Friday
Friday morning, I got up early and went on a tour of the Redstone Arsenal. It was super interesting — kind of like Wright Patterson, only better. They tested the Saturn V engines there, Bezos still does testing on site. Musk used to. Werner von Braun came here in 1950 and soon became the chief of the Redstone Rocket program.
In 1945 von Braun explained his decision to surrender to the Americans, rather than Russians, as being influenced by a desire to share rocket technology with people whom he felt followed the Bible.
He is buried on Valley Road at the Ivy Hill Cemetery in Alexandria. His gravestone cites Psalm 19:1: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork."
Tim Reisenberger
Night shift workers live shorter lives. Increased mortality is caused by daylight savings. Increase in deaths during time change. Disrupts circadian rhythm.
In the first week, God created the seven day cycle. 95% of Christianity has forgotten the only Commandment that said Remember. Revelation 14 calls us back to creation. Back to the original design.
The New Testament undermines the concepts of slavery. Goes back to creation. Love one another. Sabbath was made for man—Anthropos.
Many plants have human or animal characteristics. This is a fascinating work of the Creator.
Ashley Reisenberger sang a song The Lighthouse. Good job!
Jim Burr
This guy is hilarious. Like an absent-minded professor with dry humor.
There are four types of nebula. Hot and cold and two other kinds.
Some explode. They go out hundreds of miles per hour. The Crab Nebula is an example. It is expanding.
Jim burr designs telescopes. Sold some to NASA. His advice? Buy the biggest one you can afford. Walmart scopes are junk. Avoid.
Satan offered Jesus the earth in the wilderness temptation. Jesus wasn’t impressed. He is the Creator of the cosmos.
They have discovered what the rings of Saturn are made of. Lost airline luggage. I was not aware of this.
Stars wobble slightly. They are hard to photograph.
It takes 100,000 years to make a phone call from one end of the Milky Way to the other end. Be a boring conversation. Burr is a perfect absent minded professor, dear old man. Very knowledgeable.
What was the star of Bethlehem. Was it a Supernova? Scholars debate this. Their theories violate laws of physics. The star goes to Jerusalem and stops. Stars don’t make left turns. They don’t stop. Probably a band of angels (Matthew 2:9).
Starlight and time problem. This is the notion that the light from some stars are millions of years old, due to their distance from the earth. There is no evidence that the universe is young. But the the earth is. Burr has written a paper on starlight and time. If our science is bogus, so might be our gospel.
The firmament God called heaven. In Genesis, heaven refers to the atmosphere.
Conrad Vine
Conrad gave a very interesting presentation on history.
The fall of Constantinople was the catalyst for the Reformation. Flood of Greek speaking refugees brought art and writings to Europe. It was the end of the Byzantine empire. Rapid change across Europe. Black Death killed almost 50% of parts of Europe.
Most peasants were wiped out. They were in demand. “Where can I get more peasants?”
With the Renaissance came a new way of thinking. It brought the printing press. Erasmus, was a prolific writer. Holland was tolerant. They were Protestants, but they didn’t know it yet. Under Erasmus, the Greek New Testament became more accurate and popular. He preached a personal relationship with Christ.
The heart of your faith is what you read in the word of God, not what churches tell you. Luther used Erasmus’ Greek NT translation, not the Latin Vulgate. Luther was excommunicated by the Pope. The Diet of Worms was a civil court, not ecclesiastical court. This was a huge shift. God speaks directly to us through His word. We don’t need to go through a mediator.
Reason over dogma. Exegetical optimism. Our Sabbath School is a study for yourselves. Same principle.
Nicholas Copernicus. Gresham’s law. Copernicus's model placed the sun at the center, with the Earth and other planets orbiting it. This contradicted the long-held belief that the Earth was stationary at the center of the universe. Dangerous teaching in the dominant church age (Roman Church). Published a book then he died. He also correctly suggested that Earth rotates daily on its axis and that this movement accounts for the cycle of day and night.
