Today being Christmas Eve left me wondering, should I post or not post today? After prayer I decided that this was what I was to write, so I offer these thoughts and pray they will resonate with you. I also want to wish you a Happy Christmas Eve and a very Merry Christmas!
Today my objective is to incorporate a consideration of science and the Bible in a Christmas themed presentation. I have long been amazed at the incredible revelations found in the Bible in ancient times and how that hundreds if not thousands of years later scientists discovered they were factual realities and medically sound techniques. If I had no other reason to believe the Bible is the Word of God that would be enough, but I have more, much more.
I hear some, even preachers contend that the Bible ‘contains’ the Word of God but is not the Word of God. I find that objectionable and that would relegate the Bible to the status of just another book of philosophy and not a guide for ‘faith or practice’. It would require me to abandon my confidence that God is unchanging and His Promises, as revealed in the Bible are reliable or dependable. That would be a terrible place and one that would produce an untenable gospel. How could I trust the declaration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead? How could I trust that God will forgive every sin upon repentance? How could I believe the words of Jesus in John 14 that He is preparing a place for us and coming back?
You may wonder, how this has anything to do with what is happening in today’s world, socially, politically, governmentally, etc. It has everything to do with it? If we do not have a reliable Bible that “is” the Word of God, a God who is unchanging, then we have no absolutes. We would become laws unto ourselves and the result would be anarchy and chaos. There would be no constraints on society for civility and each person would become their own center of the universe.
Science is in a continual state of flux. In the realm of medical science, no doctor that has practiced medicine for any length of time practices the same as they began. New discoveries make that implausible and impractical. As new techniques and discoveries emerge doctors change their approach and treatment. Thank God they do! However, I contend that the Word of God never changes, and God never changes.
There are many examples in the Bible of scientific truths being revealed long before scientists recognized and proved those realities. In Isaiah 40:22 – “He (God) sits enthroned above the circle of the earth…” Imagine that, the Bible declared that the earth was round over 1100 years before Columbus and 350 years before Aristotle first argued that the earth must be round, not flat.
How about Job, who lived over 4,000 years ago. He recorded God’s question found in Job 38:16 – “Have you entered into the springs of the sea…” Wow! The existence of springs in the ocean was not discovered until 1977 almost 4,000 years later. The last half of that verse states: “…or have you walked in the recesses of the sea?” Amazing! Those recesses were not discovered until 1873 almost 3,900 years after Job declared it.
I am reminded of Matthew Fontaine Murray a Naval Sea Captain who discovered the ‘paths of the sea’. He was a navigator and discovered that vital navigational information did not exist for sailing many waters. His quest was spurred by the Bible. He was quite ill and asked his daughter to read the Bible to him. She began reading Psalm 8 and in the eighth verse read, “whosoever walked through the paths of the sea.” He stopped her and had her repeat it. Then he said, “The paths of the sea, the paths of the sea. If God says there are paths in the sea, if I ever get will I will find them.”
He was also inspired by Ecclesiastes 1:6 – “The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits, the wind returns.” He determined that based on that declaration it was logical to believe that in certain places the wind would blow predominately from one direction and that knowledge would be of infinite value to sailing ships.
We dare not omit the directions that God gave Moses regarding sanitary conditions, medical procedures, and treatment. Through Moses the value of quarantine. It was not until the 14th century that the practice was embraced. The ports in Venice and Genoa first refused immigrants who might be carriers or infected with the Bubonic plague. Even in the 17th and 18th centuries leprosy spread over southern Europe until the practices of Moses in the Bible were enacted. Moses disinfected the patient’s clothing, bed, and house. The leper was required to wear a covering up to his upper lip and was quarantined on certain occasions.
The health and hygiene of the Israelites in the wilderness enabled them to survive. They adopted practices that were not universally embraced and look remarkably like modern practices. Dr. M.R. DeHaan, who received his M.D. from the University of Illinois Medical School practiced medicine and later became a preacher. He offered a vital view of science and the Bible especially through Israel in the wilderness.
Dr. DeHaan wrote: “We ask the question since Moses was educated in all these [Egyptian] superstitions and primitive practices, how does it happen that he does not teach or recommend these remedies in his writings? Although he deals in detail and great length with diseases, the treatment of infections, leprosy, and running sores, yet the illusions, deceptions, gross errors, and superstitions concerning anatomy, physiology, pathology, and treatment of diseases as taught in the highest schools of learning in Egypt from which Moses was a graduate [Acts 7:22], are never taught or even suggested in the books of Moses. But instead, the instructions Moses laid down for Israel were utterly at variance with the accepted practices of that day, and fully in harmony with modern-day scientific facts.”
Science is confirmed by the Bible rather than the Bible confirmed by science. Science, or man, has been slow to appreciate, understand, or discover the truths of God’s Word from thousands of years ago. With each scientific discovery, previously revealed in the Bible, my faith grows stronger.
Thus, I can say on this day, Christmas Eve as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, I believe it to be a factual reality because I believe the Bible is THE WORD OF GOD! I have a personal relationship with my Savior and know that my life has been changed through that relationship. My experience and subsequent years of pursuing Him and His purposes have produced a peace that is beyond my ability to adequately explain.
I do not care what day Jesus was born or even what month. I believe He was born of a virgin as the Bible declares. I believe that He lived a sinless life, as the Bible declares. I believe He died on the Cross for my sins as the Bible declares. I believe that He rose from the dead and has ascended to the right hand of the Father, just like the Bible says. I believe that He is preparing a place for me and will come back to take me to my eternal home, just like the Bible declares. I BELIEVE!
MERRY CHRISTMAS! The agreement of science with the Bible helps inspire our confidence in God and His Word! I do not care what your political affiliation or religious affiliation is, God is the answer and He is our Hope! I pray for each one today and ask that God will grant each a very Joyous Celebration! May you have health and blessings!
God bless you and God bless America!
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