C. Bible Chronology

A.  Homepage----------------Mí página principal A.  English A.  Español B.  More About---------------Más sobre B.  English B.  Español C.  My Articles----------------Mis artículos C.  English C.  Español D.  My Photos-----------------Mis fotos E.  List--------------------------La lista F.  Guest Book----------------Los Visitantes G.  Reviews-------------------Las críticas G.  English G.  Español H.  Links------------------------Las ligas I.  ModernChronology-----CronologíaModerna I.  English I.  Español J.  Detailed Studies---------Estudios detallados J.  English J.  Español -0  Primordial Gap----------Brecha primordial -0  English -0  Español -1  The 6 Days----------------Los 6 días -1  English -1  Español -2  The Flood------------------El diluvio -2  English -2  Español -3 - 4 Abram & 430----------Abram y 430 -3 - 4 English -3 - 4 Español -5a  The 480 years------------Los 480 años -5a  English -5a  Español -5b  Acts 13:17-22------------Hechos 13.17-22 -5b  English -5b  Español -5c  The 300 years------------Los 300 años -5c  English -5c  Español -6  Divided Kingdom--------Reinos divididos -6  English -6  Español -7  Kings Names-------------Nombres de reyes -7  English -7  Español -8  Interregnum--------------El interregno -8  English -8  Español -9  Ussher's overlap-------La superposición -9  English -9  Español -10  Ussher's gap-------------Brecha de Ussher -10  English -10  Español -11  The 70 sevens-----------Los 70 sietes -11  English -11  Español -12  Life of Christ--------------La vida de Cristo -12  English -12  Español -13  The Crucifixion----------La crucifixión -13  English -13  Español K.  Comparisons------------Comparaciones K.  English K.  Español L.  OT Calendars------------Calendarios del AT L.  English L.  Español M.  Measuring time----------Tiempo medido M.  English M.  Español N.  Final Summary----------Resumen final N.  English N.  Español O.  Business Card----------Tarjeta d. presenta. P.  Acknowledgments-----Agradecimientos



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My articles

 http://creation.com/images/pdfs/other/timeline_of_the_bible.pdf


Article #4

Here is a letter dated 3 August 2010 to a friend of mine in an attempt to interest this person in the subject of Bible chronology.

Dear (name withheld),

a.  Please keep in mind that the "relevant OT areas" for the study of Bible chronology are the 39 books of the OT (Masoretic).  These are the only reliable sources for this subject, besides the NT.  We do not need Ussher's Annals, Claudius Ptolemy, F.N. Jones, Josephus, I.S.B.E. or anything else.

b.  Of the almost 40 "sources" that Don cites as a list of possible creation dates ( http://creation.com/old-earth-or-young-earth-belief ) only the 11 entries between 3949 BC and 4161 BC can be considered as coming from the Masoretic text.  This is purely a matter of alternate calculations within, at least 10, possible arrangements of the debated areas within the Masoretic text.  (Some of these 10 items are actually brought about by chronologers' sophistries rather than real problems within the text.)

c.  Your view of 4050 BC is well within the range of acceptability for an orthodox creation date, but that does not make it necessarily plausible because, for instance, Martin Anstey, though considered orthodox by many, does some pretty weird things with some of his sub-calculations which, admittedly, arrive at a totally acceptable creation date, but he gets there in such a roundabout and mathematically impossible way that he discredits himself, not to mention straightforward arithmetic conventions which no scientist could countenance, and thereby discredits all of the other genuinely good points in his chronological reckoning.
          
d.  I wish you would take a look at the interpretational matters on page J. Detailed Studies on my web site.  This shows the 10 debated matters within the Masoretic text that have two (and only two, not three, or scores) of alternatives each.  This is not rocket science.  It is merely a matter of choosing your alternatives and coming up with somewhere between 3942 BC to 4100 BC for a creation date. (The date of 4161 BC is theoretically possible but not plausible because occasionally some of the 10 problems  interplay.  That is, sometimes if one thing is one way then the other thing has to be opposite, etc.)

