The Scientific Consistency of the Bible

The Bible is not a science book. But if it is what it claims to be—the inspired word of God—we would expect it to be scientifically accurate and consistent in what it teaches. While clearly at variance with atheistic and anti-theistic hypotheses of how life, morality, and the physical universe came to be, the message of the Bible is consistent and readily accords with the evidence available for experimental and observational scientific confirmation.  

Our physical universe is something we can all observe, so how is it to be explained? Either (a) it is just an illusion and doesn’t really exist; or (b) it spontaneously arose out of a void of nothingness; or (c) it has always existed in some form; or (d) it was created by an intelligent and powerful force beyond and superior to itself. The first option is not taken seriously by most rational thinkers, and the second has been debunked since the mid-nineteenth century. The third option has had a much longer tenure. 

Atheistic Naturalism

From the 1960s to the 1990s, astronomer and Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Dr. Carl Sagan was widely acclaimed as “the most brilliant scientist of our times.”¹ In his 1980 book Cosmos, spending seventy weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list, he made the bold claim, “the Cosmos is all there is or was or ever will be.”² He apparently considered the physical universe to be eternal. But Sagan’s confident assertion, which fellow-scientists and non-scientists alike have taken as fact, is an unproven and unprovable assumption that cannot be verified by scientific observation or experimentation.

Atheistic naturalism begins with impersonal, mindless matter that either came into existence from nothing (physically impossible) or is eternal. Life is allegedly a freak accident of nature, governed by nothing and going nowhere. Outside the natural world nothing is believed to exist. 

Theistic Supernaturalism

During the sixteen centuries the documents comprising the Bible were produced, rather than emulating the popular myths and legends of their day and contrary to the eternal-universe model, biblical writers consistently affirmed the finite beginning of the material world and all lifeforms on earth, including intelligent life. 

•       Moses (1500 BC): “In the beginning …” (Genesis 1:1).

•       Psalmist (1000 BC): “in the beginning …” (Hebrews 1:10).

•       Solomon (950 BC): “at the beginning …” (Proverbs 8:22).

•       Isaiah (700 BC): “from the beginning …” (Isaiah 48:18).

•       Jesus (AD 29-30): “since the beginning …” (Mark 13:19); “at the beginning …” (Matthew 19:4).

•       Paul, Silvanus, Timothy (AD 50-51): “from the beginning …” (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

•       Paul (AD 62): “from the beginning …” (Ephesians 3:9).

•       Peter (AD 65): “from the beginning …” (2 Peter 3:4).

•       John (AD 90): “In the beginning …” (John 1:1).

Rethinking the Eternal-Universe Model

The year following the publication of Dr. Sagan’s book, physicist and cosmologist Dr. Stephen Hawking, who was also deemed “one of the world’s most brilliant minds,”³ gave a lecture at a cosmology conference at the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences about “the possibility that space-time was finite but had no boundary, which means that it had no beginning, no moment of Creation.”⁴

Just a few years later, however, in his 1988 book A Brief History of Time, Hawking wrote: “The old idea of an essentially unchanging universe that could have existed, and could continue to exist, forever was replaced by the notion of a dynamic, expanding universe that seemed to have begun a finite time ago, and that might end at a finite time in the future …. Einstein’s general theory of relativity implied that the universe must have a beginning and, possibly, an end.”⁵ In 1996, the year Carl Sagan died, Hawking stated in his Cambridge Lectures: “All the evidence seems to indicate, that the universe has not existed forever, but that it had a beginning …. probably the most remarkable discovery of modern cosmology.”⁶

Conclusion

Hawking never abandoned anti-theistic evolutionary theory, but the indisputable evidence of physics, mathematical calculations, and cosmology finally led him and most of the scientific world to conclude what the Bible has consistently affirmed all along, even if touted as “the most remarkable discovery of modern cosmology.” 

--Kevin L. Moore

Endnotes:

     ¹ The Associated Press in the opening pages of Cosmos by Carl Sagan (New York: Random House, 1980).  

     ² Ibid. p. 4. Sagan compared the question of the universe’s origin to the question of God’s origin, reasoning that if God is said to be eternal, why couldn’t the cosmos be eternal? “Where did God come from? If we decide that this is an unanswerable question, why not save a step and conclude that the origin of the universe is an unanswerable question? Or, if we say that God always existed, why not save a step and conclude that the universe always existed. There’s no need for a creation; it was always here” --“Carl Sagan on God and Creation,” <Link>.

