Why I Believe the Bible – Part 2
Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Current scholarship teaches that science contradicts the Bible. Is it true? In today’s context, three toxic factors serve as life support for such a thesis: ignorance, intellect, and inconvenience.
Ignorance fuels false truths by offsetting convictions, which otherwise result from knowing the truth. At its core, ignorance is superficial and complacent. Ignorance plays a lead role in permitting one to merely hear a curriculum or puffed up professor promote the idea that says: “science and scripture are incompatible,” only to process the claim as truth without leaving room for the possibility of skewed facts or personal bias. Considering that the content was given from a “credible” angle, one never weighs the deeper implications or attempts to think critically about what was or is being said. As a result, the Bible becomes a figment of some hallucinogenic imagination and is marginalized as useful for story time yet irreconcilable with reality.
What God said to Israel some 2700 years ago could be said of our nation today:
Hosea 4:6 – “…my people are destroyed from a lack of knowledge.”
Intellect says that God is useless and archaic because man’s knowledge has surpassed His usefulness. What is even worse, the relationship between God and man is now viewed as subjective and optional! The fundamental issue presented by intellectualism is that it crowns its subscriber as a beneficiary to sin and selfishness.
Without God, the difference between right and wrong is abstract. Intellectualism declares that without a God there can be no true distinction between right and wrong. Therefore, do as you please. If that’s the case, where did the internal sentiment of conviction that demands “fair play” originate? The law of fair play begs justice in the face of unacceptable behavior. You might have heard it said, “he shouldn’t have said that,” or “that’s not fair, I was here first.” Such statements, especially when spoken from the viewpoint of a non-Christian, cause one to wonder how it’s even reasonable to demand justice when there is no foremost lawgiver. One might say, “well it’s just impolite to act that way.” Says who? You? If that’s the case then look who makes the rules now. How many people would agree with those rules? What is to be expected of those who disagree? The myriad of questions that ensue when man makes and looks to enforce the law apart from divine guardrails is futile.
Bottom line: if there is no God then there is no objective parameters regarding what is “right and wrong.”
For example, it is considered a violation of “fair play” to have an affair. Have you ever taken time to question where this determination came from? Scientifically speaking, where is the anatomical structure that facilitates a verdict that says “having an affair is wrong”? Logically, if there is no God then there should also be no penalty. Therefore, if there is no final penalty or administration of justice, whose to say the violation was wrong in the first place? Man does, making the conclusion finite and subjective. Intellectualism demands justice, but at the same time causes injustice. The injustice being that one can do whatever he or she wants with no final sentencing, which directly contradicts the definition of justice.
Paul had this to say regarding the intellect of man:
I Corinthians 3:18-20 – “Do not deceive yourselves. If anyone of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a “fool” so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, the Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”
Inconvenience is the driving force that advocates the principles of ignorance and intellect. Ignorance presents the idea that living by convictions is inconvenient, and intellect attests that it is easier to live life by our own rules. Adherence to Inconvenience makes the dismissal of truth, and the dismissal of a higher power, easy and… well, convenient.
The foundation that ignorance so smoothly laid is now having a structure called “me” built upon it. Why? Simply put, the Bible is inaccurate and detached from reality. Because Christ’s claims have now become subservient to the “facts” of empirical science, one can now live his or her life by human standard, which ends up being no standard at all.
Jesus never mixed words about the “inconvenience” of the Gospel. To keep it short and sweet:
Luke 9:23 – “Then he said to them all: If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
Science and scripture are not diametrically opposed. Upon careful examination of God’s word, it is more than reasonable (even to the skeptic) to arrive at the conclusion that the authors of both New and Old Testament manuscripts were well aware of biological and ecological undertakings. Below are 11 scientific truths, with reference points, that counteract academia’s hasty dismissal of scripture. Keep in mind that these references were penned long before any science textbook was...
The spherical shape of the earth:
Isaiah 40:22 – “He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth…”
The earth is suspended:
Job 26:7 – “He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.”
The stars are innumerable:
Genesis 15:5 – “… Look up at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.”
The existence of mountains and canyons in the sea:
II Samuel 22:16 – “The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare…”
The existence of springs and fountains in the sea:
Genesis 7:11 – “… on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.” (Genesis 8:2, Proverbs 8:28)
The existence of “watery paths” (ocean currents) in the sea:
Psalm 8:8 – “… all that swim the paths of the seas.”
The hydrologic cycle:
Ecclesiastes 1:6-7 – “The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.” (Job 26:8; 37:16, 27-28; 38:25-27; Psalm 135:7)
The reproduction of all living things after their own kind:
Genesis 1:21 – “So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind.” (Genesis 6:19)
The nature of health and sanitation concerning sickness, community health, and circumcision:
(Genesis 17:9-14; Leviticus 12-14)
The human bloodstream:
Leviticus 17:11 – “For the life of the creature is in the blood…”
The second law of thermodynamics concerning energy deterioration:
Psalm 102:25-26 – “In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.”
