Scientific Foreknowledge

	There  is no way around it.  The universe had  a  beginning.  It did not create itself.  Therefore it must have had a  creator.  But how can we determine the identity of that creator?   Specifically,  how can we decide whether or not the God of the Bible  is that  creator?   One of the best ways is to take a  look  at  the Bible,  the  inspired Word of God.  Is this book really  what  it claims to be?  Can it stand up under close scrutiny?
	Remember  what we said before about the law of the  excluded middle?  A precisely stated claim is either true or  false.   In this case, the Bible is either the inspired word of God or it  is the  most worthless book ever written.  There is no way  that  it can be, as many claim, something between the two extremes.  This is because the Bible claims to be nothing less than the inspired Word of God. If it is not, then it is a book of lies.  And a book of lies is totally untrustworthy.
	"I  have  come {as} light into the world," Jesus  states  in John 12:46-50, "that everyone who believes in Me may not  remain in  darkness.  And if anyone hears My sayings, and does not  keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
	"He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who  judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him  at  the last  day.   For I did not speak on My own initiative,  but  the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and  what to speak.  And I know that His commandment  is  eternal life;  therefore the things I speak, I speak just as  the  Father has  told Me."
	"If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual," Paul writes in  1 Corinthians 14:37-38, "let him recognize that  the  things which  I write to you are the Lord's commandment.  But if  anyone does  not recognize {this}, he is not recognized.
	"For  I am not ashamed of the gospel," Paul says  in  Romans 1:16-17, "for it is the power of God for salvation  to  everyone who  believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in  it {the} righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'But the righteous shall live by faith.'"
	"For  the word of God is living and active and sharper  than any  two-edged sword," we read in Hebrews 4:12, "and piercing  as far  as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and  marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
	"But  know this first of all," we note in 2  Peter  1:20-21, "that no prophecy of Scripture is {a matter} of one's own  interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."
	As Jesus was preparing to leave this world, He left  special instructions with those who would carry on the work after He  was gone.
	"If anyone loves Me," the Lord tells them in John  14:23-26, "he  will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We  will come to him, and make Our abode with him.
	"He  who  does not love Me does not keep My words;  and  the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who  sent  Me.
	"These things I have spoken to you, while abiding with  you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in  My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you."
	How  can  we  tell, then, whether or not the  Bible  is  the inspired Word of God?  Nick Hamilton gives some suggestions in an article  entitled, "Why  I Believe in  the Inspiration  of  the Bible."   He proposes that, if the Bible comes from God, then  it must have certain characteristics.
	First, it will possess unity and harmony as only a  verbally inspired book would.  The 66 books of the Bible were written over a  1500 year span by about 40 men in six countries  and  speaking three different languages.  Yet the result is a harmonious document without contradictions.
	Second,  it  will be universal in  appeal  and  application.  People from every walk of life and every continent seek to follow it.
	Third,  it  will  maintain  timeliness  throughout  changing times.  In fact, the message of the Bible is as pertinent  today as it was the day it was first recorded.
	Fourth, it will be distinct in its content.  In a time  when people were writing about the earth being on the back of a  giant turtle, the Bible was revealing information about how we can best live our lives on earth and then spend eternity in heaven.
	Fifth,  it will be absolutely impartial in its  revelations. Is  any other writing as open in pointing out the  weaknesses  of its heroes and the virtues of its villains?
	"It  is apparent," Hamilton concludes, "that man  could  not write the Bible apart from God's help if he would, and would  not if he could.  It could only come from a supreme creator."^1

