Some persons will challenge what the Bible says, for instance, about the sun and moon being motionless in the days of Joshua. Do you recall that event? The Bible account reads:

“Joshua proceeded to speak to Jehovah on the day of Jehovah’s abandoning the Amorites to the sons of Israel, and he went on to say before the eyes of Israel: ‘Sun, be motionless over Gibeon, and, moon, over the low plain of Aijalon.’ Accordingly the sun kept motionless, and the moon did stand still, until the nation could take vengeance on its enemies. Is it not written in the book of Jashar? And the sun kept standing still in the middle of the heavens and did not hasten to set for about a whole day.

No human, of course, not even one who believes the Bible, can definitely explain how the sun stood still. But should that shake one’s faith in the Bible? No. As we have seen, men today do not understand the mysterious astronomical events taking place right now. But who can deny that they do take place? No one.

God could, as Creator, if he wished, stop the motions of the whole solar system. Or, he could stop the motion of only the earth so that sun and moon appeared to remain in the same position as viewed from the earth. On the other hand, it is possible that the sun, moon and earth all continued on in their regular movements, but that the light from sun and moon ceaselessly shone by some form of refraction that we do not now understand. In any event, this was a truly unique event, for the Bible says that “no day has proved to be like that one, either before it or after it, in that Jehovah listened to the voice of a man.”

The simple reasoning of Henry Cooke in the last century is still valid regarding this Biblical event:

“Were even philosophers better acquainted with the causes of the annual and diurnal [daily] movements of the heavenly bodies, they would be better able to judge of this miracle. Though all miracles are alike easy to Omnipotence, it may still be fact, that some order of exceeding simplicity effected what appears so stupendous to our eyes. Something perhaps more simple than the stopping of the pulsation of the heart, . . . Had syncope, or fainting, never been witnessed but once some thousands of years ago, it would appear as incredible to modern physiologists as the standing still of the sun to infidel philosophers.”