So often we hear someone make the foolish statement that "Modern science has disproved the Bible --- or some part of it." Nothing can be further from the truth. There is no conflict between a correct transla�tion of the Bible and that which is true science. Remember that many theories have been put forth as "science"---and have been believed by many ---only to be proven false by more careful study, a few years later. I will admit that there is great conflict between what many ministers preach and what we know to be true science: but there is an even greater conflict between what these preachers say and what is really in the Bible.

The Bible has its own purpose, and it sticks to that purpose. (It does not purport to be a manual of instructions for the use and repair of an IBM computer, nor a textbook from which to teach schoolboys their mathematics. Its purpose is so much greater than any of these, that it has no time to waste on them.) Aside from the various laws governing Agriculture, diet, economics, etc.---about which I will speak some other time --- the Bible's principle purpose in going into scientific matters is to prove the divine inspiration of the Book by stating scientific matters which were not known by the best scientists of the day in which it was written, and which therefore could not be a display of merely human wisdom and knowledge. Let us look at some examples of science in the Bible.

We all know that, even when Columbus made his voyage to the western hemisphere in the year 1492 A.D., it was not generally known that the earth was round. He faced the threat of mutiny from his crew, out of fear that he would sail too close to the edge of the flat earth and the ship would be swept over the edge to fall down into --- no man knew what. In fact, all who believed that the earth was round --- and they were very few in number---were regarded as heretics. Today, we know that the earth is almost exactly spherical in shape, and when seen from any direction its outline is a circle. But God declared that fact to the prophet Isaiah in the year 712 B.C. It is found in Isaiah 40:21-22, "Have ye not known? Have ye  not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth.

Until the days of Galileo and Newton, when modern gravitational science was born, it was not known that the earth could float free in space. People saw that everything fell down, until it came to rest upon the earth itself; and if you picked up a rock or a handful of soil and dropped it, that, too, would fall down. Obviously, therefore, the entire earth itself must have the same tendency to fall down unless it was rest�ing upon something strong enough to support the earth---that is how their wisest men reasoned and believed. They couldn't agree as to what it was that supported the earth. The Hindus, who have always prided themselves in being such a wise and spiritual race, were firmly convinced that the earth rested upon the backs of four elephants, and the elephants stood upon the back of a giant turtle. Neither their spirituality nor their wisdom were great enough to discover what it was that supported the turtle. Even the highly cultured and intelligent Greeks believed that the earth rested upon the shoulders of the giant Atlas; and they, likewise, could not find out what it was that Atlas stood upon. But in the Book of Job, chapter 26, verse 8, we are told that "He * * hangeth the earth upon nothing." That is, the earth being supported by nothing, floated free in space. When we consider Uat the "Job" of this book is very probably the "Jobab "Father Job"---of Genesis 10:29, which would put the date of this scient�ific truth that the earth floated free in space at least 2,000 B.C., we may be certain that it was not the current knowledge of the wise men, but a revelation from God.

And consider also the other remarkable statement in this same verse, Job 26:8, "He stretcheth out the north over the empty place." Only a very small fraction of the stars can be seen by the naked eye. Even the smaller telescopes revealed vast multitudes of stars which had never been seen by man before that time. The problem is not one of magnifica�tion, for smaller telescopes can be made to magnify as many times as the larger types: it is rather that a small telescope can't take in enough light to make use of high magnification. That is why the astronomers have been making larger and larger telescopes, instruments which will gath�er in so much light that we can see stars so far away that their light is too dim to be seen or photographed with any smaller telescope. Great tel�escopes have revealed multitudes of dim, far-distant stars in parts of the sky where the unaided eye finds only darkness. But even our most powerful and largest telescopes can find nothing, just a blank, completely empty place in the sky, in one spot in the north. Since no such telescopes existed in ancient times, it was divine revelation which told that God had 11stretched the north over the empty place.

