In the late 1950’s the U.S.S.R. jumped into space, and the Americans knew that they would have to keep up.
President Kenney made his promise; the NACA became NASA, and work began toward putting an American on the moon.
First came the Mercury project, which included 15 different launches.
These began as unmanned flights, then some had animals inside, and then came six manned flights.
The Mercury flights were sort of like firing bullets higher and higher into space and sometimes people went along for the ride.
The men inside those space craft had little more responsibility than staying alive.
The second, and much more complex part of the program, was called the Gemini Project.
These took place between 1963 and 1966.
The objective of the Gemini Project was to keep man in space a little longer and to give those astronauts more control over their space craft.
They practiced changing orbits and the procedures for docking with other vehicles.
They learned about weightlessness and ran a few experiments; they were more than mere passengers.
By the way, the Gemini capsule, was designed by a Canadian, named Jim Chamberlin, who had earlier designed one of Canada’s more famous modern aircraft, the Avro Arrow.
There were ten successful Gemini launches, and through the Gemini program, the U.S. surpassed the U.S.S.R. in the space race.
The third part of the space program was Apollos which successfully put someone on the moon.
Going back to “Gemini” does anyone know the meaning of the word? It means “twins.”
The Mercury space craft had room for only one rider; the Gemini project carried two people – “twins.”
Eventually Apollos carried four people, two of whom were supposed to get out and do some exploring.
It’s not just in the history of space that we use the name “Gemini.”
Gemini is also the name of a constellation in our Northern Hemisphere.
Does anyone know the name of the two primary stars in that constellation? Castor and Pollux.
Gemini, like Mercury and Apollos, come to us out of Roman mythology.
The Gemini twins, Castor and Pollux, were said to be the sons of Jupiter.
They were given power over the sea and became the tutelar gods of mariners.
A tutelar god was supposed to be a good deity who protected or guarded the people who came into his area of responsibility.
And so, during the Roman era, sailors were often worshippers of the Gemini.
They would offer them sacrifices before they set off on their voyages, and if they got into trouble, they would pray to Castor and Pollux.
If only one of the twins demonstrated his presence then that was considered to be a very bad sign.
Who knows what St. Elmo’s fire is?
St. Elmo’s fire was supposed to be an evidence one of the Gemini.
It’s a static electrical discharge, primarily seen during a lightening storm, which could put a ball of light at the top of a mast or some other object on a ship.
At times it could ignite a fire, but it was usually accompanied by rain, so the danger was minimal.
But if there was a dry storm and St. Elmo appeared without his brother the rain, that was very bad.
By the way, St. Elmo was the 4th century Catholic successor to the Roman’s Gemini.
He was the Roman Catholic patron saint of Mariners, just like Castor and Pollux were the tutelar gods of the Romans.
Isn’t it hard to call Catholicism truly Christian, when it is filled with so much heathenism?
As we have learned, the ship which carried the Apostle Paul and which went aground at Melita, did so during a freak early winter storm.
For three months the survivors were stranded on the island.
But they were not the only wayfaring men there.
At some point, probably before they arrived, another grain ship took shelter in one of the harbors on Melita.
Julius, the Centurian, probably had authority to demand that any Roman ship carry him and his prisoners on to Rome.
So when the winter season began winding down, that ship took on about 300 extra passengers.
The name of the ship was “Castor and Pollux.”
Has your inquisitive mind asked why it was that Luke has told us the name of this ship, but not the name of the ship which sank?
For three months now, I have been preaching about that ship, and calling it “the freighter from Alexandria.”
And I have to assume that there is a reason for it.
That doesn’t mean that I know what that reason is; but still, there must be a reason.
As I usually do, I turned to my library for some sermon suggestions, and as usual, it didn’t give me anything.
But there was an anonymous statement which struck me.
“In a heathen ship, with a pagan name, the gospel was borne to Rome.”
That is innocuous enough, but it raises a couple of important points.
Along with “Father Know Best” and “Leave it to Beaver,” we’d watch the “Andy Griffith Show.”
There were several characters who came and went through that show during the years.
One of America’s favorite Mayberry characters was Gomer Pyle, played by Jim Nabors.
Many Americans were amazed to learn that that goofy guy possessed a beautiful baritone voice.
But more than that, we were devastated to learn that we had grown to love a man who was a homosexual.
In this particular case, when we didn’t know the truth, we weren’t hurt by it.
Every day of our lives,
unless we don’t listen to the radio, we don’t own a television, and we never leave home,
we are confronted with all kinds of sin, sinners and heathenism.
Sometimes, if not most of the time, we aren’t even aware of that heathenism or we aren’t too concerned.
And much of the time, we aren’t harmed by that contact.
I was a new Christian when the Gemini project took off.
I was a member of a small Baptist church whose pastor was very vocal when it came to the things of the world.
For example, he would preach about subjects, which I am still too embarrassed to address publically.
And he was one of those pastors – common at the time – who could find conspiracies in everything.
But I don’t remember Pastor Rogers ever mentioning the Satanic origin of the names of Space Program:
Gemini, the twin sons of the Roman god Jupiter;
Apollos, the Greek god of the music, medicine and poetry.
But …. obviously, the space program didn’t exactly fail.
We were not harmed by the use of those names and neither were Paul, Luke and Aristarchus.
A few years ago I had a friend who e-mailed me with a question about the names of the days of the week.
She was worried that our church was committing some kind of sin,
I’m not sure that I ever convinced her that we weren’t in sin by saying that we had Sunday services.
In fact there are hundreds of words and names that we use in regular everyday English which come from idolatry and heathenism.
No matter how hard we try, we can’t completely avoid contact with heathenism.
And most likely on one side of the bow there was the name Castor and on the other there was Pollux.
Probably both names were painted or carved on the stern of that ship.
And most likely just before that ship set sail on any voyage there were offerings and prayers to Castor and Pollux for safety and their blessing.
I guarantee that the three Christians had no participation whatsoever in those heathen rituals.
But at the same time they had no fear of stepping on board that ship and setting sail for Rome.
I think that it was with a kind of grin on his face that Luke first wrote down the name of that ship.
I tend to think that the name of the earlier ship wasn’t mentioned because it was the name of some city or somebody’s pet schnauzer.
But I think that Luke probably thought that it was funny that the Christians were sailing on the Gemini.
He definitely had a reason, and he definitely had the leadership of the Lord to tell us the name of that ship even though you and I might not know exactly what it was.
If we can use this voyage as an example, we should learn that there is no reason to be physically or spiritually hurt by our contact with Heathenism.
That is not a blanket statement.
I’m not saying that we cannot be, and we will not ever be, hurt by sin and heathenism.
But the casual contact with the heathenism of others, does not necessarily have to become our own.
Let me close with a word of caution.
It is one thing to be ordered onto a ship called “Castor and Pollex” by soldiers with swords.
But it is another thing to willingly walk into a strip-club named “Hooters” in order to buy a Coke or a Pepsi.
There is no harm in using an heathen word in the course of a day’s conversation.
But I think that there is something wrong in a Christian giving his son some sort of Satanic name.
This is related to the subject of temptation:
There are places where Christians should not go; there are situations that Christians should not enter.