SDA's are trained to respond to such questions as:
- If God is so good, why did he let my mother/son/daughter/friend/neighbor die? (God moves in mysterious ways)
- Why do bad things happen to good people? (eg. of Job and Abel is given)
- Which day is the sabbath? (all Biblical texts with "Sabbath" in it are drawn out and presented)
- Did God change the sabbath day? (ditto)
- I have a non-believer boyfriend, what do I do? (eg. of Hosea is given, the "be not yolked unequally together with unbelievers" text appears out of thin air)
- Where is God? (all of Bible is presented)
- IS there a God. (ditto + some personal experiences may be given)
Etc, etc.
Such questions need no further effort that a look in one's good ole KJV Bible. However, what happens when one sneaks in questions that have no answer in the Bible, or worse.. how about those questions that have several conflicting answers in the Bible? And this is where things start going awry. Plus, there are so many things that one just doesn't question, because one has heard it for so long, and just simply accepted it as is, or worse, assumed to be 'true' because they came from 'authoritative' sources.
Others keep their questions contained for fear of sounding foolish, unwise, or professing hints of unbelieving (which is just WRONG, because.. regardless of what one should just KEEP believing!) It's quite okay to say, "I don't understand", because then you could be treated to the responder's own interpretations and ideas on the matter.. however, under no circumstances should you say "I do not believe", because then you play with your own salvation, and might go to hell. (SDA's don't really threaten people with "going to hell", but the flip side of the argument is just as strong: "You'll lose out on heaven".)
I spent quite a bit of my life under these suppositions, and any questions were simply squelched for fear of "losing out on heaven" because of the slightest hint of disbelief. However, it is my humble belief, that regardless of how many years I spend meekly accepting, and trusting that your superior experience in spiritual things are trustworthy, should I one day decide to delve a little deeper or past, then some coherent explanation should exist! So, I set out to prove that 100% of the Bible is a logically accurate historical document, and that everything contained in it should be alignable with external history. BIG mistake!
For example, take Exodus 2:10 ...And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
This is where the great liberator, Moses, is introduced to the world. Moses is accredited with formidable tasks, all the surrounding nations supposedly came to know about the Israelites and their God through him and his feats, and quite a number of them were vanquished by his armies. The logical process would be to backtrack history till some mention of him is found, right? After all, if he was this hotshot in Egypt, SOME record of him would be found SOMEwhere, right? So.. my search began.. and promptly hit a snag. It seems that while I'd always been given to understand that Moses' name came about because "she drew him out of the water", quite a number of Egyptian pharaohs contained "mose" in their names/titles:
- Kamose (1600-1574BC) last ruler of XVII Dynasty, expelled Hyskos
- Ahmose / Amasis I (1574-1550)
- Thutmose I / Tutmoses/ Djehuty-Moses (1530-?)
- Thutmose II (? - 1503)
- Thutmose III (1503-1450) co-regent with Hatshepsut for 21 years
- Thutmose IV (1425 -1417)
So, the immediate question, is "were they all drawn out of the water?" followed by: "if there are soooooooooooo many pharaohs in the Bible, and "pharaoh" simply means "king", how come there are so many nameless pharaohs in the Bible?" Wouldn't it have been simpler (credibility-wise) to have simple named the pharaohs? How do we know which pharaoh had his eyes set on Abraham's wife, trying to steal her? How do we figure out which pharaoh decided to make Joseph CEO? Which one of his daughters did Pharaoh give to Solomon, and which one of the pharaohs?
Clearly, my task seemed insurmountable, because even egyptologists can't seem to agree when to date what, and though Pithom and Raamses are listed as the treasure cities built by the Israelites, the dating of them doesn't match up with the backtiming guide given in 1 Kings 6:1 (480 yrs after Passover in the 4th year of Solomon hints that the Exodus would have taken place in 1455 BC, and Moses would have been born in 1525).
So.. I decided to give the Old Testament a rest! I'm tired, now.. more next sabbath!
Further reading: http://www.biblehistory.com/198.htm
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