The Open Eyes

The Open Eyes

I came to a knowledge and a faith in Christ at an older age than many, I was not raised in a Christian home nor was I brought up in a church, therefore when people use what I call Christianese (which I will explain next) I don’t always understand. As I was spending time around Christians and hearing these Christianese statements I would often have to ask what was meant by these comments as I often understood them literally and didn’t get the meaning the Christian was trying convey.

An example of Christianese would be “washed by the blood of the lamb.” If we think of actually being washed in a tub of blood, that is not very nice, but this sentence has a different meaning once we know scripture and know that Christ is referred to in the New Testament as our “Passover Lamb”. This title is used to relate Christ’s death to the Old Testament Jewish worship system where the high priest would sacrifice a lamb for the forgiveness of the unrighteous acts of individual people as well as for the whole nation of Israel. Likewise Christ in His sacrifice (or death) provided the forgiveness of our unrighteous acts and allows us access to heaven if we accept the sacrifice provided. After we have received this sacrifice by faith then we can say with knowledge that Christ’s blood (death/sacrifice) covers the payment necessary for our unrighteous acts. God will examine us who have received the sacrifice and we will be seen as “clean” (or righteous) on judgment day. Therefore we are “washed by the blood of the lamb.”

There is another saying that is used by Christians which I had heard many times and I even used it myself until I heard it one day and got thinking about the accuracy of this sentence. It was brought to my attention because a Christian friend of mine used this expression as an excuse as to why they did not share their faith with some Mormon friends of theirs and said this sentence as a sort of consolation, “Well they won’t understand (about Christianity) until the Holy Spirit opens their eyes”. In a similar situation another friend said “Unless the Holy Spirit opens their eyes, they aren’t going to understand (and accept Christ’s sacrifice) anyway”. This statement is incorrect biblically and should not be used by Christians.

Does the Holy Spirit Open Eyes to Lead People to Salvation?

It is not one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit to open people’s eyes. The Holy Spirit is God and therefore is all-powerful. If the Holy Spirit was in the business of opening eyes to lead people to salvation then everyone’s eyes would be open and all would accept Christ and become Christians. God would chose all to be saved

2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us–ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

God wants all people to come to the knowledge of Him and to accept Christ as their savior so that everyone can be in heaven. So if the Holy Spirit is opening people’s eyes so that they will understand and accept Christ, then everyone should have accepted Christ. But that hasn’t happened. So either God is picking and choosing who’s eyes He will open and whose He won’t, thus choosing who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, or the Holy Spirit isn’t opening eyes to lead to salvation. If God is in the business of choosing who is to go to heaven and who isn’t, then those who go to hell have the right to blame God for not taking them to heaven when God could have opened their eyes to do so. This is not the God of the bible; this is the unbiblical god of Calvinism who predestines some to heaven and predestines the rest to hell.

Who’s Job is it?

Paul in Acts 26 is giving the story of his conversion to king Agrippa and meets Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus and Jesus speaks to Paul. In Verses 16-18 this is what Christ says to Paul. “But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;

Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

As these verses state, Christ says directly to Paul that it is his purpose to turn people from darkness to light and to open their eyes so that they may know Christ and accept his sacrifice. It is the duty of you and me to show people the truth, to “open their eyes” the bible says in 1 Pet 3:15 …

and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

The reason we are to give an answer to every man is because there is logic and reason as to why we are Christians. The bible is true and it stands up to scrutiny. Truth can be questioned from every angle and will be found to be true. When men and women see that the bible isn’t a blind faith, that we worship Christ because He showed himself to be God through rising from the dead by “many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3) and we give solid reasons why the bible, and Christ are truth, then they will open their eyes and they will choose whether or not they will accept Christ’s sacrifice by faith.

Thomas said to the other disciples “The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” John 20:25

When Thomas questioned the validity of the claim that Christ rose from the dead he did not believe it was true. It could be said that he did not have “blind faith” but Christ answered that with this “

and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. John 20:26-28

Christ gave Thomas his request of a reason to believe. We as Christians also need to follow Christ’s example and give people a reason to believe.

Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; 2 Corinthians 5:11

There are many reasons we can look at to give people reasons to believe and we shall touch on some of those at the end of this writing.

There is also another way by which people’s eyes are opened unto salvation and that is through the conviction of wrong doing through the conscience. God has given us our conscience to show us right from wrong.

Romans 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;

In John 8:9 Jesus is talking to the scribes and Pharisees and he writes on the ground and

being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last:

The Pharisees were convicted by their conscience and today the same is true with every one of us. The non-Christian has their conscience convicting themselves of wrongdoing and this can also lead to the knowledge of the need of the sacrifice of Christ to forgive wrongdoing.

The commandment of the Lord also opens the eyes of people

Psalm The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The testimony of creation also shows who God is so that all will be without excuse.

Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

The three that work to open people’s eyes to lead them to the knowledge of Christ are man, conscience and creation, but not the Holy Spirit.

What is the Holy Spirit’s Job?

A person who has not accepted Jesus Christ’s sacrifice must first choose to accept Christ, then the Holy Spirit does His part. After all the reasoning, the thinking, the deciding and the concluding that a person does to decide he needs a savior and chooses to accept Jesus Christ by faith, the moment when he makes that decision, God gives that person the Holy Spirit to live inside of him until the day of his death.

Eph 4:30 - And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Lu 11:13 - If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

God wants to give each and every one of us the gift of the Holy Spirit to seal us to the day of redemption, to teach us, to live within us but he can’t do that until we ask for it. God made us with a free will and gives us the choice to have a relationship with Him or not.

Once we have the Holy Spirit, He teaches us words to speak

Luke 12:11-12 And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say:

For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.

In Ephesians 1:13 Paul lays out the order by which things happen.

In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.

So, for those who trusted Christ, you heard the gospel, believed, then were sealed with the Holy Spirit. So my question to those who say that the holy Spirit opens the eyes of the unsaved person before they are saved is, how does the Holy Spirit open the eyes of a person if He has not yet been given to that person?

To say this again in John 7:38-39

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

After we believe we receive the Holy Spirit.

Is it Man’s Choice to Open His Eyes?

Listen to what Jesus says here in Matthew 13:15-16

For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

It reads very clearly that Jesus is saying that those whose eyes are closed are closed by their own choice. “Their eyes they have closed” is clear. If it is a person’s choice to close his eyes, then it is certainly a person’s choice to open his eyes.

It is Man’s choice to open his eyes, and God gives that man help through the witness of creation, the witness of conscience and the witness of other men. God has given us each free will to look to God or not, to have a relationship with him or not. God asks all men to open their eyes and turn to Him for salvation, but He will not force the decision on anyone.

The bible is clear, see your need of your own sin. You have broken God’s laws, for instance, thou shalt not lie, or thou shalt not steal, and as a result you are deserving of God’s wrath, but God lovingly offers you forgiveness through His Son Jesus Christ. Look to him and you shall be saved. (John 3:14-18) If you have not done so, open your eyes, and look on Him who created you for salvation.

For those of you who are Christians I would urge you not to use the terms of the Holy Spirit opening the eyes of the unsaved, but rather when that thought comes to mind, know that it is your responsibility to help a person hoped his eyes and understand, and then be saved.

God Bless every one of you as you continue to witness and be faithful in the word of God, the Holy Bible.

John 20:31 “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”

David Buck

Recent Archaeological Discovery Supports Biblical Account

A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.

Photo: Edwin Trebels courtesy of Dr. Eilat Mazar

The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name "Temech" engraved on it, was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig.

According to the Book of Nehemiah, the Temech family were servants of the First Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.

The family was among those who later returned to Jerusalem, the Bible recounts.
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The seal, which was bought in Babylon and dates to 538-445 BCE, portrays a common and popular cultic scene, Mazar said.

