Now Released: Cross On Me – A Novel By Arie Uittenbogaard

PRESS RELEASE:

A brilliant man flees from reality and drives in a panic from scientific Boston to the wilderness of Alaska. When his father learns of his son's plight, he sets out to find him. Before they can meet again, both men must pay an ultimate price.

In his ambitious, literary epic, Dutch-born author Arie Uittenbogaard shows the north American continent through the eyes of two displaced foreigners who are desperately looking for each other. Their quest takes them from the latest scientific findings to the ancient wisdoms of the Bible, from the Dutch city of Leiden to the arctic shore of Alaska, from the howling infinite of fiction and the squalls of madness to the folly of knowledge and the essence of redemption.

Cross On Me follows the trail blazed by Dante and Bunyan, and shows a modern day and unlikely Nazarene whose powerful father has to relinquish everything, follow his son into his grave and raise him from the death he died.

Arie Uittenbogaard is a former maritime engineer who moved to Massachusetts to study theology. He worked on cargo and cruise ships and spent most of his summers in Alaska. Today he and his wife live in Belgium and Serbia.

Arie Uittenbogaard publishes Bible studies, short stories and poetry in both English and Dutch. Cross On Me is his first full length novel in English.

Cross On Me was published by Abarim Publications and printed by iUniverse. It is available from online booksellers such as Amazon.com, Borders and Barnes and Noble. Cross On Me can also be read entirely online at http://www.crossonme.com/.

A message to Angry Dave

The other day Abarim Publications received a message from Angry Dave. He had become angry after reading our article on the word yom, meaning ‘day’ as used all over the Bible but most troublesome in Genesis 1. There it reads that it took God six yoms to create the heavens and the earth. Since mainstream science insists that the universe is 15 billion years old, throngs of eager Bible bashers have made it their mission to use Genesis 1 as proof that the Bible is flawed. Scripture Theorists and Christians alike became nervous, or should have, because when God launches the Ten Commandments, He claims His authority by stating that He’s the one who’s created everything in six days. If that’s not true then the Ten Commandments are folly, and ultimately Christ’s fulfillment of the law the ultimate joke.

A close look at Genesis 1, however, shows no reason to insist that the word yom must mean 24 hours. Dave thinks it does, and now he’s angry.

When I received Dave’s email, I had just come off work. I was tired and I gave Dave a short and little forgiving answer. I regret that now.

Dave, there are different models to believe in, and these models may not always be the same, or even comparable. People like to think that the scientific model consists of absolute truth, but no, even the scientific model is just a tool, and accepting it requires faith just as much as accepting the Biblical model. I can guarantee you that some day the scientific model and the Biblical model will be found at odds. I’m even predicting that science itself will one day conclude that the Bible is more true than science. But that day hasn’t yet come.

But to be sure, Genesis 1 without a doubt states that God created everything in six days, and that’s it then. And science figured out that the universe is 15 billion years old, and that’s that then. We can accept these figures as different, if we so chose, but we can also allow one account to explain the other, if we so chose, just to see what would happen when we do.

What I’m saying is that if you feel most comfortable believing that God made everything in six days, then you should go right ahead and worship God in spirit and truth. And just as you should be able to count on other people giving you the right to accept any model you chose, so should you allow people like me their own perspective. In the end, it only counts whether we believe in Christ or not. When you and I stand in front of His throne, I’d like to say to Him that you and I agreed that it took God six yoms, but that we would like to hear from Him what that word yom might mean, and how that relates to the scientific story.

Deal?



Abarim Publications a resource for San José State University

A few years ago, the venerable San José State University in California decided to absorb some of my material into their curriculum, namely my article on the meaning of the Hebrew alphabet, to serve as a resource for their Jewish Mysticism, Magic & Folklore program. Very flattering of course, but when I discovered it I heavily copyrighted my stuff with the US Library of Congress.

One would have expected this University to kindly ask the author for the rights to use his material (people ask me that all the time and I usually grant all rights) but nope, not an email, not a phone call, not the smallest honorary doctorate.

Brass as I was back then, I sent them a CEASE AND DISIST letter, to no avail, which probably means that their Justice faculty has Scripture Theorists like me for breakfast.

O well, appreciative of acknowledgement of any kind, I’ve decided to find it charming.

Their version: http://www.sjsu.edu/people/mira.amiras/courses/c3/ (See course documents; Meaning of the Letters.

Abarim’s snazzy updated version: http://www.abarim-publications.com/Hebrew_Alphabet_Meaning.html