e.  As Ruth Beechick has eloquently said in her TJ article http://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j15_3/j15_3_67-73.pdf  "Chronology for everybody" and I say, “Amen to this!” because it is not just for the "experts" who have managed to bring in unreliable sources to expand the potential range of possible creation dates from scores, to hundreds, to thousands and, eventually, to billions of years.  These concessions were made by Christians (on the road to apostasy--I am not saying that they all arrived at this destination).

f.  I doubt that Don intended this list to infer that all those listed have their basis in the Masoretic text.  Those out of the range mentioned cannot possibly come from the Masoretic text.

g.  I keep pitching to you in the hope that you will get interested and not continue to give me this line about being unqualified.  This subject is one you could learn fast, knock out soon, and go on to bigger and better things.  All you need is the Bible.  Yeah, it has taken me a lifetime, but I didn't come with the same talent for seeing through the fog that I think you have--or, at least, that I hope you have.  Also I got derailed by not following the Bible and trying to reconcile things with the "experts".  If it's in the Bible in plain print, I think we should go with that.
 
Sincerely,

Paul A. Hansen
http://paul-hansen.mysite.com




Article #3:  This is a letter I wrote from Guatemala to family and friends after Christmas, 2007.


Week 17:  The Three Youngest Children

Dear People,


1.  Like I said last week, these are wonderful children.  They attend an Assembly of God church every Sunday.  Let me tell you about the youngest three:  Jocelyn 13, Jeremías 10, and Heidy Patricia 6.

2.  I was listening to Jeremías quote Bible verses that he had memorized.  In some cases he quoted entire Psalms.  Wow, was I impressed!  Finally he screwed up on a reference.  He was actually quoting John 15:1-2, "I am the true vine...," but he called the reference John 44:1-2.  I called this to his attention, "There are not 44 chapters in John.  There are only 21."  Jeremías is one of these people who likes to verify everything, so he went to get his Bible.  I do not mind being doubted.  He was going to check with an authoritative source!   I personally agree with his style.  I have spent my life bearing with superiors (and equals, and, alas, subordinates) who think that they are not supposed to be questioned.

3.  Meanwhile, Doña Patty (Patricia), the property owner's wife, brought Jocelyn by the hand to me.  Jocelyn was reluctant.  She did not want to face a foreigner, and an old man.  Doña Patty said, "This young lady knows Bible verses, too!"  So I asked Jocelyn to tell me one.  She recited many, including whole Psalms just like Jeremías.  This young lady will be a fabulous mother if she can locate a real man!

4.  Then Jeremías returned with his Bible trying to find John in the area of Genesis.  "John is in the New Testament," I said.  That statement gave raise to who could best recite all the books of the Bible.  When Jocelyn messed up around Kings, Jeremías took over and started from the beginning until he screwed up, and then his sister would start over from scratch.  This was good, clean, wonderful and hilarious competition.  Finally, they made it through to Jude and Revelation.

5. 
We returned to the problem of 44 chapters in John.  We resolved it to his satisfaction.  Jeremías is also good with numbers, so I gave him a little numbers test.

"Do you know how many words there are in the Bible?"
 

"No."
 
"There are less than one million.  There are about 800,000 words."

"Do you know how many pages are in the Bible?"

"No."
 

"In my my Bible there are 1,150 pages."  (I do not read Bibles with study notes--just cross references, subtitles, and text.)

"Do you know how many pages you would have to read each day in order to read the whole Bible in a year?"

"How many?"
 

"Well, how many days are there in a year?"

"240." 

"Really!  How many days in a week?" 

"7."

"Very good.  How many weeks in a month?" 

"4."
 

"Right.  Actually there are about 4-1/3 weeks in a month or 30-1/2 days per month."

I continued,
"How many months in a year?"

"12."

"Good."  

"How many weeks in a year?" 

Jeremías was thinking.  "50." 


"Not bad, but not quite.  Think again." 
  

"51.  No, 52."  

"Excellent." 

I returned to this question: 
"How many days in a year?" 

"360." 

