The Challenge to Christendom
There seems to be an increasing movement to discredit the Bible and to position Christianity as irrelevant or worse, an impediment to human growth and development. It is a yoke imposed by a few religious fanatics that curtail personal freedom and causes friction among people.
Christianity it is claimed refuses to accept known scientific facts preferring to rely on blind faith.
Some of this new fervour to discredit the Bible can be directly linked to the push for homosexuality to be accepted as normal behaviour. It is the Bible that roundly condemns homosexuality and it is that condemnation that has led to it being outlawed.
If the Bible can be discredited as the mindless and selfish babbling of fanatics then its teachings – including God’s displeasure with homosexuality – can be discounted. Then the issue can be settled simply on the basis of a debating of ideas among men. There would be no reference to a higher authority.
Is there any rational basis for Christians to refuse to accept documented scientific evidence?
The Bible has revealed scientific facts long before the world’s scientists recognised those facts. If the Bible writers were able to get those things right, the question is “Where did they get that knowledge?”
Another question is “If scientists were wrong when they were so sure on matters such as the shape of the earth, why do we now accept their theories in preference to what the Bible clearly states?”
Gen. 1:9-10 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
Round earth
How did Isaiah get it right that the earth was round when all mankind thought it was flat?
The Bible revealed that the earth is round. Job 26:10, Prov 8:27, Isaiah 40:22, Amos 9:6. The Bible revealed the truth in 1000 B.C. 2500 years before man discovered it for himself! http://www.bible.ca/b-science-evidences.htm
In various verses, the Bible says the earth is round and hangs in space. It took a long time for science to catch up and reach the same conclusions. Copernicus made the discovery in 1475.
Is 40: 22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.
Springs under the sea
How would Job know about springs of the seas?
Job 38:16 Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth? Consider the following:
Such springs have been located off the coasts of Greece, Italy, Israel, and Syria.- Off the coast of Australia, fresh water may be dipped in abundance from the sea.
- In 1976 the U. S. Geological Survey discovered fresh water in the Atlantic along the seacoast from New England to Georgia.
The Bible described the Hydrologic Cycle:
Revealed in the Bible: Job 36:27-28 The water cycle was not fully understood until about 30 B.C. by a Roman engineer named Marcus Vitruvius. Yet every aspect of the water cycle was fully revealed to mankind in 1600 B.C.!
The Bible's description is in perfect harmony with modern science. Eccl 1:6-7; 11:3; Job 26:8; Amos 9:6. Vitruvius was 1600 years too late!
In various passages, the Bible describes a hydrologic cycle, the process by which clouds are formed, rain is produced and ground water is replenished. Science made the same discovery in the 1600s, long after the Bible passages were written.
Here are the related Bible verses:
Job 26: 8He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them.
Job 36: 27For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof:
28Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly.
Limits on the seas
Job 38: 8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, 9 when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, 10 when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, 11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?
280,000 Cubic miles of water flow into our seas every year, yet they get no fuller.
Eccl. 1:7 - All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
Is this not the principle of evaporation and condensation?
How did Job know of this?
Ref: Tom Bright www.oabs.org
Stars
The Bible stated that the stars cannot be counted: For centuries, scientists and astronomers thought they could count the precise number of stars in the universe. Brahe, for example, said there were 777. Kepler claimed the total was 1,005. Hipparchus said there were 1,022 stars. Ptolemy raised the number to 1,056. Eventually, scientists, including the great Galileo, concluded that the stars could not be numbered, just as the Bible had always claimed:
" As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me. " (Jeremiah 33:22).
5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. " (Genesis 15:5).
Evolution
All the observable facts of science strongly support the Bible's claim that it is impossible for one kind to reproduce a different kind. The truth is, there is absolutely no tangible evidence to support evolution from any area of science, just theory and a wild imagination!
But if the Bible is wrong and man actually did evolve in small graduations over a long period of time, we should find ample fossil evidence of links in intermediate stages of transition. For decades, evolutionists have searched for fossils of these links to prove biblical creation wrong. Although millions of fossils have been unearthed, not even one missing link has ever been found. Has it ever occurred to you that this is the reason why scientists refer to them as missing links?
Even Charles Darwin realized the difficulty missing links gave his theory. Darwin wrote in his book, Origin Of The Species, "Why, if species have descended from other species by fine graduation, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion, instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined?"
The reason we have never found any missing links is quite simple. Darwin's theory of evolution is wrong!
Experts tricked for 40 years! In 1912, Arthur Woodward announced to the world that he had found the missing link between ape and man. Piltdown Man, as he called it, consisted of a jaw bone and a piece of skull which he estimated to be over 500,000 years old! However, in 1953, when the new fluoride dating process was applied to the bones, scientists were shocked to learn that the jaw bone was less than 50 years old.
Only then did they notice that the bones and teeth had been treated with salts and filed to make them appear old and primitive. In other words, Piltdown Man was a complete fraud. Take note Bible student! The world's foremost scientific experts had been fooled for over 40 years!
(1 Corinthians 3:18-20- 18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. 19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 20And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.) For almost a half century, evolutionists pushed Piltdown Man in the faces of Bible believers as scientific proof we evolved from apes! Some proof!
Reference: http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/ScientificBible.htm
The Accuracy of the Bible versus changes in Medical Science
How did Moses indicate knowledge of the germ theory?
