CAN I TRUST THE BIBLE? The Logical Rationale, Part 6

I cannot prove to you that the Bible is true if you do not want to believe.  There are still people who do not believe that man walked on the moon.  If you are willing to examine the evidence with an open mind, you will find plenty to lead you to believe that it is reasonable to trust the Bible.  Here are some more scientific statements in Scripture.

The Bible speaks of hydrology.

For He draws up drops of water,
Which distill as rain from the mist,
Which the clouds drop down
And pour abundantly on man.  (Job 36:27-28)

All the rivers run into the sea,

Yet the sea is not full;
To the place from which the rivers come,
There they return again.  (Eccl.1:7) 

Science calls this the hydrologic cycle and it is described in what is likely the oldest book in the Bible.

Related to this, Scripture touches on meteorology.

The wind goes toward the south,
And turns around to the north;
The wind whirls about continually,
And comes again on its circuit.  (Eccl.1:6)

To establish a weight for the wind,
And apportion the waters by measure. (Job 28:25a)

The fact that air has weight was proven scientifically only about three centuries ago.  We call this barometric pressure.  The movement and pressure of the air around us affects weather patterns.  The God who established these patterns knew what is a recent scientific discovery.

Furthermore, the Bible deals with paleontology.  Everyone wants to know, “What about dinosaurs?”  There were dinosaurs and some walked among men.  Two species are described in Job 40:15-41:34. It is interesting that in ancient cultures around the world there were legends of dragons and sea monsters.  Some might even insist there is still one hanging around Loch Ness.  These legends I am convinced are based in reality.  Job knew of such beasts.

Scripture also speaks to physics.  One such place is 2 Peter 3:10, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.”  In World War 2, the race was on to discover the ultimate weapon—to find a way to split the atom and release great fire and fury.  We did that and the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened less than a century ago.  Man has harnessed that energy for productive purposes, as well—and generates electric power by nuclear fission.  One day, God is going to split the atom in judgment, that He might reform the elements into new heavens and a new earth! 

These truths are meant to be more than informational—they are meant to be transformational!  The Word of God that speaks to the physical universe with clarity, can be trusted to speak to the metaphysical with confidence.  Science cannot.  The Bible does.  It tells us about heaven and hell—and that everyone of us will spend eternity in one or the other.  We are told that through faith in Jesus we can be forgiven of our sins.  His death and resurrection in this physical realm have made it possible to have eternal life in the spiritual domain. 

Scripture speaks to the will of God for the believer in this world.  Sadly, I will hear church members sometimes say, “I know the Bible says, but…” which is something we dare not say.  If the Bible says it, that settles it. 

The church must be faithful to the Word.  Is that true of the church you attend?  If not, then you should look for one that believes, preaches, teaches, and seeks to live according to God’s Word.  None will get it right 100% of the time—only heaven affords that kind of environment—but, we sure need to aim at that goal!

CAN I BELIEVE THE BIBLE? The Logical Rationale, Part 5

We continue today to observe the abundant scientific evidence that attests to the accuracy of the Bible.

Consider the field of biology.

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Gen.1:11-12)

So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.  (v.21)

And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (v.25)

Scientists call the process being described here, “biogenesis”—the development of living organisms from other living organisms with the ability of every living thing to reproduce after its kind—according to its genetic code.  By the way, a fish never becomes a frog and a frog a bird and a bird a dinosaur and a dinosaur a possum and a possum a monkey and a monkey a man.  Dogs are dogs and cats are cats.  There are dogfish and catfish but no dog or cat becoming a fish!  That is not just theology.  It is biology!

Here is something the Bible says about how human bodies are made:

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.  (Gen.2:7)

In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread

Till you return to the ground,

For out of it you were taken;

For dust you are,

And to dust you shall return.  (Gen.3:19)

Our bodies are composed of elements like oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, and some others—we are made from dirt—and when we die, decompose back to dirt.  No wonder that some university professors are full of mud!

Furthermore, we have the testimony of geology.

Thus says the Lord:

“If heaven above can be measured,

And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,

I will also cast off all the seed of Israel

For all that they have done, says the Lord. (Jer.31:37)

As we have not reached the end of the universe, we have not been able to drill beyond the upper 25-30% of earth’s crust.  Neither will the end of God’s promises to Israel be reached.

