| synonyms: | exaggeration, overstatement, magnification, embroidery; |
Example:
Psalm 147:4New International Version (NIV)
He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
(The author no doubt was looking at his night sky at the time without any knowledge of what this Universe was. On a clear night you can see about 6000 stars. Even in the 1930's the known Universe was simply seen by most as our one Milky Way Galaxy.
With our current understanding the number of stars would be 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (A Septillion )stars if we use our hundred billion star Milky Way Galaxy as the standard norm.
This does not include the concept of parallel universes which may mean ours is just on grape on one cluster in one row of one vineyard of many
Current estimates put the number of galaxies in our universe at 10 trillion.
A rather small part of the Milky Way as recorded by Hubble
Hubbel Deep Field view of approximately 10,000 Galaxies of 100 billion stars each in the field behind a grain of sand held on your finger tip at arms length.
This does not include the billions of stars in the early universe that have come and gone, spewing their iron cores into the universe land out of whose debris we got our solar system and new sun.
A piece of the early Solar System arrives on earth
My own piece of heaven . Nine lbs of Campo Del Cielo or "Field of Heaven" iron/nickel star and asteroid core which I cut and polished. At 4.5 billion years old, it's really cool to hold something that spent most of its time orbiting between Mars and Jupiter until bumped into the inner solar system 6000+ years ago and found 500 years ago.
The scriptures use hyperbole to make its points not to reflect actual facts. A 200 million man army of Revelation is hyperbole. Seeing "all the nations of the earth" from atop the highest wall of the Temple is hyperbole (or reflects a small flat earth concept).
“If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out…” Matt. 5:29 (I met a Christian who actually tried to pluck out his right eye because he had a lust problem. This is an example the kind of problem a Bible translation can cause if one is not informed of the various figures of speech found in the Bible.)
“If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother…” Luke 14:26 (The true meaning is one must put God first.)
“Behold, the world is gone after him.” John 12:19 (The whole world at that time did NOT follow after him, but very large crowds in Israel did.)
“And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought to hell (Hades/sheol).” Matt. 11:23 (The city of Capernaum was never in heaven or hell/hades/sheol. But the city was exalted and made prominent because the very Son of God chose that city to do mighty miracles in, but then it went into the dust. The trade routes which made it prosperous changed bypassing the city. It became depopulated, brought to ruins and covered with dirt. It wasn’t until this century that archaeologists unearthed it.)
“The rock poured me out rivers of oil.” Job 29:6 (He had an abundance of good things.)
“The cities are great, and walled up to heaven.” Deut. 1:28 (They were very high.)
“Everyone could sling stones at a hair and not miss.” Judges 20:16 (They were very accurate.)
http://tentmaker.org/Biblematters/hyperbole.htm
Don't take everything you read in scripture literally.
Don't take much of anything the Church of God Apostles and Prophets too literally true
(Or at all true)
You could get hurt.
38 comments:
I have no doubt that some of the ACOG members (whose leaders regularly use hyperbole) probably can't even pronounce this word, and may even believe it is some sort of super toilet that will be invented in the millennium. Obviously we're talking about the naive members, the unthinking ones who would never consider visiting Banned.
BB
God is infinite and can EASILY number an infinite number of stars. Oh, what narrow and pathetic logic some puny mortals use to diminish him. The stupidity is outrageous. And that is not hyperbole.
This article creates a dishonest package deal. It combines exaggerations, figures of speech, with certain truths. Herb often did this. For instance, he would mention some evils and throw in self esteem. It was his indirect, sneaky way of attacking self esteem.
The truth is that God has named every galaxy and planet (His right to do so). The plagues of Revelation and the 200 million army are real and on the horizon.
Hang onto your eternal lives folks.
The Pharisees took one look and threw up their hands: “It’s out of control. The world’s in a stampede after him.”
It was the pharisees that said that. What a lousy example. Did anyone, even for a minute, think that God's enemies would never use hyperbole?
