a billion and one days

12.5.14

‘If they keep quiet the rocks will cry out’ 

‘You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands’. Is 55:12

Literally?  Is this where the lot of humanity are winding up?  Let’s go there later, dude.

In today’s second reading we get another bit of advice concerning the last days.  This time from 2 Peter.

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

“We also know that the Big Bang, the beginning of our universe, occurred about 13.7 billion years ago, whereas Earth didn’t even exist until about 10 billion years later.” 

Tim Maudlin, a professor of philosophy at New York University and the author of “Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time.”

So, let’s take Peter’s sacred math, a thousand years is like a day and a day like a thousand years.  If earth is 3.7 billion years old and religions can’t for the life of them dispute today’s science anymore, then God’s total number of days equal to ours would be 3.7 million days, right?  That’s 3.7 billion divided by a thousand years.  And how many years is 3.7 million days? 10,136 years, roughly speaking, 365 days a year, and we’re not taking leap years into consideration.

Since Christ 730,000 human days have passed.  That’s 2000 years human time or two days God time.   

1000 years God = 1 day human

10,000 years God = 10 days human

20,000 years God = 20 days

30,000 years God = 30 days.  One month

100,000 years God =  100 days

1,000,000 years God = 1000 days, or just a little less than three years human time.

2 million years of God, about six years of human time

3 million, 9 years

4, 12

5 million, 15 years

10 million, 30 years

20 million God years 60 years human years,

60 million years of God 180 years of humanity

240 = 720

480 = 1440

960 million God years equals 2880 human years.  This is ridiculous.  I don’t think we’re supposed to keep track.  Should I keep going?

I don’t know.  I think Peter started to doubt Jesus would be coming back in his on earth time so he got philosophical on his readers.   

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise and is patiently waiting.  Two thousand years ago there were 300 million people on earth.  Is God slow because there are just too many people alive now and God simply has to wait, it’s circular logic, every time someone is born the waiting continues, perpetually.  Meanwhile we die off having patiently waited for God to return.  Yeah right, if one of my days was like a thousand years I’d be 51,000 years now and still waiting.

10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.^a

Did Peter eat mushrooms like John? 

11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.^b That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

This is why the church reads apocalyptic readings every week.  The church wants to speed its coming, but ya know, I really don’t think the masses have much faith in that imminent return anymore.  And there is no comfort in trying to get your head around a thousand years is the same as a day when every day millions live in hell on earth.  Sounds like a terrible joke.

We look forward to a new heaven and a new earth.  Who wants a new earth if there’ll be a new heaven? Thy kingdom come thy will be on earth as it is in heaven?  Which one is it going to be?  The two will be one, right?  That’s the return on the blessed hope.  

14So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

I like Peter here, he admits Paul is too smart for his own good, and wouldn’t the Rock be surprised if he were around today to see 40,000 protestant denominations scurry aboot saying this way to God and that way to God because they couldn’t figure him out either. 

If you got something in front of you and it’s hard to understand, what do you do about it?  Let’s pray.  And if you come up with an answer you  say God gave you the answer.  If someone else confronts the same problem and they say, let’s pray, and they come up with a different answer, who the hell is to say who’s right and who isn’t? 

Paul, it’s a fine mess you left.