"Close enough.  Actually there are 365-1/4 days in a year."

"Do you know that if you read 3-1/2 pages a day, seven days a week you can read the whole Bible in a year?"  He did not know, but he was clearly interested.



6.  "How old are you." 

"I am ten."  


"Okay, if you read the Bible ten times in ten years, then when you are twenty you will be qualified to be a pastor of a church." 

"Really?" 

"Yes, really.  Do not worry about college or seminary.  These places are hopeless because they do not read the Bible. They read and study uninspired and fallible books by purely human authors which are about the Bible and which are no substitute whatsoever for the work of the Holy Spirit among those who immerse themselves in Scriptural content.  You just read the Bible!  What do you think?"

"I think I will try it!"

Just like that this young man was enlisted among the prophets.  Praise God!


7.  Then I talked with Heidy Patricia. She is 6 years old and speaks Spanish with a grown up structure and vocabulary, but nevertheless with a child's mind.

"Wow, young lady, you sure do speak Spanish well!"

"No,” she responded in a very educated and emphatic voice, “I do not speak Spanish!"

"Really!  And what language do you speak?"


"I don't know.  All I know is that I do not speak Spanish."

"Why do you say this?"


"Well, I am a beginner.  Beginners do not have lessons in Spanish.  My older brothers and sisters have had language lessons in Spanish. 
They speak Spanish!"

"Let me ask you something:  Do you speak?" 

"Yes."


"Do you speak a language?" 

"Yes."

"What language do you speak?" 

"I do not know.  What I do know is that next year I will learn Spanish."


8.  I called Doña Patty to help clear up this situation.  Doña Patty listened to her rationale.  Doña Patty trie
d to reason with her.  Doña Patty could not help, either.  I guess we will just have to wait for the next school year, perhaps the end of the school year, which begins in January in order let this problem resolve itself.

9.  With love to all,
              Paul 




Article #2:  Short view of the problem
 
a.  Having studied Bible chronology for many years I have discovered that there is a complete chronology from Creation to the Crucifixion.  The documentation is there.  It only remains for any reader of the Bible to compile it onto one sheet of paper, either in a table or in a to scale horizontal bar graph.

b.  There are, admittedly, a few debatable areas like the age of Terah at Abram’s birth, the beginning of the 430 year sojourn, the beginning of the Babylonian Captivity, and a few other important matters, but the end of all this is that all chronologers using the Bible alone can come up with a calculation that will show all Bible chronologies to be within  300 years of each other and having a span of roughly 4000 years from Creation to the Cross.

c.  The importance of Bible chronology cannot be underestimated, because it is the chronology that documents and certifies that the events are true.

d.  Bible history stands on the framework of Bible chronology.  Bible history consists of three things:  1) Names, 2) Places, and 3) What happened?  If the names, places, and what happened are supported by a complete chronological record that is embedded into the historical text then the history may be said to be certified or documented.

e.  However, if the names, places and what happened are not supported by the framework of a complete Bible chronology, either by saying that the chronological record is incomplete or that the chronological record is unreliable, then the resulting history, now stripped of its chronological underpinnings, is now no longer real history but relegated to the category of myth of the “Once upon a time…” variety.

f.  The reason that the Bible has been relegated to ‘fairytale’ status is because conservative, evangelical Christians have denounced Bible chronology as being important. In other words, once Bible chronology is denounced by Christians, this sabotage is the false testimony that causes the whole counsel of God to be undermined.  It turns the Gospel of Jesus Christ—which has its basis in history—into a powerless gospel.

g.  It is not the atheists who have done this. It is the conservative, evangelical Christians who mainly reside in our pulpits and seminaries, and are the authors of books ‘about the Bible.’ If lay Christians would stay away from this kind of literature and read the Bible only, every day, for the rest of their lives, then they and their children would be a lot better off.

h.  God did not give us His Book to be interpreted by men. He gave it to us to be read and re-read. If one reads it enough times, there is the probability that one will eventually undertand the words, especially if we ask Him!—such sacred words being unexplained, uninterpreted, and undefiled by men because the words are interpreted by the Holy Spirit. So please, read the words, believe the words, do what the words say, and don’t wait around for someone to tell you what they mean, because they mean what they say.

