More often than not, skeptics of the Christian faith, will say that the Bible is scientifically incorrect. It is an archaic book ignorant of science and therefore invalid. My answer is well yeah the Bible is definitely not a science book nor a math book nor a grammar book. Instead it is a book that reveals God’s intended truths for man in order for men to know God and His Son Jesus Christ. In that revelation the Bible does speak truths that are confirmed by science. The following excerpt is helpful in showing this:
Some people say, “Well, the Bible is not a science book; it’s scientifically incorrect, and it doesn’t use scientific language. Why does the Old Testament say that the sun stood still? Now we know that the sun didn’t stand still. In fact, in the old times they thought the sun was going around the earth instead of vice-versa. That’s just a typical biblical flaw.” But what happened is that the earth stopped revolving, and it appeared that the sun stood still (Josh. 10:13). You see, some people try to analyze the statement scientifically, but they just see what appeared to have happened. We all do the same thing. When you get up in the morning and look toward the east, you don’t say, “Oh my, what a lovely earth rotation.” No, you call it a sunrise, and you understand what you’re saying. Likewise, you don’t look to the west and say, “What a lovely earth rotation.” No, it’s a sunset. When someone asks you if you’d like another helping at dinner, you could say, “Well, gastronomical satiety admonishes me that I have arrived at a state of deglutition consistent with dietetic integrity.” Or you could say, “No, thanks, I’ve had enough.” You see, you don’t always need a scientific answer for everything. Sometimes, just pure observation is sufficient. The Bible says some things that are from the viewpoint of human observation, but on the other hand, whenever the Bible speaks about a scientific principle, it is dead accurate. In fact, let’s examine three areas the Bible addresses more closely.
a) Rainfall
In Isaiah 55:10 it says, “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not there, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater.” Isaiah spoke centuries before the hydrological cycle was ever discovered. He said, “The rain and the snow comes down and don’t return again until they have watered the earth.” But it’s only been in modern times that hydrology has been understood. That is what happens: the rain falls down on the land, it waters the land, it runs off into the streams, down to the rivers, into the sea, and from the sea it returns again to the clouds; then it is taken over the land and dropped again. The ever constant hydrological cycle, and Isaiah 55:10 laid it out.
Now some might say, “Well, a blind pig can find the slop once in a while—maybe Isaiah just took a lucky guess.” That might have been a possibility if it weren’t for the fact that the same thing is discussed in several other portions of the Bible. Job 36:27–29 comments, “For he maketh small the drops of water; they pour down rain according to their vapor, which the clouds do drop and distill upon man abundantly. Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?” Once again a discussion of rain. Compare also what it says in Psalm 135:7: “He causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.” Another discussion of this wonderful sequence of rain and the ascending vapors from the sea to plant the water again in the clouds.
b) Fixed orbits
The Bible also comments on the fixed orbits of the heavenly bodies. Jeremiah 31:35–36 (NASB*) discusses this, and Psalm 19 also talks about it. I really feel that as you get into the Bible you will find incredible things about science that reveal the truthfulness of God’s Word. You never need to be ashamed of the Bible. You’re never going to run into a problem in the Bible which you can’t solve in one of two ways: first, by looking through the rest of the Bible and understanding how to interpret it; second, by realizing that you’re never going to understand it until you meet God. There are some things we don’t understand or know, but the truth is that we’re not going to run into an error in the Scripture—not even scientifically.
c) Balance
Within the science of geology there is a study called isostasy, which is fairly new. Isostasy is the study of the balance of the earth, and it says that equal weights are necessary to support equal weights. So, land mass must be supported equally by water mass. But they really haven’t discovered anything actually new. If we go back to good old Isaiah again, who was not a scientist but simply a prophet of God, we find in Isaiah 40:12 that it says: “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and measured out heaven with the span, and measured the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?” God knew all about isostasy. It’s just incredible when you come to the Bible and start to study it even scientifically.
They said of Herbert Spencer, who died in 1903, that he had discovered the greatest thing about the categorizing of all things that exist in the environment of the universe. He said everything could fall into these categories: time, force, action, space, and matter. Five classic scientific categories, and he said everything fit into those categories. The world hailed him as a great scientist, a great man of discovery. But do you want to know something? All five of those categories are in the first verse of the Bible: “In the beginning (that’s time) God (that’s force) created (that’s action) the heaven (that’s space) and the earth (that’s matter). Genesis 1:1 shows us that when the Bible speaks, it speaks accurately. So, science is a good way to show the authority and the validity of Scripture.
– MacArthur, J., Jr. (1996). How to study the Bible. John MacArthur’s Bible Studies. Chicago: Moody Press.
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