THE SUN STOOD STILL

In Earl Crow’s comments on the Old Testament account of the sun standing still for almost a day (“Should the Bible be taken literally?” Winston-Salem Journal December 17, 2016) we have an example of how many of our religious leaders, in an effort to adapt the Bible to modern culture, totally misread a passage.

First, the Old Testament statement that the sun stood still is no different than our saying we saw the sunrise. Both are statements of observed phenomena of the sun in relationship to the earth as it appears to man as he looks into the sky. Nothing is said in either case of how it happened.

Second, Crow’s saying that “a passage must be understood in the light of the cosmology of the day” seems to suggest that the Old Testament writer did not know that such a thing as the sun standing still was outside the realm of the laws of nature. But the text says clearly: “And there was no day like that before it or after it.” (Joshua 10:14)

The Old Testament writer knew as well as we that the sun standing still is against the laws of nature. That’s the very definition of a miracle – it’s supernatural. One either believes that God did it or not.

Claude