Sincerely,

Paul Albert Hansen


Article #1:  A Personal Letter

a.  To all people on Earth whether Christian, non-Christian, atheists, but not apostates:
 
b.  I have a problem.  It is mainly with the leadership of conservative evangelical Christians, because the governing bodies of so-called Bible believing organizations (having been educated in our seminaries), now due to their compromising view of the Bible, would not be favorable to what I have to say, and so, if they acted, they would act negatively and perpetuate the problem.  The problem has to do with the first eleven chapters of the Bible, concerning origins (Genesis 1-2), the flood (Genesis 6-9), and the chronological link between these two events (Genesis 5).

c.  The fact is that the majority of these leaders do not believe in the chronological details thereby leaving the historical events isolated from their chronological context.  This leaves the narrative portions of the historical events without their chronological context and certifying purpose, thereby relegating these historical events to the category of fables and myths that may be interpreted in whatever manner suits the interpreter rather than the intention of the author.

d.  In these first eleven chapters are the following historical accounts:  The creation of the world, The Fall of Man, The murder of Abel by Cain, The first born son of Adam and Eve, The interval from Adam to the flood that covered the entire world, The Tower of Babel, and, finally, The interval from the 601st year of Noah to the birth of, Abraham, Terah’s son.

e  Many Christians, especially among the intellectual elite, including clergy and professors, who make a claim to holding to these historical accounts, have wavered on all points chronological, holding that the history is true but the chronology is vague or false:

     1. The Six-day Creation of Genesis 1-2,
     2. The 1655-year chronology of Genesis 5,
     3. The one-year Flood of Genesis 6-9, and
     4. The chronology of 352 years from Noah’s 601st year to the birth of
         Abraham in Genesis 11.

f.  In other words, over half of the material found in Genesis 1-11 is now considered unverifiable or outrightly erroneous by the leadership of organizations who present themselves as orthodox.  Furthermore, they insist that it does not matter when it does matter, because unverifiable history is myth, and myth means anything from it might have happened to it did not happen.
 
g.  I am calling on the leadership of all so-called Bible-believing organizations of all stripes and persuasions, including Protestants, Catholics and Jews, to start teaching a straightforward view of all things chronological or to get completely out of the business of what is supposed to be called Bible orthodoxy, because such people are compromising Bible truth and putting a stumbling block in front of those who are really interested in the truth.  Without Bible chronology, Bible history becomes myth since the certainty of Bible events becomes hypothetical instead of documented.

h.  What is now happening is what may be called a “Conspiracy of Silence” wherein no chronological view, be it literal or figurative, is actually being taught in Bible-teaching organizations that present themselves as orthodox.  The result is that “the whole counsel of God” is not being taught.  The end result will be a new definition of “orthodoxy” that denies the inspiration, authority and inerrancy of the Bible in matters chronological within the word of God.  This has happened formally in many organizations.

i.  I am calling for an end to this blatant and intolerable hypocrisy among the leadership who consider themselves to be orthodox but are not, because they deny some of the truths that even many atheists can plainly understand even though they do not believe them owing to their rebellion, but at least, they have enough sense to understand what is being said and have admitted it from time to time when mocking those Christians who do not hold to their very own Scriptures!  The idea that no complete chronology exists in the Bible is a lie of major proportions!

Sincerely,

Paul Albert Hansen



http://www.box.net/shared/03pt6lni9y
- 2010E--Paul's updated 3942 BC--English version--Rev.01--8.pdf

http://www.box.net/shared/bvvqoxmqb8
- 2006E--Paul's post-Ussher 3942 BC--English version--Rev01.pdf

http://www.box.net/shared/s4gvmfjk81
- 2005E--Ussher's 4004 BC--English version--Rev06--With Luke's List.pdf

http://www.box.net/shared/etkhpuubb9
- 1980E--Paul's original 4100 BC--English version--Rev07.pdf