Is the Bible a record of science or a relic of ancient mythology?
Is the Bible relevant to the space age — or obsolete folklore?
Here is proof the Bible is the most astounding scientific chronicle of history!
FOR CENTURIES, skeptics and scoffers have called the Bible a collection of ancient primitive myths, fables, stories, and superstition. One religious leader calmly claimed, "We know now that every idea in the Bible started from primitive and childlike origins . . ."
Dr. Edgar J. Goodspeed, who translated the Bible into English, declared that the book of Joshua "is the legendary story of the conquest of Canaan" and the book of Ruth "belongs to Israel's fiction, rather than to its history, and should be among its tales and stories."
WHY have so many men of high education, scholars, and scientists, REJECTED the Bible as historical truth and reliable science? Is the Bible unscientific?
It is time you knew the incredible truth!
Science Versus Myth
We live in a modern, push-button, scientific world. Science is adulated, placed on a lofty pedestal, and virtually worshipped as the new "messiah" — the new savior of the world.
However, science has also bequeathed to the world lethal modern weapons of by war — the H-bomb, the A-bomb, poisonous gases, deadly chemicals — a murderous host of technologically amazing devices to destroy!
Science has been described as an angel of mercy, and also as a devil of destruction.
But unknown to millions, the Bible has a great deal to say about TRUE science. And it also has much to say about the wrong kind of science! Although the Bible is NOT a textbook of science, it does give many foundational principles of science — basic principles of biology, physics, chemistry, meteorology, astronomy, geology, and oceanography!
Those who have lightly discarded the Bible and relegated it to the limbo of outer darkness, as myth and fable, have carelessly missed out on the solid foundation of SCIENCE in the Bible! They have jumped to conclusions without getting all the facts.
For some reason, the world of scholars and scientists has rejected the Bible as the provable Word of the living God — without examining all the evidence!
Very few know it, but the Bible has far more to say about science than many suppose. Scientific facts, not understood by the world until the last few hundred years, with the advent of the "scientific explosion," are plainly and directly mentioned IN THE BIBLE!
Think what this means. While pagans worshipped sticks and stones, the sun, moon, and stars; while entire nations were bowing under a cloud of magic and superstition, ignorant of the truth — at that very same time, a Book of books was being INSPIRED which contained many fantastic SCIENTIFIC SECRETS unknown to the rest of the world!
Notice how amazingly scientific the Bible really is!
Flat Earth Theory
Many people have erroneously believed that the Bible teaches the earth is flat. The Medieval Catholic Church held to the notion the earth is flat and is the center of the universe. When Galileo presented scientific evidence to the contrary, his facts and theories were branded as "absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical, because expressly contrary to Holy Scripture."
But nowhere does the Bible teach the flat earth theory, or that the earth is a stationary object at the center of the universe.
Galileo's theories were declared heretical in the 17th century. But, amazingly enough, six hundred years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah was inspired by Almighty God to write and speak of the spherical shape of the earth!
Notice it! In Isaiah 40:22 we read of God, "It is He that sitteth upon the CIRCLE of the earth." Moffatt translates this verse more clearly, "He sits over the ROUND EARTH." The Critical and Experimental Commentary states this expression is "applicable to the globular form of the earth." The original Hebrew is chuug and means a "compass, circle, or sphere."
But how did Isaiah, an ancient Hebrew prophet, know that the earth is round? Here is PROOF that the ancient Hebrews were far more knowledgeable and scientific than they are given credit for being!
The Amazing Earth
But how much did the ancient writers of the Bible really know about the earth? Did they believe the notions of their Gentile contemporaries who believed the earth was carried about on the back of a great tortoise?
Three amazing truths were known about the earth itself which the rest of the world did not understand for another two or three THOUSAND YEARS! Sound incredible? It should!
First, the fact that the earth revolves around the sun once every year was not generally understood until the days of Copernicus and came to be known as the Copernican Theory. This was in the 16th century — just a little more than 400 years ago. He taught that the sun is the center of the solar system.
However, thousands of years before his time, in the days of the patriarch Moses, the Bible uses the precise expression to indicate the revolution of the earth around the sun once a year was known to ancient Biblical astronomers! In Exodus 34:22 we read, in the King James Version, the innocent phrase, "And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the first-fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end." According to the original Hebrew, however, this should be translated "at the REVOLUTION OF THE YEAR." The original Hebrew word is tequwphah and means "to move in a circle," "circuit," "to go round," "orbit of the sun," "revolution of time."
