A T H E I S T S 
P R O V E G O D
SIMON WINCHESTER PROVES GOD - AGAIN
(posted: December 2011)
* All scripture references are from the New King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible, unless otherwise noted.
“The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan, and covered the faction of Abiram. A fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.”
Psalm 106:17, 18“The San Francisco earthquake (and fire) was not caused by God, but by forces we understand ... .” 1
Simon Winchester
Simon Winchester - atheist, geologist, and author of A Crack in the Edge of the World, states unequivocally that God had nothing to do with the San Francisco (S.F.) earthquake and subsequent fire on April 18, 1906. In His book, written some 2500 years ago, God included many of the same details. All the key elements of the earthquake and fire can be found within the year and day patterns of the Bible reflecting the date April 18, 1906. The reader may judge for himself if God was involved.- Biblical Year Pattern for April 18, 1906 / Hebrew Year 5666 (Psalms 6, 106, 66)
- Psalm 6:1, 6, 10 [God chastens in His hot displeasure; enemies of God suddenly shamed]
- Psalm 106:2-40
6, 14, 28, 29, 39, 40. [Widespread prostitution provokes judgement]- ... we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. ...
- (they) lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, they tested God in the desert. ...
- They joined themselves also to Baal of Peor (pagan temple prostitutes) ... .
- They provoked Him to anger with their deeds ... .
- Thus they were defiled by their own works, they played the harlot by their own deeds ... .
- Therefore the wrath of God was kindled ... .
“During the 1850’s San Francisco’s notoriety was fully and widely established; it was a den of iniquity, a lawless town ... . 2
Simon Winchester (S.W.)“... whorehouses (in S.F.) ... would eventually number in the hundreds ... .” 2
S.W.“... assembly-line brothels ... provided services on a titanic scale. The Hotel Nymphomania, for example, offered 150 cubicles on each of its three floors.” 2
S.W.
2, 7, 13, 21-26, 33. [The city by the bay forgot that there is a God who judges.]
9. He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; ... [All the water
pipes from the reservoirs to the city were fractured by the
earthquake. Therefore no water was available to fight the
fires. 2, 3, 4, 5]17-18. [The sentinel verses for the S.F. earthquake and fire.]
17. The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan, and covered
the faction of Abiram.
18. A fire was kindled in their company; the flame
burned up the wicked.
“On April 18, 1906, the earth shook, then it opened ... split the ground for 300 miles ... . The fires that would rage for the next three days .... would swell into an unstoppable inferno.” 4
“Fire Chief Dennis Sullivan, the one man who might have organized a coherent response to the fires, was fatally injured when a hotel fell on his house.” 4
“... almost immediately after the trembling of the ground had stopped ... (came) a quite destructive and long-lived fire.” 2
S.W.“Of S.F.’s 400,000 residents, 225,000 lost their homes. Five hundred city blocks were burned. An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 died.” 4
19, 20. They made a calf in Horeb and worship the molded
image. They changed their glory into an image of an
ox that eats grass.[Creationism being replaced by evolution by
natural selection. See quote below verse 21.]
[The most iconic image from the S.F. earthquake - a statue
of renowned biologist, Louis Agassiz, thrown down head
first and stuck into the cement at Stanford University. 2]21. They forgot God their Savior, who had done great things
in the land of Eqypt."This event (earthquake, fire, and plummeting statue) ... offers a potent icon for the demise of special creationism as a major force within American intellectual life." 6
23. Therefore He said that He would destroy them. ...
35-38. [Violence and bloodshed in 1906 San Francisco.]
“... think Lord of the Flies or Heart of Darkness. There was murder, mayhem, robbery, alcoholism, depression, suicide, and all of it on a positively Homeric scale ...” 2
S.W.“Corruption and violence, cheating and envy (became) a fixture of everyday life.” 2
S.W.- Psalm 66:3-15
6. He turned the sea into dry land ...
[Water mains ruptured; no water for fighting fires. 2, 3, 4, 5]
10-12. [Sentinel verses for the preservation of the U.S. Mint]
10. For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver
is refined.
