The Bible is Scientific
So often we hear someone make the foolish statement that, modern science has disproved the Bible, or some parts of it. Nothing can be farther from the truth, there is no conflict between a correct translation of the Bible and that which is true science.
Remember that many theories have been put forth as science. These theories have been believed by many, only to be proven false after a 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. 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 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 teach at some other time, the Bible�s principle purpose in going into scientific matters, is to prove the divine inspiration of the Bible.
It proves its divine nature by stating scientific matters, which were not known by the best scientists of the day in which it was written. Consequently, it could not be a display of merely human wisdom and knowledge. Let�s 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 the world was round. Columbus faced the threat of mutiny from his crew, out of fear that he would sail too close to the edge of the flat earth. They feared 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 the earth is almost exactly spherical in shape, and when seen from any direction its outline is a circle. Yahweh declared this 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 foundation of the earth? It is
He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth.�
Until the days of Galileo and Newton, when 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.
If you picked up a rock or a handful of soil and dropped it that too would fall down. Obviously then, the entire earth must have the same tendency to fall down, unless it was resting upon something strong enough to support it. This is how their wisest men reasoned and believed. They couldn�t agree as to what it was the supported the earth.
The Hindus, who have always prided themselves for being such a wise and spiritual race, were firmly convinced that the earth rested on the backs of four elephants, and the elephants stood on 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 the earth rested on the shoulders of the giant called Atlas.
They likewise could not find out what it was that Atlas stood on. In Job 26:7 we are told, He hangeth the earth upon nothing. The earth being supported by nothing, floated free in space. Consider that the Job of this book is very probably Jobab, father Job of Genesis 10:29. This would put the date of this scientific truth that the earth floated in space, at least 2000 B.C. We may be certain that it was not the current knowledge of the wise men, but a revelation from Yahweh.
Also consider the other remarkable statement in this same verse in Job 26:7.
�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 reveal vast multitudes of stars, which had never been seen by man before that time.
The problem is not one of magnification, for smaller telescopes can be made to magnify as much as the larger types. The problem is that a small telescope can�t take in enough light to make use of the high magnification.
This is why the astronomers have been making larger and larger telescopes. This is so the instruments will gather in so much light, we can see stars so far away that their light is too dim, to be seen or photographed with a smaller telescope.
Great telescopes have revealed multitudes of dim, far distant stars, in parts of the sky where the unaided eye only finds darkness. 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 Yahweh had stretched 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, this knowledge is comparatively new. In 1543 A.D., 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. Galileo only escaped death by making a public recantation of this idea. Nevertheless, these men in the 1500 and 1600s A.D., laid the foundation for modern astronomy, with the knowledge that the sun is the center of our solar system and the earth revolves around the sun. 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.
Yahweh took notice of this fact in the book of Job, about 2000 B.C. Job 38:12‑14 records Yahweh saying,
�Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days: and caused the dayspring to know his place;
that it might hold 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. It took more knowledge than they had, to realize that this salt water of the ocean was the source of the fresh rainwater. Men have 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 clouds colliding in the sky, which shows they didn�t know that clouds were only water vapor.
In Job 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 ALIVE AT THIS TIME KNEW THAT THIS WAS DISTILLED WATER FROM THE OCEAN, WHICH HAD LOST ITS SALT BY THE PROCESS OF DISTILLATION. Yahweh revealed it in advance of science.
More of this is revealed in the book of Ecclesiastes. This book is generally credited to Solomon. If Solomon did write this book, it was written about 977 B.C.
Ecclesiastes 1:6‑7 reads,
�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 thither they return again.�
Today we know this is true. We know the winds whirl about continually, rotating in huge circles in a clockwise direction in the southern hemisphere, and counter clockwise in the northern hemisphere. Even as a theory, a mere conjecture, this idea is of recent origin and proof of its accuracy is very recent.
Yet 2,800 years ago the Bible told us, the winds rotate in great circles, and the waters of the rivers, although fresh water actually originated in the salt water of the ocean. When these facts were announced by Galileo in the first half of the 1600s, they were not believed, and were denounced as dangerous heresies.
If you have been under the impression the Bible could not stand examination by science, or that Yahweh 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 the Bible is very scientific.
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 proven only within the time of men living now.
Job 38:19 says,
�Where is the way where light dwelleth?�
Note that it doesn�t say the place, which would imply that light is stationary, but the way, the path of moving light.
