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Science in the Bible
Scientific foreknowledge found in the Bible is one of the best ways to prove inspiration. While it is the case that certain scientific studies that are not based on proper experimentation and theory can be false, the kind of scientific facts that we will be looking at are not even debatable. To understand where we are going from the out set it may be helpful to define science. Webster defines science as “systematized knowledge derived from observation, study and experimentation.” In many cases, science can be just as true and sure as Math. Also, another major characteristic of true science is that it can be proved and tested (unlike the theory of evolution). Let us now turn out attention to several examples of scientific foreknowledge in the Bible. I hope this enthralls you the way it did (does) me!
I. Herbert Spencer’s 5 Manifestations (1820)
A. “Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) first announced that there are only five ‘manifestations of the unknowable’ in existence—time, force, action, space, and matter—and that all else is based on these fundamentals. This was hailed as a great announcement but when God had that great Scientists, Moses, write the very first verse in the Bible, He said, ‘Moses, 3400 years from now men will think they have discovered everything so you just put it all in Genesis 1:1 and we will begin with everything man can discover’” (Dehoff, pg. 47).
B. Notice how these same principles that Herbert Spencer discovered are found in Genesis 1:1 “In the Beginning—Time, God—Force, created—action, the heavens—space, and the earth—matter.” Isn’t it wonderful to know that our God has known these all alone and revealed them to us thousands of years before they were discovered? In fact, it is very amazing that these same five principles are in the exact same order in Genesis 1:1 that Spencer announced them in.
II. The Moon a Witness (Ps. 89:37)
A. In this passage, God refers to the seed of David as being like the moon in faithfulness. But, it is interesting that the Psalmists would refer to the moon as a witness. Why a witness? What does a witness do? Does he not testify of something that he has seen or heard? Likewise, the moon is a witness of the Sun’s light on earth. The moon itself contains no natural light source. The light that the moon gives off is a reflection (witness) of the Sun’s light.
B. How was the Psalmist able to know that the moon was only a witness of the Sun’s light? Did he have a telescope? Did he have the scientific knowledge to discover that? Not hardly! The only way he could have known this is if God told him.
III. The Earth’s Suspension (Job 26:7)
A. “The writers of the Bible simply do not make the scientific blunders that their contemporaries make. In Job 26:7, how did Job know that God suspended the earth upon nothing? Men throughout antiquity thought that the earth was held up by Atlas, or perhaps by four elephants standing on a giant turtle” (Miller, pg. 442).
B. While not all men in the ancient world believed some of the far-fetched views about how the world was held up, many did. As Dehoff notes, “The ancient Greeks and Romans were the most advanced peoples in their time, yet they believed that the earth was held in place by poles or by the neck of Atlas. Others believed that Atlas had the earth on his shoulders. Some said that the earth floated on water and should one go too far out on the sea he would surely perish” (Dehoff, pg. 50).
IV. The Rotundity of the Earth (Isa. 40:22, Luke 17:31, 34).
A. “It has been only a few centuries since the scientists and teachers all believed in a flat earth, and those intellectuals may well have thought the Bible was unscientific when it described a spherical earth… The word translated ‘circle’ is the Hebrew kuhg, a more exact connotation of which is ‘sphericity’ or ‘roundness’. It is also used in Proverbs 8:27: ‘He sets a compass upon the face of the depth [or ‘deep’].’ The same word is here translated ‘compass,’ referring to the surface of the ocean taking on a spherical shape…” (Morris, pg. 13-14).
B. “When the bible was written it was universally believed that the earth was flat. It was argued that should one go too far toward the edge he would fall off. The early Grecians as well as Toscanelli, an Italian, suggested the rotundity of the earth. Columbus and others believed them. Finally, Magellan and his men sailed around the earth and thus proved it to be spherical in shape” (Dehoff, pg. 49). This major event did not occur until the 15th century.
V. The empty space in the North (Job 26:7)
A. Astronomers have now discovered that there is a great empty place in the North. Although one may take a telescope and see stars in every other direction, when the scope is set exactly north not a star can be found. While this is just a recent discovery for science God knew it all along.
VI. The Innumerability of the Stars (Jer. 33:22; Gen. 22:17).
A. “Since ancient times, people have been fascinated by the stars, and many astronomers have tried to count them. Ptolemy counted 1,056. Tycho Brahe cataloged 777, and Johannes Kepler counted 1,005. The total number of stars visible to the naked eye is perhaps 4,000, counting all that are visible from every point on earth. Yet the Bible had said that ‘the hose of heaven cannot be numbered’, while also comparing ‘the sand which is upon the sea shore’ to ‘the stars of the heaven’ in multitude (Genesis 22:17)” (Morris, pg. 11-12).