Today, we all know that the earth rotates on its axis, the North and South Poles being the ends of this axis. But this knowledge is recent. In 1543, the astronomer Copernicus disputed the common belief that the earth was the stationary center of the universe, with the sun, stars and planets revolving around the earth. This view was condemned by the Catholic church as heresy. When Galileo, by his own studies and experiments, reached the same conclusions, he was tried for his life before the Inquisition in Rome, and only escaped death by making a public recantation of this view. Never�theless, these men, in the 1500 s and 1600's A.D., laid the foundation for modern astronomy, with the knowledge that the sun is the center of our sol�ar system, that the earth revolves around the sun, and the apparent rise of the sun and stars in the east, and their setting in the west, is really due to the rotation of the earth on its own axis. But God took notice of this fact in the Book of Job, about 2,000 B.C. In Job 38:12-14, He asks, "Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days: and caused the dayspring to know his place; that it might take hold of the ends of the earth? it turns itself, as clay of a seal." In other words, Have you held onto the ends of the earth's axis, while it turned itself? This was over 3,500 years before "science" discovered the fact of the earth's rotation on its axis. For countless thousands of years, men have noticed the contrast between the salt water of the ocean and the fresh water which falls as rain. Butit took more knowledge than they had, to realize that this salt water of the ocean was the source of the fresh rainwater. Men had watched clouds in the sky since men existed; but they knew little of the nature of clouds. The ancients believed that the thunder was the noise of c1cuds colliding in the sky, which shows that they didn't know that clouds were only water va�por. But again in the Book of Job, chapter 36:27-28, we find scientific truth revealed: "For He maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the VAPOR thereof: which the clouds do drop and DISTILL upon man abundantly." Not a man then alive knew that rain was distilled water from the ocean, which had lost its salt by the process of distilla�tion. but God revealed it in advance of science.

More of this is revealed in the Book of Ecclesiastes. This book is generally credited to Solomon; and if so, it was written about 977 B. C. In Chapter 1, verses 6-7, it says: "The wind goeth toward the south and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea: yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come thitber they return again. Today we know that this is true: we know that the winds "whirl about continually', rotating in huge circles in a clockwise direction in the southern hemisphere, and counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere. But even as a theory, a mere conjecture, this idea is of re�cent origin; and proof of its accuracy is very modern. Yet 28 centuries ago, the Bible told us (1) that the winds rotate in great circles, and (2) that the water of the rivers, although fresh water, actually originated in the salt water of the oceans. When these facts were announced by Galileo in the first half of the 1600ts, they were not believed, and were denounced as dangerous heresies.

So if you have been under the impression that the Bible could not stand examination by science, or that God needed to take some science classes under Left-Wing "liberal" professors in our modern universities, go back and read the Bible again. You will find that it is very scient�ific.

But let's look up some more of these scientific facts in the Bible. We may take notice that the fact that light moves is a relatively recent discovery. Its rate of speed was proved only when the time of men now living. But in Job 38:19, "Where is the WAY where light dwelleth?" Note that: not "the PLACE"---which would Imply that light is stationary--�but "the WAY", the path of moving light.

That lightning moves is no new idea, of course. But only with�in the last 30 years have we had such high-speed movie cameras that we could discover a new fact about lightning: that the bolt of lightning does not start out all by itself. Before the lightning-bolt can strike, there is first a small pilot discharge which seems to serve no purpose but to prepare the air for the real lightning-bolt to follow, by ionizing the air so it becomes a conductor of electricity. That is, there must first be something to prepare a way for the lightning, to open a path for it. This, remember, was only discovered within your own lifetime. But in Job 38:25 God asks, "Who hath divided a way * * for the lightning of thun�der?" Don't let anyone tell you that this Book is only a collection of primitive superstitions

At first impression, nothing would seem sillier than the idea that the air has weight. Of course, everybody is supposed to know that fact today. But it was first discovered by Galileo in the year 1630 A.D. Yet in Job 28:2.5 it speaks of "the weight for the winds.

A century ago, man discovered that electricity could be used to deliver messages at a distance --- the telegraph. But God knew all about that ahead of time, for he asked Job, in Job 38:35, "Canst thou send lightings, that they may go and say unto thee here we are!?  The Hebrew language had no word for electricity except "lightning", so that is what Job wrote down; but electricity and lightning are the same thing, the difference being in the amount of power involved.

But let's not just stay on earth, nor even in the Solar System: let's examine our entire Galaxy, the multitude of stars which form the Milky Way. There are at least thirty billion stars in this one galaxy, which is shaped like a bi-convex lens. Our own Sun is one of the minor stars in this system, and its position is about 2/3 of the way out toward one edge of the Galaxy. We are some 30,000 light years away from the center of the Galaxy. Since one light-year is about 5,870,000,000,000 miles, our distance from the center of the Galaxy, being 30,000 times this much, is far more than one sextillion miles---in numerals it is 1,761 followed by 15 zeros. The entire Galaxy, this vast lens-shaped mass of stars, rotates around its collective center of gravity, the whole Galaxy making one rotation in about 200 million years. The center of gravity of the Galaxy Is marked by the star Alcyone, which is the brightest star in the constellation Pleiades. Now, considering that this is nearly two sex�tillion miles away from us, it was not easy to get acquainted with it, and our knowledge on the subject came within the lifetime of men still alive. Yet, in Job 38:31, God asks Job, "Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades?" Yes, it is a "sweet influence", for it keeps us on our course, instead of wandering aimlessly through space until we would collide with some mighty solar system. It is also worth noting that the Hebrew word for "Pleiades"--- kee-maw"---also means "Pivot" or hinge". I guess that we will have to admit that God is pretty much up-to-date, after all.

