Hiking was beautiful. The lake, canyon, snow, waterfall, etc, were all very picturesque. I love Wyoming! Pastor Don returned last night and we were once again mesmerized. He began by going over the Tower of Babel and the dispersion of the people and how they were worshipping themselves. There were different translations of the name Nimrod (who in the previous chapter instigated the idea of building the tower, city, and governing system). It was fascinating to see that after the may languages were created, the translations of Nimrod resembled many names of the gods that varying peoples worshipped...the sun god, Ra, I'm still waiting to receive a copy of the powerpoint, but the list included 20 different translations of common gods that we've heard of in history. The same applied for Nimrod's wife, Semiramis, (which is pronounced the same both forwards and backwards) and the translations for her name are all very common goddesses that appear throughout history. I'll try to get more details on that later, but the point of it was that humans came from one language, tried to rebel and suppress the knowledge of God and were thus dispersed into confusion.

Did you know that ziggurats and pyramids exist all across the world, not just in Egypt, not everyone knows how they got there and it would be consistent for people who were once united to begin rebuilding things that they already knew....there is no archeological artifact that disproves the Bible, not one...and pyramids are just one. (anyway I encourage you to look at it for yourself)

More importantly, we looked at the stars and the constellations and looked up there meanings. There are 12 major constellations (12 tribes of Isreal) each with a given name and image. If you look up the meanings of the names (like Virgo--meaning virgin and the virgin) and the last one is Leo, meaning Lion. The constellation of Hercules is crushing Draco's head with his heel. Remember God saying that the serpent wounds the heel that crushes him: man. I need to look at the chart again, but the 12 names of the constellations basically display the gospel in a nutshell. This is how the wise magi knew how to find Jesus. Can you imagine? The people relied on the stars for the gospel before the Bible was even written!

So it reminds me of the question, "what happens to the good African child who has never hear the gospel?" The truth is that a) a sinless person doesn't exist (except Jesus) b) that African boy has an innate knowledge of the existence of God (it's in the stars, it's in God's creation, it's in the fact that people wonder if there is a God, etc, etc) Romans 1:18 clearly states that all men suppress the knowledge of god by their wickedness.

Pagan magi came looking for this savior because they were studying the stars and they believed in Christ! They may have been completely isolated from Christian influences (i'm not really sure, but the point is that they took advantage of the signs that existed around them that point straight to God). If you're struggling with any doubt, dive into the Word. God never denies anyone who is seeking Him.

That just blew my mind and I'm not really doing Don any justice because he was much more profound, but I encourage you to begin studies on your own.

Ask questions like, if evolution suggests that mankind evolved from single-celled mush...why do we not see any more advanced humans evolving? The Bible relates that creation was perfect. People lived 700 years, animals were bigger, there was no disease, and were probably extremely intelligent too. After the Fall and the Flood, animals got smaller, people died younger, disease existed.

I wonder if that's why the Mayans or whomever were so advanced in their calendar? I'm not sure, but it's a theory.

What is the scientific explanation for how the earth has as much water as it does currently? Asteroids crashed on the earth and left a little bit on the earth? Sorry for the ranting....

Anyway, so I'm enjoying being more critical and analyzing things and bringing them back to scripture. Always back to scripture.

Tomorrow I get to work on my life plan, making goals and figuring out how to take all of this information and actually applying it to my life. This way I'm not just growing in this vacuum in Wyoming. That does no one any good.

We're hiking Glory Bowl tomorrow. I'm told that the view is spectacular. We'll also be learning about the Soularium( I'm told it's a pictorial way to share the gospel which should be fun)

I hope everyone is doing well!