     ³ University of Cambridge, <Link>. 

     ⁴ Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes (New York: Bantam, 1988); chap. 8, “The Origin and Fate of the Universe,” <Link>.

     ⁵ A Brief History of Time, chap. 2, “Space and Time,” <Link>.

     ⁶ Stephen Hawking, Publications and Lectures <Link>.

Related Posts: Are You Sure About God? (Part 1) 

Related articles: Jeff Miller, God and the Laws of Thermodynamics, Kyle Butt, Science and the Bible 

 

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The Creation Waits and Groans With Us (Romans 8:19-25)

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:19-23, ESV). 

Human language has its limitations, especially when attempting to describe divine activities and extraordinary end-time events. Even though the working of God is real, it “cannot be described literally since the direct activity of God cannot be fully comprehended in human language. The biblical writers have therefore to resort to analogy and metaphor, the language of symbol, in order to convey their message.”¹ Similar to apocalyptic language employed in the Thessalonian letters, here Paul shifts into personification along the lines of Hebrew poetry (cf. Psa. 89:11-12; 96:11-12; 98:7-8; 114:3-8; Isa. 35:1-2; 55:12-13). 

Anticipating the Future

The “revealing of the sons of God” is “an eschatological revelation” (cf. 2:5; 16:25),² involving “the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (cf. v. 18; 2:7, 10; 5:2). “Scripture does not tell us much of what that glory will be, but it assures us that it will be.”³ In the meantime, the human experience in a fallen world includes “the sufferings of this present time” (vv. 17-18; cf. 5:3) to which God’s people are not immune. The scientific mind of the literalist, no doubt perplexed by the language used here, sees the degenerating world and woeful plight of mankind as a natural state of affairs. But the spiritual mind (vv. 5-6), with poetic personification, envisions “the creation” empathizing with the Lord’s suffering people. It “waits,” a verb describing an intense yearning for Christ’s return,⁴ with “eager longing.” 

Unidentified and presumably already understood, “the [one] having subjected” or “him who subjected” evidently is God.⁵ The physical habitat he originally designed for an unflawed humanity could no longer be perfect when his human creation was corrupted by sin. It was therefore “subjected to futility … bondage to corruption … pains of childbirth” in the form of death, decay, hardship, and danger,⁶ though “not willingly.” Seeing that the material cosmos is not volitive, this is a subtle reminder of the widespread and devastating consequences of man’s willful choices that brought sin and death into the world (cf. 5:12-19). But God has worked through this lamentable situation “in hope,” with a personified creation joining God’s children in “groaning,” with eager anticipation of a future liberation from pain and suffering. When Christ returns, the volatility, turmoil, and decline of the physical world ends (2 Pet. 3:10-14), and “the sufferings of this present time” are exchanged for the incomparable “glory that is to be revealed to us.”⁷

God’s children are set apart from the rest of creation with “the firstfruits of the Spirit” or “spirit” (cf. 11:16; 16:5). The imagery is drawn from “the first portion of the harvest, regarded both as a first instalment and as a pledge of the final delivery of the whole. The Holy Spirit is thus regarded as an anticipation of final salvation, and a pledge that we who have the Spirit shall in the end be saved.”⁸ Cf. 5:5; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:13-14.

Having already “received the spirit of adoption as sons” (v. 15), and having been justified through the redemption in Christ (3:24), we still look forward to the ultimate “adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” A close parallel to this passage, without the poetic language, is Philippians 3:20-21, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”⁹ Other helpful commentaries are 1 Cor. 15:36-54 and 2 Cor. 4:14–5:5. Accordingly, this section of Romans appears to be an expansion of what Paul had already communicated to the Corinth church.

Saved in Hope

“For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Rom. 8:24-25).