The 2.1 x 1.8-cm. elliptical seal is engraved with two bearded priests standing on either side of an incense altar with their hands raised forward in a position of worship.
[Dr. Eilat Mazar]

Dr. Eilat Mazar
Photo: Dr. Eilat Mazar Expedition

A crescent moon, the symbol of the chief Babylonian god Sin, appears on the top of the altar.

Under this scene are three Hebrew letters spelling Temech, Mazar said.

The Bible refers to the Temech family: "These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one unto his city." [Nehemiah 7:6]... "The Nethinim [7:46]"... The children of Temech." [7:55].

The fact that this cultic scene relates to the Babylonian chief god seemed not to have disturbed the Jews who used it on their own seal, she added.

The seal of one of the members of the Temech family was discovered just dozens of meters away from the Opel area, where the servants of the Temple, or "Nethinim," lived in the time of Nehemiah, Mazar said.

"The seal of the Temech family gives us a direct connection between archeology and the biblical sources and serves as actual evidence of a family mentioned in the Bible," she said. "One cannot help being astonished by the credibility of the biblical source as seen by the archaeological find."

The find will be announced by Mazar at the 8th annual Herzliya Conference on Sunday.

The archeologist, who rose to international prominence for her recent excavation that may have uncovered King David's palace, most recently uncovered the remnants of a wall from Nehemiah.

The dig is being sponsored by the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem research institute where Mazar serves as a senior fellow, and the City of David Foundation, which promotes Jewish settlement throughout east Jerusalem.

Seal Found Outside Temple Wall

Evidences of Divine Authority - Part 2

I can't say that each day I wake up and say "let's go dig in the dirt today" as to me at this point in my life thinks that is pretty silly. I remember one time in elementary school I thought I'd like to be an archaeologist, but I hadn't yet fully grasped the concept that archaeologists spend ten years digging a hole in the dirt that could have been done in 15 minutes with a backhoe.

Of course i'm joking with the backhoe as you would lose the precious irreplaceable ruins, bodies, coffins, mummies, fossilized creatures you find in the dirt. There are those however who enjoy doing this and some are very good at it. The information which can be gleaned from some of these finds tells us of our past as a history and society. We can learn about different cultures' rituals and customs, and in some cases we unearth accomplishments which cannot be duplicated today as in certain areas cultures of the past were more technologically advanced than we are today. (see Puzzle of Ancient Man by Donald Chittick) (and we may cover that topic in a future note)

Because of all the information we can examine from archaeological digs throughout the world this will be an excellent test base to confirm or deny the claims of the Bible. The Bible claims to chronicle the world's history from start to finish (Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning... to Revelation 21:1 "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away")
If the claims of the Bible are to be shown as true, there cannot be in one instance a people who are not found to be in the part of the world the Bible claims, there cannot be mention of a people who never existed, and the customs and religions of different peoples in the world cannot be shown to be different than what is claimed in scripture. These finds MUST support the names dates and locations of nations and individuals mentioned in scripture.
This is a tall order, but one whose results may yield much fruit towards our test subject, determining the author(s) of the Holy Bible.

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Here are some examples:

The discovery of the Ebla clay tablet archive in northern Syria in the 1970s has shown the Biblical writings concerning the Patriarchs to be viable. Documents written on clay tablets from around 2300 B.C. demonstrate that personal and place names in the Patriarchal accounts are genuine. The name " Canaan" was in use in Ebla, a name critics once said was not used at that time and was used incorrectly in the early chapters of the Bible. The word tehom ("the deep") in Genesis 1:2 was said to be a late word demonstrating the late writing of the creation story. "Tehom" was part of the vocabulary at Ebla, in use some 800 years before Moses. Ancient customs reflected in the stories of the Patriarchs have also been found in clay tablets from Nuzi and Mari. *Excerp taken from http://www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a008.html*

* The Hittites were an example used for years by critiques against the bible. In the early histories there is a great civilization mentioned numerous times called the Hittites yet there was no evidence that there ever existed such a people. Now, if you've ever played the game "Age of Empires" you know the Hittites are known because you can be them when you play the game. Truthfully the Hittites capital and records were discovered at Bogazkoy, Turkey in 1820.