That lightning moves is no new idea. Only within the last few decades have we had such high speed movie cameras that we could discover a new fact about lightning, 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. IT IONIZES THE AIR SO THE AIR BECOMES A CONDUCTOR OF ELECTRICITY, THERE MUST FIRST BE SOMETHING TO PREPARE A WAY FOR THE LIGHTNING, TO OPEN A PATH FOR IT. Remember, this was only discovered within your own lifetime.
In Job 38:25 Yahweh asks,
�WHO HATH DIVIDED A WAY FOR THE LIGHTNING OF THUNDER?�
Don�t let anybody tell you that the Bible is only a� collection of primitive superstitions!
At first impression, nothing would seem sillier than the idea that air has weight; of course everybody is supposed to know that fact today. However, it was first discovered by Galileo in the year 1630 A.D., yet Job 28:25 speaks of the weight for the winds.
A century ago man discovered that electricity could be used to deliver messages at a distance, so the telegraph was invented.
However, Yahweh knew all about that ahead of time for He asked in Job 38:35,
�Canst thou send lightning�s, 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. Electricity and lightning are the same thing, the difference being in the amount of power involved.
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 biconvex lens. Our own sun is one of the minor stars in this system, and its position is about 2/3rds 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 farther, is 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. Considering that this is nearly two sextillion miles away from us, it wasn�t easy to get acquainted with it. Our knowledge on the subject came within the lifetime of men still alive. It is amazing, but in Job 38:31 Yahweh asks Job,
�CANST THOU BIND THE SWEET INFLUENCE OF PLEIADES?�
Yes, it is a sweet influence, for it keeps us on our course so we don�t wander aimlessly through space until we collide with some mighty solar system. It is also worth noting that the Hebrew word for Pleiades is kee‑maw, which also means pivot or hinge. I guess we will have to admit that Yahweh is pretty much up to date after all.
If anyone is thinking 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 Yahweh also knew about that. All scientists agree that all stars, including our sun, generate their heat by the same process used in the hydrogen bomb. The process is that 4 atoms of hydrogen combine to form one atom of helium, releasing the surplus energy at the most fantastically high heat.
Therefore the hydrogen bomb is an artificial miniature star, characterized above all else by its extreme heat. Do you think this is modern? Listen to 2 Esdras chapter 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 place an horrible star.�
And 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 and smoke go up into 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 thyself like unto her;
�Thou hast followed her� that is hated in all her works and inventions: therefore thus saith Yahweh, 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 this says someone is going to Asia, and will pour out over every great and eminent place there an horrible star. The only star 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. This is a clear reference to the hydrogen bomb, for its heat is even more destructive than its blast effect.
It also mentions the clouds of dust, as well as smoke, shall go up into heaven. No bombs of ordinary explosives have ever produced an effect that could be described like this, even by the most poetic fancy. You must remember a characteristic of even the atom bomb, and in far greater measure the hydrogen bomb, is that the awful up draft from the fireball sweeps up a huge cloud of radioactive dust from the ground. This cloud also includes smoke from the fires started by the bomb. 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 tells us Yahweh will be
�a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.�
This same passage says that, to our enemies, Yahweh 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 or hydrogen bomb.
Mark 13:25 and Luke 21:26 hold another hidden key, these verses say that the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. The word translated heaven is the Greek word ouranos, from which we derive the word uranium, the explosive in the atom bomb. The word translated shaken, also means agitated or stirred up. Here is a strong hint that the powers that are in uranium are to be agitated, which has occurred only in recent decades.
�And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.� (Mark 13:25)
�Men�s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.� (Luke 21:26)
As I said at the start, Yahweh 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. Yahweh had in mind other purposes far too important to allow a waste of time on minor matters.
Yahweh knew that men are skeptical, that they must be convinced. He included in the Bible enough science to convince anyone with intelligence and an open mind, that nothing is unknown to him. Most of this science wasn�t understood by any man until almost our own times, thousands of years after it was written in the Bible.
Never let anybody tell you that the Bible is old fashioned, out of date, and a book of superstitions. If -you study it carefully, you will see that it proves itself to be the inspired word of Yahweh, true in all of His statements. (Taken, in part, from an article entitled �The Bible is Scientific,� By Bertrand L. Comparet)