The Bible and Scientific Foreknowledge
The Bible and Scientific Foreknowledge The Bible is not a textbook on material science. It is a textbook on religion the science of correct living. It was written hundreds of years before modern science was originated, yet it is scientifically accurate. Modern science has never disproved any statement in the Bible but has proved and demonstrated the truthfulness of hundreds of things which the Bible anticipated. The Mind which directed the writing of the Bible put into it many truths which were beyond the range of human comprehension and human knowledge at the time they were written.
Scientific Principles.
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) first announced that there are only five "manifestations of the unknowable" in existence--time, force, action, space and matter and that all else is based on these fundamentals. This was hailed as a great announcement but when God had that great scientist, Moses, write the very first verse in the Bible, He said, "Moses, 3,400 years from now men will think they have discovered everything so you just put it all in Genesis 1:1 and we will begin with everything man can discover." Moses wrote: "In the beginning", time: "God", force; created", action; "the heavens", space; "and the earth", matter. Thus Moses put all five scientific fundamentals in the first verse of Genesis and they are in the same order as announced by Herbert Spencer. How could Moses do this? The answer must be that God told Moses what to write.
Light Before the Sun.
All men once held with Sir Isaac Newton the idea that light is an emanation from the sun and other luminous bodies, but in recent years men think they have proved that light existed before the sun. There are many theories concerning light but all scientists are apparently agreed that light existed before the sun was made its governor. Since this was discovered, many pseudo-scientists have ridiculed the "old Bible idea that light comes from the sun." While an undergraduate in college one of my professors explained his favorite theory of light and ended by saying, "Well, this completely upsets the old Bible idea that light comes from the sun. In fact it just proves that book to be out of date." "Doctor Blank, where does the Bible say that light comes from the sun?" I asked. "Oh, I don’t know," he replied. "Everybody knows it’s there." At my insistence a Bible was brought and the professor read from the first chapter of Genesis: ’In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and God said, Let there be light and there was light..." He read on to verses 17 and 1S where God later made the sun, moon and stars to control this light and to act as our chronometers. Seeing that Moses was perfectly scientific, the learned doctor said, "Well, that makes a donkey out of me." I agreed with him heartily but doubted the expediency of saying so at the time.
How did Moses know this important scientific fact thousands of years before others discovered it?
The Three Kingdoms.
Scientists now teach that there are three great kingdoms mineral, vegetable and animal. This scientific division is a comparatively recent innovation. Neither the cuneiform records of Babylon and Assyria nor the hieroglyphics of Egypt reveal that the ancients knew of such a division. It is thought that Linnaeus was the first to recognize these three kingdoms and he made his announcement in A.D. 1735 while Moses wrote in 1500 B.C. In the first chapter of Genesis Moses used the first ten verses telling about the mineral material kingdom, the next nine verses telling about the vegetable kingdom and the rest of the chapter telling of the animal kingdom.
How was Moses able to make this division?
Rotundity of the Earth. When the Bible was written it was universally believed that the earth was flat. It was argued that should one go too far toward the edge he would fall off. The early Grecians as well as Toscanelli, an Italian, suggested the rotundity of the earth. Columbus and others believed them. Finally, Magellan and his men sailed around the earth and thus proved it to be spherical in shape. But of the shape of the earth the Author of the Bible was not in ignorance for we read in Isaiah 40:22, "It is God that sitteth upon the circle of the earth," and in Proverbs 8:27, "He setteth a circle upon the face of the deep." We read that Christ is coming in the daytime and that He is coming at night it will be day on one side the earth and night on the other when he comes (Luke 17). That the writers of the Bible wrote of the rotundity of the earth cannot be questioned. They could have learned of this only from God. No other being in the universe could have given the information.
Suspension of the Earth. The ancient Greeks and Romans were the most advanced peoples of their time, yet they believed that the earth was held in place by poles or by the neck of Atlas. Others believed that Atlas had the earth on his shoulders. Some said that the earth floated on water and should one go too far out on the sea he would surely perish. When men sailed around the earth, they discovered that it touches nothing--that nothing visible holds it in place. Then it was that the statement "...he...hangeth the earth upon nothing" (Job 28:7) was understood. The ancient book of Job is absolutely scientific. Indeed so, God told Job what to write. If not, how did he find out these things?
Empty Space in North.
Astronomers have discovered that there is a great empty space in the North. It contains no moving planets and shining stars. By turning their telescopes to the South, the East and the West, men may behold countless millions of stars invisible to the naked eye but when the telescope is set exactly to the North there is a great empty space. For this astronomers have been unable to account. They did not know until recently that there was such an empty space, yet Job declared, "He stretcheth out the North over the empty places and hangeth the earth upon nothing." (Job 26:7.) Job could not have written by guess. It must be that he wrote by inspiration of God.
Movement of Planets. The theory of the movement of the planets was first advanced by Copernicus in 1543. Calico was severely punished for believing and championing this theory, yet Job 38:31-32 clearly teaches that the planets move. The conditions mentioned in Luke 17:31-36 could be brought about only by the rotation of the earth upon its axis. The law of gravity is certainly announced in Job 26:7.
