From genesispark ... The Bible is scientifically accurate. One must always be cautious against using circular reasoning such that scientific theories are enlightened by the scripture and then those theories are used to show that the scriptures are reliable. But quite aside from the evidence for controversial theories like special creation, or the co-existence of men and dinosaurs, there are a number of rather startling statements in the Bible which appear to be far more advanced than the scientific knowledge at the time of writing. Moreover, there has never been an irreconcilable discrepancy between scientific facts or laws and the scriptures. • Jeremiah 33:22 claims that the stars of the heaven are innumerable. Hippocrates, before the invention of the telescope, charted and numbered 1,022 stars. Kepler later recounted and revised the number. Today scientists agree with Jeremiah. There are billions just in our galaxy! It is interesting that the Bible makes the number of stars roughly equivalent to the number of grains of sand on the seashore (Genesis 22:17; Hebrews 11:12). Carl Sagan also compared these two, leaning towards the number of stars being greater. Amazingly, the latest estimates of the gross number of sand grains are comparable to the modern estimated number of stars in the universe! • Judges 5:20 mentions “the stars in their courses.” While it was once believed that the stars were fixed, today we know that they too move in a predictable way. • Job 38:19 is accurate in the way it characterizes light. Note that darkness is in a place but light is in a way. It travels a path. • Job 38:24 indicates the light of the sun (by heating) makes the wind. • In Genesis 1:1 and Hebrews 1:10-12 the Bible is unequivocal that the universe had a beginning. When the Bible was written many people believed the universe was eternal. Starting with the studies of Albert Einstein in the early 1900’s and continuing still today, science has confirmed the biblical view that the universe had a beginning. • Moreover, the universe is expanding (Job 9:8; Isaiah 42:5; Jeremiah 51:15; Zechariah 12:1). Repeatedly God declares that He stretches out the heavens. During the early 20th century, most scientists (including Einstein) believed the universe was static. Others believed it oscillated and would eventually collapse due to gravity. Then in 1929, astronomer Edwin Hubble showed that distant galaxies were receding from the earth. This discovery revolutionized the field of astronomy. Einstein admitted his mistake, and today most astronomers agree with what the Creator told us millennia ago -- the universe is expanding! • Job 36:27 asks how the rain drops stay small (discrete even in a strong wind)? One of the reasons is found in Psalm 135:5-7. Because of the electrical charges in the clouds, the rain drops repel each other as they fall. This is why electrical static during a rain or snow storm can interrupt transmissions. • Ezekiel 5:5, 38:12 claims that Jerusalem is the center of the earth. ICR once commissioned a computer analysis of the earth’s land-masses, and discovered that the geographic center is in Palestine, near the holy city. • Psalm 103:12 - The Psalmist seeks to describe how far away God has removed the sins of those who have been forgiven. Interestingly, one can go west or east forever, unlike north and south. • Hebrews 1:11-12 describes the wearing down of the creation in language that nicely mirrors the second law of thermodynamics, and II Peter 3:12 describes the heavens one day passing away in a fire that causes the elements to melt in fervent heat (a pretty accurate description of nuclear meltdown). • Ecclesiastes 1:4-7 describes the whirling motion of the winds and the movement of storm fronts long before the advent of modern meteorology. • Job 37:16 also gives significant meteorological information, including the balancing of the vapors in the clouds. Job 36:27 adds that the quantity of the rain is proportional to the amount of vapor aloft. • Job 26:7 - The ancient Greeks believed that the world was held up by Atlas. Other civilizations held similar ideas. The Bible made an unusual claim: God did not hang the world on anything. The scriptures tell us it hangs on nothing. • Psalm 8:8 discusses the “paths of the seas.” The story is told that when the man we call “The Father of Oceanography,” Matthew Fontain Maury, read Psalm 8, the aforementioned phrase stuck in his mind. He later sought to confirm the idea and eventually wrote The Physical Geography of the Sea in 1855. It was the first textbook on modern oceanography. The state of Virginia erected a memorial to him that cites this passage. • Isaiah 40:22 - Some have claimed that the Bible supports the “flat earth theory.” But this passage declares that God sits upon the “circle of the earth.” (See also the mention in Proverbs 8:27 of a compass or a circle about the original earth.) • Job 38:13-14 conveys the idea of the earth rotating on its axis: “the earth…is turned as clay to the seal.” • In Luke 17:34-36 the worldwide event of Christ’s return is being discussed. The scientifically significant fact is that these verses allude to the different time zones around the globe long before the earth’s rotation was understood by scientists. Note that when Christ comes, some will be enjoying nighttime sleep, while others are grinding in preparation for the day’s baking (typically morning), and others are working in the field (typically afternoon). • One of the directors of Standard Oil Company read in Exodus 2:3 how Moses was placed in an ark “daubed with slime and pitch.” He sent the company geologist Charles Whitshott to Egypt to determine if there was still oil in that region. The discovery of oil led to Standard having very successful well operations in Egypt. (Tan, Paul L., Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, p. 191.) • The practice of