Who should we acclaim as the author(s) of this book? Should it be men like Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Paul? Should it be followers of Jesus Christ who needed a book to convert others the their religion? or was it possibly as the book claims written by the Creator God of the Universe? 2 Peter 1:21
It stands to reason that if it were in fact written by the God who created us He would have left us some clues as to whether or not this is so.
Let's take a look at some of the evidences, both internal and external and try to reach a conclusion as to who is the writer of this the greatest, most compelling and most controversial book in history.
Isaiah 1:18
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
It has never been the stance of the Bible to shy away from those who examine it and it encourages those who read it to examine the contents. Isaiah claims God is one who is to be reasoned with, and all through the book of Acts Paul reasons with people in the places where he speaks. Acts 17:2, Acts 18:4, Acts 18:19, Acts 24:25. Reason is something which must be backed with fact and logic. If I were to reason with you that all elephants are purple I could give you "eye witness testimony", spectrogram charts, and reverberation of sounds graphed to show that the inference suggests a color of purple. All you would have to do is take me to the local zoo to show me that elephants are in fact gray. Over time only truth stands up to reason as when we find two conflicting "facts" one or both must be wrong. 2+2 cannot equal both 4 and 5.
Our book of study claims to be 100% correct in all aspects it writes about. This is derived from the book as it claims to be written by an infallible God who both inspired it's writting and preserved it through history. Therefore if we can find but one error between the front cover and the back that error will have demolished the claim that the author was infallible. But if we can push the book through the most rigorous of testing, investigate it's claims and determine it's validity then we must come to the only logical conclusion that the book is what it claims to be.
As Sherlock Holmes said, “If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth...”
Our first area of interest is science. Science has become very advanced in this day and age and if we apply this knowledge to a book which in parts is 3500 years old we are certain to find some interesting things as we are at a unique time in history where we are able to confirm or deny many scientific statements made through the centuries.
Science and the Bible
Job, the greatest scientist in the bible.
The book of Job in the Old Testament was written approximately 3500 years ago during a time when we believe they did not have telephones, radios, scanners, telescopes, or many of the other scientific tools we use today; nor do we believe they had a world view where the earth revolved around the sun which was part of a much larger galaxy in the universe yet this book is filled with scientific knowledge.
*The following references are taken from the book of Job*
26:7 - He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. It wasn't until 1650 that scientists figured out that the earth hangs in space
38:13-14 - That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it? It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment. The earth is turned as clay? so the bible is telling me that the earth hangs in space and turns like a top?
38:16 - Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? Researchers didn't know until well into the 1900s that there even were springs in the sea.
38:19 - Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof, Why does he not say where is the way and where is the way? That would be because the writer knows that light never stops moving therefore it's a way indicating motion while he also knew that darkness is stopped and therefore always resides in a place.
38:35 - Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are? Is the writer indicating here that a person can send their voice by electricity? ie. Telephone or radio.
38:24 - By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth? The author is correctly stating that the light creates the wind.
By these examples certainly the book of Job was written by someone who was very knowledgeable about science as each of the scientifically verifiable pieces of information in the book of Job are shown to be correct.
But what about some of the other books of the bible? Do they also contain science?
The book of Ecclesiastes states in 1:6-7 - The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. This passage is telling us the wind and water cycles of the earth.
Isaiah states that
Isaiah 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, so the bible has stated all along that the earth was and is round.
Did you also know that every large ship built today is built to the same proportions as Noah's ark? The author of Genesis must have known about good ship building.
If anything, these examples indicate to us that the author(s) of Job, Genesis, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Leviticus and others are by far the top scientists of their day and in some cases are 3300 years ahead of their time.
Even with 3000 years of new knowledge in science we are not able to find a statement, inference or declaration that opposes that which is written in the bible.
The author(s) from cover to cover of the bible must have been fully knowledgeable about science.
But what about other areas of interest? Like History, Archealogy or even it's claims of Prophecy?
To Be Continued...
NOTE:
This is an article I came across a few days after posting article one of evidences.
http://dsc.discovery.com/n
Jan. 9, 2008 -- Thirty years ago, scientists exploring the depths of the ocean came across jets of hot water, spewing from the sea floor, which hauled up flecks of gold and other minerals from Earth's interior and nurtured weird, resilient microbial life forms.
In a paper issued on Wednesday, marine seismologists looking at a site in the East Pacific say they have gained insights into how this unique plumbing system of hydrothermal vents works.
The jets are found thousands of feet below the surface on the mid-ocean ridges -- geologically active "mountain ranges" -- formed from mighty tectonic plates that push into each other and form spines along the ocean floor.
Until now, the main hypothesis about hydrothermal vents has been that gigantic pressure forces seawater through large faults along the flanks of the ridge.
The water, the theory goes, is then heated by coming into proximity with volcanic rock before re-emerging at the middle of the ridges, where the vents are usually clustered.
But in the first detailed investigation into vent circulation, a team led by Maya Tolstoy of Columbia University's Earth Observatory in New York has come up with a different picture.
They placed seismometers over a 1.54-square-mile area of the East Pacific Rise, about 500 miles southwest of Acapulco, that has been under study for the past 15 years.
The sensors monitored tiny earthquakes that happen 8,125 feet below the surface. Around 7,000 of these brief, shallow quakes were recorded in 2003 and 2004 alone.
The tremors also built up an image of how the water circulates, because the quakes were intriguingly clustered around where the cold water entered the rock.
The map drawn by Tolstoy's team shows a down-flow pipe that descends about 2,275 feet into the ridge, then fans out for about 650 feet.
The water then plunges down another 1,950 feet until it arrives just above a bulge of magma. There, the water is heated and disgorged along the ridge through a dozen vents about 1.2 miles north of the entrance pipe.
Tolstoy's team contends that what appear to be tiny quakes are caused by the physical stress of cold water passing through hot rocks.
And, contrary to the prevailing hypothesis, they believe the water travels not through large faults but through systems of tiny cracks, and at a much higher rate of turnover than previously thought.
The paper, published by the British journal Nature, adds critical knowledge about seafloor currents and the nutrient flows that feed them. It also furthers understanding about the mechanics of heat transfer from Earth's crust to the seafloor.
Hydrothermal vents are sometimes called "black smokers" for the bilious clouds of material that emits from their chimneys.
Interesting how science continues to confirm the bible.
No comments:
Post a Comment