He’s still awaiting trial…

These are, traditionally, known as the “Dog Days of Summer.”  That’s not a technical term; it’s the colloquial calendar – between the end-of-July and the middle-of-September – when the trial of “hot and sticky” is the daily reality, and nothing of note is supposed to be happening.

But, the internet functions without effects from temperature or humidity. Conversations of the culture have now adopted the 24/7/365 calendar, and “summer vacation” is no more.

Hardly a slow period: though students are just-now moving into college dorm rooms to commence their fall semester, the temperature is running hot among academics over a recent essay by Dr. David Gelernter. A full professor at Yale and renowned computer scientist, his contribution to the spring edition of the Claremont Review of Books is full of fighting words for academics.

In “Giving Up Darwin,” he reaches a reasoned conclusion: “The empirical evidence suggests that the notions of a purposeful Creator and a purposeful creation cannot be dismissed as mere pre-modern mythology.” With that declaration, the presumption of spontaneous events that triggered evolution – now accepted as the uncontested answer to the origins question – is, once again, put into examination. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” (Genesis 1:1) presents the historic alternative articulated in the opening sentence of the Judeo Christian Scriptures.

At the same time, word out of the Mideast is provocative. At Tall el-Hammam – an archeological site in Jordan – evidence has now been unearthed of a powerful airburst from a meteor colliding with the atmosphere about 3700 years ago, explaining the complete destruction of a Bronze Age civilization on the north side of the Dead Sea.

In what they call an “extremely hot, explosive event,” an area of 200 square miles suffered the complete annihilation of cities and towns and the stripping of topsoil from once-fertile fields. The researchers theorize that the intense shockwaves from the blast may have covered the entire area with a “super-heated brine of Dead Sea anhydride salts,” rendering the region unproductive and uninhabitable for centuries to come. Curious: this all coincides – in time and in circumstance – with the Genesis account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah for their wanton violation of God’s moral laws…

Last week, Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his jail cell while awaiting trial; the trial question of “murder, or suicide?” will circulate with no conclusive outcome. He’ll never have his trial “day in court” in Manhattan, but his victims may never have their chance for civil justice through trial, either. In yet another foul twist in this sordid story, during trial Epstein executed a will days before his death placing his $500+ million estate into a trust that may shield those resources from the people whose lives he impacted. If the Darwinian culture has it right, he dodged the bullet of accountability. If the people who start with Genesis are right, Epstein’s fate is included in the awesome conclusion described in The Revelation:

“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:11-15).

You can either start with God… or, you’ll end with God. If you begin with Truth – and follow its guideposts – the hope of Heaven is the comfort through all of life. If you deny and discredit God and his Truth… the day of reckoning awaits.

Things around here will cool off, soon enough. There’s a place where it burns hot, forever…

Bob Shank