Scientific Facts in the Bible, Part 3

“The study of the Book of Job and its comparison with the latest scientific discoveries has brought me to the matured conviction that the Bible is an inspired book and was written by the One who made the stars.”

Charles Burckhalter, Chabot Observatory

Kirk Cameron’s Comment

While scientific evidence can persuade the mind, the conscience persuades the heart. If we are successful in convincing the mind, but fail to turn the heart, all is still lost for the now intellectually convinced sinner. Facts open the mind, while the Ten Commandments prepare the soil of the heart, both working together to prepare the way for the gospel.

Questions & Objections

Lesson

The Scriptures inform us, “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from where the rivers come, there they return again” (Ecclesiastes 1:7). This statement alone may not seem profound. But when considered with other biblical passages, it becomes all the more remarkable. For example, the Mississippi River dumps approximately 6 million gallons of water per second into the Gulf of Mexico. Where does all that water go? And that’s just one of thousands of rivers. The answer lies in the hydrologic cycle, so well brought out in the Bible.

Ecclesiastes 11:3 states that “if the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth.” Amos 9:6 tells us, “He ... calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth.” Job stated, “[God] made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder” (Job 28:26). Centuries later, scientists began to discern the “decrees [rules] for the rain.” Rainfall is part of a process called the “water cycle.” The sun evaporates water from the ocean. The water vapor then rises and becomes clouds. This water in the clouds falls back to earth as rain, collects in streams and rivers, and then makes its way back to the ocean. That process repeats itself again and again. The idea of a complete water cycle was not fully understood until the seventeenth century. However, more than 2,000 years prior to the discoveries of Pierre Perrault, Edme Mariotte, Edmund Halley, and others, the Scriptures clearly spoke of a water cycle.

Solomon described a “cycle” of air currents 2,000 years before scientists “discovered” them. “The wind goes toward the south, and turns about to the north; it whirls about continually, and the wind returns again according to his circuits” (Ecclesiastes 1:6).

The Bible speaks of “the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passes through the paths of the seas” (Psalm 8:8). What does the Bible mean by “paths of the seas”? Man discovered the existence of ocean currents in the 1850s, but the Bible declared the science of oceanography 2,800 years ago. Matthew Maury (1806–1873), considered the father of oceanography, noticed the expression “paths of the sea” in Psalm 8:8. “If God said there are paths in the sea,” Maury stated, “I am going to find them.” Maury took God at His Word and went looking for these paths. We are indebted to his discovery of the warm and cold continental currents. His book on oceanography remains a basic text on the subject and is still used in universities. Maury used the Bible as a guide to a scientific discovery; if only more would use the Bible as a guide in their personal lives.

Only in recent years has man discovered that there are mountains on the ocean floor. This was revealed in the Bible thousands of years ago. While deep in the ocean, Jonah cried, “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains...” (Jonah 2:6). The reason the Bible and true science harmonize is that they have the same author.

The Bible speaks not just about the physical qualities of our universe, but about our bodies as well. Genesis 3:15 reveals that a female possesses a “seed” for childbearing. This was not common knowledge until a few centuries ago. It was widely believed that only the male possessed the “seed of life” and that the woman was nothing more than a “glorified incubator.”

The great biological truth concerning the importance of blood in our body’s mechanism has been fully comprehended only in recent years. Until 120 years ago, sick people were “bled,” and many died because of the practice. If you lose your blood, you lose your life. Yet Leviticus 17:11, written 3,000 years ago, declared that blood is the source of life: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.”

Medical science has only recently discovered that blood clotting in a newborn reaches its peak on the eighth day, then drops. The Bible consistently says that a baby must be circumcised on the eighth day—the day that the coagulating factor in the blood, prothrombin, is the highest.

Encyclopedia Britannica documents that in 1845, a young doctor in Vienna named Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis was horrified at the terrible death rate of women who gave birth in hospitals. As many as 30 percent died after giving birth. Semmelweis noted that doctors would examine the bodies of patients who died, then, without washing their hands, go straight to the next ward and examine expectant mothers. This was their normal practice, because the presence of microscopic diseases was unknown. Dr. Semmelweis insisted that doctors wash their hands before examinations, and the death rate immediately dropped to 2 percent.

Look at the specific instructions God gave His people for when they encounter disease: “And when he that has an issue is cleansed of his issue; then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean” (Leviticus 15:13). Until recent years, doctors washed their hands in a bowl of water, leaving invisible germs on their hands. However, the Bible says specifically to wash under “running water.”

Grant R. Jeffery stated in The Signature of God, “During the devastating Black Death of the fourteenth century, patients who were sick or dead were kept in the same rooms as the rest of the family. People often wondered why the disease was affecting so many people at one time. They attributed these epidemics to ‘bad air’ or ‘evil spirits.’ However, careful attention to the medical commands of God as revealed in Leviticus would have saved untold millions of lives. Arturo Castiglione wrote about the overwhelming importance of this biblical medical law: ‘The laws against leprosy in Leviticus 13 may be regarded as the first model of sanitary legislation’ (A History of Medicine).”

Preacher’s Progress

A sample witnessing conversation, written in the style of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Feathers for Arrows

Just as the eighth day was the God-given timing for circumcision (Genesis 17:12), there is a God-given timing for every person who is “circumcised with the circumcision made without hands” (Colossians 2:11). Jesus appeared to Thomas on the eighth day. What Thomas saw cut away the flesh of his unbelieving heart. He became a Jew inwardly as his circumcision became “that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter” (Romans 2:29). Thomas bowed his heart to Jesus of Nazareth as his Lord and his God. He needed a miracle, and God graciously gave it to him. Each of us is dealt with individually by God; some get incredible spiritual manifestations at conversion. Others quietly trust the promises of God, and God reveals Himself to them through faith rather than feelings of great joy. What matters is not how each of us came to Christ, but that we became new creatures in Christ, because that is the real miracle that proves the reality of salvation.

This is what Paul meant when he wrote, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature” (Galatians 6:15).

Questions

1. Which passages in the Bible describe the water cycle, over 2,000 years before “modern man” discovered it?
2. Which book of the Bible mentioned a “cycle” of air currents centuries before scientists discovered it?
3. Cite an example where the Bible served as a catalyst for a scientific discovery.
4. Why is it that the Bible and true science do not contradict each other?
5. Why did God specify that circumcision be done on the eighth day?
6. What life-saving medical advice can be found in Leviticus?

Answers to these review questions are provided in the back of the printed book / source PDF.

Memory Verse

“I am he that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”

Revelation 1:18

Last Words

Louis XIV (1638–1715), King of France: “Why do you weep? Did you think I was immortal?”

Louis XIV