* Many thought the Biblical references to Solomon's wealth were greatly exaggerated. Recovered records from the past show that wealth in antiquity was concentrated with the king and Solomon's prosperity was entirely feasible.

* It was once claimed there was no Assyrian king named Sargon as recorded in Isaiah 20:1, because this name was not known in any other record. Then, Sargon's palace was discovered in Khorsabad, Iraq. The very event mentioned in Isaiah 20, his capture of Ashdod, was recorded on the palace walls. What is more, fragments of a stela memorializing the victory were found at Ashdod itself.

* Another king who was in doubt was Belshazzar , king of Babylon, named in Daniel 5. The last king of Babylon was Nabonidus according to recorded history. Tablets were found showing that Belshazzar was Nabonidus' son who served as coregent in Babylon. Thus, Belshazzar could offer to make Daniel "third highest ruler in the kingdom" (Dan. 5:16) for reading the handwriting on the wall, the highest available position. Here we see the "eye-witness" nature of the Biblical record, as is so often brought out by the discoveries of archaeology.


http://www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a008.html
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Archaeology uncovered the Sumerian King List.
The Sumerian King List, lists kings who reigned for long periods of time. Then a great flood came. Following the flood, Sumerian kings ruled for much shorter periods of time. This is the same pattern found in the Bible. Men had long life spans before the flood and shorter life spans after the flood. The 11th tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic speaks of an ark, animals taken on the ark, birds sent out during the course of the flood, the ark landing on a mountain, and a sacrifice offered after the ark landed.
We shall discuss the flood, creation and evolution in another note.

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a009.html
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Archaeologist Dr. Joseph P. Free said "Archaeology has confirmed countless passages which have been rejected by critics as unhistorical or contradictory to known facts...Yet archaeological discoveries have shown that these critical charges... are wrong and that the Bible is trustworthy in the very statements which have been set aside as untrustworthy... We do not know of any cases where the Bible has been proven wrong."

Dr. Nelson Glueck said "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries."

A stone slab was uncovered in the 60s which stated the name of Pontius Pilate a well known figure surrounding the death of Jesus Christ yet he was unknown to extra-biblical written record until the finding of this stone slab.

Any one find can be reasoned away or given a different interpretation, but the large amount of corroborating evidence lies in the volume of small finds. One find verifying the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, another documenting of the fall of Nineveh. Though I have only presented a few examples, scores of verifying evidence can back up at least two conclusions about the writer(s) of the bible

1. The Author(s) had the intent to write truthfully. If we can verify many things that a person wrote to be true, then we can conclude that those things we cannot verify are at least intended to be true by the character of the writer.

2. The writer(s) knew well about the world around them. Their knowledge extended far past their area of direct contact and indicates either a far traveling writer, or a writer who knew the locations, customs and events of vast amounts of civilizations. Due to the fact that there is no known find which disproves a person, place or event in the bible one could say that the writer(s) had full knowledge about the cultures around them.

To Be Continued...

Evidences of Divine Authority - Part 1

The Bible is a book which has stood up to critique and criticism for millennia and for good reason. It is a book that has been the anvil through time withstanding attack after attack, burning after burning, and yet remains today still as the best selling book of all time.

Who should we acclaim as the author(s) of this book? Should it be men like Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Paul? Should it be followers of Jesus Christ who needed a book to convert others the their religion? or was it possibly as the book claims written by the Creator God of the Universe? 2 Peter 1:21
It stands to reason that if it were in fact written by the God who created us He would have left us some clues as to whether or not this is so.

Let's take a look at some of the evidences, both internal and external and try to reach a conclusion as to who is the writer of this the greatest, most compelling and most controversial book in history.