The Goodspeed translation has "at the turn of the year." In the days of the prophet Samuel, the expression "in revolution of days" was used to denote the time from conception to birth of a child (I Sam. 1:20, margin). Goodspeed translates this, "when the time came around."
Notice also II Chronicles 24:23 where the "end of the year" is called, in the original Hebrew, "in the REVOLUTION of the year" (marginal rendering).
Don't these verses clearly suggest the fact that the ancient Hebrews KNEW the earth revolves around the sun, and completes one revolution — one turning — each year?
But this is not all. Notice Job 38:12-14 — "Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place; that it might take hold of the ends of the earth . . . IT IS TURNED as clay to the seal . . ."
What does this mean? God is talking to Job about the morning — the rising of the sun. How is it that the sun appears to rise in the morning? This verse contains the scientific truth — the TRUE explanation! The earth itself turns, or "rotates" — from west to east, causing the sun to rise in the morning, in the eastern sky.
The original Hebrew in this verse says, of the earth, "it turns itself." What could be a more apt expression? The allusion of the clay and the seal refers to the rolling cylinder seal, one to three inches long, such as was used in ancient Babylon, which left its plastic impression on the clay as it turned about or rolled around. What more apt figure of speech could be used to represent the rotation of the earth itself, causing day and night?
Thirdly, the laws of gravity were not explained and understood until Sir Isaac Newton discovered them in the 18th century. The laws of motion were discovered by the same genius.
However, strange as it may seem, thousands of years ago the Bible alluded to the laws of centrifugal force, centripetal force, gravity, and motion!
How else do you explain the enigmatic statement in the book of Job, speaking of the earth — "He . . . hangeth the earth UPON NOTHING"? (Job 26:7)
The pagans believed a tortoise carried the earth about; but God revealed to His people the truth — that the earth hangs suspended in space by powerful laws of force and motion! But God asked Job, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? . . . Whereupon are the foundations [sockets] thereof fastened [made to sink]?" (Job 38:4, 6) It is interesting that science has discovered that the earth's axis is generally pointed toward the North Pole Star, and the north and south poles are the points where the earth's axis of rotation meets the surface of the earth. God is the One who planned it all out; set the earth to spinning on its axis; and pointed the North Pole toward the star Polaris!
Science of Meteorology
The science of weather and understanding the earth's atmosphere is of relatively recent origin. It, too, has developed greatly during the last two hundred years. Chemistry and physics play a vital role in this science. Before the nature of matter and air were understood, weather science was in total chaos.
Here again, however, the Bible "scooped" science by more than two thousand years!
The key to understanding weather is the hydrological cycle. Today it is well known that water evaporates from the surface of the oceans, rivers, lakes and all bodies of water; that it rises into the atmosphere; and that later it returns to the earth as rain, snow, sleet, or hail. The evaporation, condensation, precipitation cycle was NOT GENERALLY KNOWN, however, before the nature of water, water vapor, and the chemistry of matter was understood.
The Bible reveals this basic CYCLE was understood, however, THOUSANDS of years ago! Once again, the Bible is proved to be SCIENTIFIC!
Notice Jeremiah 10:13 — "When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the VAPOURS to ASCEND from the ends of the earth."
Tell me — how could Jeremiah, a prophet of God, have possibly known about the evaporation of water into water vapor, condensation of water vapor as rain droplets, and the precipitation cycle?
Was he an inspired scientist?
Jeremiah was not the only Biblical meteorologist, however. Solomon was also an expert in understanding the weather cycle. Wrote Solomon about one thousand years before Christ, "The wind goes to the south, and circles about continually, and on its circling the wind returns again. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; unto the place from which the rivers come, to there and from there they return again" (Eccl. 1:6-7, Amplified Version).
Solomon understood the circuits of the wind — and of water. How did he know? Was he merely guessing? Or was he not truly one of the most gifted, wisest men of all history? If we give Benjamin Franklin credit for being a gifted genius, how much more should we recognize the genius of Solomon who was the most famous naturalist, writer, poet, composer, and scientist of his time? (I Kings 4:29-34)
Consider, for a moment, how amazing Solomon's knowledge was. It was not until the 1800's that William Ferrell, an American meteorologist, formulated "Ferrell's law" which explains the prevailing directions of the winds over the earth, based on the earth's rotation.
Said Matthew Fontaine Maury, an American hydrographer who lived in the late 1800's, "The direction in which a wind blows is so constantly changing that we often speak of the winds as fickle, inconstant, and uncertain. There is, however, ORDER in the movements of the atmosphere. The fickle winds are obedient to LAWS."