What can you tell me about the "missing day" claim of Harold Hill and its relation to Joshua 10:13-14?
Question:I was looking over you site and was wondering if there has been any evidence found that the “sun stood still” or “altered it’s position”?
As recorded in Joshua 10:13-14 and Isaiah 38:7-8? I may be wrong as I’m not acquainted with astrophysics but I can only imagine that our earth or the sun’s rotation, as recorded in the Bible, did not act according to known physical laws as I would think there would be catastrophic consequences if God altered the planet’s rotation in both the above scenarios. My questions are: Do we have some mathematical or scientific evidence that the sun or earth indeed stood still? Are there any known phenomena that you are aware of which can cause the sun to stand still without any consequences we can’t later observe? Do we have any historical records of this event from other non-biblical sources? I have heard of evidence from NASA by a peculiar scientist named Harold Hill who claimed he found a “missing day” in his calculations.However I believe this has been debunked although I am not certain. Thank youAnswer:There is no confirmatory evidence, either from astronomy or from historical records which can confirm either Joshua 10:13-14 or Isaiah 38:7-8. If both accounts are to be taken at face value, then there is no doubt at all they would be a record of a miracle, and not of any kind of natural event.As for Harold Hill, this is blatant pseudoscience and should be completely rejected. It is sad that such junk “science” gets passed around in “Christian” circles. I wish that believers in general were more skeptical, but I suppose that is the job of a Christian apologist, so let’s get it out there. This is nonsense. There is no “missing day.” NO astronomer would give even a shred of credit to such blatantly false claims.By the way, there is a real Harold Hill, but he has absolutely no connection with NASA, despite claims that he was a “consultant.” His company did service electrical generators used by NASA. He did not witness the events that Christians claim he witnessed. That is for sure. In fact, he even admitted so. To quote Mr. Hill (not a scientist, by the way), “My inability to furnish documentation of the “missing day” incident in no way detracts from its authenticity. (taken from www.snopes.com) This false claim has been around since long before NASA was founded, by the way.
So, please let us bury this missing day myth. As for the character of Mr. Hill–whether he was a sincere but somewhat deluded person or a charlatan, I do not know enough of the man to decide.
As to the events in Joshua 10 and and Isaiah 38, I am not sure exactly what to take of these passages. Might God have given such an amazing victory to Joshua and Israel and might the events been of such enormity that it time seemed to stand still, as happens to people when they come face-to-face with death? Possibly. Or possibly there was some sort of miracle. I am simply not sure. I believe that God could work such a miracle. I have no problem with that, but I simply am not sure exactly how to interpret the passage. Either way, a miracle was certainly worked that day in the victory of God’s army. I suppose we will have to wait until we meet God in heaven to know for sure what happened that day, but for sure it was a day of amazing victory for God’s people.
John Oakes
