God foreshadowing discoveries made in today’s world.

Mathetis Originals

God is from everlasting to everlasting (Psa. 90:2). He knows all things capable of being known. He never errs or says, “Oops,” or, “I made a mistake. I was wrong.” Scientists simply discover his secrets after him. He knew they were there all the time. God never learns anything. He is perfect wisdom, knowledge and truth. That means that his word is truth (John 17:17) that never needs improvement or upgraded. Through inspiration, God may reference things in the speaking and writing of his prophets that the speakers or the hearers did not comprehend at the time but centuries later may be understood. For example, the prophets spoke and wrote things about the coming Messiah that neither they nor their hearers understood at the time but hundreds of years later the hidden meaning was made plain and understandable in the coming of Jesus (I Pet. 1:10-12). This means that the God of all truth can have things written in his ancient words that only in modern times are we able to comprehend the full meaning.

The Bible is not a textbook on science. It is a book revealing the mind and thoughts of God and the will and work of God. Contained in those messages are historical details and statements relating to the nature of the universe, life and mankind. Some of those statements can now be read that cause us to say, “Wow! This truth was in the Bible all along and we never knew it.” There is no teaching or statement in the Bible that has been proven wrong, erroneous, or misleading according to the known, verified facts of history or science. If there is a supposed difficulty, the problem is in the interpretation of the history, science or the biblical text. All truth is God’s truth whether it is in science or the Bible. Truth is always harmonious with itself. Facts cannot contradict facts. If there is a difference between “facts,” one or more of the apparent “facts” is not factual. The interpretation of the evidence is mistaken somewhere.

Our knowledge of science is always changing with new discoveries. Because of these new discoveries, a textbook on science written ten years ago is out of date. On the other hand, the truth of God’s word stands forever. Yes, we can learn more and more about the Bible. We can discover evidences and insights from manuscripts, archaeology and history that help us understand the biblical text and correct some misguided interpretations. However, nothing has ever been found in any of the sciences that contradicts or proves the correct and accurate biblical text to be in error. Everything that has been found or discovered either corroborates the text or helps us understand it better.

Since the Bible is not a scientific textbook, we need to be careful that we do not interpret the metaphors, poetic descriptions or statements in the Bible as scientific statements that the writers never intended. Just as skeptics can misinterpret science to dispute the Bible so believers can misinterpret the Bible to support ideas that were never intended. We must let the Bible speak to us with its intended message and not read back into the text our own views of science or the world.

There are statements in the Bible that appear to be ahead of their time, that is, they speak of facts that were not known at the time of the writing but which were later discovered by science. For example, these include things like the following:

The earth is suspended in space on nothing (Job 26:7). One view of some people in ancient times was that the earth was resting on the back of a large elephant or dragon.

Life is in the blood (Leb. 17:11). We now know the value of blood for life and health but these facts were unknown to ancient peoples. It was believed that “blood-letting” was a common way to drain poison out of the body. Barbers not only cut hair but drained blood. That’s the origin of the image of the “red-striped” (signifying “blood) barber pole. We know now that blood saves life in blood transfusions.

The sanitary code of the Jews, recorded in Leviticus and other places, helped preserve their nation, especially in the wilderness. This code “deals with public hygiene, water supply, sewage disposal, inspection and selection of food, and control of infectious diseases. The most interesting thing about it is that it implies a knowledge which the Jews did not possess beforehand and which in the circumstances of the Exodus and the wilderness wanderings they could scarcely have discovered for themselves, e.g. the prohibition, as food, of pigs and of animals which had died natural deaths, the burial of excreta, etc., and the contagious nature of some diseases” (A.W.Walls, “Disease and Healing,” The New Bible Dictionary, ed. J. D. Douglas, 1962, p. 315).

The proportions of the ark built by Noah (Gen. 6:15) for floating on the water and not capsizing are the same as seaworthy, modern oil tankers. How would ancient man know this?

Wondering What to Believe?

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God foreshadowing discoveries made in today’s world.

Mathetis Originals