Under the law of Moses, the Israelites were given a system of hygiene that not only distinguished them from their neighbours, but also prevented the diseases and plagues of their day. The strictures given by Moses were entirely different than anything that man knew in that day and time.
The Papyrus Ebers is a medical book written about 1522 B.C. and occupied a dominant position in the ancient medical world. It is of great importance as a record of the medical knowledge of that day.
Let it be remembered, that it was at about this time that Moses was being raised as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Let us note some of the things prescribed in the Papyrus Ebers:
“To prevent the hair from turning gray, anoint it with the blood of a black calf which has been boiled in oil, or with the fat of a rattlesnake.”
This prescription was given for people who were losing their hair: “When it falls out, one remedy is to apply a mixture of six fats, namely those of the horse, the hippopotamus, the crocodile, the cat, the snake, and the ibex. To strengthen it, anoint with the tooth of a donkey crushed in honey.”
To embedded splinters they applied worm's blood and asses' dung.
Since dung is loaded with tetanus spores, do you suppose that lockjaw took a heavy toll of splinter cases?
Hundreds of remedies for various diseases are advised in the Papyrus Ebers. These include lizard's blood, swine's teeth, stinking fat, putrid meat, moisture from pig's ears, asses' hooves, milk, goose grease, animal fats from various sources, excreta from animals, including human beings, donkeys, antelopes, dogs, cats, and even flies.
When we consider what this medical journal recommended for various things, realizing that Moses was evidently taught these same things and then compare it with the strictures of the law of Moses outlined in Leviticus.
The law demonstrated a clear knowledge of germ theory, communicable disease and the practice of isolation. We can only come to the conclusion that the law of Moses could not have come from the knowledge and wisdom that man enjoyed at that time. That knowledge had to be inspired from a source outside of man.
The Bible proves to be accurate even in the face of powerful scientific “knowledge”. If man is wrong and ignorant about so many things that the Bible speaks accurately about, why should we accept man’s theory on other matters where the two disagree?
Ref: Tom Bright www.oabs.org
THE BIBLE AND PROPHECY
How could the writers of the Bible foretell the destruction of cities years, many times, centuries before their destruction, such as Tyre, Sidon, Nineveh, and Babylon?
1. Babylon - Isa. 13:19-22; 14:22-23; Jer. 50:12-13; 50:26,38-39; 51:25-26; 51: 36-37.
2. Tyre - Ezek. 26:3-5, 7-9, 12-14; Joel 3:5-8; Zech. 9:3-4.
3. Nineveh - Zephaniah and Nahum.
4. Sidon (Zidon) - Ezek. 28:20-23.
How could Isaiah name Cyrus 100 years before he was born and cite his proclamation freeing the Jews from Babylonian captivity and even speaking of his benevolence in supplying the money and material with which they should lay the foundation for the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem (Isa. 44:28).
Isa 28 who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.”’
How can all of the foregoing be true?
How can mere man make "prescientific" statements?
How can mere man "anticipate" history?
How can mere man accurately speak of things that are hundreds of years in the future?
2 Pet. 1:21
The Holy Spirit directed the writings, as well as, the utterances of these men.
The things they wrote were under the guidance of God.
This is INSPIRATION!!
WHAT IS THE ANSWER?
How could these men have written all of the things mentioned of and by and through their own knowledge?
Can we say that they were mere guesses?
Was it merely by chance that these statements, which have now been proven to be true, were made?
There is only one logical answer:
These men wrote by inspiration of God.
Any explanation that would have them speaking or writing by any other means would not answer the problem of the absolute ACCURACY with which they wrote.
The writers of the Bible were guided by Him who was the Creator of all things that be in existence.
The Bible speaks of God as being Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient.
All powerful, everywhere present and knows all things.
Only such a One as this could have guided the writers of the Bible; only He could have known all things, thus, only He could have revealed these things.
THE BIBLE IS “GOD-BREATHED” - INSPIRED OF GOD
2 Tim. 3:16-17
2 Pet. 1:20-21
2 Sam. 23:2
Matt. 1:22-23 (compare with Isaiah 7:14)
Acts 1:16,20 (compare with Psalms 69:25 & 109:8)
Heb. 3:7-11 (compare with Psalms 95:7-11)
Mark 13:11
1 Cor. 2:9-13
WHAT THE BIBLE SHOULD MEAN TO US.
Heb. 1:1-2
God has spoken.
God has spoken through His Son.
John 12:48-50
Judged by His words.
His words are the Father's commandment.
His words will give “life everlasting.”
His words are “spirit” and “life.”
John 6:63. 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”
James 1. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
THE BIBLE IS GOD'S INSPIRED WORD TO MAN
Do not add to, nor subtract from the Word of God.
Deut. 4:2. 2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.
Prov. 30: 5- 6. 5 “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 6 Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.
Rev. 22:18-19. 18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. 19 And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
Gal. 1:6-9. No Other Gospel
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
Do not substitute human ideas.
Mark 7:7-12
7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ 8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” 9 And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ 11 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God), 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
Christians need not lose their faith in the face of this new challenge. The Bible has been accurate consistently. Science has been proven wrong consistently.
Where will you place your faith? On the solid rock of the Bible or the shifting sands of science?
No comments:
Post a Comment