On Creationism

The Book of Hosea was written around the fall of the Kingdom of Israel. These tumultuous times are explained as a punishment from God, as usual, as a reaction to the people worshiping false gods. Hosea is the first book to liken this to prostitution. If I was cynical, I would say this was because Hosea's wife was unfaithful to him, and he wanted to mitigate his shame. He still loved her, and eventually they got through it. Thus, after a quick intro, we read: Hosea 1:2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” 3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. That is one bizarre command! Rather more likely, he married the girl, she was unfaithful, and he later claimed to have that command. Sad that for thousands of years, poor Gomer has been know as a promiscuous woman. It continues with a

I have been looking at messianic prophecies a lot recently, and struggling to keep straight what happened when. This timeline is centred on the Babylonian Captivity (bold below), but goes some way either side. Dates are obvious approximate, some more than others. 740 BCE Start of Isaiah's ministry 738 BCE Israel forced to pay heavy tribute to Neo-Assyrian Empire 720 BCE Fall of Israel (Northern Kingdom) to Neo-Assyrian Empire after three years siege, triggered by Israel failing to pay tribute 686 BCE End of Isaiah's ministry 626 BCE Start of Jeremiah's ministry 609 BCE Death of Josiah, entire reign of Jehoahaz for 3 months, but taken captive by Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II, Jehoiakim (Jehoahaz's elder brother) becomes king 605 BCE Began giving tribute to Nebuchadnezzar (whose reign began this year), instead of Egypt, and gave some hostages too 601 BCE Babylonian invasion of Egypt fails, Jehoiakim switches allience back to Egypt 600 BCE Jehoiachin revolts against

One of the requirements of being The Messiah was to be of the seed of David. It seems highly likely that this specifically meant a descendant though the male line. Women Are Not Important Why only the male line? Because women are not important. The Bible tells us Noah's name, and his three sons. But none of their wives gets her name recorded. Who they are is not important to the narrative. In Genesis 10, we read about Noah's descendant for the next few generations. Getting on for sixty men are named. Zero women. Genesis 35:17-18 relates how Rachel died in childbirth, but the midwife reassured her that she had had a son. Giving birth to a son was regarded as more important than surviving! Exodus 23:17 and 34:23, as well as Deuteronomy 16:16, has God demanding that all the males appear before him. As for the females, he is not interested. Leviticus 1:3 has God demanding a male sheep or goat in sacrifice; a female just will not do. Leviticus 12:2,5 tells us that a woman