Modern Science And The Bible
Someone has estimated that only about twenty-five percent of all Americans are members of some church or religious group. This twenty-five percent is generally subdivided into three categories: Jews, Catholic, and Protestants. The Jews deny the deity and sonship of Christ; therefore, the New Testament and all the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Catholics stress the so-called Authority of Divine Tradition and, consequently, reject the authenticity, simplicity, and sufficiency of the Lord's New Testament. The Protestants allegedly protesting Catholicism have ardently embraced volumes of Romish doctrine for which no greater authority may be found than that of "Divine Tradition." Myriads of religious teachers, preachers, schools, and seminaries are propounding doctrines of atheism, agnosticism, skepticism, and infidelity — all of which has quickened the pace of materialism and throttled the advance of pure and simple Christianity.
Voluminous though the storehouse of modern man's knowledge, civilization is in spiritual retrogression. The gross sins of the pagan Gentiles of two thousand years ago blemished the pages of Romans, chapter one, for their very utterance; and yet — those sins were committed by ignorant people whose only restriction was that provided by what Paul terms a "natural law." Their simple minds could not easily comprehend the magnitude of scientific laws whose attestations of deity bear witness for God....but they were condemned for want of understanding that the creations testify of God's eternal existence. Inspired statements of three millenniums ago may now be read with understanding because of the knowledge of modern sciences, the mystery of Christ has been revealed, the sacred writings conveniently collected in one volume, but the only difference between modem Gentiles and those of two thousand years ago is that the crimes of sensualism, murder, lying, and stealing have been clothed apologetically with medical and psychiatric verbiage designed to obscure the calloused reality of black sin.
The conclusion of these premises is: (1) That we must convince men that there is a God. This may logically and scripturally be done by appealing to the creation (Romans 1:20-21) and to known laws pertaining to the universe (res ipsa loquitur). (2) That we must convince men that God has revealed himself to man. To do this we might point to the unity and harmony of the claims of the inspired writers throughout the ages (3) That we must convince men that the Bible is God's revelation to man by demonstrating its internal evidences of inspiration (such as: unity, continuity, and historic and scientific accuracy, etc.). (4) That we must convince men that the Bible is the sole source of religious authority and that it must be permitted to interpret itself without being subjected to private interpretation. This can only be done by delineating the teaching of the apostles.
With all of these thoughts in mind, we wish to take advantage of America's most recent space conquest to show that modem science corroborates the Bible as inspired. Yes, Lt. Col. John H. Glenn's orbital space flight has again demonstrated that the Bible is inspired. Orbital space flight would not be possible if certain facts were not true:
I. The earth is held securely in its place by gravity. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) is credited with having discovered the law of gravity, however, there was written mention of the law of gravity thirty-two hundred years before Newton's time. In Job 26:7, we find Job crediting God with hanging the earth "upon nothing." In Job 38:8, God demanded of Job to know whereupon the foundations of the earth were fastened. These two passages were written more than 1500 years before Christ and more than 3200 years before Newton discovered his law of gravity. The law of gravity is an essential part of the earth's existence: it was, therefore, created with the earth and at the same time. God instituted the law of gravity at the creation of the earth (Gen. 1:1, Heb. 1:10, Psalms 33:6-9), he caused it to be mentioned by his inspired writers, he permitted man to discover it and to make use of it, and he is reserving it to the end of time. (2 Peter 3:7)
Orbital space flight would be an impossibility without some knowledge and understanding of God's law of gravity. Orbital space flight has confirmed true the inspired words of thirty-five centuries ago.
II. The earth is round. Seven hundred years before Christ, it was the prophet Isaiah who declared that it was God who sat upon the circle of the earth. (Isa. 40:22)
Three hundred years before Isaiah's time, the proverbial writer had expounded the virtues of wisdom. Proverbs 8 is entirely devoted to that discussion and in verse 27 the writer says that wisdom was there when God set a circle upon the face of the depth.
In the course of his teaching Christ revealed knowledge of the rotundity of the earth by stating that he would come at a time when it was both day and night. (Luke 17:31, 34) Obviously, it would be day on one side of the earth and night on the other, for Paul teaches that what Christ was discussing would take place "in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye." (1 Cor. 15:52)
Finally, no clearer illustration of the rotundity and rotation of the earth could be given than the one given by God to Job in Job 38: 12-14.
If God's word had been wrong about the rotundity of the earth, and if the ancient philosophers who held that the earth was flat and that the seas extended into space were right, the orbital space flight would have been impossible. Again we see that orbital space flight has established the authenticity of the scriptures.
III. Messages may be carried by electrical impulse.
It would be sheer nonsense to even contemplate orbital space flight without the benefit of modern radio transmission. With little exception, the entire trip of the Friendship Seven was controlled remotely from the Mercury Control Center. But think....it has only been a little more than sixty years since radio was invented.
Thirty-five hundred years ago, a statement was made which could refer to radio. God asked Job, "Canst thou send lightnings, that may go, and say unto thee, Here we are?" (Job 38:35) Now, I am just as greatly opposed to twisting or wresting the scriptures as is anyone, so, let us break this passage down to see what it contains.
First, this verse is found in a context of the greatest collection of inspired writings and prophecies of scientific information that is to be found in any one place in the word of God. God did prophecy! He certainly had the ability to see into our time.
Secondly, the passage contains four main thoughts: "Canst thou send lightnings (electrical impulses), that they may go (transmission), and say unto thee (communication), Here we are? (intelligent message)."
What Is lightning? It is electrical energy, or electricity. Electricity travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. Radio waves are a form of electrical energy and also travel 186,000 miles per second. Radio waves can be harnessed or utilized for communication; thus, man today can send lightnings that go and say, "Here we are." Again, this orbital space flight demonstrated the veracity of God's word.
IV. The above thoughts illustrate simply the profound fact that Glenn's Orbital space flight was only made possible through the utilization of divine laws. Many of the divine laws which govern the universe are mentioned in the word of God, but they are not revealed. Perhaps they are not revealed because they were designed to order the universe.
Contrariwise, God did reveal the scheme of redemption, but it is designed to order the soul and to provide for its justification. (Luke 19:10; John 14:6; 1 Tim. 3:16-17; Romans 5:1)
V. Mankind has demonstrated his ability to comprehend and utilize the laws of the universe to his own good. We need also to utilize the scheme of redemption. The basic parallel between the laws of the universe and the scheme of redemption is that either may be utilized to benefit or ignored to destruction. (Ezekiel 18:20; Romans 6:23)
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