Galileo taught same thing. In 1616 he was brought before a Jesuit inquisition. Luther freed men’s minds to think for themselves. But Galileo recanted. He was in exile until death. Logic and reason were taking hold, after the Reformation.
Isaac Newton. Gravity studies. Verified Copernicus. Theology was a science to him. Great man and mind. Was in Protestant England. Science led to the Industrial Revolution. The Enlightenment followed. Martin Luther changed the world.—we are benefactors of that. Our conscience is captive to Scripture. Martin Luther is the father of religious liberty.
Lee Wellard.
Psalm 147:4
God named the stars himself. Adam didn’t have enough time to name them, there were too many. He named his wife and the animals, though.
The Egyptians worshiped the stars. God forbade this (Deut 4:19).
There is enough masonry in the Great Pyramids, you could build every church in England out of them. Yuuuge.
Friday night
Conrad Vine (fantastic)
We are in a material secular world. How did we get here?
The Constitution was written in The Enlightenment era. Secular disenchantment resulted from human wisdom. Leads to secularism, sense unanswered prayers. Humanism results.
Then postmodernism, after WWII. Believe whatever you want to believe. Leads to throwing away rituals and meaning. Toss the transcendent.
The Reformation had three beliefs,
Natural world created with a purpose. Points to greater realities (God).
Society is grounded in a higher purpose. Jesus taught this.
Porous selves. Open to multiple spiritual vectors.
After reformation we were immune to outside influences, grace forgiveness and love.
We are no longer a communal society seeking common good. We have lost social cohesion.
During the Depression, men waited for bread or soup, however long it took. These days, riots occur if people don’t get their stuff. 42 million depend on government for some food. What does that say about us?
Without eternal concerns we focus on pleasure and the here and now. Short term worldview. Your Bucket list becomes the meaning of life. Time has no intrinsic significance. In Acts 20, Paul wanted to reach Jerusalem by Pentecost. Thanksgiving has spiritual overtones to it. We don’t call it November 27. Today, there is an effort to replace Thanksgiving and Christmas with Halloween.
We have lost our sense of cosmology. Random collection of particles. We find it difficult to distinguish between God and creation (Romans 1).
Secularism is the illegitimate off-child of the Reformation.
Consequences of secularism.
Religion must decline. It is false.
Religion is irrelevant
Religion is based on hierarchical authority
We (modern age) are haunted by the gods and beliefs of the past. We are free to try all options open to us.
The net result is few people are willing to die on a hill. We are not sure what to believe or how to live. This leads to uncertain times. What is a woman? (A Supreme Court justice can’t even answer this question, even though she is one. Significant identity crisis).
Secular man is empty. God is appealing to them/us in Isaiah 55
People grieve at child’s grave. They despair. No hope of ever seeing them again.
Societies manifest a existential sense of loss. Deep levels of personal emptiness. Escapist behavior. Medicate the loss of transcendent. Alcohol, porn, sports, identity politics, suicide.
Gods Response.
Isaiah 55
“Ho every one that thirstiest, come to the waters, come without price.”
God drops a pebble in their pond of self sufficiency. Thirsting not for water, but for a deep sense of purpose. Philosophy of nation is without God and without hope. Isaiah 55 offers hope.
Secular humanism = neopagan.
Seek the Lord while he may be found. Secular man thinks about time, God focuses on eternity. Eternity can be added to your 80 plus years. Hope conquers despair.
Live more abundantly today with promise of eternity tomorrow. Live with a biblical worldview—not secular worldview.
Isaac Olatunji
Psalm 19
The Heavens declare glory of God. God is speaking through nature. Man is without excuse.
Revelation 14. Worship Creator. Gratitude for creator, not worship of creation (Romans 1).
The sabbath normalizes and memorializes creation by divine command, not dependent on sun and stars.
SNAP benefits end tomorrow. Don’t fault people for depending on welfare. Judge ordered that trump give SNAP benefits. He sees this as a good thing. The Lord provides.
Telescope Time
On Friday night, a telescope was set up outside and we were able to see the moon in great detail. Fascinating. We were scheduled to view the Orion Nebula on Saturday night, but heavy cloud cover prevented that from happening.
