Jake Jacobs
Apollo 8, Christmas Eve 1968 & Genesis
By Jake Jacobs
The actor-comedian Robin Williams used to love to quip "If you can remember the sixties, you weren't there."
Well, I was there and I do remember the sixties like it was yesterday! I remember the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, the Beatles on Ed Sullivan during February, 1964.
I remember the "Summer of Luv" in 1967, with the hippie counterculture in San Francisco and the Green Bay Packers winning the amazing Ice Bowl on December 31, 1967, and then winning the very first Super Bowl in January of 1968. Historians have called the year 1968 "the year of hate" with the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy and numerous bloody race-riots throughout many of America's major cities.
However, the event that poignantly sticks in my heart and mind was on Christmas Eve, 1968. Apollo 8 was launched on December 21st, 1968, and was headed for the moon, orbiting it – without landing – and then returning home to earth. Apollo 8 accomplished many amazing feats. It was the first time humans had ever gone beyond low earth orbit. It was the closest to date humans had ever gotten to the moon.
After opening our Christmas presents that Christmas Eve of 1968, my Dad was all excited as he had us sitting around our TV so we could see, thanks to satellite technology, for the first time in human history live film footage of the far side or dark side of the moon. Eventually we would see Earth as a whole planet and an "Earth-rise" in pictures, but the most awe inspiring was when the Apollo 8 crew, as they were orbiting the moon, did a live broadcast to then the largest TV audience in history, showing us the far side of the moon while reading from the book of Genesis chapter 1:1-10.
"In the beginning GOD created the Heavens and the Earth...and God said, let there be light; and there was light...and God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."
On that magical Christmas Eve, 1968, our astronauts were wonderfully articulating what I call the "American Cosmology of Creation," our Republic-under God understanding that the very source of our life, our liberty, our humanity and our universe is the God of the Scriptures, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
In contrast to our Biblical American Cosmology was the cosmology of the Communist Cosmonaut as it was told by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev's atheism has him arrogantly announcing in 1961 that when the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was in space, he quipped "I see no god up here!"
I think it was poetic justice that the "Evil Empire" – the Soviet Union – an Empire of atheism, Gulags and the death of millions and millions of people behind an Iron Curtain of oppression, died on Christmas Day, 1991.
While atheism and persecution of Jews and Christians was official state policy in the Soviet Union, there are unfortunately entities in America that would like to see the same thing in our Republic. Due to Apollo 8's Genesis reading in 1968, NASA was being sued by the notorious apostle of atheism Madelyn Murray O'Hare, in 1969.
In fear of her lawsuit, NASA requested a radio blackout when Apollo 11's second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, read from the Bible's book of John 15:5: "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing."
Aldrin then participated in the Christian ritual of Communion.
Think of that! The very first liquid and food eaten on the Moon was a expression of "American Christian Cosmology," the symbolic elements of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, LORD God-Almighty, the God of Israel, creator of the Universe, redeemer of the world!
I guess you could say Buzz Aldrin took "CoMOONion."
OK, sorry for the bad joke. On a serious note, in the Holy Scriptures, Psalm 19:1 states, "The Heavens declare the Glory of GOD!" so on Christmas Day as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the world's Savior, the God of our republic, may we join the angels singing "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men!"
As we celebrate Christmas Day, let us now more than ever dedicate ourselves faithfully to God and our Republic. This is Jake Jacobs, may God Bless you and may you bless those you love by hugging them and telling them you love them. And until next week, always remember the truth will set you free.
© Jake Jacobs
December 22, 2017
The actor-comedian Robin Williams used to love to quip "If you can remember the sixties, you weren't there."
Well, I was there and I do remember the sixties like it was yesterday! I remember the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, the Beatles on Ed Sullivan during February, 1964.
I remember the "Summer of Luv" in 1967, with the hippie counterculture in San Francisco and the Green Bay Packers winning the amazing Ice Bowl on December 31, 1967, and then winning the very first Super Bowl in January of 1968. Historians have called the year 1968 "the year of hate" with the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy and numerous bloody race-riots throughout many of America's major cities.
However, the event that poignantly sticks in my heart and mind was on Christmas Eve, 1968. Apollo 8 was launched on December 21st, 1968, and was headed for the moon, orbiting it – without landing – and then returning home to earth. Apollo 8 accomplished many amazing feats. It was the first time humans had ever gone beyond low earth orbit. It was the closest to date humans had ever gotten to the moon.
After opening our Christmas presents that Christmas Eve of 1968, my Dad was all excited as he had us sitting around our TV so we could see, thanks to satellite technology, for the first time in human history live film footage of the far side or dark side of the moon. Eventually we would see Earth as a whole planet and an "Earth-rise" in pictures, but the most awe inspiring was when the Apollo 8 crew, as they were orbiting the moon, did a live broadcast to then the largest TV audience in history, showing us the far side of the moon while reading from the book of Genesis chapter 1:1-10.
"In the beginning GOD created the Heavens and the Earth...and God said, let there be light; and there was light...and God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."
On that magical Christmas Eve, 1968, our astronauts were wonderfully articulating what I call the "American Cosmology of Creation," our Republic-under God understanding that the very source of our life, our liberty, our humanity and our universe is the God of the Scriptures, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
In contrast to our Biblical American Cosmology was the cosmology of the Communist Cosmonaut as it was told by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev's atheism has him arrogantly announcing in 1961 that when the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was in space, he quipped "I see no god up here!"
I think it was poetic justice that the "Evil Empire" – the Soviet Union – an Empire of atheism, Gulags and the death of millions and millions of people behind an Iron Curtain of oppression, died on Christmas Day, 1991.
While atheism and persecution of Jews and Christians was official state policy in the Soviet Union, there are unfortunately entities in America that would like to see the same thing in our Republic. Due to Apollo 8's Genesis reading in 1968, NASA was being sued by the notorious apostle of atheism Madelyn Murray O'Hare, in 1969.
In fear of her lawsuit, NASA requested a radio blackout when Apollo 11's second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, read from the Bible's book of John 15:5: "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing."
Aldrin then participated in the Christian ritual of Communion.
Think of that! The very first liquid and food eaten on the Moon was a expression of "American Christian Cosmology," the symbolic elements of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, LORD God-Almighty, the God of Israel, creator of the Universe, redeemer of the world!
I guess you could say Buzz Aldrin took "CoMOONion."
OK, sorry for the bad joke. On a serious note, in the Holy Scriptures, Psalm 19:1 states, "The Heavens declare the Glory of GOD!" so on Christmas Day as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the world's Savior, the God of our republic, may we join the angels singing "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men!"
As we celebrate Christmas Day, let us now more than ever dedicate ourselves faithfully to God and our Republic. This is Jake Jacobs, may God Bless you and may you bless those you love by hugging them and telling them you love them. And until next week, always remember the truth will set you free.
© Jake Jacobs
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