Dennis:
10 Trillion other Universes? Where is the evidence and proof for that! Pure speculation.
BUT... I do believe that Pack, Thiel, Malm, Weinland, Flurry et al, are certainly full of HYPERBULL! ;-)
Ten trillion galaxies Connie
The latest figure for the number of galaxies is two trillion. See https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/hubble-reveals-observable-universe-contains-10-times-more-galaxies-than-previously-thought
IF one accepts the notion that God is infinite in processing power, then one MUST accept that he COULD have a name for every star. In fact, one must also accept that He could remember every snowflake that has ever fallen, including its unique shape, if He so chose.
Before one laughs at the thought of the existence of an infinite God, please remember that many scientists today who mock the notion of an infinite God willingly embrace the notion of an infinite “multi-verse”, of which our universe is but one tiny component. In a Scientific American article entitled, “Parallel Universes”, Max Tegmark, makes the incredible comment that, “If so, then somewhere out there, everything that is possible becomes real, no matter how impossible it is” (May 2003). He even goes on to say that right now out there somewhere your double is reading exactly the same article!
I ask, which is the more believable? I know what I'm putting my money on.
They do visit Banned BB as shown by the comments here
Imagine the worst traffic jam in Los Angeles or New York. A 200 million man army on the move would be the ultimate traffic jam. What road would they take??? When would the refuel. Military vehicles are not known for gas mileage. Who would supply the food??? The food would also have to be transported. Who would clean the turds everyday. 200 million turds add up. There are not enough military transport planes to haul 200 million people. 200 million landing at an airport would take quite awhile to unload. An Airbus 380 is certified to carry 863 people, including crew. This would require over 231,749 flights.
Anon 1256 wrote It was the pharisees ... God's enemies...
The Pharisees were God's enemies? Some were hypocrites, putting their personal teachings and customs above scripture. Sound familiar?
A lot of the teachings of Jesus were close to the Pharisaic school of Hillel. The scribes and Pharisees "sat in the seat of Moses". They tested Jesus in the same way we test the COGs - just coming up with "proof" that you're an Apostle, or Prophet or whatever must be tested. What Jesus couldn't take were the hypocrites among them.
Many early believers were Pharisees, and some Pharisees were likely the ones who insisted that Gentile converts must first go through ritual conversion to become Jews. Saul (Paul) claimed in Acts that he continued to remain a Pharisee and faithful to their traditions.
Sorry for the rant, I got a bit riled when I read that comment... Had you written Sadducees, well, that's a different matter...
Estimates of the number of galaxies are based on their rather uniform dispersal over our known Universe. Currently the low number is 200 billion with ten times that being suspected making it 2 trillion. The 10 Trillion is a high ball figure some have reason to believe is possible.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
God is infinite and can EASILY number an infinite number of stars.
I wonder if you understand what you just said and how little sense it makes? What is an infinite God? Define that for me and even I can easily number an infinite number of stars. Since there is no finite number associated with infinite, they are infinite. Easy!!
Everything you said is an emotional religious response based on what you suppose needs to be true in my view.
Galaxy IC 1101 is 5.5 million light years across and contains over 100 trillion stars, the mass of a guadrillion suns. It is the largest known Galaxy in the Universe.
On the other hand the Revelation 6:13 notes that the stars fell to earth like figs which of course is literally impossible so it is hyperbole. It also reflects the ignorance about what those small lights in the firmament actually were, how far away they were and how large they are. Real stars don't fall to earth.
I stand corrected, Dennis. Some apparently do.
BB
5.43 PM
The 200 million man army sweeps through a industrialised Europe, consuming and utilizing everything in its path. It's a death run. Most would perish by the time it has achieved its gaol of destroying its foe.
Frankly, I don't give two shits what is said by Mr. Dennis Diehl concerning HIS interpretation of the New Testament. When I left WCG/GCI behind I made the choice to read & study the bible the way I wanted to and not by listening to HWA and his bull shit teachings or even of his followers and that also means not listening to people who are no longer a part of that crap.