Sabbath
Tim Reisenberger
Every snowflake is unique. Perfect. God wants us to be unique and perfect in him.
My grace is made perfect in weakness. Lose energy like a drop of water freezing into a snowflake, trust less in your self.
Patient wanted to know where he got his last name. Asian blood, speaks Spanish, German last name. Audience laughed.
German calendar shows that Saturday is the seventh day. Wednesday is mittwoch (middle of the week).
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Jim Burr 2
This guy is hilarious (11 AM)
Top rabbi claims to be holding meetings with the messiah. Just about to get the name of the messiah. Could be interesting (false Christ).
Lucifer telescope run by Vatican. Acronym is Large universal... In Arizona. Leading astronomer runs it. Vatican university says our theology will change if we are visited by aliens. NASA is hiring 24 priests to investigate how religions would react if confronted by aliens.
Billions of miles in space. Psalms 102-25-26; 103:11-12.
No two stars alike. No two people alike. If you aren’t in heaven, something is missing. God is not willing that any should perish.
George Washington died from bloodletting. Huh.
Picture of woman with wild hair. We just found the Big Bang. Cosmologist vs cosmetology. Super funny.
Back side of the moon is bumpy and riddled. Meteorites. What happened? God said it was good at Creation. Flood, fountains of the deep were broken up.
It seems like there is a gap between mars and Jupiter. Filled with rubble. Asteroid belt. NASA thinks a planet was destroyed.
No asteroids until flood. Back side of the moon faces the asteroid belt. Satan feared for his life during the flood. This is a massive cosmological event.
George Dodwell says something hit the earth in 2350 BC. Tipped the earth. Usher says flood was in 2350 bc. Interesting collaboration.
This guy is a hoot! Keeps losing things, forgetting to keep his mic up to mouth.
Scientists fired 192 lasers into small capsule in 2014 to create fusion. 500 million miles creating the fusion to create a miserable 7000 jules. A firefly has more wattage. Maybe NASA should take that 20 billion and start a firefly farm. Audience laughed long.
By His wisdom the Lord created the heavens.
People who don’t believe in God say everything just happened. The sun just happened. It would take 15 billion years to visit stars in one galaxy. And there are a 150 billion galaxies. The angels know this. They would have been happy to let this earth perish. Jesus wasn’t willing to let that happen. He came to this one lost sheep.
Iniquity will not rise again (Nahum 1:9).
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Worship Hour
Conrad Vine.
Turning points in history, deaths.
Darius III died. World changed and Greek empire ruled afterwards.
Julius Caesar died. Crossed the rubicon. Won war. First ever no kings rally, Caesar was assassinated. Roman republic came to an end. Imperial Rome.
Moctezuma II 1520 AD. When he died the path was clear for conquest of Americas.
Charles I 1600-1649. Civil war. Tried and executed. Constitutional monarchy.
Admiral Horatio Nelson. Destroyed Napoleons fleet. Won battle of Nile for England. Paved the way for the British empire to rule the world. Eliminated slavery. Fostered Protestant missions.
Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. Caused WW I.
Tsar Nicholas 1918. Executed. Bolshevik Revolution. End of an era.
Martin L. King. 1968. Equal rights, and content of character.
These deaths signaled turning points in nations and history.
Charlie Kirk. Cultural moment. A professing Christian. Cut down by sniper’s bullet.
We are spared from the preceding deaths but this one is recent. With Charlie, it will take time to process. 31 year old man. He rejected Satan’s ideologies. We will live with the ramifications of his death for years to come. Revelation 13 may be looming.
JD Vance recently said there is no separation of church and state written into the Declaration of Independence. There is no exact statement but the intent is there—encapsulated in religious freedom.
The cross of Christ towers above every other death in history. Our destiny hinges upon it.
Jesus death was prophesied to crush the serpent’s head. His death is a submissive one. The animals were not hoping to be killed. Put on Christ. Make no provision for the flesh.
He healed the sick. Embraced little children. "Talitha cumi" My little lamb. Term of personal endearment.