“For” continues and expounds upon the fact that in this fallen world, “as we wait eagerly” for our glorious future, there is a connection between suffering and “hope” (cf. 5:2-5), namely “this hope” in which “we were saved” (in the past). Although in Romans Paul mostly speaks of salvation in terms of the future (5:9-10; 9:27; 10:9, 13; 11:14, 26), here we see that from the moment of our conversion “hope” carries us onward, all the way through to the end. By its very definition the object of hope has yet to be realized, so “we wait,” lit. “we hope” (presently and continuously) for it with “patience” or “perseverance” (NASB, NKJV) or “endurance” (NAB, NET) (cf. 2:7; 5:3-4; 15:4-5). If the focus is on God’s promise, we wait patiently; if on current sufferings, we hope with perseverance, although contextually both are applicable in the sense of patient endurance.

--Kevin L. Moore

Endnotes:

     ¹ I. H. Marshall, Thessalonians 128.

     ² C. K. Barrett, Romans 165. Cf. also 1 Cor. 1:7; 1 Thess. 1:10; 2 Thess. 1:7.

     ³ E. F. Harrison, “Romans” 94, emphasis in the text. 

     ⁴ H. A. A. Kennedy, Expositor’s Greek Testament 3:463. See Rom. 8:19, 23, 25; 1 Cor. 1:7; Gal. 5:5; Phil. 3:20; Heb. 9:28; 1 Pet. 3:20.

     ⁵ Cf. HCSB, LSV, NASB, NET, NLT, NKJV, YLT. 

     ⁶ Cf. Gen. 3:16-19; 5:29; Eccl. 2:22-23.

     ⁷ Instead of a renovated physical earth, which will have served its purpose at the end of time, the eternal home of God’s children is heavenly: Matt. 5:12, 16, 34; 6:19-21; Phil. 3:20; Col. 1:5; 1 Thess. 1:10; 4:16-17; Heb. 6:18-19; 10:19-20, 34; 12:23; 1 Pet. 1:3-4; cf. also 1 Cor. 15:23-24, 35-54; 2 Cor. 4:14; 5:1-2.

     ⁸ C. K. Barrett, Romans 167. See also C. E. B. Cranfield, Shorter Romans 199; J. D. G. Dunn, Romans 1:473-74; Theology of Paul the Apostle 329 n.68, 469.

     ⁹ See also 1 Cor. 16:22b; 1 Thess. 5:6. “The more Christians are caught up in enjoying the good things of this life, and the more they neglect genuine Christian fellowship and their personal relationship with Christ, the less they will long for his return …. To some extent, then, the degree to which we actually long for Christ’s return is a measure of the spiritual condition of our own lives at the moment” (W. A. Grudem, Systematic Theology 1092-93).

Related Posts: Preterism (Part 4), Adopted into God's Family (Rom 8:12-18), The Spirit Helps in Our Weaknesses (Rom 8:26-27)

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Were the six days of creation geologic ages or literal 24-hour days?

     The day-age theory, espoused by progressive creationists and theistic evolutionists, alleges that each day of the creation account in Genesis 1 represents geologic ages (millions of years) instead of ordinary 24-hour days. Here are six simple reasons to reject this theory in favor of a more straightforward understanding of the text.

1. Whenever the Hebrew word yom (“day”) is preceded by a numeral, it always refers to a solar (24-hour) day (Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31; cf. Num. 13:25; 14:33-34; Ex. 20:9-11).

2. The phrase, “So the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen. 1:5), is used over 100 times in the OT and always refers to a 24-hour day.

3. If “day” in this context refers to geologic ages, then each “day” would be millions of years of continuous darkness followed by millions of years of continuous light.

4. Adam lived through the sixth and seventh days (Gen. 1:26-2:3), but he did not live for geologic ages (Gen. 5:5).

5. The Jews were commanded to work six days and rest one day each week because this was the pattern of creation recorded in the Genesis account (Ex. 20:8-11).

6. If God had wanted to describe creation in six literal 24-hour days, how could he have stated it any clearer?

--Kevin L. Moore

Related Posts: Replinishing the Earth & Ancient Human Remains

Related articles: Greg Gwin's Scientific Dating Methods; R. Sungenis, Reasons to Doubt Justin Taylor; Paul Holland's Age of the Earth; Justin Roger's Hebrew word Yom; Thomas Purifoy, Jr.'s 6-Day Creation, Jeffery P. Tompkins, Population Growth Matches Bible and DNA Clock 

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Where's the Proof of God?