Dennis wrote:
"On the other hand the Revelation 6:13 notes that the stars fell to earth like figs which of course is literally impossible so it is hyperbole. It also reflects the
ignorance about what those small lights in the firmament actually were..."
I would tend to think it is the latter - ignorance, in which case it is not hyperbole. If they really thought those little tiny dots of light suspended some few miles above in the heavenly sphere would fall down, then they actually meant that's what would happen, instead of "exaggerating for effect" (=hyperbole).
Good time for a relevant Neil DeGrasse Tyson quote:
"You know, one of the signs that the second coming is that the stars will fall out of the sky and land on Earth.
To even write that means you don’t know what those things are. You have no concept of what the actual universe is."
Once you get into figures of speech, or the meanings of the ancient versions of the languages from which the Bible was originally translated, the revisions of the texts perhaps during the Babylonian captivity or during the intertestamental period, the cumulative influences of advanced thought and philosophy on those revisions, and even outright pseudepigraphic writings, it becomes obvious that the exactness which would be required for strict legalism or precise interpretation of prophecy is simply not there. And, that is where Armstrongism misses the boat. On the other hand, examples of timeless values, and basic goodness, as well as educational bad examples are present in abundance, and do shine through. Some personality types want everything spelled out to the last detail. Heck, they even want to be programmed like automatons. You cannot legislate character, or pour experience into a person's brain. That would render those things meaningless. Some things are left to discovery through success and failure. I suspect that will still be true in the case of spiritual beings who continue to learn, to grow and to develop with time.
BB
Turds cannot be cleaned. Checkmate.
Thanks Michael for your comment and insights. I tend to agree that in that case it is surely a case of not knowing what stars really were, they were often considered as alive beings, or the nature of the Milky Way much less all that lies outside it.
I am convinced that the story of the fall of Lucifer, the light bringer, in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 (by memory I believe) is simple a terrible misunderstanding of the rise and fall of the planet Venus in the morning sky as an inner planet that rises before the sun, starts to head to the noon position ahead of the sun but then plunges to the "earth". This of course is a function of the nature of the orbit and brightness of Venus as an inner planet which will not rise in the east and set in the west as does the sun itself or the outer planets.
Astrotheology is also a great part of scripture when one has eyes to see it.
8.27 PM
It took me many years after leaving the WCG to be able to read the bible through my own eyes rather. The problem is that the church 'hijacked' so many verses, giving them their own self serving interpretations. One example is members being constantly hit over the head with the word obey. This English word obey has a military control and command flavour, whereas the original Greek does not.
I've found there's still instilled mental barriers that makes it a challenge to see the bible writers original intent.
Others have noted in the past that the Bible is northern hemisphere centric. Astrology is also.
BB
After talking to God's mouthpiece Joel Osteen at his huge mansion that Jesus gave to him, I can tell you all:
God likes to name things.
Lots of things. (He named those who criticized Joel Osteen for having a super huge mansion as, "misguided jerks")
He named His book that made murder cool, "the Bible"
"1 Chronicles 13:9-10 And when they came unto the threshing floor of Childon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza, and he smote him, because he put his hand to the ark: and there he died before God."
(And the Lord named this the "Muzzle of Uzza")
What's really cool is He named about a trillion more things!
Thankfully, I have enough Holy Spirit to know what those names are.
Whether I'm talking to a lady in the Target returns department while trying to return an item (and I KNOW God named her "Ms Strangetits"), or I'm talking to a NASA scientist that believes in the hoax of climate change (and I KNOW God named him "Mr Stupidhead"), at least my awesome GOD has named them, and due to the awesome Holy Spirit I know how to properly address them.
