideon Mantell

in 1820. However, 4,000 years ago Job de-

scribes anatomic features of ancient crea-

tures which do not fit any contemporaryanimals. However, they do seem to fit what we

kn ow about some species of dinosa urs! Check

it out in Job 40-41, Psalm 74:14; 104:26;

Isa iah 27:1.

Nuclear Physics

“But th e day of th e Lord will com e as

a th ief in th e n igh t; in the which the

heavens shall pass away with a great

noise, and the elem ents shall m elt w ith

fervent heat, the earth also and theworks th at are therein shall be burn ed

up.” 2 Peter 3:10



Conclusion

The Bible is un ique in m an y ways:

• The manuscr ipts are very ancient and havebeen preserved with u npa ralleled pur ity.

• I t evidences a superna tur al origin in its

anticipation of contemporary scient ific knowl-

edge.

• The Bible proclaims a m essage of salvat ion

which is based on fa ith and n ot good works.

• It is the only “holy book” th at au th ent icat es

its message is from an extra terrestr ial source.

Tape 2: An Extraterrestrial Message

The Nature of Time

We exist in more than three dimensions.

Time itself is a physical property. Time var ies

with m ass, accelera t ion a nd gravity.

The hypothetica l “Alpha Cent a r i Trip”:

Te =

If v = 50% of c: Ts = 18 year s

Te = 20 year s, 9 months

• Te is 2 years, 9 mont hs younger!

1 - v2/c2

Ts



Te =

If v = 99.99% of c: Ts = 4.5 years

Te = 318 years!

Time is relat ive. The Bible descr ibes God as

“inh abiting etern ity” (Isa iah 57:15). Thus,

He can au thenticat e His Message to us. How?

By “declaring the end from the beginning”

(Isa iah 46:10). We typica lly ca ll t h is “pr oph -

ecy” (2 Timothy 1:9).

Communications Engineering

The Bible has pr oper t ies of a hologra m:

• Four ier tr an sform propert ies

• Tran scendent of par allax

“Spr ead-spectrum” Design:

• Exploita t ion of ent ire ban dwidth

• Imm un ity to hostile jam ming

Evidence of Design

The oldest prophecy in the Bible was u t t ered

before the Flood of Noah by Enoch—and it was

a prophecy of the Second Coming of Jesus

Chr ist ! Enoch a lso pr oph etica lly named his

son “Meth uselah ,” which means “h is deat hshall bring.”

1 - v2/c2

Ts



The Year of the Flood

Methuselah

Lamech182

Noah

600

Genealogy of Genesis 5

Adam Man (is)

Seth Appointed

Enosh Mortal

Kenan S orrow; (bu t)

Mahalalel T he Blessed God

Jared S hall com e down

Enoch Teaching

Methuselah H is death shall bringLamech T he despairing

Noah Comfort, Rest

Similitudes or Models

The Akedah:The Offer ing of Isaac

This model, or type,

por t rays a pr eview of

the Crucifixion of J esus

Chr ist, 2000 year sin advance!

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Codes in the Torah

Genesis:

TORH

Exodus:

TORH

Numbers:

HROT



Deuteronomy:

Leviticus

The Torah Points to YHWH!

The Seventy Weeks of Daniel

HROT



The Ultimate Issue

• We are in possession of a message of extr ater-

restr ial or igin.

• I t por t rays us as objects in an unseen

warfare.

• Our eternal dest iny depends upon our rela-

tionsh ip with a pa r ticu lar person: Our Lord

an d Savior J esus Chr ist!

Three Things God Can’t Do

• H e ca nn ot lie.

• H e ca nn ot lea rn .

• He can ’t force you to love Him.

Four Things God “Doesn’t Know”

• He doesn’t kn ow a sin H e doesn’t h at e.• He doesn’t k now a sinn er He doesn’t love.

• He doesn’t know an al terna te path to His

Thr one but t hr ough H is son.

• He doesn’t kn ow a bett er t ime to accept Him

th an now!

The Geometry of Eternity



N o t e s :

1. See th e two-ta pe briefing package The Creator Be-

yond Time and Space, Koinonia House, 1996.

2. See The Remarkable Record of Job, Henry Morris,

Master Books, El Cajon CA.3. See More Than a Carpenter, J osh McDowall, pp. 49-

54.

4. See The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, Geza Vermes,

1987, Penguin Books.

5. Albright , William, F., Recent Discoveries in Bible

Lands, Funk & Wagnalls, New York NY, 1955.

6. Geisler and Nix, p. 430.

7. Greenlee, J . Harold, Int rodu ction to New T estam ent Textual Criticism, Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1964.

8. Warfield , Benjamin, An Introduction to the Textual

Criticism of the New Testament, p. 13-14.

9. For a deta iled look a t t he scient ific accur acy of th e

Bible, see The Biblical Basis for Modern Science,

Henry Morris, Master Books, El Cajon CA.

10. See The Creator Beyond Time and Space, Mark

Eastman & Chuck Missler, Ch. 6.

B i b l i o g r a p h y :

Missler, Ch uck, Beyond Perception, The Flood of Noah,

Daniel’s 70 Weeks, Beyond Coincidence, and other

2-tape briefing packages, Koinonia House, 1993-

1996.

Missler, Chuck, Expositional Commentary on Genesis,

Daniel, Revelation, and other commentary sets ,

Koinonia House, 1993-1996.

Various authors listed above in the endnotes.



Commentaries on Tape

Chuck Missler’s Expositional Commen-tar ies

are now available from Koinonia House. Each

volume consists of eight cassett e t apes and

includes notes, diagra ms , an d a comprehen -sive bibliogra ph y. Writ e for a complete list .

Monthly Newsletter

Personal UPDATE, a m ont hly newslett er h igh-

lighting the Biblical relevance of current

events, is a lso available by wr iting:

Ko in o n ia H o u s eP.O. Box D

Coeur d'Alene, ID

83816-0347

www.khouse.org

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