But if anyone is thinking that all this is old-fashioned science of nature itself, and doesn't include man's latest inventions, such as the Hydrogen Bomb, let me tell you that God also knew about that. All scient�ists agree that all stars, including our sun, generate their heat by the same process used in the hydrogen bomb --- that is, 4 atoms of hydrogen combine to form one atom of helium, releasing the surplus energy as the most fantastically high heat. The Hydrogen Bomb is therefore an artificial and miniature star, characterized above all else by its extreme heat. You think that this is modern? Then listen to II Esdras 15, telling of our defense when attacked by the hordes of Asiatic Chinese and Russians: "The great and mighty clouds shall be lifted up, full of wrath, and the star, that they may make all the earth afraid, and them that dwell therein; and they shall pour out over every great and eminent.

And they shall break down the cities and walls, mountains and hills, trees of the wood and grass of the meadows, and their corn. * * They shall come to her and besiege her; the star and all wrath shall they pour out upon her; then shall the dust smoke go up unto heaven, and they that be about her shall bewail her. * * And thou, Asia, that art partaker of the hope of Babylon, and art the glory of her person: woe be unto thee, thou wretch, because thou hast made thy self like unto her; * * Thou hast followed her that is hated in all her works and inventions: therefore thus saith God, 'I will send plagues upon thee: widowhood, poverty, famine, sword and pestilence, to waste thy houses with destruction and death. And the glory of thy power shall be dried up as a flower when the heat shall arise that is sent over thee"'. Note that this says that someone is if going to Asia, and will pour out over every great and eminent place there an horrible star." Now the only star that anybody can carry to Asia and pour out over her important places is the artificial, miniature star of the Hydrogen Bomb. It further adds that the power of Asia shall be dried up by the heat that is sent over it--again a clear reference to the Hydrogen Bomb, for its heat is even more destructive than its blast effect. Again, it mentions that the clouds of dust, as well as smoke, shall go up unto heaven. No bombs of ordinary explosives have ever produced an effect that could be thus described, even by the most poetic fancy. But you remember that a characteristic of even the Atom Bomb --- and in far greater measure in the Hydrogen Bomb --- is the fact that the awful up-draft from the fireball sweeps up a huge cloud of radio-active dust from the ground, as well as smoke from the fires started by the bomb, and this mushroom cloud of both dust and smoke has been measured as rising more than 25 miles into the sky.

We have another reference to this in Isaiah 25:2-5, which pro�mises that to us, God will be "a shadow from th-e-F-eat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall." But this same passage says that, to our enemies, God will "bring down the noise of strangers as the heat in a dry place, the heat with the shadow of a cloud." The only kind of cloud shadow which could bring heat is the awful shadow of the mushroom cloud of an Atom Bomb or Hydrogen Bomb.

Again, Mark 13:25 and Luke 21:26 hold another 11 hidden key: they say that THE POWERS THAT ARE IN HEAVEN SHALL be shaken. Now the word translated "heaven" is the Greek word OURANOS, from which we derive the word URANIUM---the explosive of the Atom Bomb; and the word translated "shaken" also means "agitated, stirred up." There Is here a strong hint that THE POWERS THAT ARE IN URANIUM ARE TO BE AGITATED.

As I said at the start, God didn't try to write a mechanic's handbook for the operation and repair of present-day machinery, nor even a school textbook for teaching science: He had in mind other purposes far too important to allow waste of time on minor matters. But He knew that men are skeptical, that they must be convinced; so He included in the Bible enough science to convince anyone with intelligence and an open mind ---especially because most of this science was not understood by any tian until practically our own times, thousands of years after it was written in Bible. Never let anyone tell you that the Bible is old-fashioned, out-of�date, a book of ignorant superstitions. If you will only study it care�fully, you will see that it proves itself to be the inspired word of God, true in all of His statements.