QUESTION: What are the astronomical facts demonstrating the validity of Joshua’s long day?
ANSWER: The battle against the five kings was at its height when Joshua issued his famous prayer. “Then spake Joshua to the Lord–-in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies––So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord harkened unto the voice of a man–-” (Joshua 10: 12-14) Without exception atheists, agnostics and sceptics have made all manner of fun of such a day as is described in the Book of Joshua. Theologians and church members have questioned the accuracy of the account. With few exceptions Bible Dictionaries and Encyclopaedias either ignore it altogether or declare Joshua was mistaken, assuming the day seemed to have been lengthened because of the extensive marching and fighting on the part of the Israelites. The stock-in-trade argument against its occurrence is that if the earth, sun and moon remained in the positions as described by Joshua, the earth would have had to stop its spinning. This, we are told, would have been disastrous as the earth turns upon its axis at the rate of about 1000 miles per hour. To suddenly stop turning would bring chaos, not only because of the loss of gravity, but the earth itself would fly to pieces. There is no way of knowing exactly what would happen if the earth did stop spinning.