Jesus death revealed the extent and horror of sin. He came to be our high priest.
Destroy works of devil, save sinners. Seek and save the lost John 3:17. He is called the Friend of sinners. Not called friend of ruling elites.
Just and true are Thy ways Lord God Almighty. We are hostile to God. Jesus made us reconciled to God. There is massive brokenness in our society. In Christ we see love and life and peace.
Conclusion
Many people have died and their death changed history. But Christ stands alone, and is coming back for those who wait for Him. Hebrews 9:29. Are we waiting for Him, or eagerly waiting for Him?
When Jesus come again we won’t be worrying about global warming. We will worry about global meltdown (2 Thessalonians 2:8; 2 Peter 3:10). The Second Coming is the turning point of all history.
When was the turning point in your life? For Conrad it was at age 13 in England.
Turn while you have life and breath in you.
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Random Photographs
Dennis Page
Drugs
Prison
Ministry
Now Drop of Grace Ministry
Ministers to gangs, drug dealers.
15,000 gang members in new prison in El Salvador
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Sabbath Evening Panel
White stars and blue are the hottest. Super nova burns up and gets bigger and bigger brighter and dimmer. Is it gonna blow? Ha. We see it as it was 1600 years ago.
They claim stars are being born. We have never seen a star being born. Thus the heavens were complete (Genesis 2:1). They say it takes 100 million years for a star to be born.
Dark matter is a code word for our ignorance. It doesn’t matter.
They say the universe is expanding. And accelerating. Astronomers are baffled but God says He stretches out the heavens.
How does every eye see him on a round earth? He is in control of the physics of nature. There are three objects coming in right now. Strange objects. 31/Atlas is coming our way. It could go anywhere, but coming here? Changes in the sun moon and sky. Fire came down from heaven in Revelation, lots of counterfeits. 31 is not from God.
We haven’t had a supernova in 1000 years — in the Milky Way. Orion is like it was 1500 years ago.
Hubble telescope is better than Webb telescope. Webb is black and white. Hubble is color. Hubble is fantastic. Some amateur telescopes have awesome detail, because of better technology.
Is earth flat? Buy a telescope. Galileo knew it was round. Sabbath created for a round earth. EGW comments and says ‘round.’ Earth isn’t a pizza.
Ron Kelly - Close
Jesus entered humanity at its lowest ebb. Humiliated Himself.
God walks with us. Every hair is numbered. If the stars only came out once a year, we would stay up all night and watch them.
Look at the stars once in a while.
The world suffers with IDD (Identity deficit disorder). They don’t know who they are.
Your value is greater than all these pictures of the universe we have marveled at this weekend.
We can sit with Him because we have suffered with Him (Ephesians 2:6).
May BlueStar 2.0 be the beginning of a new start for each of you. Look up. Consider these things.
Not many things in Bible that God numbers. Hair, stars. God be with you until we meet again.
Summary
This was a very good meeting. The people were great to be with, the weather was nice (except for the drive down). Heidi did a great job with the food. I was able to stock up on Carubies (awesome). Victor Clairmont did a fantastic job announcing. Ivan did a wonderful job organizing this event. Wisdom Pearl meetings are among the most amazing Adventist meetings I have ever attended, in 35-years as an Adventist. No kidding.
Plus, I was able to visit a Buc-ees store on the way to Huntsville and the way home. I call that a win-win. I met many very nice non-Adventists at the BlueStar 2.0 meetings. These meetings are having a positive effect on them. Heidi’s jackfruit steak during Sabbath lunch was incredibly good. I believe she is going to start selling them (breaking open my piggy bank already).
The ceiling on Thursday night was the best ever (Saturn V rocket). I need one of those.
The spray foam insulation on the external fuel pod of the Space Shuttle is inspiring. Extra points if you can guess the density of the foam. The food truck vendors were not good, in fact they were non-existent. But they were awesome at the Dream City Church in Phoenix back in March. They will be even better in March 2026 at the Wisdom Pearl “Men, Will You be Made Whole?” meeting in Arizona. Be there and be blessed!
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