In reading the book "A Scientific Analysis of Genesis," by Dr. Edward F. Blick, PHD, I came across many interesting scriptures in the Bible that were centuries ahead of the knowledge of the scientific world. I will be using these scriptures from time to time in the Commentary page to help you get a grasp on how the Bible relates to science.
To quote Dr. Blick: Many educated people today are friendly toward Christianity, but they are not convinced of its truth. They have a sneaking suspicion that it is not intellectually respectable. Many of these people were brought up to accept the Bible and the Christian faith uncritically, but when they begin to ask questions for themselves, they found it easier to discard the religion of their childhood than to take the trouble to investigate its credentials. Most of these people do not know that the Christian faith is not founded on wishful thinking or blind acceptance of tradition, but rather on a tremendous body of real objective evidence. I know the Bible is the Word of God, and a reader with an open mind should have little difficulty in reaching the same conclusion. God loves you and longs to reveal Himself to you through His Word.
In the field of Astronomy, before the invention of the telescope, scientists regarded the numbers of stars practically determined. Ptolemy stated that there were 1,058 stars. Kepler counted 1,005 stars and Tycho Brahe catalogued 777. Now these men of science were considered great scientists in their day, but they were wrong. We now know there are billions and billions of stars. It is literally impossible to count them. But this is exactly what was written in the Bible thousands of years ago: "As the host of heaven cannot be numbered..." (Jeremiah 33:22). So here we see an example out of history where science and the Bible were in conflict, but as man discovered more of the truth, he found that science does not contradict the Bible.
Consider what the Bible has to say about gravity in Job 26:7: "He... hangeth the earth upon nothing." (As we now know, the earth is suspended in space, as indicated in the passage from Job, rather than on some type of physical platform as many ancients had incorrectly believed.)
Consider Isaiah 40:22 where, speaking of God, the prophet Isaiah recorded, "It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth..." The word circle is the Hebrew word "khug" which some Hebrew scholars say may be better translated as "sphericity" or "roundness." The book of Isaiah was written approximately 2700 years ago, yet as recently as 500 years ago, educated men were taught that the earth was flat.
You have just read three verses of the Bible that may be overlooked by most people, but these three verses help prove that science does not contradict the Bible.
By George Konig
Christian Internet Forum
www.georgekonig.org
June 1, 2003
See a list of all of our commentaries