Belief reborn, including divine guidance, eternally.

The local newspaper, The Times-Picayune, is celebrating an anniversary, its 175th. Each day or week or some artificial time frame, the newspaper is showing a half-page of memorial ware. Today it was 1908, and advertising was its theme.

The catch was that eye-catching illustrations had joined the advertising world by 1908. One is headlined "Drunkards cured secretly. Any lady can do it at home -- costs nothing to try." At the bottom was a small headline that reads, "A Modern Miracle."

Ironically, in my email today was an advertisement about a book for sale that would make time even more clear to me.

How old is the world?

Most people would say: "Nobody knows."But the author of the book said the world was created Oct. 23, 4004 B.C. – making it exactly 6,015 a week from Sunday.

In the 1650s, an Anglican bishop named James Ussher published his "Annals of the World." First published in Latin, it consisted of more than 1,600 pages.
It's the history of the world from the Garden of Eden to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Of course, there will be those who disagree with Ussher's calculations of time – especially evolutionists who need billions of years to explain their theory of how life sprang from non-life and mutated from one-celled animals into human beings. Ussher's arrival at the date of Oct. 23 was determined based on the fact that most peoples of antiquity, especially the Jews, started their calendar at harvest time. Ussher concluded there must be good reason for this, so he chose the first Sunday following autumnal equinox.

The autumnal equinox was on Sept. 23 this year; Ussher's discrepancy is only because of historical calendar-juggling to make the years come out right. If you think an actual date for Creation is startling, you haven't seen anything until you've pored through the rest of Ussher's "Annals of the World." It's a classic history book for those who believe in the Bible – and a compelling challenge for those who don't. The new edition of "Annals" is one of the most significant publishing events of the 21st century, the advertising states.

Let me say this about that. The actual date the world was created is not a necessary fact for believers around the world to know to ensure an eternity with Christ.

Here's my theology on this: The key to Christian belief is found in the New Testament, not in Genesis, but if we're going to spend time in Genesis (as we should), then the key sentence is the first one (depending upon your translation): (In the NRSV) "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth..."

The facts are clear. Really, they are.

1) It happened in the beginning (not necessarily October 23 and certainly not necessarily 6015 years ago.) But I want to stress this in my beliefs as well that it does not necessarily mean it didn't happen 6015 years ago. I DON'T KNOW. I admit it, freely and willingly.
2) God created. Genesis is not a science book, but it does not preclude science, as well. There are few hows, fewer whys, whats, wheres. Only the who is explained in Genesis. It is explained well. GOD  created. GOD. The being, power, person who is called God by us, who knows what by the demons, forces, you-name-its of that time, which was the beginning. GOD CREATED. He was the power behind the big bang, the juicer behind the juice, the umph inside the ignition. He was the battery behind Green Lantern's, uh, lantern. God was, is, will ever be, the power. Period.
3) All the rest ... the science, the evolution of the questions, the stuff we want to argue about and create (if you will) division about, is left up to the individual. Not even the denomination. All the rest is thought. Did it happen in seven human days? Why does that matter? Did it happen in a garden? A real garden? A little garden with a serpent and an apple and naked humans and all that stuff? A huge, perfect garden with no humidity (and no clothes -- somehow I keep coming back to that)? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe and wow, maybe.

I said the facts were clear, then I proceeded to maybe up the waters, so readers are probably not happy with me. But the facts are clear. In the beginning, God created. That's what you need to know. That's what you need to focus on. What we have, what we need is a bridge.

If the B-i-b-l-e is an acronym for the words "basic instructions before leaving earth," then the material found within is a b-r-i-d-g-e to heaven, an acronym for the words belief reborn, including divine guidance, eternally.

The Bible is a bridge, a gigantic bridge, I believe. It is the God-en Gate bridge of bridges, if you will. In fact, Jesus is the bridge, the cross-ing of which takes one from darkness to light, from damnation to coronation, from eternity without to eternity within.

The bridge's one side is (Genesis 1:1)in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. The bridge moves from one side over a humongeous span (Genesis 1:3)And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. The bridge moves over all the time James Ussher wants to talk about (John 3:16)For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. The bridge reaches the other side. (John 3:19)This is the verdict: Light has come into the world...."

That's the gospel. God created light. The people of earth rejected light. Darkness reigned. God gave the light back to the earth. Simple. Clean. Clear. No science. No biology. No arguing about evolution. No worries about de-evolution.

One truth. One man. One cross. Saving the dark world.

A modern miracle indeed.