Dennis just does not grasp the concept of infinity, so he cannot understand an infinite God. His response is to nit-pick the terminology used and to impute emotion and religious affiliation. He does not know that in calculus some expressions tend to infinity faster than others. God is the creator of all stars, so he can name them all. The creator is "more infinite" than the "infinite" creation, even if the creation really is infinite.
If God sustains the universe, then he makes every snowflake, molecule, atom and electron move according to the laws that he created and sustains. He must know where each particle is at all times.
Some people have a very small concept of God, which helps explain why they never did have much faith, even when they had faith.
Good time for a relevant Neil DeGrasse Tyson quote ... "You have no concept of what the actual universe is."
Neither does the big bang believing ditto-head with a pretentious name.
Nurse RCH asked me to tell you that they found your meds between your mattress and box springs. The jig is up. They're going to be administering intravenously from now forward.
Oh, for the days when Elyon was El Shaddai, mountain-dweller, presiding over a flat earth from Mt. Lel, just like Zeus and Mt. Olympus, and Yahweh was just one regional deity out of 70, before they got conflated and then inflate to be infinite. Wouldn't those Canaanites be surprised what we've done with their gods!
Dennis is confused about the difference between numbering the elements of a set, counting the elements of a set, and knowing the number of elements in a set. They are three different things. We'll give him a few months to mull that over and get back to us.
He is no mathematician. But then, neither is Stephen Hawking (who thinks space is curved, a mathematical impossibility), so he probably feels he is in good company.
I think you have taken a very conservative estimate of the number of stars in the universe, Dennis.
100 billion in our galaxy is the likely bottom end. Most estimates put it between 100 billion and 400 billion.
Following on, most of the latest estimate of total stars in universe that I have read is between 10 and 200 Septillion stars, rather than just 1 Septillion!
However these estimates tend to continually go up and up.
Whatever the number, the inference is that there is a finite number. Which would give credence to the verse you quote I Psalm 147v4 “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.”
A finite number of stars, however big, is still finite, when it comes to naming them!
What I find interesting is that in at least three places the Bible compares the number of stars with the number of grains of sand on the sea shore. (e.g. Hebrews 11v12).
Such a comparison would seem to be completely unrealistic if the writer of the Bible was just a man, who thought there were only around 6000 stars in existence as you suggest. Even one handful of sand would contain vastly more than 6000 grains of sand.
However if the inspiration for the writing came from a being who created these things, obviously such a being would be aware of the real facts.
There have been a number of ‘guesstimates’ of this comparison of the number of grains of sand on all the beaches of the earth, compared with the number of stars in the universe. Try google to check out a few.
In general, the consensus puts the total number of grains of sand on earth as roughly similar to the total number of stars in the universe, although most estimates feel that the number of stars is probably a bit more.
Either way, the comparison would seem to be a sensible comparison.
Not something you would expect from a human written centuries ago, gazing at the sky. But it is something you would expect the creator of the universe to know!
Ah. Mr. Insane in the {9:23} Membrane is back. I was worried that someone had locked him up. Acidreflux and all that.
There are 42 stars in the universe. No more, no less.
Connie, don't forget the worst one of all , Vic Kubik!
I like all you say.
I like how Questeruk counters the number point.
I like that.
nck
Dennis, just to let ypu know how appreciative I am about all for your articles/info that you share. I find the contents thereof solid and much foof for thought. In many ways our understanding about BibleGod is the same, and it makes me feel that I'm in good company and not "far gone" at all 😁 👊
Questeruk said...
Following on, most of the latest estimate of total stars in universe that I have read is between 10 and 200 Septillion stars, rather than just 1 Septillion!
your comment seems to be plausible but when you apply it to the rest of the quotes on this subject not so much. i.e. Abrams children to be like them in number!!
toby
He knows each single hair on your head. And if you piss him off, he will make your hair fall off one by one. And since that is not enough, this curse will go out to you children and your children's children up to the fifth generation ... until one of them pays enough tithe of tithe to be granted a jar of rogaine.
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