Science taught the earth was flat for millennia, yet God knew it was a sphere as Isaiah wrote.  Poor Chris Columbus—he was going to sail right off the edge of the ocean and never return!  How did that turn out?  The prophet also speaks of the heavens being stretched out and science agrees the universe is expanding.  No scientist in Isaiah’s time was aware of such.  They would have laughed at the suggestion.

It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,

And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,

Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.  (Isa.40:22)

How about a little physics?

According to the laws of thermodynamics, the universe is not only expanding (stretching) but energy is dissipating.

Of old You laid the foundation of the earth,

And the heavens are the work of Your hands.

They will perish, but You will endure;

Yes, they will all grow old like a garment;

Like a cloak You will change them,

And they will be changed. (Ps.102:25-26)

Like the universe, this lesson could keep expanding because there is so much to say, but I don’t want the subject to wear thin!  So, God willing, we will have another Scripture science lesson tomorrow.

CAN I TRUST THE BIBLE? The Logical Rationale, Part 4

Although the Bible is not a science textbook, the science expressed in the text is remarkable. Today, we begin to examine some of the scientific proof of the trustworthiness of Scripture.

The Bible deals with Astronomy.

     He stretches out the north over empty space;

     He hangs the earth on nothing.  (Job 26:7)

When Job wrote those words, the learned believed the world was held up by something.  Ancient Greeks believed the world rested on Atlas’ shoulders.  The Hindus taught that earth is on the back of a giant elephant and the elephant stands on a gigantic turtle who swims in a cosmic ocean.  Yet, Job gives an answer in accordance with scientific fact.  The earth rests on nothing!

You say you have the answer: gravity holds the earth in its orbit.  Well, what exactly is gravity and where does it come from?  We know what it does, but not really what it is!  It is a force, a power.  I can explain it this way: Jesus, “who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power” (Heb.1:3).  The Lord has decreed it so, and so it is!

Jeremiah tells us that the rising and setting of the sun, and the ebb and flow of the tides, are fixed by the Creator—sunrise and sunset according to the tilt and rotation of the earth, and high and low tide according to the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and Sun and earth’s rotation.

     Thus says the Lord,

     Who gives the sun for a light by day,

     The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,

     Who disturbs the sea,

      And its waves roar

     (The Lord of hosts is His name):

     “If those ordinances depart

     From before Me, says the Lord,

     Then the seed of Israel shall also cease

     From being a nation before Me forever.” (Jer.31:35-36)

God assures Israel of the faithfulness of His covenant promises with them by illustrating with the faithfulness of His covenant with creation.  Thus, we can calculate the precise time the sun peeks over the horizon in the morning and when it slips beneath it at night.  Should you go to the beach this summer on vacation, you can look up in advance when high tide and low tide are reached.  The prophet knew this scientific fact, ordained by God.

Jeremiah also points to the innumerable stars and sands to illustrate God’s intended blessing on David’s descendants.  "As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me." (33:26)

Have you tried to count them?  At first, men could only see them with the naked eye and it was an impressive number, then telescopes came along and we discovered more stars, now with space telescopes we see even more.  God knew they were there all along. He even has a name for each one (just as He knows the location of every grain of sand, and their total number)!

Here is what modern science says,

"In a typical galaxy, if you measure its mass by looking at the rotation curve, about 90 percent of that is dark matter," David Kornreich, an assistant professor at Ithaca College in New York, previously told Space.com.

Multiplying the number of galaxies — which is about 2 trillion — by the 100 million stars in the galaxy suggests there could be about 10 raised to the19th power stars in the universe, Conselice says.

"But this could easily be a factor of 10 higher," Conselice said.

(https://www.livescience.com/56634-how-many-stars-are-in-the-universe.html)

In other words—with all our technology and computing power—we don’t know!

We have discovered there is a great difference in the size and light from the stars—that they differ one from another.  The Apostle Paul wrote about that in the first century, “There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.” (1 Cor.15:41).

In further lessons, we will see what the Bible says about biology, geology, hydrology, meteorology, paleontology, and physics.  What an amazing Book—the Bible!