Many of the great pioneers of science believed in the Bible, and in God as the Creator, including Sir Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, Robert Boyle, Lord Kelvin, James Joule, Louis Pasteur and Johannes Kepler. Yet today one often hears dismissive statements such as “Science has disproved the Bible” or ‘The Bible is not a science textbook.” Whilst the Bible is not a science textbook (just as well or it would soon be out of date), if it is God’s word then we should expect that where it does address scientific issues, it will be accurate. The German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), whose three laws of planetary motion set the scene for modern astronomy, is credited with saying that through his study of the Universe, he was “thinking God’s thoughts after him.” In fact, the Bible makes statements that show it has often been centuries ahead of science. We will look at a selection of these remarkable revelations.
God ‘hangs the earth on nothing’
The book of Job is set at the time of the patriarchs and is viewed by many as the Bible’s oldest book, probably written around 1500 BC. It makes the following statement concerning what God did at creation: He hangs the earth on nothing (Job 26:7). That the earth is ‘hung on nothing’ is now accepted truth but for so long this was not so. Hindu writings described the earth as sitting on the back of four elephants who in turn stood on a giant turtle (which in turn was swimming in the sea). Even into the late 19th century many scientists believed that a substance called ‘ether’ existed and somehow held the earth in position. The earth is indeed not supported by anything but hangs in space. It is in a fine balance where the earth’s mass and velocity in orbit is balanced against the pull of our sun’s gravity, keeping it @ 93 million miles away from the sun. It was only with Isaac Newton around 3,500 years later, that we first began to understand the mysterious force we call gravity.
God sits above the ‘circle’ of the earth
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth (Isaiah 40:22). These words were written by the prophet Isaiah about 700BC. The Hebrew ‘chug’ (חוּג) which is translated ‘circle’, can also be translated ‘sphere’. Because God is omnipresent, He looks down upon the earth from every direction. Therefore, from God’s heavenly perspective – looking down upon the earth from every location – the earth would appear round from every perspective only if it were a sphere. The Bible was ahead of its time as many ancient cultures subscribed to belief in a flat earth until Greek philosophers beginning in the 5th century BC. Aristotle (4th century B.C.) supported this view, noting for instance that during a lunar eclipse, the Earth’s shadow is round. The flat earth view remained among many into the Middle Ages and in China the view that the earth was flat was widely held into the 17th century. Luke 17:34–36 depicts Christ’s second coming as happening while some are asleep in that night whilst others are working grinding together or labouring in the field during the day. This indicates a rotating earth with day and night at the same time. The realisation that the earth is rotating came 18 centuries later in 1851 when physicist Léon Foucault, using a pendulum, demonstrated that the earth is rotating.
The stars “cannot be numbered”
In the Bible, God says that it is impossible for any man to number the stars: “As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so I will multiply the descendants of David My servant, and the Levites who minister to Me.” (Jeremiah 33:22). These words date back to around 600 BC but the same truth that man would not be able to number the stars is also in the book of Genesis dating back to the 15th century BC when God emphasised to Abraham that his descendants would be innumerable: ‘Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ (Genesis 15:5). Ptolemy in 2nd century, in a star catalogue still being used in Middle Ages, identified 1022 stars. With the naked eye on a clear night, the total number of individual stars visible in both the northern and the southern celestial hemispheres is about 6,000. Galileo (1564–1642), using his homemade telescope, saw a ten-fold increase in the number of visible stars, up to 30,000. The total number of stars in the observable universe in recent years has been estimated to be 10 to the power of 22 – a number so vast that if a computer counted 10 million a second, it would take 63 million years. Some astronomers are now saying the number is 10 to the power of 25 (1 followed by 25 zeros) but in truth no human knows how many stars there are. It has taken science millennia to catch up with the Bible on this.
Hygiene and Health Laws in the Torah
God gave hundreds of statutes, judgments and laws, to the children of Israel through Moses (Leviticus 26:46). Moses said: “And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?” (Deuteronomy 4:8). Many of these laws dating from around 1500 BC written by Moses in the Torah (especially in Leviticus), concerned health laws – laws that doctors and scientists learned centuries and millennia later were essential in reducing sickness and mortality rates. These laws included instructions on quarantine for leprosy and plague (Leviticus 13), and strict rules for handling dead bodies (Numbers 19:11-22).
Human waste carries viral and bacterial diseases and for centuries was left in the open by many societies, and still is in many countries, with rivers still used for toilets and for bathing. It is estimated that over 3.5 million people die annually from diseases caused by contaminated water – mainly due to poor sanitation and it remains one of the biggest causes of mortality, especially among children. Yet through Moses, God gave directions for the safe disposal of human waste: “Also you shall have a place outside the camp, where you may go out; and you shall have an implement among your equipment, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse” (Deuteronomy 23:12-13). History is filled with epidemics of typhus, cholera and dysentery, linked to the harmful dumping of human waste into streets and rivers. Burying human waste broke the life cycle of many parasitic organisms that spread disease. Now in relatively modern times with the invention of the microscope and ability to detect bacteria and sub-atomic particles, we can understand how prescient and wise these Biblical laws were.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood
Blood is vital to the function of every cell of every component in our bodies. Cells need food to survive, grow, repair themselves and to fulfil their specific functions, as well as to reproduce. Cellular food is transported in blood to provide energy for the needs of cells. Ultimately, around 1620, the English doctor and creationist scientist William Harvey discovered how blood circulated around the body. He stated that blood flowed in a closed circuit – it was conserved, which means that the blood was not consumed by the organs. His discovery went against centuries of medical thought. Blood regulates acidity and alkalinity (pH), provides oxygen and removes carbon dioxide and other waste products. Our blood also carries essential vitamins and minerals. Blood preserves and supports life by transporting nutrients to every cell of the body. Thus, we now know that the life of the flesh is indeed in the blood as the Bible declared when Moses wrote in the 15th century BC: For the life of the flesh is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11). Even as few as 200 years ago, this Biblical reality was disregarded when it was common to attempt to cure people by draining their blood.
Circumcision on the eighth day
Circumcision marked the covenant established with Abraham which would have taken place around 2000 BC: He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations…(Genesis 17:12). Medical science has since discovered that it is at the eighth day when the two essential blood coagulating factors in the blood -prothrombin and vitamin K – are at their peak. It was in the 1930s, that Danish researcher Henrik Dam discovered vitamin K and American researcher Edward Doisy identified its structural properties and its vital role in in causing blood to clot. These two scientists shared the 1943 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this research. Circumcision on the eighth day maximises quick recovery and healing from this procedure and again the revelation of the Bible is seen to be many years ahead of scientific research.
The Inspired Revelation of the Bible
This article has given several examples of remarkable revelations in the Bible of facts of science that were subsequently confirmed by scientists many centuries later. How do we explain the remarkable accuracy of the Scriptures? The Bible gives us its own answer: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). The Bible is ‘inspired’ that is ‘God-breathed’. It is the precious gift of God’s word to us revealing temporal and eternal truths.
