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Is Our Bible a Myth
Or The
Inspired Word of God?
2008
The cover article in the August
30th issue of NEWSWEEK revealed an ongoing
problem in contemporary Biblical Archeology. There are a few
atheists dedicated to raising any absurdity to negate
archeological digs that indicate the Judaic/Christian Bible is
inspired of God. It is not a coincident that they are
pro-Palestinian.
But many fields of science attest
the Divine inspiration of our Bible. Why? The Creator and God of
the universe is the God of science—the author of the scientific
laws that govern His universe. Only the God of science could
cause scientific facts to be recorded in a book—our
Bible—hundreds or thousands of years before scientists
discovered them.
The following are remarkable
examples of this fact.
What Holds the Earth Up?
Three thousand years ago Hindu
Scriptures recorded that the Earth was resting on the backs of
several huge elephants. The elephants were resting on the back
of a large turtle that was swimming in a sea. Greek mythology
claimed the god Atlas was holding the Earth on his shoulders.
But the Judaic Bible says in Job
26:7 — “[God] hanged the Earth on nothing.” What a remarkable
statement of fact. The Earth is suspended in space. Nothing
tangible holds it up. Job wrote about the same time the Hindu
Scriptures were written. How did Job know this scientific fact?
Only God could have revealed it to Job.
Sun, Moon and Stars — Who?
What?
Ancient people were afraid of the
Sun, Moon and stars. They thought they were alive—that they were
gods. Also Eclipses are an example of what people feared. An
eclipse happens when the Sun’s light is blocked by the Earth or
Moon. The Moon is bright because it reflects the Sun’s light.
But when the Earth blocks that light, the Moon looks like it is
disappearing. Also, when the Moon comes between the Earth and
the Sun, it looks like the Sun is disappearing.
This was frightening to the
ancients. Some thought eclipses happened when the Moon was mad
at the Earth and turned its face away. The Chinese believed that
an eclipse was caused by a demon or some huge animal that ate
the Sun and then regurgitated it. God told Jeremiah (10:2, KJV),
“Thus said the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be
not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are
dismayed at them.” God went on to reassure Jeremiah, the Hebrew
Prophet, that the universe was under God’s control.
Later scientists learned that the
heavenly bodies were not alive and that humankind need not fear
them. Thousands of years before scientists discovered that the
planetary bodies were inanimate, the Judaic/Christian Bible
contained this scientific fact.
The Bottom of the Ocean
Until modern times people thought
the ocean floor was sandy like the desert and saucer
shaped—deepest in the middle. This was even true of the pre-1900
geologists. But in the 1900s oceanographers found the sea had
many deep valleys or canyons. The deepest canyons were called
trenches. The Mariana Trench in the Pacific is so deep that if
Mt. Everest (over 29,000 feet high) was dropped into it, the
peak would still be a mile below the water’s surface. There are
also underwater mountains. The Atlantic Ocean has an undersea
range of mountains 10,000 miles long.
But 3,000 years ago the Hebrew
Scriptures spoke of the valleys and mountains of the sea. In
Psalm 18:15 (NIV), David wrote of God being the Creator of “the
valleys of the sea.” God asked Job (38:16, NIV), “Have you
walked in the recesses [valleys] of the sea?” Jonah was thrown
off a ship and spoke of falling to the bottom of the mountains
in the sea. (Jonah 2:6) How could our Bible speak of the valleys
and mountains of the sea thousands of years before scientists
discovered them? Divine inspiration.
The Paths of the Sea
Matthew Maury (1806-1873), an
officer in the United States Navy, believed his Bible and loved
reading it. One day Maury was reading about the dominion man was
given over the animals in Psalm 8. He was amazed that verse 8
spoke of the fish and all creatures that swim in the “paths of
the sea.” “Paths of the sea” —How could this be? He never knew
there was such a thing. He was determined to find them.
For 19 years Maury studied
weather, wind, cloud and ocean patterns, as well as old ship
logs. He discovered that the oceans had many paths or currents,
which were like rivers flowing through the sea. By charting
these currents he discovered the best routes for sea travel.
Maury found a connection between the air circulation system and
the ocean currents from Psalms 107:25.
In 1855 Maury wrote the first
book on oceanography and became known as “the Pathfinder of the
seas”—“The father of modern navigation.” For several centuries
before, a few had only a limited knowledge of the paths or
currents of the sea.
Maury received his idea about
ocean currents from reading Psalm 8:8 which was written about
3,000 years ago by the prophet David. David wrote as he was
influenced by God.
Psalm 8:8 also spoke of fish in
the “paths of the seas.” Fishing boats make a good catch in the
currents or paths of the sea. They have learned that this is
where the fish are located.
Air Mass and Water Weight
It was not until the 16th century
that scientists realized air had weight. But long before, Job
28:25 referred to “a weight for the wind” and that God “weigheth
the waters by measure.”
We now know that the weight of
the oceans is in perfect balance with the gravity of the Sun and
Moon.
Hydrologic Cycle and Weather
Patterns
The complete hydrologic cycle of
evaporation, cloud formation and precipitation is explained in
the Scriptures.
Ecclesiastes 1:7 --“All
the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the
place from which the rivers come, there they return again.”
Ecclesiastes 11:3 —
“If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves upon the
earth.”
Job 36:27-29 —
“For He draws up drops of water, which distil as rain from the
mist, which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man.
Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds,
the thunder from His canopy?”
