Science and the Bible

On Sunday nights we have been looking at the Bible's relevance to science both in the past and today. We have been trying to answer the question, "Does science discredit, or prove, the Bible's accuracy?" We have made some really interesting discoveries which I would like to share with you in this blog and others to come. the bulk of our research has come from the work done by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron in their ministry "Way of the Master". Other research has come from Google searches, magazine articles, and the work of other Christian apologists. In the next several weeks we will be looking at more science as well as evolution specifically. We will spend three weeks looking at the prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ and then we will spend several weeks looking at the similarities and differences of other religions to Christianity.

On Wednesday nights we will spend the next 8-10 weeks talking about how to live out a holy life in today's world. Charyl has a great curriculum to take us through this topic and I think it will be a blessing to you to attend and participate in the discussions.

Hank Hanegraaff says, "Many people believe that faith in Christ is a blind leap into a dark chasm, but in truth it is a faith based upon established evidence." I know that many people are skeptical of the Bible and I have no problem with that, it is a good trait of an intelligent person to consider evidence before deciding whether or not something can be trusted. All I ask is that you really do look at the evidence and not make up your mind before you even take a look. Most people who say they don't believe the Bible, have never read it for themselves, they are simply repeating what someone else has told them. That is not a trait of intelligence. This will in no way be an exhaustive look at everything scientific that can be found in the Bible or is it an attempt to make the bible out to be a science textbook. The Bible is not a science book or a history book, but a theology book that contains both science and history. If a book claims to be inspired by God then even though it is not a book about science, it still makes sense that when it does mention a scientific thought, that thought should not be found to be in error. What is interesting about the Bible is that no scientific discovery to date has ever proven the Bible wrong, and in most cases the Bible is confirmed and we find that it has stated the "truth" long before scientists discovered it.

Let's get to some examples: Science expresses the universe in five terms: time, space, matter, power, and motion. Genesis 1:1,2 revealed such truths to the Hebrews in 1450 B.C.: "In the beginning [time] God created [power] the heaven [space] and the earth [matter] ...And the Spirit of God moved [motion] upon the face of the waters." So the first thing that God tells man is the He controls all the aspects of the universe.

Only in recent years have scientist discovered that everything we see is made up of invisible atoms. Scripture tells us in Hebrews 11:3 that the "things that are seen were not made of things which do appear."

It is also interesting to note that scientists now understand that the universe is expanding or stretching out. nine times in scripture we are told that God stretches out the heavens like a curtain (e.g., Psalm104:2).

At a time when it was believed that the earth sat on a large animal or a giant (1500 B.C.), the Bible spoke of earth's free float in space: "He...hangs the earth upon nothing" (Job 26:7).

At a time when the earth was believed to be flat, the Bible said in Isaiah 40:22 that the earth was a sphere. It said this 2400 years before secular man "discovered" it. In fact it was Christopher Columbus' faith in the Bible that inspired him to sail around the world at a time when everyone believed He would fall off the edge of this "flat" world.

These are just a few to get us started, I will add more later this week. My prayer today goes out to all the families who were hurt by the storms that came through Missouri last night (January 7th). May the Lord bless you and replace all that was lost, amen.