“But right in the path of the largest, hottest blaze, a few
dozen men at the S.F. Mint, where coins were
manufactured for circulation, stood fast.” 3“... tons of silver began pouring into San Francisco ...” 3
“(The fire’s), temperature exceeded 2,000 degrees, hot
11. You brought us into the net, You laid affliction on our backs.
enough to melt steel. ... huge fires that seemed to be
merging into one horrific conflagration-headed right
for the mint” 3“We were prisoners and fighting for our lives.” 3
Joe Hammill - mint survivor“They fought against an inferno that melted glass ... and
burned the clothes off their backs. ... burning cinders
scorched their clothes.” 312a. You caused men to ride over our heads ...
“Joe Hammill (mint survivor) recalled being suddenly
‘thrown in every direction’”. 312b. ... we went through fire and through water ...
[The U.S. mint was the only building with a viable water supply after the earthquake as it had an operating well in its courtyard. 3 Internal fire hoses had been installed throughout the building only ten days earlier. 3]
12c. ... You brought us out to rich fulfillment.
“By safeguarding gold and silver worth $300 million ... the equivalent of more than $6 billion today - they (defenders of the mint) may have saved the U.S. economy from collapse.” 3
- Biblical Day Pattern for April 18, 1906 (chapters 18 and 48 of appropriate books)
- Job 18:8-11, 14, 15, 18, 21 [Judgement on the wicked sooner or later.]
- Isaiah 18:5 [Heavy damage to the Napa and Sonoma Valleys wine region 2]
- Isaiah 48:3, 5-7, 10, 13, 16, 21, 22
- Behold I have refined you, but not as silver. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
[See Psalm 66:10 for a similar depiction of the preservation of the U.S. mint in the year pattern.]
- ... He split the rocks and the water gushed out.
“... both Davis and Washington streets opened up in several
places and water came up out of those cracks.” 2
Officer Cook as reported by S.W. - Jeremiah 18:15-17
15. Because My people have forgotten Me, ... they have caused
themselves to stumble in their ways, from the ancient paths ...
[Simon Winchester described S.F. of 1906 as a “decadent pleasure
seeking ... place,” a “decadent young city,” and its citizens as
“having endless decadent fun with all the wealth.” 2]
16a. To make the land desolate and a perpetual hissing ...
“... the high-tension electrical wires ... fell to the ground - where they writhed and hissed ‘like reptiles’ ” - ...” 2
S.W.16b. ... everyone who passes will be astonished.
“Today, 100 years later, the ... great quake seems nearly as shocking as it did then; 28,000 buildings destroyed, more than 3,000 people killed, 225,000 more ... left homeless” 5
17. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the
enemy; I will show them the back and not the face
in the day of their calamity.“Yet from every side, wind was pouring in upon the city: east, west, north, and south, strong winds were blowing upon the doomed city.” 2
Jack London- Jeremiah 48:9, 12, 32, 33, 45
12, 32b, 33 [Heavy damage to the Napa and Sonoma Valleys wine region.]“The vineyard country of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys ... was hit particularly hard.” 2
S.W.“Sonoma County’s main city, Santa Rosa, was savaged ...” 2
S.W.
45. [Fire and flames]
- Ezekiel 18:1-32 [Turn and live or proceed and die]
- Matthew 18:7-9 [Turn and live or proceed and die]
- These passages that link to the San Francisco earthquake and fire by date and number warn of the consequences of sin and strongly advise we turn away from it. To do otherwise invites inferno, not three days long as in San Francisco 1906, but as Jesus describes in Matthew 18 - everlasting fire.
As for Simon Winchester, he can believe what he wants. His own words in Krakatoa and A Crack in the Edge of the World prove God and the Bible as the word of God.
An atheist proving God; what a concept.
- Counting Down to Disaster; Simon Winchester; book tour; 2003
- A Crack in the Edge of the World; Simon Winchester; Harper Collins; 2005
- Grace Under Fire; Michael Castleman; Smithsonian; April 2006
- Nightmare in San Francisco; Justin Ewers; US News and World Report; April 17, 2006
- April 18, 1906 lessons from the Earthquake that Shook the Word; J. Madeleine Nash; Time; April 10, 2006
- Scienceblogs.com; The 1906 SF Earthquake Caused a Statue ...