	The Bible is the inspired Word of God.  This is evident from the scientific and medical foreknowledge recorded in its pages.
	In  1861  the French Academy of Science  published  what  it considered  to  be 51 scientific facts  which  contradicted  the Bible.  Today, not one of these is still accepted.  But the Bible still  stands.  Historically, it is the Bible which  has  taught science and not the other way around.
	Wayne Jackson has listed some of the examples of  scientific foreknowledge in his book Fortify Your Faith in an Age of Doubt.^2
	"When  He established the heavens, I was  there,"  Proverbs 8:27  claims,  "when He inscribed a circle on the  face  of  the deep."
	"It  is  He who sits above the vault of the  earth,"  Isaiah 40:22 observes, "and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,  Who stretches  out the heavens like a curtain and spreads  them  out like a tent to dwell in."
	"He  stretches  out the north over empty  space,"  Job  26:7 points out, "and hangs the earth on nothing." 
	It  was only in the past few centuries that scientists  have discovered  that the earth is round and that it is  suspended  in space.
	"On  what were its bases sunk?" God inquires in Job  38:6-7, "or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"
	"Do  you  know the ordinances of the heavens, or  fix  their rule over the earth?" God wonders in Job 38:33. 
	The  author  of the Bible knew thousands of years  ago  that stars emit sounds and that they function according to  celestial laws.
	"For He draws up the drops of water," we note in Job  36:27-28, "they distill rain from the mist, which the clouds pour down, they drip upon man abundantly."
	"All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not  full," Ecclesiastes 1:7 comments.  "To the place where the rivers  flow, there they flow again."
	In other words, water follows a cycle.
	"When He imparted weight to the wind," Job 28:25  remembers, "and meted out the waters by measure."
	As scientists now know, air has weight.
	"Blowing  toward the south, then turning toward the  north," we find in Ecclesiastes 1:6, "the wind continues swirling  along; and on its circular courses the wind returns."
	Quite simply, there are air currents.
	"Thus  the  heavens and the earth were  completed,  and  all their hosts," Genesis 2:1 says.
	A  basic  law  of science is that matter  is  neither  being created nor destroyed.
	"Lift  up your eyes to the sky, then look to the  earth  beneath;" Isaiah  51:6 suggests, "for the sky  will  vanish  like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die in like manner, but My salvation shall be  forever, and My righteousness shall not wane."
	Another  law of science is that things are heading toward  a state of being run down.
	"Then  God  said, 'Let the earth sprout  vegetation,  plants yielding seed, {and} fruit trees bearing fruit after their  kind, with  seed in them, on the earth'; and it was so," Genesis  1:11 records.
	Living things reproduce according to laws of heredity.
	"All  flesh  is  not the same flesh," Paul points  out  in  1 Corinthians 15:39, "but there is one {flesh} of men, and  another flesh  of beasts,  and another flesh of birds,  and another  of fish."
	There  is  a basic difference in the cell structure  of  the major classes of living things.
	"Now  these," the Law of Moses commands in Leviticus  11:29-31, "are to you the unclean among the swarming things which swarm on  the earth: the mole, and the mouse, and the great  lizard  in its kinds, and the gecko, and the crocodile, and the lizard,  and the  sand reptile, and the chameleon.  These are to you  the  unclean  among all the swarming things; whoever touches  them  when they are dead becomes unclean until evening."
	Only recently has science recognized the existence of  germs and  the importance of sanitary practices.  The Bible  knew  this thousands of years ago.
	"For the life of the flesh is in the blood," Leviticus 17:11 states,  "and I have given it to you on the altar to make  atonement  for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the  life that makes atonement."
	As the Red Cross can testify, the life is in the blood.
	"And  He made from one, every nation of mankind to  live  on all  the face of the earth," Paul tells the people of  Athens  in Acts  17:26, "having determined {their} appointed times, and  the boundaries of their habitation."
	We all have a common ancestor.
	"Then  God said, 'Let the waters below the heavens be  gathered  into one place, and let the dry land appear'; and  it  was so," we read in Genesis 1:9.
	The oceans were created with a common bed.
	"Have you entered into the springs of the sea?" God asks  in Job 38:16.  "Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?"
	Only God could have known thousands of years ago that  there were canyons and fresh water springs on the ocean floor. 
	Matthew  Fontaine Maury, who lived in the first part of  the last century,  was once confined to bed during an  illness.   He asked his son to read to him from the Bible.
	"The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas," the son read  from  Psalm 8:8.
	Since  the  Bible said there were paths in  the  sea,  Maury assumed they must be there.  Sure enough, his research  revealed the  currents of the seas.  His findings benefited all those  who traveled the seas afterwards, and his book is still considered  a basic text in oceanographic study.
	Dr.  Bert Thompson elaborates on this and other examples  of scientific foreknowledge  in a booklet called  Scientific  Evidences of the Bible's Inspiration.^3
	The Bible is either the inspired Word of God or it is a book full  of falsehood.  As we can see, it must  be  the  revelation provided  by the Creator of the universe.  But this information, as important as it is, may do you no good.  The Bible is what  it is regardless of how we react to it.
	But it will only do us good if we do what it says.  Only  if we obey it as the truth will it set us free.

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission."

1) Hamilton, Nick. 1992. “Why I Believe in the Inspiration of the Bible.” Spiritual Sword 23/2 (January): pp. 32-34.
2) Jackson, Wayne. 1974. Fortify Your Faith in an Age of Doubt, Stockton, CA: Pledge Publications.
3) Thompson, Bert. "Scientific Evidences of the Bible's Inspiration." Montgomery, Alabama Apologetics Press.