by Jim Schicatano
Each book of the Holy Bible is capable of standing alone in terms of spiritual theme and historical information. The lessons unveiled with each progressing passage remain as pertinent and inspiring in today’s modern society as they did at the time of their writing. They are truly a timeless collection of God’s inspired messengers.
While each of us may have a favorite book of the Bible, no book is capable of telling God’s entire story or revealing His entire message.
In various passages throughout the Bible, God reveals many answers to the riddles of science. Each verse is yet another piece of the enigmatic Bible-science puzzle. Together they support each other, strengthen our argument for the existence of a divine Creator, and reveal that the Holy Bible can still withstand the scrutiny of today’s scientific challenges. The passages included below not only support a Biblical Creation, but they present the Bible as being scientifically accurate at a time when its authors had no knowledge of the scientific facts that we take for granted today. Here are some verses of Scripture that are supported by modern science.
THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE AND THE SPHERICAL EARTH
The following verses display two scientific facts that could not have been known at the time of their writing. The first verse, from Isaiah, declares that the Earth is round. All four verses reveal that the universe (the heavens) is expanding (or stretching). During the twentieth century it was discovered that our universe is indeed expanding — and has been expanding since the beginning of time.
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. – Isaiah 40:22 (NIV)
He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. – Psalms 104:2-3 (NIV)
This is what God the Lord says — he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it. – Isaiah 42:5 (NIV)
The Lord speaking:
“It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts.” – Isaiah 45:12 (NIV)
THE EXISTENCE OF SPACE
In the Book of Job it is claimed that the Earth is suspended in emptiness, or space, which Job describes as “nothing.”
“He spreads out the northern [skies] over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing.” – Job 26:7 (NIV)
THE HYDROLOGIC CYCLE
The basic stages of the water cycle are described in the following three verses. The third verse, from Ecclesiastes, may also indicate the sphericity of the Earth.
“He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams; the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind.” – Job 36:27-28 (NIV)
“He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.” – Job 26:8 (NIV)
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. – Ecclesiastes 1:6-7 (NIV)
PLANTS PRECEDED ANIMALS
The Bible places the creation of plants (on the Third Day) before the creation of animals (on the Fifth and Sixth Days). Science is in agreement here. Fossil records demonstrate that plants appeared before animals, both in the sea and on the land.
Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. – Genesis 1:11 (NIV)
And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” – Genesis 1:20 (NIV)
And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. – Genesis 1:24 (NIV)
ANIMAL LIFE BEGAN IN THE SEA
Most scholars will acknowledge that the Biblical Creation story is certainly incomplete from a scientific perspective. Yet, what the Bible does reveal in no way contradicts the scientific evidence. For example, science has learned that the first animal life appeared in the oceans. This correlates nicely with the Biblical record where the first mention of animals in the Bible places them in the Earth’s waters.
And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures…” – Genesis 1:20 (NIV)
THE COUNTLESS STARS
Gaze up into the sky on any starry night and you will witness only a minute fraction of God’s creations. In our galaxy alone there are estimated to be over one hundred billion stars. And in our universe, there are hundreds of millions of galaxies. The stars in the universe then, would seem to be countless. But as you are gazing up into that starry night you might decide to count the stars anyway — and that might be possible. The average person is only capable of seeing a few thousand stars on any given night. Why then does the Bible speak of countless numbers of stars? How can a few thousand visible stars, which can surely be counted, be compared with the number of grains of sand on the seashore? — a number so vast that no one during Biblical times could even begin to estimate it.
Once again, the Bible seems to be revealing a scientific fact (the countless number of stars) that its authors could not have known nor ever have imagined. For the Bible to compare the number of stars and the number of grains of sand on the seashore, would indicate that the stars that exist in the heavens must far exceed that which is visible from the Earth. But how could the Bible’s authors have known this without the inspirational knowledge from God?
This is what the Lord says:
“I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars of the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore.'” – Jeremiah 33:22 (NIV)The angel of the Lord called to Abraham:
“I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,” – Genesis 22:17 (NIV)Jacob in a prayer to God:
“But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.'” – Genesis 32:12 (NIV)The word of the Lord came to Abram:
He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” – Genesis 15:5 (NIV)
THE OCEAN FLOOR
Beneath the ocean’s vast surface was a mysterious, unknown world that possessed wonders beyond the scope of ancient man’s technology. The sailors of that age were no doubt skilled in the art of sea travel. Yet the murky depths of the seas they sailed were as mysterious to them as the distant galaxies of space are to us. It is little wonder then that the writers and storytellers of old conjured up horrifying tales of sea monsters and terrifying creatures of the deep. Man’s imagination is most productive when he possesses the least amount of knowledge.
Even today, there is much about the ocean that remains mysterious and undiscovered. But the contour of the ocean floor is no longer a mystery. We now know that the bottom of the ocean is comprised of great mountain ranges, deep trenches, volcanoes, valleys, and plateaus. We take this knowledge for granted today, yet such information has only been verified in the past century, with the advent of sonar and satellites. How is it possible, then, that the Bible speaks of “valleys” existing beneath the sea?
The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of breath from his nostrils. – 2 Samuel 22:16 (NIV)
GOD’S FINAL CREATION – MAN
Science and the Bible are in agreement on one fundamental aspect of man’s creation – modern man made a very late appearance on planet Earth. The Bible claims that humanity was God’s final creation. Science agrees, maintaining that hundreds of millions of years, and countless millions of creatures of the air, land, and sea would come and go, before man — Homo Sapiens — finally arrived. This harmonization between the Bible and science should not be minimized. This is the one claim that the Bible made about man’s creation that can be scientifically verified — and it has been confirmed.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. – Genesis 1:27 (NIV)
THE BEGINNING OF TIME AND THE UNIVERSE
Lastly, let us examine the very first verse of the Holy Bible. The revelations of this verse are often disregarded or greatly unappreciated, especially when we consider the level of scientific knowledge that existed at the time of its writing. It was not always known that time had a beginning. Many cultures believed that the universe existed in cycles or was eternal. Yet, the very first verse of the Bible states, in simple terms, that both the universe and time did have a beginning. This is a fact that science has since verified with the concept of the Big Bang. Whether this belief originated or was unique to the Hebrews is not as important as the fact that it was the correct belief. For once again, the Bible and science are in perfect harmony.
In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth. – Genesis 1:1 (NIV)
NOTE:
All Biblical references are taken from:
International Bible Society, “The Holy Bible, New International Version“,
(Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984)