Isaiah 1:18
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

It has never been the stance of the Bible to shy away from those who examine it and it encourages those who read it to examine the contents. Isaiah claims God is one who is to be reasoned with, and all through the book of Acts Paul reasons with people in the places where he speaks. Acts 17:2, Acts 18:4, Acts 18:19, Acts 24:25. Reason is something which must be backed with fact and logic. If I were to reason with you that all elephants are purple I could give you "eye witness testimony", spectrogram charts, and reverberation of sounds graphed to show that the inference suggests a color of purple. All you would have to do is take me to the local zoo to show me that elephants are in fact gray. Over time only truth stands up to reason as when we find two conflicting "facts" one or both must be wrong. 2+2 cannot equal both 4 and 5.
Our book of study claims to be 100% correct in all aspects it writes about. This is derived from the book as it claims to be written by an infallible God who both inspired it's writting and preserved it through history. Therefore if we can find but one error between the front cover and the back that error will have demolished the claim that the author was infallible. But if we can push the book through the most rigorous of testing, investigate it's claims and determine it's validity then we must come to the only logical conclusion that the book is what it claims to be.
As Sherlock Holmes said, “If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth...”

Our first area of interest is science. Science has become very advanced in this day and age and if we apply this knowledge to a book which in parts is 3500 years old we are certain to find some interesting things as we are at a unique time in history where we are able to confirm or deny many scientific statements made through the centuries.


Science and the Bible

Job, the greatest scientist in the bible.

The book of Job in the Old Testament was written approximately 3500 years ago during a time when we believe they did not have telephones, radios, scanners, telescopes, or many of the other scientific tools we use today; nor do we believe they had a world view where the earth revolved around the sun which was part of a much larger galaxy in the universe yet this book is filled with scientific knowledge.

*The following references are taken from the book of Job*

26:7 - He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. It wasn't until 1650 that scientists figured out that the earth hangs in space

38:13-14 - That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it? It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment. The earth is turned as clay? so the bible is telling me that the earth hangs in space and turns like a top?

38:16 - Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? Researchers didn't know until well into the 1900s that there even were springs in the sea.

38:19 - Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof, Why does he not say where is the way and where is the way? That would be because the writer knows that light never stops moving therefore it's a way indicating motion while he also knew that darkness is stopped and therefore always resides in a place.

38:35 - Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are? Is the writer indicating here that a person can send their voice by electricity? ie. Telephone or radio.

38:24 - By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth? The author is correctly stating that the light creates the wind.

By these examples certainly the book of Job was written by someone who was very knowledgeable about science as each of the scientifically verifiable pieces of information in the book of Job are shown to be correct.

But what about some of the other books of the bible? Do they also contain science?

The book of Ecclesiastes states in 1:6-7 - The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. This passage is telling us the wind and water cycles of the earth.

Isaiah states that
Isaiah 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, so the bible has stated all along that the earth was and is round.

Did you also know that every large ship built today is built to the same proportions as Noah's ark? The author of Genesis must have known about good ship building.

If anything, these examples indicate to us that the author(s) of Job, Genesis, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Leviticus and others are by far the top scientists of their day and in some cases are 3300 years ahead of their time.

Even with 3000 years of new knowledge in science we are not able to find a statement, inference or declaration that opposes that which is written in the bible.

The author(s) from cover to cover of the bible must have been fully knowledgeable about science.

But what about other areas of interest? Like History, Archealogy or even it's claims of Prophecy?

To Be Continued...







NOTE:

This is an article I came across a few days after posting article one of evidences.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/01/09/deep-sea-vents.html?dcitc=w19-502-ak-0000

Jan. 9, 2008 -- Thirty years ago, scientists exploring the depths of the ocean came across jets of hot water, spewing from the sea floor, which hauled up flecks of gold and other minerals from Earth's interior and nurtured weird, resilient microbial life forms.

In a paper issued on Wednesday, marine seismologists looking at a site in the East Pacific say they have gained insights into how this unique plumbing system of hydrothermal vents works.

The jets are found thousands of feet below the surface on the mid-ocean ridges -- geologically active "mountain ranges" -- formed from mighty tectonic plates that push into each other and form spines along the ocean floor.