Formation of Static Electricity. The Greeks and Romans with all of their intellectual development thought that a thunderstorm consisted of Jupiter with a handful of thunderbolts hurling them at the earth and its peoples. Yet they might have informed themselves by reading Jeremiah 10:13, "He (God) maketh lightnings with rain." Benjamin Franklin, Thomas A. Edison and others have discovered that static electricity may be formed by condensing water, yet Jeremiah knew of this thousands of years before. How?
Scientific Proportions of the Ark. In March, 1919, the government of the United States launched its first concrete ship at San Francisco. The dimensions were 300 feet, by 50 feet, by 30 feet. This is the same proportion as the ark which Noah built. Even with all our modern development in shipbuilding we still hold to approximately the same proportions as those used by Noah in building his boat. Who taught Noah how to build ships? How did he know what proportions to make his ark? The ark was built of gopher wood. If Noah had used some other sort of wood, the material would have perished before he finished the boat, but God, who made the laws of nature, was also the architect of the boat which Noah built.
Light is Vocal. The writers of the Bible knew that light is vocal. We read of "the way where light dwelleth" (Job 38:19). Job speaks not of the place where light dwells but the way. Light does not dwell in a place but is due to rapid vibrations of waves in the ether travelling at the rate of 186,000 miles each second.
Wherever there is light there is sound even if our ears are not attuned to hear it. We read that the "morning stars sang together". Light has a definite tonal value. Light, color and sound are fundamentally the same. Waves rush through space; some reach the eyes as light, some as color and some reach the ears as sound. There are rays of color (from the infrared clown) so slow and so long that our eyes cannot see them. There are rays of color (from the ultraviolet up) so short and so fast that we cannot see them. Every light and color likewise has its sound value and if our ears were turned to hear we too could hear the "morning stars sing together". Everyone is familiar with the talking film. Beside the film there is a sound track. Light is passed through this sound track and then transmuted into sound. Through its light value we hear the music and speaking of those in far off places! Job did not understand these things, yet he wrote of them. Christians, therefore, conclude that God directed Job as he wrote.
Geography of the Bible.
Geography is a comparatively modern science. Not many years ago the maps of much of the world were mostly blank and the mistakes in geography books must be corrected every generation. The Bible was written before the modern science of geography was ever heard of and though it abounds in geographic references, it is correct in every instance. No one has to revise it and bring it up to date. It was free of error from the beginning because the Architect of the universe is the Author of the Bible. When the Bible says, "They went up to Jerusalem" it is literally uphill. When we read "...down to Jericho" we may know it is downhill. The cities, towns, plains, deserts, hills and mountains mentioned in the Bible have been found exactly where the Bible locates them. If the Bible were a human production it would be filled with geographical errors. Since there are no such errors we conclude it is a super-human product.
Paths of the Sea.
Matthew Fontaine Maury, "the pathfinder of the seas", and the founder of the science of Oceanography, was a firm believer in and a close student of the Bible. His teaching caused the Annapolis Academy to be founded and his memory is honored and respected throughout the world. On monument row in Richmond, Virginia, is a statue of the great scientist sitting with the Bible in one hand and his charts of the sea in the other. Behind him is a globe of the earth which he helped to explore.
Before Matthew Fontaine Maury lived there were no sailing lanes and no charts of the sea. One day, when he was ill, his son read to him from the eighth Psalm. He read that God put under man "...the fowls of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea." "Read that again," he said. Upon hearing it the second time, the venerable scientist said, "If the Word of God says there are paths in the sea, they must be there. I will find them." Within a few years he had charted the principal lanes or paths of the sea and these are followed by oceangoing vessels to this day. How did David know of these paths of the sea? The "Seas" in Their "Place".
Moses tells us in Genesis 1:10 that the "gathering together of the water called he seas". How did Moses know that there are several seas? He had not seen them. Then notice that God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place and it was so." It is literally true that the oceans are connected and thus have one bed. In the days of Moses men believed that there was one small ocean but Moses knew not only of the seas but that they have one bed. It must be that the Supreme Power of the Universe inspired Moses and guided him as he wrote
God Questions Job.
After the vicissitudes and experiences of life had borne heavily upon his shoulders and he had argued with men on many questions, the ancient patriarch Job said, "Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might even come to His feet. I would order my cause before Him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words wherewith He would say unto me." In other words Job wanted to argue with God. Many men who think they are very wise today would apparently like to argue their case with God. But first let them look at the result of Job’s examination. God asked Job forty questions and Job could not answer a single one. Centuries have rolled by and the combined wisdom of the world today can answer only three or four of them. Scientists today know much that Job never dreamed of but there are forty anticipations of physical science in Job thirty-eight which are marvelous questions even for today.
God said, "Job, gird up now thy loins like a man for 1 will demand of thee, and answer thou me." God then begins the questioning: "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?" Job could not answer. We do not know the answer today. We remember when we were small children. Parents and friends remember when we were born. Textbooks tell us something of embryology. Back of that we cannot go. We only know that life came from God. We cannot answer the question.