medical bleeding as a treatment (often with leeches) was common until the middle of the 19th century. Historians believe that George Washington’s bleeding caused his death (Thayer, William R., George Washington, 1922, p. 240). Ironically, by his bedside was a Bible that stated in Leviticus 17:11: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” • Linguists have determined that all the earth’s peoples must have originally shared a common language. That is precisely what the Bible declares in Genesis 11:1. • The concepts embodied in the laws of thermodynamics -- the constant of the universe’s mass/energy and the universal tendency towards decay and disorder -- are clearly articulated in Ecclesiastes 3:14 and Romans 8:21-22. • Jonah wrote that there are mountains on the bottom of the ocean floor (Jonah 2:5-6). Only in the last century have we discovered that there are towering mountains and deep troughs in the sea. • In Job 38:16 God challenged Job to find the “springs of the sea.” But the ocean is so deep that almost all the ocean floor is in total darkness, and the water pressure becomes enormous. It would have been impossible for Job to have explored the “springs of the sea.” Until recently, it was thought that oceans were fed only by rivers and rain. Yet in the 1970s, with the help of deep diving research submarines that were constructed to withstand the pressure, oceanographers discovered springs on the ocean floors! • Much of the Old Testament Levitical law is comprised of health-related restrictions involving diet, cleansing, and quarantine that were not generally known until fairly recently. The book “None of These Diseases” (by S.I. McMillen, M.D., 1963) and Keller’s work demonstrate the healthfulness of following that advice. Human medicine did not realize this until thousands of years after it was written! For example, the Bible cautions against consuming fat (Leviticus 7:23). Only in recent decades has the medical community determined that fat clogs arteries and contributes to heart disease. In Leviticus 11 the Scripture commanded Jews to avoid sea creatures which do not have fins or scales. We now know that bottom-feeders (those with no scales or fins) tend to consume waste and are more likely to carry disease. Then the Bible warns against eating birds of prey. Scientists now recognize that those birds which eat carrion (putrefying flesh) often spread disease. The Bible prohibited the Israelites from eating swine (Deuteronomy 14:8). Not so long ago, science learned that eating undercooked pork causes an infection of parasites called trichinosis. When dealing with diseases, the instruction was that clothes and body should be washed under running water (Leviticus 15:13). For centuries people naively washed in standing water. Today we recognize the need to wash away germs with fresh water. • The Bible declares that life begins at conception (Jeremiah 1:5), and God declares that He knew each of us before we were born (Psalm 139:13-15). In Exodus 21:22-23, the biblical penalty for killing an unborn child was death. Today, it is an irrefutable biological fact that the fertilized egg is truly an entire human being with all the DNA it will ever possess. Nothing will be added to the first cell except nutrition and oxygen. • The Bible commanded circumcision of baby Jewish boys on the eighth day (see Genesis 17:12; Leviticus 12:3; Luke 1:59). Medical science has discovered that the blood clotting chemical prothrombin peaks in a newborn on the eighth day. This is therefore the safest day to circumcise a baby. How could Moses have known this? • Wise pest-control procedures are given in Leviticus 25:1-24. Modern farmers are still plagued by multiplying insects. Yet God gave a sure-fire remedy to control these pests centuries ago. Moses commanded Israel to set aside one year in seven when no crops were raised. Insects winter in the stalks of last year’s harvest, hatch in the spring, and are perpetuated by laying eggs in the new crop. If the crop is denied one year in seven, the pests are controlled. And this promoted soil conservation. • When Noah was instructed to build the huge barge that would preserve his family and two of each kind of land creature, the Lord specified for him the perfect dimensions for a stable water vessel (Genesis 6:15). Ship builders today are well aware that the ideal dimension for ship stability is to have the length about six times that of the width. Dr. Werner Gitt demonstrated that the ark had the ideal dimensions to optimize both stability and economy of material. Yet God gave Noah these ideal dimensions over 4,500 years ago. • We note in Acts 7:22 that “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians…” Yet the errant “scientific” practices of ancient Egypt are absent in the first five books of the Bible, written by Moses approximately 1491-1451 B.C. The Torah is famous for its advanced knowledge about diet, hygiene, quarantine, and sanitation. It far surpasses that possessed by the Egyptians and other ancient societies of that day (even including the Romans and Minoans). In fact, it far exceeded medical standards practiced as recently as the early 1900’s in modern society. Other verses could be cited. Just recently articles have been published claiming that the human rib is the only bone that has been shown to grow back. Is it merely a coincidence that this is the bone God took from Adam to form Eve? A strong case has even been made that it is no accident that science has flourished to unprecedented levels in an era of Christian philosophy. Great classical scientists sought to seek God’s thoughts after Him. The Biblical view gives reason to expect orderliness, laws, and repeatability that are the foundation for the entire scientific method.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 01:24:12 +0000
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