Friday, August 18, 2006

Scientific Facts & Concepts In The Bible

In Science's great days, back when it was about discovering things instead of making political statements the Bible was a catalyst for study. A scientist would read it in the Word, and then go looking for it in the world.

Let's take a look at a few facts and concepts that were revealed hundreds, and often thousands of years before they were "discovered" by "modern man".

To understand the following it's important to note, in many cases, God isn't making "statements of science" in His Word He is telling us information we need to know. The things He says about other things always line up with scientific fact. So when He's talking about a specific time, He mentions it's both day (time for work) and night (time for sleep) and the such.

1. Everything is made of things that we can't see - Heb 11:3 We now know things are made of atoms, and atoms of Electrons, Neutrons, and Positrons. And those are made of still smaller things.. none of which "appear" to our eyes. This is the weakest of the examples in this blog post. I place it here first because it weeds out those who are interested in truth and those who are looking for a reason no to see truth. That's right folks, how you respond to this tells me which group you are in.

2. The universe is expanding. Nine times in scripture God says He "stretches out" the heavens like a curtain. Example Ps 104:2

3. Long before scientists thought the Earth sat on the back of an animal God's Word proclaimed it floated in space. Job 26:7

4. The Earth is a sphere. Scientists "discovered" this 2400 years after God revealed it. Isaiah 40:22 Also, Luke 17:34-36 speaks of an event which happens in an instant but at night and during the day - at the same time. This can only be so if the Earth is round and one part is at night and the other day.

5. The Earth rotates on its axis. Scientists used to believe the Sun moved around the Earth to cause Night and Day. 4,000 years ago God's Word proclaimed this "Have You commanded the morning since your days and caused the day-spring (dawn) to know his place? ... It (the Earth) is turned as clay to the seal." Job 38:12-14 This is God describing how the Earth is rotated on it's axis instead of the Sun moving around it.

6. The Sun travels through space. Speaking of the Sun Ps 19:5-6 says it travels through space in a "circuit." Until recently it was thought the Sun was stationary. It is now known to travel through space in an orbit of sorts at a speed which is currently estimated to be 600,000 miles per hour.

7. First Law of Thermal Dynamics. No matter or energy can be created or destroyed. God's Word proclaims that Creation is "finished" There is no more creation happening today. Gen 2:1 It's the this Law which made the theory of energy and matter "spouts" or "wells" in space impossible.

8. Second Law of Thermal Dynamics. In all physical processes every ordered system over time tends to become more disordered. In three places the Word says the world is wearing out. Isaiah 51:6 Ps 102:25-26, Heb 1:11.

9. Light can be "sent" and manifest it's self in speech. In 1500 BC, long before Radio, fiber-optics, and flashlights Job 38:35 proclaimed light could be sent and speak. In 1864 James Clark was the first to suggest light and electricity are two forms of the same thing.

10. Stars sing. Stars emit radio waves that are received on Earth as high pitches. Job 38:7

11. Hydrological Cycle. Water flows from rivers into the sea, and evaporates and goes up to the clouds, and then comes down in rain... Ecc 1:7 "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." Ecc 11:3 it rains when the clouds are full. Amos 9:6 water evaporates from the seas to be rained down from clouds. Job 28:26 God made rules (a decree) for the rain - which weather men can sometimes figure out today. The Hydrological Cycle was not "discovered" until the 17th century, 2,000 years after the Bible declared it.

12. Global Air Currents. In Ecc 1:6 the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, describes the winds of the Earth, how they travel in a circuit. 2,000 years later men discovered these and used them to travel about the seas.

13. Oceanic Currents. 2,800 years before Matthew Maury in the 1850's was inspired to go looking for them the Bible said their were currents in the seas. Ps 8:8

14. Mountains on the Ocean Floor. Of his time in the ocean Jonah said "I went down to the bottoms of the mountains." Jonah 2:6 It's only since we've been able to dive (by technology) to the depths of the ocean floor have we known there are mountains down there.

15. Women have ova. Until a few centuries ago it was "common knowledge" that women were "glorified incubators" for a man's sperm to bring forth a child. However, just as we now understand and know, God's word declares in Gen 3:15 that women have a "seed" of their own.

16. Life is in the blood. Until 120 years ago people who were sick were bled. Many died from blood loss. 3,000 years ago God said "for the life of the flesh is in the blood" Lev 17:11

17 Blood clotting reaches it's peak on the 8th day of life and then reduces. Scientists now understand that the coagulating factor, Prothrombin is at it's highest on the 8th day after birth. The Bible consistently instructed that a Jewish male child was to be circumcised on the 8th day.

18. Micro-Organisms Exist. In 1845 30% of women died after child birth. Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis was appalled by this death rate and decided to do something about it. He discovered that doctors were not washing their hands after examining patients who had died, and then going on to aid women in giving birth. When doctors started washing their hands the death rate dropped to 2%. Lev 15:13 tells us to wash with running water after an encounter with disease. Running water, not the wash bowels that doctors used to use that held "standing" water which just collected disease.

During the "Black Death" of the 14th century patients who were sick, and those who had died were kept in the same rooms. This was blamed on "bad air" and "evil spirits" but really it was caused by micro-organisms. Lev 13 explains how to deal with the sick and the dead.

So there are a few of the things the Bible talks about which reveals how God understands science. And so He should, He made the universe. His goal in the above is not to make a scientific statement, but to reveal important information to us.

Hope you enjoyed the reading.

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