Missing Day in Time

I remember at H.O.M.E. a few months back, during one of the 2 p.m.Human Development classes, Preston Crow told us about the missing day in time. While researching this week’s “Looking Back” article, I stumbled across the Penn Point column written by Mr. David Penn, the previous publisher of Olney Enterprise.

Penn Point was written back in 1970 and coincides with everything that Preston Crow told us that day in class. I was fascinated by it. The article goes on to explain that space scientists at Green Belt, Maryland were checking the position of the sun, moon and the planets (100 years and 1000 years from now). Doing so helps to keep satellites colliding with an object during its orbit. They checked and rechecked the computer but concluded that there was a day missing in space in elapsed time. The explanation was found in the Bible. First, going back to Joshua 10:12-14 wherein Joshua prayed for the sun to stand still so the children of Israel could defeat the Amorites. This counted for 23 hours and 20 minutes. The other 40 minutes missing was found in 2 Kings 20:8-11, where Hezekiah asked Isaiah the prophet for a sign that the LORD would heal him. Hezekiah chose to have the shadow on the dial brought backward 10 degrees, which accounts for the 40 minutes. Amazing!

If you’d like to read the article in the April 30, 1970 newspaper from the Olney Enterprise Archives, you can create an account at olney.newspaper.archive.com for free and search our old prints by date. What gem will you uncover?