     It was June 2012 in New Zealand’s remote Hunua Ranges, southeast of Auckland. Thirty-nine-year-old bioengineer Ronnie Fong set out on what was supposed to be a four-hour walk and ended up lost for three days. In sub-zero temperatures at night, he kept moving to stay warm. Climbing to the hilltops, he could see a dam in the distance, which he focused on as his goal. During the precarious trek, he stumbled across a 24-pack of unopened chlorine tablets (for purifying water) that he believes was intentionally dropped by a rescuer, enabling him to keep hydrated. Ronnie knew he had finally reached safety when he found a dirt road. Not long thereafter he spotted the headlights of a search team, bringing his ordeal to a fortunate end.

     Although Ronnie saw no rescuers for three days, his confidence was maintained by the indisputable signs of human presence. Sighting the dam in the distance, he knew he was close to civilization. While not personally witnessing the dam being designed, built, or maintained, he never questioned that capable human beings were responsible for it. Without actually observing where the chlorine tablets came from, he was sure someone had been in the area. The dirt road, as simple and crude as it appeared, was enough to convince him that he was in an inhabited area. When he sighted the approaching headlights, before actually seeing anybody, he was absolutely certain that people were near.

     Ronnie’s optimism stemmed from the observable effects of human activity. Not once did he surmise that random evolutionary mutations over billions of years were responsible for the efficiently designed wall of earth, concrete, and steel across the riverbed. Upon discovering the chlorine tablets, it never crossed his mind that the symmetrical plastic and foil packaging might be the result of a massive explosion of primordial elements that gradually developed into its current functional shape. He didn’t instinctively assume that the dirt road tracks were formed by a freak accident of nature, nor did he entertain the thought of purely naturalistic causes to account for the headlights.

     It was not scientific experimentation or even direct observation that led to his definitive conclusions. His assurance that preexisting intelligence and ingenuity were responsible for the dam, the chlorine tablets, the road, and the headlights was a conviction of faith, prompted by sensible reasoning and compelling evidence. This is what carried him through an otherwise hopeless ordeal, and unsurprisingly, what wasn’t visible along the treacherous journey was confirmed in the end. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 ESV).

     How, then, can our knowledge of the Grand Designer of the universe be any less certain? From the tiniest microscopic organism to the vast solar systems, the physical world demonstrates clear signs of intricate design.¹ Specified complexity and fine-tuned patterns of activity do not simply emerge out of nothing or consistently occur by accident. Where there is a painting, there must be an artist. Without a poet, there is no poem. A house does not build itself, and a book does not write itself. Where there is functional design, there has to be a designer.

     The cosmos is real and must have come from somewhere. It obviously did not create itself. Every effect requires an adequate cause. Moreover, the evidence of deliberate design in the natural world implies a creative and proficient designer. Those who stubbornly reject the necessary inference of the intelligent design model have theorized any number of elaborate proposals (cosmological constant, cosmic cataclysm, oscillating universe, et al.). But none can reasonably explain the mystery of life and the uniform patterns of functionality across the universe, much less where and how it all originated.

     The Bible provides a credible answer for anyone not blinded by anti-theistic prejudice. “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God” (Hebrews 3:4). “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Hebrews 11:3).

     The God of the Bible is outside of time and space, without beginning or end.² He is the Grand Designer and Creator in whom we have conviction of faith and assurance of hope.³ Without him we are lost, though he is not far away, and what is not visible along life’s journey is sure to be confirmed in the end.⁴

--Kevin L. Moore

Endnotes:

     ¹ See I.D.E.A. Center’s “Evidence for the Design of the Universe,” <Link>; “Cell Positioning Uses ‘Good Design’,” <Link>; William A. Dembski, “Design Inference vs. Design Hypothesis,” <Link>.

     ² Eccl. 3:11; Psa. 93:2; Prov. 8:23; Rev. 1:8.

     ³ Ex. 20:11; Psa. 8:3-4; 33:6; 102:25; 115:15; Jer. 51:15; John 1:1-3; Acts 4:24; 14:15; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:1-2, 10; Rev. 4:11; 10:6.

     ⁴ Acts 17:24-31; Heb. 11:1-6; 1 John 3:2.

Related Posts: Why Should I Believe in God?, Proclaiming God's Existence to the World, Human Suffering?, Religion Explained?

Related articles: Wayne Jackson’s “The Elephant in Evolution’s Living Room,” <Link>; Jeff Miller’s “Cosmological Argument,” <Link>.

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