Until now, the main hypothesis about hydrothermal vents has been that gigantic pressure forces seawater through large faults along the flanks of the ridge.

The water, the theory goes, is then heated by coming into proximity with volcanic rock before re-emerging at the middle of the ridges, where the vents are usually clustered.

But in the first detailed investigation into vent circulation, a team led by Maya Tolstoy of Columbia University's Earth Observatory in New York has come up with a different picture.

They placed seismometers over a 1.54-square-mile area of the East Pacific Rise, about 500 miles southwest of Acapulco, that has been under study for the past 15 years.

The sensors monitored tiny earthquakes that happen 8,125 feet below the surface. Around 7,000 of these brief, shallow quakes were recorded in 2003 and 2004 alone.

The tremors also built up an image of how the water circulates, because the quakes were intriguingly clustered around where the cold water entered the rock.

The map drawn by Tolstoy's team shows a down-flow pipe that descends about 2,275 feet into the ridge, then fans out for about 650 feet.

The water then plunges down another 1,950 feet until it arrives just above a bulge of magma. There, the water is heated and disgorged along the ridge through a dozen vents about 1.2 miles north of the entrance pipe.

Tolstoy's team contends that what appear to be tiny quakes are caused by the physical stress of cold water passing through hot rocks.

And, contrary to the prevailing hypothesis, they believe the water travels not through large faults but through systems of tiny cracks, and at a much higher rate of turnover than previously thought.

The paper, published by the British journal Nature, adds critical knowledge about seafloor currents and the nutrient flows that feed them. It also furthers understanding about the mechanics of heat transfer from Earth's crust to the seafloor.

Hydrothermal vents are sometimes called "black smokers" for the bilious clouds of material that emits from their chimneys.

Interesting how science continues to confirm the bible.

Honeymoon

What a blast! David and I had an amazing time, we went to Cyprus first which is an island in the middle of the Mediterranean. There we stayed at Agia Napa for the first few days we just had a lazy time on the beach and site seeing, we went into the capital, Nicosia for a day. Ate a meze, which is a traditional Cypriot meal in which they bring you little servings of a lot of things over a long period of time, it took us 3 hours to eat the meal.

From Agia Napa we moved to Limassol, where we stayed in a four seasons hotel which was beautiful. From here we toured to Paphos to see the harbor and the birth place of Aphrodite, we also took a drive up mount Olympus to Troodos. Cyprus was an great place to just laze around and have a good time. We stayed there for 8 days and then flew over to Israel.

The time that we spent in Israel made us understand how it really is the promise land. Early in the trip we visited the Sea of Galilee region, Meggido, and looked into Syria. The land in the north is extremely fertile and everything grows there. We saw everything from banana plantations to olive farms to fig farms... not to mention raspberries, oranges, lemons, avocados, and just about every other fruit and vegetable available.

The drastic contrast from the north to the souther wherein lies the Judean Desert (one of the dryest places on earth) which has only 2mm of rain per year, was an unbelievable sight. Within an hour of driving we went from the fertile north in the Golan Heights to the wilderness. This location was pivotal in ancient times due to outcasts being able not to be found by authorities but still within a days journey so their families could bring them sustenance.

This trip was an all around magnificent experience which I will forever treasure.

Wedding

Guess i haven't updated this for a while, David and I are married now, the wedding was beautiful. It was a testament to what God has done in our lives this far and what we hope He will continue to do for many years to come. The reception was a blast, thanks to Charlie and all the speech givers and musicians. The putting was amazing (that's how we had to kiss), and spending time with family and friends was so much fun. And the best part no migraine. Thanks to everyone who came back to our house for the "BBQ" it was great to get to visit with everyone and to hang out with the WOL people again. I miss everyone back in Ontario, but things are beautiful out here in BC also. Again thanks to everyone for the awesome time, to Sharon, the attendents, Cousins and Autie for all your help. And also to my parents, thanks for everything the day and weekend was amazing. Love you guys.

Engaged