God then asked Job, ’Who has laid the measure thereof?" Scientists have recently pointed out that if the size of the earth were reduced it would retain less heat and would become an icy, barren waste suitable only for very low forms of life; or if its size were increased it would become a hot, tropical jungle unfit for man to live upon. (Dr. A. B. Wallace, Man’s Place in the Universe, pp. 201-202). Job could not answer the question about the size of the earth. In fact no one in Job’s day knew that the size of the earth had anything to do with its temperature and atmosphere.
Job was then questioned as to what holds the sea in place. He did not know. Men today have many theories but they still do not know why all the waters run into the sea and it is not full, why the sea is higher in the middle than the edges and yet does not run over. In verse seventeen God asked Job if the gates of death had been opened to him. Job was silent. Millenniums have rolled by and we are still silent. Not one of us can pierce beyond the veil of death. The scientist confesses his inability to tell what happens beyond death and only the benevolent wisdom of the Heavenly Father gives us any idea of life "beyond the valley of the shadow of death".
God asks Job, "Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?" Job did not know there were any "treasures" in the snow. But Dr. Frank T. Shutt of the Canadian Department of Agriculture has recently shown that the action of snow and hail centrifuging through the air collects nitrates, free ammonia and albuminoid ammonia. These are all valuable fertilizers. He explains that an average winter’s snow and hail is worth about fifteen dollars per acre to farm land. In Job 38:34 God asks Job if he can lift up his voice to call down the rain. Job could not do it and we have not been able to do so.
Then God asks, "Cant thou send lightnings that they may go and say unto thee, here we are?" Job could not do this but we are able to do so today as we talk on the telephone and radio and send our messages by telegraph. Truly the lightning goeth and saith for us.
These questions are selected at random from Job thirty-eight. That chapter contains forty examples of scientific foreknowledge. Shall we not say that these are forty reaons for believing the Bible to be the word of God? The Number of the Stars. The ancients believed that there were only a very few stars in the heavens. In 150 B.C. Hipparchus said that there were less than three thousand. In A.D. 150 Ptolemy said there were not more than three thousand. This was considered a high estimate. After the middle ages and the invention of the telescope, men discovered that the stars are innumerable. Yet all the time Genesis 13:16, Genesis 13:5, Jeremiah 33:22 and other verses of the Bible declared that the stars of the sky are like the sands of the seashore "innumerable". How did these ancient writers know that the stars are innumerable? There can be but one answer: God told them what to write! The Moon a Witness.
Psalms 89:27 declares that the moon is a faithful witness in heaven. Now what does a witness do? He sees and testifies to others concerning that which they cannot see. The moon does exactly that. When the sun has gone down and we cannot see it shining on the other side of the earth, the moon, high up in the sky, sees and reflects the light back to us. Truly a witness! But the fact the moon sends out only reflected light was not known to men in the days of David; yet David wrote it. None would presume to suggest that David discovered it. It must be that God told David what to write. The Seed of the Woman. In Genesis three and other places in the Bible we have a striking reference to the seed of the woman. This is truly a remarkable instance of scientific foreknowledge for R. C. Punnett tells us: "Few if any of the more primitive peoples seem to have attempted to define the part played by either parent in the formation of offspring....The production of offspring by men was then (the time of Aristotle) held to be similar to the production of a crop from seed. The seed came from the man, the woman provided the soil. This remained the generally accepted view for many centuries....After more than a hundred years of conflict lasting until the end of the eighteenth century, scientific men settled down to the view that each of the sexes makes a definite material contribution to the offspring produced by their joint efforts" (Mendelism, 4th edition, pp. 1-2.) Thus until the end of the eighteenth century all human science and philosophy opposed the idea of the "seed of the woman". But when the facts were finally known, as is always the case, the Word of God triumphed over the theories of man.
The Value of Dust. In Isaiah 40:12 we read that God has comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure. All people have detested dust, yet here it is spoken of along with things made for our good. Dr. Wallace in his book (op. cit.) uses seven pages to tell of the value of dust (pages 205-211). He refers in the main to the fine dust of the upper atmosphere. Evidently this is what the Bible calls "the highest part of the dust of the world" (Proverbs 8:26). Dr. Wallace shows that if this dust did not exist we would have less rainfall, abnormally heavy dews and a greater prevalence of fogs. He says vegetation would be greatly reduced, our blue skies would be gone and our gorgeous sunsets and sunrises would be no more. Stars would appear at midday as at midnight owing to the absence of the light reflecting elements in the air. The sun would not be reflected into houses and its light would not appear anywhere except where its rays fell directly upon the earth. Dr. Wallace suggests that it is difficult to account for this "upper dust" but that it perhaps comes from deserts and volcanoes of the earth. (Now there ought to be some red faces among those who have criticized God for making deserts and volcanoes on earth!) This authority has pointed out that without this fine dust of the upper atmosphere the earth would be uninhabitable. I simply raise this question: Why did the writers of the Bible refer to the dust as being beneficial and then why did Solomon especially point out that it is the upper dust?