Discoveries

I was cruising through the grocery store one day when a book caught my eye entitled, “Scientific Facts of the Bible: 100 Reasons to Believe the Bible is Supernatural in Origin” written by Ray Comfort. Wait. What? The Bible is just a series of poetic stories, parables, and gospels, right? I purchased the book and it has quickly become one of my favorites as it documents verses from the Bible in light of our current knowledge of medicine, the physical sciences, archaeology, and history.

One thing to notice is that the book title does not say scientific PROOF, it says scientific FACTS. This is noteworthy I think because the book is describing interesting observations about information presented in Scripture before the writers could have knowledge from our current age of reason. I would suggest that this could reveal evidence of “intelligent design” as the words appear to support our current knowledge of research which would validate Scripture as penned by man but inspired by God.

I am not saying the Bible can be proven with the use of the scientific formula. I am saying that there is interesting information hidden within the verses. I am also saying that to look back through the pages of Scripture in light of today’s scientific discoveries can be illuminating. How did the writers from thousands of years ago know what science had yet to discover? Of course it would only make sense that God would know the secrets of His world as He inspired His message to humanity through the words of Scripture. Almost like bread crumbs or nuggets of truth to be revealed slowly through the passage of time as men and woman discovered and researched their world.

The Bible instructs the Jewish people to circumcise their male babies on the eighth day of their new life (Genesis 17:12). Circumcision was directed by God to the Jewish people as a token of an eternal covenant (or agreement) as to God’s promise to Abraham for descendants in his old age, protection, gifted land, and a future as a mighty nation (Bible.org). It has also been found to be important for for health and hygiene reasons in modern times (www.bbc.com). Medical science has discovered the eighth day of life in a newborn is the exact day where coagulation (the clotting of the blood) is at its peak. I have found this information also referenced in “Circumcision-The Day When Blood Coagulation Begins” (Hildabroot.com). The importance and timing of Vitamin K as a clotting factor in the life of a newborn was not discovered until 1935 CE by scientist Henrik Dam (Apologeticspress.org).

One of my favorite astronomy pictures is the one where the earth is shown from the perspective of deep space making it look like a big blue marble with white swirls. It was from the 1972 Apollo 17 mission and can be viewed on NASA.gov entitled “The Big Blue Marble”. The Bible states in Isaiah 40:22, “It is He who sits enthroned upon the circle of the earth….” and that “He hangs the earth upon nothing” in Job 26:7, which exactly describes the picture. According to Comfort, Isaiah the prophet wrote this verse between 740 to 680 BCE and at least 300 years before Aristotle considered the possibility of a spherical earth. As a side note, in 2017 CE archaeological evidence unearthed a physical reference which documents the existence of Isaiah and the king in reign during that time as referenced in the Bible (Newsweek 2018).

In Psalm 8:8 the Bible documents the existence of “paths in the seas” . Matthew Maury (1806 – 1873 CE) upon reading this passage set out to discover if the Bible was accurate in its statement and is known to have discovered the warm and cold continental currents known as the Gulf Stream (answersingenesis.org). Maury is now known as the Father of Oceanography and is also considered the “pathfinder of the sea” (sea sky.org). In Maury’s own words, “The Bible is true and science is true, and therefore each, if truly read, but proves the truth of the other” (Creation.com).

According to the Bible the Lord instructed the Jewish people in health guidelines before science discovered the existence of harmful bacteria. In Leviticus 15:13 the Lord provided guidelines for washing the …”flesh in running water, and you shall be clean”. Leviticus was written across a period of time and was considered finalized during the Persian Period between 538 to 332 BCE (Wikipedia.com). According to Comfort, it wasn’t until 1845 CE that a doctor instituted the use of running water versus a bowl of water resulting in a drop of the death rate of women at birth from 30 percent to 2 percent. The complete story about the Hungarian doctor, Ignaz Semmelweis can be read in an NPR article entitled, “The Doctor Who Championed Hand Washing and Briefly Saved Lives” (January 2015).

These are but a few of the 100 or more examples discovered in the Scriptures. I hope from these you can begin to consider the Truth found in the Bible and its relevance to our present world. I believe in science, but not the part that seeks to deny the existence of a higher power through humanistic reasoning. I encourage you to consider how the Bible in ancient times has appeared to reference scientific discoveries of our current age as a catalyst for considering its supernatural origins.