Job 36:28:26-- “God made
decrees [rules] for the rain. And He set a way for the
lightning of the thunder.”
Amos 9:6
--God “calls for the water of the sea. He pours them out on the
land.”
Several thousand years later,
scientists began to discern the “rules for the rain” that Job
talked about. They found that rainfall is part of a process
called the hydrologic cycle. The Sun evaporates water from the
ocean. That water vapor rises and becomes clouds. Water in the
clouds falls back to Earth as rain, collects in streams and
rivers, and makes its way back to the ocean. As we now know, the
process repeats itself continually.
Lightning, Thunder and Rain
Ancient heathen scriptures taught
that lightning bolts were missiles thrown by angry gods. Only
the names of the gods differed. In China, Taoist Scriptures
regarded the rainbow as a deadly rain dragon. In Confucius
Scriptures, the goddess of lightning, Tien Mu, flashed light on
intended victims to enable Lei Kung, the god of thunder, to
launch his deadly bolts accurately.
Since rain is so necessary to
life, ancient people pondered what caused it. Some tried to stab
holes in clouds with spears. The Vedas (Hindu Scriptures)
advised tying a frog with its mouth open to the right tree,
saying the right words, and rain would fall.
Scientists are now beginning to
fully understand God’s “decrees or rules for the rain.” Since 68
B.C. it was thought that somehow thunder triggered the rainfall.
Scientists are beginning to realize that, as stated in Job
28:26, it is lightning that triggers the rain to fall. Job
knew that 3,000 years ago.
Laws of Hygiene
The existence of germs and their
transmission of infection was unknown to medical science until
the mid 1800s. In 1845, Dr. Ignaz
Semmelweis decreased deaths at childbirth from 30% to two
percent by having physicians wash their hands before
examinations. Only in recent years have doctors realized the
seriousness of handwashing in running water to keep germs from
spreading to patients.
Yet thousands of years ago, the
Mosaic Law instructed Israel to wash in running water and wash
contaminated clothing and bedding when encountering possible
causes of infection or disease. Isolation was also used to
prevent contamination. Num. 19:20; Lev. 15:13.
Medical Examinations and
Control
Detailed laws in our Scriptures
reveal an advanced system for controlling contagious diseases
while other nations did not understand the dangers of
infections. Levitical priests were instructed to act as disease
detectors, examining sick individuals and protecting the
community from contamination.
The infected individuals were not
allowed to dwell within the community. Numbers 19:20. Even after
recovering and returning from medical isolation, a person was
subject to strict medical supervision to determine if he was
healed. Leviticus 14:8.
Until this century, people,
except for the Israelites, kept patients with communicable
diseases in their homes—even after death. Family members and
others were exposed to deadly disease.
Contagious Disease
Black Death—the bubonic
plague—killed one out of four persons in the 14th century, an
estimated total of sixty million. People attributed the epidemic
to “bad air” or “evil spirits.” Yet the plague hardly affected
the Jews who were obeying the quarantine laws of Leviticus. Down
through the centuries, these medical and sanitary practices
became a way of life with many Jews in all areas of possible
infections—neglect was a cause of death to the Gentiles.
Leprosy had killed millions in
Europe. People thought leprosy was “brought on by eating hot
food, pepper, garlic and the meat of diseased hogs” or by malign
conjunction of the planets. Finally when the sanitary
legislation of isolation in Leviticus 13:43-46 was strictly
followed, leprosy was brought under control.
Basic Hygiene
Over 3,000 years ago, the
sanitation laws in Deuteronomy 23:13-14 required the burial of
human excrement to protect Israel from deadly epidemics. Until
the 18th century, human excrement was dumped into unpaved
streets, spreading diseases that killed millions.
In contrast to our Bible, Ancient
Egyptian documents, similar to other ancient cultures, detail
pharmacies prescribing: “Lizards’ blood, swine’ teeth, putrid
meat, stinking fat, moisture from pigs’ ears,.. animal fats …excreta
from animals, including human beings, donkeys, antelopes,
dogs, cats, and even flies.” Egyptian medicine used “cat’s
dung,” “hippopotamus dung,” and “fly dung.”
War histories reveal that five
times as many soldiers died from disease as from battle wounds.
Military casualties of the Boer War in South Africa (1899-1902)
indicate infections from exposure to germs generated from dung
incapacitated or killed five times more soldiers than those
killed in combat.
The sanitary standards demanded
in the Judaic/Christian Bible protected the armies of ancient
Israel from the massive infectious deaths sustained by armies
down through history until the start of the 19th century.
Relation Between the Body and
Mind
Current research reveals the
close relationship between physical and mental health. But our
Bible acknowledged the correlation between mind and body over
3,000 years ago.
“A sound heart is the life of the
flesh: but envy is the rottenness of the bones.” Proverbs 14:30
“The light of the eyes rejoices
the heart: and a good report makes the bones fat [healthy].”
Proverbs 15:30
“Pleasant words are as an
honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.” Proverbs
16:24
“A merry heart does good like a
medicine: but a broken spirit dries the bones.” Proverbs 17:22
Only the Judaic/Christian Bible
passes the scientific test for inspiration. Several thousand
years before their scientific discovery, the God of science had
these facts recorded in His Scriptures.
It is one thing to know our Bible
is inspired and another thing to understand the Bible. Certainly
a blessing comes from just reading the Bible, but an in-depth
understanding of its rich gems of truth can only be obtained by
a systematic topical study. |
