FEBRUARY FAVORS FLAVORING FOOD FOR THOUGHT APPETEASERS

     Today, in our final Appeteaser feature until after Easter, we present two different segments that provide plenty of food for thought. First, there have been a lot of conflicts in this century between religion and science, so much so that his Holiness Pope John Paul II wrote an entire encyclical entitled Fides et Ratio - "Faith and Reason" proving that science cannot be determined without God. Proof of that is in the following account submitted by NH from her son TH which verifies not only the truths of Sacred Scripture, but the truths that God is in charge in this account of scientific time determined by a team of physicists and astronauts recently. In the second, we ask you not to judge too quickly for the shallow arguments some pro-life politicians and cafeteria Catholics offer up today in making exceptions to certain circumstances for abortion do not hold up in the case of four true cases. It should provide plenty of food for thought. Because of the holy season of Lent, this will be the last appeteaser until Easter as "Appeteasers" takes a hiatus. Have a fruitful, grace-filled Lent.

Where did the time go?

      For all you scientists out there and for all the students who have a hard time convincing these people regarding the truth of the Bible...here's something that shows God's awesome creation and shows that He is still in control.

      Did you know that the space program is busy proving that what has been called "myth" in the Bible is true? Mr Harold Hill, President of the Curtis Engine Company in Baltimore Maryland and a consultant in the space program, relates the following development.

      A great manifestation of God's majesty and Faith over Science happened recently to our astronauts and space scientists at Green Belt, Maryland. They were checking the position of the sun, moon, and planets in outer space, estimating where they would be 100 years and 1000 years from now. They have to know this so the United States won't send a satellite, up and have it bump into something later on in its orbits. Sounds crazy but quite plausible for they must lay out the orbits in terms of the life of the satellite, and where the planets will be so the whole thing will not bog down.

      Therefore they ran the computer measurement back and forth over the centuries and it came to a halt. The computer stopped and put up a red signal. This, they deducted, meant that there was something wrong either with the information fed into it or with the results as compared to the standards. They called in the service department to check it out and they said " what's wrong?"

      What was wrong was that they found there is a day missing in space in elapsed time. They scratched their heads and tore their hair. There was no answer.

      Finally, a Christian man on the team said, "You know, one time I was listening to a priest's homily and he talked about the sun standing still."

      While they didn't believe him, they didn't have an answer either, so they said ,"show us." He went to his desk and retrieved his Bible and, recalling the best he could, started to peruse the Book of Joshua where he found what he was looking for. He showed it to them and they replied skeptically that it was a pretty ridiculous statement for any one with "common sense." Nevertheless, he read the passage in Joshua 10: 12-14,

"On this day, when the Lord delivered up the Amorrites to the Israelites, Josue prayed to the Lord, and said in the presence of Israel: Stand still, O sun, at Gabaon, O moon, in the valley of Ailon! And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, while the nation took vengeance on its foes. Is this not recorded in the Book of Jashar? The sun halted in the middle of the sky; not for a whole day did it resume its swift course. Never before or since was there a day like this, when the Lord obeyed the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel."

      Amazed, the astronauts and scientists blurted excitedly, "There is the missing day!!" They checked the computers going back into the time it was written and found it was close but not close enough. The elapsed time that was missing back in Joshua's day was 23 hours and 20 minutes-not a whole day. They read the Bible and there it was "about (approximately) a day" These little words in the Bible are important, but they were still in trouble because if they could not account for 40 minutes they would still be in trouble 1,000 years from now. Forty minutes had to be found because it can be multiplied many times over in orbits.

      As the Christian employee thought about it, he remembered somewhere in the Bible where it said the sun went BACKWARDS. The scientists told him he was out of his mind, but he started turning the pages again and found these words in 4 Kings 20: 8-11,

"And Ezechias had said to Isaias: What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the temple of the Lord the third day? And Isaias said to him: This shall be the sign from the Lord, that the Lord will do the word which He hath spoken: With thou that the shadow go forward ten lines, or that it go back so many degrees? And Ezechias said: It is an easy matter for the shadow to go forward ten lines; and I do not desire that this be done, but let it return back ten degrees. And Isaias the prophet called upon the Lord, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backwards by the lines, by which it had already gone down in the dial of Achaz."

      Isaiah had spoken to the Lord and the Lord brought the shadow ten degrees BACKWARD! Ten degrees is exactly 40 minutes!

      Twenty three hours and 20 minutes in Joshua, plus 40 minutes in Four Kings make the missing day in the universe! Isn't it amazing?

      Our God is rubbing their noses in His Truth! And all the Holy Father has proclaimed in his most recent encyclical Fides et Ratio! is right on! One cannot reason without faith!

Would you let them live?

     In these days when so many call for the heads of the unborn in the vial sin of abortion, there are some politicians and even some misinformed Catholics who, though against abortion per se, make the exception in the case of rape, malformity or if the mother's life is in danger. Sometimes don't you wish it was retroactive and ask them how they'd feel if someone encouraged their mother to abort? We present four cases below that tests your compassion. Would you consider abortion in the following four situations???

1. There's a preacher and wife who are very, very poor. They already have 14 kids. Now she finds out she's pregnant with the 15th. They're living in tremendous poverty. Considering their poverty the excessive world population, would you consider recommending she get an abortion?

2. The father is very, very sick, the mother has TB. They have four children. The first is blind, the second is deformed, the third is deaf, and the fourth has tuberculosis. She finds she's pregnant again. Given the extreme situation,would you consider recommending abortion?

3. A white man raped a 13 year-old black girl and she got pregnant. If you were her parents, would you consider recommending abortion?

4. A teenage girl is pregnant. She's not married. Her fiance is not the father of the baby, and he's very upset. Would you consider recommending abortion?

     

• If you said "Yes" to the first case, you have just killed John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Protestant sect.

       

• If you said "Yes" to the second case, you have killed one of the greatest pianists and composers ever in Ludwig van Beethoven

       

• If you said "Yes" to the third case, you have killed Ethel Waters, the great black gospel singer.

       

• And finally, if you said "Yes" to the fourth case, you have declared the murder of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. (Matthew 1:18-23).