The Inspiration of the Scriptures #4

The forty men who wrote the Bible claimed an all powerful and an all knowing God gave unto them the very words they penned.

In today's lesson I shall continue presenting evidence which I believe will confirm the truthfulness of their claim.

The writers of the Bible penned many pre-scientific statements. Many years before any one was aware of the shape of the earth. Solomon in Proverbs 8:27 and Isaiah in Isaiah 40:22 referred to its shape as that of a circle, therefore, it necessarily follows they were inspired to write this.

Years and years before the invention of the telescope in 1608, Job inJob 26:7 wrote about the empty space in the north. Sure, today we all know about this empty space because we can see it through our powerful telescopes; however, Job did not have a telescope so how except by inspiration was he made aware of its existence?

Job in Job 26:7 also wrote "He hangeth the earth upon nothing." Now here is a simple uncomplicated statement, but it clearly teaches the law of gravity. Yet Job wrote about it more that 3000 years before it was discovered by Sir Isaac Newton. Yes, again he made a pre-scientific statement which he could not have known of himself. So it must have been an all knowing God who gave him the words with which to write it.

Benjamin Franklin and Thomas A. Edison discovered that static electricity could be formed by condensing water. Yet, years and years before their time, Jeremiah in Jeremiah 10:13 said God makes lightning (or static electricity) with rain or (by the condensing of water). All right, since Jeremiah stated this fact long before men of science discovered it, then how, if not by inspiration did he receive this information?

David in Psalms 8:8 referred to the paths of the sea. Many years later Matthew Fontaine Maury after hearing this passage read by his son, said "if the Bible says there are paths in the sea, then they are there, and I intend to find them". A few years later he did. (Editors note: The accounts about Matthew Maury have been slightly distorted over the years. Though most all the accounts are true, they did not happen in the order has is usually presented, CS) If all men of science had believed as strongly in the Bible as this man did, then maybe many of the other pre-scientific statements found in the Bible could have spared us the long delay of discoveries which now provide us with so much scientific information. Who knows if some scientist had read and meditated upon Jeremiah's inspired writing found in Jeremiah 10:13, then the people of the world might have had electricity long before the time of Benjamin Franklin.

Before the invention of the telescope in 1608, men of science said there are only a few stars. However, after viewing they sky through it, they were made aware that it is filled with billions and billions of them. yes, now we know this but Jeremiah twenty-six hundred years before the invention of the telescope, in Jeremiah 33:22 spake of the impossibility of numbering the great host of stars. How did he know that?

Today we know why the sea does not dry up nor overflow because we are familiar with the law of evaporation and precipitation. However, years and years before we know about the law Solomon as inspired by God wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:7 "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." Read Acts 17:26 and 1 Corinthians 15:39 and you will hear the apostle Paul say all men are of one blood but all flesh is different. These things he said a long long time before they were accepted as truth by the scientific world.

My friends, the pre-scientific statements which I have presented are by no means all that are recored in the Bible; nevertheless, I believe they will suffice to establish my point that the writers of the Bible did write pre-scientific statements and that they did this sometimes hundreds, yea thousands of years before they were known by men of science. Friends, inasmuch as they were able to accomplish this otherwise unheart of feat, it seems to me we have no choice but to allow this to stand as undeniable evidence of the validity of the claim of inspiration.

Then, too, it would be well for us to remember that during the time those Bible writers did their writing, there were scores of erroneous scientific theories being taught but not one of those authors ever employed the use of those erroneous theories. Did they of themselves know they were false? No, of course not, but the one who was inspiring them did.

The subject for next weeks message will be the Bible and the Spade. You are invited to read.

By: Tommy Hodge

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