The Old Testament book of Job is a story about faithfulness through longsuffering, perseverance, and ultimately the love of God. Right? Right. But what else might we glean from the text?
You might be surprised to learn that Job is arguably the most ancient book in the Bible—predating Genesis by as much as 400 years. It also contains more information about the creation of the universe than most of us realize. What might it tell us of ethics, purpose, right doctrine, obedience, redemption, and even Heaven? Why does God ask all those specific questions?
If you’re interested in digging deeper, check out the book below.
Enjoy!
Veracity 
February 14th, 2013 at 1:24 pm
John,
I am probably two or three times through the Hugh Ross video and I still need to listen again. He makes some pretty provocative statements here and there, but I have not had much success in finding others who would challenge him on some of the points he brings out of Job. That could be a good thing or a bad thing. If you know of any publicly accessible interactions with or rebuttals to what Ross is putting forth here, it might be good to reference.
The idea of the river Pishon (from the Garden of Eden story in Genesis 2) being possibly found in Saudi Arabia was new to me.
Does this mean I can stop looking for the Garden of Eden in Missouri now?
🙂
Clarke
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February 14th, 2013 at 10:08 pm
Hugh Ross is a remarkable and gifted intellect. As I have read and studied his material, I have come across several ideas that, as you state, cause me to really dive deeper and think about why I hold to some of the views I have (or haven’t ever considered).
He is able to read passages in Job such as, “Do you know where the darkness resides,” (Job 38:19) and interpret that in terms of the dark matter that boggles the mind of physicists and cosmologists at the edge of the universe. Likewise in Job 9:8 he interprets the reference to God “stretching out of the heavens” as an accurate reference to the Big Bang creation model. This ain’t our grandparents’ Christianity, but it is remarkably consistent with Scripture and science. He doesn’t come at it as coincidental, or partially correct, or overly allegorical–he is a staunch believer in the Bible as the inerrant and infallible word of God.
I read Hidden Treasures last summer and still think about those ideas. It’s somewhat unfortunate that Dr. Ross doesn’t have many debates with intellectual peers. He does debate some Young Earth Creationists, but those guys start with the plea that science is wrong. On the other hand, Hugh Ross celebrates how science corroborates the Bible. If you research the thousands of articles, posts and references that Reasons To Believe has cataloged over the years (and continuing at an accelerating pace to the present day), you’ll find these folks have a lot on the ball. They have so much well-researched, brilliant material I find myself just screaming ‘Uncle’ at every turn.
Here’s a recent video that covers roughly the same material as the above video, but is a little better produced. Enjoy!
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February 14th, 2013 at 10:51 pm
…ahem, back to your question.
Probably the best source of objective reviews of Hidden Treasures would be the Amazon customer reviews at http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Treasures-Reasons-Believe-ebook/product-reviews/B005BOXNZ4/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
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February 15th, 2013 at 8:33 am
Thanks, John. Great to reference this on the blog.
Just in case any blog reader missed my curious attempt at humour, the reference about the Garden of Eden being in Missouri is a claim made by Joseph Smith, the prophet of the Latter Day Saints movement, in 1838:
http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/gardenofeden.htm
And finally, to cover the Young Earth position on the location of the Garden of Eden, many Young Earth folks believe that the exact location can probably never be determined since the global flood was catastrophic enough in dumping deposits to hide any relevant evidence:
http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2011/08/07/where-was-the-garden-of-eden/
Clarke
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