VII. The Value of Snow (Job 38:22)
A. As the wheat farmers in this area will readily confess snow is a vital part of having a good wheat crop. It keeps it from coming to head to fast. But, there is also another material value of snow. “Dr. Frank T. Shutt of the Canadian Department of Agriculture has recently shown that the action of snow and hail centrifuging through the air collects nitrates, free ammonia and albuminoid ammonia. These are all valuable fertilizers. He explains that an average winter’s snow and hail is worth about fifteen dollars per acre to farm land.
VIII. Life is in the Blood (Lev. 17:1).
A. During the medieval time, doctors thought that the best way to heal someone’s ailment was to drain the evil spirits out of the body through the blood. Many people died from simple viruses or infections because they bled to death. But all along God said the life is in the blood.
B. “Continuance of life is now known to depend upon the continued supply of oxygen, water, and food to the cells of the body. This essential function is accomplished in a marvelous manner by the blood as it circulates constantly throughout the body, year after year. The role of blood in combating disease-producing organisms and in repairing injured tissue is one of the most significant discoveries of medical science, and the use of blood transfusions as one of the most beneficial treatments for many medical needs…” (Morris, pg. 16).
IX. Path in the Sea (Ps. 8:8).
A. One of the greatest finds in this century has to do with Oceanography. A man by the name of Matthew Fontaine Murray discovered the sailing paths in the sea. About this Dehoff writes “Before Matthew Fontaine Murray lived there were no sailing lanes and no charts of the sea. One day, when he was ill, his son read to him from the eighth Psalm. He read that God put under man ‘…the fowls of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passes through the paths of the sea.’ ‘Read that again’, he said. Upon hearing it the second time, the venerable scientists said, ‘If the Word of God says there are paths in the sea, they must be there. I will find them.’” (Dehoff, pg. 53). B. Today, Mr. Murray is known as the Father of Oceanography. He founded the Annapolis Academy. Also, in Richmond, Virginia there is a statue of Mr. Murray with a Bible in one hand and the charts of the sea in the other.
X. The Sun is Moving (Ps. 19:6)
A. For many years skeptics of the Bible have scoffed at Psalm 19:6 because they claimed that it advocated the false view of geocentricity. However, it does not teach geocentricity because the writer is viewing the sun from his perspective, as the sun appears to rise and set. But, the sun is actually moving at an amazing speed across the universe.
B. “As a matter of fact, however, the words of the psalmist may be even more scientific than he could have known. Studies of modern galactic astronomy have indicated that the sun is indeed moving around a center in the Milky Way galaxy in a gigantic orbit that would require two million centuries to complete, even at the tremendous speed of 600,000 miles per hour…The sun’s circuit is from one end of the heavens to the other” (Morris, pg. 13).
XI. Vitamin K (Lev 12:3; Gen. 17:12).
A. “In 1935, Professor H. Dam proposed the name “Vitamin K for the factor in foods which helped prevent hemorrhaging in baby chicks. We now know Vitamin K is responsible for the production of prothrombin by the liver. If Vitamin K is deficient, there will be a prothrombin deficiency and hemorrhaging may occur. Here’s where it gets interesting. Vitamin K begins to be produced in the newborn male only on the fifth through seventh day of life. And it is only on the eighth day that the percent of prothrombin climbs above 100%. The only day in the entire life of the newborn that the bloodclotting element prothrombin is above 100% is day eight! The eighth day is therefore the best day to perform circumcision. How did Moses know this” (Miller, pg. 444)?
XII. The Ship Design (Genesis 6).
A. Another major scientific discovery that deals with oceanography has to deal with the dimension of ships. In Genesis 6, God told Noah to make the arks dimensions at a 30:5:3 ratio. And, as we all know this ship was able to survive forty days and nights of rain that covered the whole earth. Today, we still use the same basic ratio measurements in designing ships. B. “In March, 1919, the government of the United States launched its first concrete ship at San Francisco. The dimensions were 300 feet, by 50 feet, by 30 feet. This is the same proportion as the ark, which Noah built. Even with all our modern development in shipbuilding we still hold to approximately the same proportions as those used by Noah in building his boat” (Dehoff, pg. 51).
