Noah's Flood, Joshua's Long Day, & Lucifer's Fall: What Really Happened?
Similar to the subjects of this book, here are some examples of how things are not always as they seem; how there may be surprises even about things with which we are basically familiar: (1) The most SOUTHERN point of the United States is not located in Florida.  The southern tip of "The Big Island" of Hawaii holds this distinction.  Now what would you think if I told you that the tallest mountain in the United States is also located on this island?  It is Mauna Kea.  But what about Mt. McKinley in Alaska at 20,320 feet-isn't this the highest mountain in the United States?  It is, but only if we figure from sea level!  Mauna Kea is 13,796 feet above sea level, but figured from its base, it is 33,480 feet!  It is the tallest mountain, not only in the United States, but in the world!  (2) It is commonly supposed that the Panama Canal (which shortened the voyage between Atlantic and Pacific ports by as much as 7,000 miles) crosses Panama from east to west.  But from Limon Bay to Gatun Lake, the canal runs due south, then takes a turn eastward so that the Pacific side is actually more than twenty miles east of its Atlantic beginning.Misinformation about the Bible comes as a result of people only seeing the surface or accepting everything they hear as "gospel" without checking it out for themselves.  Concerning the flood, some of the questions discussed in my book are: Could pairs of every type of animal, bird, and creeping thing in the entire world fit into Noah's ark?  What are the arguments for a limited flood rather than a flood that covered the entire planet?  Has the ark been preserved for thousands of years in ice?  As with many biblical subjects, when we dig in, common misconceptions are uncovered: the Bible does not say the ark rested upon Mount Ararat-does not say it took Noah 120 years to build the ark-does not say it had never rained before the flood!People who ridicule the Bible often point out that Joshua's command to stop the sun would not make a longer day, since it is the earth (turning on its axis) that causes day and night.  But, again, this may be a case in which a passage has not been properly understood.  When Joshua commanded the sun to "stand still," the Hebrew word does indeed mean stop.  The question is: Was Joshua commanding the sun to stop moving (as is commonly believed) or to stop shining?  The text itself shows that a storm of such density moved in (which would have stopped the sun from shining on them) that it dropped huge hailstones, killing many of their Amorite enemies.About Lucifer's fall, two basic passages are quoted-one about the king of Babylon (Isa. 14) and the other about the prince of Tyre (Ezek. 28).  It is commonly assumed that these passages have a deeper meaning, that they really describe Satan/Lucifer as an angel in heaven-even though this would have been long before there was a Babylon or Tyre!  Many, in fact, are unaware that any other interpretation exists.  But, as a note in "The Amplified Bible" says, there are Bible students who "feel that the application of the name Lucifer to Satan, in spite of the long and confident teaching to that effect, is erroneous," and that this application has existed only "since the third century A.D."  Apparently the first one to apply Isaiah 14 to Satan as an angel in heaven was Tertullian, and it was not until Jerome produced the Latin version of the Bible that the word "Lucifer" appeared in the Isaiah text.  Adam Clarke says "the text speaks nothing at all concerning Satan nor his fall."  Could it be, then, that some widely held beliefs on this subject may be more theory than biblical fact?I fully recognize that there are fine Christian people who hold differing views regarding the three subjects that make up the title of my book NOAH'S FLOOD, JOSHUA'S LONG DAY, and LUCIFER'S FALL.  I have not written this book in a divisive spirit, nor do I claim to have the final word on all points.  It is a study.  Many have been blessed by this book and I believe you will be also.