Day eighty six

It is the 27th January and I am starting to prepare to go back out there. Storm Chandra is blowing around outside and there is a lot of rain as I am writing.

I am not in pain today. I will not be fooled by a day off after what happened last week, but I am enjoying being temporarily pain-free. And still no results or new appointments.

But I wanted to write about "The Chase". I have mentioned quiz shows before. I am watching more of them at the moment. There were 2 questions recently that I would have answered correctly, but would have been told that I was wrong.

The first one was, "In which Testament of the Bible is the prophet Miriam found?" I would have answered: "There is no prophet Miriam in the Bible! There is Miriam, the sister of Moses in the OT and there is Miriam (or Mary as we translate it) mother of Jesus, in the NT, but no prophet - unless you count the prophecy in The Magnificat, in which case: New Testament".

The other one was: "Who was the only one of Jesus' disciples to become Pope?" I shouted at the TV: "None of them". I would have been out! Apparently Peter became Pope and moved into the Vatican and ruled over the.... Never mind!

It has always been the case that contestants can answer questions about soap operas, celebrities, sport, astrophysics, quantum mechanics etc. but ask them a question about the Bible and they don't have a clue. To be fair, ask them about the Royal Family and they don't have a clue either. But now the quiz question writers are getting the answers wrong.

One of the 3 projects I have been working on while I'm off (only started a couple of weeks ago( is The Fall - Genesis 3, and the effects it has had on the universe, the climate (Storm Chandra is still out there!) and us humans. We are in a mess. At the moment I haven't got past Day 4 of creation week, because there is so much detail in there. I am employing astrophysics and biology and all the science I can, and so far the Bible is winning as the most reliable, and surprisingly (to some) not contradicted by observational science.

And there is a need for Bible teaching that takes in what is being said by atheists. If those questions asked on The Chase were asked in. our churches, how many people would get them right and how many would think that the question writers were right?

Amos (Old Testament prophet, in case you were wondering), recorded God's message: ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Sovereign Lord, ‘when I will send a famine through the land – not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.'

The days have arrived in our country!