XIII. The Water Cycle (Eccl 1:7; Job 36:27-29).
A. In Ecclesiastes 1:7, Solomon made an amazing statement about the cycle of water. All water on the earth is going through a continuous cycle of rain, drainage, river flow, sea consumption and evaporation. Since all water is running to the sea, how then does it not overflow? The answer is evaporation and the hydrologic cycle. But how did Solomon know this in his day?
XIV. The Recesses of the Deep (Job 38:16)
A. “It was not until the 1800’s when technology had made sufficient progress, that scientists began discovering incredible recesses on the ocean floor. In 1873, a team of British scientists, initiating deep sea exploration, found a trench on the floor of the Pacific Ocean that is over five miles deep. In 1960, the bathyscaph “Trieste” reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench at 35,800 feet—more than six miles deep! How did the writer of Job know the Ocean possessed recesses?” (Miller, pg. 443).
XV. Sanitation Laws (Lev. 17:12ff).
A. In the past we have heard gruesome stories of people who ate blood, or ate dead animals, but today we know these things are very unhealthy for us. But, in the beginning of the Bible we find God telling the Israelites these very principles.
XVI. Both Man and Woman Possess Seed (Gen 3:15, 22:18).
A. Before the invention of telescopes and microscopic equipment, doctors and scientists used to think that only men possessed a “seed”, which we know of today as sperm. In fact, in the early centuries of the Greek and Roman empire, philosophers and scientists held a very degrading view of women in reproduction. Concerning this Wayne Jackson has noted, “Ancient writers believed that only the male possessed the seed of life, and that the female was nothing more than a glorified incubator! One writer (Democritus, an ancient Greek) even suggested that male semen could be deposited in warm mud, and the result would be essentially the same as depositing it in the human female!” (Thompson & Jackson, pg. 131).
XVII. The 1st Law of Thermal Dynamics (Gen 2:1).
A. Concerning this passage Bert Thompson says, “This is a most interesting statement, because Moses chose the Hebrew past definite tense for the verb “finished”, indicating an action completed in the past, without continuing action into the future. Moses stated that the creation was “finished”—once and for all…This Law…states that neither matter nor energy can be created or destroyed” (Thompson, pg. 131).
XVIII. The 2nd Law of Thermal Dynamics (Isa 51:16; Ps. 102:26; Heb 1:11).
A. This law, often called the law of Increasing Entropy, states that everything is running down or wearing out. Energy is becoming less and less available for use. Entropy (a measure of randomness, disorderliness, or unstructuredness) is increasing. This means that eventually the Universe will “wear out” (theoretically speaking)” (Thompson, pg. 132).
XIX. The Springs in the Oceans (Job 38:18).
XX. Light Travels in a Way (Job 38:19).
A. Concerning light and darkness, the Lord asked Job: "Where is the way to the dwelling of light? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof?" (Job 38:19). Light is said to dwell in a "way" [Hebrew, derek - literally a "traveled path or road" (cf. Genesis 16:7)]. Darkness, however, is said to be a "place" [Hebrew, maqom - literally a "place, a spot, as standing" (cf. Genesis 1:9, 28:11)]. Dr. Morton points out: "Until the seventeenth century, it was believed that light was transmitted instantaneously. Then Sir Isaac Newton suggested that light was composed of small particles which travel in a straight line. Christian Huygens proposed the wave theory of light. Olaus Roemer measured the velocity of light as evidenced by its delay as it traveled through space" (op. cit., p 31). Scientists now know that light is a form of energy called radiant energy, and that it travels in electromagnetic waves at the speed of approximately 186,000 miles per second (660 million m.p.h.) in a straight line. For example, it takes about 8 minutes for light to travel its "path" from the Sun to the Earth. Indeed, there is a "way" of light. How did the Bible writers know that? Another lucky guess? (Thompson, pg. 133).
XXI. The Value of Dust (Isa. 40:12).
A. “Dr. Wallace in his book uses seven pages to tell of the value of dust…Dr. Wallace shows tha if this dust did not exists we would have less rainfall, abnormally heavy dews and a greater prevalence of frogs. He says vegetation would be greatly reduced, our blue skies would be gone and our gorgeous sunsets and sunrises would be no more” (Dehoff, pg. 57). It should be noted that the kind of dust he is talking about is an upper atmospheric dust (Prov. 8:26).
Dehoff, George. “Why We Believe the Bible”, (Dehoff Publications, Murfreesboro, TN) 1956.
Miller, Dave. “Piloting the Strait”, (Sain Publications, Pulaski, TN) 1996.
Morris, Henry. “Science and the Bible”, (Moody Press, Chicago IL.) 1986.
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